Colour Me Happy! Graffiti Art and Crime Reduction in the City of Vancouver

            In April 2002 the City of Vancouver implemented the Graffiti Management Program (GMP) to address the increasing occurrence of what some would refer to as ‘vandalism’ and others would refer to as ‘artistic expression’.  I read an article in the Georgia Straight that revealed the entire GMP program had been cut by the City Council in a recent vote with the justification that it would save the city hundreds of thousands of dollars.  The flip side?  Both financially and socially, cutting the GMP may end up costing the city more in the long run.

            In the United States, the majority of graffiti creators are between the ages of 12 and 30 with the majority being younger than 18 (Kan 20).  Half of the individuals producing graffiti art are from “white middle- and upper-middle-class families” (Kan 20).  Koon-Hwee Kan emphasizes that for young adolescents it is very confusing to form opinions on ‘graffiti art’ versus ‘graffiti vandalism’ due to the contradictory messages they receive about graffiti (22).  This point is certainly applicable in such a diversely populated area as Vancouver.  Considering all of the subcultures producing and consuming art in Vancouver, what role does graffiti play?  Should graffiti be categorized under the genre of ‘Art’ or ‘Crime’ in Vancouver? 

            For the period of 2002-2003 in Vancouver, the city budget for the “Education and Prevention” of Graffiti, including the Mural Program, Education, and Outreach/Promotion programs was $127,534 (Khan 13).  In comparison, the budget allocated to the “Removal from Private Property” sector was $385,967 (Khan 13).  In her extensive report on Vancouver’s GMP Amna Khan discussed an area of pro-graffiti literature most salient to my discussion here.  Khan calls it the “normative approach, claiming graffiti contributes to the development of modern day society because it is the only form of communication for many individuals and groups who have no other outlet to express themselves” (17).  Considering the eclectic atmosphere in Vancouver, the diverse population and the wide disparities in wealth, the City would be wise to allocate more funds to the Mural and Education programs and less funds and energy on the graffiti eradication approach.  Complete eradication programs require consistent monitoring and timely removals and they are therefore quite costly and not altogether efficient (42).   

Pacific Street Mural created by the Restart Program

            Vince Dumoulin was presented with the choice to delve further into Vancouver’s crime scene or to participate in GMP Restart Program; he chose the latter (Lupick 1).  Restart is a “restorative-justice program started in 2004 by Vancouver Police Department officers Valerie Spicer and Elizabeth miller and since run by volunteers” (1).  Dumoulin was one of many youths in Vancouver who, having already garnered himself a criminal record, was given a chance to be involved in the legal community collaborative creation of graffiti art.  When youths were discovered in the streets of Vancouver ‘vandalizing’, instead of giving them a ticket this program gave them paint brushes and spray cans and a chance to participate in mural programs.  Dumoulin, who has been working with the City of Vancouver for the past seven years, explained that there were many benefits of this program.  The participants have fun, their involvement in other forms of vandalism and criminal acts decrease, and the occurrences of graffiti in the mural’s surrounding areas drastically decreased as well.  Dumoulin explains that this is due to the fact that artists will respect the artwork of others and therefore will not vandalize it.  But let’s backtrack there, in this case not only are illegal instances of graffiti in Vancouver decreasing as a result of this program, but so too are these youths involvement in other criminal acts?  In this way we see that not only is the Restart Mural Program a legitimate artistic outlet, it also decreases unwanted graffiti and prevents the other acts of crime that its participants may have otherwise been involved in.

            It is unfortunate that the City of Vancouver should have made these budget cuts based on purely direct financial reasoning without examining the social ramifications.  Not only does cooperatively allowing graffiti artists a legitimate outlet for expression, it decreases illegal graffiti and other graffiti acts.

References

Kan, Koon-Hwee

2001            Adolescents and Graffiti.  Art Education 54(1):18-23.

Khan, Amna

2004            An Evaluation of the Graffiti Management Program At the City of Vancouver. Unpublished MS, Masters of Public Administration, University of Victoria.

Lupick, Travis

2010            Vancouver Graffiti Gone Wild. http://www.straight.com/article-324713/vancouver/graffiti-gone-wild?page=0%2C0 (accessed Feb 5, 2011).