"Cover art with a difference"
Novel project that cleans up graffiti earns street cred and creates turf with artistic touch
April 09, 2007
by Jack Lakey
www.thestar.com/News/article/200895
If fire can be used to fight fire, maybe graffiti can be fought with better graffiti.
Bell Canada has teamed up with Toronto and a local arts group to solve the vexing problem of "tagging" and graffiti on its large utility boxes by turning them into canvasses for street art.
Among the thousands of utility boxes that contain phone wiring for Bell's customers, 50 have been painted over in the past year by graffiti artists hired to transform them into imaginative murals.
The idea behind the pilot project was that if the art was sufficiently impressive, the usual cast of suspects who spray-paint gang symbols or their own graffiti might show a little respect by not defacing them.
For the most part, it seems to be working.
"It dissuades other artists from painting on the box because it's no longer an empty canvas," says Councillor Joe Pantalone, whose staff came up with the idea and sold it to Bell, which turned over 10 boxes in the early stages of the project, then provided $20,000 to pay graffiti artists to paint an additional 40.
"It's taking a blank slate and turning it into something artistic," said Pantalone (Ward 19, Trinity-Spadina).
"If somebody has created a piece of art, it's like going against your peers to put something else on it."
Bell, along with other utilities that bury wires and cables, relies on utility boxes for access to the wiring. Small pedestal boxes that hold wiring for about 25 homes are so ubiquitous in neighbourhoods that most people don't notice them, until the aluminum cover is removed by thieves, who sell them to scrap dealers as recycled metal, or they are mowed down by a vehicle or vandalized.
We've done stories about areas where almost all the covers on aluminum pedestal boxes have disappeared, leaving Bell to cover them temporarily with plastic bags. Residents get nervous when they see exposed wiring, thinking their phone service could be compromised.
It's been a long-time problem for Bell, but the utility is gradually replacing them with boxes made from materials of no interest to recyclers, such as heavy-gauge plastic.
The larger boxes, which usually contain wiring for commercial customers, present a much different problem. Their size and broad shape make them a magnet for graffiti.
Gangs use "tagging" to mark turf or otherwise communicate, often spray-painting swirling figures on the boxes, while graffiti artists - many like to doodle, but show no appreciable talent - have found them to be ideal for their work.
Utility boxes or "street furniture," as Bell calls them, amount to a public face for the phone company, so when they've been tagged or covered with crudely painted graffiti, it conveys neglect - not a flattering message.
Renato Discenza, a senior vice-president at Bell, says no matter how many times it paints over the graffiti on the boxes with its standard brown, they are often tagged or covered in graffiti within days.
"We are in the community; these are our physical presence ... and people said this is a problem," explained Discenza.
"You can only repaint them so many times before you say, this is going on and on."
Residents of Pantalone's ward were regularly calling his office in 2005 to complain about graffiti and tagging, with the Bell boxes often the focus of their complaints. After some brainstorming, his office came up with the idea of hiring two skilled local graffiti artists to create murals on two boxes.
Bell agreed to the idea, and was so pleased with the results - as were the neighbours - said Pantalone, that it agreed to allow another 48 boxes to be painted.
The utility also came up with the money to hire graffiti artists through Style in Progress, a not-for-profit group that promotes urban art, music, dance and fashion through community partnerships.
Most of the boxes, which were painted last summer, are in the Queen St. W. area, while 10 are in the Jane St.-Finch Ave. neighbourhood.
We checked out about a dozen and found only a couple that had been gang-tagged. Ironically, the murals were so colourful and filled with detail that the tagging was barely noticeable.
"People really leave it alone," said Discenza. "It has worked out."
When the project was first announced, Mayor David Miller said he hoped it would encourage other utilities, such as Rogers Communications, which also has a lot of utility boxes, to work with community groups to transform them into artwork that would repel further graffiti. So far, only Bell has taken up the challenge.
Discenza says it's unlikely that Bell will pour more money into creating murals, but would work with local groups to allow more of its boxes to be used for art.
It's a good idea that the city should be promoting more aggressively.
