A dreary Regina tunnel that sees its fair share of vandalism is expected to get an interesting upgrade in the coming months after a local jogger drew some attention to it.
Test Test can someone help me float this idea over to new Mayor of Regina, Sandra Masters?! I think I'm onto something…
Posted by Jeffery Straker on Wednesday, December 2, 2020
Jeffery Straker has been running through the tunnel under the Albert Street Memorial Bridge at least four times a week for the past 10 years.
During that time span, he has seen the depressing, bunker-like walls occasionally sprayed with graffiti before it would be promptly painted over by the city.
“I would not even call what is on these walls graffiti. It has just been a mess,” he said.
In December, Straker decided to bring some awareness to the little tunnel located near Wascana Park — and the response has been very unexpected.
“I thought, ‘Well, what is the point in the city using the money for the repeated cleaning of this tunnel when you could just use that money to pay some artists to paint it and make it into a little gallery?’ ” Straker said.
“Instead of making it someplace that most people don’t know about, or people scurry through because it’s kind of scary-looking and dreary, why not make it beautiful and make it something that someone would stop and look at?”
The community response to the idea has been huge. Straker’s post on Facebook garnered more than 450 shares and caught the attention of Coun. Andrew Stevens, among others.
“Stevens talked with the Cathedral Area Community Association and the city about this idea before it was approved in principal. They agreed it’s something that they would like to see done, but it still requires funding,” Straker said.
“Luckily, the stars aligned and our wonderful Cathedral Village Arts Festival has said this idea of a visual arts legacy project was right up their alley, so they stepped in to sponsor this.
“The big piece of help is that the festival is onboard, energized and super excited to see this get done.”
Janet Brown, vice-chair of the CVAF, says planning is officially underway.
“It’s still the very early stages, but we do have a history of murals in the city,” Brown said. “Every year with our arts festival, we have different mural projects on the go. We will be working with our festival committee and the artistic community to get some proposals and get something accomplished.
“Our funding decisions will help dictate to us the scope of what we’ll be able to undertake for this project.”
Brown said once the funding and further planning get figured out, the project could possibly start up sometime in May.
“We believe it’s important to make something exciting that will make that part of the city an interesting place for everybody,” she said.
Straker hopes the project will inspire the possibility of other interesting art projects throughout the city,
“Once you put up some graffiti, it greatly decreases the odds that more graffiti will come on top of it,” he said. “There’s a lot still to be determined, but the wheels are definitely in motion now.
“Instead of this tunnel being something that people want to avoid, it can be part of a walk in the park for tons of people. I think it has such great potential.”
For updates on what’s next for the tunnel, check out the CVAF website.