Like everyone else who saw the “Honor the Treaties” posters covering the commissioned mural at 2nd Ave and Main Street in Pioneer Square, I was tremendously upset and disturbed.
Street-level art and marketing can – and do – co-exist. Sometimes they’re one and the same. This weekend, an errant contractor made a mistake and we are doing everything in our power to correct it and restore the artwork as soon as possible.
At posterGIANT, we respect and support the local arts community. We believe that art makes the city a better and more vibrant place to live and we regularly work with a wide variety of arts organizations throughout the city. We strive to be a good neighbor and a responsible member of both the art and business scenes – which is why we responded immediately to correct the situation.
We do not support the destruction of art, nor will we tolerate it. As soon as we discovered that posterGIANT was in any way responsible for the mistake, we instantaneously moved to fix it.
Two staff members rushed to the site and rented a pressure washer to remove the posters. We worked with the Alliance for Pioneer Square and with mural artist Jeff Jacobson and Arts in Pioneer Square community activist Jen Vertz to rectify the situation as quickly as possible and are paying for the time and materials necessary to restore the mural.
It’s disappointing to me that anyone affiliated with our organization would think that it’s OK to cover over a piece of art, and we have made it abundantly clear to all involved that this is unacceptable. However, it’s equally disappointing that so many people jumped so quickly to judgment without asking questions or investigating the situation, or assumed that covering works of art is a standard business practice. It’s not.
We respect the artists, neighborhoods and businesses we encounter and have always worked to address any problems or concerns promptly and thoroughly. That has been and always will be our standard business practice, and that is exactly how we handled a truly regrettable mistake committed under the posterGIANT banner.
- Doug Cox, posterGIANT Inc.
