WEYBURN – A journey that began in 2019 with a contest, held by the Weyburn Arts Council, to design a large mural that depicted what Weyburn is all about ended on Friday afternoon with the long-awaited installation of the finished mural by Weyburn Leisure Services staff.
The contest winner in 2019 was artist Jonnae Haupstein, and she won a $1,000 prize for her design.
The original plans were to have the mural painted by volunteers from the public, in a paint-by-number format, downtown at the 2020 Weyburn show-and-shine.
COVID intervened, however, and there was no show-and-shine that year or the next year, and the plans had to be put on hold for a time.
The day arrived last fall for the grand opening of the Credit Union Spark Centre, which included the Weyburn Arts Council’s new home, the Weyburn Art Gallery, and the public got the chance to paint the pieces for the giant mural.
The pieces fell into place, so to speak, on Friday for a Leisure Services crew to help install the mural downtown on the side Kat and Fuel’s shop on Second Street, facing the vacant lot on Souris Avenue.
Curator Regan Lanning and Tasha Hill of the Weyburn Arts Council were on hand to see the mural go up. Lanning noted that the paint used is made specifically for murals in an outdoor setting, plus she added a seal coat over top, which will help the mural survive in all kinds of weather and temperature extremes.
The paint is expensive, she noted, but the Weyburn Credit Union helped provide funds for that paint (also used for the two murals in Jubilee Park, painted this summer).
