Murals aim to deter graffiti

The city of Edmonton unveiled a giant mural Saturday as part of its efforts to stop graffiti vandalism.

The Giants of Edmonton mural program, part of the Capital City Clean Up project, promotes public art by working with artists, community groups and businesses, with the hope that it will help deter graffiti.

On Saturday, a new mural was unveiled at the Royal Canadian Legion's Norwood Branch.

"We look for locations for the murals that really have seen graffiti," said Sharon Chapman, the graffiti project manager with Capital City Clean Up. "We are trying toprevent graffiti in the city, and murals have been shown to be one way we can do that.

"There seems to be a little bit of respect in that they're not hit as often as blank walls, and we really want the public to see there are options to keep graffiti off properties."

Kris Friesen, the artist who painted the mural, said he liked the city's idea of promoting murals as a way of discouraging graffiti.

"To be honest, I think it's a relatively inexpensive way to improve the community, especially with this kind of a program where they put it out to the public what they'd like to see. Yeah, it's great," he said.

This is the third mural to be unveiled in Edmonton, and two more are in the works.