Vanderbilt Towers Tunnel guerilla art tradition becomes heavily policed

Between 1966 and 1970, Vanderbilt University built its four monumental towers to house 768 upperclassman students. Located on West End, the dorms are easily accessible for the students, but for the lazy champions among us, sometimes being outdoors is just too much – cue The Towers Tunnel.

For many, this underground tunnel beneath the four towers is merely a safe haven from sunlight, shelter from the Southern rain, or a hidden passage way for walk of shaming. However, for the arts groups on campus, the Towers Tunnel is an artistic canvas waiting to be “vandalized.”

Over the past 20 years, students have taken to the tunnel to paint advertisements and artwork. Of course the administration knows about this, but the tunnel has become an artistic tradition on campus. While students used to have to reserve painting times with the administration, the tunnel has become fair game to anyone with paint, free time, and a rebellious spirit.

The walls and piping in the tunnel have layers upon layers of artistic expression, but within the past 10 years the tunnel has been dominated largely by major Vanderbilt Performing Art Community (VPAC) groups such as Vanderbilt Off-Broadway (VOB), Original Cast (OC), and Vandy Spoken Word (VSW). Whenever a show is approaching, one of these arts groups will paint over the two large doors in the tunnel with publicity to get the word out about their performances.

Taylor Gutierrez, VOB producer, claims that due to the tunnel’s limited access and proximity to rehearsal spaces, the tunnel has become an honorary tradition of VPAC groups. It is a publicity stunt, but more so it’s a bonding activity for an organization or group.

Maggie Bates, senior VSW member said: “It’s rare that you get to paint on walls anywhere, so it partially feels like breaking the rules even though you’re not, but really I think it’s fun to paint on walls with a lot of people you genuinely like being around”.

However, this year that all changed. Strolling through the tunnel to get a late night snack at Munchie Mart, one is likely to see much more free-form art, predominately done with spray paint. According to Taylor Gutierrez, VOB producer, the tunnel has “unspoken rules” to not paint over projects or show publicity that isn’t done.

Just a few weeks ago though, VOB painted publicity for their upcoming musical Legally Blonde only to find it vandalized with spray painted messages akin to “fuck VOB,” “keep the tunnel free,” and skulls bordered with “danger.” After this happened 3 times in a 35 hour period, VOB reported the acts to administration, who promptly sent out an email to housing about respecting each other in the tunnel.

The artist responsible for the spray painted messages is unaffiliated with VPAC but claims that the tunnel shouldn’t be advertising but only free expression. Harrison Kenum, a senior OC member, responds “this is not about rules but about being a decent human and being considerate of other people’s products and their intellectual property.”

The tunnel is an ever-changing tradition, and you never want freedom of expression to turn negative, but when it does that’s when those freedoms get taken away. Gutierrez claims that “arts – visual, literary, and performed – are underrepresented in general at Vanderbilt” and that is why the tunnel has become a competitive space.

No one wants this liberating, imaginative, and dare I say rebellious tradition to get regulated more by administration, but people need to remember the unity art is capable of rather than attacking each other. The artistic community, organized or not, should stick together to keep this ever-evolving art piece free and hopefully administration will recognize that the arts have literally been driven underground to compete for art space…maybe some of the athletic fund could be re-structured…