The Town of Blackfalds has a new colourful visual for the next time someone asks “what’s the town like?”
Painted by town residents, students and professionals, the Canada Mosaic Mural celebrating Canada’s 150 birthday is now ready.
The mural, consisting of about 900 three-by-three centimetre tiles, would be similar to the 149 others in communities across the country, including one in Ponoka.
Blackfalds Mayor Richard Poole said with a focus on sports, a black sheep, and a student reading with an adult, the three-panel-mural is a true representation of the Town of Blackfalds.
“Black sheep is indicative of our early settlers, from Scotland, their home country had black sheep, ” said Poole.
The child and an adult reading together in the mural represents the many young families calling the town home, he said. The mural also consists of a bicycle and a ball glove, which represents all the sporting activities taking place in the community.
“It’s a beautiful representation of our town,” said the mayor Wednesday.
He defined the art piece as a visual portrayal of history and a time capsule.
Students from Iron Ridge Intermediate Campus, St. Gregory the Great, and Iron Ridge Junior Campus as well as town residents painted 486 individual tiles that were later put together.
“The kids are coming up and they’re picking out their own tile,” said Poole at the Abbey Centre.
“They’re excited about the project.”
Professional artists painted the remaining 414 tiles.
Each participating community’s mural is based on a train car to highlight the importance of Canada’s railway system connecting the country from coast-to-coast. Blackfalds’ mural is no different. Just step back and look at the words “Blackfalds” – which are painted on a train, the mayor said.
This is the largest mural project undertaken in Canadian history. Once completed, the project organizers will look to the Guinness World Records to achieve the record of the largest mural project in history, Poole said.
The mural will be housed at the Denise Nielsen Memorial Park come August.
The Town of Blackfalds looked to the community to help with the project around February, and it set aside $15,000 to go towards the project.
mamta.lulla@reddeeradvocate.com
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