57th Street Underpass Murals

If You Can’t Beat ‘em ...
Back in 1994, Lise Ward and some of her neighbors were sitting together at someone’s house, drinking coffee and talking about the graffiti that kept appearing in the 57th Street underpass nearby. They had spent every weekend in January and February painting out the graffiti. And every week it reappeared. So, said Ward, “we figured, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” Through the Phinney Ridge Community Council, they applied for a Neighborhood Matching Fund Small and Simple Projects award to install a mural on both walls of the underpass.

By October the mural was done. What had been an ugly tunnel became an attractive passageway — one that has deterred graffiti. Less tangibly but even more importantly, the project in its planning and execution brought together neighborhood organizations, adults, at-risk youth, and children — the neighborhood became that much more of a neighborhood.

First Steps
Ward, who volunteered as project manager, knew that she had organizational skills but no artistic skills. So she did some investigating and “all roads led to Rob Mattson,” coordinator for the Ballard Neighborhood Service Center. Mattson recommended Saundra Valencia, a mixed-media artist who directed Street Smart Art. “We were a perfect team,” said Ward: “I did the organizing and she coordinated the detail work and artistic work.”

Street Smart Art was a former organization that not only designed and managed the installation of art; it also gave kids opportunities to provide leadership. For this project, Street Smart artists first developed preliminary designs. Because the underpass is near Woodland Park Zoo, it was decided that the mural’s theme would involve animals. Street Smart Art presented a design of “Mexican-style drawings with wild, impressionistic images of animals such as an elephant, giraffe and the kangaroo monkey, set against backgrounds of a blue sky and bright orange sunset.”

The public had two months in which to comment on the designs. The designs were published in local newspapers, posted in public gathering spots — “all over,” said Ward — and directly circulated to tunnel neighbors. All public comments went to a five-member design review panel. The design panel of local residents included both artists and non-artists. Taking into consideration the wide variety of comments and the subjective nature of design review, the panel addressed only those concerns that came up repeatedly in the written comments. It then approved the design with two recommendations. The final revised design was then submitted to the Phinney Ridge Community Council, the Zoo and the Seattle Engineering Department for final approval.

At that time, the tunnel was the Engineering Department’s jurisdiction. (Please note: a mural project in a tunnel is now Seattle Department of Transportation’s jurisdiction.) Engineering’s concerns in general were that murals have non-controversial designs (that is, no political slogans) and use brushed-on exterior latex paint. Since it would be responsible for maintaining the tunnel, the Department especially wanted to ensure that a clear sealer be applied to the finished mural to help protect against weather and allow easy removal of graffiti. The project waited to apply for a Street Use Permit until after receiving notice of the award from the Neighborhood Matching Fund. Ward also coordinated with the Zoo through its community liaison. The Zoo provided general support and also offered to arrange sketching tours for the design artists. Ward, Valencia, and the lead Street Smart artist attended a Zoo administration staff meeting to address design concerns.

Ward arranged for donated paints and materials. “We got a lot of support from businesses,” she said — “people were really generous.” The project collected over 23 gallons of paint plus sealer. Later on, it would be the task of neighbors who had pledged labor to pick up and store the donated materials (including a porta-potty), buy what still remained to be purchased, and handle the day-of-event logistics needed to install the murals.

Neighborhood Recruitment
While the design was being presented for comment, Ward was doorbelling the residential area surrounding the tunnel for support and matching assistance. To organize volunteer labor for the actual painting, Ward divided the day into two-hour shifts, 12 persons per shift (including room for day-of-event walk-ups). She made sure to offer plenty of other ways to volunteer as well. The project’s Neighborhood Matching Fund application included a list of dozens of persons pledging hundreds of hours.

“I’ve been told I’m kind of persuasive,” said Ward. “I believe in my heart that people do want to help — mostly you have to spend the time to figure out what people can and want to do. You need to offer people specific tasks. There was one woman whose entire task was to arrange for, then pick up and deliver, the orange drink. Someone else might want to put in one hour on the design panel.”

Someone had the job of collecting the comment sheets from the 10 locations where the design was posted. Some volunteers sat at the sign-in table for an hour. Someone — and this was essential — was Ward’s gofer on the day of the event. “If you believe in the project and have rapport with people, you find that people want to help to whatever extent they can.”

Ward reiterated the need to spend time with people to figure out what they can do. But, she admits, when in the first two hours of doorbelling she’d hit only five or six houses, it seemed like it was taking an agonizingly long time. Then, “just as I was starting to get desperate I hit a condominium that was willing to commit to 12 people for the painting. These people were excited about the project — you could tell that in that building, people talked to each other.”

Finally, all the shifts were filled. The painting would be done by design professionals and apprentices (there were six managing Street Smart artists), area neighbors and their children, and representatives from neighborhood organizations — public and private schools, churches, service groups, youth groups.

Four Days, Many Moments
The installation was divided into prep work on Friday, two-hour-long painting shifts most of Saturday and Sunday, then touch-ups on Monday.

At 3:30 p.m. on Friday, Ward and the Street Smart artists put up street barricades, projected the design onto the walls, and began drawing the outlines of the animals. When the outlining was completed, it became apparent that the change from an 8.5-by-11-inch sketch to an 85-foot wall left some gaps in the design. Around midnight, the team made an executive decision to add a few additional animals and landscape features. The additions would compensate for the gaps but still maintain the integrity of the already-approved design.

On Saturday morning, volunteers set up donated coffee and pastries and taped plastic on the sidewalk and street while the Street Smart artists finished laying out the design. People began to arrive, looking for paintbrushes. The mural project had co-advertised with an exhibit preview at the Zoo that day, and after the preview, around 1:00 p.m., the crowds really began to arrive.

A bagpipe player provided music. He had been recommended to Ward by another neighbor when she was going door-to-door, and when she contacted him he was delighted to come, “kilt and all.” A couple of massage therapists came and brought their table. Several people with art training just showed up.

Ward had arranged for an hour-long press event in the early afternoon. She had sent out handmade invitations — “we invited everybody.” City officials and neighborhood leaders spoke, and both a local TV station and newspaper covered the event. Former Mayor Rice drove through after the mural was completed.

The painting continued through the afternoon until, around 4:00 p.m., all the spots on the wall low enough for kids to reach were filled. Much to her own disappointment, Ward had to call two Girl Scout troops and warn them of the lack of work. Happily, they wanted to come anyway, and were able to participate in the event and enjoy some donated ice cream bars.

Paint began to run low in the afternoon and a volunteer dashed out to buy more (the merchant gave the project a good discount).

Sunday started with more coffee and pastries. As on Saturday, all the people scheduled to paint showed up, but there was less walk-up traffic. The Street Smart artists were able to take more time instructing volunteers on fine-line and shading techniques at adult and ladder levels. Ward smiled: “It was great seeing respectable-looking Phinney Ridge neighbors taking directions from youths in baggy pants.” The public drifted out around 5:00 p.m. and the Street Smart Artists stayed to do some more touching up.

“There were so many moments — great neighborhood moments,” said Ward. “One man I conned into volunteering came Sunday afternoon and painted sky for three hours. He was so proud of his piece of sky. He came back with his wife and showed her his piece of the sky. It’s really all about moments.”

An Organizing Tip
“To keep a project organized,” said Lise Ward, “I use The Binder System.” The Binder System? “I had this black binder I carried everywhere. In it I had sections for the Neighborhood Matching Fund, the Transportation Department, public comments, volunteer labor, scheduling, budget, donated items. But the very first thing to start in it is your contact list — every person you talk to who’s in any way interested, put down their name and number. I still consult that list. It’s a great system for people operating on a shoestring when you don’t have the luxury of an office or even a filing cabinet.”

Graffiti
Ward believes that the only effective response to graffiti involves three steps cycling together: (1) prosecution and restitution, (2) painting out, and (3) an arts program as an alternative activity. Participation in art can offer an alternative to youth who are contemplating tagging or who have just completed their community service hours after being caught. Taggers tend to be young men between the ages of 12 and 20. Some live in Phinney, she said: “these are middle-class kids with after-school jobs who have $200 a month to spend on spray cans. You have to take that energy and guide it into positive activity. You have to provide legal venues. And you have to establish rapport with youth.” If the art done by the youth working with Street Smart Art was any indication, ex-taggers are capable of creating beautiful and useful murals that are socially enriching.

Finishing Up
On the day after the mural was painted, using the names and addresses from the sign-in sheet, Ward sent approximately 200 thank-you postcards to the people who had participated. She used the pre-stamped postcards that the post office sells for the price of the postage. On one side she pasted a color-Xeroxed snapshot of the mural. On the other side she hand wrote her thanks (and included a small plug for Street Smart Art). From those 200 cards, a handful of people called Ward to offer their services on any future projects. Those volunteers made a good beginning for a database of neighborhood volunteers.

Next Time
Asked what she would do differently next time, Ward said that the two big things would be to provide sufficient child-height painting and to anticipate how much garbage a mural generates.

She suggested getting kids in to paint early on, during a one-day installation, or on the first day only of a two-day installation. As well, project organizers could make panels or canvas boards available for kids in case the walls became fully painted.

As for the garbage — well, even the best organizer can forget something. Ward said she hadn’t even thought about it until the paint tarps, drop cloths, and paint cans began piling up in her carport. Fortunately, a neighbor let her borrow his large pickup truck to make a trip to the transfer station. She also returned the leftover paint to the hazardous waste disposal facility there.

Ward is optimistic. “Often you need a catalyst in a neighborhood. But once the project gets going, it just snowballs. You may feel like you’re going out on a limb. But you get a few commitments and then other folks think, ‘Well, I’d better do it too.’”

“I got to know a lot of people,” said Ward of the time she spent organizing the project, “and even if I don’t remember their names, we see each other on the street and wave.”

The 57th Street Underpass murals can still be found on 57 Street just east of Greenwood Avenue North.