With a large concrete canvas and loads of paint, a UBC Okanagan visual arts instructor turned a summer art class into a two-storey downtown mural.
Throughout a five-week class in July and August, students met and worked collaboratively to paint a colourful mural adjacent to the CTQ Consultants building on St. Paul Street.
“UBC’s department of creative studies partnered with CTQ Consultants to create this exciting new art education experience for (Bachelor of Fine Arts) students,” said UBCO fine arts instructor David Doody. “This course gave students an experience common to painting murals including the use of projectors, mechanical lifts, and a variety of paint applications and techniques.”
CTQ Consultants, an engineering, planning and urban design firm based in downtown Kelowna, was enthusiastic about supporting the first UBCO mural course, according to founding partner Matt Cameron.
Cameron helped to create the school’s first-ever engineering scholarship.
“Although we submitted many of our projects to help David create the CTQ mural, showcasing our 2020 theme of community, we asked that he select an appropriate reflection of what CTQ means to our community and what the community means to CTQ,” said Cameron
Doody chose CTQ’s Harrison Hot Springs project.
That project, which the mural honours, saw CTQ tasked with replacing an old pump at the springs which were inefficient in moving floodwaters, resulting in a 100 per cent mortality rate for the fish. Cameron replaced the pump with one devised in 250 BC — an Archimedes Screw pump — painted it a “fish-friendly canary yellow” and added power to it.
Once operational, the pump reduced the fish mortality rate to under 2 per cent and allowed for the safe handling of floodwaters.
Doody said street art initiatives like this one — and the ones he works on as artistic director of the Uptown Rutland Business Association’s Uptown Mural Project — have revitalized urban centres across the country.
“These vibrant and bold contributions to the neighbourhood, are celebrated by locals and tourists all year round,” he said. “They are recognized as important sites for contemporary Canadian culture.”
READ MORE: More murals coming to Uptown Rutland
READ MORE: Hip three-storey food and music hub proposed for downtown Kelowna
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