Testing, one, two...

Welcome to Grafaroid NYC. This blog was started in February 2007 for a course at Marymount Manhattan College entitled Sharing 101: Survival Skills for the Digital Citizen, taught by Morgan Schwartz.

The premise of Grafaroid NYC is fairly simple. I will travel around New York City and take Polaroids of different graffiti tags or forms of street art. I will post these Polaroids to the blog, discuss them, and also let you know about interesting restaurants, shops, etc. in the same area as the graffiti/street art pictured.

So why am I doing this? Well, graffiti and street art have always interested me, as have Polaroids. I feel that both graffiti/street art and Polaroid photographs can be legitimate forms of art, but far too often they are written off as crime (graffiti/street art) or amateur (Polaroids) by the art world. I feel like part of the reason they are written off so often is because of their accessibility. Street art can be seen by anyone - you don't need to pay to get into a museum or go to a gallery opening to see one of these works of art, and anyone can take a Polaroid, you need no special training. I view Polaroids as instant art - you take a picture of something and almost immediately have it in your hand - I find that fascinating. I want to open up a conversation about what art is and how we define it, so please, please, please comment with your feedback, your ideas, your arguments - whatever you feel! I also want this blog to show New York City as a walkable art gallery. Instead of paying $20 to see the latest exhibit at the MoMA, why not walk around NYC and see some amazing art for free?

First post will be up within a day or two, so please keep checking back.

Over and out.