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Winnipeg Free Press
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Art is afoot
They're almost ready to be traversed, touched and skipped on: four blocks of street paintings from Carlton to Garry Street on Graham, including two playable murals. The murals are part of Reimagining Graham Avenue, which sees the former transit corridor transformed into a pedestrian-first corridor. 'There's going to be a giant parcheesi game right in front of the police services,' says Karin Kliewer, a senior planner at the City of Winnipeg. 'And I don't even know how to play parcheesi, but I'm definitely gonna learn!' MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS From left: artist Alex Plante, project manager Stéphane Dorge and artistic lead Takashi Iwasaki are painting murals along a four-block stretch of Graham Avenue, which is transitioning from a bus corridor to a pedestrian space. Local artists began paving the streets with strokes on Canada Day and have being painting at a brisk clip — they're expected to be wrapped up this weekend. Muralists include Marc Kuegle, Alex Plante, Kal Barteski, Kale Sheppard, Laura Lee Harasym, Mike Zastre, James Culleton, Architects at Play and artistic lead Takashi Iwasaki. The mark of Iwasaki's unmistakeable style — something like an extra whimsical Kandinsky or Miró for the video-game age — can be found on murals from Winnipeg to Churchill and beyond. He oversees the murals' artistic direction and collaborates with both the city and project lead Stéphane Dorge, an organizer with CoolStreetsWPG, on the murals' logistics and execution. 'I like people to think of rhythm as they walk by. Once they look at the image, it's not very stagnant,' says Iwasaki. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS The work is funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, which gave just 10 cities in North America US$100,000 under its Asphalt Art Initiative. The artist is also intrigued by people's reactions on social media to the emerging murals, saying some older Facebook users have left skeptical comments, while younger Instagram users are applauding the new works and changes on Graham Avenue. 'It's a sort of casual survey of what kind of people exist around me… On Facebook, I think people say it's waste of taxpayers' money,' says Iwasaki. 'But it's interesting: it's all funded by Bloomberg, the U.S. philanthropy organization, so nothing of our tax money has been spent on the paint.' Winnipeg is one of only 10 cities in North America selected for Bloomberg Philanthropies' US$100,000 Asphalt Art Initiative, after the Public Works and the Planning, Property and Development departments at the City of Winnipeg submitted an application. This funding is one reason why Reimagining Graham Avenue is as colourful as it is. 'It's not often where that scale of a (mural) project can happen this fast,' Dorge says. 'I hope this isn't the full catalyst, though. But I hope this… spurs prioritization from developers to focus on rebuilding (the) area and making it more vibrant.' MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS Takashi Iwasaki, artistic lead for the mural design helps, artist, Alex Plante (not pictured), paint one of several murals along a four-block stretch of Graham between Carlton and Garry Street Tuesday morning. 250708 - Tuesday, July 08, 2025. It's been an eventful couple of weeks for Winnipeg's downtown. Reimagining Graham Avenue coincides with the opening of Portage and Main to pedestrians, as well as Winnipeg's newly implemented transit model — all of which, while serving distinct goals, aim to transform the downtown into a more walkable social hub. Many significant planning initiatives in Manitoba's history have been met with polarized reactions at first, even if some — like Duff's Ditch in the 1960s, the Downtown Skywalk System in 1970s-80s, and The Forks redevelopment in the 1980s-90s — are now all but taken for granted as key pieces of infrastructure. Weekly A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene. Iwasaki says he hasn't experienced any of this negativity at the street level. 'People are curious. They always ask, 'What is this? Why is this happening?' Or it's just a nice comment of, 'Oh, that looks nice,'' he says. 'No one yells at us, especially with the (reflective) vest. We look like city workers. They have some sort of respect when you wear the safety jacket.' MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS Artist, Alex Plante (green highviz), with a little help from Takashi Iwasaki (artistic lead) creating one of several murals along a four-block stretch of Graham between Carlton and Garry Street Tuesday morning. 250708 - Tuesday, July 08, 2025. 'I think we are very critical as Winnipeggers, but this is a first step in creating the downtown that we deserve, which has a lot of beauty and a lot of places for people to go and gather,' Kliewer says. 'I hope that people walk down this. I hope that people walk down Portage and Main,' she adds. 'I hope people walk through The Exchange… and say, 'Yes, this makes sense. Yes, I want to be here. I want to walk here, bike here. I want to make art here and enjoy it.'' MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS Artist, Mike Zastre (@iron_buddha), creating one of several murals along a four-block stretch of Graham between Carlton and Garry Street Tuesday morning. 250708 - Tuesday, July 08, 2025. Conrad SweatmanReporter Conrad Sweatman is an arts reporter and feature writer. Before joining the Free Press full-time in 2024, he worked in the U.K. and Canadian cultural sectors, freelanced for outlets including The Walrus, VICE and Prairie Fire. Read more about Conrad. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Winnipeg Free Press
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Massive murals won't just brighten Winnipeg's Graham Avenue, they will make it safer
Murals, not buses, will soon running be up and down Graham Avenue. Winnipeg is one of only 10 cities in North America — and just two in Canada, the other being Ottawa — selected for the US$100,000 Asphalt Art Initiative launched by Bloomberg Philanthropies. The project turns the formerly transit-heavy corridor into a whimsical urban canvas. Beginning Monday, local artists will cover the asphalt with large-scale, street-level murals. Asphalt Art Initiative projects include Billings, Mont. The public art initiative is part of the broader Reimagining Graham Avenue, which is seeing the four-block zone from Carlton to Garry Street transformed into a pedestrian-first corridor. 'It's not often where that scale of a (mural) project can happen this fast,' says project lead Stéphane Dorge, an organizer with CoolStreetsWPG, which specializes in transforming community spaces through art. 'This is kind of like an arts festival, where we're going to be up to 10 artists on site, plus helpers and volunteers bringing to life about 18,000 square feet of murals to animate the Graham Avenue space, so it's a bit overwhelming.' Muralists include Marc Kuegle, Alex Plante, Kal Barteski, Kale Sheppard, Laura Lee Harasym, Mike Zastre, James Culleton, Architects at Play and lead artist Takashi Iwasaki. Like a cinematically colour-graded street scene, the project will have a rich, overarching palette, but each of the artists was given near carte blanche to create, with an emphasis on play and interactivity. Dorge describes Architects at Play's 13,000-square-foot piece as a 'playable mural where you can bring your own pocket dice or use a dice app on your phone to play.' Varna, Bulgaria, was one of the cities that completed an Asphalt Art initiative in 2023 'I can't wait to unveil it.' Reimagining Graham Avenue dovetails with the city's new spine-and-feeder transit model launching Sunday. Known as Primary Transit Network (PTN), the new system is a historic transformation that will shift transit's focal points away from the downtown core towards other major corridors in the city, prioritizing bus frequency and greater neighbourhood-to-neighbourhood access across Winnipeg. But rather than diminish downtown's place in the city's civic culture, projects such as the PTN and Reimagining Graham Avenue — which coincide with the intersection of Portage Avenue and Main Street opening to pedestrian traffic — aim to transform the heart of the city into a more walkable social hub. Look up from the asphalt tableaus, and rather than buses you'll soon see a public plaza, including street plants, picnic tables, furniture, benches, ping-pong tables and access ramps. Car traffic will be allowed along other stretches of Graham, where protected bike lanes are also being added. 'When these changes are in place, Graham will be more colourful, more dynamic, more pedestrian-friendly. One more reason for people to visit, explore and enjoy our downtown,' said Mayor Scott Gillingham. The application to Bloomberg Philanthropies, a charitable organization in New York, for the Asphalt Art Initiative was submitted by Public Works and the Planning, Property and Development departments at the City of Winnipeg. 'It was just a really well-thought-out, really inspired application,' says Nicholas Mosquera, one of the program leads at Bloomberg Philanthropies for the Asphalt Art Initiative. 'It reminded us a lot of work that we'd been doing (in New York City's Times Square). We saw a lot of similarities in the Winnipeg project, and we're happy to be a part of that effort.' Studies consistently show that pedestrian-friendly design makes neighbourhoods feel more connected. For example, research from a University of British Columbia review found walkable neighbourhoods build civic trust and spark friendlier interactions, while a U.K. study showed that quieter, low-traffic streets made people more neighbourly and less lonely. That same study also found that low-traffic, pedestrian-centric neighbourhoods can create public health gains up to 100 times greater than the costs of those plans. SUPPLIED East Providence, Rhode Island Asphalt Art Initiative drone image. And while public arts and beautification projects are sometimes criticized as a superficial fix to the social problems undergirding urban distress, a growing body of literature shows the social benefits run deeper than fleeting eye candy. The Asphalt Art Safety Study, conducted by Sam Schwartz Consulting in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies, analyzed 17 asphalt art sites across the United States. Among the outcomes reassuring them of their good work, they found that crashes involving pedestrians or cyclists were halved, while crashes resulting in injuries decreased by 37 per cent, along with a 27 per cent increase in drivers yielding to pedestrians with the right-of-way. 'They're really striking results. We're really proud of that — (it's) some of the first research, certainly to our knowledge, to look at multiple arts-driven street-design projects,' says Mosquera. A number of independent studies, mostly focusing on green projects, illuminate the effects of community beautification on improving mental health and community connectivity. 'It's incredible when we can see that the street is actually going to turn into a large piece of art,' said Kate Fenske, Downtown Winnipeg BIZ's chief executive officer, of Reimagining Graham Avenue. Birmingham, Alabama Asphalt Art Initiative 'I hope this isn't the full catalyst, though,' says Dorge. 'We still need development of the surface lots and Graham. We need more housing downtown. But I hope this draws attention to that need and, hopefully, spurs prioritization from developers to focus on rebuilding that area and making it more vibrant.' From July 5 to Sept. 28, Graham Avenue will host four art installations by designers from New York, Halifax and Winnipeg — including a bike-powered giant fan and a coastal-themed landscape — along with projects by Art City (opens July 11) and the Manitoba Métis Federation. This other wave of installations is part of Storefront Manitoba's Cool Gardens, a landscape art and design festival, now in its 10th edition, similar to the Warming Huts competition. (The event is not to be confused with CoolStreetsWpg, which leads the mural initiative on Graham; cool people abound in Winnipeg's public art field.) This year, Cool Gardens also plans vibrant installations at Assiniboine Park, Osborne Village, St. Boniface and The Forks. Conrad SweatmanReporter Conrad Sweatman is an arts reporter and feature writer. Before joining the Free Press full-time in 2024, he worked in the U.K. and Canadian cultural sectors, freelanced for outlets including The Walrus, VICE and Prairie Fire. Read more about Conrad. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Global News
23-06-2025
- Business
- Global News
‘Full of life': Winnipeg launches pedestrian reimagining of busy Graham Avenue
Winnipeg has kicked off its reimagining of a busy downtown street. Graham Avenue is set to become the site of a 'pedestrian placemaking pilot' over the next few weeks, coinciding with the launch of the city's new bus network on Sunday. Previously a busy transit route, Graham will see buses diverted off a large stretch of the street, so instead of opening it up to cars again, the city is opting for pedestrian-friendly amenities and protected bike lanes. 'This is a great opportunity to change how people experience this part of our downtown,' Mayor Scott Gillingham said in a statement Monday. 'We're turning Graham into a street full of life and local creativity. This transformation will bring more people and energy downtown – and it complements re-opening Portage and Main, launching our new transit network, and investing in new residential and commercial developments.' Story continues below advertisement The changes are part of an ongoing plan to further develop the street in future to make it even more community- and pedestrian-friendly. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy 'Today is an opportunity to envision the short and long-term vision for a reimagined Graham Avenue,' said Rochelle Squires of CentreVenture Development Corp. 'Where we see empty storefronts, surface parking lots, and underutilized street spaces, we are collaborating with our many downtown partners to create vibrant activity and opportunities for Winnipeg's premier pedestrian street.' The new amenities set to be installed as part of the pilot projects include street furniture built by students at Tec-Voc High School, benches, lighting, art installations, access ramps, picnic tables, ping-pong tables and new landscaping. Street murals painted by local artists, through Cool Streets Winnipeg, are also part of the pilot project, thanks to a $100,000 grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies Asphalt Art Initiative — making Winnipeg one of only two Canadian cities and one of 10 in North America to receive the funding.
