Bus shelter art contest open for Kettle and Stony Point First Nation members

Kettle and Stony Point First Nation members have a shot at making their artwork part of the community.

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Huron Shores Area Transit which connects Grand Bend to Sarnia and London by Voyago bus is calling for submissions to decorate two bus shelters in the First Nation community near Grand Bend.

“It should not only beautify what is a basic piece of transit infrastructure, but also it can be a source of pride for the community,” said Lambton Shores transit coordinator Susan Mills.

Digital files or photographs of original artwork submissions already have come in at huronshoresareatransit.ca/artcontest since the contest launched June 19, she said.

It closes July 15, she said, noting art in any medium can be submitted, so long as it can be converted into a digital file to facilitate review, selection and production.

“It gets printed out on this special translucent vinyl that then is attached to the glass” of the bus shelters, hopefully by the end of August, said Mills, noting the artwork is expected to last five years.

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“It’s almost like having a stained-glass window,” she said about applying the winning designs to approximately two-metre by two-metre shelter walls.

Winning artwork will also be displayed elsewhere in the community, and winning artists each receive $2,000, she said.

A $2,500 Lambton creative county grant is helping fund the initiative, she said.

“Huron Area Transit matches that.”

The newly installed bus shelters are on West Ipperwash and Army Camp roads, she said, noting the inspiration for the project came from a teepee structure at Points Plaza on West Ipperwash Road.

“The teepee is a celebration of the cultural heritage that’s there,” she said. “I just thought this would be a great opportunity to do the same thing with basic transit infrastructure.”

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Southwind Corporate Development, which owns the plaza, will judge and select contest winners, she said, noting similar contests have happened in Alberta and in Barrie.

“I think we’re going to be the first in Southwestern Ontario to have something,” she said.

The intercommunity bus service also recently announced extended route hours and days for July and August. The typical Monday, Wednesday and Friday route between Grand Bend and Goderich has expanded to include later evening hours, and to run Saturdays and Sundays, Mills said.

Options to pre-book and pay for trips also recently launched, given buses have been getting busier on the Sarnia and London to Grand Bend routes, she said.

“That’s why we felt it was important to take proactive steps to make sure passengers avoid disappointment by booking their bus tickets ahead of time, so they can enjoy a worry-free day at the beach,” she said in a statement.

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Details are available at huronshoresareatransit.ca.

Ridership in 2023 was 20,000, more than double the about 7,500 trips in 2022, Mills said.

And ridership from January to the end of May is already up more than double compared to the first five months of 2023, she said, noting ridership for the year will likely eclipse 35,000.

That’s essentially the number at which the initiative, which has provincial grant funding until the end of next March, becomes sustainable, she said.

Questions remain about whether that funding will be extended, or how municipalities might take over, she said.

Huron Shores Area Transit offers four routes in total, including a route through Bluewater to Goderich, and a route through North Middlesex to Strathroy.

“Sarnia to Grand Bend, and London to Grand Bend, those two main ones are really busy,” Mills said.

The other two are “very rural, and their ridership is not where we would want it to be yet,” she said.

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