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Chemainus is known beyond sa国际传媒 for its outdoor gallery of murals, but it was a different place when Karl Schutz arrived in 1952.
鈥淲hen I first arrived, it was a sawmill town and you could just about buy anything you wanted, as long as it was for the logging and sawmill industry,鈥� Schutz said.
鈥淵ou could definitely not buy a brush or anything for arts. I think the word 鈥榓rts鈥� was not in their vocabulary.鈥�
Schutz, 83, was celebrated Wednesday for changing that. He was named honorary member emeritus by the Chemainus Festival of Murals Society in a ceremony hosted at the North Cowichan municipal council chambers. As the architect behind the Chemainus Mural Project, Schutz helped turn the declining sawmill town into a cultural tourism destination, society president Tom Andrews said.
鈥淗is concept was to use the arts as an economic driver for the community,鈥� Andrews said. 鈥淚t really put Chemainus on the map as a tourist destination and an arts and culture destination.鈥�
Andrews said the community wanted to honour Schutz locally, since he has already received awards at the provincial and national levels.
鈥淗e鈥檚 been recognized internationally and received a lot of different awards, but I don鈥檛 think he鈥檚 received anything locally. So we thought it was time that he be recognized by the board of the society [that he founded] and the municipality.鈥�
Schutz was born in Heidelberg, Germany, where he trained as a tool-and-dye maker. He moved to sa国际传媒, looking for adventure, and his work with railway companies carried him to Chemainus, where he and his wife, Betty, developed an industrial park and custom-furniture manufacturing plant.
Schutz didn鈥檛 think of bringing art to Chemainus until after visiting Romania with his wife in 1971.
鈥淲e saw the monasteries and the beautiful fresco paintings. They had visitors from all of the world and that鈥檚 where the idea originated,鈥� Schutz said.
鈥淚 thought, my goodness, what an idea to have a tourism industry in Chemainus.鈥�
He proposed the idea soon after returning. But the response was not positive.
鈥淓veryone thought it was the dumbest idea they ever heard,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o I patiently waited for 10 years.鈥�
Ten years later, sympathetic mayor Graham Bruce was in power. The town had received a provincial redevelopment grant and Bruce hired Schutz to carry out his arts economic stimulus project.
The first mural was painted in 1981, Schutz said, two years before the sawmill closed.
His plan proved successful. Today, Chemainus is painted with more than 40 murals, the vast majority of which depict scenes from the town鈥檚 history.
The idea spread internationally and Schutz said he has been hired by more than 70 communities, municipalities and chambers of commerce in 61 countries. He has travelled as far as New Zealand, Australia and Scotland as a consultant.
鈥淭hey all adopted the idea and the formula that used murals as the economic development strategy,鈥� Schutz said. 鈥淲e created a tourism industry that鈥檚 very easy [to copy], now that its been done. It鈥檚 like the egg of Columbus: It鈥檚 easy when you know how.鈥�
Schutz said he repeats a few tips to each client: Avoid politics, avoid religion and hire an experienced artist. Nearly each community has stuck with the Chemainus tradition of historical themes.
Schutz said the murals have personally affected him. 鈥淭he murals, they have definitely changed my life. I鈥檓 not an artist; I鈥檓 an entrepreneur,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut from then on, I went into the arts and promoted the arts for all those years.鈥�
Although he is retired, he still takes pride in seeing busloads of visitors arrive in Chemainus to visit the painted town.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a wonderful experience for people to visit and learn the history of Chemainus in such a colourful way.鈥�