The rainbow crosswalk is more than a colourful art piece, it鈥檚 a statement from a municipality, says one Lake Country artist.

鈥淚 think when you see a rainbow crosswalk in a community it鈥檚 a visual cue to you as a visitor or member of the community that as a community, the town or municipality has made a statement by putting down a crosswalk and the statement is they hold in high values human rights protections, tolerance and diversity,鈥� said Lake Country Art Gallery curator Wanda Lock. 鈥淚t鈥檚 saying we as a community holds these values.鈥�

The role of the artist is to observe society and reflect back on it and its issues, said Lock.

A few years ago rainbow crosswalks came into the spotlight after 琉璃神社 got its painted crosswalks in its downtown; Lock then spearheaded the movement to allow students to paint their own rainbow sidewalk in Lake Country. It wasn鈥檛 permanent.

Recently a rainbow crosswalk in Lake Country had made its way back to online discussions after a Facebook post was made about the City of Merritt鈥檚 decision to not paint a crosswalk.

The discussions range from support of a crosswalk to saying it鈥檚 a waste of tax dollars.

Lock said she was disturbed by some of the comments made, 鈥渟ome feel potholes are more important than tolerance, diversity and human rights.鈥�

The Lake Country Art Gallery currently has a fitting exhibition called 鈥榃ho Are We?鈥� from local artists who aim to create a narrative on defining the Lake Country community.

鈥淭he reason why I wanted to do the community show was I attended a lot of town hall meetings when we were doing the Official Community Plan last year and the conversations were great but we never actually defined what a community was,鈥� said Lock.

鈥淭here was lots of 鈥業 and me鈥� conversations instead of 鈥榰s and we鈥� conversations.鈥� She asked artists what they thought makes a community and was answered with diversity, human rights and equality.

According to Mayor James Baker, the district had looked into a rainbow crosswalk near Municipal Hall, but it鈥檚 not a priority.

鈥淚 had read that one about the Merritt council, that surprised me. Their reason was that they thought they鈥檇 have to put in colourful sidewalks for every community (organization),鈥� he chuckled.

鈥淚t hasn鈥檛 gone away, it just hasn鈥檛 been on top of our engineering priority.鈥�

Greg Buchholz, director of infrastructure services with the district, said there is no plan for a crosswalk anytime soon, and the initiative would have to come from the community and council.

To report a typo, email: edit@kelownacapnews.com.

carli.berry@kelownacapnews.com
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