The City of Lacombe, and the Lacombe Public Art Collection Committee are pleased to announce the City’s participation in the creation of a Canada 150 Mural Mosaic for downtown Lacombe in the fall of 2018.
“This is going to be a fun event held during the Culture & Harvests Festival in September,” said Community Services Executive Assistant Maureen MacKenzie.
“Citizens, organizations, teams and classmates ages six and up can work together to help create this fantastic mosaic.”
Each participant will paint a design of their own on a tile that will become part of the big picture highlighting some of Lacombe’s history and what currently makes the community so special.
Approximately 480 tiles will be painted during this two-day event.
Earlier this year, citizens were asked via social media as to what they wanted to see featured on the mosaic.
Of the 47 themes and suggestions put forth by the community, the most frequent were the Flatiron Building, trees, people and community, and the Federal Research Station. While the first three suggestions were relatively easy to incorporate into a mosaic design, the research station offered many options to consider.
After some discussion, the Lacombe Pig was selected, because it was the first strain of livestock developed in Canada during the 1940’s & 50’s by Jack Stothart and Howard Fredeen in Lacombe.
Sadly, as of this year there are only eight purebred Lacombe Pigs in left Canada, and it is listed as a, “Critically endangered heritage breed of farm livestock” on the Rare Breeds Canada Conservation List.
The mosaic is the perfect medium to ensure that this affable four-legged member and long-time part of our local history, is not forgotten.
The mosaic tiles will be painted in the Servus Credit Union Room in the Lacombe Memorial Centre on Sept. 28th and 29th but those interested must sign up first. To book your time to paint a tile, visit https://signup.com/client/invitation2/secure/2281237/false?popup=true#/invitation.
Those without internet access may contact Maureen MacKenzie at 403-782-1258 or mmackenzie@lacombe.ca for assistance.
Lacombe’s mural will be included in a tabletop book featuring all the murals created for the Canada 150 Mosaic project. Copies of the book may be ordered at the event in September.
More information about the Canada 150 Mosaic project can be found at: http://canada150mosaic.com.