Feature image by Andre R. Gagne
Stop by St. Laurent this week and you’ll find high school students along with award-winning Columbian artist, Claudia Salguero, creating a mural for the BeYou campaign. This interactive, selfie mural will come to life on the giant-sized canvas (54’ x 15’) located at the former Sears entrance.
Thomas Baribault, Manager at DeSerres, an arts supply store in St. Laurent, connected the shopping centre with the Ottawa Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) and MASC (Multicultural Arts/Schools/Communities) artist, Claudia Salguero, to design her mural embodying the spirit of Morguard’s BeYou campaign.
Students drawn from five local high schools in this project including Ridgemont, Frederick Banting, Gloucester, Merivale, and Bell, are part of the Specialist High Skills Major Program (SHSM). They are focusing on a career path that matches their skills, interests and talents while earning their Ontario Secondary School Diploma. Experiential learning is a key SHSM component hence participation in the BeYou project not only benefits the community but also exposes the students to a hands-on working environment.
Claudia Salguero is a Community Art-Based Facilitator and award-winning Photo-fine-artist. As a MASC artist and working with different social institutions in the city, she has facilitated the creation of murals and a wide-range of arts and culture projects with children, youth, women and mature-adult groups.
#LoveOttawa founders, Dwayne Brown and Anita Ruivo, have created a unique online initiative that celebrates Ottawa and will be documenting the whole project.
For the third year running, Morguard has teamed up with Big Brothers Big Sisters for the BeYou campaign in 20 Morguard owned and managed retail properties across Canada, including St. Laurent, to help increase self-esteem, personal growth, self-worth and empower girls aged 9 – 16. A website for the BeYou campaign provides resources, workshop dates and inspirational messages from ambassadors. The BeYou campaign launches in each participating shopping centre September 17 to 23, 2018.
Once the mural is completed by Claudia and the students, St. Laurent will be hosting the official ribbon-cutting on Saturday, April 28 at 11 am. The public is invited to attend the celebration of this worthy community partnership and have some fun posting selfies with #beyoumural.
