Paint It Up!, is calling for fresh proposals for this year as newly released statistics by the City of Ottawa show more young people than ever are involved in transforming graffiti vandalized property into works of art – primarily in Centretown.
Paint It Up! is a City of Ottawa-funded youth engagement program that promotes the use of outdoor murals as a method of minimizing graffiti vandalism around the city. It engages at-risk youth by involving them in the creation of murals.
The program’s results from the previous year were released in February, stating that over 600 youth participated in Paint It Up! in 2015, making it the most successful year so far. In comparison, only 132 youth participated in 2014.
Centretown-based organizations such as Operation Come Home, St. Anthony School and the Door Youth Centre all participated in the program last year.
Information sessions on how to get involved and apply for Paint It Up! this year were scheduled for March 2 at city hall and on March 3 at the Ottawa Public Library’s North Gloucester branch.
Murals are large-scale artworks created directly on a wall, or attached to it, with the permission of the property owner. The program aims to beautify the city, while also supporting local arts and culture.
According to Ottawa’s Graffiti Management Strategy, outdoor murals are effective in managing graffiti vandalism and providing youth with engagement opportunities.
The Paint It Up! program was launched in 2010 as part of Ottawa’s Mural Program which aims to enhance the visual appearance of the city through the design and production of murals.
Over nearly seven years, the program has involved more than 1,200 youth, ranging in age from 12 to 22 years, who have completed 50 projects across Ottawa, with an average grant of $5,000 for every project.
The program is overseen by the municipal body Crime Prevention Ottawa. CPO provides up to $50,000 in annual funding for local organizations looking to hire youth to create murals in neighbourhoods experiencing a high rate of graffiti vandalism.
“One of the criteria for the grants is that they (applicants) identify a wall that has a graffiti problem, and we have funded 49 grants so far and only one of them has been tagged,” says Nancy Worsfold, the executive director of Crime Prevention Ottawa. “So they were all walls that were previously subject to a great deal of tagging and it has been successful in reducing the illegal graffiti and vandalism at that site.”
Tagging is a form of vandalism in which the painter sprays his or her “signature” across a wall or other object.
In order to take part in the program, each project must involve a partnership that includes a non-profit organization with expertise in working with youth; an artist or arts organization with expertise in creating murals; and a representative of the proposed location of the mural.
The Door Youth Centre helps youth build links to other youth oriented programs and services throughout the community.
According to the program statistics, in 2015, the Door Youth Centre had ten youth participate in Paint It Up! in their collaborative mural on the centre’s wall.
“We wanted to see where the creativity would take them [the participating youth] and to see how involved they would get with the actual project, especially because it’s a community-based project and we wanted them to contribute to the community in a constructive way,” says program coordinator and supervisor at the Door Youth Centre, Dominique Murphy.
The mural painted by the Door Youth Centre is of bright colored creatures linking their arms together across the wall.
“The whole purpose of our mural was to represent youth as members of the community and bring a youthful, bright and fun touch to the community and all of the feedback that we had from that project had reflected that,” says Murphy.
Operation Come Home, a centre that works with street-involved youth in Ottawa, also took part in Paint It Up! last year, and has intentions to apply to participate this year as well.
In 2015, the centre’s youth painted a contemporary art themed mural of shapes on the side of an apartment building wall on Gilmour Street in Centretown.
“It’s a way to beautify an area that’s often being tagged or where there’s a lot of graffiti already taking place,” says Elspeth McKay, executive director at Operation Come Home.
She adds: “Business owners are having to spend a great deal of money getting that graffiti removed, so from that point of view its kind of a win-win situation. It’s a win for the business owner and it’s a win for us because we get an opportunity to hire some youth to beautify an area that’s probably not looking very good before we put the mural up.”
Applications for Paint It Up! are due by April 4 and can be filled out online at Ottawa’s Crime Prevention website.