Share this Story: Edmonton community installs murals to fight graffiti
Edmonton community installs murals to fight graffiti
30 volunteers install 1900 square feet of public art in Kinnaird Ravine
Julia LeConte • Edmonton Journal
Nov 07, 2015 • November 7, 2015 • 2 minute read • Join the conversation
Sebastian Barrera, Parkdale Cromdale Community League president, with one of the panels being installed on a retaining wall in Kinnaird Ravine to reduce graffiti and crime. Photo by Bruce Edwards /Edmonton Journal
On an overcast Saturday morning, about 30 volunteers are adding 1,900 square feet of colour to a grey Kinnaird Ravine.
While some neighbourhood residents carry pieces of painted plywood down the trail that starts in Sheriff Robertson Park, others drill the artwork into their designated slots along an otherwise glum-looking retaining wall.
Edmonton community installs murals to fight graffiti Back to video
"It's the largest community outdoor art gallery in Edmonton," says Sebastian Barrera, president of the Parkdale Cromdale Community League.
The last days of fall might seem like an odd time for such an installation, but Barrera has been working on this project for a whole year. It started when the group Friends of the Kinnaird Ravine approached the community league. Dismayed by the amount of sometimes vulgar graffiti on the ravine's long, wooden retaining wall, they asked Barrera if he'd be interested in helping to transform it. The artist and musician jumped at the chance for a community-building exercise.
That started months of negotiations with the city. And finally, at the end of August, Barrera got the phone call and the go-ahead.
To complete more than 60 pieces necessary to cover the wall, the artist reached out to all corners of the city. Since Barrera works at Boyle Street Community Services with high-risk youth, he worked with them to create 16 of the paintings.
"One of the pieces is a stencil of homeless people lying on the floor. We created aboriginal art with aboriginal kids; we discussed topics like (missing and murdered aboriginal women) and one of our paintings is a dress hanging in a tree," he explains, referring to the red-dress image that's become a symbol of the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women.
In addition, Barrera delivered 10 plywood pieces to the iHuman Youth Society, two pieces to the Mustard Seed organization and one piece to the Nina Haggerty Centre for the Arts. He dropped off two pieces at Virginia Park Elementary, an arts-focused school. They were returned in a quilt-like pattern with individual children having painted each small square. Creart Edmonton, a local movement dedicated to creating free art spaces, also got involved.
"Then, little by little, people would start calling me," says Barrera. "And I started delivering pieces all over the city."
It all came naturally to Barrera, who's originally from Valparaíso, Chile, a city world-renowned for its public art, where citizens are even paid by the government to paint their houses. (A Google image search will show you a coloured rainbow of houses and buildings.)
"To me, it's important that in my life as an artist, my role is to belong to the community, and to work to make the community a safe space where everybody can express and where everybody can have an opportunity to say, 'Here I am, this is my art and this is my expression'."
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One of the murals installed by the Parkdale Cromdale Community League on a retaining wall in Kinnaird Ravine to reduce graffiti and crime. Photo by Bruce Edwards /Edmonton Journal
The Parkdale Cromdale Community League is installing 62 plywood murals on a retaining wall in Kinnaird ravine to reduce graffiti and crime. Photo by Bruce Edwards /Edmonton Journal
Sebastian Barrera, Parkdale Cromdale Community League president, with one of the panels. Photo by Bruce Edwards /Edmonton Journal
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