The Murals of Sherbrooke

Over the last fifteen years, the city of Sherbrooke, in southern Quebec, Canada, has been trying to animate its old downtown area by creating enormous murals to cover large vacant walls of the neighborhood. So far, it has been a success. The first mural was created in 2002 as part of the city’s bicentennial anniversary celebration. Since then, more than a dozen murals have appeared at different locations at the rate of one per year. The murals, created in trompe l'oeil style, are the work of talented local artists. The project is overseen by a non-profit organization called M.U.R.I.R.S. (Murales Urbaines à Revitalisation d’Immeubles et de Réconciliation Sociale) whose goal is to create a large open-air art gallery promoting the architecture, history and culture of Sherbrooke, and to eventually develop a tourist circuit that would enable visitors to discover, through the murals, the city’s heritage and culture. The first mural, the Sherbrooke’s 2002 Bicentennial Mural, depicts an everyday scene in the life in Sherbrooke on the second day of June, 1902 at 2o’clock in the noon. Photo credit: destinationsherbrooke/Flickr This mural made in 2003 is called “Once Upon A Time In The East”. It shows 29 typical and well-known characters of the east side of the city. The mural is intended to salute the builders of the east while featuring a slice of Sherbrooke’s musical and cultural history. Photo credit: destinationsherbrooke/Flickr A detail from the mural “Once Upon A Time In The East”. Photo credit: David Adamson/Flickr “Progress in the East”, created in 2004, portrays local life in the eastern district, but this time at the end of the 19th century. Hence, Sherbrooke is portrayed as a manufacturing city welcoming new technologies: electricity, home telephones, tramways, cars, airplanes, and the daily press.