Two new student-created anti-graffiti murals to soon be installed downtown

Police Chief Rick Bourassa is celebrating a partnership that the police service has fostered for years with art-minded high school students and is promoting the youths’ two new anti-graffiti projects.

Since 2014, the Moose Jaw Police Service (MJPS) has worked with Project 104 High School Arts Collective, comprised of students from Prairie South School Division and Holy Trinity Catholic School Division. The youths create large mural projects that city crews then install in parks and on buildings that see regular graffiti vandalism.

“We would really like to reduce the amount of graffiti because what we do know is this: the physical environment signals what behaviours are acceptable,” Bourassa said during the recent Board of Police Commissioners’ meeting.

“When you have the physical environment deteriorate, it sends a signal that it doesn’t need to be respected, so it will generate more of that behaviour.”

These highly talented students wanted to create and

Jason G.

express positive principles through artwork, he continued. The partnership was born because they lacked a venue to display their creations and the police service needed graffiti removed or covered.

The group has created 15 large murals since 2014, with all the pieces finding a home throughout the city. The students spend a year or more developing, creating and completing the projects while an anti-spray paint coating is applied to protect the murals from damage.

Of the 15 murals erected over the years, it was only this past April when someone vandalized — or tagged — one for the first time, said Bourassa. Contractors peeled off the coating and re-applied it easily.

The provincial government provides the MJPS with money from the proceeds of crime fund so the agency can purchase the materials for the students. The MJPS plans to pursue more funding so it can purchase extra supplies. Meanwhile, the labour is free since the students make the pieces, while the city installs the artwork with-