Newcastle City Council has teamed up with NSW Juvenile Justice to tackle illegal street graffiti by teaching youngsters new artistic skills and how to practise their art legitimately.
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The Street Art Education Program (SAEP) teaches pupils how to design artworks, prepare surfaces to paint them on and select the right painting materials as part of a proactive initiative to reduce illegal street graffiti, which is removed at rate payers’ expense.
Deputy Lord Mayor Jason Dunn congratulated four teens last week as they completed a colourful mural they had designed for a shed at Wallsend Park.
This truly is a great initiative as removing graffiti cost council around $640,000 in the past year. The program will help us proactively tackle this issue and hopefully reduce those annual costs.
Councillor Dunn and I were both impressed with the mural the four painted at Wallsend and look forward to seeing more council buildings with a creative coat of paint applied by SAEP participants.
Newcastle City Council has a full-time graffiti and rapid response team that operates four vehicles equipped with high pressure washers and cleaning chemicals in a continuous fight against illegal graffiti.
Council provides ongoing grant funding to Juvenile Justice for graffiti removal and this year adopted a more proactive approach through the six-week SAEP.