PORTLAND, Ore. — A Portland nonprofit has launched a fundraiser to help clean up one of the city's oldest murals and prevent it from slipping into a state of permanent vandalism and disrepair.
The "Art Fills the Void" mural adorns the side of a commercial building on Southeast 12th Avenue, just north of the intersection with Division Street. You might not know it by name, but if you've ever driven through the area, you've probably spotted the art piece, which consists primarily of a larger-than-life painting of a banana.
The mural was painted by a group of artists called Guerilla Wallflare in 1982, according to the nonprofit Portland Street Art Alliance (PSAA). PSAA undertook a major restoration of the mural in 2015, funded by the community group SE Uplift, cleaning off accumulated graffiti, refreshing the mural's faded paint and adding a new protective coating.
PSAA has handled maintenance for the mural over the past decade on a volunteer basis, patching up wear and tear and cleaning off any new graffiti that pops up. But the mural was vandalized again recently, and PSAA wrote in a post on its website that it can't afford the estimated $450 repair cost this time around.
The group has launched a GoFundMe campaign, seeking community donations to cover the immediate clean-up cost. The campaign launched last week and as of Thursday has already raised about $1,300, but PSAA wrote that it also hopes to raise enough to cover ongoing maintenance of the mural, which it estimates at about $1,000 per year.
