Urban Art Association

What this forum needs...., by saltandiron on Sept 18, 2007 9:10:54 GMT 1, is another thread about micallef.
Joking....

www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2170779,00.html

Reminds you that graf isn't all about gallery shows in Shoreditch.
Think the sentence was more than harsh. It's funny that while Banksy has his stuff protected by perspex other people go to prison for a year.



More than 200 skateboarders and spray-can virtuosos gathered under a ring road flyover in Manchester at the weekend to use their skills to press for the release of two men jailed last month for defacing railway property with graffiti.
Thomas Dolan, 20, and Thomas Whittaker, 18, were sentenced to 15 and 12 months respectively after they admitted causing criminal damage estimated at £13,000 to trains, bridges and other railway property. The judge at Manchester crown court described the pair, known by their tags as Krek and Mers, as "decent people who have a talent" but said those who scarred the railways and other property had to be deterred.


Both men, who also received five-year Asbo orders banning them from carrying paint on the railway, have appealed against the severity of their sentences.
At Saturday's "skate 'n' graff jam", part of a campaign launched by family members and supporters, artists covered boards and a car with work carrying messages of support for Dolan and Whittaker, from Macclesfield, Cheshire.

Danny Dolan said his brother and Whittaker were in Deerbolt young offenders institution in Co Durham. "Both have been asked to hold art workshops in the prison," he said. "One of the investigating police officers asked my brother to paint and tag something on a board for him in case he became famous."

Hundreds of people have joined online campaigns to free the pair and 1,400 messages of support have been posted on the social networking site Facebook.

For almost a year before being jailed Dolan had worked on a project with young offenders and in schools across Greater Manchester. Project leader Andrew Casserley described Dolan's work as fantastic and praised the way he communicated with teenagers.

Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: "There must be many more effective ways of dealing with these young men in the community and enabling them to do enforced community work to pay back for the harm they have caused."

Whittaker was due to start an art degree course at Liverpool John Moores University this month. His stepfather Neil Buttery said: "We know what they did was wrong, but we still say the sentences were harsh."

During the trial the judge, Anthony Ensor, rejected the defence's request for a suspended sentence linked to community work. "This conduct has caused an unpleasant nuisance as well as disruption and expense," he told the pair.