BIZ unveils playful mural
West Broadway artist hopes mural is first of many
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This article was published 30/08/2016 (3351 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
A local artist has found that murals can be all fun and games.
West Broadway artist Kadi Badiou, a fine arts student at the University of Manitoba, was selected as mural mentor for the West End BIZ piece, titled Connected by Play. Badiou guided dozens of local kids in the making of the colourful project, which was unveiled on Aug. 23 at 555 Ellice Ave.
The mural features games popular in, and native to, countries from around the world, including checkers, dominoes, jacks, tic tac toe, marbles, spinning tops, plum stone and mancala.
“I first researched what countries the residents of the West End were from and then from there I tried to find popular games that were played there,” Badiou said. “I discovered many commonalities in games between countries and found that a lot are played worldwide but with different names and variations.
“I learned that games are an important part of all societies because they can be used as tools to pass history and the worldviews of their culture from generation to generation. It is also one of the oldest forms of human interaction.”
Badiou said the project took just one month to complete with the help of groups and individuals in the area, with local kids coming three or four times to contribute. She was surprised at how quickly it was finished.
“I’d have a section for them to do and after an hour they’d have it done,” Badiou said. “Working with youth on a project, nothing will ever go exactly according to plan but the end result can be even more interesting and genuine because it’s created from a real place of creativity… the unexpected things were really nice.”
Familiar as she was with the West End, Badiou really got to know her neighbouring community well this summer.
“It’s very lively, I’d say,” she said. “I like being able to walk around here and everyone says hi and everyone who walked by the mural was very encouraging… I really fell in love with the West End neighbourhood.”
Badiou said this was her first mural, and that she hopes to work on more in the future.