Stone Arch Properties owner Mike Cota woke up Monday morning to discover two of his downtown buildings transformed by more than 200 cans of spray paint. Unlike most property owners who would be furious about such vandalism, Cota had specifically requested this colorful makeover. The spray painting was part of a deliberate effort to elevate graffiti from street vandalism to legitimate public art.
A year ago, Cota noticed something interesting about his buildings. "Even with all the mediocre graffiti that's down here, a lot of people love coming to take pictures," he explained. "It'd be a shame to get rid of it, so what if we did something to improve it?" This observation led him to partner with the nearby Brattleboro Museum & Art Center and Brandon-based Juniper Creative Arts to organize a weekend Graffiti Jam that attracted 15 professional aerosol artists from locations as distant as Slovakia.
The Brattleboro event stands in stark contrast to recent incidents in Vermont's largest city, Burlington, where someone spray-painted over part of a $10,000 Main Street mural that elementary students had created near their school. Instead of viewing graffiti as purely destructive, the Brattleboro initiative aimed to showcase the positive potential of this art form. "It started off with vandalistic origins, but over the last half century it has grown into one of the most legitimized and profitable art forms around the globe," said Will Kasso Condry, one of the event organizers.
Condry brings impressive credentials to his advocacy for graffiti art. He first picked up a spray paint can at age 7 and later studied fine art and illustration at The College of New Jersey. As a co-founder of the Juniper collective alongside his wife Jennifer Herrera Condry and daughter Alexa Herrera Condry, he has created more than 40 murals in public buildings throughout Vermont. His artistic achievements include winning the Vermont Prize for visual art in 2022, the Herb Lockwood Prize in the Arts this summer, and the Vermont Arts Council's Arthur Williams Award for Meritorious Service to the Arts last month with his family.
Working with premium spray paint imported from Europe, Condry understands the frustration property owners feel when targeted by unauthorized graffiti. However, he believes education and mentorship offer better solutions than simply trying to eliminate the practice. "It's ignorant to think that you can stop all graffiti that is being done without sanction – that's been going on since antiquity," he argued. He noted that while graffiti culture originated with Black and brown children in inner-city Philadelphia and New York, much of what appears around Vermont today is "more than likely done by young white males."
"You control it through proper education and mentoring," Condry emphasized. The weekend event aimed to teach spectators the crucial difference between tagging – a quick hit-and-run spray-painting of one's name – and investing significant time and talent into creating authorized production murals. Jennifer Condry explained that changing perceptions remains a key challenge: "Some people continue to see graffiti through the lens of vandalism. One of our goals with this event is to reinforce the message that graffiti is a respected global art movement that beautifies neglected spaces and builds community."
The Graffiti Jam received substantial support, including a $12,000 grant from the Vermont Community Foundation's arts and social cohesion fund. However, the event also generated at least one complaint from a resident who worried it might encourage vandalism elsewhere in the community. Danny Lichtenfeld, the museum's director, addressed these concerns directly: "This is public art in a graffiti style being done at the behest of the property owner."
The impressive results of the weekend can now be viewed on Arch Street, directly across from Main Street's Latchis Theatre and Hotel. Among the participants, organizers discovered an enthusiastic apprentice in 14-year-old local eighth grader Eko Harmon-Fee, who worked alongside Vermont artist Will Kasso Condry to learn the techniques and principles of professional graffiti art.
The organizers remain committed to promoting responsible artistic expression while discouraging unauthorized vandalism. "We're not telling kids, 'Just because you see us out here, go do it in the back of your school,'" Will Condry clarified. "We say, 'Take the time to understand this is an art form like any other that requires training and education.' Introduced the right way, this is the future of public art."
