Urban Canvas public art program
Public art adds colour, life, and a sense of vitality and growth to the downtown.”
– RDBID Executive Director, Judith Veresuk
Downtown Regina is everyone’s neighbourhood – a valued asset that equally embraces our community and is embraced by our community. As we continue to position Regina’s downtown as an attractive place for visitors, residents and businesses, we see added value in public art as part of our evolving culture, and as a way of strengthening our economy through supporting paid creative work.
In partnership with the City of Regina, Regina Downtown Business Improvement District (RDBID) created the Urban Canvas public art program in 2011 to deepen the sense of community in our downtown neighbourhood and connect the public to local artists. Originally part of downtown Regina’s response to unwanted vandalism, this program has grown to fulfill other valuable functions, adding value and vitality to this diverse neighbourhood. In more recent years, RDBID has installed artwork primarily on alley doors and traffic control boxes.
Technical Considerations
Artwork featured in the Urban Canvas Downtown Regina program is selected by a paid panel of adjudicators representing the local arts community and the City of Regina. Adjudicators assess submissions based on their artistic merit, how well they are suited to display on alley doors or traffic control boxes, and how well they reflect Regina’s downtown community. Artists selected by the panel receive an honorarium per design, upon delivery of a final print-ready image.
Alley Doors
Created by artists throughout Saskatchewan and beyond, in various media and techniques, the artwork in the Urban Canvas program is originally submitted to RDBID as digital images. Once chosen by the adjudication panel, selected artists then finalize their images for printing and size them to the dimensions of the doors on which they will be installed. These final digital images are then printed as vinyl “wraps” which are adhered to the doors by professional installers contracted by RDBID.
Traffic Control Boxes
The submission and selection process for traffic control boxes is much the same as for alley doors, but with the added challenge of the “canvases” being three dimensional rather than flat and simply rectangular. The successful artworks must be designed to make sense on a multi-faced rectangular box with three or four visible sides and sometimes a top (not always visible). Again, final images must be sized to the actual dimensions (length, height and width) of the traffic control boxes on which they will be installed, printed out on vinyl wraps and installed by professional installers contracted by RDBID.
Thank you!
RDBID would like to thank the City of Regina, the adjudicators, the printing and installation teams at Sleek Signs, and all the artists who have contributed their inspired creative visions, technical skills, time and energy to the Urban Canvas Downtown Regina public art program. Downtown Regina is a more vibrant and vital place because of each of you!