Logo Case 37. Work In Art

Work in Art · Mexico

Work In Art

Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico

 

Work in Art is a collective that works in Playa del Carmen and other parts of the Mexican Mayan Riviera recovering public sites ––particularly in marginalized neighborhoods–– through graffiti murals that aim to help everyone have a happy and dignified place to live in and enjoy, while also promoting urban artists, local businesses and tourism.

info 2021

The Mayan Riviera in the state of Quintana Roo has become one of the most visited destinations in Mexico and the world, which is why thousands of people have moved to its beaches and cities seeking job opportunities in tourism (the population has multiplied almost 17 times in the last 45 years! ). But the enormous economic flow brought about by visitors has not benefitted everyone equally: today, more than 40% of the population lives in poverty, partly because many of the jobs are low-paying and partly because many cities have been growing at great speed and with poor oversight, which has led to an insufficiency of infrastructure and basic services for many inhabitants. Therefore, you can see a marked difference between the affluence of the resort districts in places like Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Tulum, and the destitution of the neighborhoods where people working in the tourism industry live.

 

How to improve conditions in marginalized neighborhoods?

Painting for positive change

In 2013, several graffiti artists from Quintana Roo got together in Playa del Carmen to paint the walls of a school with the idea of making it a nicer, more pleasant space for the children. This was when they realized that, although there were many artists and graffiti artists like them in the area, there was no local group with a project for the city or the region as there are in other parts of the world. So they decided to form Work in Art, a collective of artists, designers, photographers and graffiti makers that since then dedicates to paint murals with optimistic and constructive messages on the walls of Playa del Carmen's streets, public spaces and neighborhoods, as well as in other communities nearby. From their perspective, the urban art of graffiti has proven to be a powerful tool for change that has helped many cities around the world to build their own identity, has given voice and recognition as artists to many young people, has brought art to the streets, as an activity has promoted dynamics of conviviality and joy (with rap, poetry, and so on) and, above all, has helped recover dull, neglected public spaces, rehabilitating and giving color to the places where people live, making them feel happier there and creating the conditions for people to make the most and take ownership of them.

 

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Almost immediately, the group came up with the idea of organizing the first "Playa del Carmen paints itself in color" festival, which was going to paint murals in houses and businesses in the Colosio neighborhood (the non-touristy part of the city's main street known as 5th Avenue). The idea was to fix it up and make it more attractive for the inhabitants of this disadvantaged neighborhood and at the same time create a cultural corridor that would attract tourists and benefit local businesses.

 

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The Work in Art team began this project by visiting neighbors' homes to ask them if they would like to have their outer walls painted. After getting permission to paint the walls, they put out a call for proposals and were able to attract more than 50 national and international artists to paint the murals, many of them graffiti artists they had worked with in the past. In order to welcome these artists and pay for their lodging, transportation, food and painting materials for the duration of the festival, the Collective's team reached out to their network of friends and acquaintances to get all sorts of support. Initially they encountered some resistance because this kind of events were not yet common in Playa del Carmen and graffiti was considered a form of vandalism by many, but enough people were motivated and supported them in many ways: the local government helped them with painting permits and other logistical matters, some restaurants donated food for the artists during the event, several hostels offered guest artists free lodging, paint stores provided materials and some photographers joined in documenting the process.

 

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The murals turned out so beautiful and uplifted the neighborhood so much that other collectives started organizing interventions in the tourist-y areas of town and many businesses became enthusiastic and offered sponsorship for upcoming events.

 

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So Work in Art decided to continue making interventions and murals in different parts of the city, especially in poor neighborhoods and neglected public spaces. For instance, one year Work in Art painted the under bridges at the entrance to Playa del Carmen hoping to create a new tourist route for visiting murals that would help the local economy. Another year the collective invited the neighborhood's children to participate in the painting of a public sports field. On another occasion it called for artists from the region to intervene in a sports field in Chetumal. It has also organized events to intervene the walls of low-income neighborhoods. And, from time to time, Work in Art accepts requests from hotels and other businesses to paint their walls and beautify them. In addition, on some occasions, the collective has used the murals to make a statement about an issue that is important to their community, such as the mural on the sea turtle created to raise awareness about its endangered status, or the "Homage to our heroes" mural on the nearby island of Cozumel, with which the collective sought to honor and highlight the health sector personnel who had been protecting the population during the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

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Working with and for all

According to Work in Art, there are different strands among the graffiti movement: some groups are anti-system anarchists who don't want any kind of support from companies or governments. Others want to help local artists make themselves known. In its case, the collective has decided on inviting artists who are already somewhat recognized so as to guarantee the quality of their murals and facilitate more opportunities to paint walls to continue its project for the region. That is why Work in Art is very careful when choosing artists to work with and why, as part of the selection process, it requests portfolios with photos of their murals to know how good they are and whether the type of themes they paint are in line with the purposes of the collective. Even though Work in Art does not restrict the murals' themes once it has chosen artists, it does make a pact with them so as to assure the people who lend their walls that there will be no offensive or pornographic content in the paintings.

 

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Work in Art has not chosen to formally register as a civil organization and has preferred to continue organizing itself as a collective in an informal way because members feel that if they began to assign formal salaries to themselves and get involved with paperwork and money, the project would lose its essence and would no longer be an opportunity to freely do what they like to do. So, for the time being, they have no long-term plans, and each of them has their own work and devotes their free time to the project when they spontaneously decide to organize a festival or a specific intervention.

 

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In addition to all this, what has allowed the project to be sustained and grow is that its working model benefits many people:

 

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  • Guest artists. Normally the agreement with the artists is that, although they are not paid for the murals, Work in Art covers their travel expenses to Playa del Carmen, their daily allowance and the materials they request for their work. This gives them the chance to travel, meet other artists and, above all, enables them to make themselves known, because they can put their name and contact information on their painting so other people can contact them to do more murals on a paid basis beyond the festival in question.

 

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  • Lesser known or emerging artists from Playa del Carmen and the region. Although Work In Art does not provide them with walls to paint at festivals (because if the mural’s quality does not meet expectations this could affect the work of others), it does give them the chance to meet more established artists and to learn from them by observing their work directly when they come visit.

 

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  • The communities. In addition to the impact of the murals in their city and neighborhoods, many communities have been able to enjoy graffiti workshops and mural painting activities that Work in Art puts together, mostly for children and usually with the involvement of guest artists who impart the workshop as a thank you.

 

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  • Local businesses. As festivals and other interventions have made murals very popular in Playa del Carmen, Work in Art has had little trouble getting support to organize and finance its interventions in the city. Normally the collective avoids asking for public funds because the group considers them to be too complicated. Instead, it has relied on the contributions of independent producers and, above all, of several local businesses. In exchange for funding, lodging or food for guest artists, Work in Art offers to paint murals on their facades, draw their logo on murals in other parts of the city, film short videos so they can promote themselves as socially responsible businesses, or mention them on their social media to promote them. As this has proven to be good publicity in the city, many companies are willing to support the collective when it organizes events. Some, such as paint manufacturers, even consider the support they give to Work in Art in their annual budgets and have gone so far as to ask them for exclusivity to ensure that competitors don't beat them to the punch. But Work in Art does not sign exclusivity contracts because it wants to preserve its freedom and prefers to choose its sources of support according to each project's needs.

 

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  • The government. Some local governments have supported Work in Art's efforts with funding or logistics (such as permits to intervene public spaces) because this is helping them rehabilitate many of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in the region.

 

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  • Other organizations and collectives. Work in Art has invited other collectives and social organizations to collaborate and join forces to organize multidisciplinary meetings (with rap, poetry, theater, graffiti, among others), to intervene certain areas of the city, to organize workshops or to host artists.

 

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Experience has taught Work in Art how to organize new events more readily. For instance, the collective has learned to prepare portfolios with its main ideas for an intervention, and to leverage the extensive network of contacts it has built to submit the portfolios directly to the people in charge in businesses or in government who might support the project.

 

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In addition, over time, Work in Art has been gathering the gear purchased with festivals budget (such as scaffolding, materials and speakers), which has helped in becoming more independent because this type of equipment is usually the most difficult to procure.

 

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The Work in Art project has been spreading throughout Playa del Carmen and some other places in the Mayan Riviera and is proving by example the transformative power of art and the importance of taking action to combat inequality and provide more favorable conditions for all the city's inhabitants.

 

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What can we learn from these strategies to create better living conditions for everyone in the city?

 

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