Many students and faculty are outraged with UF’s harsh decision to remove the popular campus landmark Bambooville. But the university’s behavior on this matter is far from shocking.
I am writing as a member of what the Alligator once dubbed “The Dragon Family.” Like Jon Anderson, the creator and all-around cool guy behind Bambooville, my friends and I have also been stymied in creating public artworks on campus.
Responsible for the large-scale Pokémon chalkings in various locations around campus, we had the singular goal of creating impermanent chalk art to liven up dull areas of campus. Our art was neither a statement nor a nuisance. Our only hope was to have fun making interesting art and for others to have the joy of finding something beautiful and unexpected on campus.
Despite our good intentions, UF has fought artists like Anderson and my friends. Many times we were given warnings from the university and were told to “go through the proper channels.”
The bottom line is that UF doesn’t get it. Public art is a cultural phenomenon that is hardly new. In the past, UF fought graffiti on campus by setting up the 34th Street Wall and the Norman Hall tunnel as safe spaces to make public art.
But, artistic expression is not so easily contained. UF will fail to eradicate public art on campus. Just walk around and you’ll find spray-painted foxes, discarded rave fliers or Bible quotes written on walls. These impermanent artworks aren’t detracting from UF’s image but rather are helping build a picture of the diverse Gator Nation.
I am not condoning making the entirety of campus a graffiti free-for-all. But I do believe that there is hypocrisy and elitism at play when UF won’t let a man keep his bamboo garden but pays a relatively unknown artist $22,000 to paint trees blue.
What makes blue trees worthy of UF’s approval and a harmless Pokémon chalking not? UF is a large campus with lots of room for artistic expansion. By creating simple ways to get a public work approved, UF could be a haven for healthy artistic expression. Let Anderson keep Bambooville, and let students perform great feats — with permission. There is room for both blue trees and bamboo furniture.
To UF students and faculty, I suggest seeing Bambooville before it’s gone. It’s a hidden gem on campus. Sign the petitions — at change.org search for Bambooville — and let your voices be heard. Don’t let it become the unfinished Dragonite on Weimer Hall.
To the UF administrators responsible for stifling art on campus, I suggest you go read some graffiti from Pompeii. Those guys had more colorful words to describe people who restrict free expression.
[Kenneth Parker is a UF microbiology and cell science junior. A version of this column ran on page 7 on 2/21/2014 under the headline “UF has beef, but we want bamboo"]
