Page 4359 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 8 December 1993
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Mr Kolesnik was undertaking course work for his master's degree in social planning and development at the University of Queensland, and his thesis provides some very interesting reading. Six other university students studied the legal street art program as part of their studies, so we are not discussing something in abstract terms. Graffiti is becoming recognised as a legitimate form of expression. There are problems associated with this type of forward thinking move. The legal street art evaluation report outlines what the weaknesses of the programs were. One of the most interesting was:
The main proponents of the illegal graffiti scene remained the elder youths, aged up to 22 years, who were causing as much damage in their small numbers as the "toys" (beginners) were causing en masse. The youth who failed to change their ways were generally the older ones and had been offending for a lengthy period of time.
The report acknowledges that culture change was the most difficult target for the team to achieve and in some cases they failed. The case of the older graffiti artists is an example of this. But the results show that the project was having a huge impact. I am confident, as the report's author is confident, that over time a more significant and long-term turnaround can be achieved. The main threats to the project, as outlined by its coordinator, are:
... the innate resistance to change demonstrated by the attitude of major stakeholders. Whilst there are some offenders operating in the rail system, Queensland Railways seems unlikely to embrace this type of project. It appears that there exists a mistaken belief within QR that a proactive project, operating in isolation, can solve all graffiti offences and when it does not, it is discredited.
The important point to pick up here is the need for a range of strategies to combat illegal graffiti. Providing legal space gives one outlet, but along with that legality goes responsibility. Therefore, what needs to happen is adequate surveillance, rapid clean-up of illegal graffiti and prosecution of offenders who continue to work outside the legal system. No-one can claim that illegal graffiti is all about artistic merit; some is sheer vandalism, and some vandalism is done by graffiti artists - that is reality. But we can do much good and in the process go some way to lessening the problem of illegal graffiti by adopting a proactive approach to the question of street art, aerosol art and legal graffiti writing.
There is also one element listed as a threat in the legal street art project report which I can see as having a positive impact, as long as there is adequate training and support for staff. That is the close and frequent contact between the coordinators and young people who may come from dysfunctional backgrounds. There will also be some young people who have previously been known to authorities only through their behaviour as offenders. I see a magnificent opportunity to expand the network of field workers who provide young people with support, advice, counselling and role models in a non-threatening way, concentrating on an artistic activity. This could be undertaken by existing youth workers. The report states:
The project provides opportunities for other agencies to access the youth in a continuing fashion in a manner they could not do before.
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