Some of Civic's much-maligned and dour walls will be handed over to talented street artists in the coming weeks in an attempt to revitalise the area and eradicate graffiti hot-spots.
Canberra CBD chief executive Jane Easthope said a number of walls were being considered with the initiative aimed at addressing "trouble spots" and bringing new life to the area.
"There has been a lot murals put up in the city now that are quite old and have really stood the test of time," she said.
"This is about keeping it fresh and giving the people something new."
The project will be managed by Geoff Filmer, the owner of collaborative street artist agency Graffik Paint, who expects to begin work in coming weeks.
"We're intending to do a whole lot more walls in the city and the projects will involve some fairly significant artists from the Canberra community," he said.
"We've got a number of sites already picked out, but it's just a matter of juggling them in the coming months."
Ms Easthope said Mr Filmer's street art credentials were well established and the initiative could go a long way to addressing some of the city's challenges with graffiti.
"We're mainly concentrating on areas where we have problem with graffiti and maybe we can turn a few people into artists by giving them a legal site to work with," she said.
Territory and Municipal Services workers removed illegal graffiti from 19,845 locations across Canberra between January and September this year, with $520,000 committed to graffiti removal expenses this financial year.
The most concentrated areas of graffiti were Bunda Street in the City and Callam Street in Woden while most of the 404 incidents of graffiti reported to TAMS during past 12 months came from Phillip, Calwell and Civic.
Mr Filmer said the planned murals would showcase the benefits of the ACT Government's 26 legal street art locations, which allow artists to practice their skills safely without falling in trouble with the law or damaging public property.
"The funny thing about Canberra is although we're an urban city we're quite spread out so the same applies for our urban art," he said.
"There is a lot of art out in the suburbs because that's where a lot of artists have been able to tune up their skills."
Ms Easthope said she hoped the initiative would encourage businesses to consider how they could use public art to distinguish their businesses.
"We'd really like to think owners could treat wall art as an integral part of expressing themselves," she said.
The project will feature established Canberra street artists such as Byrd and Atune who have developed skills at the legal locations and have become leaders in the community.
"Atune is responsible for setting up a lot of that stuff and making it possible for new generations to acquire big wall experience which is so rare around the world," said Mr Filmer.
Mr Filmer said the initiative had been welcomed by many artists in Canberra as it led to a more collaborative community where their work could be appreciated by the public.
"What happens around the world is people will run down and do it overnight but now people can come down and share their work with others through open conversations without feeling as though they will get in trouble."
"You can see a lot of people who don't paint illegally simply because there is always a good space relatively nearby where they can take their time and openly share their work."
Ms Easthope said Mr Filmer would also paint a piano which would be placed in City Walk for public use during the Christmas period.
