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No one ever tells you exactly how difficult planning a public event can be. I’ve seen so many amazing events take place on the streets of Worcester, and I’ve witnessed the ways in which the organizers make it look so effortless – it makes you think that anyone could do it. As if, once an event is announced, eager participants flock to your web page and beg to somehow be apart of the magic that you are about to create.

(Spoiler alert: they don’t)

One thing that you should know about me, is that I don’t give up very easily.  I’m persistent as fuck, and I’ll bang my head against a wall trying to make something work until the wall politely steps to the side and apologizes for getting in my way. That’s just how I roll.

I also believe in dreaming big and scaling back later. When my husband and I were planning our wedding on a tight (and I mean TIGHT) budget, he suggested finding a local hotel that had a modest all-inclusive price or going a more #DIY route in his mum’s backyard. I insisted on renting Mechanics Hall. It is a historic concert hall that plays hosts to musicians from all over the world – and has a massive organ within its architecture.

Do you like visuals? I know I do – this is what a Mechanics Hall Wedding looks like:

You know what else that looks like? It looks like the epitome of “not in my budget”.

You know where we ended up having it? That’s right – Mechanics Hall. We crunched the numbers multiple times, and the fanciest place in the city ended up being the cheapest. A reminder that the answer is always ‘no’ until you ask.

So yeah – event planning. When we started planning Make Music Worcester, I insisted on putting together the finale show. It was the only performance that we would have funding to pay the musicians with and I like spending money that doesn’t come from my checking account.

The event was going to be on The City Hall Common, right after the offices in the area let out for the day, and I wanted it to be loud and energetic and fun. So I put out a call for musicians to apply and expected to uncover the next great band. Whoever they were…they were someday, going to thank me for jump starting their international career back on that fateful June night.

I got this instead:

Not exactly my idea of a rockin’ good night.

I did the next logical thing – I emailed my favorite musician Mike Viola out in L.A.

Mike might be best known for writing and singing the songs in the Tom Hanks MASTERPIECE ‘That Thing You Do’ – you know, this one: (skip ahead to about a minute into the video)

But, if that is the ONLY time you have ever heard him, you are missing out. Mike was playing a show in Boston the next night, so it seemed like a great way to avoid paying for his plane. Unfortunately, the venue he was going to playing at had a clause in their contract that didn’t allow them to play any shows within a certain number of days and miles. I knew that banging my head up against this wall was only going to lead to a concussion.

After bragging that I could rope in a Grammy nominated artist to play our little event, and failing to pull through, the co-organizers wanted to start contacting the bands that ACTUALLY applied.

That wasn’t good enough for me so I decided to scale back – I contacted a local band that I had seen a few years earlier that I still listened to a bit. They were a big deal in Boston – hand picked by Coldplay to open for them at the TD Garden, won the WBCN Royal Rumble, and slightly out of my reach. Here is our conversation:

Fucking airfare.

I let it go and resigned myself to the idea that my rockin’ evening concert was going to have to feature a tin whistle and cello. Dejected, despondent, and suffering from a mild headache, I got a message from the lead singer the next day asking how much we could pay, you know, if he could somehow make it out here. I tell him $100 per person in the band and then wait another 24 hours for a response. His response is:

Should I buy my plane ticket or wait? 

I’ll never be sure how $100 made it worth the effort for this guy to fly 3,000 miles for a 45 minute set, but life is more fun with a bit of mystery.  More importantly, I got to take a deep sigh of relief as that wall politely moved the hell out of my way and let me continue getting things done.

And just for fun, here they are performing in June:

Note: I keep thinking about topics that sit on the fringe of arts/cultural and how history is so relevant to all of this. Worcester MA is my home, not because I was born here and haven’t left, but because I choose to stay and help weave the tapestry in hopes that some day, someone includes my name in a blog post similar to this one.

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A few years ago I self-published a book of photography in order to document Worcester and the changes it has gone through and continues to go through. It’s not a pretty book. In fact, I was told many times through the editing process, that people like to warm sunsets and images that they yearn to find themselves in. My book is vacant and lonely. There are no neon lights and the streets aren’t paved in gold. It’s raw and its sore and its beautiful all at once. It’s industrious. It’s Worcester. And Worcester is important…it always has been.

The English settled in Worcester the first time in 1673 but the settlement was abandoned. People came back to try and settle again in 1701, but it was once again abandoned after a short time. But as they say – third times is a charm – and Worcester was settled again in 1713, incorporated as a town in 1722, and finally, a city in 1848. That’s just how we do things here…try, fail, try again, fail better. That is why it has taken up 170 years to develop a semi-interesting downtown scene.

The Smiley Face was proudly invented in Worcester and the poor guy, Harvey Ball, didn’t trademark it. I don’t suggest you go out and trademark all of your doodles, but man, he must have kicked himself. Think about that the next time you’re perusing emoji’s to text to your friends. It wasn’t all bad news for Harvey Ball though. In 1999 he created the World Smile Day Corporation, which licensed his distinct rendering of the smiley face and created World Smile Day, which takes place on the first Friday of October and just simply encourages people to do good deeds.

Worcester was home to a man named Isaiah Thomas, who owned a printing press in Worcester and printed the very first bound copies of the Bible as well as the dictionary. He was also the first person in the history of the United States to give a public reading of the Declaration of Independence. Why is a public reading so culturally significant? Because when you wanted to be a part of something, to witness to history, you couldn’t stream it on Youtube from your couch. You had to be present – something that a think we could all agree, is lacking today.

Isaiah Thomas was also the founder of the American Antiquarian Society, which according to their website “houses the largest and most accessible collection of books, pamphlets, broadsides, newspapers, periodicals, music, and graphic arts material printed through 1876 in what is now the United States”.

Sigmund Freud’s only visit to America in 1909 brought him to my alma mater, Clark University. Later he stated that he’d never return to this country – you can draw your own conclusions about what his stay here was like from that…probably not enough picturesque sunsets.

The first radio station in the country to introduce the Beatles to the airwaves, was WORC in Worcester. The Beatles were so grateful to have their music finally broadcast in the United States, that they presented the disk jockey with a gold album. I still like to pretend that I might stumble upon this while pursuing yard sales.

The first documented, organized protest against the government took place on the front steps of the Worcester courthouse in the late 1700’s – can anyone guess what they were protesting? Yeah. Taxes…not much has changed…

Space exploration would not have gone very far if the first pressurized space suit hadn’t been invented. For that, you can thank the David Clark Company of Worcester.

Other fun facts I like to jam down peoples throats:

Shredded Wheat cereal was invented in Worcester – not the official breakfast of Champions, but still pretty notable.

Susan B. Anthony attended the first National Women’s Rights convention in Worcester

Oral Contraceptives were first made right here in Worcester…

…as well as the first federally-licensed AIDS test

Mass-Produced Valentines were first made by Esther Howland (so popular that they even named the City Hall Chambers after her)

Last but not least – The Monkey Wrench – we’re so proud of this one, you can even buy the t-shirt.

Worcester has a rich history when it comes to innovation, social justice, and cultural significance. This is just a sampling of a long list of inventors, innovators, Nobel Prize winners, scientists, activists, artists and so on. Taking the time to integrate this type of knowledge into your understanding of culture makes it more relatable…art and culture is more than just paint and brushes

If you are looking to day trip up to central MA, here are five events that are worth the drive and easy on the wallet.

1. Make Music Worcester

What started as an annual tradition in France in 1892, Make Music Day has now spread to countries around the world. The idea is to fill your city with music on June 21st, the first day of summer, and the longest day of the year. People of all ages and skill levels are invited to take part in performances, workshops and lessons – what better way to celebrate the start of summer than will a full day of free music?

2. stART on the Street

stART on the Street is the largest art, music and performance festival in all of central MA, and brings in between 20,000 and 50,000 patrons each year. There are handmade craft tents lining the streets, food trucks, three stages for musical performances and tons of street performers. This will be the 12th year that this event has taken place and it only gets bigger and better each year. Best of all, it is free!

3. Pow! Wow! Worcester

Another international festival that has planted roots in Worcester is the Pow! Wow! Mural festival. Over the course of 10 days, artists from all over the world paint large scale murals across the city and participate in a number of demonstrations, speaking engagements and hands-on educational experiences with local schools. 2018 will be the third year that this event has taken place, and will add to the nearly 40 murals that have gone up in just the past 24 months. While the event itself is free, some of the other side events and parties may have an entrance fee.

4.  Art on the Line

If there is one thing that prevents people from purchasing original pieces of artwork, it is generally the price tag. But if you want to find something affordable for your home, Art on the Line is a must-go event. The event is an annual fundraiser for ArtsWorcester and takes place at the Aurora Gallery. Established and emerging artists donate 5×7″ or 8×10″ pieces of original work and they are priced at $20 – $30 dollars. Each piece is tagged and hung on clotheslines within the gallery and when the doors open, people race in to grab the ones the want. This event raises thousands of dollars for the non-profit gallery each year.

5. Worcester World Cup

One of my favorite things about Worcester is its rich ethnic and cultural diversity. What better way to celebrate this than with a three day long World Cup-style soccer tournament? The cost to get in the gates is only $6 and covers you for every game of each day, and kids are always free. Local ethnic restaurants serve food all day, and there are loads of activities for kids, including a visit from Slyde, the Mascot of the New England Revolution.

I had the opportunity to take part in a nine-month long leadership development program within the last year. Each month, myself and a cohort of young professionals spent one day getting a “behind the scenes” look at different aspects of our city, from health care to government, to economic development and more. We were a diverse group and represented a large spectrum of public and private businesses and non-profits and while everyone had their niche, most of them were in professional aspects of business, finance, law, etc.

Me? I get paid to push social media posts and design…stuff…all day. Not exactly a topic that stands up against the trials of human resource management.

Toward the end of the program, we finally landed on ‘Arts & Culture’ day. Now, THIS was my wheelhouse! For the first time all year, I felt confident to share ideas, join in conversations, and actually participate on a higher level.

The problem with this was, that there was no conversation. Every lawyer, business owner, and HR manager in the room just stared forward, eyes glassed over, unable to form intelligible syllables. It wasn’t their ‘thing’…no one knew where to start.

The program leader for the day opted to start off by asking when the last time everyone in the room attended an arts or culture event. “Like, a museum? someone asked. The program leader shrugged in agreement and began taking responses. The answers varied from “last week” to “that one field trip in elementary school”.  It spawned a discussion on what it means to classify something as art and culture.

On the Worcester Arts Council, we award artistic grants to support traditional arts, humanities, interpretive sciences; visual artists, performing artists, science educators, historians and other humanists; as well as community, business and civic groups, social service organizations, schools, neighborhood centers, and youth, senior and family associations. Honestly, this all boils down to events and projects that have an artistic component and will benefit the community.

So, why do most people, when asked, try to recall the last time they went to a museum rather than the last time they went to a local international festival? Are we conditioned to believe that the only type of art that exists is high art? And that unless you are skilled in such mediums, you aren’t allowed to enjoy it? What if we taught people that art and culture was as simple as a parade – would that be enough to transform the perception that art isn’t for everyone?

Take my question and try answering it again and see if the answer has changed. I think what you may find, is that art surrounds us each and every day if you are willing to look for it.

Note: This kind of just spilled out in pieces over the past three weeks and is completely unrelated to my beat. I’m not sure what it will turn into, if it turns into anything at all but I figured that since I didn’t know what to do with this piece, that this blog might be a good place to start.

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It’s Friday afternoon, and I’m navigating my way through the back roads of a small town just outside of Worcester to get to my lawyer’s office. My mind wonders off a bit while driving and I ask myself why I chose a lawyer whose office is so damn far away from everything else in my life (easier to avoid him)? And why I am so damn incapable of doing things in a timely manner (because I’m skilled in avoidance)?  Sometimes, when the lawyer needs something from me, life finds a way of postponing whatever that immediate thing is. “Life” is what I call the mundane daily routine that I could easily work around and these past two weeks were no exception.

When I arrive, I ceremoniously swing open the door and step inside and find myself about two feet from his face. He smiles a smile that displays an equal amount of amusement and aggravation. I know the rules…knock before entering. I have never been much for rules that I consider arbitrary and today it doesn’t matter as much. I’m far too proud of myself for showing up to take care of business to concern myself with what he thinks about how I made my entrance.

“Do you know whose file I have in my hand?” he asks.

The answer is obvious.

“Mine?” I replied with an intonation that bordered annoyance. I wasn’t in a mood to waste time. Friday afternoons are generally reserved for lunches downtown, trips to the art museum, or just near anything but meeting with this guy.

“You’re right” he responded, flipping the file folder open for a quick scan of the top document.

“Did you bring the letter?” he asks.

I had. I opened my folder and took out six copies of a letter that I neglected to mail out two weeks earlier. He inspects each one closely to make certain that I filled it out properly and then tucks them in the file. I’m left to assume that they are satisfactory.

“What about the bank account?” he asks.

“Next on my list today…also going to get rid of that car” I reply.

“Good. I’ll contact you as soon as I get a response from the mortgage company.”

He turns away, as to say that he’s done with me and that is fine. I’m done too. My business with him is an exasperating necessity that my life would be easier without. I operate along a fine line of having just too much to do at all times and my mother’s unexpected death in November tripled that load and pushed the threshold to a whole new level.

My mother and I never really got along, and we butted heads from as early in my life as I can remember. There were some stand out moments, like refusing me the opportunity to study in England when I graduated high school because she never got to do it…her attempts to passive-aggressively turn my brother and I against our father by telling us that he didn’t want to spend time with us. I found out much later, that he was working three jobs to pay his child support because she threatened him with additional court dates and the idea of potentially having him jailed. She dated a man that had such racist blood coursing through his body, that he referred to my best friend and our closest neighbors (a Lebanese family) as “the terrorists next door”.  I never understood what she saw him other than he had the money to take her on fancy trips to tropical locations, things that she never had access to growing up and things that she never managed to prioritize for herself or her family. Honestly, I can safely say that I never felt like I was of a priority in her life – but I won’t defend that presumption here.

Now, she’s gone and being the oldest of her two children, I’m left with the immense responsibility of cleaning up her mess – literally and figuratively. I hadn’t entered my childhood home in over ten years, and on the night my brother and I found our mother, I found out that she was a hoarder. There were signs of this developing while I was growing up, but nothing prepared me for what I saw that night. For ‘Stranger Things’ fans, it was as close to having a real-life “upside down” experience as I hope to ever have to experience again.  When the funeral director and staff arrived in the middle of the night to collect her body, they couldn’t even move a gurney into the house.

The lawyer, the house, the car; these are the easiest parts I suppose. It’s dissecting and deconstructing her life that continues to be difficult. It’s having to ask myself how anyone could live like this…how someone could be so proud, that they refused to ask for help…so unwilling to see that the house was destroying her and any chance of having a normal life or normal relationships. Photos of herself taken 40 years prior are taped on the cupboards, yet not a single picture of her grandchild – my daughter, to me, some minor proof that her reality wasn’t all that it seemed. It’s revisiting so many awkward and hurtful moments from my own life, and seeing that maybe, it was her festering illness to blame and not a personal affront. It’s looking in the mirror, suddenly and acutely noticing our shared features and wondering if I could ever allow myself to succumb to such an illness. It’s convincing myself that I am my own person and not an extension of her instabilities.

This is “life” – the things you can’t quite see, but are still able to materialize in the back of your mind. Life is the questions we ask ourselves and the answers we provide; the things we want to say, but can’t find the words for. Life is wondering if you’re a better mother to your child than she was to you.

Everything else? They are just the slight instances that make up our being – compartmentalized microcosms of our experiences…proof we existed. The line between the tangible and intangible draws a fevered sketch of what we want to show others and what we can show others about ourselves and our lives.

Caricatures on the outside, masterpieces on the inside.

Not every masterpiece is beautiful.

Note: Arts & Culture are a broad topic, so I decided to narrow it down a bit and concentrate on one particular gallery that doesn’t have a Wiki page of its own. It is a place that is dear to me, as it is where I first began showing my own work.

ArtsWorcester, Worcester MA

History

ArtsWorcester is a small, nonprofit gallery space that is currently operating within Worcester’s downtown district. The gallery is now in its 39th year of exhibiting the work of artists within the city of Worcester and beyond Worcester County. The organization was originally referred to as the Cultural Assembly of Greater Worcester, but changed its name to the more simplified ‘ArtsWorcester’ in 1992. Their mission is to provide artists with a space to show their work, many often, for the first time, as well as further the careers of more established artists. When the organization was first formed, activities such as music performances and poetry readings were commonplace, but were phased out as the organization grew. The non-profit operates on a modest $200,000 per year budget and has seen steady and constant growth in recent years. ArtsWorcester is currently the only not-for-profit gallery operating within the city.

Location

For the last 14 years, Arts Worcester has called the Aurora Hotel home. The Aurora Hotel is a former luxury hotel that was built on Main Street Worcester in 1898. The hotel is on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2019, ArtsWorcester plans on moving its gallery into the equally famous Printers Building, located a few blocks away. This space will provide the organization the ability to create two, ADA compliant galleries, and will allow the organization to grow for years to come. The printers building is also home to Davis Publications, The Davis Gallery, WICN Radio, and Technocopia. In addition to their gallery at the Aurora, the currently program exhibitions at the Hadley Building (an apartment complex across the street), the Hanover for Performing Arts and partner with local businesses to provide their offices with a rotation of original artwork from local artists.

Programing

Their main source of programming comes from artist exhibitions in the form of solo, group, and member’s shows. In an average year, the gallery produces twenty distinct exhibitions across their three venues. This work comes from their 300+ artist members – some of which are just starting out, and many who are already very established.

In addition to the gallery exhibitions, the also offer a number of other community events such as Teen Nights, gallery tours, business workshops for artists, artist talks, and the annual College Show, which invites College students from around the city to exhibit their work in a profession setting; often for the first time.

Leadership

Juliet Fiebel is the current executive director of ArtsWorcester, joining them in 2011 after Janice Seymour resigned from the position. The organization is comprised one full-time position, a couple of part-time employees, an executive board of 18 volunteers, and a team of volunteers that tend to the gallery, help make the schedule, and tend to the budget. Under Fiebel’s leadership, the gallery membership has grown to over 300 members and art sales have increased every year.

Other Links

http://www.telegram.com/news/20180327/worcester-living-artsworcester-presents-after-fashion
https://worcestermag.com/2018/06/07/one-last-hurrah-for-artsworcester-one-exhibition/60172
http://www.telegram.com/news/20180328/worcester-living-artsworcester-biennial-win-gives-artist-james-dye-solo-exhibition-at-worcester-art-museum/1

Much of my free time is spent organizing our annual Make Music Day on June 21st of each year with a team of people. It’s a daunting task that takes a lot of time and navigating the city’s policies for such an event can be a headache. I thought I’d write up this how-to document on the process in the event so others could learn about how the event is put together.

Make Music Worcester is an annual free, outdoor day of music held on the summer solstice, June 21. Completely different from a typical music festival, Make Music is open to anyone who wants to take part. Every kind of musician — young and old, amateur and professional, of every musical persuasion — pours onto streets, parks, plazas, and porches to share their music with friends, neighbors, and strangers. All of it is free and open to the public.

Make Music Day began in 1982 in France as the Fête de la Musique, it is now held on the same day in more than 750 cities in 120 countries. Make Music Worcester invites all members of the Worcester community to join in the celebration of live music by performing, hosting musical acts, and attending the free concerts and programs.

But how do we make this happen?

(note: this is an abbreviated overview of the process. If I were to go into every minute detail, you may be deterred from ever trying to pull something like this off yourself.)

1) Email park request list to parks department: We hold our event in multiple parks, but so do other organizations. First step is to request the parks department hold those spaces for you before others organizations get to them.

2) Complete and submit special event permit: It’s not enough to just reserve the parks, you need to let the city know that you are having an event. This nearly 10 page application gives the city and municipal departments an idea of what will be taking place, and what pother types of services will be needed from city departments.

3) Contact our liaison from the Make Music Alliance for contract: Because this is an international festival, we need to pay dues in order to have access to their planning materials. Getting a contract from the Alliance is the first step in a formal relationship.

4) Contact fiscal agent to discuss Make Music Day details for upcoming year: Since we are not a formalized non-profit, we need to seek the assistance of one to act as our fiscal agent. They hold the money for us and allow us to operate under general non-profit rules.

5) Attend special event meeting: If you thought the city was out of the equation by now, you are wrong. The Special Events meeting allows you to personally present your proposed project to multiple municipal bodies and find out the cost and paperwork involved for other formalities such as sound permits, police detail, and electrical access.

6) Identify and apply to funding / grant opportunities: Events get expensive. That is why we take some time early on to identify grant opportunities and financial sponsorships to cover the cost of the event. Also, a perfect time to set up a crowdsourcing site.

7) Pay Make Music Alliance fee: The fee that we pay allows us access to personalized event planning software and inclusion in national press releases. It’s often a percentage of your overall budget – this past year it cost us $500.00

8) Open SOLSTICE to the public: Solstice is the software that allows musicians to sign up to perform at the event, and allows us to match them with one of the stages we are setting up in the parks. It basically organizes all of our talent recruitment for the event.

9) Start the Media Show!: Now its time to schedule press releases, obtain media sponsorships, schedule social media posts and create MailChimp mailings so that we can hype up the community.

10) Outreach and Relationships: Now, going into our third year, we understand the importance of building on the relationships with participants from past years. This includes reaching out to the previous year’s venues, performers, sponsors, business partners and volunteers.

11) Schedule Info Sessions: Anyone who has ever planned an event knows that the way to peoples hearts is through their stomach. In order to recruit new musicians and volunteers we often order up a bunch of food at a local coffee shop and invite he public to come talk to us in person to see if their involvement would be a good fit.

12) RECRUIT!: You can’t have an event without people. We go all-in on finding people to fill certain spots in our programming such as ukulele instructors, guitar instructors, drum instructors, and harmonica instructors in addition to our performers.

13) Determine needs: Some bands want electricity while others don’t. Some may need a sound engineer and proper stage. It is important to inventory the needs of your musicians to keep them happy now and in years to come.

14) Complete, submit, and pick up permits: This includes park permits and sounds permits generally, but could also include liquor licenses as well.

15)  Meet with volunteers to go over roles and responsibilities: No one wants to show up and not know what to do. This meeting lets people know which park to report to and what their responsibilities for the day will look like. They also get a pretty neat t-shirt.

16) Monitor/approve performances and requests: Within a a week of the big day, every musician should know what venue they will be performing at and what time slot they have been assigned.

17) Create printable Make Music Day schedule: Many people stumble into our event not knowing about it beforehand. Having a printed schedule allows folks the opportunity to check out some of the other event and shows taking places in other areas of the city.

18) Have fun!: So, the day is here, your car is packed with supplies and you’ve got an extra large coffee in hand. Don’t let the stress of such a large undertaking stop you from taking some time to sit on the grass and seeing what the local talent has to offer.

19) Send “Thank You” email to participants: A little ‘thank you’ goes a long way.  People want to feel appreciated and we want them to know what their time means to us.

20) Relax for about four weeks, but then get back to work: Planning a day-long event doesn’t happen in a month or even two. As soon as we have decompressed from the event, its time to dive back in and get to work to make next year’s bigger and better.

When Worcide was destroyed, people were outraged. But did anyone stop to think that there may have been others outraged by its mere existence? Worcester implements a dual tax rate, which sets the residential rate $18.91 per $1,000 Assessed Valuation and the commercial rate at $34.03 per $1,000. If neither the city of Worcester or the rail company which owns the land directly above claim ownership (and potentially don’t pay the taxes on that piece of land) why weren’t the skaters responsible for some portion of the financial responsibility? They have gotten away without paying its fair portion for over ten years, while all of the businesses around them have paid a substantial amount for plots of land of equal size.

The chances of recouping that type of money now is gone, much like the thousands of dollars worth of un-permitted construction work that they erected in that space. Everyone tries to play this situation off as a bunch of kids just working on their hobby in their spare time, but the realization is, that this wasn’t a small operation. When these “kids” poured cement, they brought in proper construction equipment and cement mixers to get the job done. Why were they exempt from pulling permits for their work? Can we as a city, suddenly turn a blind eye to the procedures we have put in place when they are being purposefully ignored because we are to believe that this was just a pastime? If I suddenly took up building sunrooms and opted to build one onto my own property, I can be certain that I’d receive a citation for not pulling the appropriate paperwork.

The artwork. Oh the “art work”. Graffiti is an ugly stain on any city, even if it is disguised by the name of art. You want art? There is an art museum 3 miles away and it offers free admission on the first Saturday of each month. You can see original piece by everyone from Rembrandt to Warhol and no one else needs to be subjected to the vandalism that you claim is priceless. So what if artists came from all over the world to paint there? Curators scoured the same world so that people like you could live within walking distance to a Monet, and while it isn’t his finest work, they were decent enough to put it in a museum rather on the street where I’d have to be subjected to it every day.

The cities choice to demo this plot should teach these kids a lesson: that if you want to take ownership of a piece of property, you need to make sure that you are taking the correct steps in order to do so, and playing by the same rules that everyone else must abide by. No one can hide behind a thin veil of “art” or “hobby” in order to choose which rules they wish to follow. And for all of this headache, the kids will still get what they want: a new skate park in a central location that will be paid for now, with taxpayer dollars contributed by people like me – your average tax-paying citizen.

Art is a funny thing. I’m looking at my walls right now, all of which are decorated with framed pieces by local and regional artists. My husband and I have gone back and forth a number of times over certain ones, each defending a position as to why or why not it should be awarded some coveted wall space.

We have it easy though, cause each piece can be arraigned and rearranged an infinite number of times and we know that they are safely affixed until we change our minds again. And when we do, they get taken down and stored away for the next time we feel like sprucing up the walls.

But what if your art is of a more public and permanent nature? Who gets to decide when it gets taken down? In Worcester, that is apparently a mystery.

Worcide was a DIY skate park, built by locals yearning for a centralized place to skate. Over ten years ago, a group of skaters came across a dead-end parcel of land underneath the railroad overpass that neither the city nor the rail company claimed to own. While the spot continued to be a home for the homeless, the skaters took it upon themselves to clean the place up and invest thousands of their own dollars creating their much-needed skate park. Local businesses and the city government applauded these kids for the time, money and effort that they put into the forgotten lot, but that came to an abrupt end two weeks ago when the city (without warning) decided to demolish the entire project due to vague safety concerns – the city manager was quoted as saying that he was concerned that a “train might explode” on the rails above.

We could argue back and forth about the legalities of the situation, but this isn’t my point – this is just the back story.

A week after the surprise demolition, all of the graffiti was painted over by a guy who told onlookers that he worked for the rail company, and was ordered by the city to remove it all. Both the rail company and the city deny ordering it all removed.

This might not be a big deal to some, but Worcester has hosted the international Pow! Wow! Mural Festival for three years – artists from all over the world have come and put pieces up for the festival and then, have come down on their free time to paint on these walls just for fun. Those priceless pieces are now covered by an uneven coat of flat white paint and none are too happy about this additional kick in the ribs after having already been thrown to the ground.

Should these murals have been protected? Who owns them? And was this the right choice?

Last fall, a court room in Brooklyn was filled with mural artists who sued a building owner after their work was covered up prior to its demolition. They were invited by the building owner to paint the defunct building, and are now seeking damages for having their work destroyed.

I’m all in favor for graffiti and murals – after having over 40 of them painted in Worcester in the last couple of years, I can vouch for the immediate change they can provide to otherwise dismal street corners. While the case I mentioned above hasn’t had a ruling made, it raises a number of questions about the legitimacy of graffiti as an art form, ownership, and over-all responsibility for maintaining them.

I highly doubt that you’ll see a Worcester courtroom filled with artists in the near future, but it creates an opportunity going forward to discuss these concerns before it happens again. Though that would require someone to own up to the cover-up job first, and that isn’t likely to happen any time soon.