Partners

• ICCROM (International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property)
• City of Rome
• Istituto Centrale del Restauro (ICR)

Participants
Students age 7-13.

Aim

• Heighten student awareness of the cultural heritage surrounding them in their city;
• teach students that heritage is fragile and is threatened by various environmental and human factors, including graffiti;
• discourage them from creating graffiti;
• encourage them to persuade their peers to stop doing graffiti.

Project description
In 1995 the City of Rome conducted a study and found that 7,000 square meters of the city were covered with graffiti. To address the problem the City organized a seminar, at which it was decided to create a public awareness campaign. The city invited ICCROM to conduct a campaign to increase student awareness about the problems caused by graffiti.

ICCROM and the Istituto Centrale del Restauro (ICR) organized a citywide poster competition for school children. ICR created a video for students, and ICCROM prepared guidelines and didactic materials for teachers. ICCROM also organized lectures for schools if they were interested.
The Stop Graffiti poster competition and campaign targeted two key audiences via two different methods.

1. schools targeted students by conducting an extensive education campaign about the damage that graffiti, among other human and environmental agents, causes stonewalls and monuments. Students were motivated to learn about graffiti, as they were all eligible to win prizes in the competition.
2. the city printed the winning posters and used them in a public awareness campaign, displaying them on buses, and other public spaces throughout Rome. The city also printed several of the winning posters on milk cartons – a creative method of getting the message into homes.

Main achievements

• The competition created an opportunity to teach students about graffiti and to discuss the damages it causes fragile cultural heritage;
• winners received prizes, such as commemorative plaques, backpacks, t-shirts, and so on. The prizes repeated the Graffiti Stop slogans, which further promoted the campaign’s anti-graffiti message;
• posters created by students were used for a public awareness campaign.

updated on: 8 August, 2006