Ashland’s Art Alley vandalized

ASHLAND, Ky. (WSAZ) - An effort to beautify downtown Ashland was vandalized this week.

Downtown Ashland has seen something of a makeover over the past few years with growing displays of murals painted on buildings, including an area dubbed Art Alley behind Winchester Avenue between 15th and 16th streets.

“They did it as part of revitalization to make people excited for our town,” local artist Madeline Tipton said, “make it more colorful, just a place people want to be.”

Tipton painted one of the murals.

She was disheartened when she learned someone drew their own inappropriate additions over top of five of the murals.

“To not be too graphic, it was some male body parts,” she said. “Why would someone do this? What is even the point?”

Tipton says fortunately they were able to clean the graffiti off without having to paint over it.

“Thankfully, the magic eraser and rubbing alcohol worked really well,” she said.

Miriam Howard works in one of the buildings that was hit.

“It was just really disappointing and upsetting to know someone would do something like that and try to destroy such beautiful artwork,” Howard said.

“We’ve put in a lot of work and time,” Tipton said, “and a lot of building and business owners and people throughout town have invested a lot of money and time into these projects as well, so for someone to do this for 30 seconds of entertainment, it was just overall annoying.”

Paul Castle, the owner of a couple of the buildings where this happened, says they have filed a police report, and they’ll be adding security cameras to the area.

“If they’re caught, I’ll make sure I press every charge possible and sue in civil court,” Castle said.

Copyright 2023 WSAZ. All rights reserved.