HUMBOLDT — A new mural focusing on reconciliation, developed in collaboration with students from Humboldt’s four schools, will be placed on the northern wall of city hall.
The Humboldt Public Art committee mural will be created by Kevin L. Pee-ace, who was born in Kelvington and is a member of the Yellow Quill First Nation and Peter Chapman First Nation. It is expected to be complete by spring.
Jennifer Fitzpatrick, the city’s cultural services director, said the city has been working on a reconciliation program for about a year. Together with partners like Carlton Trail College and the Humboldt and District Chamber of Commerce, there’s been programming and speakers like Sean Willy and Eugene Arcand brought to Humboldt to discuss the subject.
“Having those conversations and just listening to the community led us to believe that a real strong statement about the importance of reconciliation would really help move the conversation forward,” she said.
Pee-ace has done work in Humboldt before, having led a workshop at the Humboldt and District Gallery.
“Kevin, if you look on his website has done extensive work in connection and in working with community engagement with students in the public in the past,” Fitzpatrick said.
In January, supported by an artists in communities development grant from SK Arts, Pee-ace met with 184 youth from all four schools in Humboldt over Zoom. He led a conversation about reconciliation and invited the youth to think about it in a positive way, in a way to improve the community.
“He invited them to think about how an artist conveys that type of message,” Fitzpatrick said.
The students then drew, painted or wrote down ideas about how to convey reconciliation.
“I gathered all of those and we shipped all those up to Kevin, so those are going to be the inspiration for the mural.”
Now Pee-ace is at the point where he’s looking at all of the students’ ideas and coming up with a design for the mural. When he’s closer to being complete, Fitzpatrick said Humboldt students will still have a role to play.
“We're going to bring panels [of the mural] back to Humboldt and the students will actually paint them so they'll be involved in the painting process as well.”
