New mural tours showcase work of ‘incredible artists in Calgary’

There’s a new opportunity to learn more about some eye-catching bright spots around the downtown Calgary area.

The BUMP Festival arts organization, which has brought more than 120 murals to the city, is about to start offering year-round tours.

The mural tours will be aimed at Calgarians and visitors to the city.

“As people are coming through for Stampede, they’re walking through the Beltline and they’re saying, ‘What is all this art is the city?’” BUMP’s Priya Ramesh said. “People want to learn about what’s going on. They start realizing that there are incredible artists in Calgary.”

Ramesh gave Calgarians Shone Thistle and Eman Safadi a preview tour of a few murals, including one called Harbinger.

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“I love the bold colours that are in the mural,” Thistle said. “They’re really vibrant and they give an alleyway this moment of beauty.”

Safadi was also impressed by the mural.

“I like the characters – they’re really cool,” Safadi said. “I think that it really brings a lot of life to the city.”

Many of the BUMP murals were created by Calgarians, with a lot of artists from other places represented as well.

“We have artists from France, from South Africa, from China,” Ramesh said. “And we have artists from across Canada – Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver.”

One of the Calgary artists featured is Alex Kwong, whose mural soars several stories on the side of a building.

“It depicts a friend of mine and his daughter,” Kwong said. “It’s about the value of fostering your relationships with love, and when you do that it spreads from one relationship into all your relationships – a valuable message to share.”

The new year-round tours will run Saturday and Sunday afternoons starting on March 2.

Each tour will take in about 20 murals around the downtown area.

“It’s great,” Kwong said. “Bringing art into the community and getting people engaged with it.”