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ART IN THE PARK
Let us Spray
Most countryside managers consider graffiti to be a problem, however, Gary Brentnall, a Bristol City Council Park Ranger, explains how it can provide an opportunity to reach a section of the community which is often overlooked.
Portrait
of the artist as a young man
Most parks in urban cities suffer from some sort of graffiti or "tagging"
as the young people of St George's Park in Bristol call it. Within this Victorian
park there is a shelter nicknamed "the cowshed". This shelter has
been used for over 30 years by youths growing up in the surrounding area. Over
the last 10 years or so it has been subjected to various forms of anti-social
graffiti resulting in the Area Landscape Manager having to arrange for the shelter
to be repainted 2 or 3 times a year. No sooner had the paint dried then the
youths were back and the anti-social graffiti appeared once more.
I first took an interest in the park three years ago when I became
aware that there were gangs of youths congregating there. There was nothing
for them to do and nowhere for them to go. I was determined to turn the park
around, to make it interesting and, more importantly, to get the youths involved.
My ultimate aim was to ensure that no more anti-social graffiti appeared.
I got together with youth workers in the area as a result of which we held the first youth event in the park on a wet and windy Saturday afternoon. Not surprisingly we only managed to attract a small group of youths but within that small group appeared two spray artists who had attended for the purpose of spraying on boards we had provided. I was impressed with their spray art and when they approached me after the event asking if they could spray over anti-social graffiti which covered a small bridge in the skateboard and BMX park, I was more than willing for them to "do their work".
A few hours later what had been an eyesore was now a mural depicting St George’s Park. So impressed were the other local youths that this mural of their own park stayed intact with no defacement until 6 months ago when the youths themselves re-sprayed the area with another mural.
Let
us spray
I now hold spray art events in St George’s Park 2 or 3 times a year and,
with the assistance of a grant from the Local Agenda 21 group, I am looking
to start up similar projects across the city. As for the youth event, this year
we had 150 young people attend and participate in events including rugby skills,
a mountain bike course, henna tattoos (which proved very popular), circus skills
and much more. Of course spray art was included with a "come and have a
go" section.
I have found that by supporting spray art you come into contact with a group of young people who it would be easy to dismiss as being interested in nothing more than hanging around, smoking and drinking. However, from my own experience, I have found that these youths have a genuine interest in the life of the park, they just need someone to point them in the right direction.
There have to be certain ground rules for the spray artists to
adhere to. For instance, after our famous "cowshed" had been sprayed
with a mural, I returned the following day to discover that one of the cartoon
characters was shown to be holding a semi-automatic pistol. Not the sort of
message we were trying to get across! Fortunately, the spray artist understood
my concerns and changed the pistol into a spray can making the mural somewhat
more friendly.
Now, I can imagine you wondering what all this costs. Paint will cost between £30 and £50 and you will also need to provide surgical gloves and face masks. The best months for spraying are from March or April through to September or October. You should avoid attempting to spray during windy weather or you will end up sporting a range of colours over your face and clothes!
To end the article I would ask you to picture the Bristol Flower Show, one of the top annual horticultural events. It takes place during the Summer and is attended by people from all over the UK. As a Park Ranger I assisted in making up our stand this year. I got one of my spray artists to provide a "mind blowing" back-drop to which we added the usual plants and greenery. Not the sort of thing you would imagine would fit in with a horticultural show but people must have been impressed as we won a silver cup!
If you consider running a similar initiative, I can guarantee that not only will you make new contacts with a part of the community that you may not normally have a strong foothold in, but you will create an area where young people consider it "cool" to hang out and which will create interest within the local community.