With the Paint with Purpose Initiative, the city of Renton will be connecting artists with property owners looking to add murals to graffiti-prone areas.

Renton Economic Development Manager Jessie Kotarski said Paint with Purpose Initiative is a graffiti-abatement program.

“This is our attempt to combat graffiti with a positive solution,” Kotarski said. “So our hope here is to provide an opportunity for public art by working with property owners and local artists to create partnerships.”

Kotarski said studies have found that public art deters graffiti in cities.

“Typically artists have a respect for other artists’ work, whether they’re street artists, graffiti artists or professionals, and then tend to leave art alone,” Kotarski said.

The city’s website says anti-graffiti coatings are also applied to murals to help prevent future vandalism.

The website for the new program recently went live and has interest forms for property owners and for artists.

“Essentially the city gets to play matchmaker,” Kotarski said. “The property owner will have artists to get an idea of what their style is and then the city will connect the property owner to the artist.”

Kotarski said the owners and artists will work out what they would like to see on the wall, and the city will help with the permitting process. Murals are exempt from the city’s sign code if they meet criteria for visibility, accessibility and artistic quality, according to the city’s website.

“This program helps serve as a way to make it easier for both property owners and artists to create art on walls out here in the public,” Kotarski said.

Kotarski said murals help create pride in a place.

“People come, travel to find murals,” Kotarski said. “It’s also a nice indicator that this is a space that the community has pride in and is willing to put art into. Art is always a great opportunity to show your community is thriving. Whenever artists are, you tend to have a lot of community and a lot of culture and a lot of people who are investing in their space and in their public areas.”

Kotarski said the goal is to convert “high-risk” properties into areas that are more visually appealing or culturally significant. Another requirement for potential mural locations is they must be in the public view, not something like an internally facing wall.

Kotarski said the property owners will be paying the artists for their work. The city will cover up to a maximum of 50 percent of the total project costs, not to exceed $10,000, according to the Paint with Purpose guidelines on the city website.

“There will be some buy-in from the property owners, but their investment in the project will balance out what they are currently doing to constantly cover up the graffiti and the tags on their building,” Kotarski said.

Kotarski said this is a citywide program.

“Murals are just a great way to add a lot of beauty to your city,” Kotarski said. “This is another opportunity to get art throughout the city. There’s a high concentration currently of murals in the downtown, but we really want to see art throughout citywide. We know there are walls and we know there are some spaces out there that are just dying for some art.”

Kotarski said the program is not just limited to businesses.

“If you are in a neighborhood that’s like ‘I’ve got this wall that I drive by every day or I’ve got this fence line every day that is constantly tagged and I think this is a great candidate,’ then we’d like to do that too,” Kotarski said.

Interest forms and the full guidelines for the initiative can be found on the Creative Economy landing page on the city’s website.