Lethbridge is a unique, diverse, and interesting city. Situated in traditional Blackfoot territory in the shadow of the foothills, our community is a confluence of cultures. First People, settlers, and new Canadians all call Lethbridge home. There are a variety of faith groups, ethnic groups, and subcultures all working in tandem to keep Lethbridge vibrant. Sitting in the heart of a vast agricultural expanse, Lethbridge is a regional hub for commerce & culture, as well as an international journey’s end. This influx of people has brought some invasive species of flora and fauna, but also many that are helpful or at least benign; dandelions, wheat, honey bees, elm trees, brown trout, sheep, and sparrows. The artists have expressed this rich and varied cultural tapestry symbolically by painting a mural that imagines Lethbridge as both a garden and zoological menagerie. A garden teeming with both indigenous plants as well as introduced species. Grama grasses, sheaves of wheat, plains Cottonwoods, and mighty elms. Fantastical and playful animal hybrids will inhabit this garden; deer with sparrow heads, turkey vultures with hooves, or perhaps porcupines with the characteristics of a rock dove. The mural evokes a sense of whimsy, but also give pause for the audience to consider the cultural diversity of the city.
Plants, from left to right
Brown Eyed Susan (native)
Prairie Crocus (native)
3 Flowered Avens (native)
Dandelion (introduced)
Prickly Pear Cactus (native)
Chokecherry (native)
Grama Grass (native)
Cultivated Land (introduced)
Animal hybrids:
Coyote body (native)
Brown Trout head (introduced)
Deer hooves (native)
Turkey Vulture
Cow head (introduced)
Pigeon body (introduced)
Cotton tail feet (native)
Deer head (native)
Ring necked pheasant body (introduced)
People feet
Prairie Hare head (native)
Suffolk sheep body (introduced)
Western Chrous Frog feet (native)
Ground Squirrel head (native)
Honey Bee body (introduced)
Western Painted Turtle
Dorset Sheep head (introduced)
Ground Squirrel body (native)
