Lacombe’s City Hall exterior will soon be home to the city’s first Indigenous mural.
The new public artwork, titled Eyes of The Wisdom, will be painted by Gordon Wesley—an established Indigenous artist and muralist based near Rocky Mountain House. He was selected through a request-for-proposals process.
According to the City of Lacombe, the mural features a bison and an Indigenous Elder observing the landscape from above. The figures symbolize knowledge keepers who once gathered medicine from the land. Set against an evening sunset, the backdrop includes the Medicine Hills—a sacred site located along a historic travel route through Lacombe and Lacombe County.
Wesley has previously created artwork for the Town of Okotoks, the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, and Banff National Park.
The mural initiative was sparked during recent renovations to the interior of City Hall. The city’s art collection committee saw an opportunity to revitalize the building’s grey exterior with a vibrant, culturally meaningful piece on the south wall.
Maureen MacKenzie, Lacombe’s arts and culture and cemetery coordinator, said it was important to address a lack of Indigenous representation in the city’s downtown murals.
“Our murals program downtown doesn't have any [Indigenous] representation, and so once we realized we had that huge gap, we knew we needed to do something to fix that,” said MacKenzie.
Mayor Grant Creasey praised the addition.
“Lacombe’s murals are renowned throughout Alberta for their artistic beauty and unique view into our shared past,” Creasey said. “The addition of this mural to City Hall will enhance the exterior of this public facility and will be a vivid reminder of the history of our region.”
MacKenzie plans to visit Wesley next week to finalize whether he will paint the mural on-site or in his home studio. Work is expected to begin in August.
She also anticipates the city holding an official unveiling ceremony once the mural is complete.
“We’ll have the opening of the interior, so it makes sense to do the opening of the exterior and have some ceremony along with that, because this is an Indigenous-created mural,” explained MacKenzie.
Funding for the mural comes from Lacombe’s Percent for Art budget, which draws from the city’s newly completed Operations Building.
MacKenzie says the mural will further strengthen Lacombe’s reputation as a destination for public art.
“This is just one more mural that will get people traveling through Lacombe so they can see more of what our community has to offer,” she said.
** With information from the City of Lacombe.
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