An open letter to Vancouver Mural Festival, from your younger cousin mural festival in Nelson, BC

Artist: Tafui
Photographer: Ingrid Love

Dear Vancouver Mural Festival (VMF),

You were our inspiration to get started. Your effect on your community—and beyond—was transformative.

Throughout its life, VMF has installed upon the city a visual story of Vancouver and its many sub-communities. Vancouver’s large-scale walls provided a perfect mural festival canvas, and indeed without the additions of VMF over the past 9 years, we believe Vancouver would be a different city today. The festival brought in world-renowned artists while also booster-jumping the careers of many emerging muralists. The festivities VMF created within communities and around public art pieces were also an inseparable part of the festival’s story; these activations brought urban spaces to life and brought people together. Even as non-locals, we could see how these public art pieces and events bolstered community pride. After taking in the festival, we thought “How can we scale that for a community of 10K people?” and began dreaming of creating something similar at home.

VMF’s founder, David Vertesi, generously walked us through the blueprint of VMF over the phone. Our founders, Sydney Black, Amber Santos, and Dee Landsberg then set to work in 2018 to create a scaled-down, rural-adjusted reflection of the urban festival that had so deeply inspired our team. While what we have created may be tiny in comparison, we hope it carries forward the spark that VMF provided to us. If BC’s festivals were a family, we would be your younger cousin.

Even once our festival was up and running, VMF’s innovative programming continued to inspire us. Make Art While Apart was a particularly impactful program. Artists created temporary murals on the outside of boarded up businesses, sending messages of hope, resilience, and encouragement during a lonely, difficult time. Because all the artwork was outdoors, in public space, anyone could enjoy the pieces for free and experience a glimmer of human interaction.

So many artists that graced our festival were also VMF alumni, including Andrew Tavukciyan, Jesse Campbell, Drift Mural Co., Alex Fowkes, Sandeep Johal, Jean Paul Langlois, Anaïs Lera, and Tyler Toews. Many other artists we’ve worked with have told us of their aspirations to one day paint a wall at VMF.

The news that VMF is closing hits us hard. We feel grateful to be able to continue creating public art and events in our community, but we know this loss to BC’s arts and culture sector will be felt widely.  At this moment, many arts and culture organizations are facing financial uncertainty, if not financial jeopardy. To all our friends and supporters of the arts, please make your support of events like VMF known; more events than this are on the brink of disappearing. Help us keep their importance visible, even in their absence. Document your stories and memories, share your photos, and call your government representatives to make certain they know that we lost something important.

Thank you for everything VMF. We are thankful for your kinship, and we will miss you dearly.

Sincerely,

The Nelson International Mural Festival team

 

Video of our last road trip to VMF

Share

Related Articles

2025 AGM

Join the Nelson & District Arts Council for our annual general meeting, featuring local performers and presentations by NDAC board members.

Anaïs Lera

Imaginary Ecosystems with Anaïs Lera Anaïs Lera, is a French visual artist currently living in Vancouver, Canada. Originally from the South of France, she spent...

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

info@ndac.ca

Nelson & District Arts Council

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
General - Mailchimp Subscriber Form (NDAC Membership)