Montreal MURAL Festival is an eleven day event celebrating the international urban art movement, held this year from June 8th to 17th on St. Laurent Boulevard, or The Main as it’s commonly known. For its 6th edition, the festival teamed up with Sun Youth and Montreal-based artist Waxhead to create something unique and representatives of the community organization. This wasn’t the first time Waxhead and Sun Youth crossed paths as in 2016 the artist also created some of the most interesting murals on the outside of Sun Youth’s St. Urbain Street building. TD Canada Trust were also instrumental in getting the project off the ground, lending their parking space for everyone to freely unleash their creativity while some of their employees came to volunteer for the day.
The work was conceived by Waxhead based on sketches made by the Hornets athletes prior to the event. The result was a colourful mural made up of three 4′ X 8′ panels representing the essence of Sun Youth, its sports programs but also the nature, greenery and animal life of the neighbourhood. The good news is that the organization got to keep the mural!
Sun Youth volunteers who answered the call came from various sectors of the organization. The event brought together day camp children and their parents, bike patrollers and also young athletes from the organization’s Hornets basketball and football teams, along with coaches and parents. Huge thanks to D.J. Dion Gold for providing the lively musical backdrop throughout the day. In all about 100 people took part in the event which spanned from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm. While they were taking turns painting, the Hornets basketball players were happy to show their ball handling skills to those around.
Sun Youth would like to thank Waxhead and the MURAL festival for selecting the organization and the many volunteers, including those of TD, for taking part this wonderful initiative which will have a lasting impact for years to come.
Feature image: TD and Sun Youth volunteers with the organization’s Hornets players proudly posing in front of the three 4′ X 8′ murals created in collaboration with Montreal artist Waxhead. Photo: Caroline Viger-Lazare.
