By Ian Harvey
Birch Cliff residents are invited to offer their input into locations and themes for future murals at the upcoming Mural Routes meeting on Jan. 7.
The neighbourhood has been sprouting murals since last summer, all with the theme of birch trees.
With three murals in place – the Win-a-Mart, Wimpy’s and the giant birch tree cut out on the side of the red brick apartment building at Kingston Road and Warden – the Mural Routes people behind them are looking for new locations.
Warden underpass mural depicting Scarborough Bluffs
The mural at the CN overpass at Warden Ave between Clonmore Ave and Danforth Ave. is well underway with a spectacular view of the Bluffs and a homage to Elizabeth Simcoe clearly visible.
It too will sprout a birch tree on its south side reminding visitors as they exit through the “portal” to Birch Cliff with a oak tree on the north side to remind those going south they are leaving our northern neighbours, Oakridge.
It might more sense, though, to reverse those, with the birch tree to welcome vistors traveling south and an oak for those going north into Oakridge.
Sites for future murals?
Meanwhile, at its Dec. 5 meeting, the Mural Routes committee met and identified three locations where they hope to begin talks about future murals.
Birch tree mural, Warden and Kingston Road
The are: Birch Cliff Public School, Harding Co-op and Taylor Memorial Library, though Tara Dorey, Program Coordinator, stressed they are locations of interest and nothing will be decided without community input, and of course, the agreement and participation of the property owners.
Long term possibilities might also include the Dollarama Wall, Kal-Mar Co-op, Eastwood Clinic (though they’ve already declined once), the retaining wall beside the War Memorial which is a “portal” to the neighbourhood and the apartment building at the gas station near Victoria Park which would establish a new western boundary.
Again, these are suggestions and nothing is “set in stone” said Dorey, pun intended.
Win-a-Mart Variety mural
Reaction very positive
Meanwhile, reaction to the murals has been overwhelmingly positive as they start to establish a “brand image” for both those who live here and the thousands of commuters who pass through daily.
“I think the mural at 1496 Kingston Rd is fantastic, Sara Collard’s artwork is well done; it seems to bring a bit of the country into a very busy part of the city, and brightens up the neighbourhood. I’m glad I was able to be a part of it all,” said George, the property owner at Wimpy’s Diner.
Your chance to get involved
The Mural Routes program, which has put murals up and down Kingston Road in other neighbourhoods, stresses that to work, the community has to be involved, thus the invitation to the next meeting Jan. 7 at the Mural Routes office at 2:30pm at 1859 Kingston Road, just east of Birchmount on the south side.
Who should be honoured?
Elizabeth Simcoe portrait
They’re also looking for inspiration for subjects which, while they have to include the venerable birch tree in some way shape or form, might also feature some person or feature of Birch Cliff which is integral to the fabric of the community.
The bridge mural, for example, features Elizabeth Simcoe, wife of the first Lt. Gov. John Graves Simcoe, who remarked on seeing the magnificent bluffs rising from the waters that they remindered her of similar cliffs in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England – and so they were renamed the Scarborough Bluffs and the name of the land mass around them changed from Glasgow to Scarborough.
One suggestion might be Phyllis Griffiths, the legendary journalist who broke the gender barrier at the Toronto Telegram in the 1940s and was the Christie Blatchford of her era. The Birchmount Community Centre was originally named after her since she was a long time resident of the area.
The committee hopes to get traction on locations in order to apply for grants which will pay for high school student to work over the summer on the projects and brush up on their artistic studies at the same time.
May I suggest that if you would like more community input then perhaps have your meetings in the evenings or weekends when more residents can attend them instead of during the day when most people are working. I, myself, would like to participate but am unable as I will be working at 2:30pm on January 7th.