The art locker rooms, located on the first floor of Fine Arts building 4, have been known as a place for tagging, but this tradition is reportedly affecting students’ work, bringing in strangers, and compromising the ventilation.
Christopher Miles, art department chair, said tagging has been going on for as long as he can remember, and he’s been struggling to find the right solution to stop the problem.
“Many of the students who actually use the lockers feel uncomfortable,” Miles said. “They don’t feel safe going there because they don’t know who or what they will confront.”
Even the actual purpose of the lockers has been compromised, he said. There have been incidences where art students had their projects and valuables ruined by spray painters.
“When people tag on the lockers, it goes through the small slits and damages personal property,” Miles said.
The spray paint also affects the ventilation system connected to the first floor. When someone tags the room, it’s not only seen, but smelled as well.
“It stinks in there and it’s poisonous,” senior drawing and painting major Francisco Palomares said. “It’s annoying because you can’t get any work done. It’s too potent.”
Sometimes, when the smell is at its worst, students and faculty have had to leave the building while it airs out.
“I have to hold my breath when I go in there,” sophomore studio art major Jenice Kang said.
Still, many students don’t know the repercussions and problems the decorated room causes.
“I thought it was a really cool place for art students to show off their talents,” sophomore kinesiology major Matthew Downey said.
Other students said the art lockers should have murals, like they did in the past.
“It used to be actual murals,” junior animation major George Goryan said. “It would be cool to go back to that and if people got permission to paint murals instead of what it is now.”
In an effort to remedy the situation, there has been talk among the art department, facilities management, risk management and the University Police.
Ideas about how to remedy the situation have been discussed, but no final solution has been agreed upon.
One idea includes demolishing the current lockers and rebuilding them at an outside location, but a low amount of funds may make this difficult to attain.
For now, art students found tagging are asked to stop.
“There’s definitely no shortage of other outlets to show off artwork,” Miles said. “Put all that energy onto a canvas.”