2.4 The importance of art

“Security professionals, architects, local charities, urban planners and artists must work in a coordinated manner with cities to create secure and peaceful public spaces. Rethinking and reflecting on public spaces’ visual design is vital to increase local residents’ feeling of security.”

The PACTESUR Expert Advisory Committee reflected on the role of art in improving public perceptions of the liveliness, safety, image and sociability of a public space. Indeed, temporary art installations are forms of appropriation of public spaces by citizens.28 Street art is a way of promoting cities' identity and reinforcing social cohesion. It includes a wide range of media in public locations, such as graffiti art, mural painting, flyposting and collage, mosaics and stencilling. Street art opens new avenues for exchange and integration between neighbourhoods and promotes civic participation. Because it is immediate, accessible and free, it democratises culture by taking it to the streets.

According to Laetitia Wolff, who led the partnership-based course between the Sustainable Design School of Nice (SDS) and the PACTESUR project, “The notion of security stands at the intersection of multiple dimensions that are all equally meaningful – whether it’s about human needs, ethical values, democratic duties, urban life, environmental standards, or cultural values.”

In practice: the experience of Street Art in Liège, Belgium

In the spring of 2002, the City of Liège commissioned the non-profit association Spray Can Arts to create a mural painting in a derelict area situated in a densely populated neighbourhood, where various dilapidated houses and sheds had been torn down to build a temporary parking lot. Over time, the space had become filled with litter, rubbish and graffiti.

Spray Can Arts created a monumental fresco of a cheerful scene representing a girl reading a book. A few weeks after the mural was completed, some of the charities operating in the neighbourhood reported that local residents and passers-by felt safer and that fly-tipping had significantly decreased. The residents had appropriated the artwork, which had become a rallying point for the neighbourhood. This mural was on display for seven years.

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