I spotted this in Forward, the lightly reprehensible propaganda rag that Birmingham City Council foists upon unsuspecting folk every once in a while. The general gist is that graffiti is great in the right place; bad in the wrong place. I paraphrase, so before taking issue with that you’d best read the original here (PDF). Anyway, there’s apparently a fund for getting rid of naughty graffiti, it’s a great success, etc and blah.
On the other hand, of course, Birmingham is a canvas – see canvasbirmingham.com for proof. That’ll be the difference between literal and metaphorical right there.
However, none of that is the point. I was pondering about how council folk can encourage what you might call ‘edgy and alternative elements’ of their city. Other places are known for the quality of their street art – name your own names there. Do they set out to foster that kind of thing? Is it included in glossy brochures selling their city? How did that happen?
In other news, this made me laugh like a drain.
That mobstr graffiti is genius. Haha.