Funky Street-Art Mural on Ottawa Anglican Church

This mural is right beside an Ottawa landmark - Yardley’s Antiques. For 35 years Yardley’s has been buying and selling a wide range of quality antiques in the Ottawa area. They’ve got an incredible selection of antique and modern lighting, fine furniture, antiques, collectibles, garden décor and decorative novelties.

The mural itself however, is on the main brick wall of the Trinity Anglican Church that faces busy Bank Street. The length of the wall is punctuated only by a few benches and a bus stop.

For those with an imagination and a can of spray paint, this wall stands out as an impressive canvas. Faced with the cost of graffiti removal multiple times a year, and often impaired by bitterly cold Ottawa winters, the community at Trinity pondered the purpose and meaning of their wall.

But instead of a barrier between church and community, and a target for vandalism, the wall became something beautiful and transformative.

With enthusiastic momentum behind the mural vision, the parish turned to community partnerships to bring their vision to life. These included a grant from Ottawa Crime Prevention, and partnerships with Ottawa Inner-city Ministries.

Through these community connections, Trinity worked with a team of marginalized youth with artistic gifts to conceive and commission their new wall. The artists were particularly taken by the style of the congregation’s stained glass. The flowing layers of colour and play with Christian symbols found in the windows are echoed in the wall design. The outdoor piece is also rooted in scenes from the community and inspires hope in its bright motifs and images of growth and renewal.

By August 2014, the small mural community was ready to set spray paint to wall. Twice weekly through the late summer the group convened and layer-upon-spray-paint-layer watched a metamorphosis happen. Gradually the same wall that was once a barrier to community became an invitation into it.