The Village of Magentawan has launched the third phase of its beautification project.
The latest call has gone out to artists who are interested in painting a long mural on the outside wall of the Ahmic Harbour Community Centre.
Laura Brandt, the municipality's Deputy Clerk, says full details about the project are available online and prospective artists need to apply by June 6th.
The Community Centre shares the building with Magnetawan Fire Station 2 on one side and the centre occupies the other half.
Brandt says once the town council decides on the artist, that person will have until the fall to complete the mural. The municipality began the beautification project two years ago when it acquired a government Rural Economic Development (RED) grant which has helped the Village to subsidize the artwork. Brandt says any Ontario artist can apply, even artists who were awarded the mural work in the past.
The beautification program started in 2021 when Nomi Drory, who moved to Magnetawan from Toronto, painted a 90-foot-long mural on a two-foot-high concrete retaining wall next to the Heritage Museum Centre at the locks by the Magnetawan River.
She called the mural Magnetawan River of Time and the artwork depicts Magnetawan's important connection to the Magnetawan River and the variety of vessels that used the waterway over the decades from Indigenous canoes, to steamships and tugboats during the 1800s that transported cut logs to the various timber mills.
See: 90-foot art mural beautifies Magnetawan retaining wall
Then in 2022 artist Kristyn Watterworh of Toronto painted a mural of a multi-coloured moose on the back outside wall of the museum.
Brandt said Magnetawan is mostly a tourism town and creating the series of murals was another thing for local residents to appreciate and for tourists to see when visiting the small community. Additionally, the public has been encouraged to kiss Watterworth's painted moose on the lips, take a picture of the kissing and post the image on social media. Brandt says the promotion has been another way for Magnetawan to keep its name in the public eye and to interest people to visit the community.
Rocco Frangione is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the North Bay Nugget. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
