'A wonderful project': Tourism Lethbridge reveals new travel posters by local artists

LETHBRIDGE, Alta. -

if you walk through some of Lethbridge's most popular tourist attractions, like the Nikka Yukko Japanese Garden, or Fort Whoop-Up, you'll likely see bundles of people snapping selfies.

While there's nothing wrong with that, Tourism Lethbridge is hoping to spruce up the community's image with locally made travel posters to give tourists and residents a few keepsakes and conversation starters.

"It's been a wonderful project and I'm so happy that we've seen it to this point so, and we couldn't have done that without our artists of course," said Jarom Scott, local artist and visual communications specialist with Tourism Lethbridge.

The artists range in age and artistic backgrounds.

Bryce Many Fingers-Singer is one of those artists. He was chosen to create a poster for the Galt Museum & Archives and for him, this is about more than tourism.

"When I create work like this, I want youth to have that, when they go into like museums or galleries, they can have a safe space," he said.

"When they go into these places, they're like, oh I recognize this because this is a reminder of who I am and where I come from,"

Many Fingers-Singer is an emerging, self-taught artist from the Blood Tribe Reserve who uses his art to explore his cultural heritage and further his relationship to the land.

Elizabeth Porter is another artist who expressed a personal connection to her poster.

Porter's piece is on the Helen Schuler nature centre, a place she says is a must-see for anyone visiting, or living in Lethbridge.

"When I first went there, I was having a bad day, and I walked in, and all of a sudden, things changed. I really wanted to take that feeling and share it with everyone else," she said.

The project was inspired by vintage travel posters that were once abundant across the country.

Now, the posters are complete, and the artists behind the work are excited to show tourists and other locals their take on some of Lethbridge's most significant cultural sites.

"When you start on a project, you don't really know where it's going to go. For myself, I was really happy with where it led to," said Many Fingers-Singer.

The prints are now available for purchase at the Tourism Lethbridge Visitors Centre for $35 each.