City of Pickering West Shore Skate Spot Mural

Mural Routes is thrilled to announce that we will be supporting artist FATSPATROL with the production of a community mural at the West Shore Skate Spot in Pickering this summer!

For this project, artist FATSPATROL and Mural Routes were selected through an open call process.

This public art piece is intended to be created and executed with the help of the community, reflective of the neighborhood and the recreational activities that take place in this location. To that end, FATSPATROL and Mural Routes will organize a number of FREE community engagement activities, which can be found below:

  1. Meet & Greet with the West Shore community members.
    Date: August 3, 2023, 6:30-8:00pm
  2. Aerosol workshops for local youth.
    Dates: August 3rd and 21st, 2023, 4:00-6:00pm
  3. Mural Design Concepts Consultation event.
    Date: August 21, 2023, 6:30-8:00pm

Brainstorming from these activities will be taken as inspiration and input by the artist. The aim of the project is to not only provide community members with an engaging way to learn about mural art and this particular project, but also incorporate community input to produce a mural that reflects the community.

If you want to participate in any of these activities, just click on the links and fill out the registration form. If you would like to stay up to date with the project, subscribe to our mailing list.

This project is generously funded by the City of Pickering, which enables us to offer all the programming for free to local community members.

About FATSPATROL

Fatspatrol (Fathima Mohiuddin) is a Dubai-born, Indian origin, Canadian 3rd culture artist.

Drawing influence from various stages of her life: her upbringing immersed in Indian block-printed textiles and handicrafts, her youth reading comic books over her brother’s shoulder, her life-long interaction with Islamic and Arabic architecture and patterns, Fathima’s style evokes a recognizable hybrid aesthetic. Her interest in existentialism, mythology, human behavior and human-natural interactions coupled with a BA in Art and Culture and an MA in Sociology results in a curious search for meaning through drawing. Having painted murals in over 10 countries, fatspatrol has a passion for public art and its impact on social interaction and place-making. In 2010 she received the Sheikha Manal Young Artist Award in Dubai and has since played an active role in the developing street art scene in the Middle East as a curator and voice for women artists of colour. Passionate about social reform through art, she has also worked on outreach projects in Dubai, India and Jordan. She has a BA in art and culture and an MA in sociology.

Fatspatrol, Fathima, currently lives and works between Toronto and Dubai.

About Mural Routes

Mural Routes activates communities by facilitating the creation of responsive, collaborative murals, and provides opportunities to build and advance careers in mural art. Our vision is to be a leading resource for all artists, organizations and communities creating mural art.

About City of Pickering

The City of Pickering’s Cultural Strategic Plan (2014) outlines the City’s commitment to collaborate with the community to celebrate our cultural diversity, heritage and the arts; to sustain our natural environment; to foster a creative economy; and to strengthen our vibrant neighbourhoods.

The newly installed Skate Spot in the West Shore Neighborhood provides a public site for a community mural. The artwork will be located at the West Shore Community Centre Skate Spot, 1011-1015 Bayly Street, Pickering. With the approval of the 2023 Current Budget, Council endorsed the funding to carry out the design and installation of a new Public Art Mural on the hardscape of Pickering’s West Shore Skate Spot.

This public art piece is intended to be created and executed with the help of the community, reflective of the neighborhood and the recreational activities that take place in this location. We are excited to be working with FATSPATROL and Mural Routes on this new Community Mural.

Project generously funded by:
City of Pickering logo