Legal graffiti parks give artists and youth a legal and safe space to practice their art without fear of being arrested or being falsely accused of being a gang member. A legal graffiti park like Writerz Blok in the Chollas View neighborhood of Southeast San Diego are one of a kind and often leave visitors thinking “why don’t we have one of these in my neighborhood?” Some may ask the question if you can establish museums and other art spaces all over and in abundance, why is it so hard to recieved funding for and establish more graffiti parks? Graffiti parks have the unique innovative approach of reducing vandalism and crimes in general by providing artists with an outlet for expression, while also helping to reverse the negative perception of graffiti as vandalism to graffiti as an art form. The practice of graffiti is not going away. Its reputation, however, just needs an overhaul.

Goals

• - reverse the negative perception of graffiti as vandalism to graffiti the art form - provide youth with a safe space to hang in areas who are succeptible to vandalism, gange activity, and entry into criminal activity - provide artists with networking and resources to extend their talent to expand their employment opportunities - to increase community identity through civic engagement and youth participation, which improves individual investment in the well being of their neighborhood

Actions

• - to create an effective process for continual evaluation so that programs like the Writerz Blok can show ongoing evidence of their progress to potential investors and financers - above process would hopefully show multi-faceted impact space has on surrounding community including but not limited to community identity, crime prevention, and economic growth

Solutions

Ongoing support and promotion of the Writerz Blok Graffiti Park in San Diego, CA

By JVenegas on March 11, 2011 at 02:33 PM

Opportunities

No Opportunities have been added to this Challenge.

- We are interested in learning of other innovated programs that promote the arts and outreach to the youth in low-income communities with high vandalism and crime rates. We would like to see how these programs secure their sustainability and how their strategy might be applied to the securement of curretn graffiti parks (The Writerz Blok) and the establishment of new graffit parks.