The streets of Simcoe’s core will bloom this summer with colorful banners.
The banners are placed in the town’s core to create the Downtown Simcoe Drive-Thru Art Gallery, with this year’s theme being the Year of the Garden.
“This ties into Norfolk County tourist initiatives this year, the county has declared that 2022 is the Year of the Garden,” said Brian Jones, communications committee chair at the Simcoe BIA. “We are carrying that theme forward in our downtown streetscapes drive-thru art gallery.”
This year, 51 community artists will design their interpretation of the theme on blank canvas banners provided by the BIA. There will be five backup banners if they are needed.
“We have fantastic artists in Norfolk County and the contributions you will see are going to be absolutely spectacular,” said Jones. “We will see interpretations of gardens, we’ll see flowers, we’ll see blooms, you’re going to see variety and it all makes downtown Simcoe really unique during the summer.”
Banners are to be completed and returned to the BIA by May 13. The banners will be affixed to poles where they will hang along the streets of downtown Simcoe from May to October.
Jones said that the project continued through the pandemic as it supported social distancing measures where a banner could be safely picked up and dropped off.
“It was one of the few initiatives that kept going during COVID-19.”