Create! Arts Festival launches public-art works as part of expanded hands-on event July 23 and 24
A giant mosaic of local wildlife and a vibrant mural are just two of the projects visitors can help make at the second annual fest
One of Serena Chu’s large drawing murals.
Bruce Walther’s previous mosaic installed at the entrance to Strathcona Park.
Eastside Arts Society presents the Create! Arts Festival on July 23 in Strathcona Park and July 24 in Eastside studios
VISITORS CAN LEND a hand in three big public-art activities at this year’s expanded Create! Arts Festival, 11 am to 5 pm on July 23 in Strathcona Park.
In the Art Zone, alongside multiple hands-on arts demonstrations, Bruce Walther will be leading the creation of a giant mosaic, Serena Chu will oversee a colourful drawing mural, and Richard Tetrault will helm a wall-sized communal painting.
All are artists who regularly participate in the Eastside Culture Crawl, the organizing group behind this summertime interactive event—now entering just its second year.
For her part, Chu is a multidisciplinary artist trained in mural painting and installation sculpture who is best-known at the Crawl for her signature black-and-white ceramics and sleek hand-sculpted resin jewellery (through Chu Chu Ceramics). During COVID, she has seen her teaching and community-art projects grow exponentially out of her practice.
“I expanded it because I felt like people really needed a space to feel happy,” says Chu, who has led similar large-scale drawing projects at places like Granville Island Brewing. “Sometimes art is intimidating, so I really try to create a space where you can be at any level and take part. Although the art is important, it’s the process that’s important to me. I know it sounds kind of cheesy, but it sparks joy!”
Artist Serena Chu is a fixture at the Eastside Culture Crawl, best known for her ceramics.
Under a tent in the park on Saturday, the public can colour in an eight-foot-by-four-foot mural with Magic Markers. It features a collage of Chinatown imagery whimsically outlined by Chu. Among its instantly recognizable landmarks are the abacus sculpture, Millennium Gate, bubble tea, dim sum, and a Chinese lion.
“My family immigrated from Hong Kong, and Chinatown definitely needs more love right now—it’s definitely struggling,” Chu explains of the subject matter.
Nearby in the Zone, longtime mosaic artist Walther has created a large circular board with outlines of wildlife that can be spotted in Strathcona park, from raccoons to seagulls. Visitors to Create! can fill in each silhouette with coloured, broken tile that the artist has prepared.
Like Chu, he says the process of making the artwork goes beyond just the colourful finished product.
Walther brings to the art form a unique background that blends both art school and work in stained glass and tiling in the construction industry. On top of that, he’s created public-art commissions throughout the Lower Mainland and as far away as Winnipeg; some of his best-known works are sidewalk mosaics celebrating local history and culture in New Westminster.
“Once people start to physically do a mosaic, it’s kind of meditative—like a puzzle,” he says. “And it still looks good even if you’re not skilled at it. Because it’s broken pieces there’s a lot of room there for error—you don’t have to be an expert at it. The other thing is the permanence of it is nice too—we frost-proof the tiles so the colours don’t fade.”
Walther adds that the public artwork is a followup to a community mosaic project he led at the entranceway to Strathcona Park back in 2005; crafted by street-involved people from the Downtown Eastside, it features themes around the park that include its wildlife. In that work and this one, as well as his own practice, the artist approaches mosaics the same way he would a painting, treating each piece of cut tile like a brush stroke—each one creating a singular expressive art piece.
All 51 of Saturday’s visual- and performing-art workshops are hosted outdoors at Strathcona Park, with offerings spanning Textile Waste Wall Art with Madeleine Chaffee to Ceramic Carving with Mat Holstrom; other artists include Sri Ishii, Russell Wallace, and Chantal Cardinal. Think poetry, bookbinding, printmaking, and more. Tickets are $5, with kids under 12 free. Entry includes access to the onsite Strange Fellows Beer Garden and all the food trucks. If you’ve purchased any two-hour workshop over Create!’s two-day fest, you get free access to the Art Zone. (On Sunday, July 24, 12 art-making workshops will be hosted at several Eastside studios, including at Terminal City Glass Co-op, Grace Lee eikcam ceramics, Aja Billas, and Bruce Inglis & Edge City Woodworking at The Mergatroid Building.) Find much more info and a schedule here.
And if you put your mark on the mosaic, painting, or Magic Marker public mural, look for it to have lasting impact; for his part, Walther hopes to get permission to hang the new Celebrating Strathcona mosaic onsite permanently.
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