During the a cappella concerts on Parents’ Weekend, students flooded the second floor of the PMAC for a better view of the performances below.
In the commotion, students failed to notice the artwork scattered across the balcony. Clear signs had been placed to warn passersby away, and yet, they did not deter students from climbing on, clambering about, and cluttering the workspace. The night left heavy footprints on incomplete drawings, still-life setups destroyed, and the entire balcony in complete disarray. A parent visiting the studio the next morning was disappointed to see her daughter’s artwork completely vandalized.
This wasn’t an isolated occurrence. Last year, Drawing students found their projects graffitied overnight. Thick, haphazard strokes of black paint had been smeared over at least half of the class’s drawings. The class had to abandon their projects and start over.
And this year, Visual Arts Concentration students’ workspaces have been continually ruined by visitors. One artist had unsolicited drawings doodled on pages of her sketchbook with artwork already on them. Another artist had to peel chewing gum off of her canvas before she could start painting. Someone’s work was even used as scrap paper to test pens out before the pens themselves were stolen.
Why? Anything from ignorance to callousness could have motivated these incidents. In any case, they are unacceptable.
It’s one thing to disagree or dislike a piece of work someone else produces. But it is an entirely separate, much more serious issue to deface another’s work because you don’t like it — or worse, because you don’t respect the work enough to care. Targeting artwork, whether intentionally or not, is nothing short of targeting the artists themselves. Violating another’s creations is nothing short of evil.
Even if we may not all identify as artists, many of us know what it’s like when our hard work has been tossed aside. Wrecking someone’s art is akin to deleting someone’s history essay from his or her laptop. It’s emotional damage. We all understand that it’s difficult to recover from the hopelessness and the lack of motivation that follows. And we also know that starting any project over is never the same.
Be respectful. It’s an important message, and it’s one that we sometimes forget. Notice how your actions may influence others. What matters little in your eyes may mean the world to someone else. The next time you find yourself picking between a better view at an a capella concert and honoring another’s hard work, we hope that you will make the respectful decision.
