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Graffiti Park Radio! 🎨🎧 Where creativity knows no bounds.
Listen to Graffiti Park Radio were we’ll tap in with artists, our proud partners, and community stakeholders who believe in empowering the next generation of art visionaries and the valuable teaching moments that come from living, breathing art.
Anika Jones 0:00
This is a KU NB studios original program. Let's get scratching. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the vibrant world of graffiti Park radio, where creativity knows no bound. We'll tap in with artists, educators, our proud partners and community stakeholders who believe in empowering the next generation of visionaries beyond the hidden alleyways abandoned warehouses and local city transits, where artists are known to leave their mark. Graffiti Park Foundation has redefined and reimagined the persona of street Museum. Hello.
Dan Moloney 0:35
Well, hi. What'd I do? Here we are end of the end of the year, 2025 last episode. Yeah, last episode of the year. If you're listening to this where you find your podcast, that'll make a lot of sense. If you're listening to this on YouTube or our social media, it's probably May. I hope the first five months of 2026 have been fantastic for you.
Dan Bulgatz 1:01
Hope you're staying on your New Year's resolutions.
Dan Moloney 1:03
Yes, yes, we can go that we are, but just on a journey in this, this little podcast Room here at the KU NV studios, we can go wherever it takes us. And because over over, steam is coming out of her ears over thinking what she wants to talk about on this. It's so true. How you guys doing today?
Anika Jones 1:29
Fantastic. The weather's nice. It's unseasonably warm in Las Vegas,
Dan Moloney 1:35
it is. Dan, how are you?
Dan Bulgatz 1:37
The holiday season's upon us. I'm thrilled we have our jolliest event of the year coming up in our holiday extravaganza event. You can catch that on Eventbrite, publicly, apparently. And that one, we're painting ornaments with all of our family and friends. We have Dan's brother in law, Sean Cook up burnt ends and do all sorts of barbecue and such for that. So I'm really excited, like, that's our, one of my favorite events of the year, just because there's no expectation other than just show up and enjoy and talk about the things that we've done this year. And so I think that's a little bit about what this podcast episode will be about today, is all of the wonderful things that graffiti Park and graffiti Park Foundation accomplished here in 2025
Dan Moloney 2:24
yep, yep, that's a part of it. Absolutely, absolutely we will eat, drink and be merry. This is our fourth holiday party that we've hosted. So that's pretty exciting when we start calling it the Holiday Extravaganza.
Dan Bulgatz 2:39
I don't know when it became an extravaganza. But you know, we haven't blow out sales on some merch, which is pretty exciting.
Dan Moloney 2:46
Anika has had some blowouts today.
Dan Bulgatz 2:49
I have, if you know, you know word and yeah. So over the course of our holiday party, we'll paint a bunch of different decorations and stuff. We'll be hanging out. We'll have barbecue. It'll be wonderful.
Dan Moloney 3:06
So I think, like the best, this is, I think our third recap, or third solo, no guest episode that we've done. I think the first one was just us kind of introducing what's going on. And then about halfway in, or a year in we did another one. And so these are always fun. We can kind of go whatever direction. I'm curious. Do you guys? I think we did this is our most the most projects we've ever done in a year is this year by like 20 or 25 projects. Historically, we've done like 35 to 38 projects. I think this year we did something like 63 or 64 so I'm curious from you all, if you have a favorite or one that stands out to you, memorable, that sort of thing. Few, a
Anika Jones 3:55
few, a lot more recent projects. Sure, definitely, our school projects are always great ones. Of course, the impact they make, if you're a local, local like the three of us, to see school mascots transform the landscape of the school, and just seeing everybody change their feeling about how their school looks now is a big deal. I think El Dorado high school was a really amazing project. Las Vegas high school had some really awesome elements. There was one school that was actually honoring their namesake that I thought was a beautiful tribute to the beautiful Ruby Duncan. If any of you are aware, and I'm sure you are, of who she is and what she's done for the community, it is literally a spitting image of not just what she looks like, but just the things that she loves. So there's some cherry blossoms in there, kind of highlighting things that are personal to her, that she likes, but definitely an honor to the community and honor to that school. So those were some favorite ones that stick
Dan Moloney 4:49
out nice. Dan, yeah.
Dan Bulgatz 4:51
I mean, I think some of my favorites from this year is, as we kind of, I wouldn't say, got away from the murals, but started to get into some of, like, the more live action. Activations and some more of the conventions. I think SEMA was a really cool activation where we took, you know, different kinds of hats and shirts and tote bags, and we customized those for some of the event attendees. We did one for Alkar health, which was a cool one, where black live painted a canvas, and then we were able to give that away to one of the attendees that was there. And then just little side projects, I guess, like one that really sticks out to me was the partnership that we had with Texas Roadhouse and Harriet dream and Jim Thorpe elementary schools that are two of them right next to each other. And so Texas Roadhouse and the every year they go and pick a different destination for their convention, I guess, if you will, for all of their top sales people and their general managers. And so they brought out a fair amount of those ones, or out of those people, and they came to Vegas, and they always try and do a community engagement piece to that. So they reached out to us, said they wanted to paint some walls, and then we pretty much helped them do a paint by numbers, along at Jim Thorpe and at Dream, at Harriet dream elementary schools, along with some of the staff. And that was like a really cool project of not only community service based, not only getting to stay true to some of the murals and stuff, but then to see, like the schools be very appreciative of that, after the fact, there's a really cool partnership. So coming towards 2026 I think graffiti Park is really looking forward to doing some more activation, some more community projects and just getting out there.
Dan Moloney 6:22
Yeah, 100% I think we got to paint my alma mater this year at Del Sol Academy. It was Del Sol High School when I went there. We didn't have no Academy going on, but so that was pretty cool. Got to work with one of my old student council advisor. So I was pretty cool. I was all the way back in, like February. I think Eldorado stands out to me, you know, trusting us with a campus rebrand and dealing with, you know, not getting the contract renewal on their, you know, branding and name usage, so with the with the Sun Devil, so getting to help with that and bring that identity to life, I think was really cool. A lot of trust and kind of not what we anticipated when we did that original walk through that, kind of just we thought we were going to do a small portion of that, and that ended up being, like four or five times bigger than we thought it was going to be. So a lot of layers to that. One, bringing a student's design to life. Our biggest mural, like, I think we've ever done on one surface, two and a half week projects. I think that was a really kind of coming of age project for us as a team. And I was also going to echo the Texas Roadhouse. I think that's pretty sweet and the events. I thought that was really cool, that historically, we've done those, but they're not, they've not been the most like fruitful, and there's a lot of, hey, come hang out at my event. And I don't have the budget, but you'll meet all these people at my event. And you know, that's awesome, but, you know, artists got to eat. They got, you know, families to take care of, and so it puts us in a position to try to, you know, okay, it's cool for Dan and I to hang out at convention, try to go meet people, but if we're gonna ask someone to be there, it's awesome to be able to take care of them, you know, financially. So I thought that was, that was a really cool part this year. But yeah, so we're, we're, this is one of the homies we met here at UNLV, who's a fraternity brother of ours. Shout out to menaccino construction, local company out here. We're painting. We're working on his second one right now. So that's a pretty cool like we also got to work with another one of our fraternity brothers with his company, doing some contract work. So some different some different things. A lot of was an exciting year.
Dan Bulgatz 8:44
And for those that are unaware, Dan is the finance guy, the finance head here at graffiti Park, and so he's got the actual totals of what we paid out to artists this year. But something that graffiti Park is really proud of is this year alone, we paid out over over a quarter of a million dollars to artists here locally in Las Vegas that directly support our economy, our schools, the mission that we're promoting, and so we'd be remiss not to say thank you to all of the artists that are involved. Thank you to all of our listeners, and most importantly, thank you to the people that are promoting art and making sure that the places that they occupy daily are also vibrant and excitable for the people that work there and occupy the space as well.
Dan Moloney 9:23
Yeah, yeah. 100% what is that total?
Dan Bulgatz 9:27
And I'm kind of curious. Let me I'm trying to get, like, nice little sound bites, because they're,
Dan Moloney 9:34
let me, give me one moment on all that, yeah, but
Dan Bulgatz 9:39
because I would be curious and curious, if somebody in the comments will tell us is what like the city of Las Vegas pays out to artists for all of their projects over the course of the year. Because a goal that Dan and I have is to essentially make the amount that we pay out to artists just through our projects and through the private sector, to be. Greater than what the city of Las Vegas or Clark County Municipal municipalities are actually paying out to artists right now. And I think that'll be a focal point for, you know, 2026 is to really kind of bring that up so and
Anika Jones 10:17
I like that concept. I think it's, it's not taking anything away from these municipalities that are trying to get artists work out there and, of course, beautify the city, but creating a based rate for your average artist is something that I don't think I've heard of. If I'm wrong, please let us know. But I know specifically with the schools, this was not anything that was brought to us in any regard, no one looking to beautify the school, at least at that level, while also opening an artist, you know, portfolio basically to the world while, you know, doing this other thing at the same time. So I don't know. I would like to see how these art careers change because of the work that we've done in the last couple of years, and how artists view their selves as both artists and a career based, you know, job,
Dan Bulgatz 11:06
yeah, yeah, and going into it now, like, at the sixth year, it's, we're in this interesting paradigm, I guess it's where there are coming up to where there could be kids that have seen us in their elementary school, they saw us at their middle school, they saw us at the high school, and then to see kind of like, oh, okay, Do they have an art career coming out of that? Or do they have interest in maybe interning at some point? Or I'm waiting for that day, because I know that'll just be something so fulfilling for us.
Dan Moloney 11:32
So I do have the number. It's to the tune of $265,000 paid out to I don't have the exact number of how many artists, and it includes, like, content creators and other folks that have helped us create that bulk of that 265, are direct to artist payments and so. So, yeah, I think I mean that is as it should be, the biggest portion of our operation, of our budget. We would not be who we are without our artist community, and that's why that's, you know, so important to us. And I think, and I think adding up over the last six years. You know, it's knocking on a million dollars paid to artists in six years. And so going from using some stimulus checks and some personal statement savings to pay for paint, to get people to come out to pretty much five years later, being able to pay out over $250,000 to artists. I think we'd be remiss not to hang our hat on that, but also recognize, you know, we stand on the shoulders of the artist community that goes to our events, that shows up, does the renders, deals with the different clients. Shout out to our project manager, Mr. Dominic Merton. You know, those, those projects don't happen without him. You know he's that. He's at every one of those, you know, barring a Broncos game. But yeah, so, you know, it's been looking at, I hadn't even concept, you know, I am the finance guy, but I haven't even looked at that specific number. So that's a I'm proud of that. Yeah, you know, kind of in, in that same vein, something we also did this year, more than any other year, is really found our own when it comes to the graffiti Park Foundation that you know, which is technically what graffiti Park radio is one of our programs for the foundation. Absolutely, our mission with the foundation is to progress, protect and promote local artists through a variety of things. I won't give you the whole mission statement, but you know, it's that Triple P, the triple threat. And this is a big portion of that promote piece is giving them a voice, giving them a platform. And so I think we've had 17 guests or 16, maybe 16 or 17 guests over the last 18 months of doing this here. And so that's been awesome. You know, some of them that most of them, this is their very first podcast, so getting them to dust those cobwebs off and and feel comfortable with us, I think that's been awesome. On top of that, we completed six art and action programs with the Boys and Girls Club this year, culminating to installing six murals at those individual clubs. So we've done seven total. And then we planned it. There's 13 clubs in Southern Nevada. And so if you think about Southern Nevada is like the largest market for Boys and Girls Clubs in the state of Nevada. I don't know exactly how many then up north has, but that being said, We're by the end of 2026 and by the time you're watching this will be much closer to 100% of the Southern Nevada market for Boys and Girls Club will have participated in a graffiti Park Foundation program. And that just makes me very excited for for those teens that get to participate, and for our nonprofit. It to kind of grow into that so
Anika Jones 15:03
and just really giving young artists the opportunity to create that voice for themselves, of course, the workforce development aspect of it, but just being able to give life to the voice, to the lifestyle, to the need base to every experience that each child has gone through. It's reflected in these murals, whether it's really just a cool taco and like a dragon, whatever means did at the last clubhouse, it's really just them being able to express the things that they like and the things they love without criticism, without anyone saying that it's not good enough, or being graded on a certain scale, just being them, them, being able to contribute, them being able to collaborate, them, being able to see that come to fruition is huge.
Dan Moloney 15:52
Yeah, I like the taco that was pretty tight well.
Dan Bulgatz 15:57
And for those of our viewers that are just listening or waiting to watch in. I know that for our podcast, we'll throw them in. But which of the Boys and Girls Club have we executed murals at for art and action programs?
Dan Moloney 16:11
We got starting going from the top we last year, we did the lead clubhouse, kind of in collaboration with gone, but we're going to go back to Gon, give them their own Kish clubhouse, James clubhouse, and Reynolds clubhouse. And then this fall, we did the Southern Highlands clubhouse, anglestead clubhouse, and then, most recently, the downtown clubhouse, which is pretty cool, because the downtown clubhouse is where we started our relationship with the Boys and Girls Club. So that has then culminated to getting to do our program with them there, and working with those teens that have probably seen that. Have you know, many of them are in high school now, but they've probably seen the artwork we've done on there when they were sixth graders going to there, yeah. And now they're in ninth 10th grade. So that's pretty sweet.
Dan Bulgatz 16:58
And so it'll be really cool is, if you're listening and you want to see those projects, they're on our website. If not, when you're watching this on YouTube, we'll pull up the videos or the pictures of them so that you can kind of see some of the progressions. And it's really important to note that that downtown clubhouse, kind of where we started at and now, where we just did the most recent art in Action Program at, is that that clubhouse struggled significantly with graffiti on the outside of that building. And so as through one of these graffiti Park Foundation, or through graffiti Park, we were able to paint the outside of that clubhouse. And in the four years, it's only been tagged up one time, I guess now two times I stand corrected. It's kind of tagged up right now, but and so I think that's just a testament to once there is art on these walls, is that the idea of creating graffiti on top of them, or the idea of trashing these murals there's like almost an honor amongst thieves, is that the graffiti artists don't want to go over pieces that muralists have spent time and done. And so I think that's also a testament to what their foundation is doing, and these art and action programs is it's giving these kids an opportunity to take a little bit more pride in their clubhouses, like after they've it's the teens that got to design it, got to install it. So as a result, I think they're the ones that will almost police, some of them, younger kids to say, No, don't touch that wall. Don't you know which is cool, 100% All right, so we did art in action, graffiti, Park, radio. Another pillar for the foundation that we did really good on this year, I would say, is some of our school partnerships with CCSD.
Dan Moloney 18:29
Yeah, that was, yeah. It's been a wild year. Does
Dan Bulgatz 18:32
anybody want to talk about that, explain a little bit more to our guests,
Anika Jones 18:36
or adopt a school program that is a great partnership? We're usually talking about our clubhouse, and our clubhouse is at the Boys and Girls Club and connecting with students outside of the school district. But this one is really cool in the sense that kids are choosing to come to these events after school, or not necessarily events, but you're you're our art, not art in action. I'm sorry I'm losing all track, but kids are given the opportunity to really choose this and with that alone, you're we're already grateful that the you will be there, but then you're expressing so much more when you made this choice. And then we're teaching you things that you have never seen before, so unique canvases like the rubber duckies and the cool spray cans and things like that, they're seeing that your average Canvas is not the only Canvas they're saying that their creativity can go far beyond, you know, just not just the classroom, not just their own ideas, but one that's collaborative, that they can do together. So that was a really cool one. I only sat in maybe two, but that one was really cool. Yeah, and a great partnership that will most likely bring back at that school this year.
Dan Moloney 19:37
Yeah, CCSD is community engagement, like Partnership Office, they have a really cool adopt a school program in general that nonprofits for profits can work with. And so, you know, and that relationship can look however makes the most sense, like you can donate time, you can donate school supplies. In our case, we've kind of combined all those things. And so for 20. 25 specifically, but during the 2425 school year, we've worked with Del Webb Middle School, and we did after school programming once a month. Was kind of like graffiti Park Club. So that was fun having, like, the same 15 to 25 kids come every month and be excited and like you're saying, opt in to that. You know, that's not mandated, that's not during the school day, like they're opting into it to participate in that. So that was an awesome relationship. And then also, through that, we worked with their art teacher shout out to Miss White, where we got to come in once a quarter and teach a program, a workshop to all of her six program or her six classes throughout the day. And so also shout out to miss Becca Roberts Goodman, Becca not Becca Roberts. Miss Becca Goodman. And she helped me immensely out with those two and so we did a variety of classes there. And so that was a lot of fun to like you said, expand our programming outside of Boys and Girls Club, but that's we got a lot of fun. So that's like 2025
Dan Bulgatz 21:07
Yeah, well, hold on. And before we finish that, I guess is we'll let our viewers in on this. Is I'm sitting here with the executive director and our director of development for the graffiti Park Foundation. And so something I was really excited about, one of my favorite things I think, that we did this year for graffiti Park was we had our first initial Board Member Meeting, I guess. And Dan has done a great job in the last couple of months in compiling an executive board, or a board of directors, rather, for the graffiti Park Foundation. And so through that, he's been compiling lists of names of what we consider industry leading experts in some of the main different categories, and all of this is in with intention to bring some of the smartest minds together to think, How can we progress this as a unit? How can we start to fundraise a little bit better and more importantly, how can we partner together with like the city of Las Vegas, with our actual community, with getting everybody involved to make this park, somewhere where everybody can come and enjoy for free, and where we don't have to charge admission prices per head, and where people are able to spend their money on the activations, and at the actual artists that are involved in graffiti Park. And so Dan, would you tell us a little bit about what that experience was like, where the foundation is going? And just, yeah,
Dan Moloney 22:21
yeah, no, that's a good segue into kind of 2026, where we'll spend, you know, the last portion of that, of this episode, kind of talking about, I mean, we can talk about whatever, but yeah, that sounds like a good idea. No, yeah. I mean, it was one of the, it has been one of the most rewarding things of my professional career is assembling a board of directors, people I've looked up to for years, to and for the record, as a nonprofit, we've always had a board of directors, but it struggled to didn't struggle. It didn't stand up to what we were trying to do. And so we had a good some good recommendations, some good advice to revamp that and bring on some good people. And so that kind of tasked with doing that. And so yeah, we have five fantastic board members that are serving in our inaugural, inaugural board. Dan is one of them, Miss Caitlin Seville, who you guys got to meet last episode. She is one of our board members, Eddie Rivera, who does some work out here at UNLV and in the community, Alex Bernal, our Clark County's finest over working with the gang intervention unit. And Miss Kim stone, who's near and dear to my heart and is kind of serving as our financial accounting piece to that puzzle. And so with these individuals, as Dan mentioned, like the whole goal is to make sure that you know all these programs we're talking about, the direction we're taking the foundation and trying to raise money, apply for grants, do all these things. We're getting the best advice we can. We're not making decisions in an echo chamber. We're asking strategic questions and and making sure we're doing things so to Dan's point, you know, a year from now, two years from now, as we continue to scale and get closer to, you know, you know, our original vision, which will then continue to update as we get closer, we're doing it the right way, and we're properly stewarding, you know, and, and, thank you to everyone who individually donated To the graffiti Park Foundation this year. This is our best year for individual donors and corporate donors, and so shout out to the gene Haas foundation for a substantial grant that helped pay for all those programs we had our our biggest fundraiser of the of our existence. Earlier this year, we raised over $5,000 through individual donations, and so thank you, and shout out to all of those people that have helped along the way. And this board is going to help us make sure we're, you know, doing right by those donations, and hopefully we keep getting them. But yeah, 2026 it's going to be a fun time. We. Are already got our next board meeting scheduled and with some elections and budget stuff and stuff, but I'm curious your guys's thoughts. You know, what are you looking forward to, as we've kind of reflected on this year going into next year, I also want to say before we go on to the next year, we got our own location this year. Yeah, got our own office space by all huge, you know, projects aside, I think the biggest milestone of the graffiti Park career and timeline is getting having a place to call our own. So as we have our last little five minutes here, what are you guys excited for going into 2026
Anika Jones 25:41
I'd have to say, bringing more mediums into our network and our space. I want to see and hear more music. I want to talk to more content creators. We want any and everybody to come out and share their art experience and that to be celebrated. I know that oftentimes we, you know, we said we stand on the shoulders of those who did this before us, but even those who did it before us that weren't paid and weren't celebrated. So I think today, moving forward for every individual that did their hardest work to get the culture's voices out there and heard, I think it's our duty to make sure we celebrate people today who walk in those same footsteps, who were influenced by the past. I think it's our opportunity now to maybe highlight those people in so many different ways, so many different mediums, so artists of all kinds, we're ready for you Nice. Dan's like, are we?
Dan Bulgatz 26:37
Let me check it. So I got four. Three of them are for graffiti Park. One of them is for graffiti Park Foundation. So for 2026 for graffiti Park specifically, obviously, I'd like more clients, more customers, more people that are looking for murals. That's like the big one. Obviously, it helps keep our artists busy. Number two, I would, kind of on that note, I would love more artists to come into this graffiti Park family, we're always looking for people to help us further the craft, people to kind of navigate this journey with. So don't be afraid to reach out. And number three is to find more art enthusiasts. You don't have to be a client, you don't have to be an artist, to be part of this collective, to show up to our events, you just got to be part of this movement. And so those are the three for graffiti Park and then lastly, for the graffiti Park Foundation, would be donations that helps keep this thing going, that keeps the longevity of everything that we're trying to build. So if you believe in us, if you believe in this mission, if
Dan Moloney 27:29
you are interested, then you, solely based on your own volition, make that decision, of course, of course. But yeah, I mean five, one, c3, nonprofit. Lots of fun, exciting things. Who else have when we shouted out, yeah, last episode of the year, shout out to Sean McGuire. Sean McGuire, thank you so always making us look good. My photos are a little questionable, but I think that's my fault. Knuv.
Anika Jones 27:54
Thank you very, very much. KU and to knuv.
Dan Moloney 27:59
Wesley Knight, Mr. Westerfer, Dr
Anika Jones 28:03
Ridley, Dr Ashton. Ridley, thank you very, very much for the opportunity. Anybody else
Dan Bulgatz 28:08
I'd like to thank the academy.
Dan Moloney 28:11
Shout out Kelly bolgatz and the CAI team for keeping us honest. Shout out to Andrew bolshay for the belly laughs and the red pill, chilis and the triple Dipper. Triple Dipper. He's the King triple dip.
Dan Bulgatz 28:29
Michaelson law, for keeping us in tune.
Dan Moloney 28:31
Yeah? Michaelson law, thank goodness we haven't had to call you this year. But thank you for keeping us you know, good to go. What else like you think my mom,
Anika Jones 28:41
all the moms, yeah, moms, good. The haters, man, yeah.
Dan Moloney 28:46
Brother in law's coming through next week. That's how we started this. Yeah, he's, he's got to try smoked mesquite Tri Tip and pork belly burnt ends and all the fun stuff coming for us. Sounds good. Shout out to him for keeping us fed.
Dan Bulgatz 28:59
Thankful and blessed to everybody. Part of this is
Dan Moloney 29:02
graffiti Park radio, signing off for 2025 you know where to find us? Graffiti park.org, if you don't now, you do. We're on Instagram at graffiti Park. Underscore, LV, if you're an artist, we'll get you plugged in. I think that's it. Anything else,
Dan Bulgatz 29:21
cap it 2025, signing out now you.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai