Thanks to 45RPM for these, a man who clearly can’t resist the possibility of checking out some fonts. Some sneak photos of the Petro show opening at Friend and Co tomorrow, should give you a little idea of what to expect (there’s a clue in there being preview photos this early too probably…)

Shop window…

…shoe polish…

…sketchbook, Buntlack…

…and paint.

Pretty much the key ingredients for a great show right there. Nice.

As mentioned a couple of times before, the legendary Barton Hill Youth Club is still there, and has recently had people going back to paint again. Not the free space it used to be, painting’s only been on a few of organised weekends, but it’s slowly coming together.

That said, the place is under threat of demolition in the next couple of years at the moment, a decision that people will no doubt come to regret in a few years time if it does happen. So, more painting coming up in the new year probably, but here’s a bit of what’s there now…

Here’s the courts in a wide shot at the moment…

…bit of Cheo…

…Jody (not quite finished)…

…and Shade SOP.

When people first got back there, an old Banksy was found under layers of peeling paint, and here’s another bit that’s still just about there after the trials of time, ‘Art’ by Chaos and Shab, from 20 years or so ago…

…and a bit closer.

This place really shouldn’t be pulled down, there’s so much more could still be done with it, and if this city cares about its history, then there’s some modern archaeology right here.

Will get some more photos soon, thanks to Jody for these pics.

Some of you probably haven’t heard of Petro, he’s from the old skool and certainly hasn’t joined in with the whole ’street art gallery sales’ bandwagon of the last few years, but he’s got more skills than many out there who have.

So, he’s got a new show opening this Friday at Friend and Co up on Park Row, which is getting everyone up there very excited at the moment, so should be a goody.

Opens this Friday at 7pm, then on until the 5th December. Wander on by if you’re about.

Is finished and done and that. Shiny it is too, shinier than Jack Nicholson after a damn good polishing. Must be all those turtles and their wax.

Check it out here, the new 45RPM website.

Being out of play for the last couple of weeks means this has got missed, although to be fair the council’s hardly been shouting from the rooftops about it.

They’ve finally got a new graffiti policy drafted for the city, and if you want to  have your say, comments on it need to be in by midday this Tuesday (17th November). It’s going to be discussed by the Clean and Green board on the 19th. So they’re not leaving themselves much time to write up the results of the consultation. Or maybe that’s all part of the same thing.

Anyway, the new draft policy is below. Give it a read through, and if you’ve got any comments on it, send them to Denise James at Clean and Green quickly ! Email denise.james@bristol.gov.uk

Bristol City Council
Graffiti Policy

Background

The City Council has as part of the National Indicators (NI195) a duty to make your local area safe, clean and green.  It requires graffiti to be removed as quickly as possible and appropriate enforcement action taken against offenders.

Graffiti has always existed and has historically been regarded as having a negative feature that reduces the quality of the environment.  It can also be seen as a sign of decay and can generate a fear of neighbourhood crime and instability.

In recent years, however, graffiti has evolved into popular culture and it is now widely recognised that it can also be an art form that contributes to the urban environment.  This is frequently referred to as Street art or graffiti art.

This policy seeks to redefine the City Council’s approach to graffiti in this context.

Definition of Street art/Graffiti

For the purpose of this policy, we differentiate between graffiti, which is generally considered to have a negative impact and Street art/graffiti art, which is generally regarded as a more artistic and considered intervention.

Graffiti

Graffiti includes illegal or unauthorised drawings, scribbles, messages, tags, etchings, or designs that are painted, written, sprayed, etched, pasted or otherwise affixed to a surface such as walls, street and park furniture or other edifice or structure without the property owners consent.

Offensive Graffiti

Offensive graffiti may be defined as Graffiti above but contain some or all of the following:

• Offensive language, language of a politically, Racially, Religiously insulting or inciting nature
• Hate statements
• Graphically explicit images
• Graphically intimidating images or text
• Images that are textually or visually offensive in context
• Libellous or potentially libellous statements

The Council will always seek to remove offensive graffiti.

Street Art/Graffiti Art
Can include painting, writing, murals that are painted, written, sprayed, etched or carved on the surface of buildings, walls, the street and park furniture or other edifice or structure.

Street art/Graffiti art may be deemed to have a positive impact on the local environment, subject to other relevant considerations.  It may, however, also fall into the categories of offensive graffiti as above.

As well as causing detriment to the environment, graffiti and street art/graffiti art can under certain circumstances amount to a criminal offence under the Criminal Damage Act 1971.  Where the value of the criminal damage exceeds £5,000 the maximum penalty is a fine not exceeding the Statutory maximum and/or 6 months imprisonment.  Where the damage does not exceed £5,000, the maximum penalty is £2,500 and/or 3 months imprisonment.  The Police Service is the only enforcement agency with the legislative powers to prosecute an offence of Criminal Damage.

Graffiti art/Street art in Conservation areas
A conservation area is defined as ‘an area of special architectural or historic interest, the character and appearance of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance’ according to the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990.  Under S71 (1) of the Act it is the duty of the Planning Authority to formulate and publish proposals for the preservation and enhancement of conservation areas.

Bristol’s defining characteristic is the outstanding architectural quality and extent of its historic environment.  This is reflected in the designation of the majority of the city centre and a number of suburban areas as conservation areas, and the large number of listed buildings.

Graffiti art/Street art will not normally be considered acceptable in a conservation area as it is:

• Not generally appropriate to the character of the historic environment
• Potentially damaging to the historic fabric of buildings, particularly stone and brickwork
• Would obscure details/features that make a positive contribution to the character of the local area

Exceptions
In exceptional circumstances, where buildings have been empty or derelict for some time and are contributing to a reduction in the quality and character of the conservation area, street art/graffiti art may be acceptable.  This must, however, be on a temporary basis, egg on temporary hoardings and not on the historic fabric of the building.

Graffiti art/Street art may be considered acceptable where it is:

• Of exceptionally high artistic quality and
• Does not impact negatively on the wider conservation area and
• Does not damage or obscure the historic fabric of the building or environment

Street art/Graffiti art on Listed Buildings
Under the provisions of Section 9 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservations Areas) Act 1990, the application of graffiti to a listed building without the required Listed Building Consent is a criminal offence if it is considered to be an alteration, which would affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest.

Listed Building Consent for street art/graffiti art would require the notification of the property owner.

Graffiti art/Street art will not normally be considered acceptable on a listed building.  Exceptions as above.

Summary of Our Powers & Responsibilities

The Council is responsible for removing graffiti from Council owned properties, parks and the highways.  Items such as telephone boxes, Network Rail property and Structures, bus shelters and electricity boxes are the responsibility of the private companies.  The starting point in regard to private and commercial property is that removal of graffiti is generally the responsibility of the owner.  Although the Council will exercise its discretion and provide graffiti removal services for which a charge may be made.  This policy focuses on reducing unlawful graffiti on property and land that is not on Council owned property.

The Council has the power to, amongst other things: -

• Remove graffiti from privately owned or commercial property following a request from the owner and subject to the receipt of a signed indemnity form.

• Charge for this service, although in most cases it is offered for free

• Issue “Graffiti Removal Notices” under section 43 of the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003.  Requiring the person responsible for the “relevant surface” to remove the defacement within a period of 28 days where the defacement is detrimental to the amenity of the area or is offensive.

• Where the recipient of a “Graffiti Removal Notice” fails to comply with the requirements of the Notice, an authorised officer of the local authority may enter the land to the extent necessary to enable it to remedy the defacement and may recover expenditure reasonably incurred in exercising this power

• Issue Fixed Penalty Notices where an authorised officer has reasonable grounds to believe that an offence of criminal damage/graffiti has been committed.

• Initiate prosecution proceedings where considered appropriate to do so under Section 215 Town and Country Planning Act 1990.  In addition, the Council, as a Public Body, has a number of obligations, which include, among other things:

Under section 71 of the Race Relations Act 1976, section 49A of the Disability Discrimination and section 76A of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, the Council, in carrying out its functions, has an obligation to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination.

This graffiti removal policy sets out how we expect to exercise the above obligations and powers.

Objectives

• Bristol City Council will seek to keep the city safe, clean and green.
• Bristol City Council will endeavour to remove unwanted and offensive graffiti and street art.
• Bristol City Council will support the right for property owners not to have unwanted graffiti or street art on their property.

Achieve targets of cleanliness set by the National Indicators (NI195), which are government guidelines that compare one council’s performance with another and set targets for improvement on graffiti levels by:

Removing graffiti promptly
Working in partnership with Council services, schools, external agencies and voluntary and community organisations to prevent and tackle graffiti
Engaging local residents to tackle graffiti using graffiti prevention methods best suited to their area
Taking enforcement action where considered appropriate to do so in the form of, among other things, service of Statutory Notices, Prosecutions and/or Fixed Penalty Notices.

Specifically Bristol City Council will deliver these objectives through:

• Encouraging reporting of graffiti through

• Promotion of the Access to Bristol channels such as the Customer Service Centre, Customer Service Points and web-based reporting.

• Promotion of reporting graffiti as Criminal Damage to the dedicated Police Graffiti Team.

• Promotion of the graffiti removal service and publicising successful local solutions.

Removal of Graffiti on the Basis of the Following Priorities:

Removal of any racist graffiti/street art or that which offends any of the equalities enactments by the end of the next working day after being reported. With or without signed indemnity
Removal of non-offensive graffiti, where the owner/person responsible has requested us to do so within 5 working days of being reported.  We will prioritise the removal of such graffiti based on the size of the area covered, location and content whilst taking local pressures and opinions into account so as to make the best use of graffiti removal resources, accompanied by a signed indemnity form.
Schedule regular removal of graffiti from hotspot areas citywide, with sensitivity to local situations.
Where the owner/person responsible for the property upon which the defacement has occurred does not consent to removal of the graffiti, we will exercise our statutory powers under section 48 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003, save for in cases where, for example, the graffiti is offensive and the exercise of such powers would cause un-necessary delay in the removal of such graffiti.

Note:  All graffiti is to be removed in accordance within Health and Safety limitations and within removal guidelines according to the surface i.e. Graffiti at certain levels for example higher than 2.1 metres may not be possible to remove, graffiti to be removed from surfaces only where the surface material permits.  And subject to receipt of indemnity form from property owners except in the case of offensive graffiti (See examples above)

Recording Graffiti

The Council will gather detailed information on graffiti from the first report through to removal as evidence and to aid the removal prioritisation process.

The Council will gather and store photographic evidence to support legal cases against graffiti offenders, and share intelligence where appropriate with other enforcement agencies, including the police.

Graffiti art/Street art

Where murals or artworks are deemed to make a positive contribution to the local environment and where the property owner has raised no objection, we may make the decision not to exercise our discretionary enforcement powers and/or powers of removal.

In such a case specific consultation may be carried out internally with the planning department and with the Executive Member and externally with local residents and the owner of the property

Engagement with Communities

Support applications from residents and residents’ groups who would like to manage graffiti by displaying a mural in a specific location through a process of consultation and gaining permission from property owners for the artwork.  This particularly applies in areas where there is a history of graffiti and tagging.

Support application from residents and residents’ groups who would like to manage graffiti on public buildings, by displaying a mural through a process of consultation.

Support residents and residents groups in creating alternative diversions to tagging and graffiti problems, such as community clean ups, and preventative planting schemes.

On line voting proposed (to be discussed at CAP and C & G board)

Street Art/Graffiti Mural Review Panel (to be discussed at C & G board)

Engage young people through an on-going programme of education and diversionary techniques, including through schools and organised youth activities.

Work in partnership with Culture and Leisure Services to deliver diversionary art projects such as self-managed legal walls and workshops.

Dealing with Offenders

Work closely with the Police, British Transport Police and local communities to identify tags and the taggers, collect evidence and pursue court action as appropriate.

Support restorative justice approaches for offenders.

Work with the Bristol City Council’s Youth Offending Team to include young offenders and probationers who have been convicted of graffiti vandalism in involving them in diversionary art projects and workshops, and in graffiti removal.

Monitoring and Review

Monitor incidences of graffiti according to area and direct resources where most needed.

Develop relationships with officers from other local authorities, “Keep Britain Tidy Group”, Central Government and other agencies, to share information on successes and failures in combating graffiti.

Resources Committed

The Council’s Waste and Street Scene service has the lead responsibility for dealing with graffiti.

The Council will continue to invest in client management and contractor delivery of graffiti removal.

Continue to seek funds for removal from other sources e.g. from other departments that are responsible for other structures and buildings, such as street and park furniture.

A needlessly bad boy title for a much more mundane post sadly. Just as more time came free for blogging, swine flu struck blog towers. As a test for it is apparently ‘if you saw a fiver on the pavement, you wouldn’t bend down to pick it up’, that’s another week of blogging missed. Bugger.

Still though, the world continues. Here’s a few bits as an update…

Nikill’s show opened up at the Weapon of Choice Gallery on Thursday, which is doubtless good, one to check out this weekend if you’re well.

Secret Wars is coming to Bristol too in a fortnight, Bristol vs London down at the Blue Mountain on Stokes Croft. Here’s the chat so far

Our aim is to source artists from the area to form a team to represent bristol in europe. As well as the main battle event there will be facilities for artists to display their skills. The whole event will be backed up by a soundtrack of funk and hip hop from our DJs.

More soon…

As happens occasionally, real life has got in the way of blogging. Sorry about that, doubly annoying as there’s lots of good stuff on at the moment.

First up, the Burning Candy show opens tonight down at the Emporium on Stokes Croft. Should be great, and alongside it, the building next to Metropolis on Cheltenham Road has just has a load of scaffolding and sheeting removed to reveal a huge Burning Candy production over the whole thing. Looks great, but can’t find any photos on the web as yet, so if someone happens to get some and wants to send them in, that would be very cool indeed.

If you fancy something on more of an arty tip this evening though, then Andy Council’s doing a talk about his work down at the Watershed tonight, which should be pretty darn interesting.

Looking ahead a bit further, Acer’s keeping on a roll, and has got a photography show organised at the Golden Lion further up the Gloucester Road with Okermedia.

It opens this Saturday (7th November) with free entry and music from saxaphonist James Morton (collaborator with peewee ellis and fred wesley of the JBs), so should be a top night all round.

More blogging soon. Promise. In the meantime, if anyone’s got stuff they want blogging, do send it on it.

Now this looks a bit special, a Burning Candy group show at The Emporium down on Stokes Croft. Opening a week today, and only open for a short time, there’s going to be work in there from the whole Burning Candy crew.

Here’s the chat…

SOME RAW BUSINESS : Feat – Cept, Cyclops, Dscreet, Gold Peg, LL Brainwash, Mighty Monkey, Rowdy, Sweet Toof and Tek 33

Opening Night – Nov 5th, 6- 10 pm then daily 12 – 7pm till Nov 9th

This Bonfire night Burning Candy, the UK’s foremost Savant Garde autistic spectrum graffiti crew, come together to set aflame and pay respect to the memory of Guido Fawkes…..the guy with the right idea.
Expect fireworks, sweet stuff and some jazzy painting.

If you like looking at slightly creepy artwork, or you’ve ever admired that enormous skull, tooth, crocodile combo atop Wetmoreland house, come along. Bring some sparklers!!!

BC, or Burning Candy, or Before Chrome comprises old school writers, lovers, fighters, anthropologists, ice cream rocking queens, Royal Acedemicians, film makers and anarcho croc rockers.

Born in bombed out East London, BC has spread across the world, from Sweden to Bombay and from Paris to Bangkok, bringing a new, colourful and free visual aesthetic to the world of graffiti.

Collected by Saatchi, hung in the Tate modern, still smashing the streets. 2009 BC
–
The Emporium, 37 Stokes Croft, Bristol, BS1 3PY

The boards down the road may be black, but a more interesting darkness went up further up the road over the weekend. The kind of work that’s had people getting in touch asking who it’s by.

So ta to Vermin for the pic, It’s by Kid Zoom from Australia, Vermin from round these parts ish, and a stencil by Remo, also from Australia. Nice big pic, as revelealed by clicking on it.

There’s a new Petro piece on the shutters of the shop by Turbo Island on Jamaica Street too, but as with this time of year, the shutters are only down when it’s dark. Worth a look if you’re round that way though.

After them getting repainted again a couple of weeks ago with a more political message than normal, it seems the Hillgrove Street boards have been repainted black again. Not got a photo, but you all know what they look like when black by now.

Seems it might have been at the owner’s request though, apparently he was heard shouting “This is not a free painting space anymore”. Feel sorry for the bloke in a way, he tries to do something good to help brighten up the local community and ends up in a world of hassle between the council, painters and police.

Given the last work done on there (in the link above) wasn’t done with permission initially, perhaps Stokes Croft needs a system of signs giving the status of each painting wall there. Those that are open to paint whenever, those that need permission and those that are off limits. Not in the spirit of graf, but then Stokes Croft is more ‘Street Art’ these days anyway isn’t it. Just a thought, feel free to flame it in the comments!