After months of planning and hard work, residents and visitors will have a new view of the park at the corner of South Dinosaur Trail and 2nd Street West.
For the last year, there has been considerable work done on the plot of land across from Mac’s Convenience Store. An agreement was reached with the land owner to beautify the lot, which has stood vacant for a number of years.
On Tuesday morning, May 25, crews were out installing a mural along the fence on the north side of the park. This six-panel work, on four foot by eight foot canvases, reflects the historic roots Drumheller has in the coal industry.
Vicki Myers guided two inmates from the Drumheller Institution in creating the installation. She says the project has been over a year in the works, and since February they have toiled away painting the mural at the Stampede Barn.
She said it was an exciting process. The inmates built the murals from the canvas up, and she facilitated the work. She did a couple impromptu basic art lessons and was there to help guide the project along. By the end, the artists were playing solo.
“The guys were great… they got right into it,” said Myers. “They were doing it on their own, they weren’t relying on me, they just kind of got in there and got at it. By the end of it, the last one that one inmate did, he did completely by himself.”
Myers is an accomplished artist and for a time ran her own gallery in Drumheller. She is also experienced at teaching. She finds both creating and mentorship satisfying.
“It is more about the process, that’s what it is all about for me… In the process of doing art, there are much more interesting things going on than what you come out with in the end,” said Myers. “I like doing the teaching because many people don’t feel they have the right to be an artist, because the artist is some sort of ‘special being.’ Everybody can be creative, it should be part of your daily thinking life.”
“You can’t go wrong, and if you do go wrong, you learn from it.”
The beautifying of the park is a collaboration amongst a number of community organizations including Communities in Bloom, the Drumheller Institution, The Town of Drumheller and many businesses that have donated to the project.
