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Stop to Admire the Graffiti Street Art of Powell River, BC

On your next family road trip to Sunshine Coast, make sure to stop at Powell River and admire these very cool graffiti murals and urban art lining the seawall and the Willingdon Beach park.  

In our opinion, nothing can express the character of a small town better than its graffiti street art – the remote town of Powell River in British Columbia, Canada, is no exception. With this post we invite you to travel to the Willingdon Beach Park at Powell River and check out the local graffiti artists' masterpieces. In this post we’ll share the directions to these outdoor art galleries, and photos of the street art we’ve found on our family road trip to Sunshine Coast in June 2020.

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Willingdon Beach Park – the Street Art Collection 

The existence of colourful artistic neighbourhoods all over the World are no secret. Each time we travel to a new destination we always try to seek out street art to get a better feeling for local culture. Yet we were pretty surprised and not expected at all to find one such “outdoor street art gallery” with bright graffiti at the small coastal town of British Columbia – Powell River.  

Powell River’s  downtown – just one central street Marine avenue – is decorated with more traditional murals, depicting historical and First Nations related scenes. But if you walk further North, closer to the ocean and towards the Willingdon Beach Park, you’ll find a very expressive graffiti “wall of fame”. 

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Let’s check out this famous Graffiti Street of Powell River

Overall, there are not many murals at Powell River – not as many for example as in San Jose, Costa Rica, or some parts of Warsaw, Poland. But each work is beautiful and worth a mention.

What I personally have found interesting: compared to all other street art I've seen travelling all over the World, Powell River's graffiti completely non-aggressive. Each mural radiates kindness and positive inspiring messages: “breathe”, “rise up”, “you are loved” etc.

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How to Support Local Art Communities of Powell River

To support local street artists and Powell River art clubs, you can locate artist’s accounts on social media and contribute directly, or purchase their works online. Many artists have websites and online stores where they sell photos, posters and digital files of their art to be printed on clothing. Some may have donation wallets you can contribute to. 

And of course you can purchase art from local businesses found in Powell River – most are on the Marine avenue – the main “downtown” street. In fact, that's a great idea for a bring-home gift from your travels if you are just visiting Canada – you can't go more local and authentic than in Powell River!

Here are a few Art Galleries in Powell River you’d want to check-out:

• Wind Spirit Gallery – First Nations and West Coast art, sculpture and jewellery
• Artique – Powell River’s own Artist Collective Gallery
• Studio Curious – natural art, rocks, jewellery
• Dancing Tree Gallery – contemporary painting, pottery, sculpture, jewellery, self-care, soap and body products by local Powell River artists and craftsmen
• Nitestar Galleries – art and jewellery by local craftsmen

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qathet Art Centre

qathet Art Centre is a local non-profit community organisation and an art gallery at Powell River. The Centre is committed to supporting diverse and accessible artistic activities through youth programming, its connection to the Tla'amin Nation and through bringing awareness to sustainability and environmental impacts in the arts. The qathet Art Council was established in 2007, replacing the legacy Powell River Council for Arts and Culture.

qathet Art Centre’s main focus is on contemporary new media. They run regular local community workshops, and art exhibits. 

To support qathet Art Centre, you can become a member, or send a donation – here is how. 

Do they support local graffiti artists in Powell River? I don't know – let’s ask them!

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A post shared by qathet Art Centre (@qathet_art_centre)

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Want to Learn to Create Graffiti and Murals?

Are you or your kids fascinated by all these cool graffiti and street art? Would you like to learn how to create your own? Luckily there are many opportunities to learn online even if you've never held a spray paint can in your hands ever. Here are some of the urban art and graffiti creation courses I have found:

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Concluding notes

I hope you have thoroughly enjoyed our travel photos and notes from the Powell River artsy road-stop from our Sunshine Coast family trip.

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Other cool Street Art locations around the World that we’ve visited:

• Fort Langley, British Columbia, Canada was a large collection of outdoor murals and fun colourful graffiti
• Fusterlandia in Havana, Cuba is an art house of its own. It spills our murals and urban art sculpture beyond its boundaries and into the streets of nearby neighbourhoods. 
• City of Colour – urban art district of San Jose, Costa Rica – one of the most important artistic spots in Central America

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Check out next: our latest travel experiences:

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Enjoy!

Cheerfully yours,

Alexandra, Alex & Cosmos

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