From trash to treasure: Kamloops at-risk youth beautify garbage bins | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
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Kamloops News

From trash to treasure: Kamloops at-risk youth beautify garbage bins

Street muralist Chris Bose mentors Jasmine Rayne, 21, during a one day project to help combat graffiti in Kamloops on Wednesday, August 28, 2019.

KAMLOOPS - A group of Kamloops youth are spending the day turning eight of the city’s large yellow garbage bins into Art Bins in an effort to combat graffiti.

City officials, street artists and at-risk youth gathered near at the civic operations yard today, Aug. 28, to spray paint garbage bins while learning about each other’s experiences.

“This project was started to combat graffiti. We had (civic) operators that were taking time out of their day to clean up the graffiti and oftentimes, the graffiti was quite bad and needed to be dealt with immediately,” civic operations supervisor Graham Lamont says.

The project is an extension of an earlier partnership between the city’s sanitation section and local street artist, Landon Muzio, who partnered together in June to paint a downtown alley garbage bin that had been repeatedly a target for graffiti and vandalism.

Chris Bose, a local street artist and youth worker at Lii Michif Otipemisiwak, says he was approached by the Kamloops Art Gallery to mentor youth for the day.

Chris Bose shows a drawing that will be painted on one of the eight garbage bins.
Chris Bose shows a drawing that will be painted on one of the eight garbage bins.

“I’ve been doing murals around town with youth for a long time so its cool,” he says. “The city contacted me and I contacted the youth.”

On one of the bins Bose is helping create, he is designing a loon and a tortoise.

“The sky and the water is the theme we are going for,” he says.

Jasmine Rayne, 21, one of the youths participating in the project says she was happy to be approached to get involved.

“It makes me feel like I am involved in the community,” she says.

Lamont says the response from youth has been positive.

“It’s been really good, they like an opportunity to be able to do this in an avenue that is a safe environment,” he says. “In no way is this an open invite to hit every bin in town, we do want to have it more of a sanctioned idea.”

He adds that another potential goal is to have an interactive map of the bins where citizens of Kamloops and visitors can follow around specific artists they like.

“This is just a project for today but we are looking to advance,” he says.

Funds for the project were allocated by the city’s community action team. The $2,500 grant funds the artists, supplies and equipment for painting the eight bins.

Once they are complete, the group will work with the business improvement associations to identify locations for the Art Bins.

A group of youth and artists are spending the day painting the bins and learning about each other’s experiences on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2019.
A group of youth and artists are spending the day painting the bins and learning about each other’s experiences on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2019.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Karen Edwards or call (250) 819-3723 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

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News from © iNFOnews, 2019
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