How the Project Started

Johanna McKenzie had long been interested in an arts project for the Art League of Rhode Island (ALRI) to engage a different population than the membership. She was really interested in kids. She was also interested in something that might involve an anti-graffiti project.


In November 2006, she read about the Timberland boroughs project. In this project the Timberland company (http://www.timberland.com) used boot leather to create billboards for New York graffiti artists to paint. (Image thanks to Gabriel Jeffrey at flickr). These billboard were part of a bigger campaign, the 10061.com project that aimed to strength ties with the hip-hop movement.

Discovering a company that was interested in doing something with artists and a tie to graffiti on a surface other than someone else's building knocked down the biggest wall!