Art in Public Space
As part of our ongoing collaboration on community engagement in East Hamilton, Red Tree Artists’ Collective, The Hamilton Dialogues and Pipeline Trail Hamilton are excited to present the project “Trail Mix Museum.” The multi-disciplinary installation of contemporary and historical visual art, and dubpoetry, follows the inaugural “Mural Trail Head” presentation of labour artist and activist Leonard Hutchinson’s “Webster’s Falls,” as well as youth art and community collaborations along the Pipeline Trail, and the 2020 temporary art installation series “The Last Days of Ice and Snow.”
For the outdoor mural presentation, the original artworks on paper were enlarged, printed in vinyl and mounted on durable panels to be attached to fences and outbuildings lining the trail. The idea of museum quality art in public space was motivated in part by COVID-19 closures of galleries and museums, and in part by the fact that the lower city’s east end neighbourhood is not well served by any of Hamilton’s cultural institutions.
Imagery presented along the trail establishes connections to the industrial and ecological history of the 6 km pipeline that has carried clean water to the City of Hamilton underneath the trail since 1859. Over the years, industry and property owners have encroached on the park land, and in 2015 Hamilton published a “Pipeline Trail Master Plan.” At present, a number of properties still have garages facing the trail, and cars frequently drive over it at intersections with laneways. Though not literally “environmental” in content or media, the pieces on exhibition reference water, land, people and the environments they built.
The exhibition takes place on the lands of the Haudenosaunee, Mississauga, Wendat and Neutral People (Attawandaron) under the Dish with One Spoon Treaty.
We acknowledge the support of the Government of Canada through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario. o Nous reconnaissons l’appui du gouvernement du Canada à travers l’Agence fédérale de développement économique pour le Sud de l’Ontario.
locations of artwork along the Pipeline Trail between London and Strathearne:
- Delio Delgado “untitled/giraffe” – garage east of Edgemont Street North
2. Shelley Niro “Spirit” from the series Resting with Warriors – fence east of Province Street North
3. Dámarys Sepúlveda “Lava II” – garage east of Crosthwaite Ave North, south wall
4. Leonard Hutchinson “Builders of Roads” – garage east of Crosthwaite Ave North, east wall
5. Leonard Hutchinson “Websters Falls” – shed between Fairfield Ave North and Paling Ave
6. Creative Commons Wall – parkette between Tragina Ave North and Weir Street North
7. Prints from Plants – fence west of Garside Ave
8. Water Works – shed at Andrew Warburton Park, facing Britannia Ave.
Drop-in Workshops on the Trail and at Andrew Warburton Memorial Park:
Hip-Hop with Claris, July 30, 2022
Clay with Judi, September 3, 2022
Prints from Nature, September 10, 2022
Poetry with Klyde, October, 2022
On line workshops:
Klyde Broox (poetry) and Nathan Carson (painting) with youth, in collaboration with ACCA
Mural painting workshop: on line and at W.H.Ballard, Dámarys Sepúlveda with Grade 8 students
Red Tree Artists' Collective 