• graffiti zones

Graffiti arts are important in encouraging diversity and accessibility for artists into the realm of public artmaking, and to foster connection and communication with communities through the arts. Graffiti is a transitory medium of art practiced for centuries, where images or text-based compositions are applied to a surface in singular or multiple layers. The Italian term graffito refers to scratching through one surface to reveal another.

Graffiti Zones are legal and permanent sites for an evolving public artwork, where artists have permission to create street art and graffiti-style open source murals, which are often complex in technique and composition. Illegal graffiti practice on private property without permission is vandalism. Graffiti artworks can have a significant artistic value, and have a legitimate place throughout art history.

The Graffiti Zones program will increase the number of legalized graffiti sites in Edmonton, and to annually designate additional sites thereafter, to encourage and develop high quality open source graffiti art in Edmonton. Designed as a strategy in conjunction with the City of Edmonton’s anti-graffiti bylaw, the legalized graffiti sites will be a place to demonstrate the creative and technical feats of this artistic medium to the public and to facilitate the development of graffiti artists.

Legalized graffiti zones highlight the open and unrestrictive elements of the medium, which allows artists to engage with the public through creative projects without the need to function within the established gallery or exhibition systems. Legalized graffiti sites also encourage and give voice to community members who may not have access or are unwilling to participate within a political or social system to give voice to their experiences for a myriad of reasons.

Graffiti zones encourage the development and recognition of the iconography, technique, and skill associated with this medium for both the public and for graffiti artists, which results in higher quality graffiti. While it is not expected that the graffiti zones will eradicate illegal vandalism, it will provide a much needed safe place for talented graffiti artists to practice legally and to encourage the public to experience these open source murals as artworks with great value.

Edmonton currently has one designated legal graffiti site, where the LRT emerges from the underground between Churchill Station and Stadium. The Edmonton Arts Council is working together with the City of Edmonton's Capital Clean Up program in developing future legal graffiti zones.

Is Graffiti Simply Free Art or a Crime?, by Kristy Trinier

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