Changes are underway to the murals that have graced the walls in Sussex for around 25 years.
New artwork is coming to the Town of Sussex.
“The original murals were painted in the year 2003 and 2004 to showcase historical Sussex. Most of the murals were started by a nonprofit at the time, and the work was all funded by Sussex and other levels of government. Not-for-profit had a plan to maintain the murals over the years, but unfortunately, they weren’t able to do that. The Town of Sussex took over the maintenance. Mother nature has a way of being very hard on murals, not just the paint but also the backgrounds that they’re painted on. To continue to maintain them, we put thousands of dollars into years each and every year, but we realized a couple of years ago that we were just not going to be able to do it,” Mayor Marc Thorne expressed.
The Town Council made a decision a couple of years ago that they would start over. Artists from all over the world were invited to apply, and to consider which building, or canvas, they would like to create on.
“We did two murals, and this year, buildings were being prepared for another round. We know now that it’s impossible to preserve the art for decades, and so our plan now is that every five and seven years we will replace the art, and this keeps us with a fresh look,” Thorne added.
There were originally 25 murals, but Thorne says they won’t be replacing them all. The plan is to have the majority in the area of downtown Sussex, and they won’t all be done at the same time. They’ll use a staggered approach, so in future the murals won’t have to be replaced all at the same time. A total of six will be painted in 2025.
“We know that everybody has their favourite murals and they have a personal investment. When they see it all of a sudden painted over, they’re disappointed,” Thorne explained.
The Town has preserved all of the images of those murals online, with a name and description, and that will allow anyone to view all of the paintings over time.
