Graffiti's the word!
But is it art or crime?
Everywhere you seem to go in Thanet these days, you’ll spot a
graffiti ‘tag’ on the side of a building, lamppost or phone box. If
you look up the word graffiti in a dictionary it comes up with
“unauthorised writing or drawing in a public place’. The
‘unauthorised’ makes graffiti a crime and usually the ‘public
place’ is a person’s home – which means that the person who owns
the house or fence has to pay for its removal – which isn’t cheap
and not fair on someone’s mum or gran either!
On the flipside, graffiti can be a form of self expression – and
it’s been used historically to get some important messages across –
like the murals painted in Northern Ireland during the Troubles or
the political statements found in Cuba. The vast majority of
graffiti is know as ‘tags’ – and it’s people writing their name in
marker or spray paint – not very artistic! What many taggers don’t
think about is the bigger picture – graffiti makes people feel
unsafe and it costs - Thanet Council spend over £50,000 a year to
remove it - money I’d rather see spent on stuff like skateparks or
free events.
That’s why Thanet Community Safety Partnership has drafted up a
Graffiti plan that has two main aims
- to punish the taggers and get them to clean up the graffiti
across Thanet and
- introduce art based projects to see Graffiti develop as an
artform in Thanet.
Did you know?
Graffiti’s been found on the Egyptian pyramids and more locally,
from World War II soldiers on the wall of the old Haine hospital at
Westwood cross!
Got an Opinion?
If you have an idea on how we can develop graffiti as art in
Thanet or have a different
opinion – drop us a text to 07771504427 (usual network rates
apply) or call Jess on
01843 577737 or email jessica.bailey@thanet.gov.uk
