B.C. artists paint their vision for an oil-free coast

WHISTLER QUESTION~ ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Art for an Oil-Free Coast campaign brings together 50 artists to raise awareness of a proposed oil pipeline through B.C.’s rainforests

FEBRUARY 28, 2013
BRANDON BARRETT

A group of prominent B.C. artists have teamed with the Raincoast Conservation Foundation to produce a series of works, an art book and two documentary films to raise awareness of a proposed oil pipeline that could have dire consequences for British Columbia’s coastal rainforests.

Last summer 50 B.C. artists including wildlife painter Robert Bateman, Aboriginal artist Roy Henry Vickers and Whistlerite Chili Thom ventured into the Great Bear Rainforest by boat to portray the stunning natural beauty found on B.C.’s coast and raise awareness of the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project that could see 525,000 barrels of oil per day transported through the region.

“British Columbians are already convinced they know this is a bad idea, but what we wanted to do was have people across the country understand that it’s not just radical environmentalists, and it’s not just a few disgruntled First Nations, but it’s two out of three British Columbians and the entire

arts community that are very strongly outspoken against this project,” said Brian Falconer, Raincoast’s marine o

perations project coordinator and organizer of last summer’s Art for an Oil-Free Coast project. Falconer and the Raincoast Foundation are also involved in the ongoing energy board hearings for the Enbridge project, providing peer-reviewed information to decision makers.

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