Update: Troy Street Art

In preparation for the June 7th Rally for Black Lives that would see 11,000+ people take to the streets of the ‘Collar City,’ many of the businesses in the downtown area decided to board up their windows with plywood panels.

These panels would end up serving as canvases for local artists in support of the upcoming rally and Black Lives Matter movement. Post-rally, the Hart Cluett Museum’s Stacy Pomeroy Draper and Belinda Colon of the Arts Center of the Capital Region joined forces and began connecting with local artists and businesses to document the artwork done on the plywood panels recognizing that we are, in fact, living through history.

While HCM’s Kathy Sheehan and others had photographed and taken video of both the panels in place and the rally itself, it was clear that the businesses that had this artwork would want to take them down in the days immediately after the rally.

As artwork from around the city has quickly begun to fill up the Arts Center, both Belinda and Stacy have been working together to stay in contact with the artists while also beginning to ‘catalog’ each piece. This process involves assigning each panel with a unique number and taking photographic images to ensure that each piece is accounted for and that their in-situ locations are also properly documented.

As of right now, this project is still ongoing. Contacting artists, developing plans for what comes next, and high-resolution photographic documentation are all taking place in the hopes that our community will have greater access to the artwork in ways that fosters a greater understanding of how Troy was able to come together in support of and in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. We will keep you posted on further developments.

If you are an artist who has artwork from this event at the Arts Center or if you have artwork that you are interested in bringing to our attention, please contact:

Stacy Pomeroy Draper
(518) 272-7232 x14
spdraper@hartcluett.org