A lot of public art is temporary by nature. And so when a series of murals on Beatty Street were removed by the City of Vancouver on December 23, the project’s coordinator wasn’t surprised. He just wishes things had been handled a little differently.

“As far as I’m concerned, walls should be redone anyways,” Milan Basic told the Straight from his home in Prince George. “It’s not that I don’t care about the wall; I care about the wall as a cultural contribution. But as far as my work being painted over, I can easily just paint more stuff. I have the ability to do it and I would be happy to do it. I think you need to evolve.”

That being said, Basic chided, it would have been nice if the city had contacted him or any of the artists involved. Instead, no notice was given and the wall between Dunsmuir and Georgia streets was painted over in what has since been dubbed an “Olympic blue”.

Basic said his lack of surprise about the city’s actions stems from a conversation he had with an employee of the city’s Graffiti Management Program back in the summer. “They made it very clear to me that they were not very excited about”¦raw graffiti stylings right across from an Olympic venue,” he claimed.

The murals were created over the course of a one-week period in 2007. Commissioned by the Steve Nash Foundation for a fundraiser, their simple theme was “children”. Basic worked on the project with an additional 15 painters, who all donated their time in exchange for artistic freedom, paint, and food.

“It was fun,” Basic said. “I would be at the wall from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and I put the word out and kept it loose and whoever showed up to paint between those hours, they would show up and we would paint.”

In a recent interview with the Straight, David McLellan, general manager of community services for the City of Vancouver, claimed that the murals were painted over as part of routine maintenance in that area.

McLellan denied that the painting of the wall—which borders one of Vanoc’s LiveCity sites—was related to the Olympic Games.

But Vince Dumoulin, another of the murals’ artists, pointed out that maintenance usually focuses on preservation as opposed to elimination.

“I’ve been involved with the [city’s] mural project for six years now and I’ve never heard of them removing a mural as part of any type of maintenance whatsoever,” Dumoulin told the Straight.

He acknowledged that a few of the paintings did include what could be considered graffiti. But emphasized that this could have been fixed by the city requesting that certain murals be altered.

“Both Milan and I would gladly have done it at no cost, had we been told about it,” Dumoulin said. “This was just something that could have been dealt with completely differently.”

The City of Vancouver’s Graffiti Management Program does provide permits and even financial support for public works like the Beatty Street murals, which were something of a unique installation.

Though never officially granted a permit by the city, the murals were given tacit approval during the civic workers strike of 2007. McLellan said that they were always regarded as a temporary display.

Both artists noted that they support the mural program and remain on good terms with the city.

But Dumoulin questioned why the city would remove an example of culture in preparation for an international event. “Wouldn’t you want to show a city that is colourful and diverse?” he asked.

You can follow Travis Lupick on Twitter at twitter.com/tlupick.