Kamloops Art Tour

Mural featuring woman with purple hair and mask looking at eagle and flowers

Artist Chris Bose takes us on a tour of his favourite Kamloops arts spots. He begins with murals he co-created with community members at the Kamloops Aboriginal Friendship and the Immigrant Services Centres. Next, check out the Free Wall, a place where graffiti is legal. Then relax on a bench with a view at Peterson Creek Park.

Want to visit the site using your mobile device and GPS? Go directly to Sonic Maps and download the Kamloops Art Tour files while you have WiFi. On site, open in your browser for an interactive experience.

Kamloops Art Tour locations

Map shows three locations in Downtown Kamloops BC
Aboriginal Friendship and Immigrant Services Murals, Free Wall

Kamloops Aboriginal Friendship Centre Mural
I’m here at the Kamloops Aboriginal Friendship Centre, which is on Palm Street. This is a mural I did in 2016, 2017. It was a commission by Lii Michif Otipemisiwak, a Metis child and family services organization.  I used to come here a lot when I was young teenager, wayward soul, because it was a safe place. They had programs, they had food. There used to be a drum group here, big drums. So we’d sing pow wow songs and Secwepemctsin songs and Nlaka’pamux songs.

Kamloops Immigrant Services Mural
This brings us to the mural behind Kamloops Immigrant Services on Tranquille Road here, in Tk’emlúps B.C. This was a big community effort. It was a commission from the Kamloops Arts Council and the Kamloops Immigrant Services. And this mural. Boy, this is a journey. We started, took a year to get done, really from ideas to the delivery. When we started painting it on the walls. There were youth from the Friendship Centre, youth from all over town and different organizations I work at as well as elders, and then people volunteering from Kamloops Immigrant Services. So there’s all kinds of people working on it. It was awesome.

Free Wall
The Free Wall is on the North Shore of Kamloops. Anyone can come and paint. I’m going to paint a quick skull. That’s the sound of the spray paint And above me, you can hear traffic on the Overlanders Bridge and it’s yeah, it’s loud.

Map shows Sonic Map location at Peterson Park
Peterson Creek Park location

Peterson Creek Park
I’m here at my favourite viewpoint chair bench in Peterson Creek Park. Can hear a truck easing its air brakes, which is against the law in a community. That’s the Trans Canada Highway below me. I come here a lot. You can hear lots of people in the park. It’s really beautiful and tranquil except for the traffic noise, but it’s got amazing views and it’s an easy walk. It’s nice and relatively flat. They’ve put down a proper trail for people with mobility issues. So wheelchairs can actually make it in here. 

Chris Bose is a writer, multi-disciplinary artist, musician, curator and filmmaker. 

He is a founding member of the Arbour Collective, an Aboriginal arts collective based in Kamloops, with a national membership. He is also a workshop facilitator of community arts events, digital storytelling, art workshops with people of all ages and backgrounds, curatorial work for First Nations art shows and projects, research and writing for periodicals across Canada, project management and coordination, music festival producer, mixed-media productions, film, audio and video recording and editing, and more.

Chris Bose is of the Secwepemc and Nlaka’pamux Nation in BC, and currently spends his time in Kamloops BC. https://bosechris.wixsite.com/chrisbose

Credits

Digital Storyteller and Photographer: Chris Bose

Geolocation Editor and Producer: Lorna Boschman
StoryCloud Concept: Lorna Boschman and Claire Roberts

We gratefully acknowledge that we live and work on the unceded, traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) nations. This map was created in urban Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc Territory.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts

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