11/12th Street Underpass Mural

We can’t believe it happened! Thanks to over 150+ volunteers and three solid weeks of painting, we’re pleased to present the slightly less dark and dingy underpass connecting Inglewood and Ramsay! Every creature, house, and object you see in the mural is tied to a story or secret from the neighbourhood. We packed as many stories as we could into this narrow slice of wall – and more into a second design for the central pier of the underpass, which (for complicated reasons) couldn’t be created this year, but may yet be painted someday in the not-too-distant future.

 

Thank you to everyone who submitted a story. We are in the process of making an archive of your tales. Stay tuned!

Thank you to our sponsors, the Good Ideas Grant from ActivateYYC, The City of Calgary Arts and Culture Micro-Grant, Embrace the Outdoors Grant from the Parks Foundation, the Calgary Foundation Neighbourhood Grant, the Inspiring Neighbourhoods Grant from the City of Calgary, and The Inglewood BIA. 

 

Thank you to everyone who contributed to our Crowdfunding Campaign – Emilie, Neeka, Kathryn, Cody, Erin, Katrine, Colin, Lena, Dee, Karen, Joanna, Vanessa, Julia, Kristina, Lauren, and several anonymous donors! A shout-out to Cold Garden for their relentless generosity, to the fine folks at CPKC for letting us paint their underpass, to Ramsay Rosso for carrying our “I <3 Ramsay” merch, and to Say Cheese and Lina’s for unexpected treats.

 

We have so much gratitude to this neighbourhood for making this mural possible. Our volunteers were solid gold and we want to send a giant Thank You to the many neighbours who lent their time and elbow grease to painting this mural. It was amazing to have so much support, so close to home.

 

We want to thank the Ramsay Community Association, our friends at the City of Calgary, Pete & Nicholas at CPKC, Renilin, Jeff, Margaret, Teresa, The Monicas, Julie, Jared, Sam, Angel, Matthew, Isaac, Leona & Jim, Jordan, Mikey, Jean, Carroll, Jessie & Derek, Vicki, Dan & the sweet team at Cold Garden & Ol’ Beautiful, Ian, Adam, NASARIMA, Tilly, Rebecca, Karen & Kristen of the Inglewood BIA, our equally lovely & supportive boyfriends Wayne & Chris, and our neighbours for being so dang great.

 

It took over 2.5 years to paint this ~2000 sq foot mural, and we couldn’t have persisted without the Ramsay Community Association President and our lovely neighbour, Kolja Vainstein. He was the third member of our Dream Team and we were lucky to have him.

 

It’s a pleasure to live and work in the community of Ramsay. Change is coming in our neighbourhood – as change always does. Depending on what the next few years hold for the Greenline LRT, the new Fire Hall, and the Ramsay-Inglewood Public Realm Improvements, this mural may be a temporary or long-term project. Regardless, the process of making this mural has allowed us to unfold our neighbourhood with a detail and intimacy we never thought possible. Not all the secrets we uncovered were good (this is, after all, a complex place) but they reflect our community as a living, breathing, weird, and – more often than not – wonderful place. We are proud to call Ramsay home, and we look forward to seeing what happens next.

 

Thank you, neighbours!

xoxo,

Caitlind Brown & Monica Ila