From the Tag to the #Hashtag: Street Art, Instagram, and Gentrification

Abstract

One of the key trends that can be seen in gentrifying environments is the use of “street art” murals, which are increasingly connected to official government-sanctioned “street art festivals,” to decorate the walls of urban neighborhoods—sometimes located in officially designated “arts” or “creative districts.” In this article, I consider the role that Instagram practices have played in the popularization of such districts. In a case study of Denver’s RiNo Art District, I argue that as street art is used to turn everyday urban environments into sites of adventurous exploration, the sharing of images from these discoveries on social media helps to make territories more familiar and thus more open to socioeconomic change. This case is considered as an example of how mediatization is connected to gentrification processes.