Graffiti artists urged to take part in new ‘legal art wall’ trial in Wiltshire

The new art wall will be situated at the underpass on the A350 Bath Road which leads to the Melksham Railway Station and the Asda superstore. While it will continue to be managed and monitored by Wiltshire Council, a local community arts group will take on the day-to-day running of the wall, including the maintenance and cleaning of the artwork. It will be the responsibility of all the users to ensure they keep to the specified area and adhere to the code of conduct, which includes no offensive tags and respecting all users of the underpass. All materials, such as paint and other art supplies, will be provided by the wall users, and the council will step in to remove any inappropriate artwork if required. The announcement ends several years of indecision about what to do with the underpass, which has been targeted by graffiti artists in the past. In 2016, there was talk about creating a heritage art project involving children from Melksham Oak Community School at a cost of £35,000-£40,000 but it never materialised. Some of the graffiti spray-painted on the walls of the Bath Rosd underpass in Melksham in 2018. (Image: Trevor Porter) In January 2018, vandals...