An ad-hoc committee has been struck, and is planning for a new downtown mural in Collingwood.
Dean Collver, director of parks, recreation, and culture for the town, appeared before the heritage committee yesterday to request a heritage permit for the new mural to replace the former Heading Dockside mural.
The Dockside mural was painted on wood panels and installed on the east wall of the Shipyards Medical Centre building facing Ste. Marie Street and visible to traffic entering the downtown from Huron/First Street. However, the 19-year-old mural was removed last year after town staff announced the wood panels had rotted. The mural depicted "commuters" heading to work at the Shipyards, travelling by bicycle and on foot.
Initially, Collver said, his department wanted to have a new mural applied directly to the brick, but the heritage committee asked the town to consider panels instead of paint, suggesting it was safer for the heritage brick.
The Shipyards Medical Centre building was formerly the McMaster Store, then became the Queen’s Hotel. It was first built in 1861 and was Collingwood’s first brick building. It remains the only yellow brick building in town.
Collver said the new mural will be on aluminium panels to be affixed to the same wall. Although he didn’t know the exact shape of the new mural yet, since an artist hasn’t been chosen and the image not designed, he said it would cover approximately the same amount of the wall, including blocking the bottom row of windows, and leaving 65 to 75 per cent of the brick exposed.
An ad-hoc committee including the building owner, the previous mural’s artist (Beverley Smith), a member of the Blue Mountain Foundation for the Arts, and two people from the community-at-large, has been struck to create a vision for the mural and help select an artist and design.
He said the committee has defined parameters and will be putting a call out to artists soon.
Collver said the goal was to start installing it around September 2020.
One member of the heritage committee asked if they would have approval over the mural design before it is installed.
Collver said no, but the design would likely go through council.
“Public art is art,” said Collver. “If we start putting conditions on creativity, we’re essentially going against what we want to do by supporting creative expression. We need to let the artist do their thing. We need to let the artistic community and the committee that has been struck decide the outcome.”
The heritage committee granted Collver’s request for a heritage permit.
