For years the thought of art and graffiti differed and has had a lot of controversy on whether graffiti is art or not. Downtown Kansas City has many murals that are considered art and some say graffiti is art. Graffiti can be portrayed as a piece of art but most critics say it is not.

The Buzz took a trip downtown into Westport and downtown to find art. In todays society graffiti is frowned upon even if it is a mural.

Kansas City has started a mural program as another effective strategy to stop graffiti vandalism also known as tagging.

“This program has worked in Philadelphia, which launched its nonprofit mural program as an anti-graffiti initiative in 1984 and now has more than 3,600 murals in its city. Philadelphia has an annual funding in excess of $5 million. It engages 1,500 of Philadelphia’s at-risk youth every year to use their artistic talents.” [Kansas City Star]

Wyandotte County also has had a program for the last three years in which high school students paint murals on a side of an alley that spans several blocks in the Cathedral Neighborhood of Kansas City, KS. Residents have praised those murals, but they’re not quite the scale of the latest Kansas City murals, but they are all made for the same cause.

The artist Candy Chang uses public interaction to complete her art like her “Before I die…” piece.

Some people say it’s art, some people don’t. Art is a perspective. And art can be defined in multiple ways.

Senior Amanda Tripp defines art as, “A physical form of people’s ideas, feelings, and creativity.”

Senior Mary Davis says, “Art is the freedom to express your soul’s internal desires of its own unique form externally.” Tagging is bad, but this type of ‘graffiti’ is good.