NEWS RELEASE
CITY OF GUELPH
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The four finalists for the Main Street mural project have been chosen. Each artist or artist duo will enhance one of four sites starting this September: the side wall beside the Guelph Farmers’ Market, the wooden inlet on the side of City Hall and both sides of the Wilson Street underpass.
“We are blown away by the response to our call,” says Stacey Dunnigan, manager of Culture and Tourism with the City of Guelph. “We’d like to congratulate our finalists and thank all of the talented artists who applied. We also recognize and appreciate our dedicated Public Art Advisory Committee who worked tirelessly throughout this process.”
The Main Street Mural artists:
Pellvetica
- Sandy and Steve Pell, a husband and wife duo from Kitchener, are awarded the commission for the side wall beside the Guelph Farmers’ Market. Their design is a monarch butterfly – a nod to Guelph’s nickname, the Royal City, and a tribute to pollinators.
Cheka Creative Inc.
- Alex Kwong and Sergey Ryutin from Calgary are awarded the commission for the wooden inlet on the side of City Hall. Their layered design features Guelph’s founder, John Galt, the Basilica on the hill, a young fawn referencing the upcoming public art installation by Eldon Cram and Robert Garnet, maple leaves and a map of Guelph.
Kenneth Lavallee
- Lavallee, a Métis artist from Winnipeg, was awarded the east underpass wall on the Guelph Farmers’ Market side. His design, entitled Cultivation, uses a simplified graphic style inspired by pictograms and the Attawandaron whose land was described as a ‘community of longhouses surrounded by fields of corn.’
Emmanuel Jarus
- Jarus, a Toronto artist, was awarded the fourth site on the west underpass wall. Jarus’ design features a variety of birds, creating movement across a blue sky. Jarus was inspired by Ted Fullerton’s bird sculptures in Market Square and Guelph Central Station and will work with local community bird watching groups to identify local birds for the final artwork.
Each artist or artist duo was selected by the City’s Council-appointed Public Art Advisory Committee after being shortlisted into a group of twelve candidates out of 202 submissions. The art is expected to be installed in September 2019.
About Ontario’s Main Street Revitalization Initiative
The project is funded through the Main Street Revitalization Initiative, a $26 million fund from the Government of Ontario, announced in 2018. The fund invests in the revitalization of main street areas to support and grow local businesses by driving tourism and encouraging public investment in municipal and public infrastructure.
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