By Staff
May 23, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
The Canada 150 Mosaic project brings together 150 communities and thousands of participants to create community murals that celebrate Canada’s unique history and culture. Burlington’s mural will be made of 400 tiles.
This work is not part of the Burlington effort – it was in the painting room where people could get some ideas.
During the weekend literally hundreds of young people and their parents were at the Art Gallery taking part in what is going to be a national visual celebration of our 150 years as a nation.
Burlington residents were invited to paint their own tile that will become part of the mural.
When there is an open event that focuses on young people we get to see the Art Gallery at its best. The regular high brow art shows are fine – we do get to see some exceptionally good work.
What the kids bring is energy, enthusiasm and awe.
Leslie Page runs the Children’s program at the Art Gallery
The art program for the younger set is guided by Leslie Page who was swamped with the turnout on Monday afternoon when she had to tell some people that the gallery was going to close soon – they could take one of the 400 blank tiles home, paint it and bring it back.
It was that kind of day.
It was a “master piece as far as this young boy was concerned – the girl wasn’t as certain.
Everyone was welcome – they weren’t expected to be an artist to participate. The limited number of mural tiles were handed out on a first come, first served basis.
There was a painting set up at the Burlington Mall; the Gazette covered the event Monday afternoon at the Art Gallery
The finished product will be unveiled on Saturday, July 1, 2017 at the Burlington Music Centre on New Street at 10:00 am
Burlington’s contribution to the 150 different murals that are being created to celebrate our sesquicentennial
The Canada 150 Mosaic project is led by internationally recognized artists Lewis Lavoie, Paul Lavoie and Phil Alain. It is a mammoth undertaking.
On July 1st, Canada will turn 150 years old. It is a country that has welcomed the world through its borders.
To celebrate this birthday, the Mural Mosaic team is launching a bold undertaking. Over a two year span, the trio plan to create a mural including all provinces and territories, over 80,000 paintings and 150 individual murals that when united will form one gigantic mural mosaic. The mural, if ever connected would be over 365 meters wide (4 football fields) x 2.5 meters high (8 feet).
Two local artists look over the hundreds of tiles painted to make up the mural: Donna Grandin and Dominique Prevost seem to approve.
The mural will represent a cultural mosaic, a time capsule, a visual portrayal of history, an art masterpiece from the soul of the nation. An art piece that fifty years from now, may inspire another generation, who will in turn be able to celebrate through the mural, and maybe take it upon themselves to add to this memory
Like the first settlers to come to the country, this project is full of ambition, adventure and the desire to trail blaze into new exciting frontiers. It will also face great challenges and obstacles. But, if history proves itself correctly, the trio of art explorers, Lewis Lavoie, Paul Lavoie and Phil Alain will find their way and en route will meet up with like-minded art explorers and something remarkable will be born.
Every tile was an individual effort – this artist is thinking through what she wants to say with her tile.
Each province and territory will have only 5-15 individual communities who will be selected to represent the province and the nation. Each community will host an event inviting participants from far and wide from their region to participate and create their own community mural, which will then connect to the nation.
Upon the completion of the entire Canada 150 Mosaic, each community mural will reside in the town or city where it was created as a reminder of the 150th anniversary, and the pride of the community and the nation.
