The Don Valley Parkway rainbow has gone underground.

A handful of artists and volunteers from the Flemingdon Park area spent Sunday painting a rainbow-themed mural on the inside of the tunnel leading to the iconic artwork on the east side of the DVP.

“It’s like you’re travelling through the rainbow,” said Rob Matejka, education programmer at Mural Routes, a non-profit dedicated to creating and restoring wall art in the city.

The original rainbow was painted 40 years ago by artist and self-proclaimed “Caretaker of Dreams” B.C. (Berg) Johnson. It has since brightened the drive of countless commuters as they zipped (or crept) northbound on the DVP, just south of Lawrence.

Volunteers cared for the artwork over the years, repainting it from time to time. More recently, the mural fell victim to weather and neglect. The dark, 20-metre-long tunnel attracted graffiti and vandalism.

Mural Routes started the $20,000 project last fall by cleaning and restoring the original rainbow. Then they scraped off layers of graffiti inside the tunnel and came up with the concept for the mural.

Mural Routes describes the new artwork as a brightly coloured nature and cityscape that depicts couples, families, dog walkers and joggers in changing seasons. It says it’s meant to be a “new, magical passageway” for those who use the East Don Trail.

The group also painted a matching rainbow on the north end of the tunnel entrance. When you’re driving south on the DVP, you may catch a glimpse of it.

Painting skills are just part of what the young volunteers are learning, Matejka said.

“It’s not that everybody here will become an artist, but it teaches them about responsibility, co-operation, collaboration, the importance of coming to work on time,” Matejka said. “It teaches people that if they apply themselves to something and see it through, they can make something positive out of it.”

Mural Routes’s leadership training program focuses on project management as well as artistic skills.

“We need to invest in youth. There needs to be a way for youth to get involved, to be seen as positive contributors,” Matejka said. “If they’re seen that way, they’re more likely to behave that way.”

Tom Linardos, a painter who took part in the project, isn’t worried about vandals destroying the new mural.

“I think the community is going to serve as a police force,” he said, adding that concerned citizens previously called police when they saw activity at the tunnel. Officers rushed over to find the group from Mural Routes working on the rainbow.

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The project is expected to be completed next month.

“I think it’s marvellous. I like the fact that it’s purposeful and reflects the community,” said Doug Lay, a passerby who stopped to admire the new mural. “This is really a work of art.”