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Ottawa Mural Program
Murals on Underpasses - 2015
Following its first year success, four new murals will be installed on the City of Ottawa’s underpasses by the end of summer 2015. Murals will be created by artists to beautify and enhance these underpasses as key gateways to the City with images that reflect and depict local culture, history or visions of artistic expression. Outdoor murals are effective in managing graffiti vandalism, supporting arts and culture and contributing to economic development. Two underpass mural locations were selected for 2015s project as follows;
Each location will feature a mural celebrating the 150th anniversary of Canada’s Confederation in 2017 painted by renowned local mural artist Nicole Belanger. A Request for Qualifications is now accepting proposals until April 30, 2015 to select a local artist who will consult with the local community to design and install a community inspired mural on the opposing wall. The artwork is expected to be completed by the end of August 2015. To provide comments on this project, for sponsorship opportunities, or for more information please call 3-1-1 or email mural@ottawa.ca. http://ottawa.ca/en/residents/water-...ls-underpasses |
Ottawa puts call out to artists to beautify ‘gateways to the city’
By Alex Robinson Ottawa East News, Apr 16, 2015 http://media.zuza.com/a/c/ac115a7f-1...___Content.jpg The city is searching for local artists interested in making their mark on two highway underpasses in the run up to Canada’s 150th birthday celebrations in 2017. City officials launched a contest on April 3 to find an artist to paint community murals in underpasses that run beneath Hwy. 417 at Bank Street and Carling Avenue. The competition was first held last year in the hopes of curbing graffiti on public walls by beautifying the community. “The idea is to beautify gateways coming into the city and looking at it from a perspective of engaging the community in the design,” said Leslie Vanclief, a section manager with public works. Last year’s murals, painted under Hwy. 417 at Metcalfe Street and Bronson Avenue at Riverside Drive, have helped to deter vandals from scrawling graffiti in the underpasses, Vanclief said. “When a mural is installed, it reduces the amount of graffiti that is put on the wall,” she said. Artists are expected to hold public consultations with the community for their designs and mural submissions are required to follow the theme of the 2017 celebrations. Contestants have until the end of April to submit designs to the city. A committee of community members will then select a shortlist of three artists for each underpass, who will then further develop their concepts with the surrounding communities before submitting a final design. The committee will then select a winner in June and the city hopes work on the murals will get underway by July and will be finished in mid-August. The city has budgeted $25,000 for each mural. Last year’s winning murals included work by local artists Christopher Griffin, Nicole Bélanger and Ottawa Urban Arts. Each underpass had a mural on one side with Bélanger’s 150th anniversary-themed paintings, and on the other were community inspired murals by Griffin and Ottawa Urban Arts, a team of urban artists who seek to empower youth. Bélanger said she plans to submit another project this year. “I have a very unique concept this year,” she said. “It’s a concept I’ve been working on through the years that I’m presenting to them. It’s very different.” Griffin’s work, which was put up where Riverside Drive runs under Bronson Avenue, incorporated peregrine falcons. The artist took inspiration from the Ottawa Falcon Watch, a group of volunteers who guarded a nest of falcon hatchlings at a nearby bridge. “I never knew there were peregrine falcons there before and that there was this group of volunteers,” he said. “Highlighting and incorporating the falcons was a natural subject matter and inspiration for the mural.” After it was installed last summer, Griffin’s work took on a life of its own as observers quickly took to the social networking website Reddit to speculate the meaning of the murals. “It’s really interesting as an artist to realize once you do your work and it’s out there in the public to continue the conversation and you’re no longer relevant,” he said. “People were making stories up about it. And no one really knew if it was that somebody just placed them there and what the meaning was behind them.” More information on the competition can be found at ottawa.ca. http://www.ottawacommunitynews.com/n...-to-the-city-/ |
Not all part of the mural program and not all in Ottawa, but I posted these on the Canada thread a while back.
One of the originals under the Queensway at Preston, one of the signature pieces of Little Italy. http://anitaliancanadianlife.ca/file...7/IMG_7504.jpg http://anitaliancanadianlife.ca/2012...-little-italy/ Chinatown has bunch of murals on a few buildings. Here is just one: https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3702/1...20746a1b_z.jpg https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeygottawa/13822507865/ Recent ones under the Queensway at Metcalfe: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bv-oi8pIUAEGfUd.jpg:large https://twitter.com/RyanKennery https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Br0o4YQCAAEEq5F.jpg:large https://twitter.com/CentretownNews Hull, Québec: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...cteur_Hull.jpg http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...cteur_Hull.jpg |
You know, they could designate a few as legal Graffiti areas, which would mean free art.
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Stumbled upon this thread. I had forgotten about it.
Here are a few murals. Preston street underpass in Little Italy. http://spacing.ca/ottawa/wp-content/...44-600x398.jpg http://spacing.ca/ottawa/2014/05/28/...pe-initiative/ Main street underpass in Old Ottawa East. https://ottawa.ca/sites/default/file...west_wall2.jpg https://ottawa.ca/sites/default/file...east_wall2.jpg https://ottawa.ca/en/living-ottawa/e...ogram#paint-it |
Get the story behind Centretown's murals, while you still can
CBC Ottawa series aims to inject some life into the neighbourhood walk Trevor Pritchard · CBC News · Jun 04, 2021 We're more than a year into the pandemic, and there's a decent chance the trusty neighbourhood walk — one of our few consistent outlets for physical exercise and mental stimulation — is starting to feel a bit stale. Well, we want to help. Over the next few weeks, we'll be rolling out curated neighbourhood strolls designed to give you new insight into the streets you've been trudging along all these months. And while previous entries in this series required you to actually live in the neighbourhood, thanks to the stay-at-home order, there's good news, intrepid city walkers: that order has now been lifted. This week: Kimberley Dawkins of Ottawa urban art and hip-hop festival House of Paint shares the stories behind the sometimes-fleeting murals of Centretown. https://i.cbc.ca/1.6052378.162275104...tawa-space.jpg House of Paint communications co-ordinator Kimberley Dawkins stands next to the mural on the side of Spaceman Music. While commissioned works like this one will likely stick around, many murals are less permanent, and Dawkins says you should get out and see them while you can. (Trevor Pritchard/CBC) A good starting point, Dawkins says, is the secluded parking lot beside the Arlington Five coffee shop, just off Bank Street. Last summer, a number of pieces were installed in the parking lot by muralists, graffiti artists and other visual artists as part of a collaboration between House of Paint and the café. The sheer concentration of work — a cartoon shark, a vibrant pink flamingo, a tribute to action hero Black Panther — makes it "a wonderful jumping-off point" for people to get acquainted with the names in the local scene, says Dawkins. Its semi-hidden nature also rewards the observant walker, she adds. "This is the sort of space that asks you to stop and pay attention, and to take a deeper look at what's going on in your neighbourhood," Dawkins says. From there, Dawkins suggests heading north on Bank, hanging a left at Gladstone Avenue, and popping your head into another parking lot, this time next to Spaceman Music. You'll immediately be confronted by a bear with a piercing pair of eyes, painted onto a garage — with ears sticking out beyond the structure's confines. Created by a Chilean-Canadian artist who goes by the name "Shalak Attack," it's one of Dawkins's favourite pieces in the downtown. And if you spin around 180 degrees, you'll see more of her work: a large face created by the Clandestinos collective. "Many of the pieces that we're looking at … are not necessarily all by one artist," said Dawkins. "They're not all painted by one person, which is another really exciting thing about murals — that they're often a creative space for collaborative work." https://i.cbc.ca/1.6052355.162275062...lot-ottawa.jpg awkins stands in the parking lot next to the Arlington Five coffee shop in Ottawa on June 2, 2021. A number of murals were installed in the parking lot last summer. (Trevor Pritchard/CBC) From there, it's a bit of a hike west along Gladstone Avenue all the way to the McNabb Recreation Centre. High up the wall on the centre's southwest side is a mural initially during the city's Pride week in 2015 to honour murdered transgender women of colour. After it was defaced, the mural was repainted and relocated to the centre, where it was installed well off the ground. "Folks were very passionate about ensuring that it was kept safe," Dawkins said. https://i.cbc.ca/1.6052326.162275292...une-2-2021.jpg A mural to commemorate murdered transgender women of colour is seen on the side of the McNabb Recreation Centre on June 2, 2021. It was painted in 2015 and moved there after being defaced at its previous location near Bank and Somerset streets. (Trevor Pritchard/CBC) Dawkins suggests then wandering north through McNabb Park and the neighbouring streets to Dundonald Park. You'll find assorted bits of public infrastructure adorned with paint — check out the fish swimming along a concrete barrier at Somerset Street W. and Bronson Avenue — as well as brightly coloured benches in the park itself, funded through the City of Ottawa's Paint it Up! program. Not only do those sorts of works make streetscapes more vibrant, they also give cities an "idiosyncratic" character, Dawkins says. "Each city is going to have a different artist, and each artist is going to have a different perspective," said Dawkins. "[It's] part of what creates a dynamic and vibrant and exciting city space." https://i.cbc.ca/1.6052387.162275122...art-ottawa.jpg A painted park bench is seen in Ottawa's Dundonald Park on June 2, 2021. (Trevor Pritchard/CBC) Finally, head north to Bank Street at Lisgar Avenue to see what remains of the "We Gon' Be Alright" mural. Painted on construction hoarding by Jimmy Baptiste, Allan Andre, David D. Pistol and Kalkidan Assefa, the "affirming and reassuring" mural went up in the summer of 2020 amidst global anti-Black racism protests, Dawkins says. A vicious storm blew down the part of the piece that faces Bank Street, but the Lisgar Avenue stretch remains — serving as a reminder, Dawkins says, of the sometimes ephemeral nature of murals. "That's the nature of public art, right?" says Dawkins. "You're literally subject to the world. Sometimes that happens, and it is really unfortunate." https://i.cbc.ca/1.6052370.162275097...public-art.jpg This bear's face, painted by Chilean-Canadian artist 'Shalak Attack,' is seen on a garage just off Gladstone Avenue in Ottawa on June 2, 2021. (Trevor Pritchard/CBC) For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here. https://i.cbc.ca/1.6052334.162275032...ves-matter.jpg Dawkins stands in front of what remains of the 'We Gon' Be Alright' mural at the intersection of Bank and Lisgar streets on June 2, 2021. Half of the mural blew down in a powerful storm last year. (Trevor Pritchard/CBC) https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...ille-1.6051196 with video. |
Having lived in Centretown for the last 5 years or so, it has been an absolute joy to see each of these murals pop up. I don't know a single person who dislikes them at all, and I really hope the City is aware how beloved they are.
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Maybe a future mural, to remember history.
From the BBC Culture website https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/...ine-atrocities https://i.imgur.com/i5Qb7e6.png https://i.imgur.com/CAV1y2O.png |
Found out about this on Radio-Canada's Tout inclus. A website dedicated to murals across Canada, including a map:
https://muralroutes.ca/ |
Near Riverside and Bank.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E8rYms7W...pg&name=medium https://twitter.com/StephaneOCH_LCO/...90395847942150 ByWard Market (unrelated, note the old Fish Market's new paint job). |
We could use a whole lot more of this on our brutalist towers to lighten up this city. Then we just need to figure out how to beautify Roderick Lahey's towers...
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Best looking mural this side of Montreal! :)
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We need more murals like this!!
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There's a really nice mural being painted on Waller street at the corner of Rideau on the building hosting a tattoo shop (198 Rideau Street)
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Much better. Glad to see they've figured out what to do with blank walls.
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Behind the Seoul Dog at 154 O'Conner
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...8f0ea5_b_d.jpg Turn around and you have this one at 150 Gloucester https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...554c38_b_d.jpg Side of 191 Prom. du Portage in Hull https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...59be98_b_d.jpg The last one is even bigger than it looks. It's scale is really impressive! I love the repeating pattern in the background that spans its entirety. |
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