Nature Society Proposes Downtown Mural Of Allan Brooks

Kate Bouey 9/26/2011 105.7 SUN FM

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(Pictured: Recently completed Axel Ebring mural)

Vernon city council has expressed some support for a proposed downtown mural of wildlife artist and naturalist Allan Brooks. It's offering up to 15-thousand dollars from a reserve fund -- contingent on the Allan Brooks Nature Centre Society finding matching funds from elsewhere. Councillors Buffy Bambrough and Patrick Nicol expressed some surprise over the request when the Centre has approached the City in the past for help in funding operating costs. Meanwhile, the Downtown Vernon Association's general manager, Earl Hansen, calls the murals a ``brand'' used to promote Vernon. He says there are merchants in the downtown area who have offered to use the walls of their buildings for future projects. Hansen says the recently-completed Axel Ebring mural cost a total of 21-thousand dollars.
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Allan Brooks Could Be Next Mural Written by Peter McIntyre 107.5 KISSM  Monday, 26 September 2011 18:19

The next mural in downtown Vernon could feature legendary wildlife artist Allan Brooks.  The nature centre in his name has applied for a Heritage Canada grant for the painting, which the city has agreed to match, up to 15-thousand dollars, but only if the grant is provided.  Councillor Patrick Nicol (pictured)  says the funds will come from an arts reserve.  "Because that money has been relatively untouched, and there's not a lot in it but Allan Brooks is just one Canada's foremost painters."  Earl Hansen from the Downtown Vernon Association says the city's 27th and most recent mural of potter Axel Ebring, done this summer, cost 21-thousand dollars.