The creators of Tape Art, Leah Smith and Michael Townsend, have been exploring the artistic world with long strips of tape for more than 30 years. But the future of their artistic endeavors are now at risk.
The Tape Art team shared on social media this week that the special tape they use to create their art is being discontinued. The Providence-based group uses the tape as its primary medium for creating large-scale drawings and installations.
Tape Art began as a passion project for Smith and Townsend in 1989 with a simple goal: To bring art to the masses for free. Starting with large scale murals in Rhode Island, Tape Art soon grew to include community programming and even toured the country bringing its eccentric art to community art programs and installations.
While it may seem easy to just find another brand, Townsend said it’s proven to be incredibly difficult. He said Tape Art has always made a point to buy American products, but the options today are very limited and cost prohibitive.
“We have confirmed that the tape we have used for the last 22 years and that has enabled us to bring murals and Tape Art programming to over 30,000 people in that time has officially been discontinued,” Townsend wrote in an Instagram post. “The blue-and-green tape we were using was our superpower! From clean hospital walls to dirty cinder block walls, this tape did it all. The tape is super-duper specific, and though we have tested tapes continuously to try to find its equal, we have never seen anything so perfect for Tape Art and our practice in the last two decades.”
Townsend told Rhode Island Inno this week that while the Tape Art crew has a small stockpile of Intertape Polymer Group green (IPG107-07) and blue (IPG 128-08), they’ll have to be strategic about its use going forward.
“The tape we use has to do a wide range of things in every kind of environment,” he said. “We work with every age and population with a wide range of psychological and physical challenges, so the tape has to be workable for everyone. It has to adhere, come off cleanly and stick no matter whether it’s 100 degrees outside or we’re working on a clean hospital wall.”
Issues with the tape supply have happened before, and decades ago Townsend tested dozens of different tapes looking for a replacement. He also reached out to every tape manufacturer he knew to see if they could help, even traveling to the manufacturing plants.
At that time, Townsend was lucky to meet Jack Kahl, the owner of tape brand Manco and the creator of Duct Tape. Kahl introduced him to Shurtape owner Glen Walter, who Townsend said understood Tape Art’s mission and wanted to help. Between the two tape CEO’s, they donated all of the tapes the art organization needed. That ended when Kahl and Walter passed away in the 1990s and the hunt was on again.
In 2001, Tape Art found its current tape that’s set to run out in Johnson, Tennessee. Townsend said he knew it was a viable replacement within 30 seconds of picking it up. A few years back, IPG, the company that produces the tape, let Tape Art know it would be changing its production, shipping it to a different manufacturer and therefore changing its glue.
The last two years have been tough on Tape Art, with Covid-19 restrictions decimating its programming that was centered on teaching and sharing art with small groups indoors.
With the tape running out, they’re trying to figure out what comes next. Thanks to an agreement with IPG, Tape Art was able to buy rolls at a distributor rate which kept the costs down. With that deal gone, Townsend said it’s just not feasible to buy a box of 36 rolls of tape at up to $7 per roll.
“For this to move forward we’ll need a sponsor. It’s the last Hail Mary we’ve got,” he said. “I do think a solution exists out there. I’m just saddened it might not exist in the U.S.”
