Page 536 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 17 February 2016
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While police try to take action, these people are notoriously difficult to catch, often operating under the cover of darkness and able to flee the site quickly. Even when the graffiti is covered over it can reappear overnight. The government is committed to managing graffiti. The last budget provided an additional $250,000 towards key measures in the ACT government’s graffiti management strategy. This strategy focuses on five key elements for addressing graffiti vandalism, namely, prevention, removal, diversion, community awareness, and education and legislation.
The funding boost from the last budget will allow TAMS staff to respond to graffiti removal in key areas across the city. It will also allow the government to work with artists to provide more opportunities to develop their skills at the right locations. That is an important point that I think was lost in the remarks that Mrs Jones made. I will come back to that. While graffiti and urban art can be divisive issues, we need to strike the right balance to preserve the look and feel of the city while at the same time support new and emerging talent. Our aim is to improve communication between the ACT government, artists, businesses and the community.
I have certainly seen how effective legal graffiti art sites can be in allowing artists to display their talents while breathing life into areas of the city that are traditionally disused. There are certainly some great examples of this. These legal street art sites are a valuable alternative approach as they provide artists with an opportunity to develop their skills, promote street art, bring colour to our city and aim to reduce unwanted graffiti.
There are currently more than 20 legal graffiti art sites across Canberra, mainly located under bridges and underpasses, showcasing the talents of street-based artists, some of whom now have work in the National Gallery of Australia. Art is art and people will have subjective views on it, but it is interesting that the National Gallery contains the works of some of the people who originally did their work on the streets of Canberra.
I am really keen for the government to work with businesses and local residents to identify other suitable sites which could brighten up public spaces and provide artists with an outlet for creative expression. Certainly my staff and I have put considerable effort into this issue, meeting with artists and TAMS staff at a graffiti site at Yerrabi Pond, which led to the idea of a larger roundtable.
In July last year I held a ministerial urban art and graffiti roundtable, which Ms Fitzharris mentioned. We brought together a range of stakeholders that she mentioned—local street artists, designers, government representatives, CBD Limited and community council representatives. This was the first time that such a meeting had been held and it was very valuable in exchanging views on these things.
I think the government and business representatives heard some interesting feedback from the street artists. At the same time, we were very clear in putting our case of how destructive and costly some of the more unwelcome graffiti was across our city. I think that was taken on board as well. We took the opportunity to really have a discussion about how, in particular, we can minimise tagging.
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