Creative Airdrie held a party yesterday (October 1).

The soiree was held at the concession at Nose Creek Park to unveil the Airdrie contribution to the Canada 150 Mosaic Project. The uniquely Airdrie masterpiece was created by the talents of close to 400 Airdrie residents, some professional artists, some who'd never held a paint brush before.

The board chair of Creative Airdrie Jennifer Benner says most the assembled party-goers had contributed to the project and were anxious to pick out their tile.  

"After we did the unveiling everyone was excited to go up and find their individual tile. It was really exciting."

Benner says the project was originally brought to the attention of Creative Airdrie by former chair Deanna Hunter two years ago. 

"We applied for various grants to offer it to the residents of Airdrie at no cost. Two ladies came to Airdrie and stayed for about a week while we painted over two days.  The mural consists of over 400 tiles that were painted by community members and the creative team assisted in doing the tiles and making sure we had the colours and the right spots or shapes so we were able to paint over two days.  We worked with the city to have it installed at the new concession stand at Nose Creek Park.  It's wonderful to have a two year program come to such a successful close."

The individual tiles represent each person's view of their community. 

"They were encouraged to paint whatever was important to them. In the two sessions we had a broad range of ages, backgrounds and artistic skills," says Benner.  "Everyone was so excited to be part of this project."

The painting took place September 26th and 27th, during ArtTember celebrations and was unveiled on October 1st, the final day of Alberta Culture Days.

Benner says the Airdrie mural will be added to the national Canada 150 Mosaic mural through pictures. 

"It's basically linking over 70 other communities through art, coast to coast and our mural will represent Airdrie to the rest of Canada.  It's quite prestigious to be a part of that."

 

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