Wynwood Grafitti

When we visited special collections on Wednesday, the item that stood out to me the most was the album of graffiti that used to be in Wynwood.  I used to visit the Design District in the past many times because my sister attended D.A.S.H, a high school focused on the arts. The design district is filled with graffiti and the walls of the shops and buildings have art that is perpetually changing. The graffiti that I saw in the album was different stylistically to me that the graffiti I remembered in the Design District. The pictures of the graffiti in Wynwood seemed to be gritty and more underground while the Design District had graffiti that was more commercialized. I’ve lived in Miami my entire life and seeing this album surprised me because I have never seen that type of art anywhere around the city. There is no doubt that the graffiti in the album is probably covered over with a new work right now. What is interesting to me is that the graffiti in Wynwood would be considered vandalism while the graffiti in the Design District would be considered art. Both to me are works of art and should be appreciated in the same way. The graffiti shown in the album was a way for the youth in the past to relay a message anonymously to the public. It was a way for people to speak out against the government and have a voice.