The vision. The inspiration. - A tale of two towns.

On a rainy Sunday afternoon in April 2004, Rob and Annemieke Gulmans – then owners of Jonah Place Bed & Breakfast Inn in Sussex – flipped through some photo albums of previous trips to Canada.

“Previous to our immigration, we visited various parts of Canada in search for the best location that suited both our business and personal needs. During one of our travels we stayed on Vancouver Island, BC and visited the town of Chemainus. Their Festival of Murals, which is a celebration of the town’s local heritage, was one of the highlights of that trip.

Chemainus has created, what is without a doubt, the top attraction of the Island, but has done so in a very subtle, almost modest kind of way. There appears to be a perfect balance between the economic growth and the preservation of the small town feeling, which intrigued us enormously.

Chemainus calls itself “The little Town that did” and do they ever deserve that title. Facing basically a boarded up town after the local mill closed down, the Festival of Murals was created in an effort to give the local economy a boost.

That was 20 years ago. The Chemainus of today is a thriving little town, with lots of quaint shops and restaurants, a brand new 274 seat theatre and thousands of visitors year round who all come to admire the murals. The best part is that they have not lost their identity and managed to preserve that small town feeling.

This and much more went through our minds going through our photo album. It is no secret that the events of 9/11 have affected the Tourism Industry significantly worldwide and also the province of New Brunswick has faced some challenges. Many visitors still find their way to Sussex, however, nobody should take tourism for granted.

Two million people pass our town on the Trans Canada highway on a yearly basis and with only two or three weeks of vacation for the average family, you must have something really spectacular to offer in order to convince those travelers to make a stop in your town.

With the success story of Chemainus in mind, we figured this was a plan that could work very well for Sussex too: a similar seized town, located in the eastern part of Canada - and therefore no risk of being considered competition - and at an excellent location close to the major thoroughfares.

In less than a week we worked out a plan and presented it to the Kings East Development Partnership Inc. (KEDP), a local organization that was recently formed and strives for economic development in the Sussex area.

The KEDP, that consists of representatives of the Town of Sussex, the Village of Sussex Corner, the Local Service Districts, the Sussex and District Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Business Association, the Kings County Tourism Association and Enterprise Fundy, represents a broad cross-section of the general community of the greater Sussex area.

The KEDP immediately saw the economic benefits an attraction like this could bring to our area and not just from a tourism point of view. When planned and executed well, the general spin off could be enormous, and so we were thrilled when they decided to embrace our plan.

At this point we started with, what we became to call, our “Road Show”. Presentations were given to all Partners individually, as well as to other interested groups and organizations, all with one purpose in mind: to try and get as many people as possible enthusiastic about the project and create a synergetic atmosphere.

We told the tale of the two towns of Chemainus, BC and Sussex, NB, because, interestingly enough, there were actually quite some similarities between the two of them.

With a good execution plan in hand and the financial part in place, the KEDP officially started the Sussex Mural Project in December of 2005.

Since that rainy Sunday afternoon in April of 2004 a lot of work has been done by a small, but very dedicated group of people, who all passionately believe in the opportunities this project can generate for our area.

As for us, we both feel very fortunate to be part of this unique experience.  We have enjoyed the whole “mural journey” that led to the creation of these works of art and it’s a great pleasure to work closely with these talented mural artists.

We truly hope that others, when visiting our beautiful town, enjoy all these magnificent murals as much as we do every single day.”

 

What the world is saying about the Sussex Murals:

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