MINTO – New murals will be added to the streetscape in both Harriston and Palmerston this year.
Business and economic manager Belinda Wick Graham told Minto council on April 20 about plans for murals at Harriston Foodland and on the town-owned Lions Club shed in Heritage Park in Palmerston.
“Mural mania in Harriston last year was very well received and as a result the Harrison Rising group and the All Aboard Palmerston group both wanted to have murals done again,” she explained.
Mural Mania was public art project which saw artists painting four murals in 10 days in Harriston’s downtown area during August of 2020.
Artist Blaze Wiradharma, who painted a mural on the Harriston Legion building last year, will return this spring to paint the new murals in Palmerston and Harriston, Wick-Graham explained.
Councillor Jean Anderson was impressed with designs for the planned murals.
“They are stunning. They will be a real pop of colour and nicely themed for the two towns,” she stated.
Wick-Graham replied, “We’re really excited they’re going to be definitely Instagram-able.”
Mayor George Bridge said he looks forward to the day when the pandemic’s end allows visitors to fully enjoy recent enhancements to the community.
“We’re getting so good at all this stuff and we haven’t really been able to showcase it to the rest of the world because we’ve been in this pandemic since we started this (downtown revitalization),” said Bridge.
“We’ll get out of this soon and then we’ll really be open for business and well set up for it.”
Wick-Graham said providing the provincially mandated stay-at-home order is ended, painting of murals will begin on May 23.
Council approved a bylaw authorizing the mayor and clerk to sign the necessary agreements for the project.
