Peachland looking for positive, uplifting murals for project
Back alleys in Peachland will get more colourful with the planned addition of “positive and uplifting” murals before the Labour Day long weekend.
Town council was expected Tuesday to lend its support to the Making Waves Mural Festival, from Sept. 2-4.
In the next few weeks, murals will be painted on the back of several Beach Avenue buildings and the side of the Royal Canadian Legion branch. The commissioned artists are LALA Layla and Lacey Art from Vancouver, Sheldon Louis from the Penticton Indian Band, and Nereo Zorro, from Mexico via Winnipeg.
Festival organizers, the non-profit Peachland Community Connects, say they hope the inaugural event will beautify some public spaces and attract more tourists to Peachland.
“The ultimate goal is to create year-round an openair public art gallery that will provide Peachland residents and visitors with an ever changing uplifting visual experience; that will delight visitors as they take in the lake views, the beaches, and all the other amenities Peachland provides,” the festival website states.
A guide to artists interested in participating in future mural festivals offers this advice:
“Artworks should be positive portrayals of subject matter and be uplifting. They may be thought-provoking, but shouldn’t be divisive or of known controversial or ‘offensive’ subjects,” the guide states.
“The styles can be ‘edgy’, realistic, abstract, or impressionistic, but we are striving to have a good representation of many artistic styles.”
More details of festival events will be released in the coming weeks. Town council is expected to provide the use of municipally-owned facilities for free as a show of support for the mural festival.