Hi everyone, I recently visited an abandoned warehouse turned into a legal graffiti park in an attempt to try and curve some of the illegal graffiti in my city. I didnt know that places like this existed and I have to say, so far I think they are a fantastic idea. There were a few buildings on the property, and with the exception of one, all of the exteriors appeared to be fair game. Only one building, that I believe served as loading docks, was open for people to paint the interiors, and peeking into other buildings, you could see that people respected that rule. Now, there are still plenty of illegal tags in my city, so whether it works or not I am unsure of. Another abandoned location that is already heavily tagged in my Metroplex is being looked at as a new legal graffiti park.
Do you have any graffiti parks in your area? and what do you think: Does a safe legal place for graffiti artists help lower the amount of illegal tagging in a city, or do they serve as a safe place for illegal artists to practice for when they might have to be faster to avoid being seen? Interested in what you all have to say, and thanks for reading.






A big THANKS goes to Randomesquephoto for helping me with this photo's post!

And of course, I cant show a graffiti park without showcasing my favorite piece that was out there.

The city I used to live in had one, and I also loved the idea. It was a great place to hang out (and had many great spots to climb the surrounding buildings) so I ended up frequenting it regularly, and got to know a lot of the artists who consistently put up paint. Every single one loved it for a variety of reasons, although I heard a few pretty consistent motifs: it's a legal place to paint, so there's no stress for the artist, and they can also meet, talk to, and share ideas with other painters.

I met a few incredible people there who were trying to break the perception that graffiti art needed to be illegitimate. They were super nice, welcoming to whomever wandered through the alley, and even carried markers to let kids draw on the walls. There was still graffiti around other places of course, but I did feel like the alley relieved a lot of that pressure. Even if it didn't, I still think the alley was a very positive place and brought a whole lot more good than bad.

Cool guys! I love the idea.

I like graffiti in the city where it shouldn't be as well.

But, I don't like nice locations getting tagged. That sucks.

IDK - in some circles, it's not proper graffiti if the paint isn't stolen.


There were some legal halls of shame in NYC,

DiLillio's Toy Factory, 5POINTZ - home of the herbs like Snitch2 who was given that tag by the writer's bench for his annoying habit of being an informant for the NYPD's Vandal Squad.

I'm not even a serious writer and I know about the long-standing beef.

Posted by Haywire421 Do you have any graffiti parks in your area? and what do you think: Does a safe legal place for graffiti artists help lower the amount of illegal tagging in a city, or do they serve as a safe place for illegal artists to practice for when they might have to be faster to avoid being seen? And of course, I cant show a graffiti park without showcasing my favorite piece that was out there. click to view

Yes we have a few great legal graffiti walls and there definitely should be a lot more of them in all cities. They encourage respect and promote some really creative and complex art. I have good friends who have had their businesses tagged and can't help feel that maybe if there were more legal walls it would give these bombers a much needed outlet for their creative energy.

For the past 16 years House of Paint have sponsored a Hip Hop Festival at a legal graffiti space under the Dunbar Bridge in Ottawa where they set up scaffolding for about 30 artists to paint, and a stage to showcase breakdancing, poetry slams, Dj’s and MC’s from across Canada. Nice energy, good people and inclusive.

A few photos I took last year.

Love seeing that these places seem to have a positive impact on the communities that surround them! I think there will always be some people that will go and do some vandalizing regardless, but it is nice that there are some places to try to curve that.

The closest thing we have are mural villages. That's when artists are allowed to make murals in slums in an attempt to beautify them and turn them into tourist attractions. In a couple cases, adding paint protected the slums from demolition. In other cases, it pissed off residents and gentrified their neighbourhoods.

Here's one that wasn't saved.







In another area called Ihwa Mural Village, someone painted these fish on a staircase and they became very popular. The local residents didn't like all the activity, so they took a bucket of paint and threw it over the fish. So they were threatened with punishment for vandalising it.


This is Gamcheon Cultural Village in Busan, a major tourist destination now thanks to the new paint.

On one hand, legal graffiti parks may legitimize graffiti in general, leading to tags in otherwise untouched locations. On the other, I've seen the truly amazing works that can come out of inviting graffiti artists to paint a wall legally. 80 local artists were invited by the new owner of a vacant building to fill it with art:

This is really cool! I'm a fan of anything graffiti so this fits right up my alley

Posted by Steed This is Gamcheon Cultural Village in Busan, a major tourist destination now thanks to the new paint. https://upload.wik...Busan%2C_Korea.jpg[/eimg]

For a moment, I thought I was looking at Brazil.