As for my involvement ‘mainstreaming’ the art - well maybe not but I woudl anticipate a certain difficulty in accessing the artists here by who or what I am perceived to be. Also I should have put ‘middle-aged’ insetad of old but even that grates as in some part of my mind I will always be 18 :-) And my term ‘gallerisation’ was meaning the ainstream public art forums and dealers galleries - not the smaller co-operatives and art run spaces.

I wrote this with my town in mind, although rapdily growing it has historically had a huge retired population and now there is a lot of friction between the older residents and the fast growing youth population. Although there is an “arty” reputation I hate to say it tends all to be conventional. In fact I witnessed the difficulty a curator had in explaining some more contemporary works to much older gallery patrons and volunteers who for the most were quite dismissive. Also I know there is a policy of not encouraging street art in ANY way shape or form examplified by our skate park which is probably the cleanest I’ve ever seen and a while back the council painted out a commemorative mural the kids had done. So this is where my “doomed to fail” thoughts lie. Do I have the energy to pursue this? Maybe

Im gently arguing with your assumption that you would ruin the strategic worth of grafitti as soon as you went anywhere near it by osmotic transfer of your ‘middle classness’ . mainstream is an attitude not a demographic.
I would extend that gentle prod to include the way you think about ‘Gallery.’ An idea of hegemonic Art Institution is one that resides in another assumption of what and where ‘mainstream’ might be.

not all gallery situations are mainstream and neither are all old white middleclass women*, just as not all graffiti artists are young, off-white or disenfranchised…conservative norms are established by behavior, potential for change is part of innovation…in both: you are as you do (and not summarized even remotely accurately by color age or relative bank balance).

go right ahead with your plans to work with grafitti/ geurilla artists if you are excited by the idea. why on earth do you assume that its doomed to fail?
Obviously you would need to bear all those pitfalls in mind, but with sensitivity and intelligence (both of which you clearly possess) it’s entirely possible to think around them.

(*btw: enough of the old already…Im the same age as you, Im not ready for the old tag!)