Downtown Penticton breezeway has been lightened up by local artists creations running down its walls

The breezeway in the 200 block of Main Street in Penticton’s downtown got a major makeover from local artists, with original paintings stretching down the entire walkway adding a bit of new life. 

“This has been a project we’ve been working on since early 2020, we were very fortunate to be given a $10,000 grant for Tweed Collective,” Lynn Allin, the executive director for the Downtown Penticton Association said. 

The grant was given out by the Canadian wide company that offered art projects for communities. The project started just before the Covid-19 lockdown in March, which delayed the projects for the year in getting pieces in place. 

“So once we could get things rolling, what we did is we asked the community artists, the local artists to submit ideas that they felt would be a really beautiful piece to walk through.” 

Forty-two submissions came from 38 artists when the call for pieces came out in October.

“It was sort of a short turn around, so it was really amazing that we had that much of a return that quickly,” Allin added.  

After all the submissions came in, an anonymous group of downtown Penticton business owners and other artists received the art and decided on their favourites. 

“We didn’t put pieces together based on a theme, it was just really let’s see what our local artist give to us.”

Chosen featured artists are: Debbie Tougas, Diane Way, Dianne Bersea, Greta Kamp, Lindsay Peltz, Paul Skelhorne, Peggy Stel and Rade Durdev.

The chosen pieces were then reproduced and wrapped in a vinyl covering, to make sure they last and are protected. 

“If the wrap is tagged or graffitied in any way, we can clean it up or we can reproduce it again. So it's a little different but it certainly makes this breezeway beautiful and colourful.” 

Plans for how long the art will stay before changing up are still unknown, as there's a possibility it may change in a year. 

“If this is a really well received project,we might see it carry on throughout the downtown area.”

The new installation will be fully completed when the last piece of artwork and a mural are added in from the Penticton Indian Band. 

“I encourage people to come down and let us know what they think,” Allin added.