Virtual Visit to Black Lives Matter Street Art
One of the enduring elements of social movements is street art. They tell stories, honor lives, and promote activism with murals and graffiti . In recent months (and years) anti-racism protesters have created a large amount of street art on walls and sidewalks across the country, and now you can visit many of these places virtually .
St. Thomas University in St. Paul, Minnesota is creating a digital database to archive and preserve street art created in response to police violence and in support of the ongoing social justice movement. A project called Mapping Urban Art: George Floyd and Anti-racist Street Art is documenting graffiti and murals, many of which may be temporary, from across the United States.
You can browse the content or filter it by collection (for example, tributes to George Floyd or political statements). You can also browse the map to find works of art in a specific city. Once you have art to add to the database, you can fill out the submission form and include an image, as well as location and artist information.
Once you select an image, you will receive a ton of additional information, including the name or descriptor of the creator, date of creation, location, and information about the media, format, or process used.
The university has also begun collecting street art related to the pandemic. Mapping Urban Art: Covid-19 street art provides a hyperlocal perspective on how the virus is perceived and responded to. It includes images of graffiti, murals and other installations about front-line workers, political reactions, messages of hope and healing, and more.
Again, you can browse by collection or location, or submit works from your region to the database.