From August 30 to September 4th, 2021 FAR hosted and organized a community art project led by Tape Art creators, Michael Townsend and Leah Smith. This project was done in partnership with IU Corps and IU Arts and Humanities with grant support from the Bloomington Arts Commission.
Community members learned how something as simple as tape can become a tool for artistic expression, community building and storytelling through hands-on workshops, public art installations and exhibits during IU’s First Thursdays and Gallery Walk First Fridays.
What is Tape Art?
The Tape Art movement originated in Providence, Rhode Island in 1989 in the form of large-scale, collaborative drawings created in public spaces. The original Tape Art Crew continues to pioneer and evolve this medium and over the last 30 years they have produced over 500 public works and thousands of smaller drawings in locations around the globe.
The tape medium has a low bar entrance point — just about anyone can try it, and the payoff is high — participants see their efforts become part of a larger work. This completely removable medium incites curiosity and invites easy participation from a broad range of abilities and backgrounds, and the projects are collaborative by design. You can learn more about the tape artists and their years of experience with public art by visiting their website: tapeart.com.
Community Engagement
Tape artists, Micheal and Leah taught workshops at FAR for all ages and took out groups of IU student volunteers to create murals in the neighborhood. Murals decorated the exteriors of FAR, Rhett Skateboarding, Rainbow Bakery, Lotus Firebay, WonderLab, Banneker and more.
We held open Tape Art hours at FAR where people could drop in and learn, practice and collaborate in filling up our walls (and floors!) with drawings.
At IU’s First Thursday event, we installed temporary walls for people to draw figures on. Passers by were able to draw as little or as much as they wanted, adding hair, eyes, accessories and personality to each character. The figures were then transported to IU’s Cook Hall and to the Theater at FAR where they were exhibited during Friday’s Gallery Walk.
We brought Tape Art to Bloomington as a way to engage the community and celebrate following what was a very hard season during COVID lockdowns and uncertainty. Gathering to make art and celebrate our community together was such a gift!
Neighborhood Murals
