A volunteer tries to restore a major mural in the city that was vandalized with graffiti labels.
For the third time, spray painters have disfigured the popular Valley Trail mural in Fredericton with graffiti. The events took place on Canada Day weekend.
On the south-facing wall of the New Brunswick exhibit’s horse barn, a group of Halifax artists painted a mural that reflected New Brunswick’s history.
The mural is a public art beautification project by the Fredericton Trails Coalition. It was installed in 2021 with the intention of improving the aesthetics of the area and increasing the community appeal of the neighborhood trails.
“It was a $ 25,000 mural,” said Anne Wilkins, a volunteer with the Fredericton Trails Coalition. “It’s really baffling and I’m a little discouraged, but we’ll fix it every time it happens.”
Anne Wilkins is a volunteer for the Fredericton Trails Coalition. (Aniekan Etuhube / CBC)
Wilkins added that this was the worst labeling so far and that he might not be able to fully restore some of the images.
“We’re losing some images. Since I’m not an artist, we should pay artists to re-correct the images,” he said.
Wilkins tries to fix the mural with spray paint. (Aniekan Etuhube / CBC)
Halifax-based visual arts trackside Studios was hired by the coalition to install the mural.
Michael Burt, the owner and lead artist, says his vision was to create art that would add to the city’s culture and beauty.
“I’m disappointed, you know, maybe a little angry. We were hoping this wouldn’t happen, but it’s sad to say it’s like that. It looks like they’ll keep coming and going. I mean, the goal was to try to stop this kind of thing. “So I feel like we missed the mark there,” he said.
Graffiti labels destroy the Valley Trail mural. (Aniekan Etuhube / CBC)