Urban Artists "Spray It" in Greenwood-Phinney

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CONTACT: Michele Persinger
Bherd Studios
(206) 234-8348
speakandbherd@hotmail.com
http://www.bherdstudios.com/

Urban Artists “Spray It” in the Greenwood-Phinney Neighborhood

Seattle, WA, August 9, 2008 – Urban artists and Greenwood-Phinney Chamber of Commerce celebrate urban street art with a neighborhood mural unveiling and street art exhibition at Bherd Studios Gallery in Greenwood.

The ribbon cutting ceremony will take place at Bherd Studios (315 NW 85th Street, Suite B) in conjunction with an urban art exhibit called “Spray It, Don’t Say It” on Saturday, August 9th from 3pm – 9pm. The exhibit will feature artwork from internationally known Jef Aerosol, whose work in Europe with street stencil art inspired urban artists world-wide. His work can be seen on walls in numerous cities including Paris, London, Chicago, Amsterdam, Venice and more. Jef is a true legend in the street art world. Along with Jef, national and Pacific NW artists will be featuring their works both in the style of stenciled and free-hand street art. Artists include LittleGirlLost, CASH, DreXeL, SouLe, MassRad, Asher, JoaB and Greg Boudreau. The exhibition will continue through September 5.

The Greenwood-Phinney Chamber of Commerce recently created a new program called “Art Up Greenwood-Phinney” to combat the rise in tagging and vandalism in the neighborhood. Art Up not only focuses on the removal of tagging and vandalism, but is working towards creating a positive outlet for young urban artists. The chamber will be working with the local Jr. High and High Schools to target high risk offenders and help them to focus their energies in a positive way – creating art for the neighborhood. The mural celebration on August 9th is a sample of what the Chamber has planned for the community and is intended to draw interest from residents of all ages.

For more information about this event, please visit the Greenwood-Phinney Chamber of Commerce website at http://www.greenwood-phinney.com/ and click on the “events” section.
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Art Up Mural - Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

The Greenwood-Phinney Chamber in conjunction with Bherd Studios will be unveiling a new mural for our neighborhood as part of the Art Up kick-off on August 9th. Much anecdotal evidence has been shared over the last few months from various sources including the City of Seattle Graffiti Prevention department that murals are hit less than blank walls and help establish an example of a positive outlet for youth vandals. In addition, Art Up plans to introduce the program to the local Jr. High and High School in the next month and a half by meeting with their school principles.

More information to come on the mural celebration.

City of Seattle crew will be back in our neighborhood painting out tagging and cleaning on August 6th. If you see them come through, please stop and thank them for their help.

Graffiti Update for Greenwood-Phinney

Work crews have made their first round of clean up through the Greenwood Phinney neighborhood from N 90th street to N 59th street. The crew picked up garbage, swept and painted out graffiti on area businesses. 12 waiver forms were signed by businesses for painting out graffiti. We still have a long way to go to get more businesses to sign the forms. Anyone who is interested in helping this process along, please contact: artup@greenwood-phinney.com

As many in our neighborhood have seen, the old McDonald's building had been hit hard with graffiti. This will be resolved very soon as the company is coming out to "de-McDonald's" the building (take down the trademark roof, signage, etc.) and they will paint out the graffiti and put a fence around the building while they are going through this process. The new property owner has been contacted and said that he is going to sign the waiver form so that Art Up volunteers can paint-out graffiti as needed.

On the Phinney side of the neighborhood, there is good news about the zoo mural. A crew has washed away the gray paint that covered the mural.
To read more visit:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008038573_zoomural08m.html