Sand & History: Sand Sculpture Museum in Niagara Falls

“The Greenest Building is the one already standing” —Carl Elefante, as quoted by Lloyd Alter

The arena now, as of September 2013, showing the overall facelift performed by V2 Niagara, including high resolution digitally printed banners by Laqfoil, designed to handle outdoor conditions without fading or becoming brittle and to be fully recyclable when it’s time for the next exhibit.

Digitally Printed Banners

Rafael Islamov,  our Authorized Laqfoil Dealer in Toronto, recently completed a series of printed installations for Niagara Falls’ only Sand Sculpture museum, “Sand and History”.

The Niagara Falls Memorial Arena was built in 1950 (Wikipedia) at 5145 Centre Street, Niagara Falls, Ontario Canada. The aging facility, which had housed local hockey teams and generations of Niagara residents as they learned how to skate and play hockey had been scheduled for demolition when the Russian-based consortium V2 Niagara stepped in, purchased, and renovated the building. It is now open again, this time as a museum attraction with exhibits on local themes planned to change about every 3 months.

The first exhibit “Sand and History”, features sculptures up to seven metres tall, made from sand. Seventeen of the world’s finest sand sculpting artists participated in construction of the exhibition over a period of four months. It commemorates the War of 1812, and the 200 years of peace (as of 2012) between the U.S. and Canada since. The works have been praised by early viewers for their beauty and incredible detail, as well as their educational value in recounting local history.

It was our privilege to work on signage and advertising for the new attraction, featuring photographs of sand sculptures as well as custom graphics.

There were two firsts for us in this project. We knew that translucent stretched ceiling membrane could be used with a projector located behind it, but this was the first time for us actually installing such a setup. There are very exciting possibilities with this set up in transitioning interiors from day to night, and in projecting computer-controlled graphics. Imagine clouds moving across a ceiling as the light gradually changes from night to day or vice versa, or a businesslike white ceiling that transforms into a dynamic display of dance club style lighting at night. The other first was the exterior signage. Our membrane is ideally suited to weathering all environments indoors and out, as it doesn’t fade, become brittle or change in any way, in sunlight or any other form or radiation, or when wet or subjected to temperature changes.

Christine at Blog Niagara has written more about the museum, and it was also featured in an article by John Law for the Niagara Falls Review. To contact Rafael regarding stretch ceilings for any location in the Toronto area, call 647-270-3456, or email porevit@gmail.com