Launceston Mayor Albert van Zetten tags a street art-styled portrait of himself by Launceston artist Ben Miller at the opening of the Launceston City Council's Off The Wall street art competition.
PUBLIC art installations will be erected around Launceston to curb graffiti vandalism.
The installations are one part of a multi- faceted approach involving the Launceston City Council, Tasmania Police and Launceston artists in reducing the presence of graffiti around the city.
The plan is to survey graffiti hotspots with five mobile CCTV cameras, conduct education workshops in high schools and select artists to contribute to up to 10 public art installations.
The start of this assault on graffiti was launched at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery yesterday with the Off The Wall street art competition.
The competition will see 10 artworks selected for exhibition over winter at the Sawtooth Gallery with its winner scoring a $2000 cash prize.
The council's youth community officer Wendy Newton said the work could contribute to public art installations the council wants to see replace vandalism in Launceston's graffiti hot spots to reduce "tagging".
She said police and artists would work together to identify these places.
Launceston Mayor Albert van Zetten said the competition was an attempt to legitimise some street art.
The council spends $120,000 cleaning graffiti off its assets each year.
Competition entries close on Wednesday, July 31.For information, visit offthewallcomp.com.au.