(City of Red Deer)

By rdnewsNOW Staff

Meet the Streets 2022

Nine new murals coming to Red Deer: artists and downtown wall spaces wanted

Mar 4, 2022 | 3:56 PM

Downtown Red Deer is about to get nine new murals.

As part of the Meet the Streets arts and culture initiative, The City of Red Deer is looking for skilled Canadian mural artists and property owners that wish to contribute to the project by providing spaces for the murals in historic downtown.

In 2021, the inaugural Meet the Street created opportunities for 15 new murals in Red Deer’s downtown area. The murals were painted by 14 artists during the summer, and a festival was held in September to celebrate their completion. The project began with visual and safety improvements to two central alleys that included installation of full spectrum lighting and music speakers.

Meet the Street 2022 will include nine new murals in underutilized spaces in historic downtown. The spaces selected for murals will have placemaking methodology, an approach to transforming public areas into welcoming community spaces by listening to individuals that live and work in that space.

This year’s nine murals includes:

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• Meet the Street 2.0 Transformation Challenge: Five locations will be selected for the placemaking challenge that invites building owners to participate with community groups and volunteers to beautify and improve a space. Participants will attend placemaking sessions with Community Development facilitators to incorporate a new mural and other placemaking initiatives such as clean-up, urban gardening, creation of social space, or other creative ideas. The project team will match building owners up with a professional mural artist, oversee the mural production, and support building owners in the implementation of the placemaking project.
• Community-based murals and mentor/mentee murals: In addition, two community-based murals (mural design and production lead by a professional artist and painted by volunteers) and two mentor/mentee murals (mural design and production lead by experienced artist supported by an emerging artist). The project team is seeking four professional artists to lead these projects, two emerging artists and two community groups to assist and collaborate, and four property owners to provide wall space.

“Following the huge success of Meet the Street 2021 we’re excited to announce the concept for part two, which will further enhance the vibrancy of Red Deer’s downtown,” said Bobby-Jo Stannard, Community Development Superintendent.

“By introducing a transformation challenge, mentor/mentee murals and community-based murals, the project team aims to encourage collaboration and community involvement in the activation of downtown. We’re looking forward to partnering with the downtown community to realize the vision of a vibrant and attractive downtown.”

City officials say ideal candidates for this project own a building or business in a highly visible downtown location in need of beautification, are willing to contribute resources such as financial or sweat equity, are excited about community collaboration, and are open to exploring new concepts. Those interested are asked to provide an Expression of Interest to the City.

Artists and artist collectives representing a variety of styles, disciplines and cultural backgrounds are invited to apply. Consideration will be given to artists based in Alberta.

Artist submissions and expressions of interest from business owners may be submitted online prior to the deadline of March 18 at 4:00 p.m. Successful applicants will be contacted by April 30, and projects will be completed between July and September 2022.

Meet the Street festival will be held during the 2022 September long weekend. Festival updates will be shared in the coming months.

Learn more about the Meet the Street arts and culture initiative on The City’s website, www.reddeer.ca/MeetTheStreet.