Nanny Goat Hill Community Garden will have new murals in the summer.
Nanny Goat Hill Community Garden is planning to freshen its walls by painting new murals over the summer.
The garden originally received a grant in 2010 from Crime Prevention Ottawa to paint a mural as a way to combat the constant graffiti the area was encountering, and to include the community in the process.
The grant is part of the Paint it Up! Program, which paints murals in areas that are often targeted by persistent graffiti. This year marks the programs fifth year and it has been very successful, says Leslie Vanclief, section manager of stakeholders relations with Ottawa’s Public Works Department.
Over the last five years, the program brought 34 murals to Ottawa and involved 675 Ottawa youth in the process.
The program targets youth who vandalize walls, to get them involved in an artistic outlet.
“They take a lot of ownership and pride as they’re developing it and afterwards as well,” says Vanclief.
As well as battling graffiti, Paint in Up! is meant to bring youth closer to their community, says Vanclief. For a mural to be approved, it needs to include three parts of the community: A location in Ottawa that wants a mural on its property, a youth group that will paint the mural and an artist who will design the mural and teach the youth group techniques to paint it.
“We want an artist who’s experienced with mural artwork involved to help guide the youth who are just coming into the process of learning so they can get that experience,” says Vanclief..
Nancy Worsfold, executive director with Crime Prevention Ottawa, says part of the grant the mural receives goes towards maintaining the mural.
Artists interested in painting a mural this summer can hand their submissions into Crime Prevention Ottawa by April 3.