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Sketch Mob hopes to empower young Calgarians to envision their future communities

A shot down a street in Calgary's Downtown West, with LRT tracks running through the street. Weather is partly cloudy.
Calgary's Downtown West. Photo submitted.
Ryan Hunt - CFWE - Edmonton • AL | 06-02-2023
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Two students have launched an art movement to encourage youth to reimagine downtown Calgary.

Ian Hernandez and Sydney Ikeda, Downtown West residents and University of Calgary students, started the Sketch Mob, a movement that aims to "push people to explore their city," and to help people envision change towards public spaces through drawing and sketching.

A piece of paper showing a mock blueprint of a reimagined neighborhood, showing what Sketch Mob is trying to accomplish.

A trial sketch for the Sketch Mob. Photo courtesy of Sydney Ikeda.

While they were excited for their inaugural event on Jan. 28, Hernandez and Ikeda have both been looking into the future, with plans to bring the Sketch Mob beyond Downtown West and transform it into a city-wide movement.

If they meet their goal and the project moves beyond their Downtown West neighborhood, Hernandez says that their vision will stay the same, to let people "reimagine and see how [public] spaces could look in a different way."

The inaugural Sketch Mob kicked off at 12 p.m. on Jan. 28th at the City Hall's Innovation Lab, before moving to proposed sketching sites.

​​Listen to the full CFWE Interview below with Ian Hernandez and Sydney Ikeda:

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