Art or Graffiti at the Parkade?

Most everyone seems to agree that last month’s project at the was a success, but problems seem to have creeped in in the days and weeks since the event, as one of its organizers says she believes gangs have begun to use the space to display their signs, while the town’s General Manager says no one currently has permission to paint murals on the property.

The project, held at the Broad Street Parkade on the weekend of June 18 and 19, aimed to transform the dilapidated former shopping plaza from an eyesore to a work of art, and .

But , president of the Manchester Art Association, who helped organized the event, told Patch that she has identified five local gangs who have “sneaked in” and are using the walls of the parkade as “their newspapers.” O’Brien asked for a photo of one of the murals at the parkade that she said might contain gang messages to be removed from a recent interview Patch conducted with her (that photo is attached to this story).

Manchester Mayor Louis Spadaccini, who said he had objections to the initial mural project, said he has received several complaints from residents in the past few weeks concerned about some of the artwork at the parkade.

Although Police Chief Marc Montminy said his department had not received any complaints about the artwork and that he did not believe any of the murals to be the work of local gangs.

“I think that’s a misnomer,’ Montminy said. “I hesitate to call it graffiti. The people who painted on the building did so with permission. I think it’s in the eye of the beholder whether it’s art or graffiti.”

Scott Shanley, Manchester’s general manager, said the town was in contact with Manchester Art Association to identify and remove the artwork that the MAA had concerns with, although Shanley noted that the group only had an insurance rider to paint at the parkade for one weekend in June, so anybody still painting murals on the building at this point would be doing so without permission.

“That’s part of the concern,” Shanley said. “They were authorized for that one weekend to be on the site to do murals. I’ve tried to be clear that if they would like to do it again we would have to do it as an official project again. Anybody still painting there is trespassing at this point.”

Shanley said he did not know yet if town staff or volunteer artists would cover over the objectionable murals.

The parkade itself is expected to be torn down by this time next year, with removal of materials inside the building expected to begin by the end of the month. Shanley said the town is still waiting on a mandated permanent from the Environmental Protection Agency needed to remove PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, from the building before it can proceed with the bulk of the demolition work.