Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network
The Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network (PAGN) was founded in January 1984 by former Philadelphia Mayor Wilson Goode. The original goal of the program was to combat the spread of graffiti in the Philadelphia area and was led by Tim Spencer. In 1986 another program began within PAGN, named The Mural Arts Project (MAP), and headed by artist Jane Golden. Through the success of both programs in 1991 the city of Philadelphia was awarded the Innovations in American Government Award due to the progress PAGN and MAP had made in the surrounding communities. In 1996 the success of MAP was noted and split off into a separate program and placed under the umbrella of the Philadelphia Recreation Department. From the founding of these programs over 2,500 murals have been created across the city and over 40,000 walls cleaned of graffiti. The Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network currently consists of three programs; Mural Arts Program, Paint Voucher Program, and the Graffiti Abatement Team.
Anti Graffiti Art History
A precursor is the The Philadelphia Museum of Art’s urban outreach project in the seventies. The program helped to create murals around Philadelphia to cover up the graffiti-covered buildings. The museum’s program ended in 1983, a year prior to the beginning (COAST) of the PAGN, which like its predecessor attempted to use murals to curb the rising graffiti problem.
While closely related to the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s urban outreach project, the PAGN encompassed a larger goal with similar priorities. The program was originally created during a citywide crackdown on graffiti and accompanied other antigraffiti regulations and increases in penalties. Selling of spray paints to minors was prohibited as well as displaying unlocked cans of paint in stores, the latter to curb the common practice of shoplifting paints. Included with the increased penalties also came alternative forms of punishment such as forcing graffiti writers to clean graffiti as a form of community service and an amnesty program for identified “taggers” who signed pledges promising not to vandalize property anymore. The amnesty program accumulated over a thousand signatures between 1984 and 1991. Those found guilty of vandalism also had another option: apprenticeship in the PAGN program. The apprenticeship focused on taking the creative energy of the graffiti artists (BERN) and helping them gain guidance from already established professional artists. Read more
Filed under Graffiti Law · Tagged with anti-graffiti network, graffiti, Mural Arts Project
Government Responses To Graffiti
Graffiti Art In North America
Graffiti advocates perceive graffiti as a method of reclaiming public space or to display one’s art form, their opponents regard it as an unwanted nuisance, or as expensive vandalism requiring repair of the vandalized property. Graffiti can be viewed as a “quality of life” issue, and its detractors suggest that the presence of graffiti contributes to a general sense of squalor and a heightened fear of crime.
In 1984, the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network (PAGN) was created to combat the city’s growing concerns about gang-related graffiti. PAGN led to the creation of the Mural Arts Program, which replaced often hit spots with elaborate, commissioned murals that were protected by a city ordinance, increasing fines and penalties for anyone caught defacing a mural. The Philadelphia Subway line also features a long standing example of the art form by way of the broad and spring garden stop, along the broad & ridge (to 8th and market) line. Which while still existing, has long been quarantined, and has featured tags and murals that have existed for upwards of 15years.
Advocates of the “broken window theory” believe that this sense of decay encourages further vandalism and promotes an environment leading to offenses that are more serious. Former New York City mayor Ed Koch’s vigorous subscription to the broken window theory promoted an aggressive anti-graffiti campaign in New York in the early eighties, resulting in “the buff”; a chemical wash for trains that dissolved the paint off. New York City has adopted a strenuous zero tolerance policy ever since. However, throughout the world, authorities often, though not always, treat graffiti as a minor nuisance crime, though with widely varying penalties. Roof tops became the mainstream after the trains died out.
In 1995 Mayor Rudolph Giuliani of New York set up the Anti-Graffiti Task Force, a multi-agency initiative to combat the perceived problem of graffiti vandals in New York City. This began a crackdown on “quality of life crimes” throughout the city, and one of the largest anti-graffiti campaigns in U.S. history. That same year Title 10-117 of the New York Administrative Code banned the sale of aerosol spray-paint cans to children under 18. The law also requires that merchants who sell spray-paint must lock it in a case or display cans behind a counter, out of reach of potential shoplifters. Violations of the city’s anti-graffiti law carry fines of $350 per count. Famous NYC graffiti artist Zephyr wrote an opposing viewpoint to this law. Read more
Filed under Graffiti Law · Tagged with anti-graffiti law, anti-graffiti legislation, anti-graffiti network, graffiti, Graffiti Artists, graffiti blasters, graffiti vandalism, tags
Graffiti And Street Art – On The Borderline Of Crime And Creativity
Since the early Neanderthals scratched out the Bison on the moist caves of Eastern France, Graffiti and Street Art have remained a very raw form of expressive Fine Art, which have shunned all class barriers and have emerged as a separate thread of work. Graffiti is derived from the Italian root meaning, “scratched out.” Technically, to narrow down its scope would be to define it as a surface art on the surfaces it is “not meant” to be displayed. For example, you would not define a ramshackle wall, or a car, or a window as a canvas to any artist worth his/her salt. For Graffiti Artists however, that would be a perfectly normal platform to present their body of work.
Spanish inscription at El Morro National Monument, 1605, with later graffiti.
Graffiti & Street Art so boldly lie on the border of vandalism and art that it is difficult to eulogize them without feeling a bit like singing Paeans to LSD or Morphine. However Graffiti and Street Art, even though pursued doggedly by law and order have steadily metamorphosed into an important mouthpiece of rebel expression. Simply put, Graffiti and Street Arts are art pieces by artists with no inclination or the wherewithal to resort to the conventional forms of display, who though are bubbling with a strong urge to express themselves.
The profiles of Graffiti and Street Art closely follow an underground, anti-law route because of the angst they carry. They are art forms, usually generated in ghettos and tough neighborhoods, where there are few rules and therefore explosive creativity. Graffiti Artists are people, seething inside to stamp their territory, on walls, buildings, bridges, and yeah toilets too.
Graffiti and Street Art took a long time to come out of the ghettos, and be recognized as art. Although they are omnipresent phenomena, Graffiti and Street Art came onto the forefront only towards the development of the Hippie Culture in 70’s. This was a time when people broke out of conditioning to see Graffiti & Street Art as art. The first opening of Graffiti was at Rome by Fab5 Freddy and soon other artists flooded the New York, London, and Paris art scenes. Read more
Filed under Graffiti Art Movement, Graffiti Law · Tagged with graffiti, Graffiti Artists, graffiti arts, street art, tagging
