Banner Project

2024 BANNER PROJECT

THE LAND BETWEEN TWO WATERS

DEADLINE TO SUBMIT: Saturday November 9, 2024 at 4pm
BANNER EXHIBITION: November 15-December 14, 2024

Banner Project 2024 specifications

The theme this year is “The Land Between Two Waters”. As always, submissions are made through teachers in elementary schools across the Sunshine Coast.
We hope all elementary students on the Coast will participate by submitting a design. Last year we received over 600 submissions! We very much appreciate your work as an educator in support of this project, and look forward to seeing this year’s designs.

Some things to keep in mind:
● Please find below a specification sheet for paper and design size
● 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.)
● Ensure the following information is written on the back of each banner design: Student’s full name / school / division / teacher’s name

How the program works:
● Drop off your students’ submissions to the SCAC by Saturday, November 9th at 4pm. If you are unable to make this deadline, let us know and we will find a way to get them.
● The banner designs from all elementary schools will be shown alongside a special Sechelt Arts Festival exhibition relating to the Salish Sea. Twenty banner designs will be selected and hand-painted onto full-size banners by students and their families in the new year, and hung in the Civic Square (home of the recreation centre and library in Sechelt) in 2025/26.

Exhibition Visit:
Schools are warmly invited to visit the gallery to see their own work on display, celebrate the art of their peers, and engage with our Sechelt Arts Festival exhibit Nov. 15 – Dec. 14! If you are interested in bringing your class, contact us at info@sunshinecoastartscouncil.com to find out more about how to book an exhibition tour and hands-on art activity while here. Additionally, we have funding to reimburse up to one school bus rental per school to support access for students and educators. Up to two classes are welcome at a time! Funding is limited, and we will disperse this as requests come in.

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 four weeks. 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