Great art is great art, be it an intricate portrait by Jan van Eyck, a sculpture from the hands of Michelangelo, a silkscreen by Andy Warhol, or a mural on the side of an unassuming building by Shepard Fairey.
The art that’s all around us inspired our latest hunt in New York City, The Street Art Discovery Scavenger Hunt.
Partnering with the street-art experts at Saddleshoe Tours, we’ve created a hunt that reveals the beauty and wonder of art posted on the walls, doorways, the window-gates and even on the sidewalks of downtown Manhattan. A highlight of the hunt includes murals sponsored by the Little Italy Street Art (L.I.S.A.) Project, an organization encouraging exploration of Little Italy by bringing diverse groups of street artists together to create Manhattan’s only mural district.
The very nature of street art—its lack of permanence—makes this hunt unique. The game itself is reoccurring, but the sights may not be. This ephemeral quality differentiates street art from its traditional counterpart—and Google is trying to change that. Google’s latest project aims to capture and digitalize the richness of street art—not only across the world, but also across time.
Take 5Pointz, the former street art and graffiti mecca in Queens, NY, that was whitewashed in November 2013. Go there now and you see only remnants of its glory days, covered mostly by white paint. But with Google’s new online gallery, viewers can see the former splendor of this building that has served as a gathering spot and community for the nontraditional artists.
Google’s project, along with Saddleshoe’s walking tours and the Street Art Discovery Scavenger Hunt, are all evidence of the rising popularity and demand for street art. Perhaps such efforts will paradoxically bring fame to these often-anonymous guerilla artists.
Photo of 5Pointz by Ezmosis