The prettiest thing your butt will touch downtown Vernon

VERNON – Boring city benches in Vernon recently got a bright new facelift.

Two downtown Vernon benches were removed over the weekend and painted at Riot on the Roof as part of an initiative between the Vernon Public Art Gallery, Downtown Vernon Association and the City of Vernon.

Dauna Kennedy Grant, the executive director at the gallery, says the benches are aimed at making downtown Vernon more welcoming and giving emerging artists exposure.

“It adds a bit of a new element to walking down Main Street,” Kennedy Grant says. “It’s a conversation piece and adds some liveliness to the downtown core.”

The initiative began with two benches at last year’s Riot on the Roof, a celebration of local art on the rooftop of the Vernon Public Art Gallery. With plenty of positive feedback, the inventory of painted benches grew this year with two more completed at a Take Part in Street Art event, plus the pair of new ones finished at this year's Riot on the Roof. 

“Gradually we hope to have all of them done. We’ll do a few each year and hopefully transform all the downtown benches,” Kennedy Grant says.

You can find, and sit on, artified benches outside Nolan’s Pharmacy and the Downtown Internet Lounge, and the new ones — painted by Sarah Newnes and Jody DeSchutter — are expected to be reinstalled downtown soon.

This year’s Riot on the Roof had close to 700 attendees, about twice as many as last year, Kennedy Grant says.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Charlotte Helston at chelston@infonews.ca or call 250-309-5230. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.

— This story was updated at 5 p.m. Aug. 25 to correct that two benches, not four, were completed at this year's Riot on the Roof. An additional two were completed at a Take Part in Street Art event.