The Nelson International Mural Festival will be back again next August. Organizer Sidney Black with the Nelson and District Arts Council says the first annual event was a success with eight pieces created in the downtown core. “We had two international artists – a couple came up from Miami. We also had one come from England, by way of Australia, which was super, super exciting. And we involved three locals and then there were three other individuals who were from Western Canada.”
She says despite the smokey conditions hundreds of people came out to enjoy the main events. “We ended up having approximately 500 people on opening night coming and seeing all the artists speak at their individual spaces. We had almost 200 people at our street party, so even though there was some smoke, we were still able to really connect with the community, which was great.”
On Tuesday, Nelson City Council approved $25,000 to support next’s year festival. Black says that will get the preparations off to a good start. “We need to have support from the City of Nelson in order to secure other funds, so because the City has come forward with this we’re going to be able to access some federal funding potentially, so we’re going to start working towards that right away.”
To learn more about this year’s festival, click here.