Street artists in Glasgow may soon be able to develop their artistic talents without fear of arrest as officials draw up plans to set up legal graffiti walls in the city.
Latest figures show Glasgow spends twice as much on graffiti removal as the council in second place, Hackney.
The city council is in the early stages of the project and is exploring a legal framework and identifying suitable council-owned locations for a pilot scheme.
The city is already known for its art and culture, and venues such as SWG3, a multi-purpose art space, have been championing the medium in Glasgow.
SWG3 hosts the annual Yardworks festival, one of Europe’s biggest public art projects. Gary Mackay, its studio director, told the Guardian that street art can help young people who can’t afford a formal artistic education develop their work. He said: “They’re not going out there to vandalise, they’re out to get their name up, to say ‘I’ve got a talent’, trying to better themselves.”
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He said that the council should be strategic about where they place the legal graffiti walls and said that “gable-end” murals — at the end of a tenancy block — could be an exciting option.
The convener for neighbourhood services and assets, SNP councillor Ruairi Kelly, said to Glasgow Live: “Street art is a vibrant part of our city’s culture and I want to enable our local artists to be able to create and display their work in their own neighbourhoods.
“The creation of ‘legal walls’ could not only help to transform rundown areas of the city but be a way of engaging with young people and enabling them to develop their talent without the fear of criminalisation or the need to access often dangerous places.”
Legal graffiti walls have previously been set up in Vancouver, Berlin and Stockholm.
