Our View: Art locker closure pains hearts as well as backs

Art students will face a greater pain in the back this semester.

The art lockers have been closed with the promise that a few will be reopened eventually due to renovations this year.

This comes to the displeasure of many art students who must now walk across our massive campus with their art projects in tow.

For years, the art lockers have been used not only as a place to store projects but also as a canvas for art students to express themselves.

The lockers have been covered in graffiti, stickers, drawings and written messages throughout the years.

The unexpected closure of the lockers makes many of us students upset to see one of our campus’ best art pieces closed with the uncertainty of their reopening.

Our campus is full of great artwork that has been created by students to decorate our campus and make it our home.

The art lockers happen to be one of these pieces that make Cal State Long Beach and our art department stand out from the rest.

However, due to the lockers’ open accessibility to the outside world, they have been used by students and abused by losers as well.

Many of the beautiful student artwork has been covered up by gang signs and offensive language that has taken attention away from what really matters — the art.

Now the lockers sit there empty, without the bustling of students and faculty to keep them alive.

It is really unfortunate that something as cool and unique as the art department’s lockers must be closed for renovations because some people have no sense of responsibility or pride in their school.

Closing student art lockers because of graffiti and tagging issues is childish.

It sounds like a problem a public high school should have, not something an excellent institution like CSULB should have.

Even more frustrating is the fact that little can be done to restore the real artwork that has been created over the years since the tradition of decorating the art lockers began.

It will be very difficult and expensive to maintain the art while trying to remove the offensive language and gang signs that have disturbed the walls of the art lockers.

As tough of a decision as it was to close them down and renovate, perhaps the only way to maintain the integrity of the art lockers was to shut them down for a while.

Hopefully the renovations will not disturb too much of the artwork and art students can fix their back problems soon.