New murals brighten Thunder Bay north core

A Thunder Bay art collective has put the finishing touches on its newest works of public art.

The Die Active Art Collective, which is made up of young, emerging artists in the city, has painted several new graffiti murals on CookeStreet, in the city's waterfront district.

"It's basically an idea to revitalize Cooke Street ... in hopes ofcreating a sort of graffiti alley in Thunder Bay," said LoraNorthway,theoutreachcoordinator for Definitely Superior Art Gallery.

The artists began working on Cooke Street several years ago, she said, and picked up the spray paint cans once again this summer, to complete five new murals in the course of just a few weeks.

The murals are located on the rear walls of several businesses that back onto Cooke Street, including The Foundry, and The Sovereign Room restaurants.

For the young artists, it's been a labour of love, said Northway, noting that the artists spent several weeks planning the designs, creating stencils, and priming the walls, before they were able to begin the hours ofpainting in the summer sun.

Northway said she hopes residents in Thunder Bay will look at the murals as "an amazing gift that the young people are giving."

"They're in their happy place doing this," she said."but they're also exhausted, and it took a lot of time to get there to get this talented to be able to give this to our community."

TheDie Active Art Collective has been painting graffiti murals in Thunder Bay for seven seasons.