Local artists, Harvey Nichol and Tiffany Lynn Cuffley, stood 30 feet in the air as they put the finishing touches on their mural for the North East.

Nichol and Cuffley were selected for the Vivo mural project as part of the North East Public Art Initiative, which is a project to place more public art pieces in Calgary’s northeast quadrant. This area has historically has had the least amount of art in the city. The mural is on the Vivo for Healthier Generations community centre, who collaborated with the Parks Foundation and The City of Calgary to complete the project.

“The title of the mural is ‘Kapwa’, which is a Tagalog word that means, ‘our shared identity’,” said Nichol.

Kapwa was the result of community outreach done by Nichol and Cuffley over the past couple of months with Vivo, to see what kinds of elements the community surrounding the centre wanted to see in the art piece.

“We took it in the direction of textiles, because one of the ideas behind the piece was that we were going to take all these different identities and communities and create a weaving mechanism of bringing them all together into one piece,” said Cuffley.

The many different patterns come from Filipino, Indian, Chinese, Nigerian, and First Nations cultures. These elements are all tied together with the blue used to depict the mountains and water of Alberta with a mother and child in the center symbolizing Mother Earth.

“Art should be for everybody. It’s important that people get to experience it, from any side of the city,” said Nichol.

The Northeast Public Art Initiative

Northeast Calgary historically has had the least amount of public art projects due to city policy that existed 2004-2023 that mandated art be attached to the capital project that was funding it. The city’s investments into projects often reside in the downtown area, which meant so did most of the art.

“There was still quite a bit of art in northeast Calgary, but it was in locations like transit stations, kind of integrated into station design. There was less work directly in the community like you might see in other areas of the city,” said Julie Yepishina-Geller, Public Art Liaison, and team lead for the City of Calgary’s public art program.

Nichol and Cuffley both have roots in the community as both of them grew up in northeast neighbourhoods. Now they’re trying to give back something they didn’t get to experience.

“I grew up in the neighborhoods of Whitehorn, Temple, Falconridge, in the northeast, and I was very eager to express my creativity. I grew up figure skating and I definitely noticed that even in the rec centers there was no art to be seen outside, or in the communities,” said Cuffley.

Policy change in 2023 saw that money allocated for public art projects would be pooled, increasing flexibility on where the projects would be. This led to more projects in the northeast after the city received public interest in adding art. The city first started installing artwork as part of the Northeast Public Art Initiative in the same year.

“Something that we had heard from people in those communities was that they wanted to see art in their communities, they wanted to see themselves reflected in the art, and they also wanted to see projects that celebrated local artists,” said Yepishina-Geller.

One million was allocated for the Northeast Public Art Initiative and has since seen more than 40 local artists who have participated in producing artwork. Ten community centers in the northeast have set up galleries for some of the local artists’ work.

“The idea was actually integrating art closer to places that are enjoyed by the local community and not necessarily high-traffic areas,” said Yepishina-Geller.

Vivo was chosen to receive funding from the art initiative because it serves as a central hub to the community surrounding it by providing facilities for multiple sports.

“We wanted to offer an opportunity for public art and for Vivo to really be a place where, some of the things that you might find more in a downtown center, you might actually be able to find in the north part of the city as well,” said Cheryl Palamar, marketing director for Vivo.

The city has to open projects that exceed $75,000 up to foreign applications as part of North American Trade Agreements. This included the Vivo mural project.

“It happens that a lot of time bigger artists come to the city and they take over the biggest walls. So, I think it’s great that local artists, especially northeast artists, are given the chance to actually show our community that talent and art could come from our community,” said Nichol.

Criteria for judging artists were set by the Parks Foundation. Although the project was open to foreign application, it heavily favored local artists in the criteria. The Vivo mural project saw applications from across Canada and even an application from Spain.

Criteria were as follows:

• Have demonstrated experience installing medium to large scale murals on exterior surfaces
• Have demonstrated artistic and creative design skills for concept, composition, colour, and form
• Carry proof of insurance coverage
• Live, work, play, or have a strong connection to North Central / Northeast Calgary
• Experience collaborating with community groups and or the public as part of concept development will be considered an asset but not a requirement

“It’s kind of like a network. So if Calgary is open to having international artists work here, then the international arts community is more open to having our artists work internationally,” said Yepishina-Geller.

Creating and maintaining a large scale art piece

The Kapwa mural is 30 feet tall and 90 feet across. Nichol and Cuffley have used an industrial lift to spray paint the entire wall.

“It’s a mix of processes, most of them are done by math. Especially the left side of this mural. we utilize all of those snow caps as reference points to know where we’re going,” said Nichol.

After the mural is drawn up the artists have to use methods like projecting the image onto the wall, and calculating where the designs should be based on the upscaled dimensions of the original design. In the early stages random symbols and marks are made as reference points.

“It’s super hard to see it when you’re there, to see how far it goes, and it kind of gets distorted. So reference points are really helpful,” said Nichol.

The city works with artists and their public art conservators from the beginning of the process. This includes selecting paint and materials that can withstand weather conditions and that can be easily replaced or redrawn.

“When an artist completes an artwork, they provide us with a maintenance manual which outlines exactly the expected level of care that we, as the city, are responsible to uphold for that artwork,” said Yepishina-Geller.

Once complete the Kapwa mural will undergo two clear coats: one to make it UV resistant, and another that seals it to allow graffiti to easily be removed without damaging the artwork.

The mural is in its final stages and is expected to be completed by July 15. The Northeast public art initiative is looking to wrap up by the end of this year and will feature a documentary on the progression of the project.