Centretown has always been a vibrant neighborhood, and these days it shows.
Murals are taking over the city, covering buildings, underpasses and alleyways, adding a welcome burst of colour to the nation’s capital.
The growing trend of graffiti-style urban art around the city is a sign that the public perception of art is changing.
As taboo as tattoos, once considered unacceptable to the public eye, graffiti and urban art were once no more than vandalism and the defacement of public property. Graffiti has since become a widely accepted, celebrated and embraced form of art.
The City of Ottawa has even developed legal graffiti walls around the city, launched a program called Paint It Up! encouraging youth involvement in painting public murals and sent out an open call to artists to paint murals in the city’s underpasses.
While tagging or ‘signing’ private property is still considered vandalism, the city’s website says that Ottawa is fully supportive of “enhancing the City’s beauty for residents and visitors, and engaging youth at risk in positive skill-building experiences”.
In Ottawa, murals and graffiti style public art have been used for political and cultural statements, as well as decoration.
This summer a mural for Sandra Bland was painted on a legal graffiti wall off Slater Street near Bronson Avenue.
Bland, an African-American woman who was found hanged in a jail cell in Waller County, Texas, on July 13, became a key figure for the Black Lives Matter Movement.
In an interview with CBC’s Ottawa Morning artists Kalkidan Assefa and Allan Andre said they wanted to celebrate her life and spirit.
The mural drew a lot of positive attention, before it was defaced days later with a moustache, and the statement “all lives matter” covering Sandra Bland’s name.
The vandalism sparked controversy in the graffiti artist community, with many artists and advocates outraged by the racist nature of the content and disregard for the art.
But again in September, a mural honouring murdered transgender women of colour was painted at the corner of Bank and Somerset streets during Ottawa’s Pride Week, by a group of artists that also included Assefa.
Shortly after, it was spray-painted over, and covered with threatening, racist messages.
After just a day, that vandalism was covered by another piece of graffiti.
The wall was whitewashed, and was redone with the message: “if all lives matter then why are the stories of trans women of colour continually erased?”
In this way, these legal graffiti boards have become public message boards, areas for expression, advocacy and education of societal issues to the community at large. They express and demonstrate the racism, sexism, and transphobia people still face, even in Ottawa.
But the power of community murals doesn’t stop there.
The decoration of Centretown creates a fresh space and a new environment for individuals to appreciate and admire urban art.
Elspeth McKay is the executive director of Operation Come Home, a Centretown organization that offers programs and services to at-risk and homeless youth. McKay also happens to be a big fan of the urban art that’s taking over the city.
“I think it’s fantastic,” she says. “I’m part of this community, and I think it beautifies the city, especially where there are lots of blank walls.”
Operation Come Home operates, designs and paints murals around the city as part of its programming.
The organization has teamed with the Ottawa School of Art and Crime Prevention Ottawa, and has been producing murals for five years.
Operation Come Home is one of many groups that work alongside artists across the city to contribute to public art, bringing fresh talent by encouraging youth involved in community programs.
The group’s most recent work was a mural on the Options Bytown building on Gilmour Street, just one more example of Operation Come Home’s “focus of neighborhood beautification,” says McKay.
And when it comes to the changing perception of urban and graffiti-style art taking over Centretown, McKay is all over it.
“Graffiti is a form of art,” she says. “We already have some seasons in Ottawa that are quite drab. It beautifies the city.”
Graffiti and urban art serves many purposes for the Ottawa community. These public message boards offer room for expression, advocacy, and most of all beauty in the capital.
And with more murals planned for the coming years, Centretown can only stand to get more colourful.