Deep in the back streets of Cambridge there is a group of Council owned garages that regularly get graffitied, repainted, graffitied, repainted, and so on.
I recently spoke to a group who were tasked with repainting all the doors white, and it turns out that they only paint the ones people have complained about. So no matter how good or bad it may look they only coverup the ones on their list. Quite often they disagree with the list and think that the ones being erased are actually the more interesting and entertaining of the lot.
I had the idea that because they are regularly painted over (except the ones nobody complains about) you could almost rent out the doors as canvas space for people to use to paint on; for example £5 to have a door for two weeks or £10 for a month. after which it get’s erased when someone else pays to use it. Assuming the paint was quick dry, the artist could also be responsible for erasing the old art before they start which will save the Council man power and paint. Nicer ones will be left for as long as possible before being erased, rude/nasty ones get erased straight away (as they are now) and that artist banned for an amount of time. After finishing, the artist could upload a picture of their ‘door’ to a website – which will also make it easier to keep an eye on the friendliness of the artwork, and also be a showcase for their work.
Anyway, having not done anything about the above idea yet, I did take photos of all the garages with the thought of looking at each door piece and seeing what I think. Would I paint over it or leave it there? I was going to leave post-it note comments on the doors themselves (because, you know, encouragement, constructive criticism, general interest) but haven’t gotten around to it, and since starting this post they have now been demolished to make room for fewer but bigger garages. It didn’t help that the general area was left to fall apart, with some garages burnt out, others having the roof and door ripped off, and even some homeless guys living in a few (you can see the unfortunate evidence of this below).
I still think it’s an idea that could benefit both the community and Council; I just have to make the time to see if there’s anything I can do about it as there’s plenty of other garage complexes in the area.
