Painting Walls Freely in a Free Society

General Manager Adolfo V. Nodal of the L.A. Cultural Affairs Department is to be congratulated on his innovative approach to graffiti art: gathering pro- and anti-graffiti forces together for dialogue (“Forget the Graffiti, Look Instead at Needs of Young Street Artists,” Counterpunch, Sept. 2). We want to thank The Times for bringing this to the attention of the public. However, we wish to add more background.

In March, a group of professional artists, filmmakers, graffiti writers, anthropologists, teachers, city employees and others formed the Graffiti Arts Coalition. Uniformly, members condemned tagging and vandalism but found graffiti to be a legitimate art form--vibrant, passionate and exciting.

We realized that there was one major issue we had to face, however: the fact that there are few legal walls where these young artists can operate. This forces them to operate illegally, which means that many are being sent to jail--a totally ineffective way of dealing with the problem and one that is disastrous for the kids.

We, therefore, proposed that the city join us in creating an Open Air Graffiti Art Museum in the Arroyo Seco Water Channel, an under-utilized and sterile location that would make an ideal graffiti art zone. Out of this proposal came the dialogue with the city that led to the events Calendar reported Aug. 23 in “Art or Vandalism?”

Innovative art programs for young people are urgently needed. Many kids face a crucial life choice: to join a gang or a graffiti crew. Graffiti crews not only turn their backs on violence, but many publicly oppose it in their work.

Anti-graffiti forces oppose support for graffiti art. They believe that “glorifying” it will automatically lead to an increase in tagging and vandalism.

The ultimate obscenity occurs when young artists heed our condemnation of their work as “vandalism” and go out looking for commissions to paint legal murals on private walls. Cities all over Southern California are now rushing up behind them and forcing the owners to paint the murals out. This is censorship, pure and simple, with ugly racist overtones--an outrageously dangerous act for a free society to condone.

Graffiti, along with other youthful activities such as break-dancing, rapping, cruising and skateboarding, are in reality urban, nonviolent forms of energetic creative outlet. Legal or illegal, understood or misunderstood, does society prefer the ever-increasing violence we are experiencing, or is it ready to recognize the needs of our widely divergent youth?

DIANE ALEXANDER

MARGO JIM

SHARON DONNAN

Graffiti Arts Coalition

Los Angeles