The lifeguard station at Canatara Park has been given new life with a community mural.
The colourful new mural called Canatara at Sunset is inspired by the landscape and native plants that call the park home.
"The design itself was done digitally, because it was blown up and printed on mural cloth, so my research took me about like three or four hours. I was looking into the history of Sarnia and Canatara Beach, and that's when I stumbled across Maud Hannah and her love for nature," said local Artist Emily Wright. "It's been a long time coming, and I know we did the whole voting process last year, but I'm glad it was installed this year, so everyone can enjoy it during the summer and peak beach weather."
The mural designed by Wright and installed by the team at nuSarnia was several years in the making, with a voting process and took collaboration from the community, which has since shown great support for the addition to the beach.
"We've had amazing feedback so far. We had a lot of feedback at the beginning, sort of, you know, the building is so dilapidated, why would you put any effort into it? But I think we just really had such a strong vision that we would be able to transform it, and now that people can sort of see it, and touch it, and interact with it, I think everybody has seen the value," said nuSarnia Executive Director Tristan Bassett. "When we were doing the installation of the mural, we were here for about two weeks, and hundreds of people were coming to us and thanking us. We really received a lot of thank-yous and a lot of genuine appreciation for what we're doing here."
The mural was made possible by sponsors and community donations.
"Judith and Norman Alix Foundation were our initial and our largest funding partners," said Bassett. "We then went to local partners like Deluxe Paint, who provided support through gift-in-kind. So, they provided all of our paints that we needed for touch-ups. They provided all of our primer, our blues for the front of the building, a lot of product for us that would have cost us thousands of dollars if they didn't offer the gift in kind."
She noted that the mural took a lot of effort from many people, and for the community to show its support has been an amazing experience.
"We had Four Points Sheraton offer hotel rooms for some experts that came to help us sort of cite the space and teach us the application of the mural space. We've had community members open their wallets and send us donations that they would like to go towards the mural project, so lots of different financial support in many different shapes and forms," she said.
To celebrate the project’s completion, residents and visitors are encouraged to visit the mural, complete the community survey, and share a selfie with the artwork for a chance to win a $300 Visa Gift Card.
