Bed-Stuy 'Walls' Looks To Bring Art To The Streets

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — A year ago, Michela Muserra had a vision.

Born in Puglia, Italy but a Bed-Stuy resident for 20 years, the muralist wanted to help beautify what she considered an ugly stretch of wall a few blocks from where she lived.

On Saturday, her vision came to life, with a block party that left the wall, which stretches nearly the entire length of Lexington between Lewis and Stuyvesant avenues — just near Do The Right Thing Way — filled with colorful murals from a cast of well-known artists.

"The walls were covered in throw-ups," she said, a form of quickly done spray-painted tags. "It looked ugly, so why not make it beautiful?"

Muserra works for Thrive Collective, a group that promotes arts-based mentoring in over 100 New York City public schools, as a muralist and works with children to create wall-sized arts.

She started calling her project Bed-Stuy Walls, and began having conversations to try and see how she could not only help beautify the wall on her block but also create community through arts.

"The main goal, it's not just to beautify a school or a community center, it's really to get to know people, to gather people together," Muserra said, "and hopefully to bring some sort of positive message."

Along with some friends, Muserra put together a presentation and a list of what she would need to create her vision. The first task was to find money.

Muserra brought her project to local officials, who all said they loved it but that since so much of their budgets for community events are allocated earlier in the year, it could be difficult to find money.

She opted instead for gofundme, where she was able to raise a few thousand dollars to pay her artists and purchase supplies — "very environmentally friendly spray paint," she said.

Many of the artists who Muserra invited are well-known graffiti and muralists, like the duo known as BoogieREZ, and were more than happy to join Bed-Stuy Walls' first event.

"A lot of artists," Muserra said, "were so into the idea that they just wanted to collaborate without getting paid."

She found companies to donate ladders and food, invited a roller-skating group and double-dutch company to join in and convinced her friends who own a building next to the long, grey walls on Lexington Avenue to let them paint their walls, too.

The hardest part was convincing the owners of the walls, which stretch more than half the length of the block, to allow Muserra to bring her vision to life.

She visited the owners of the building, the kitchen supplier Rodgers & Sons, at their Manhattan shop "over and over again," she said.

Their concern was that the murals would attract more graffiti, she said.

"I was trying to explain it — it's actually the opposite," Muserra said.

"For some reason, when graffiti artists see murals —not all the time, but most of the times — they keep some sort of respect for for the walls," she explained.

Finally, just after Muserra got permits for the October 15 date, the owners agreed.

"I think I tired him out," Muserra joked, "My persistence was key, I think, because he finally said 'ok, just let me know what you need from me.'"

And the response from the community on the day of her vision coming to fruition, Muserra said, was "overwhelming."

A DJ played music while kids and adult artists painted, roller skated, danced and jumped rope.

"The kids were the most beautiful thing," Muserra said, "kids were having a blast. I loved that. They were dancing on the floors. So cute."

The walls, formerly grey and covered in a mishmash of erratic tags, are now covered in huge, colorful murals, all with an environmental message.

Muserra said she wants the event to be an annual occurrence, hopefully during the summer and maybe even pulling in some even bigger names next time.

"We also tried to reach out to Spike Lee, but we don't have much access," she said, since the walls were right next to where the Brooklyn filmmaker shot his 1989 classic "Do The Right Thing."

"You know, that's a hard one. But hopefully next year."