If there’s one thing downtown Eugene has, it’s plenty of art galleries – but not enough for Nick Woolley. This weekend, he unveiled Citizens’ Corner Art Park, a free art space with canvases for anyone who wants to fill them.
“Too many times, beautiful art will be labored over only to be hung on a wall indoors where only the privileged can catch a glance,” Woolley said. “Citizens’ Corner is a way for people’s expressions through art to actually be seen, putting it on display, outside in downtown Eugene.”
Across the tracks from Eugene Depot, Citizens’ Corner is in a small field on Shelton-McMurphey Boulevard, at the foot of Skinner Butte. In addition to two 8-by-16-foot double-sided walls – one of which simply reads, “Express Urself” – the open art space includes nine 6-by-4-foot plywood panels, also double-sided.
While most of the local artists who showed up on Citizens’ Corner’s first day are graffiti artists, Woolley said the art park is open to any medium.
“It’s something I’m trying to provide for more than just the graffiti and hip-hop community,” said Woolley, a member of local hip-hop group Alliance. “We want to open up to Eugene’s whole art community.”

Bill Kasper, a local artist with the New Zone Gallery on West Broadway, said, “It’s something good for the kids and people in town who want to leave their mark on something, or create a sense of community. If that’s what’s happening, I think it’s wonderful.
“I’m all for creativity,” he added.
Before going through with Citizens’ Corner, Woolley got permission from the property owner – whose name he didn’t want to disclose but is open to the public, on record at the Lane County Courthouse. He said when all the space is filled, people can just replace pre-existing pieces with new art.
“Its idea is that the canvases are constantly changing,” he said.
Kasper, who plans to check out Citizens’ Corner in the next few days, likes that idea, which he called a “living piece of art.”
Another idea behind Citizens’ Corner, being so close to the train station, is to show off Eugene’s strong arts focus to any potential visitors.
“So many people drive by here every day. There needs to be more stuff like this,” said Nathan Nichols, who spray-painted a sun and mountains on one of the walls.
Kasper agreed, “If we’re going to walk around and call ourselves one of the great art centers of the world, then we need to be open to stuff like this.”
Providing people with open art space can also improve Eugene’s overall quality of life by reducing vandalism, Woolley added.
In the late 1990s, the Belgian city of Bruges designated graffiti as a legitimate art form, as long as it’s painted on the “Living Wall” and not the sides of buildings. The “Graff ‘N Art, A Positive Graffiti Policy in the City of Bruges,” policy led to a visibly cleaner city and a European Crime Prevention Award in 2001.
But most of all, Citizens’ Corner Art Park is about the freedom of self-expression.
“We were going to call it F.O.S. Park for ‘Freedom of Speech,’” Woolley said. “But then we realized it could also be ‘Full of Shit.’”
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