Miami’s New Graffiti Museum Is Making the Case That an Ephemeral Art Form Deserves a Permanent Home

For the past decade, blocks
of real-estate developments in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood have
served as outdoor canvases for thousands of street artists. Today,
the area has become a mini American mecca for graffiti, where
thongs of Instagrammers pilgrimage for pics and retailers look to
cash in on the moment.

As of this week, it’s also
where the Museum of Graffiti is
opening its doors. Billing itself as the world’s first museum
dedicated to the history of graffiti art, co-founder Alan Ket says
it will be a “place for
people to come and learn.” Ket, a veteran graffiti artist and brand
consultant, adds that “adults don’t really get this stuff. Ever
since I was a kid, I wished this place existed, and I’ve been
waiting for adults to build one.”

Two years ago, Ket met Allison
Freidin, a Miami-based lawyer who had represented a number of
street artists, and the pair decided to launch the for-profit
museum.

They started out by
commissioning 11 murals for the facade of the building, including
works by Slick, Shoe, Abstrk, and Entes. More custom artworks greet
visitors inside, where there is also a permanent exhibition
charting the movement’s 60-year history, told through such relics
as photographs of long-gone murals and vintage spray cans from
famous artists.

Two additional galleries will
house exhibitions by contemporary artists, and there’s a space for
rotating installations. Finally, a gift shop brimming with
artist-designed toys, apparel, prints—and even a custom denim bar
for applying pins and patches—round out the
experience. Tickets for adults run $23 a pop.

For the founders, putting
graffiti into a permanent space doesn’t stand in opposition to the
art form’s spirit. “Every time I hear the word
‘ephemeral—’” says Ket,
before pausing. “The
ephemerality of graffiti is a result of oppression against artists.
From a graffiti perspective, there’s no reason for our art to be
wiped out, painted over. We want our art to last
forever.”

“The market doesn’t get it,” he
says. “The museums don’t get it. Curators don’t learn about this
stuff in schools. We’re written out of art history. It takes people
coming from within the movement to build this. I think us
celebrating the destroyed artworks of previous generations is a way
for us to honor the value and importance that we as young people
saw in those works that adults just didn’t
understand.” 

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an Ephemeral Art Form Deserves a Permanent Home appeared first
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