Toronto = Edmonton's Role Model?

Toronto has a Public Space Committee dedicated to defending and celebrating their public spaces. Whether that means creating public art done by the public or rallying against advertising in public space, it is a grassroots not for profit group of volunteers. This group could be a great benefit to the graffiti artist who wants to create work in a public space... I could find no evidence of such a group in Edmonton. If they do exist here, they are well hidden! Should Edmonton follow in Toronto's footsteps? Could a group like this help create public spaces that are less institutionalized (think Churchill Square with its hospital-like atmosphere)? If anything, Edmonton needs a role model to help improve its public art situation...The giant shoes at the Southgate Mall Transit Station make me sad...

Graffiti, Posters and Billboards

Cities like Edmonton and Toronto want to have a clean sanitary city in order to attract business, investors, and tourists. They do not want to reflect the messy reality of their cities; they want a clean polished image. A city with graffiti and posters is a place that is lived in, interacted with, used, and painted on as opposed to a sterile clean city. Toronto wants to limit the use of public posters, but these can inform locals and tourists of what to do in the city. It is a battle between local knowledge and consumer culture. Graffiti and posters are being discouraged, yet Toronto allows companies to buy advertising in and even rename public spaces. Do we want public spaces to lost in a sea of advertising? I would rather look at the worst graffiti in a public space than to be bombarded by billboards...BUY BUY BUY! Posters and graffiti are useful in disseminating local knowledge, while a billboards only purpose is to inform people about their products. Billboards are visual pollution just as much or more than graffiti or posters! Who gets to mark public spaces? Should it be the public or corporations? I say save public spaces for the public!!!

City of Toronto + Graffiti

The city of Toronto talks about “wiping out” graffiti on its website, but they also offer an alternative for local graffiti artists. Erase graffiti and create murals! The Graffiti Transformation Program in Toronto is a way for the city to solve several problems at once. Unemployed youth are given the job of removing graffiti and replacing it with colourful murals. Neighborhoods are improved with beautiful art! Would Edmonton benefit from a program like this? As I traveled through Edmonton searching for graffiti I saw a lot of bad cover-ups. Edmonton’s policy creates a patchwork of mismatched paint makes the graffiti problem more obvious. The City of Edmonton becomes like a bad graffiti artist itself! Toronto seems to understand that eradication alone cannot solve the graffiti problem…