Artist Lys Glassford, one half of the Humanity in Art duo, putting finishing touches on a piece at the Urban Art Gallery. (Humanity in Art/Facebook)

By Spencer Sterritt

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Mural festival bringing colour to downtown Nanaimo

Jan 15, 2020 | 7:38 AM

NANAIMO — More eye-catching art and recognition of innovative artists are coming to Nanaimo.

The first ever Hub City Walls festival was announced Wednesday, Jan. 15. It’s a 10-day festival in early August where selected artists will create five new murals in the downtown Nanaimo arts district, as well as a block party, art market and demonstrations.

The festival was created by the duo Humanity in Art, who originally created the Urban Art Gallery at the old A&B Sound building.

Lauren Semple with Humanity in Art told NanaimoNewsNOW they wanted to expand on the outdoor gallery as enthusiasm for the project grew in 2018.

“We were hearing a lot of calls from folks about how we can make more murals and how we could bring more of it to downtown. People started pointing out and offering blank walls.” _{Lauren Semple}

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Semple said the goal of the festival is to continually add new art to Nanaimo, rather than re-painting the same walls with new murals every year.

It’s also a chance to bring different art forms into the forefront and showcase new styles to the general public.

“There’s often a lot of events and funding for the fine-arts and other visual arts…but oftentimes urban artists-everyone from muralists to graffiti artists but also breakdancers and MC’s-they find themselves on the fringe of mainstream art communities.”

It’s hoped artists from all over Canada and eventually the world will submit their works for the Hub City Walls festival.

Artist submissions and also wall submissions from property owners is currently open and will be accepted until March 6.

spencer@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit