Rapid City’s Art Alley is well known to many South Dakota residents. The alley is in the very heart of the city’s downtown, and it’s covered in colorful paint for an entire block.
But some city residents are critical what they consider unsightly graffiti and unorganized scribbles that have come to dominate the alley walls. The area is a spill over zone for local bars and has its share of crime. Local building owners say all the paint is also hurting the building exteriors.
Some are now calling for a change--but artists worry the free spirit of the alley could be lost if too many rules are implemented.
SDPB’s Charles Michael Ray has today’s Dakota Digest on the discussion over Art Alley.
Love it or hate it--graffiti art is a global phenomenon. Like other art forms from jazz to punk rock, graffiti has its roots in the underground. For young people honing the craft – Rapid City’s Art Alley is a rare place for them expresses themselves legally.
These young people are part of the Find a Way Collective. It’s a group artists that gather at the Dahl Art Center and combine their talents to make a difference in the community. Tyler Read with the Dahl--sees Art Alley as much more than a bunch of paint. Read says the alley can be a tool to show young people how to be positive contributors to their own community. He helped a group of young graffiti artists, who got their start spray painting in art alley, to commission a mural for Black Hills Harley Davidson–the group then gave the money they raised to a local charity.
“These aren’t people who consider themselves leaders. They are people who are somewhat disenfranchised from our community. These are people who made a huge impact by doing something they loved, and they learned how to become leaders through that,” says Read.
But others in town don’t necessarily see the current version of Art Alley as all that positive.
“I’m just really saddened at what Art Alley has deteriorated into,” says Terry Nelson is President of the downtown Business Improvement District Board – or BID.
Nelson contends the free for all in Art Alley has led to more chaos than art. Critics like Nelson point to the scribbles and spattered paint along side the half covered murals that dominate much of the alley walls. He also cites increased crime in the alley itself.
“It has to have somebody responsible and right now there is nobody responsible and that’s my biggest concern,” says Nelson.
Just about everyone around this issue agrees that changes are needed. A task force is studying the future for the alley. There are calls for better alleyway lighting, more security cameras, more positive community events, funding for large pictorial murals, and an artist group that works with building owners to get permission and then oversee what art goes where.
“You can’t decrease the bad so you have to increase the good,” says James Taylor a downtown building owner.
James Taylor is a downtown building owner. He adds that one thing is also needed to make improvements happen in art alley–funding.
“The BID board of destination Rapid City has to step up to the plate that’s all there is to it,” says Taylor.
Rapid City’s BID board turned down any funding for Art Alley in a recent meeting. But Terry Nelson Board President says if positive solutions are worked out funding from somewhere can likely happen. It’s worth noting that even the business leaders who are critical of current problems in Art Alley–are still positive about its continued future–they say things like this:
“It’s the coolest thing in Western South Dakota, no question about it,” says James Taylor
“And I see a lot of positive things along Art Alley. And I like Art Alley and I got to tell you I like it. It sounds goofy you’d think I wouldn’t it, but I love good art and I like good artists and I think it’s got a great future,” says Terry Nelson.
“We think it’s very valuable. I think it’s very important to downtown. It gets a lot of tourists going through there all summer long,” says Dan Seftner with Destination Rapid City.
So in the end – those like Tyler Read with the Dahl point out that,
“There aren’t really any enemies in this issue – there are just a bunch of different people who want it to succeed in many different ways,” says Read.
Community dialogue is exactly what’s happening in Rapid City right now. There is an effort to see all stakeholders involved. Artists are often proud if their work elicits a reaction– hundreds of artists have taken part in Art Alley over the last several years. If the alley can now elicit a positive dialogue and a new way forward for downtown Rapid City–it may well be seen as a broad success.
