Unit 5: Wall Art
ArtText A
Free Walls: Melbourne's Graffiti Experiment
Since 2010, Melbourne City Council has designated six inner-city laneways as "free walls" where spray painting is legal without a permit. The most famous of these, Hosier Lane, is now visited by more than one million people a year and is listed on Visit Victoria's official tourism map alongside the National Gallery. Local businesses report that foot traffic in the surrounding streets has roughly doubled since the programme began. Youth workers have also noticed a change: a 2022 council report found that arrests for illegal tagging in the central business district had fallen by 43% over five years. Supporters argue that legal zones channel creative energy into a safe, visible space, give young artists a legitimate stage, and turn a long-standing problem into an attraction at almost no cost to the city.
Text B
When a Rebel Art Becomes a Shop Window
Writing in The Sydney Morning Herald in 2023, urban sociologist Dr James O'Brien argued that Melbourne's model is already losing its original energy. "Once a laneway is officially approved and photographed every day by tourists," he wrote, "the risk that gave graffiti its voice simply disappears." O'Brien's research team counted the images in Hosier Lane over six months and found that the share featuring clear political content — workers' rights, housing, climate change — had fallen from 44% in 2016 to only 18% in 2023, while advertising-style pieces commissioned by cafés and clothing brands had risen sharply. He also noted that tags had spread at least 300 metres beyond the legal walls into neighbouring streets, suggesting that "designated zones do not contain graffiti; they just concentrate the tourists while the rest of the city paints on regardless."
Statistic
A 2024 City of Melbourne resident survey of 3,500 people found that 71% supported keeping the free-wall programme, but 49% also agreed with the statement "I avoid walking down the laneway because it has become too crowded with tourists."
Paragraph 1: Review the sources
Write a short review (~100 words) of what Text A and Text B say about Melbourne's free-wall programme. Identify what each source claims and use the statistic to show where the evidence is mixed.
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Paragraph 2: Your recommendation
Based on this review, would you recommend that a city like Hanoi open legal "free-wall" zones for street artists? Give one reason and one condition. (~80 words)
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