Photos: Beatty Street mural begins to takes shape

A stretch of concrete that runs along Beatty Street from Georgia to Dunsmuir has had an eventful year.

Once the site of a series of colourful murals painted in 2007 as part of a fundraiser for the Steve Nash Foundation, the wall became a point of controversy when the City of Vancouver painted over those murals in preparation for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Shortly thereafter, anti-Olympic graffiti appeared on the wall. “With glowing hearts, we kill the arts” that message read, alluding to the B.C. Liberal government’s cuts to funding for the arts in B.C., which continued to play out as the Olympics got underway.

Next, the anti-Olympic graffiti was painted over and in an apparent case of damage control, a new message appeared on the wall. “Beatty Street mural coming soon”¦”, it teased.

And so plans were drawn up and in late June of this year, local artist Vince Dumoulin began work on the massive canvas with a city-approved mandate to paint Vancouver: Past, present, and future.

Some four months later and still very-much a work in progress, here’s how the wall looks so far.

You can follow Travis Lupick on Twitter at twitter.com/tlupick.