Lily pads sit above the water and rainbows twist across bridges over the Seine River.
Colourful murals are getting a refresh on some Winnipeg pedestrian bridges thanks to Cool Streets Winnipeg, now entering its seventh year.
Organizer Stephane Dorge wasn’t sure the group would continue this year but the 50th anniversary of the Franco-Manitoban Cultural Centre made him decide the effort would be worth it.
NIC ADAM / FREE PRESS
Artist Kale Sheppard chose a lily theme for the Niakwa Bridge over the Seine River.
“I was hemming and hawing on whether we would apply to do it again,” Dorge said Thursday after spending the morning grinding down an old mural to prepare for the next one. “As a francophone St. Boniface resident, I really wanted to work with them to celebrate … 50 years of our cultural centre existing.”
Dorge started Cool Streets Winnipeg in 2017 to celebrate the Canada Summer Games. His murals began on traffic calming circles, a street and then a few crosswalks. In 2018, he started to use art as a tool for advocacy and painted four pedestrian bridges over the Seine River.
An avid cyclist, Dorge wanted to raise awareness of the benefits of bridges for bikers and pedestrians and change the way Winnipeggers get around the city. He said bridges are often overlooked pieces of infrastructure.
“People bike over them,” Dorge said. “They enjoy the benefits of them, but they don’t necessarily stop, linger and talk about it.”
Painting them has proved a way to create running and bike tours and encourage discussions about the importance of the bridges in the community.
“I started off in 2017 painting crosswalks … as a tool to encourage people to go out, walk, bike explore the neighbourhood,” Dorge said. “I find art is a great way to liven up public space and create a reason or destination out of what would be kind of mundane infrastructure.”
This year, Dorge is working with seven other artists to paint eight bridges, including five spanning the Seine River and three that cross Bunn’s Creek. The artists will paint a total of 13,000 square feet this summer.
Dorge has the task of painting the rainbow bridge at Edgewood and Tremblay streets. Each year, the bridge is turned into a colourful walkway.
Winnipeg artist Kale Sheppard was chosen to paint a bridge at Niakwa Road. The design features lily pads, inspired by Sheppard’s time living in Postville, Labrador.
“It was in a lake, sort of like a pond, where I used to swim and I wished I could jump across the lily pads like frogs do,” Sheppard said. “I thought that would be really interesting to bring to people, to be able to jump across the lily pads and also have that connection to the fact that the bridge is over a river.”
The artist, who has produced murals for Cool Streets Winnipeg twice in the past, said bringing joy into people’s lives is the goal.
“I really like when art doesn’t necessarily need an explanation and it can just be enjoyed for what it is,” Sheppard said.
Despite the murals only lasting one year, Sheppard said it’s less painful because Dorge documents the creations through videos and photos.
“It makes them a little bit more special being temporary and we know that this is its fate in a year — to be painted over or sanded off,” said Sheppard. “We just have fun doing it.”
The wet weather this spring has been challenging, Dorge said, with half the bridges painted and the rest (hopefully) finished by early July.
Dorge said most artists try to finish their pieces within a day or two. He spends between 200 and 350 hours each season to bring the murals to life.
Money for the project comes through the city’s land dedication reserve funding. Dorge said the total of about $28,500 works out to less than $2/sq. ft. when he has to cover the cost of materials and paying artists.
Cool Streets Winnipeg has also completed Pride murals at the University of Winnipeg, a plaza corner at Stradbrook Avenue and Osborne Street and has refreshed the Osborne Village BIZ mural.
Reaction from Winnipeggers is one of the reasons Dorge keeps coming back.
“It’s really just the appreciation that the community brings to it. People really seem to … love that it’s a tactile experience that’s creating a kind of a playground or a sense of play out of what would just be concrete.”
jura.mcilraith@freepress.mb.ca