City council endorsed a new set of art banners for the city on Tuesday evening.
The Branding the City with Art street banner project was initiated by the Community Arts Council of Williams Lake with the help of a $14,000 B.C. Creative Communities grant, and smaller grants from the city and Williams Lake Central Business Improvement Area, says arts council vice-president Marg Evans.
The project was also endorsed by the Central Cariboo Arts and Culture Society.
Evans says Liliana Dragowska applied for the creative communities grant on behalf of the arts council last January and about a dozen artists responded to the call for submissions which closed on Friday, July 12.
The selection committee narrowed the field down to five scenes reflecting the four seasons and a positive image for Williams Lake that were endorsed by council Tuesday.
One colourful banner reflects flowers, trees and hills surrounding Williams Lake; another a gleeful winter tobogganing scene; another a stained glass style collage of a mountain biking scene; another a modernistic design of snow, sky and trees that appears to be in early spring as snow gives way to puddles on a bright sunny day.
The other selection is of horses frolicking in a green meadow as leaves begin to turn bright fall colours.
The winning artists, Beth Holden, Linda Purjue, Lindsay Neufeld, Liz Derksen, and Simone Benjamin will each receive $150 for their designs, plus a printed banner of their design, and recognition by city council and local media.
The banner designs will be printed on a light reflecting Dacron product called Echotex which is made from 65 per cent new material and 35 per cent recycled material in the form of PET bottles.
A total of 180 banners will be printed and placed on light standards throughout the city primarily on Oliver Street, Highway 97 South and on the section of Mackenzie Avenue in front of the Stampede Grounds.
Evans says the city’s old art banners that have been in place since 2008 will be recycled into re-usable cloth shopping bags, with left over bits being made into flags by the Boys and Girls club.
The recycling project is initiated by the Waste Wise program of the Cariboo-Chilcotin Conservation Society which, Evans says has been a member of the arts council for about 10 years. She says Lora Fairbrother, a local seamstress, is sewing the bags and engaging children at the Boys and Girls Club in making use of the left over scraps for more projects.
She says proceeds from the sale of the recycled shopping bags will be shared by the local not for profit groups.
“The old banners, as we discussed, are going to reappear as wonderful Banner Bags in various sizes,” Evans says, “and reduce the plastic bags going to our landfill, money saved for other sustainable initiatives!”