Creative Storefront Program
Interested in freshening up your storefront this January? This exciting opportunity is part of our Winter City strategy and encourages businesses to reinvigorate their storefronts during the long winter months AND showcase artists in our community.
Fort St. John Arts council and Peace Gallery North have partnered with the City to help match you with a local artist that compliments your business. Awarded businesses will work with their artist to freshen up their storefronts with bright, inviting artworks and positive messaging. Deliverables may include murals, window art, window displays and more!
We are trying to match an artist to a business where the two parties collaborate on what the artist creates for the business’s storefront. This is a pilot program to feature the business, enhance the downtown area, and feature local artists.
Both the Artist and the Business will receive $500 each. The artist will receive the money for their time and effort put into the artwork/display. The business will use the funds to purchase supplies to create and enhance the artwork/storefront up to $500 but must submit receipts to Economic Development for reimbursement.
The hope is that this be completed by February 14 for our High on Ice Winter Festival but is also a reflection of our winter cities We are North campaign co please let us know if you are unable to accommodate this timeline and we will discuss. The displays will remain in the storefronts until March 31, 2022 unless a longer period is negotiated between artist and business.
The Business’s should think about a theme or some ideas of what you may want to see in your storefront and communicate that with the artists. If you are not sure, the City’s 2022 theme word is ‘Spirit’ and many of our community events are embodying this.
Other things for artist and business to discuss about the installation are:
- The security of the artwork
- What happens to the artwork after the program ends
- Budget to create the display
- Length of time display will remain in windows
This is just the beginning of what future opportunities could look like involving community partnerships like we see here. We encourage your feedback on this process so we can work towards our next community collaboration.
If you need more information, help or have feedback, please contact
Naomi Gallant
Community Development Coordinator
ngallant@fortstjohn.ca or 250-787-5791