The Project
The FilipinX Kasaganaan Artist Collective created two public murals to showcase FilipinX community and culture. Following three sessions of community engagement with FilipinX women, youth and an Indigenous elder, the group collected ideas for the two murals. The theme for both was empowerment, and the resulting two murals in Kensington and Crescent Heights were contracted to local artists.
Each mural has an English and Tagalog name. The mural in Kensington is named Women Empowerment — Katatagan ng Kababaihan, while the Crescent Heights mural is titled Youth Empowerment — Hangad ng Kabataang Pilipino.
As the murals were being painted, community members expressed excitement over the project, local FilipinX aunties and uncles volunteered during the painting process, and bypassers from the community were happy to see their culture and history represented.
In the Media
OMNI News | 2022
Dalawang Filipino-inspired Murals in Calgary
The 2021 Artist-Initiated Microgrant
This project was funded as part of the 2021 Artist-Initiated Microgrant. Calgary Arts Development invited Calgary and area artists, or artist teams, to submit ideas to create art in public spaces. This program provided one-time funding of $150,000 overall to support the local artist community through the impacts of COVID, to a maximum of $40,000 for each project. This microgrant program recognized that public art opportunities can come from grassroots ideas that are initiated by professional artists.
Learn more here.