A colourful reminder of what you can achieve when you come together, the new Community Spirit mural is an eye-catching addition to the side of AC&D Insurance in downtown Quesnel.
The mural was unveiled Saturday, Sept. 26 as part of Quesnel’s Culture Days celebrations and the start of the Quesnel Downtown Art Walk.
The Quesnel Art Gallery sold hexagons and paint kits to community members this summer, who took them home and painted them in a wide variety of designs using pink, orange, green and blue hues. The 115 individual tiles now form the leaves of a giant, colourful tree on the mural, which can be seen from Carson Street as you enter the downtown core.
Sandra Lewis, president of the Quesnel Downtown Association, thanked all the businesses that supported the project and organizations involved in bringing the mural to life in a ceremony at the Integris Credit Union parking lot that included a performance by the Aka Bellas.
“This has been a really difficult year to ask, but as always, everyone has given,” she said. “I do really want to thank everybody for buying a hexagon.”
The Community Spirit mural started as an idea from artist and Quesnel Art Gallery director Cyndi Cassidy, and the team of Lee-Anne Chisholm and Aaron Harder turned it into a reality as artistic directors, co-ordinating the painting of the background — which is a stylized landscape of the Quesnel Riverwalk — and installing the individual mosaic tiles painted by members of the community.
“The diversity and creativity of artists was super inspiring,” said Harder. “We hope it will remind people that even in difficult times, we are stronger together.”
Cassidy thanked everyone who was involved in the project.
“The community involvement in bringing this project to this point today is wonderful and almost overwhelming,” she said.
READ MORE: Latest Quesnel mural has hundreds of painters
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