Wildflowers to sprout on new mural

A Prince Edward County artist has been chosen to paint a mural on a south-facing wall of the building on Aylmer St. N. that houses GreenUp and Artspace.

Chrissy Poitras of Picton will be painting a colourful mural featuring local wildflowers.

Installation will take place in the month of September. It is expected that the project will be done by October.

The city’s arts, culture and heritage advisory committee approved the artist selection at a meeting on Thursday afternoon.

The submission from Poitras was recommended to the committee by a five-person jury that reviewed all 44 submissions received in a crossCanada call for artists.

Meanwhile there’s also going to be a second mural on the YWCA building, to be installed this fall.

The plan is to have an artist begin installation of this one in mid-tolate September, and be done in a month.

The mural will go on an east wall, facing the city bus terminal.

Becky Rogers, the manager of the arts, culture and heritage division for the city, told the committee that the Downtown Business Improvement Area is going to put $20,000 toward it.

The DBIA’s plan is to continue investing $20,000 in downtown public art annually for at least the next four years, Rogers said.

She also said the city had set aside $35,000 to install another fresh mural this summer (following in the tradition of the two murals beneath the arches of the Hunter Street Bridge).

Rogers said the city’s $35,000 and the DBIA’s $20,000, pooled together, will pay for both the Artspace mural and the YWCA mural.

But Rogers said there’s no time to put out another national call for artists – and yet the DBIA wants a new mural this year.

So Jon Lockyer, the director of Artspace, suggested having the same jury return to its shortlist (minus Poitras) and select an artist for the YWCA building.

Artspace administers mural projects for the city, and Lockyer was one of the five voting members of the jury. He said the remaining submissions on the shortlist are strong.

“Those were quality submissions – on par with what Chrissy Poitras brought to the table,” he said.

It was proposed that the jury return to the shortlist and make a recommendation to the committee at its next meeting in September, and the committee approved the plan.

Picton artist Chrissy Poitras was selected to do a mural on the southfacing wall of the Artspace building on Aylmer St. The wall faces the Greyhound station.

CLIFFORD SKARSTEDT/EXAMINER The side of the Artspace building, where a new mural will be painted by an artist from Picton.

CLIFFORD SKARSTEDT/EXAMINER The east side of the YWCA building on Simcoe St. near the Peterborough Transit Terminal, where a DBIA mural will be painted, is seen Thursday.