The City of Guelph has announced that four murals have been selected for sites along Wilson Street in the city’s downtown core.
Artists are expected to create the murals starting in September, the city said in a post on its website.
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Four sites for the murals have been chosen: the side of the wall beside the Guelph Farmers’ Market, the wooden inlet on the side of city hall and both sides of the Wilson Street underpass.
The city said the selections were made by a council-appointed committee after being shortlisted in a group of 12 out of 202 submissions.
Pellvetica is a husband-and-wife duo from Kitchener who was awarded the commission for the side wall near the farmers market.
Sandy and Steve Pell’s design is a monarch butterfly, which is a nod to Guelph’s nickname, the Royal City, and a tribute to pollinators.
Cheka Creative Inc. is from Calgary and was awarded the commission for the wooden inlet.
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Alex Kwong and Sergey Ryutin’s layered design features Guelph’s founder, John Galt, the basilica on the hill, a young fawn, maple leaves and a map of Guelph.
Kenneth Lavallee is a Métis artist from Winnipeg and was awarded the east underpass wall.
His design, entitled Cultivation, uses a simplified graphic style inspired by pictograms and the Attawandaron, whose land was described as a “community of longhouses surrounded by fields of corn.”
Emmanuel Jarus is a Toronto-based artist and was awarded the fourth site on the west underpass wall. Jarus’ design features a variety of birds, creating movement across a blue sky.
Jarus said he was inspired by the bird sculptures in Market Square and Guelph Central Station. It’s expected that Jarus will work with local community bird-watching groups to identify local birds for the final artwork.
The project is funded through the Main Street Revitalization Initiative, to which the government of Ontario committed $26 million in 2018.
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