Street art project brings kids and police together in Bridgeland community project

Art is helping to forge new friendships between a group of kids and the policein Calgary's Bridgeland neighbourhood.

Together they've completed a series of murals on the side of a Mac's convenience store. It's part of Mac's cross-Canada street art mural project.

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The aim is to help build positive relationships between businesses, community and the police.

Grafittiartist Magic Finnga Wong says it's something any community group, anywhere,can share.

"When you involve the community, you involve people that work there, live there. You have a sense of team effort and family," saidWong. "It's almost like when you go on a vacation with your family and everyone builds asandcastletogether. It's a moment in life you can cherish and say 'well this is what we did together.'"

Some of theirony of the projectwas not lost on Wong.

"We had tons of pictures of youth and officers shoulder to shoulder spray painting, which was a taboo thing in the past;it would never have happened.

Mural projects like this have also been completed in Toronto, Thunder Bay and Ottawa.

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