Understanding the difference between murals and graffiti<\/p>\n
Christopher Atkins, the Sioux City Arts Center curator, explained the distinction between permitted murals and illegal graffiti depends on authorization from property owners.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just depends on the intention and the context. I\u2019ve seen artists who are muralists do things that can be considered transgressive by not necessarily having permission to do something,\u201d Atkins said.<\/p>\n
A mural represents an agreement between a property owner and an artist, with the artist receiving permission for the artwork. Graffiti is created without permission, often at night or to make a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlways consider intention when looking at different creative expressions. You\u2019ve seen a lot of four-letter words painted other places, which you kind of understand those intentions. But other times, the intention might be very good, but the execution might not be exactly how people intended it to be,\u201d Atkins said.<\/p>\n
The labor required for murals differs significantly from graffiti creation. The mural of women on 7th Street in Sioux City took months to complete due to planning, sketching and painting time for the realistic artwork.<\/p>\n
![\"Mural](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/HFT6QFJYU5FX5IPUPKHQCMT4CU.jpg\")
Mural on 7th Street in Sioux City.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt almost looks like a photograph. That time that goes into, you know, covering the square footage of the wall. But also getting the skin tones right and the hair color right. Getting the eye color right. All of that,\u201d Atkins said.<\/p>\n
Graffiti can be completed in minutes, consisting of simple lines or words. Many graffiti artists \u201ctag\u201d spaces with identifying markers or signatures.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe signature to me feels like they are taking ownership of that space, but also that experience. It\u2019s like \u2018I did this. Not that I just put my name up there, but I got up here.\u2019 And to mark the occasion and say I did that,\u201d Atkins said.<\/p>\n
Legal consequences<\/p>\n
Regardless of artistic merit, creating graffiti without permission constitutes a crime.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat person is either going to be arrested and charged with criminal mischief. Depending on the monetary amount of the damage. Or, they could be cited for the criminal mischief as well,\u201d said Sgt. Tom Gill.<\/p>\n
Removing graffiti in Sioux City<\/p>\n
Property owners have 72 hours to remove graffiti after a report is filed. The city provides free removal services to assist property owners.<\/p>\n
City crews use soda pressure washing to remove paint and have equipment for paint matching. They color-match the wall, mix paint for an exact match, then spray the new color. General graffiti removal takes one to two hours. Damage costs in recent cases have been estimated at around $550.<\/p>\n
To file a graffiti report, residents can visit the Sioux City Police Department website,<\/a> click \u201cPolice Report,\u201d upload images or video, and include location information.<\/p>\n Want to get the latest news and weather from Siouxland\u2019s News Source? Follow these links to download our KTIV News app<\/a> and our First Alert Weather app<\/a>.<\/p>\n Copyright 2026 KTIV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SIOUX CITY (KTIV) – The Sioux City Police Department has launched an online reporting system for graffiti vandalism,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88],"class_list":["post-468876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}