Local mural to be seen on Toronto subway, airports across Canada (3 photos)

A Canada 150-themed mural created by a group of Sault artists has captured a great deal of attention and will be seen across Canada in the coming months.

The untitled mural, created by Algoma District School Board (ADSB) Urban Aboriginal School students, will be displayed, as part of a 60-mural collection of other Canada 150-themed murals, on the platforms of Toronto’s subway system in July and August, as part of an underground art gallery.

In addition, a digital copy of the mural will be displayed in high traffic areas across Canada, including over 300 outdoor digital billboards in July and August, and on digital billboards at airports nationwide, including the Sault Ste. Marie Airport, Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, as well as airports in Charlottetown, St. John, Moncton, Fredericton, Windsor and at least a dozen more airports from July until the end of the calendar year.

The Urban Aboriginal School artists were part of a nationwide group of young artists invited to take part in “150 Reasons We Love Canada,” a national art project organized by Toronto’s VIBE Arts.

As a pleasantly surprising spinoff, Tammy Fiegehen, Urban Aboriginal School teacher and photographer, told SooToday VIBE has come through with a $2,000 grant for another project.

“It’s super exciting, it’s bigger than we originally thought…I’m super proud, extremely proud of the students,” Fiegehen said.

“They (VIBE) said how excited they were about the mural, that our students set the bar pretty high for other murals coming in…that’s pretty exciting, we have lots of ideas.”

“We’re hoping to do a story book (based on the mural) so our students can go in and read it to students in other schools, or sell them, we’ve got funding for it already, which is pretty cool,” Fiegehen said.

Reproductions of the mural can also be seen on T-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, hats and other items available for order between now and Friday Mar. 24 by contacting Fiegehen through email at [email protected]

“That’s the first batch,” Fiegehen said, adding further orders can be placed later.

“The artists chose the aboriginal woodland style, they came up with everything on their own…they were very excited about it,” Fiegehen said.

“It’s awesome, it was a great feeling to be asked (to participate in the project),” said Jacob (Jayke) Carter, Urban Aboriginal School student and lead student artist on the mural project.

Carter, Kady Manitouwabi, Dominic Migwins, Jerry Duncan, Melissa Skors, Shilo Waboose and Carol Wilhelm-Harvey each worked on the mural.

Urban Aboriginal School students were asked by VIBE to create a mural with an ice fishing theme.

“It escalated where we created all these animals along with that one little tiny guy on the mural ice fishing,” Carter said.

Local artist Sharon Hunter served as the lead artist on the mural project, and students also received guidance from Fiegehen and, in the early stages, Fiegehen’s fellow teacher Kim Edmond.

“Sharon Hunter is definitely a great lead, she’s an open book when it comes to leading a group, she’s got that ‘hey, I’ll let you guys do what you want to do and if you need a little bit of help here and there I’ll help you,’” said Carter, who has participated in previous mural projects on Gore Street and Case’s Music.

Work on the mural began in February and took approximately a month to complete.

The six feet by four feet mural is now in VIBE’s hands, being prepared for display in Toronto’s subway system.

The project is funded by Community Foundations of Canada and the Laidlaw Foundation to help celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday.

So where does the mural go after its appearance on the Toronto subway system is done?

The Urban Aboriginal School has grown quite attached to it.

“From what I understand the school is trying its best to make sure it comes back…the school principal, Rony Dal Cin, a lot of the students and the teachers have said ‘we’ve got to get this back,”’ Carter chuckled, though viewers are free to bid on any of the murals.