Anyone who utilizes Swift Current's pathways will notice multiple pieces of hand-painted artwork along the concrete around the city, adding to the existing beauty of the natural environment. 

The Painted Pathways Project has allowed local artists to take their talents to the heavily traveled walkways, as a collaboration between the City of Swift Current and the Art Gallery of Swift Current.  

Krista Caswell, community recreation coordinator with the City, said the project started during the pandemic as a series of interactive pieces around the school yards, to engage kids while they socially distanced.  

“It kind of just spiraled from there,” she said. "We wanted to provide art with recreation. Our city is already beautiful with nature while we're walking on the Chinook Pathway, but we thought it would be a great idea to have some artwork on our pathways. So together with the art gallery, myself and Terry sat down together and we came up with a plan. Luckily, the art gallery knows of many wonderful local artists, so they reached out to a few of them, and they jumped at the chance.” 

Each piece tells a different story about the land it sits on—from different backgrounds and cultures creating one community, the wonders of the natural world, taking a look back in time, to acknowledging Treaty 4 territory.

While the gallery was able to provide the highest quality of outdoor paints, winter is expected to do a number on the life expectancy of the works. 

"Hopefully they last for a couple of seasons," said Caswell. "But if they fade away, we can always look at applying for another grant to see if we can add some new artwork, and it can always be ever changing."

The project is supported by Sask Lotteries, with funding from the Saskatchewan Parks and Recreation Association with their Parks for All Grant. 

Locations of the paintings are as follows:

1) Market Square highlighted our Newcomers, and where our community members come from, connecting us together, by Hannah Riego 

2) Saulteaux Park, acknowledging we live and work on Treaty 4 - the ancestral land of the Cree, Anishinabek, Dakota, Nakota, and Lakota Nations and the homelands of the Metis people, by Taneshea Francis 

3) Lions Cutbanks Lookout, Connecting with Nature, by Chelsea Angell 

4) Kinetic Park, Chinook Parkway: A Look into our past, inspiration came from Docs Town, by Chelsea Angell 

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