from books to walls
Our books turned into murals that turned into festivals.
It all started with a couple of books.
A collective formed in 2012 with the purpose of creating a collaborative photography book celebrating Sudbury’s urban culture.
Curated by Christian Pelletier and Andrew Knapp, the project invited sudburians to submit their photos of Sudbury; authentic, urban, a little rough around the edges, but beautiful and inspiring. After sifting through thousands of submissions from over 300 photographers, We Live Up Here, the book, launched in December 2012 and immediately sold out.
Volume II
The second volume of We Live Up Here was launched at the Grand Theatre in 2014. It features over 250 photographs from over 100 local photographers. The coffee table book is a snapshot of Sudbury's urban culture.
And then we made Stupid Little buttons.
To raise money to print the book, we made these funny little pins.
Filled with Sudbury inside jokes, we ended up pressing and shipping over to 20,000 of these stupid little buttons to Sudburians and expats around the planet.
The pins poked fun at Sudbury’s flaws with tongue planted firmly in cheek. They continue to be a stupid hit to this day.
and then we started painting murals.
Inspired by the momentum created by the photography book, We Live Up Here decided to create new murals around the city.
Since 2013, We Live Up Here has curated & created over 100 new pieces of public art in and around downtown Sudbury.
Up Here Festival is born.
Catapulted by an ever-growing team and community momentum, We Live Up Here launched Up Here, an ambitious new festival that merged urban art, emerging music, and community in August 2015.
Up Here has since grown into one of the most anticipated indie-arts events north of Toronto.
