---
title: "Legal wall"
description: "A wall where painting is expressly permitted (no commission, no curation) giving writers and muralists a sanctioned place to work in public."
glossary: "https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary"
source: "https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/legal-wall"
---

# Legal wall

> A wall where painting is expressly permitted (no commission, no curation) giving writers and muralists a sanctioned place to work in public.

Glossary: https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary  
Source: https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/legal-wall

The evidence on whether legal walls reduce tagging elsewhere is genuinely
mixed, so that's the wrong promise to build one on. What they reliably do is
develop artists: legal walls are where lettering skills, aerosol technique,
and painting-in-public confidence get built, and many commissioned muralists
started on one. Rotation is the culture's own rule: work gets painted over,
sometimes within days, and everyone painting there understands the deal.

Related terms: [Graffiti](https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/graffiti), [Street art](https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/street-art), [Mural](https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/mural)