Downtown Fort Frances is poised to become much more colourful, and local artists will be at the heart of it.
The Fort Frances Downtown BIA and Chamber of Commerce are joining forces to implement a project called Windows Alive that will see the windows of Scott Street area businesses painted by local artists to reflect some element of life in northwestern Ontario. Rhonda Howells, the marketing and events planner for the Fort Frances Chamber of Commerce and BIA, said the initiative is the result of both some received funding and a desire to spruce up the downtown area for visitors and local shoppers.
“Windows Alive is a community tourist attraction, art exhibit and business revitalization project,” Howells said.
“The initiative will activate the downtown core, encouraging pedestrian traffic and create a unique walkable art experience that draws residents and visitors to the business section of town. The project will strengthen community pride, encourage appreciation for local artists, highlight local Indigenous culture and landmarks symbolic to this region, as well as promote Truth and Reconciliation goals of the community.”
The original goal of the project was to paint the windows of some of the empty buildings that line the downtown core of Scott Street, but Howells noted that as she spoke to more business owners, the ones who were most enthusiastic of the project were the ones who had active businesses on the strip. The project then changed direction somewhat, and Howells approached both the Fine Line Art Gallery, as well as Fort Frances High School’s art department, to begin the work of building interest and connecting local artists to interested businesses.
“We came up with the idea that perhaps if people were interested, we would paint the windows and promote things that were historic to Fort Frances,” she said.
“We applied for a grant, and the basis of the grant was art that had anything to do with Fort Frances: landmarks, animals, Indigenous artwork, anything to do with the community and its origin and history. [Chamber of Commerce director Heather Johnson] and I went around from business to business and dropped off letters and we had 16 businesses that were interested in doing the windows. We talked to Fine Line Gallery and some local artists and were able to cover some of those windows, but we also wanted to incorporate some of our youth. So we went to the high school and I talked to Dany Michaud. At this point the students are coming up with ideas that we’re going to present to businesses and then we’re going to try to match up artists to businesses, and hopefully we can get it done within the next month or so.”
The spirit of collaboration is alive and well within the project, with Howells explaining that each artist is left to come up with their own idea for what to paint, playing to their strengths and interests, and from there the project will work to connect them with a business who is similarly interested in that idea, or has a connection to the artistic idea being presented.
As an example, Howells said it would be something like if an artist wanted to paint the Causeway, and so she would send them over to Causeway Insurance, at which point the artist and business would further collaborate on a vision of the art that would work for both parties.
Howells noted that the artists won’t be covering up the entire window, and even then the paint is intended to allow viewing into and out of the store. The project is also providing each participating artist with a small stipend for their work, and will cover the paint, though Howell said artists will be using their own brushes or paint application tools to create their artwork. The paint will go on the interior of the window to protect it from the elements, and for any windows with condensation issues, the business and artist will be provided a window blind to paint.
Howells said she is hopeful the project will interest people to come down and take a look at the windows both as they are being worked on and once they are finished, and she said work is also being done to get more funding to expand on the program in the future.
“We did apply for a grant through the MAT (Municipal Accommodation Tax) fund but haven’t heard anything back yet,” she said.
“We’re hoping that if the MAT fund comes through we’ll be able to do more windows.”
The plan is for the windows in the downtown core to be painted over the next month, so if you’re shopping downtown later this month and into April, keep an eye on the window of your favourite local business to watch local art bloom. Keep an eye on the Fort Frances Times and Bulletin to see more as the project progresses.
