January 1- 7, 2004
artpicks
Graffiti: The Art Form
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Graffiti has come a long way. From the late '60s when it began, city authorities and makers of good taste throughout the country were deriding what they saw as a delinquent art form. Sure, there was the occasional jolt along the way -- Basquiat, Blondie's video for "Rapture" -- but for the most part, graffiti artists were persecuted figures. To society's credit, that has been changing of late, and Philadelphia-based artist Pose2 is aiming to help that along with new classes about the medium. Beginning Jan. 3 and lasting 12 weeks, these three-hour sessions will focus on the history, tradition and style of graffiti, using documentaries and bringing in guest artists from up and down the East Coast. "Graffiti as an art form has always been a medium that communicated to other graffiti artists," says Pose2, "but my mission is to bring that to other people. There are two sides to graffiti, a positive and a negative, and I think people mainly hear about the negative. So my goal is to bring the positive aspects of graffiti to people."
Graffiti: The Art Form, Saturdays, Jan. 3-March 27, 10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., $10, Hawthorne Cultural Center, 1200 Carpenter St., 215-978-8774.
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