Paint It Up! Mural Project

The Stittsville Village Association, in partnership with Birdgirl Arts and Pretty Pots, were awarded funding from the City of Ottawa for The Paint It Up! Mural project.  This exciting project is taking place summer of 2026.

Field notes from Stittsville is a vibrant, contemporary mural led by local artist Sasha Jimenez French from Birdgirl Arts in collaboration with youth artists in the community.   Inspired by flora, fauna and familiar landmarks that define Stittsville, including the TransCanada Trail as a visual thread connecting us all, the mural will read like an illustrated field journal of the village today.

We have had an overwhelming number of interested youth interested in participating in this project. We offered all that were interested in a volunteer position and we have over 20 youth that are committing to participating in all stages of the mural project.

Our youth participants received hands-on-training in mural design, community engagement and will receive large-scale painting techniques during the mural painting in August.  We are pleased to have our youth artists contribute to concept development, public engagement activities, and final installation while gaining practical artistic skills and meaningful professional experience.

In May and June of 2026, we have completed several of the pre-painting training. Our artists were at the Art in the Park on June 7, and the Workshop Night Market on June 18 where we engaged with the community to share our exciting project and receive feedback from local residents on what they would like to see in Stittsville's mural. Our final mural design was submitted to the City of Ottawa and approved for painting mid-July. We are excited to begin our mural painting towards the end of August.

The completed mural will serve as a colourful, playful landmark that reflects a growing and diverse community, celebrating both the natural landscape and the people actively shaping the village we call home.