Once a year, dozens of artists — aspiring and professional alike — share their work with the Niagara Pumphouse Arts Centre in hopes of their creation being selected as the template for a makeover of a hydro box in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
This year, 29 artworks are in the running to become one of three tableaus that will be used to beautify three hydro boxes in the community — part of a project that’s seen 23 hydro boxes turned into public art so far.
The exhibition of this year’s finalists is on at the Pumphouse on Ricardo Street and will be until Thursday, Sept. 17, when the three winning designs will be announced at a ceremony and its creators awarded $700 each.
Two winning designs will be selected by a jury, while the third is currently being voted on by the community, with voting open until Sunday, Sept. 13.
This is the arts centre’s eighth year hosting the competition. Rima Boles, the Pumphouse’s director, says it’s become a “wonderful community tradition.”
This year’s theme, “Niagara-on-the-Lake,” has inspired a variety of representations of the town, she said, carrying with them different perspectives of the community.
This year’s submissions were also created through a diversity of mediums: painting mediums such as acrylic, oil, watercolour and gouache are well-represented, while some depictions of life in NOTL made use of digital art tools, photography, collage-making and pyrography. A few works also feature mixed media.
“Some artists have taken Niagara-on-the-Lake landmarks to centre their piece around. Some have taken a more abstract or more conceptual approach,” Boles said. “Each one is a creative interpretation of Niagara-on-the-Lake, which is amazing.”
As part of the art centre’s exhibition, those who visit the Pumphouse can vote for their favourite design, which will win the People’s Choice Award.
“We’ve had a great turnout from the community,” Boles said of the voting process, which began in early August. “The People’s Choice Award is always a popular draw for the community to have their say to select an artwork that could possibly end up on a hydro box.”
Following this year’s contest, three new hydro boxes will be given a makeover, scheduled for October. That’ll bring the number of beautified hydro boxes in town to 26.
The three hydro boxes to be beautified are outside the NOTL Hydro office on Henegan Road, NOTL Town Hall on Niagara Stone Road and the Community Centre on Anderson Lane.
For those who haven’t voted yet and wish to do so, the hydro box beautification exhibition is on at the Pumphouse in the Hummel Family Room. Voting is in-person only. Each visitor gets one vote.
The awards ceremony, which includes a wine and cheese reception, will run 5 to 6 p.m. on Sept. 17.
Those interested in purchasing one of these works can visit niagarapumphouse.ca/exhibitions and find all the exhibited works under “Hummel Family Room.”
