Updated on October 11, 2017.
A Burlington activist said he used graffiti Monday to make a political statement about a mural off Church Street.
Albert Petrarca, who describes himself as a member of the Off the Wall coalition, said in a press release that he and other members of the group defaced an identification plaque that accompanies the “Everyone Loves a Parade!” mural downtown. Petrarca described the public art, which is 124 feet by 16 feet, as a “white supremacist symbol” that obliterates “First Nation peoples’ lives and history.”
The goal? “To reset the debate on why an undeniably racist piece of ‘art’ and ‘history’ occupies our town square,” wrote Petrarca, an activist who is outspoken on a variety of Burlington issues.
“Colorful and hyperrealistic,” Seven Days reported in 2012, “the mural unspools an eclectic cast of major and minor Vermont celebrities.” It’s located on the side of a building that houses Banana Republic along the pedestrian-only Leahy Way, which leads to the Marketplace parking garage. And yes, for those wondering, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) is also depicted in the mural.
It also includes Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger, who is seen waving to the parade-loving crowd with his daughter, Li Lin, sitting astride his shoulders and his wife, Stacy, standing at his side.
Petrarca’s coalition demands that Weinberger “immediately withdraw his consent to being on this mural and insist that his figure be removed from it.”
The mayor released a statement Monday evening:
The city appreciates the outreach regarding this public art. The city is deeply committed [to] inclusion and diversity, and I have directed Ron Redmond to review the issues raised by today’s protest and provide a report and recommendations within 30 days. While I appreciate the hard work and private resources that went into creating the mural, the issues raised today deserve careful review.
Redmond is the executive director of the Church Street marketplace, which commissioned the work.
The timing of the defacement appears not to be a coincidence. Columbus Day, declared by Governor Phil Scott as Indigenous Peoples’ Day in Vermont, has long been controversial for its whitewashing of the explorer Christopher Columbus’ disastrous impact on the natives in the Americas. Statues around the country dedicated to Columbus have been defaced as the holiday neared.
“People all over the U.S. are reexamining the flags, statues and memorials in our public commons,” Petrarca wrote. “Racism and fake history have no place in Burlington.”
Petrarca later called police to report what he’d done, Deputy Chief Shawn Burke said Wednesday in a press release. Surveillance video footage showed Petrarca, alone, writing “Off the Wall” in spray paint, Burke reported. Petrarca was cited for unlawful mischief, according to Burke.
The Church Street Marketplace commissioned the mural in 2009 and it was completed in 2012, according to Redmond.
The $100,000 project, privately funded, was intended to celebrate the quadricentennial of Samuel de Champlain’s 1609 discovery of Lake Champlain. It includes Vermonty figures such as Trey Anastasio, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Grace Potter, John Deere, Madeleine Kunin and Maria von Trapp. There are also nonVermonters, such as Elvis Presley and Abraham Lincoln. A likeness of actor Edward James Olmos, who is also not a Vermonter, makes an improbable appearance, as Seven Days reported in 2016.
Featured businesses, including Ben & Jerry’s, Sweetwaters and Hotel Vermont, paid sponsorships and the mural includes their logo or storefront.
Before he finished the project, Québec artist Pierre Hardy* made several additions, including Weinberger, who’d been elected mayor just months before the mural’s August 2012 unveiling.
“We asked him if he wanted to be included. We just felt that was a nice thing to do,” said Redmond, noting that former mayors Peter Clavelle and Bob Kiss are also included.
The accompanying plaque, which Off the Wall members sprayed paint on, provides a legend of people pictured. The plaque does not explain the identity of one person depicted wearing Native American garb.
Yet the people included are overwhelmingly white. Redmond admits there were “lots and lots of more people we could have added.” In retrospect, he said, he would have included a tribute to the Buffalo Soldiers, a contingent of black military men who were stationed at Fort Ethan Allen in 1909.
“Church Street is a place that’s constantly evolving, and people feel a strong sense of ownership — and that’s a good thing,” Redmond said. “We love that people are engaged and we want to hear from people; we want to understand. We’ve been thinking about this, too. As we look at that mural, we’re thinking about, How do we add to this? How do we evolve? How do we use this as an opportunity to make it more dynamic, more inclusive, more robust than it already is?”
Updating the mural would likely be cost prohibitive, somewhere in the $20,000 to $30,000 range, according to Redmond. Alternatively, he said, there have been discussions about more murals along the marketplace, including one on the wall opposite “Everyone Loves a Parade!”
“Now we need to really take a look at what we created,” Redmond said. “It’s 2017. What did we miss, and what do we need to do now? And that’s OK. You can’t get mad.”
*Correction, October 9, 2017: A previous version of this story misidentified the muralist, Pierre Hardy.
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As a 45-year-old native black Burlingtonian, the mural has always offended me and highlighted the fact I, black people, and people of color have NEVER been welcome here. In fact, I have a painful visceral reaction to the mural that does uphold white supremacy culture and erases the legacy and truth of people of color in VT. I do appreciate Miro Weinberger’s response and hope the mural is expeditiously eradicated.
Why wasn’t Albert Petrarca charged with vandalism?
Mayor Weinberger’s sensitivity is to be applauded.
But, even if the mural includes an objectionably disproportionate number of White people, I fail to see how that constitutes White Supremacy.
Images matter… and so do words.
@ Lade:
“I’m happy for development of the city center. I just would like to see something that benefits the city and not just Don Sinex.”
In a city with a severe housing shortage — indeed, a housing crisis — additional housing units, including affordable units, benefits the city. A rejuvenated center of Church Street, where an unsightly, empty shell exists now, benefits the city. Jobs benefit the city. Property taxes benefit the city. It’s simply not true that this project doesn’t benefit the city. It’s just that you refuse to accept that it does, so you repeat your baseless talking point ad nauseum.
@ Hill:
You might be right or wrong in your politically-correct diatribe about the mural, but that doesn’t justify Crazy Grampa Petrarca defacing it.
I think some people are taking this a little too seriously. I think it’s a pretty picture and an enhancement to Church st. I think there are bigger more important battles that this club Off the Wall can focus their energy on.
I think the wall is a tasteless piece of propaganda. Are there faces that have actually contributed to the history of Burlington and Vermont? Yes…
Is there much more shameless promotion and free advertising for some of Burlington’s biggest jerks? Most decidedly so.
It is time for the ego-wall to be changed to something that celebrates, not the conquest of our continent by greed, commercialism, genocide and arrogance, but the local natural environment the deep history that was usurped and destroyed by the dominance of Euro-centrism and Western greed, avarice and cultural hierarchy.
There’s a difference between an activist and a crank. An activist, if he has a case to make, would do so through local news media and through proper channels. It’s not as if the local authorities around here are deaf to the voices of activists; they bend over backwards for anyone with a cause, and especially so if they perceive the cause to be a liberal/progressive one. A crank, which is what this lunatic is, just takes matters into his own hands and then does something stupid like vandalizing public property. Seven Days should know better than to dignify this old coot with the label “activist.” He’s an unbalanced zealot, who does the cause he purports to support absolutely no good, as you can see by the right-wing commenters who are out in droves as a result of his lunatic actions. Why hasn’t he been arrested?
While the issues of racism, colonialism and understanding the complexities of our history are of central importance in a plural democracy, I can’t help but think that this is just a stunt by a talentless artist to draw media attention and notoriety to himself and his organization.
Anyone seeing the mural as a “white supremacist symbol” that somehow destroys “First Nation peoples lives and history” is a racist loon. People like this lower the level of the discussion of inequality and racial oppression to garbage. People like this also exemplify how intolerant and racist the so-called “progressive” left can be. Sheesh.
“You lost on the City Center issue. Just can’t get over it, huh?”
I’m happy for development of the city center. I just would like to see something that benefits the city and not just Don Sinex.