Nanaimo’s Urban Art Gallery is starting to take shape.
Over the Victoria Day long weekend, Alyssa Glassford and Lauren Semple of Humanity in Art painted a pride-themed mural on a large portion of the Wallace Street-facing outer wall of the old A&B Sound building in downtown Nanaimo. It is the first of 13 murals that will eventually adorn the outside of the structure.
Glassford and Semple conceived the project and put out a call for artists to participate. Glassford said they didn’t know what to expect but got “the best possible results.”
“The artist response has been amazing. We had an overwhelming amount of submissions from local artists who were just really excited to be a part of the project,” she said.
“It’s absolutely inspiring to see the level of support and passion from the artistic community.”
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Can you guess where @humanityinart is going with their design? pic.twitter.com/47dDB7BKvC
— Josef Jacobson (@josefjacobson89) May 19, 2018
In the end, Semple and Glassford selected artists Willow Friday, Spencer Croft, Sebastian Abboud, Jennifer Short and Eddy Martin Graham to add their murals to the building. They will be working throughout the summer.
“We were not only looking for amazing artists who are super talented … but we also wanted artists who live, work and just absolutely love our downtown community,” Glassford said.
“So honestly, after reviewing all of the submissions and concept designs we selected five people who are extremely talented and full of passion. So we want them to bring their passion for art, their passion for community spirit, to our little corner of downtown.”
arts@nanaimobulletin.com
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