Millennials are all about having experiences: discovering places, participating in adventures, and exploring the world around them.
Well, a brochure aimed at helping people – whether it be a visitor or a local resident – explore some of the art on display in downtown Langley City is hitting the streets today.
It’s a self-guided mural walk, and the first official “visitor experience,” established by the new Discover Langley City tourism entity, explained organizer Melissa Phillips.
“It’s a simple escape,” she said in her capacity as Discover’s operations manage. “It’s a walkable tour… that can be done any day of the year.”
She noted the brochure will be available starting today (Monday) at local hotels and motels, the casino, Timms Community Centre, the library, and the Discover Langley City office. It will also be available online.
It encourages people to get outside and experience the City by taking a walking tour featuring 17 murals – most located around the City core, said Phillips.
“We needed to create experiences for tourism in the City, and we thought why not take advantage of the murals in the City and create a good tour.”
She was accompanied at the unveiling by one of the City’s most prolific local muralist Judy Pohl, thanking Pohl and the other artists “for helping make our City so pretty.”
Pohl painted, or played a significant role in creating at least a dozen of the murals.
She’s “pretty psyched” to see so many of her works – some donated pieces of art and others commissioned – included in the tour.
But Pohl said she’s in awe of the other artist’s work as well, for instance a vibrant First Nations inspired painting on the side of Douglas Park Community School that was painted by Fort Langley artist Brandon Gabriel, and the 2011 painting of Doug and the Lang Langs created by Betty Laughy, Lucy Adams, and Susan Falk.
“I’m pretty excited,” Pohl said. “My kids joke with me that I’m famous.”
While Phillips and Pohl both believe locals will catch on and quickly and start escorting their visitors on this self-guided art tour, Pohl hopes fellow Langley City residents will also see it as a fun outing.
While folks can take any route they’d like, to see any or all of the murals, the brochure has set it up where participants start at Timms Community Centre – where there are a number of interior murals, including a Canada 150 mosaic tile mural made by hundreds of aspiring local artists.
The suggested path then takes people on a walk through the City’s core, including one of the parks, several streets and alleys, and concludes back near City hall at the most recently added mural – Beauty of Strength – painted at the entrance to the Fraser Highway one-way.
“That way, it showcases a majority of the City and provides an opportunity for photography and a chance to see different areas of the City that people might not get to see all the time,” Phillips explained.
Depending on how fast people walk, and how many added stops they make along the way, the round-trip is expected to take about an hour, Phillips said.
“The idea is to have them end up back downtown at the end, where they can grab a bite to eat, go shopping, or play,” she said.
“I’m excited for it. It’s something that’s unique and art is very trendy right now.”
In addition to this inaugural tourism initiative, another Langley City “experience” is set to be unveiled later this month that involve the casino and a number of other Langley experience-oriented businesses, Phillips said. And a further experience, which is currently in the works, will revolve around an event in January 2019.