Where Is Graffiti Park?

Say you’re not much of a skateboarder, nor a graffiti artist. Maybe you’re more of a Route 12-A shopper, or the parent of a cranky kid who needs a workout on some playground equipment. Or, with the arrival of spring, you’re looking for a new, slightly offbeat picnic spot.

Riverside Park on Glen Road in West Lebanon NH has all of those things, and with a river view. The Rusty Berrings Skatepark is not just for brave and physically agile skateboarders. It’s also for those of us with old vulnerable bones; someone, after all, has to watch and appreciate the athletic maneuvers. The same for the new Graffiti Park at Riverside, a corridor of 8 canvases provided by the Lebanon Recreation and Parks Department and the Arts Commission. The canvases are already covered with artwork. Some feature the graffiti norm—3D chubby lettering, some are free form with paint drippings for authenticity, and others (including the one pictured in photo, top) are carefully composed. Even if you don’t plan to wield a spray paint can yourself, you can check out others’ inspirations.

There is a large pavilion that appeared to be hosting an Easter gathering yesterday. In one corner of the park is a kids’ playground and in another is a small shelter with a picnic table, nestled between the skateboarders and the river. Depending on your mood, you and your picnic companion could face and comment about one or the other.

And, on the marriage of the arts and outdoor recreation, this just in from my home City of Lebanon :

The City’s Recreation and Parks Department is now RECREATION, ARTS, AND PARKS!

Lebanon has a fine history of presenting arts to the community, and our commitment to that effort is growing. The Arts and Culture Commission is now attached with Leb Rec and, as a more overt and recognizable declaration of the City’s commitment to arts and culture, we have changed our name to Lebanon Recreation, Arts, and Parks! Bringing you more of what you have come to love and appreciate about this vibrant little city.

———————————-

Welcome! You’re reading Artful, a blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley, and I hope you’ll subscribe and then share this with your friends and on your social media. 

And in case you are wondering . . . Susan B. Apel shuttered a lifelong career as a law professor to continue an interest (since kindergarten) in writing. Her freelance business, The Next Word, includes literary and feature writing; her work has appeared in a variety of lit mags and other publications including Art New England, The Woven Tale Press, The Arts Fuse, and Persimmon Tree. She connects with her neighbors through Artful, her blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley. She’s in love with the written word.