The Malahat Legion celebrated collaboration, community, and creativity with the unveiling of their new outdoor murals on June 7 with Member of Parliament for Cowichan-Malahat-Langford Jeff Kibble in attendance. He praised the project as a testament to community collaboration.
"It felt great because it involved the community and it was the completion of a project that took almost a year to complete," said Legion vice-president Bob Cleroux. "Both Frances Kelsey and Shawnigan Lake Schools were represented, plus members from our Legion and our newly elected Member of Parliament Jeff Kibble."
Several other Vancouver Island Legions have also had much success with adding some style and character to their buildings through murals on windowless sides, but with the Malahat Legion featuring four large windows that cover more than half the exterior, one full mural wasn't practical. After a fresh coat of paint to the Shawnigan Lake based legion last year, it became a clean slate with endless possibilities as members mulled new ideas while Bruce Sands was appointed the leader for the project.
With estimates for a professional mural hitting the unfeasible $27,000 mark, it sparked some out of the box thinking which led to a collaboration with both Shawnigan Lake and Frances Kelsey Secondary School. A goal of $10,000 was then set by the Legion's treasurer, and fundraising began through the launch the Veterans Mural Project initiative. By mid November last year the legion successfully secured their goal through the help of generous member donations, and market sales from donated items. Next came the creativity, and the visual art teachers from each school rose to the challenge of recruiting the right student artists for the job.
"The cost of a professional muralist was very expensive so Bruce's wife suggested approaching local schools and when we did they were very enthusiastic to participate," said Cleroux. "It is part of the Legion mandate to include youth in remembering our past, so it felt great to have this partnership."
Painting started in the spring of this year as each school took on two of the panels for the four-panel mural representing the Army, Navy, Air Force, and RCMP breathing new life into the building.
Frances Kelsey's visual arts teacher Rebecca Scheer faced the challenge of a two-term academic year where student availability was not guaranteed, so she elected Ella Pietrzykowski, a student with proven artistic skills, to work on the Air Force mural independently, while for the Navy mural she assembled a design team for the first term and a new group of artists for the second semester. With some students having military family connections she had a pool of enthusiastic artistic student volunteers to choose from. Those who brought their talents to the new Navy mural were Sophie Sun, Ellee Dann, Charlotte Falletta, Quinn French, and Livvy Horgan.
Shawnigan Lake School, which is modelled after the British private school system, took on the Army and RCMP murals. Visual arts teacher Rainbow Bartlett had no problem assembling teams of enthusiastic volunteers to tackle the two murals. Nineteen students were divided into small teams as each handled different aspects of the project ranging from lead designers, to painters, brush washers, a liaison officer ensuring accuracy, and even donut suppliers. There were several evenings where students worked until 9 p.m. as they poured their hearts into the murals.
After all was said and done the Legion's expenses for the mural project came out to around $2,000. Most of the remaining funds were donated to the schools to use as they see fit. The collaboration, and the professionalism from both schools mixed with the students' creativity was a shining example of what can be accomplished with some creativity and community spirit, not to mention the lasting impact it will have for years to come, the Legion said.
"First, it's great that we have public art in Shawnigan," said Cleroux. "We hope that the murals have a connection with the community and the students, and lastly that it provides a connection with our Veterans of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and RCMP."
