Okotoks Canada 150 Mosaic looks to kick start book

A crowd funding campaign has launched to help immortalize Okotoks’ Canada 150 mural along with others from across the country.

“I’m very excited for it,” said Andrea Spiers, Okotoks culture and heritage services specialist. “I really hope that they get enough pledges to create the book. I’ve already ordered two books for myself. I can’t wait for it to come out because this is something that I’m very proud of being a part of.”

A Kickstarter has been created to help fund a coffee table book that will capture stories and photos from across Canada.

Every mural from the Canada 150 Mosaic will be featured, with participants able to find their contributions in the book.

Okotoks was one of 150 municipalities from across Canada that was selected to participate in the event. The unique murals created through the project wouldcreate a train car that stretches 465 meters wide and 2.4 meters high.

More than 80,000 paintings were created by Canadians from coast-to-coast as part of the Canada 150 project.

“I think that this is just such a great project and to have the whole book for the entire Canada mural after all this is done. I’m really excited for them,” said Spiers.

The Okotoks mural required the talents of 520 residents to create the mosaic, over the course of May 25 and May 26 2017, creating of 864 individual tiles. They worked over two days in May last year.

The Okotoks mosaic creates a train car carrying the famous Big Rock erratic.

The Okotoks mural was made possible by donations provided by the Town of Okotoks, The Community Foundations of Canada, the Calgary Foundation, the Government of Canada and Canada 150.

The Okotoks mural was unveiled at the Okotoks Art Gallery on June 10, 2017, before being permanently placed in the lobby of the Pason Centennial Arena in 2018.

A Canada 150 plaque commemorating the mosaic and the contributions made by Okotokians and donors was recently place beside the mural.

The book is expected to have more than 200 pages and will retail for approximately $70.

The planned coffee table book is aiming to be big enough to showcase each individual tile inside the different murals, so that artists who contributed their art can find their work.

Books can be purchased through the Kickstarter page for between $30 to $40.

As of the Western Wheel’s deadline the Canada 150 National Mural Mosaic Book has raised $9,926 of its $23,000 goal.

“I’m proud to be an Okotokian and I’m proud to be a part of creating this mural for Canada’s 150 and for Okotoks,” said Spiers.

The Kickstarter for the book can be found at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1149995899/canada-150-national-mural-mosaic-book.