By Dominic Abassi

From eyesore to art: Community rallies around downtown Nanaimo project

Apr 5, 2017 | 6:09 PM

NANAIMO — A demolished downtown Nanaimo building with the potential to turn into an eyesore is instead destined to become a work of art.

Two Nanaimo residents with strong connections to downtown are spearheading a project to cover the fence that will surround the vacant lot where the majority of the Jean Burns building once stood with local artwork.

“It kind of serves as closure. A lot of things happened after that block burned down,” Mambo Gourmet Pizza owner Marc Fillion said. “It was a catalyst to a lot of change downtown.”

Fillion said there was a “gloomy” vibe following the March 2016 fire. He watched as friends struggled with the loss of their businesses and the burned out building continued to deteriorate. “The dynamics changed from going okay to all of a sudden we had fractures, there was problems everywhere. It all came to the surface.”

Done with focusing on negativity, Fillion teamed up with local artist Gerda Hofman and hatched the plan. “We really wanted to keep the area looking a little better, kind of remembering what the area used to look like and introduce some nice, original art. Something to look at rather than a big hole and a fence,” Fillion said.

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He said the reaction to the concept has been amazing, with at least 33 local businesses offering financial support. Donations of in-kind supplies, prints from the Nanaimo Community Archives and $4,000 from the City have also been pledged.

“People have been so supportive, you have no idea,” Hofman said. “It’s turned positive now. People have come together. They are willing and wanting to work together.”

Under Hofman’s direction, local artists created large, original murals to compliment archival pictures, with the goal of covering as much of the eight-foot-high fence as possible.

For Fillion, the project is a healing process. “(The) feeling that I got was people care for downtown and they’re done with it looking like this, they want something to be done about it…I know a lot of Nanaimo is not connected to downtown, but people care about the idea.”

There’s an even deeper connection for Hofman, whose personal studio in the Jean Burns building went up in flames. Some of her old work and belongings were recently unearthed as crews continue to dismantle the former heritage building.

“You can always keep harping on the negative stuff but people that only talk about negative and don’t find solutions, they don’t progress,” she said.

The property’s owner will install more permanent fencing once the clean-up work is finished.

dominic.abassi@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @domabassi