On the same weekend of the official unveiling of the mural by Toronto-based artist Kirsten McCrea under the Hunter St. bridge, another mural by a well-known local artist is in the process of being covered over in downtown Peterborough.
The mural is by the late Peterborough artist Chris MacGee and was painted in 1983 as part of an Artspace project. It’s located on the former Craftworks building at the corner of George and Sherbrooke Streets.
As well as being an artist, MacGee was director of the Mackenzie Gallery at Trent University from 1980 until it closed in 1986. MacGee’s artwork has been exhibited in Paris, France, London, England, and throughout Ontario.
“This was such a beautiful mural, [I] can’t believe it’s being covered up, just like that”, Bierk told kawarthaNOW.
“This is one of the saddest pictures I’ve ever seen,” added Alex’s brother Sebastian Bach, the singer/actor best known for his years with the heavy metal band Skid Row. “(It’s) erasing a vital and historic [piece] of Peterborough.”
It appears that the mural is being covered with foam prior to renovating the exterior of the building. A demolition permit for the “interior finishes” of the building is posted, but it includes no reference to the exterior work.
kawarthaNOW asked Lynn Cummings, Chris MacGee’s widow, for a comment on the covering of the mural.
“Public art is very important to a community and each generation of artists and arts workers contribute,” she says. “To eradicate this public presence from the community as if it has little or no importance is indeed a crime against history for the sake of branding. The rights of private property supersede every thing else in our culture.”
“We have no control over private building ownership,” says Terry Guiel, Executive Director of the Peterborough Downtown Business Improvement Area (DBIA), after hearing of the work underway. “This is a prime example of why we need to find the legal wording to protect the art for a period of years even when the buildings change hands.”
Guiel is dismayed by the covering of the mural because of the DBIA’s recent push to increase the number of murals in the city’s core, but understands it’s the property owners’ prerogative to do as they wish.
“We are very happy this site is no longer vacant and fully believe the new mural contracts between building owners and artists will indeed protect this from happening again,” he says. “Public art gives us identity and separates us from the suburban landscape. The DBIA has pushed the mural project. It was our initiative. We set aside $1,000 per year indefinitely to help the mural project and met with the city to begin the dialogue to make Peterborough the capital of murals in Ontario. That was the DBIA.”
“We will now need to focus on turning this into a positive,” Guiel adds. “Maybe something to honor the original artist? Or a brand new young muralist. This is a wake-up call to tell us all we need to not only create the art, but protect it.”
All photos courtesy of Alex Bierk.
