“Good Graffiti” Goes Up … For Good?

The city’s youth and recreation department handed cans to graffiti artists to spray away on the walls of Coogan Pavilion and Edgewood skate park — in the hope of retaining a family-friendly feeling for the summer.

That handoff took place this week.

The goal was to replace all the ​“fucks” and other lewd and profane ad hoc sprays that had come to line the walls of the pavilion and covered windows by the skate area. In addition to drawing crowds of skaters, the spot is one of the reclaimed park facilities aimed at hosting year-round programs for kids through seniors.

An earlier skateboard-community-propelled muraling of the area held for years. But recently the tagging took a hostile turn.

Community Recreation Coordinator Felicia Shashinka (pictured on site Sunday) said she sought advice from skateboard scenesters Ben Berkowitz and Steve Roberts. They advised that a blank canvas simply painted over the graffiti wouldn’t last long. They advised giving people respected in the tagging community access to the walls to create work that will be in turn be respected.

So an ​“urban grow team” consisting of pictured Hillhouse students David Coardes, Imani Roberts, and Siu Marie Santana painted over the offending images, under the direction of Hillhouse’s Rebecca LeQuire …

… Shashinka brought $3,000 worth of Montana spray paint to the park this past weekend …

… and Josh Philie (in above video), with whom Berkowitz connected her, organized a crew of veteran graffiti artists ​“that are in the culture” to spray on new designs. ​“We’re jazzing up the skatepark for the people,” Philie said. ​“We’re trying to bring some love back to this park that needs a little loving.”

The artists, including Mike (above; he declined to have his last name published) …

… and Keys For Kite’s Eric Mikita and Michael Deangelo (above) spread out around the complex, each taking a wall. They worked for hours and hours to get the designs right.

By Monday, the final results …

… were on display.

“If you do good graffiti over bad graffiti, people will respect it and not go over it,” Philie philosophized. ​“Hopefully it’s going to last for a while.”