Window dressing

Vacant buildings in the Victoriaville area are being spruced up with images of the region’s past.

As part of a beautification project sponsored jointly by the Victoriaville Business Improvement Association and the Community Arts and Heritage Education Project, young artists are decorating the windows of select abandoned buildings.

“The BIA wanted to bring some colour and life into some of the vacant buildings in the area,” said the organization’s Tina Huk, standing inside a dusty, almost empty shell of a storefront Tuesday morning at 507 Victoria Ave.

“So with the theme of Historic Fort William, this is our first project in this building, just to bring some life to it.”

The goal is to paint the windows in as many empty buildings as possible, she added.

“I’ve put the invitation out to property owners. We have a few ideas, whether it’s painting murals in the area or just putting up some banners, anything just to bring some life to the windows so they’re just not vacant windows,” Huk said.

“The original intention was to have as many windows as we could done by the time our festival happens, which is early September. We end up with about 5,000 people down here, so it would be nice to show some colour and some life."

The area, located in the city’s south side, has struggled to retain businesses in recent years, with some citing increased crime as their reason for pulling out.

CAHEP’s Pam Cain, said her group has been engaging the public in Victoriaville Centre with art projects. They’ve also completed murals near the splash pad at Marina Park.

Why not continue that trend, she said.

“The youth really love doing it, so this is an opportunity for us to get youth involved in this area. And by painting the murals we have the Regional Multicultural Youth Council and Evergreen Neighbourhood coming out and some of the youth from the youth centre involved, helping paint this project,” Cain said.

There’s nothing like art to brighten someone’s day, Cain added.

“In this project we’re showing some of (our) past history and culture, and certainly art is a way of expressing that. Art is a way of identifying neighbourhoods and people and some of the things that are going on.

“People who are engaged in doing the art process, and the youth that come together, it’s a great way of communicating with each other, expressing their ideas about how they feel their identity is part of the community and of course, the colour and vibrancy art can bring to these abandoned spaces is something we are going to be exploring in the next while.”