Banner Project

DEADLINE TO SUBMIT: Saturday November 12, 2022 at 4pm 

We are delighted to launch the Banner Project for 2022! The theme this year is “Above and Below the Clouds”. As always, submissions are made through teachers in elementary schools across the Sunshine Coast. 

We hope all elementary students on the Coast participate by submitting a design.  We very much appreciate your work as an educator in support of this project, and look forward to seeing this year’s designs. Also attached is an information sheet and entry forms for the Young Artists Awards. The YAE will be on display alongside the banner entries from November 25 – December 17, 2022

Some things to keep in mind: 

• Please find attached a specification sheet for paper and design size: Banner Project Info Sheet 2022
• Encourage a creative approach to the theme! 
• Please ensure that students use felt markers NOT crayons or pencil crayons to colour their designs in order to make colour matching possible.   
• We recommend staying away from large expanses of brown or green (the banners using these colours get lost amongst the trees in Civic Square.) 

How the program works 

• Drop off your student’s submission to the SCAC by Saturday November 12 at 4pm. If you are unable to make this deadline, please let us know and we will find a way to get them to us. 
• All submitted Banner Designs will be on display at the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre from November 25 – December 17, 2022. Twenty designs are selected by a committee of professional artists.  The selected designs are hand-reproduced on banners and will be hung in Civic Square (home of the recreation centre and library in Sechelt) May – November 2023. 

Exhibition Visit 

• We invite you bring your class down to see the banners installed. SCAC staff would be delighted to host a complimentary art-making workshop for your class, and to provide a guided tour through the Young Artists Exhibition that will be on display at the same time. 

A Brief History

The Cowrie Street Banner Project began in 1994 as a joint venture between the Sechelt Chamber of Commerce and the Sunshine Coast Arts Council. In approximately 2003, the priorities of the Chamber of Commerce changed, and the project is now operated entirely by the Sunshine Coast Arts Council and sponsored by Clayton’s Heritage Market. From 1994–2014 the banners decorated Sechelt’s Cowrie and Wharf streets. As of 2014, the banners are hung in Sechelt’s Civic Square creating their own outdoor gallery.

The Process

From the time that the theme for the year’s banner is decided upon in September to the hanging of the banners in February there are a number of steps and variety of people involved. After the theme for the current year is chosen, elementary school students are asked to submit a design. Total entries from the various schools usually range from 300–500.

After all the entries are received, they are put on exhibition in the gallery of the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre for three weeks in conjunction with the Young Artists Awards exhibition. A committee selects the 20 finalists, and those selected are honoured at an awards ceremony on the final day of the exhibition where they are presented with a certification of appreciation. Each of the chosen designs is then projected, traced and hand painted onto a 6-foot length of fabric by volunteer artists. The banners hang from May to November in Civic Square.

2019 Banner Selects: Inventions of the Future

2018 Banner Selects

2017 Banner Selects

“My Cultural Heritage”

Finalists:

West Sechelt: Annalisa Achee, Owen Allen, Lola Pratt & Lama Saleh
Gibsons: Annabelle Autry, Kennedy Vanderwoerd
Roberts Creek: Madison Berg
Cedar Grove: Jade Bergman
Madeira Park: Marshall Curtis, Lily Mackay, Emma Thornton
Ecole du Pacifique: Beatrice Doig
Davis Bay: Hadley Laviolette, Chase Stelter, Rose Boden-Blinn
Kinnikinnick: Jada Mielke, Jennifer Quach
Spider: Erin Payne
Langdale: Aloa Shinkai, Lyra Silver

2016 Banner Selects

2016 Banners are available for purchase at the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre (604.885.5412).

“Sunshine Coast The Way It Was”

Finalists:

Gibsons Elementary: Asha Ghag, Violet New, Izzy Chartrand, Yvonne Cao
Kinikinnick Elementary: Callie Baptiste, Ayden Biglow
West Sechelt Elementary: Carly Kennedy, Isabella Paolozza, Emma Fawcus
Madeira Park Elementary: Rowan Goodsell, Arabella Rogers, Julie Sieben
Davis Bay (Nest) Elementary: Logan Biel, Alex Nicols
Langdale Elementary: Jack Marshall, Ruthie Stewart, Jon Schooner
L’Ecole du Pacifique: Maya Rodriguez
Roberts Creek Elementary: Megan Kraus, Piper Goerzen

Visit the Facebook page for updates.

The Dog on the Leash Gets Around

The Dog on the Leash was a 2014 banner entry submitted by a student from Pender Harbour Secondary School. It was an outstanding but very complicated design which had to be transferred by several volunteers to the banner fabric and then be painted. Elizabeth Ficko-Blean from Roscoff, France, who was visiting her parents during her Christmas holidays, earnestly picked and painted her way through the leaves and tree trunks. After all the efforts by various volunteers, it was disheartening to discover the Dog on a Leash had been split in two during a November gale.

Jill Sullivan, an expert quilter, did a fantastic job with repairs. The banner was sent off to Elizabeth who decided to show the Dog on a Leash a bit of Brittany. He was carried through the ancient streets of Landerneau in order to visit an art gallery, stopped over at the Station Biologique de Roscoff, wandered around a French lighthouse and an old mill, and presented at a wedding in Carnac. He now hangs in Elizabeth’s living room with a fine view of the English Channel. All of his journeys can be seen on Facebook.

2015 Winners