The Weyburn Arts Council announced the design created by Jonnae Haupstein was chosen as the winner of their competition for the large, public art mural project.
Jonnae will also be awarded $1,000 by the Weyburn Arts Council as a prize. The Arts Council received a total of 14 designs for the mural project.
Jonnae is in her third year of a graphic design program at Vancouver Island University, and graduated from the Weyburn Comprehensive School in 2016.
“When I saw the contest was posted, they wanted something that includes everyone and was community based, so I wanted to represent all different aspects of that,” said Jonnae.
In her design, there are eight different hands representing all different aspects of Weyburn’s community, against a background of a sun on the horizon of a prairie landscape.
The hands represent an oil-construction worker, a farmer, a health care worker, a hockey player, a creative-arts person, an entrepreneur, and an adult’s hand holding a child’s hand to represent families.
“I originally started off with the hands, and in talking to my family I thought a sunset or sunrise would be a good background, something that’s very prominent in our area. We have beautiful sunsets and it worked out nicely,” explained Jonnae.
The mural design contest was announced on January 16. It was open to all residents of Weyburn and surrounding area.
The finished mural will measure 24 by 18 feet. The Arts Council was looking for graphic, colourful designs that portrayed Weyburn in its past, present and future.
She is looking forward to seeing how her design will look as a large mural, and hopes that she will be able to be present when it’s painted.
“I’m very excited about it,” she said, noting it will depend on how everything goes with the COVID-19 pandemic if her classes will be back in session this fall or if she can take her schooling in the fall.
The mural was to be painted during the annual Show and Shine. The new plan now is to create the mural as a community during the Culture Days celebration tentatively scheduled for September 25 and 25. The mural will be painted onto the side of a building downtown on Second Street, adjacent to the open lot used by the City for the outdoor skating rink.
“I would love to be there to be a part of it,” said Jonnae, adding as soon as she heard about the contest, she wanted to create an entry for it. “I though it was such a great idea. I talked to my brothers, and said how cool it would be to have more public art around the downtown, to make it more special and unique.”
She noted she was inspired in part by the murals in the small town of Chemainus on Vancouver Island, which cover the walls of several of the buildings there.
She added that she is very grateful to the Arts Council for holding this contest, and for choosing her design for the mural.
The mural will be created in a giant paint-by-number format. Members of Weyburn Arts Council will prepare the mural boards, paint the outlines, and number each area.
During the creation event, jar of premixed and numbered paint will be available to anyone wishing to take part.
