Photos: Bob Bahan Mural in Progress
Mural Slideshow
Antyx has been working together with City of Calgary and Calgary Afterschool programs at Bob Bahan Aquatic Centre in Forest Lawn on an urban art project since May of 2018. Antyx artists held engagement sessions with youth, community members and other people from both Bob Bahan and Ernest Morrow school to plan the content for a shipping container mural in the middle of the parking lot. With these community members, we talked about issues of community, belonging and inclusion. Some of the key questions were: “What does community mean to you? What does forest Lawn/this space/this area mean to you? And what are you most proud of in Forest Lawn/this area/this space.” Members of the public were encouraged to give their input, suggestions and drawings. Antyx staff then generated some final designs based on this content, which was then voted on by the youth and other members of the public. The base of this mural was to show what we are most proud of in this neighbourhood and what means the most to us.
Following these engagement sessions, Antyx hosted a two week urban art graffiti mural camp in July 2018. Youth in this camp learned from Antyx artists as well as local urban artist KerzXXV. In this camp they learned different graffiti styles, different types of urban art, spray painting and lettering techniques as well as learned the history and culture of urban art in the world. In addition, Youth got to go on a field trip to see the art of other Calgary artists practicing in Calgary. Youth from this camp learned the different styles of Graffiti lettering, how to draw their one letters and then brought these techniques to reality in painting workshops and sessions. The final piece of the camp was the manifestation of the community mural design on the shipping container, using all the techniques they learned in camp.
Come check out the opening party on August 10 from 1-5pm at Bob Bahan Aquatic Centre and learn lettering and spray techniques from our youth artists. If you can’t make the opening, the mural is on permanent exhibition at this location to view at any time.
