The city will be passing a can of spray paint to Ottawa’s troubled youth for the first time this summer, proving that the downtown illegal graffiti problem should not just be covered up, but redirected into controlled street art.
Crime Prevention Ottawa has teamed up with the city’s Graffiti Management Program to introduce the Paint it Up! Program, a new mural grant initiative intended to reduce youth crime and beautify neighbourhoods with high rates of graffiti.
“Our aim is to positively engage youth to do something constructive with their summer, something with artistic merit,” says Nancy Worsfold, executive director of Crime Prevention Ottawa.
Crime Prevention Ottawa has allocated $50,000 to fund five to 10 city murals, she says.
Youth up to age 25 who get involved will be paid for their contribution and Worsfold says she hopes the program will act as a summer job for young people returning to school in the fall.
Through three-way partnerships with non-profit youth organizations, artist groups and property owners, applicants have until April 9 to submit their proposals.
Mural artist Dan Metcalfe attended the information meeting at city hall on March 10 with Ottawa Urban Arts, in hopes of getting involved.
“I’ve had my eye on the big grey wall beside the McDonalds on Bronson Avenue,” says Metcalfe. “It gets painted quite frequently and is the perfect blank space for a mural to brighten up the area.”
Metcalfe has been involved with other mural projects in the city, but says this one may have added benefits for reducing crime because it will involve taggers that may have marked buildings in the past.
By addressing the source of illegal graffiti, the program is giving youth with a vandalism past an outlet to be creative.
While he’s still looking for a property owner to complete the partnership, Metcalfe hopes to collaborate with the McHugh Education Centre, an academic program for young people in the care or custody of Ottawa’s correctional facilities.
Worsfold says the city has had a Graffiti Management Program in place for the past few years, which has focused on enforcing bylaws and eradicating graffiti, but they wanted to add a new dimension to their action plan.
One of the important requirements of the program is that artist groups collaborate with the community to ensure the mural is representative of the area it is in, she says.
Though the program is set to run this summer, its return for future years will depend on this year’s success, she says.
But many youth groups, including the Youth Services Bureau of Ottawa, still have not heard of the program.
The Door Youth Centre has been involved with urban art projects in the past, such as FestivAsia, but they are still waiting to be approached by an artist group before they consider getting involved in the Paint it Up! Program, says supervisor Caleb James.
As the April application deadline approaches, James says he wonders if enough people will get involved.
But Metcalfe says he's hopeful
“If it’s done well this year I think it will keep the ball rolling for summers to come,” he says. “But we need enough people to get behind this and make it happen.”