Tuesday, 11 December 2012

Shaw Millenium


Shaw Millennium-A Legal Wall Pilot program that went Sideways…
 “ Over the course of two days, a pack of paint-wielding hooligans attacked the blank canvas that was the spiral Landmark building at Millennium Park, turning it into a masterpiece of mayhem and myopia. What started as art ended up as a hideous eyesore. If it's a testament to the sheer tenacity of the vandals with the cans of spray paint, it's a monument to the blind stupidity of the grown-ups who left "young urban artists" alone to decorate a public park. “

Micheal Platt, The Calgary Sun
"They destroyed the fricking park -- they graffitied the hell out of it. They tagged the entire fricking park," said Ald. John Mar, barely able to contain his anger and outrage at the mess, and a clean up bill estimated at between $30,000 and $60,000.
While I was in Nanaimo, the city of Calgary decided to give legal walls a try, with disastrous consequences.  I remember talking to someone on the BC ferries, and he said the city of Calgary organized a graf jam and a ton of artists got arrested. The truth isn’t much better. From what I gather from the newspapers, and taking to Ryan Coulson, a skate park monitor, the city of Calgary’s intentions wasn’t to entrap graffiti artists, but the situation got pretty out of hand.  Coulson said there was a lack of strategic planning and foresight of what might happen if angry teenagers got to have a free for all at Millennium.  Apparently, all the frustrations towards the city got taken out on the park, in a less than artistic way. 
The attempt to give Calgary Youth a legal wall ended up with Shaw millennium covered in hateful, angry youth art and with the cost to taxpayers estimated at $100 000 they probably won’t be endorsing a legal wall for a while.  I wasn't there so I don't really know why this "legal wall" ended up becoming a fiasco, but it sounds like inexperience on the part of the organizers, as well as a lack of awareness of the political culture of youth in Calgary, and the implimentation of a "longterm" legal graffiti management strategy.



http://www.flickr.com/photos/thekidbelo/3854251922/

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