Street Art and Community
A personal look into how street art and murals impacts communities by Charles Blain, a political community advocate in Houston, Texas
The fabric that our communities are made of consists of everything from politics, religion, shared culture, music, food, and especially art. Art lends itself to communities in a way that many of the other building blocks don’t. Street art, especially, serves as an expression of life and often represents the sentiments of those in the communities it serves.
Photo by Jose Rodriguez Palomo
That’s what motivates me to do the work that I do. I started my nonprofit, Urban Reform, because of my love for cities and desire to fix them. While many things may be broken in our cities today, one thing that often remains intact is the shared sense of community, often reinforced by local art and artists.
My love for cities grew out of New York, where street art abounds and there’s no shortage of expression. Art served as a backdrop to life’s best moments, landmarks in memories with friends and family, and a communal prized possession in an, often, drab and lonely place.
Whether it’s street art, gallery art, or some custom art hanging in a home or office; all art serves as a tool to build a shared sense of community. To find some, even basic, shared struggle.
Whenever I visit a new city, I make sure to pay special attention to the art. It often tells a story that you won’t find in the city’s history books or even one that can be communicated by the people who live there. What you get is a snapshot, a visual representation of a moment in time. In that way, artists are our true community builders, historians who are archiving the social and political changes in our cities.
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