Unmasking the young artists and the Creative Director of this year’s Monster March

It is almost Fall which means our favourite fundraiser of the year is coming soon!! This October get ready for several family-friendly events including our Monster March + Market, and our NEW scavenger hunt for a chance to win 1 year of free childcare to any centre in Calgary, and more!

Read on to learn more about our Creative Director, the meaning behind the monsters, and the youth that inspired this year’s creations.

Meet Katie Green, Creative Director

Katie Green is a visual artist working in various scales and mediums to redefine public space and create transformational community experiences. Her intimate watercolour personas are eery and ethereal, emotionally visceral reflections of a gritty and unapologetic exploration into the complexity of the human experience. Her murals are wildly immersive scenes of animals and human-like characters caught in mid-action at an architectural scale. Increasingly, her mural projects involve communities in a process of mask-making that results in large-scale public

expressions of hidden identities, emotional realities, and internal experiences. Whether working in the studio or on the street, Katie’s work focuses on personal intuition, impulse, and expression without judgement.

Meaning Behind the Monsters

This year, we've teamed up with Katie to create another 15 monsters for this year's Monster March campaign. Expanding beyond the Wee Wild Ones walls, we called out to all young artists across YYC to dream up the Monsters that will be the stars of this year's March and Market. All chosen monsters will be used in this year's logo, merch and all marketing assets.

Why Monsters?

Monsters are more than a social construct. They tell a story and are a form of self-expression. Involving our youth to create, reflect and make meaning behind the monster helps our next generation use creative practice to understand their feelings and emotions. The making of a monster can be seen as an expansion of their creativity and an extension of themselves.

This year, we asked all applicants to submit their monster art and include a story about their monster. These stories act as a moment of self-reflection where the Monster's personality becomes an extension of the artist, celebrating the creative inner dialogue of our youth. This process helps to foster a more intimate connection between the artist and the onlookers, inviting us all to reflect on our own inner emotional landscapes.

Meet the Monster and the young artists behind them!

Using her signature watercolour style, each monstrous creation was thoughtfully selected by Katie and brought to life the little artists' monsters and transformed them into this years Monster March logos, merch and more! 

We are so excited for this October, and with all new and exciting activities for you and your family to enjoy. Together we hope to raise $100,000 for the Children’s Cottage Society’s Caring Together Capital Campaign!

Register Now to participate in the Monster Scavenger Hunt, 3K March + Market and collect pledges on your personal fundraising page. All registration funds goes towards our donation goal in support of children and families in need. 

Don’t forget we also are unveiling the Youth Legacy Mural on October 29, 2022 and our limited edition Monster Merch is dropping on September 15, 2022. 100% of each item sold will go directly towards helping children and families in need. Click here to purchase yours today!

Please note that the Mural is separate from the fundraiser. Thus, no funds from the Monster March will go towards the making of the Mural.

Follow us along on social for all updates on this year’s Monster March event!