Plans to beautify a small downtown Halifax park may be on hold due to the pandemic, but a new art project is set to bring a burst of colour into the space.
A small group of volunteers, named the Friends of Raymond Taavel Park, helped push for the establishment of the area.
Adriana Afford, group member and owner of Argyle Fine Art, said they had been working toward a similar event this July with additional gardens, permanent lighting and public art.
But, due to the COVID-19 pandemic Afford said they quickly realized many of the new plans were not going to be possible, especially since the municipality told them they didn’t have the staffing to help with any changes.
Raymond Taavel is shown in a 2008 handout photo. (The Canadian Press/Shambhala Sun-Marvin Moore)
Then Darren Lewis, who was Taavel’s partner, mentioned he would still love to walk by and see some type of light in the park.
“I suggested that the point of the vigil has always been to remember those who have gone before us with the symbol of light,” Lewis said in an email.
‘A pandemic can’t dampen Raymond’s shining light’
If people couldn’t gather with lit candles, he said maybe there could be a way for images of candles to brighten the space instead.
“Surely a pandemic can’t dampen Raymond’s shining light,” he said.
Afford said the volunteer group worked with local artist Chris Smith of Jampy Furniture to create 200 wooden candles that can be painted and decorated in any way before being placed in the grass like a lawn ornament.
‘Something really special’
“I think everybody kind of needs a little boost,” Afford said. “It does take some time to pick up one of these things and paint them. But then, the payoff is you get to see that everybody kind of worked together and did something really special.”
The project was funded by a grant from the Downtown Halifax Business Commission so the candles are free for participants.
Afford said people can decorate their candles however they like. She’s heard from people who plan to put LED lights all over theirs, while others are writing the names of people they miss from the LGBTQ community.
The candles can be picked up from Argyle Fine Art or Venus Envy, and Halifax Pride plans to distribute some as well. There’s a quick turnaround, since any finished candles must be dropped back off at these locations by noon on July 20, or the park itself between 5-6 p.m.
That’s the night of Halifax Pride’s annual candlelight vigil, which begins at Victoria Park at 8 p.m. and is in support of Black Lives Matter. Participants will march past Raymond Taavel Park, ending at Cornwallis Park for the main vigil.
About 200 candles have been created. (Steve Lawrence/CBC)
Adam Reid, executive director of Halifax Pride, said the full event can’t be held at the Taavel Park this year since it’s too small for people to physically distance, but anyone participating can take a moment to place their decorated candle in the grass as they go by.
When thinking about this art project, Reid said it’s important because for so long the LGBTQ community felt like they had to hide who they were, and often were fearful to record their own history.
“We just need to identify for the next generation of young people like who are the leaders, who should they be emulating, who should they be looking to for inspiration,” he said.
And for those who might think that this project isn’t for them if they’re not in the LGBTQ community, Afford said it’s meant to be inclusive to anybody who wants to remember Taavel, but also other people who did great things in their community or just take part in a beautiful art installation.
“I think it will hopefully uplift a lot of people. It definitely will bring a lot of happiness to Raymond’s partner, but anyone that would have known him I think it will be extra special for them,” she said.
“Even if you didn’t know him and you were just driving past the park, just to be able to see something like that it would be pretty great.”
Afford also said this is a great project for families to sit down together and create something while learning about Taavel’s legacy.
The wooden candles will be on display for about a week, and then they will then be collected and stored safely for use in future years.
For those who aren’t in Halifax, there’s an option to print out a colouring page to follow along with the project from a distance, which was originally suggested by Taavel’s family in Ontario.
Park upgrades
The park had some upgrades last year following its renaming, including new sod, a park sign with information about Taavel, and a new garbage can, according to an email from municipal spokesperson Maggie-Jane Spray.
Picnic tables have returned to the park this year, while there is also now a planter installed by the volunteer group.
“Consideration will be given to other park improvements for future implementation, while working with the loved ones of Raymond,” Spray said.
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
