Graffiti & Street Art Walking Tour in Brooklyn, New York City

 

This walking tour takes place every day at 10:30am. The length is 2 hours and the cost is $32.

A private tour is $180 for up to 4 people and $10 for each additional person up to 10. Starting time is customizable. Please contact us to arrange it.

We can also provide a Virtual Experience. Please contact us for details.

 

mural painted on wall

 

painted street art mural'

 

Graffiti: crime or cultural creation?

Discover an exciting world of graffiti taggers and street artists on this walking tour while viewing some of the most visually incredible murals in New York City and Brooklyn.

Today there is more awareness than ever about the imaginative artists who bring walls, buildings and even entire neighborhoods alive with their vibrant creations. Join this walking tour in Bushwick, Brooklyn to experience fascinating works by these globetrotting innovators. Prepare to view artistic murals large and small while exploring streets pulsating with creative energy. Eyewitness for yourself why the Bushwick district is rapidly becoming a world-renown center of street art, as well as New York City's premiere place of graffiti culture. The murals are concentrated around an exhibition called the Bushwick Collective (NYC's premier place of aerosol culture).

As we walk, expect to be immersed in the culture and lifestyle of today's urban artists, who hail from as far away as Europe, South America and even Asia. Learn about the top contemporary artists, their quirky personalities, and find out just how much people have been willing to pay for their work!

Discover the different styles and forms of the trade - which include murals, wheatpaste posters, tags and stencils. Learn about the techniques and varying nuances between them, and how they have developed and evolved over time.

Join this walking tour in Bushwick, Brooklyn if you desire to learn more about this exploding phenomenon, or if you simply seek to see for yourself the very best murals New York City has to offer!

 

 

tourists photographing street art

 

Here are some of the things we learn about on the tour:

 

Styles and Common Types of Street Art

Tags

Tags are words written in spray paint on a surface of any sort: including walls, storefronts, signs or doors. The words are usually the name of the person who wrote it; or their crew. They are generally just one color, a few inches in size or a couple of feet.

The traditional motivation of a tag is to create exposure for oneself and broadcast the audacity of taking the risk to spray paint in a dangerous, inaccessible or openly public place. For a tag the main audience are other taggers. Larger productions known as "throw-ups" and "pieces" are more stylized and feature multiple colors - although they follow the same premise as tags and are also typically a name.

graffiti on wall

 

 

Murals

Murals are generally large and portray an image or scene. They often tell a story or express feelings of the artist. Many of them carry a social or political critique, satire or message. Murals are generally larger than tags but come in all sizes. Today artists are granted permission or even paid to produce murals for public display on businesses and public buildings.

Artwork by Damien Mitchell

 

Jcorp mural

 

Posters/Paste-ups

Poster art is usually created in private, then brought to a public place and affixed to a surface. It is attached using an adhesive called wheat paste. In addition to paint, poster art can also incorporate multiple layers, cutouts, collages or stickers. The down side to a poster is that it's more susceptible to weather conditions or destruction than spray paint. Therefore it tend to last less long than other graffiti mediums.

Hunt Rodriguez alien art

 

Street art poster on wall in brooklyn

 

Graffiti & Street Art History

Early days

Modern street graffiti began in New York City in the early 1970's (although the person who is credited as the world's first graffiti writer was a student in Philadelphia named Cornbread). Young teenagers growing up in impoverished, marginalized communities started "tagging" their names on walls in public places. These 'writers' created alter egos, aliases that often combined a nickname with a number. Often the digits were based on the street the tagger lived on. Early leaders in the tagging world included people with street aliases like Fab5Freddy and Tracy168. These graffiti pioneers experimented with new styles and began the fad of tagging New York City's subway trains. This historic era of graffiti was when the main widely-accepted customs and slang language developed.

Recognition

While locally in New York graffiti was seen and treated as vandalism, enthusiasts in Europe recognized artistic value in the "tagging" and brought these young writers to their continent to produce and exhibit work. Graffiti was an instant hit in Europe and by the mid 1980's the writers, who in America were looked upon as criminals, were treated as celebrities in countries like Italy and Germany. Over the 1980's there slowly began to be more recognition of graffiti artists in the US too. Some of the legendary pioneers were recruited to paint in music videos and on cable television.

Rise of "Street Art"

By the late 1980's the original historic graffiti era in New York had ended and local writers proceeded to carry on and repeat the traditions and culture of their predecessors . Meanwhile in Europe the urban art movement was just gaining traction. In the 1990's European artists experimented with new styles, which have become referred to as 'post-graffiti' or 'street art.' A French artist known as Blek Le Rat is attributed with introducing the stencil, a form of spray art which grew popular over the next decade. In recent years the stencil has been made famous by notorious British artist Banksy. Another noteworthy artist is Frenchman Space Invader who illegally installs ceramic tiles that portray pixelated old video game characters.

 

stencil art by french artist

 

artwork of girl releasing balloons

 

Mainstream Acceptance

By the 2000's, street art was followed around the world and top artists became household names. UK artist Banksy gained reverence and notoriety for his thought provoking images which appear in the unlikeliest of places. His work has subsequently commanded unheralded prices at top art auction houses. The rise of the internet and social media has allowed for fans to follow their favorite artists, and for writers to collaborate across continents, cultures and language barriers.

 

street art on wall

 

tile mosaic on brooklyn wall

 

Controversy

The acceptance of street art into mainstream art circles has created social controversies. In late 2012 a Banksy piece disappeared from a London wall and resurfaced at a luxury art auction in Miami, Florida. Residents of its original London neighborhood expressed protest. They felt strongly that as a work of art it belonged to the community where it was created, and that it should be returned. The auction went ahead nonetheless and the piece was sold to a private collector for 1.1 million dollars!

 

Bushwick Collective

The murals we view on the tour are concentrated around an urban art exhibition called the Bushwick Collective. The Bushwick Collective was founded in 2012 by Joseph Ficalora - a neighborhood personality and businessperson - to beautify gritty industrial streets with vibrant art. Joe is inspired by his deceased father and mother - and the street art is dedicated to them. The Bushwick Collective brings together artists from around the world, legendary NYC graffiti artists, and local longtime Bushwick talent. In just a few years the Bushwick Collective has become the most famous street art exhibition in New York City, and one of the premier mural districts in the United States.

 

About Bushwick (neighborhood)

Bushwick is a dense post-industrial neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York City. It is currently becoming recognized for a blooming artist and creative scene. Also for new trendy restaurants and nightlife. The scene has blossomed over the last few years as nearby artsy Williamsburg has gotten more expensive. Aside from incoming artists and young professionals, Bushwick's primary population is Puerto Rican, Dominican-American and immigrants from Latin America. Bushwick is nearly 400 years old and was first founded by Dutch (on land taken over from Native Americans who lived there for centuries). In the 1800's the area filled with German immigrants and became a major place of manufacturing and beer brewing. There was also a large Italian and Sicilian immigrant community, before Bushwick's current Spanish-language residents began arriving in the 1970's. Unfortunately the area's gentrification has an ugly side - skyrocketing prices and people being dispossessed from their homes.

 

woman addressing group of people

wall covered in bright paint

 

How the Tour Works

This is a public tour given every single day (7 days per week) at 10:30am in Bushwick, Brooklyn. It lasts approximately 2 hours and covers approximately 1.5 mile of walking distance.

The tour consists of a guided walk through the neighborhood (mainly by the Bushwick Collective), and sometimes there is an indoor stop. The tour meets in a central location which is easily accessible by public transit or automobile.

Here is where the tour meets:

30 Wyckoff Avenue

Brooklyn NY 11237

New York City

(Between Starr Street & Troutman Street)

Meeting place is in front of Wyckoff-Starr coffee shop

 

Private and Group Tours

This tour is also available as a private or group tour. It is available any time.

We can accommodate 1 to 100+ people.

Rates: For individual private groups pricing begins at $180 for 1-4 people. Add $10 for each person up to 10. For 11 or more people is $24 per person.

We offer net rates and tiered pricing for professionals.

More about private and custom tours

PRIVATE: contact us or book your tour

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