BC Culture Days in Parksville got off to a great start with the launch of a downtown Art Banner Crawl on Sept. 24.
The first of five fun events was officially opened by Mayor Ed Mayne and Jennifer Bate, McMillan Arts Centre (MAC) executive director, who welcomed the art banner artistic team, led by local artist and curator, Pattiann Withapea, according to a news release.
Eight artists had the honour of creating banners to adorn the light standards in the city’s downtown business district. The artists led the participants on a ‘crawl’ where they used a treasure hunt map to guide them to the banner locations.
“The weather was perfect and it was a great way to bring attention to both the banners themselves and the many unique shops in our downtown business sector,” Withapea said. “I felt tremendously proud of each of the banner artists when I saw their artwork up there for all to enjoy.”
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Withapea added the banners may look small on the light standards, but they are actually five feet in height and two feet across.
The art banner crawl continues from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. every day, except Mondays, until October 16, according to the release.
The crawl starts at the MAC, where you pick up your “treasure map” and then stroll through the downtown business district searching for the marked banner locations. Once you have located all eight banners, return to the arts centre and receive a canvas tote bag, a gift from the city, printed with the images of all eight banners.
All events are free and everyone is invited to participate.
— NEWS Staff, submitted