Centretown to get a splash of sanctioned colour

Crime Prevention Ottawa is teaming up with local artists and at-risk youth to replace graffiti on Ottawa’s walls with murals.

The $50,000-program, called “Paint It Up,” is funded by the city through CPO and is aimed at building on the success of a bylaw passed in 2008 to reduce the prevalence of graffiti in the city.

CPO executive director Nancy Worsfold says the program will benefit the city in three major ways.

First, she says, it will engage at-risk youth and get them involved with a positive activity providing meaningful occupation of their summer time. Worsfold says paint-it-up will also beautify Ottawa’s communities as well as deter further graffiti.

Nine projects are to receive funding across the city, focusing on areas that are subject to a high incidence of graffiti.

Some of the artists working with the program are part of a collective known as Ottawa Urban Arts.

The group traces its roots in graffiti and street art and helps mentor young street artists to express themselves in positive ways.

Artisitc director Cassandra Dickie is coordinating the collective’s involvement with five projects through Paint It Up and sits on the city’s graffiti management council.

“I think street art is not just something for the artists,” says Dickie. “These spaces are cultural hubs for the whole community.”

She says that positive, high-quality street art can have a ripple effect on communities by transforming neglected, crime-ridden spaces into places that bring communities together.

Not only will Ottawa Urban Arts hone the artistic skills of youths who have been caught making graffiti before, it will also teach communication skills and create a dialogue between the youth and their communities in deciding on mural designs.

Somerset Community Police Centre manager Const. Khoa Hoang says Paint It Up will complement the bylaw that has dramatically reduced the amount of illegal graffiti around Centretown over the last two years.

Since 2008, the Bank Street Business Improvement Area has spent between $60,000 and $100,000 a year removing graffiti in order to comply with the city’s bylaw, which compels business owners to remove graffiti from their buildings.

“If we can pair people who do graffiti with artists who can streamline their artistic side — and remove the antisocial side — that’s a positive thing,” says Hoang.

He says that for too long people who create graffiti have used the claim of making art as a vehicle to justify what they’re doing. Paint It Up, he says, will refocus the purpose of their art in a positive way.

Paint It Up will be leaving its mark on the pillars outside of the Centretown Community Health Centre on Cooper Street.

The health centre received $5,000 for supplies and coordination of its project, which is still in the early design stages.
Organizers expect the project to begin in early July.