The provincial government is helping to beautify downtown Kamloops.
Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, and Kamloops-South Thompson MLA, Todd Stone announced $19,000 in funding for the painting of back alley murals.
The project is funded through the Community and Employer Partnerships program and has created two jobs for the painting of three murals in Kamloops, managed by the Kamloops Central Business Improvement Association (KCBIA).
“Instead of ignoring the back alleys and making them look bad, we wanted to beautify them and improve it because a lot of people do walk down them and we want people to feel safe and excited about walking down our back alleys,” said Gay Pooler, General Manager of the KCBIA.
One mural has already been painted behind All A-Board Games on Lansdowne Street, which is a large dragon that faces the Sandman Hotel.
A second mural is currently in the works behind the Fremont Block building, located between 246 and 250 Victoria Street. The mural features a female painter, which represents the artistic culture of downtown, as the mural is on the back of the 4Cats Art Studio and the Art We Are.
“At first I thought not many people were going to see it, but there is actually a lot of traffic back here,” said Kylene Cacheline, who designed and is painting the mural behind Victoria Street. “The people who do come back here are extremely nice. I’ve had some really great conversations with the people back here, I really like the alley."
For Cacheline, a graphic designer and sociology student from Kamloops, the mural was a chance to let her artistic creativity flow.
“The style was left up to me and this is what I came up with,” she said. “I like having fun with (painting) the person. People are my favourite thing to paint and this time I got to do a style that I don’t normally use. It was a good opportunity to have fun with it.”
One more mural will be painted on the Service Canada building located at 5th Avenue and Seymour Street, but the design has not yet been decided.
The project will cost approximately $31,000 and the property owners pay for the costs of supplies, such as equipment rentals and paint.
“We’re taking the back ends or sides of buildings that may not be the most pleasant to look at and we’re putting these beautiful murals on them, which really does beautify all the space around,” Stone said. “It provides a wonderful opportunity for artistic expression, and we have some amazing artists here in Kamloops who are working on these murals.”
The KCBIA launched the murals project six years ago. They also reduced the amount of dumpsters and improved street lighting to make the downtown space more inviting. Once the 2015 project is complete, there will be 20 murals across downtown Kamloops.
“People love the murals,” Pooler said. “A lot of people are using them for photo backdrop, whether it is family pictures or wedding pictures, and musicians love them for album covers and posters. That was an unintended benefit.”
The murals are scheduled to be finished by October 16th.
