The Murals DC project started by Jim Graham, a Washington DC City Council Member, uses known DC graffiti artists to mentor and train young taggers, instilling a sense of community and pride in their work. It is an effort to replace illegal graffiti with artistic works, to revitalize sites within the community and to teach young people the art of spray painting.
The goal of this program is to get District of Columbia kids involved by teaching proper art skills, providing supplies, and a legal means to express their art in a way that promotes respect for public and private property and community awareness. The sites for murals are selected within the District of Columbia that have a high incidence of illegal graffiti. Each mural reflects the character, culture and history of the neighborhoods in the District.
Sponsors include local government and business owners. Known and seasoned graffiti artists are used to mentor young aspiring spray-painters developing their ideas and skills in a controlled environment and in places where the artwork is seen as decoration instead of vandalism.
Grafitti artists (sometimes called taggers) are almost all young males, and for them the drawing is a territorial marker, or "Branding" in a modern urban landscape. But most city officials and private citizens who spend millions each year cleaning their buildings, trains, and walls that are plastered with grafitti and tags think of grafitti as vandalism and destruction of property. In the last few years, projects like Murals DC have gone a long way towards making grafitti a more socially accepted art form, and to direct all that young, creative, graphic energy into positive channels.
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