From the Tag to the #Hashtag: Street Art, Instagram, and Gentrification

Abstract

One of the key trends that can be seen in gentrifying environments is the use of “street art” murals, which are increasingly connected to official government-sanctioned “street art festivals,” to decorate the walls of urban neighborhoods—sometimes located in officially designated “arts” or “creative districts.” In this article, I consider the role that Instagram practices have played in the popularization of such districts. In a case study of Denver’s RiNo Art District, I argue that as street art is used to turn everyday urban environments into sites of adventurous exploration, the sharing of images from these discoveries on social media helps to make territories more familiar and thus more open to socioeconomic change. This case is considered as an example of how mediatization is connected to gentrification processes.

GentrificARTion: The Impact of Public Art on Community and Civic Changes in the RiNo District

“…The solution Miles (1997) proposes is to have community and local arts organizations involved in producing public art so they can help define the civic identity of the space they inhabit. Polson (2021) conducted a recent study to investigate the increase in gentrification caused by social media posts related to the murals in the RiNo district. They focus on how the public art in Denver that aims to beautify urban areas can increase tourism through photos of the art posted on social media.…”

“…The increase in art tourism in RiNo can cause socioeconomic change as tourists visit the neighborhood and contribute to the local economy. Polson (2021) talks about how activist artwork in the RiNo neighborhood had been erased to create murals that added aesthetic value to the neighborhood. The article provides background information on the changes in the RiNo district due to development and the impact of the murals on the local economy through a digital ethnographic methodology of social media posts to focus on how artwork's aesthetics and digital footprint impact gentrification.…”

“…The RiNo district was part of a redlining initiative in the 1930s, which caused an increase in Hispanic migrants moving to the Southwest and settling down (Polson, 2021). This caused the population to move into RiNo, which also, at the time, had a large Black population.…”

Aversive racism, gentrification, and graffiti studies

“…There are many wonderful scholars theoretically and ethnographically examining the interrelationships between gentrification and graffiti and street art from around the world (Polson, 2022; Prichard, 2020, Schacter, 2014; Speakman, 2023). And although our subfield might still be too beholden to the catchall phrase of “resistance” that explores race and class somewhat simplistically, as our interdisciplinary and international subfield evolves, so has the writing on the subject.…”