A binder of the colour-photocopied designs accepted by Streets Alive! for sponsor selection is now available at Apple Annie’s Cafe on Mississaga Street in downtown Orillia.

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the publication of Stephen Leacock’s Sunshine Sketches of A Small Town, the Leacock Museum has released a souvenir calendar. It features 12 cartoons that appeared in the Montreal Star when Sunshine Sketches first appeared in newspaper serialized form.

Streets Alive! is pleased to announce the launch of our newest street-art theme and the title of the 2012 Orillia Streets Alive! project:

Leacock Chairs

Celebrating 100 years of Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town

A public outdoor art exhibit presented by Streets Alive! Orillia

 Orillia’s Streets Alive! invites artists to submit their applications to participate in an innovative outdoor public art exhibit called Leacock Chairs. The “gallery” will be Orillia’s city streets during the summer of 2012.

$20,000 in Prize Money

Juried art award: $3,000

Artist Honorarium: $300 per artist

Our prototype chair, designed by Ron Schell:

Artists will be working with incredible hand-crafted metal sculptures modelled after a reading chair owned by Stephen Leacock. This original chair can be seen at the Leacock Museum in Orillia.

Artists will transform the chair sculptures into original works of art. The chairs will be unveiled to the public at the Streets Alive! 2012 kickoff event on June 23. People’s Choice voting will open and continue until July 28, when winners will be announced as part of Downtown Orillia’s Leacock Sidewalk Sale event.

The chairs will be displayed in downtown Orillia from June 23 to late October. The exhibit will be supported with a guide featuring a map, a profile of each chair and artist, and sponsor information. At the end of the exhibit, several of the chairs will be sold through online auction. Proceeds will support Orillia’s Streets Alive! program in its ongoing work to promote Orillia as a premiere destination for outdoor art.

The sponsor of each chair has ownership rights to their chair. Group-sponsored chairs become the property of Orillia’s Streets Alive! program.