The City of Stonnington is one of six Melbourne inner-city councils taking a collaborative approach in the ongoing fight against graffiti.
Urban Canvas, a project of the Inner South Metropolitan Mayors Forum (ISMMF), will see grafitti vandalism removed and new art created in the cities of Bayside, Boroondara, Glen Eira, Kingston, Port Phillip and Stonnington on Victorian Government and corporate third-party assets from post boxes, tram stops and substations.
Urban Canvas is funded by the Department of Treasury and Finance's Community Support Fund with $1.98 million split equally between the six participating councils over two years to help remove graffiti, or prevent graffiti vandalism by installing street art.
Usually, councils can't remove graffiti or touch assets owned by the Victorian Government and third parties, such as utilities suppliers and transport providers.
Under the Urban Canvas project, however, government agencies and companies including Yarra Trams, Telstra, VicRoads, Australia Post, Citipower, South East Water and VicTrack have given the councils permission to remove graffiti and commission art for their assets.
Now with the ability to address this vandalism to third-party assets, the Urban Canvas project allows councils to add another string to the bow in the ongoing battle of eliminating graffiti from our cities.
Quote from City of Stonnington Mayor Cr Jami Klisaris:
We are pleased to receive funding through the Victorian Government's Community Support Fund, which we will be putting to good use fighting graffiti vandalism and improving the quality of Stonnington's neighbourhoods.
