Graffiti and mural artists lend an explosion of color to alley near Kelley Square

On June 8, when Kristian “Nu Element” Rodriguez heard that some of his fellow local artists were on their way to the Brick By Brick street art festival, the short notice didn’t matter. He knew he had to join them.

When he arrived at the festival — at the at the Summit Lounge alleyway connecting Water and Harding Streets near Kelley Square — it turned out he had nothing to worry about. Other artists cleared a section of brick wall and lent him spray cans, and soon, he was hard at work, mixing colors and teaching his craft to his young daughter.

“I didn’t have any paint at all, I barely had a spot to paint, but we cut some vines and I had a nice little wall,” Rodriguez said. “It was especially cool to have my daughter paint because it was her first time picking up a spray can.”

‘We had the best of the best’

Artifakt Studios, responsible for many of the murals and art installations that decorate Worcester’s businesses, brought in more than 25 graffiti and mural artists to cover the walls of the alleyway near Kelley Square over the course of five days for the Brick By Brick festival.

Co-founder Audrey Tesserot said the festival felt something like a continuous party, with different artists dropping in each day to add their pieces to the puzzle.

“We had the best of the best, some people who have been painting this way for more than 20 years – some OGs. We had people come from all over regionally to paint on these walls,” Tesserot said. “Every single day, there was a collective hum of all of us being there for a shared purpose and pushing each other to do better in our creative art form.”

Filling ‘a void of street art festivals’

Artifakt Studios held its first street art festival last summer as part of a July block party near its Tatnuck Square location. Over the course of that afternoon, artists took part in a “wall jam,” which filled the outdoor walls of two buildings.

“There’s been a void for street art festivals in Worcester over the last few years,” Tesserot said. “We had our initial festival last year, and it’s easier to do it in our neighborhood, but we wanted to stretch what’s possible and spread street art into more parts of the city in order to share our work, make a statement, and add a little bit of color.”

The past decade has seen bright colors cover many of downtown Worcester’s walls, mostly through the Pow! Wow! Worcester mural program, which has brought in artists from all over the country and all over the world.

Closing a gap

Artifakt Studios has also had a hand in the decorating of Worcester’s buildings. Gardell’s prolific work includes iconic Red Sox moments and Canal District historical figures on walls near Polar Park, as well as a sunset scene above the playground outside Department of Children and Families’ Worcester office.

Tesserot said she deliberately refers to Artifakt Studio’s work as street art, rather than murals, because the term encompasses different forms of wall art without upholding one at the expense of another.

“The reason I use street art as a term is because it groups murals and graffiti into the same category. They are all one and the same,” Tesserot said. “Graffiti also encompasses murals. There are plenty of murals within graffiti, and there’s plenty of graffiti that can be seen within murals. Our job is to bring light to this and dispel these myths that graffiti is just vandalism or ugly tags.”

In the case of the Brick by Brick festival, the effort was done legally and in compliance with the city’s requirements, said Gardell, who said he curated the artists with thoughtfulness. Artists such as Rodriguez have been bringing their spray cans and knowledge of color theory throughout Worcester for much longer. However, both Rodriguez and Tesserot said graffiti, no matter how meaningful or pleasing to the eye, doesn’t get the respect it deserves.

Dispelling myths about murals

Tesserot said she deliberately refers to Artifakt Studio’s work as street art, rather than murals, because the term encompasses different forms of wall art without upholding one at the expense of another.

“The reason I use street art as a term is because it groups murals and graffiti into the same category. They are all one and the same,” Tesserot said. “Graffiti also encompasses murals. There are plenty of murals within graffiti, and there’s plenty of graffiti that can be seen within murals. Our job is to bring light to this and dispel these myths that graffiti is just vandalism or ugly tags.”

In Tesserot’s opinion, the only distinction between graffiti and other visual art is the way it is treated.

“If something is inside an art gallery and you pay to walk in the door and see it, you may or may not like it, but you’re not going to call the police. You’re going to respect it for what it is, and take it or leave it,” Tesserot said.”I was literally approached by the business owner to paint this building,” he says, “but he had no funding.” Gardell says the money for paints and supplies were raised from a $5,000 Worcester Arts Council grant, and Artifakt sponsored the rest, including things such as ladders and the LLC’s insurance.

Creating positive activity

“When we first started the project,” says Gardell, “We had a lot of activity. People sleeping in the alleyway. They would talk to us and they weren’t thrilled by our presence, but they didn’t cause us any animosity. They just moved somewhere else.

Gardell express some sadness at that, saying that “the goal was not to displace people. It’s just to create more positive activity.

Gardell said by painting they alleyway, he hopes people are moved to respect the space more, that the alley becomes a destination for locals to take pictures, selfies and photoshoots.