{"id":30054,"date":"2021-09-30T22:42:50","date_gmt":"2021-10-01T02:42:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=30054"},"modified":"2021-09-30T22:48:47","modified_gmt":"2021-10-01T02:48:47","slug":"more-work-needed-to-get-diversity-inclusion-mural-just-right-say-councillors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/more-work-needed-to-get-diversity-inclusion-mural-just-right-say-councillors\/","title":{"rendered":"More work needed to get Diversity & Inclusion Mural just right, say Councillors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A new mural celebrating Canada\u2019s diversity as a rich tapestry could soon be placed on the southwest corner of Yonge and Wellington, but some fine tuning is needed to make sure it reflects the diversity of Aurora, say Councillors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, sitting at the Committee level, Council received the winning submission for Aurora\u2019s Diversity & Inclusion mural, one which is intended to complement the Great Canadian Achievements mural on the opposite corner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Approved by Council last year, the winning design by the Moonlight Mural Collective was selected from five submissions received by the Town. An additional sixth proposal was received following the deadline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the design submitted and most of the funding in place, the mural is expected to be in place by next May with a formal unveiling in June of 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, before it gets to that point, some Councillors would like to see some additional tweaks to the finished product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOriginally, this wasn\u2019t what I was expecting \u2013 I don\u2019t think many were,\u201d said Councillor Wendy Gaertner. \u201cA quilt wasn\u2019t a unique idea to me, but on thinking it through this may be the appropriate venue for what we\u2019re trying to accomplish. I know this is just a draft [but] we have to ensure that all parts of the quilt in combination, are what Council is trying to address with diversity and inclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These areas, she said, include recognition of Indigenous people and achievements and the 2SLGBTQ+ community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are so many groups in the community and even outside the community that we want to include,\u201d she said. \u201cThe artwork has to be very specific to identify all those different groups that we\u2019re trying to include.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Rachel Gilliland too said the quilt design wasn\u2019t what she was expecting, but said this discrepancy might have been borne out of not having a \u201cproper process\u201d in place to steer the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have our Master Cultural Plan done as of yet and guidelines are not really solidified to make it seamless,\u201d she said. \u201cI would maybe have liked to have seen some things before hand. It\u2019s beautiful, but as far as what is being encompassed, is that the message we\u2019re really trying to exemplify.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While she said she liked the idea of different fabrics representing different communities, she said there was something missing and what has been presented so far was incomplete.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor John Gallo shared her views on a lack of process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project, he says, \u201cfeels somewhat rushed\u201d and Council should have had a say in how it was developed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI hate to say \u2018no\u2019 because I always supported the idea [but] I don\u2019t like the process,\u201d he said. \u201cWould it look great there? Probably. Would it add to the Town? Probably. Could it have been done better? Absolutely, in my view. Would it have garnered more support? I think so.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, Councillor Sandra Humfryes said this was Council\u2019s \u201cfirst go\u201d at the mural and, as far as process was concerned, it is just the beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cArt is also everyone\u2019s opinion as well,\u201d she said. \u201cI may like something that somebody else might not like and we would all probably see different things. It is the first time we actually started to move forward on something like this and I am okay with it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Councillor Michael Thompson saved his opinion on the design itself, he said Council would benefit from having a different version of the design in front of them to consider, one which is superimposed on top of the building\u2019s fa\u00e7ade to get a fuller picture of what could be the finished product. This was a view shared by Councillor Gaertner and a successful motion was made at the table to get just that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis needs to come back to Council for some kind of approval,\u201d Councillor Gilliland concluded. \u201cEverybody\u2019s art that was submitted is beautiful and definitely there is no lack of talent. At the same time, we\u2019re trying to make a decision on the four corners of our downtown and I think a little bit more pre-process for coming to this is in order and that is because of the lack of the Cultural Master Plan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Added Councillor Gallo: \u201cIt is really important to get it right. To me, there is no rush. We are where we are. I don\u2019t like the process, but let\u2019s see if something can come out of this. If it is not what we\u2019re looking for, we should get back to the drawing board.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong>
Editor<\/em>
<\/strong>Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/em><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new mural celebrating Canada\u2019s diversity as a rich tapestry could soon be placed on the southwest corner of Yonge and Wellington, but some fine tuning is needed to make sure it reflects the diversity of Aurora, say Councillors. Last week, sitting at the Committee level, Council received the winning submission for Aurora\u2019s Diversity & […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-7OK","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-25 05:04:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30054\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}