For a couple of years, the Nook between Aura Coffee and Voertman’s bookstore on Hickory Street has been an official community art space for those who wish to express themselves through public art like murals and graffiti.
The Nook had once been known as the off-campus smoking spot since it’s across the street from the University of North Texas. “The Nook embodies the college student. It’s art. It’s trash. It’s a bunch of psychological problems. It’s a good place to discover yourself,” then-UNT student Emily Fryksater told the North Texas Daily in 2016.
It had been a space for graffiti and murals for years until Voertman’s, which owns the space, decided to officially designate it as a free artistic expression space.
“We kept doing murals and stuff out there, and they just kept getting vandalized, and so we’re like, why not embrace that and let people have a creative outlet space that’s legal?” Reagan Boerner from Voertman’s told the Record-Chronicle in 2021.
Since then, the space has displayed artistic expression in the form of graffiti, portraits, posters and other artist expression (as long as it follows Voertman’s rules and doesn’t include vulgarity). Hank Hill from King of the Hill made an appearance there, as did Albert Einstein and the all-seeing eye.
Here recently, it was showcasing support for LGBTQ+ rights.
But at some point between Saturday night and Sunday morning, someone painted the whole space purple and tagged it with a hashtag: “#DentonCleanUp.”
“I don’t think it was the city,” said Robyn Baker, one of the managers at Voertman’s. “It’s completely legal to spray paint there. It’s a free speech space.”
Kurt Van Zandt, an assistant manager at Aura Coffee, first noticed Voertman’s community art space had been painted over with purple paint on Sunday. He couldn’t recall it ever being completely repainted like this.
“I highly doubt the city would do a slop job,” Van Zandt said.
By Monday afternoon, artists had already started painting over the purple space with messages to the city and anyone else who will listen:
”How about you give back our buses.”
”Denton condemn scumbag landlords.”
”Solve the real problems.”
”GOBACK 2 Dallas.”
The #DentonCleanUp tag was marked through with yellow paint. Underneath it reads “#DentonSuckIt”.
Voertman’s rules for the Nook were also tagged by graffiti.
Since at least 2006, #DentonCleanUp has been part of the city’s Graffiti Abatement Program and its comprehensive plan to eliminate graffiti on public and private property and to prevent graffiti and vandalism, according to city staff.
The city offers a document titled “#DentonCleanUp” with a section labeled “How You Can Wipeout Graffiti” in three easy steps: report, record and remove.
Under “remove,” the city recommends that you remove graffiti within 24 to 48 hours to keep it from spreading. The city offers a free service for property owners who wish to have the graffiti removed; otherwise, they have 15 days to remove it since it is illegal.
The penalty for graffiti depends on the monetary loss and the location. It could range from a Class C misdemeanor if the amount is less than $100 or a first-degree felony if the amount is $300,000 or more, according to Section 28.08 of the Texas Penal Code.
“I confirmed with our staff that the covering of the area was not done by the city,” city of Denton Chief of Staff Ryan Adams wrote in a Monday morning email. “On a side note, when we abate, we would power-wash brick and the city would not paint a hashtag.”
Local muralist Dan Black is familiar with graffiti. His Band on the Run mural over at Andy’s Bar was recently tagged. It wasn’t the first instance of graffiti on the huge mural downtown, but in the past, Andy’s has been able to take care of street-level vandalism. The most recent one, though, was in a spot higher on the mural where quite a few colors come together, which required Andy’s to call him to come back and repair it.
Black said he finished repainting it last week, and it took about a day. He’s currently repainting some of his other murals that were tagged along Bell Avenue at Robertson Street and at Eagle Drive.
“I’m not a huge fan of vandalism and painting on other people’s stuff,” Black said. “It feels rude.”
The damage Black is cleaning up for the city wasn’t done by the same taggers, he said.
But he said what is unique about Voertman’s is that it has been designated as a free speech wall, and he wondered if the person who painted over the space with purple paint and a city hashtag wasn’t simply making a statement.
“It sounds to me like they are taking advantage of the opportunity for free speech to share an opinion,” Black said.
Black said Voertman’s has taken a risk by opening its free speech wall, and he is grateful for it since it is difficult, stressful and challenging to facilitate because it is inevitable that someone will have something to say that will frustrate other people.
“When a business opens a free graffiti wall, it gives young people a place to practice, and ideally, they will grow to become a muralist,” Black said. “I really hope no heat is coming down on them. I’d hate to see it go away. It’s something that helps the city.”
When he was starting out as an artist in East Texas, Black said he didn’t have any space to practice his graffiti. He had to rely on sheets to perfect his art into a muralist style. The space that Voertman’s offer allows artists to perfect their art, he said.
He’d fallen in love with street art when he was growing up in Houston. He’d see different types of graffiti on dilapidated buildings that turned them into powerful pieces of art.
“It was amazing and beautiful, the power of the thin coat of paint,” Black said. “It affects people differently [when they see it], and that seems magical to me.”