And they don't necessarily have to be in the downtown core

Since its inception in 2015, 28 murals have been created as part of the Up Here urban art and music festival.

That doesn't include the 18 power boxes that have also been colourfully painted through the artists' participation in the event.

As they plan Up Here 5, which takes place Aug. 16-18, the festival's organizers are looking to compile a list of walls or other structures available for new murals.

Although the festival traditionally takes place downtown, organizers say they're not necessarily restricted to the city's core when it comes to mural locations.

Up Here's co-founder, Christian Pelletier, said one big mural will probably go up outside of the downtown in 2019.

“There's tons of great walls throughout the city, and I think with year five coming up, we wanted to scout out walls throughout the city,” he said.

“After five years of creating a nice urban density downtown, we're ready to start maybe start doing one or two in other communities, as we grow.

“We get a lot of emails at least once or twice a week from people saying 'Hey, I've got a wall,' so we just wanted to kind of centralize it all and make it a lot earlier for our team when we're evaluating walls.”

Pelletier said mural locations don't even necessarily have to be walls — they could be other types of structures too.

The Up Here team has been eyeing the flour mill silos on Lasalle Boulevard for years, but Pelletier said he's looking for the right artist to tell the community's story.

Between five and seven new murals will go up this year, along with the decoration of another six power boxes.

The 2019 Up Here muralists haven't yet been selected — artists have until Jan. 31 to apply to take part in the festival.



The final wall selection really comes down to the artist, what they want to do and where their work will have the largest impact, said Up Here's website.

“Our desire is also to create a public list of potential walls that both Up Here muralists and community artists can consult to encourage the independent creation of new murals all over the city,” said the website.

You can submit a wall for consideration through Up Here's website.