INNISFAIL – Gary Leith has an artistic dream for the Innisfail fire hall.
The longstanding local fire chief wants to see a mural on the hall’s exterior training wall that would honour the service of the Innisfail Fire Department, which dates back before the town’s incorporation in 1903.
“The Innisfail Fire Department is one of the oldest ones in Alberta and we are very proud of it, and one of the first pumper trucks they had is currently still at the historical village,” said Leith, who was recently promoted as the first director of the town's Protective Services department.
Leith said he would like to see the town’s prized pioneer Bickle pumper truck depicted on the wall.
“We would like to celebrate that and if the mural can take place, we would incorporate that truck with a more modern one and maybe a firefighter dressed in traditional dress from back in 1903,” said Leith.
And it is possible his dream could come true.
For the past three years the town has become increasingly interested in murals and public art.
In fact, the idea of creating a municipal arts policy was first raised in 2017 and again two years later by former mayor Jim Romane who became concerned when two of the four major downtown murals depicting Innisfail's pioneer heritage were painted over and lost forever.
And now nearly eight years later the town has released a draft Innisfail Public Art and Placemaking Framework, a 48-page document that lays out a vision and guiding principles for public art and placemaking to “inspire creativity, inclusivity, and sustainability while celebrating Innisfail’s cultural heritage.”
The draft policy, created with the support of Annalee Adair of Evoke Culture 2.0, was first presented to town council in January.
In Jenkins' report to council, she said the goal is to establish five priority strategy areas and a detailed implementation plan and timeline, with the framework including a term of reference for an advisory committee.
The framework also identifies a first-year budget of $20,000 to support small scale projects, community engagement and administrative setup.
Council was told the plan outlines increasing investment into the program up to $75,000 in the fifth year.
“I think this has gone so much further than what my expectations of it were,” said Coun. Dale Dunham on the draft report. “I think once we get the community feedback it will lay a really good foundation, and hopefully we'll be able to bring this to fruition within the year, which would be brilliant.”
On Feb. 28, Meghan Jenkins, the town’s director of community services, announced the draft policy is online for public review and feedback at www.involve.innisfail.ca
In January, Jenkins told council she anticipated the online presentation would be available for viewing for a period of six weeks to two months.
“That'll still give council some time when other financial decisions come up this spring,” said Jenkins.
And funding is an area the town's mayor, Jean Barclay, expressed concerns.
“It is a good report that she has put together and captured things extremely well,” conceded Barclay. “My only concern is the funding. We’ve been through a difficult budget and took some money out. Are we going to put more back in? And how do we do that?
“We're in pretty uncertain times right now in many ways.”
In the meantime, artists in the community are pleased the town has finally released a comprehensive draft policy for the public to have a good look at.
Karen Scarlett, who has spearheaded several public art projects over the past three years, said she is “excited” to see how it will develop in the community.
“It will be interesting to see how it adapts to Innisfail,” said Scarlett, who is planning two murals in the town for later this year, “As we all know, policies like this are living documents that need to evolve and represent the community.
“I am excited to see where it lands and watch it develop into a supportive document that will help activate more public art that is strong enough to attract tourism and other exciting opportunities for us.”
The Innisfail Art Club was first contacted a month ago by the Albertan to comment on the draft document.
Members of the executive committee met to discuss the draft document and issued a statement.
“This document provides a clear plan in ‘broad strokes’ for the future of public arts in our community. The framework appears to address the unique multi-cultural community that is Innisfail,” said the art club statement.
“It is exciting that this framework plans to include local groups, already promoting artistic pursuits, within the makeup of the proposed multi-faceted ‘community membership’ team.”
