Uplands group kicks off first northside Art Walk

By Lethbridge Herald on May 28, 2025.

The Lethbridge Uplands Neighborhood Association (LUNA) held their first "Art Walk at Chinook Park Sunday; and event demonstrating the works of various artists from the neighborhood.

Joe Manio
Lethbridge Herald
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A cozy group of artists from the Uplands and Blackwolf neighbourhoods gathered at Chinook Lake Park recently to showcase their work at an inaugural Art Walk organized by the Lethbridge Uplands Neighbourhood Organization (LUNA).

“The intent of our Uplands Community Art Walk was to promote local artists,” said organizer Dawn Martin. “It’s tough for artists to find places to show their work. The idea for the first Art Walk came after a friend lamented that it wasn’t easy for a new artist to get discovered.”

The Art Walk was originally scheduled to be a “Jane’s Walk” event. Jane’s Walks are held in cities all over the world in memory of Jane Jacobs, an American-Canadian journalist and urban activist. These organized walks encourage people to get outside and learn about their community.

“As an organizer, it was a challenge to find ways to advertise the event to both invite artists and also to let people know it was happening,” said Martin. “We had 13 people register and ten artists set up displays. There was no charge for the artists. We feel it was a success because most of the artists asked that we let them know when we have our next Art Walk.”

The group gathered in a casual, almost picnic-like environment on the grass near the southern entrance to Chinook park, and included a variety of artists including painters, sculptures and even balloon artists. Upland resident Pride Lowe had heard about the event through LUNA’s social media and signs, and stopped by with her seven-year-old son Kassian Lowe-Nelson.

“The event was small and intimate, making it easy to take our time to walk through and take in all the talent,” said Lowe. “We have so many local artists with so much talent. It is always nice to get to see it up close and personal. This event worked out so well; the weather was perfect, the artists brought lots of pieces to be admired, the prices were fair.”

Lowe said Kassian enjoys all different media himself, so he was very impressed with several pieces. There were lots of great artworks there and Kassian was very drawn to GeeBeezArt. He spent a few moments chatting with the artist before purchasing a beautiful bookmark.

“Kassian was drawn to a bright red cat painting!,” said Lowe. “He had saved some money up for an ice cream but decided he was going to use it for the cat art. He had his own savings and chose to spend it on the cat painting.”

Before heading home to immediately hang his painting in his room, Kassian stopped by Lethbridge Balloon Benders to get a balloon tiger made for him. 

LUNA was founded in 2018 by like-minded, community-focused Uplands and Blackwolf residents to act as a positive agent, promoting a culture that creates a welcoming and inclusive neighbourhood, recognizing the strength of diversity. LUNA currently has 30 paid members for 2025, including six board members, and approximately 1,800-plus members in their Facebook Group.

“LUNA tries to hold events and activities in our neighbourhoods that encourage community-mindedness and citizen get-togethers, as a way to ‘get to know your community, its residents, its make-up/geography, its history, and its amenities,’” said LUNA chair Brad Martin

Other events that LUNA hosts during the year include – Uplands and BlackWolf Community Garage Sales event (usually in mid-May); Community Earth Week Clean-Up in late April; Jane’s Walk in early May which has in the past included a geocaching instruction and demo, bird-watching instruction and demo; City Parks Manager talk and tour of the new Legacy Regional Park and its facilities; art and painting classes; and most recently the Art Walk.