ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

1. Graffiti in MorgantownBy: Corey Hegler, Josh Coates, Cris Lopez, Danny Hagan • ABSTRACT • DATA • OBSERVATIONS & DISCUSSION According to our interviewee, Seize One, Morgantown became well known for graffiti in the 1980’s as a result of City Slicker Nation (CSN). CSN, a world recognized graffiti crew, published their City Slickers Magazine out of Morgantown. At the time, this monthly publication was 1 of only 3 internationally-distributed, graffiti magazines. As a result, Morgantown became a headquarters for many graffiti artists. Since the late 80’s and early nineties, CSN fragmented into smaller crews resulting in the disappearance of the magazine. In Morgantown today graffiti there exists in three major categories: An artistic form, an activist form and scribble with each category striving to achieve a different purpose. The least popular form of graffiti was the activist. The other two occurred much more frequently. Our data indicates that our hypothesis was incorrect. Voicing opinions, as in activist graffiti, was not nearly as prevalent as artistic graffiti or scribble. Therefore, we learned that WVU’s location in Morgantown was not a major reason for the amount of graffiti occurrences. Along with our interview, further research led us to a different conclusion. Our research focused on graffiti within Morgantown, WV. Our group’s objective was to identify areas containing graffiti and then to understand the major reasons why graffiti was so prevalent in Morgantown. As geography students, we understand that social phenomena occur within in a certain space. and that this space influences a process’ origin and nature over a trajectory. The social process we studied was a modern art form known as graffiti and our group focused on studying this work of art as it occurred within the given location and space of Morgantown, WV. Our group theorized that the major reason graffiti occurred within Morgantown was due to West Virginia University. We hypothesized that college students utilized graffiti as a method to voice their thoughts and opinions. • INTRODUCTION Morgantown is a city within Monongalia County, and situated along the Monongahela River and close to the Pennsylvania border in the north central part of West Virginia. Morgantown is home to West Virginia University, the largest institution of higher education in the State with an annual enrollment of 26,051 students (Fall 2005). The city is also the medical, cultural, and commercial hub of the region. The estimated daytime population during Fall and Spring semesters is 70.000 people. Morgantown's MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) population is 118,506. Of major geographic importance is Morgantown’s relative location. Within a 500-mile radius of Morgantown is one-half of the population of the United States and one-third of the population of Canada. Morgantown is one day's drive from 6 of the 8 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, 20 metro areas with populations of 1 million or more, and 22 of the nation's top 35 industrial markets. • SUMMARY & CONCLUSION Our data indicated that there existed another reason for graffiti being so prevalent in Morgantown. Our intereviewee also agreed with our conclusion. There are 2 major reasons for so much graffiti in Morgantown. One was a result of City Slicker Nation or CSN-the major graffiti crew-publishing their City Slickers Magazine out of Morgantown. This placed Morgantown on the map in regards to the graffiti world. The second major reason was Morganstown’s relative location. Within a 500-mile radius of Morgantown is one-half of the population of the United States and one-third of the population of Canada. Morgantown is one day's drive from 6 of the 8 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, 20 metro areas with populations of 1 million or more, and 22 of the nation's top 35 industrial markets. This allows accessibility to graffiti artists. • BACKGROUND Human beings have been writing symbols on walls since time immemorial. Modern graffiti, as we know it, began in Philadelphia in the early 1960’s when Cornbread and Cool Earl scrawled their names all over the city. In the late 60’s, graffiti was thriving in New York, specifically Brooklyn, Bronx and Washington Heights. By the mid-seventies, subway cars were so completely covered in top-to-bottom graffiti that it was nearly impossible to see what lurked outside the windows. According to a study by the NY Times, Graffiti grew as a “younger generation’s artistic response to the public protests of the Black Power and civil-rights movements”. Today, graffiti has matured into in “art-form” and some artists just strive to be recognized. Yet, some graffiti is still considered artistic responses to political movements but this form is not as prevalent. Below is a map showing Morgantown’s location. Each green blib is a GPS location where we took a picture of graffiti. • REFERENCE City of Morgantown-WV. “About Morgantown.” www.morgantown.com. Date retrieved: 28 July 2009. Elhrich, Dmitri . “Graffiti in Its Own Words.” New York Magazine. 25 June 2006. Web. • RESEARCH AND METHODS Our research began with locating and documenting the exact instances where graffiti had occurred within Morgantown. Then documented the these exact locations utilizing GPS devices. Once we had this data, we attempted to understand the reasons for the graffiti’s occurrence. Here, we relied on data from different sources on the internet and an interview with an internationally recognized graffiti artist known as SeizeOne. He owns the local tattoo shop in Morgantown. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: We would like to thank Chris aka SeizeOne, the US Census publications, the people at Morgantown.com, Dr. Nancy Hoalst Pullen, Dr. Jay Gatrell, and all the students from Geog 4490 . Map and DataSource: http://www.morgantown.com