Todd Lawrence is wedged between a taco truck and a brick wall in Minneapolis.
He pats an electrical box across the alley from the Third Precinct police station that burned in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd.
“This is a super active spot for people to put up stickers — lots of anti-police stickers, anti-Trump stickers, protest stickers,” he says. “We pay close attention to stickers. They’re the kind of things that people just sort of pass and don’t pay much attention to, but we think they’re just as important as murals.”
Tracking art where it’s made
Lawrence is an associate professor of cultural studies at the University of St. Thomas. On this June afternoon, he’s with Heather Shirey, a professor of art history at St. Thomas. They’ve been documenting street art in the Twin Cities since 2018…