The school year has just ended. However, at Pierre-de-Coubertin School in Montreal North, people are already thinking about the future.
In this last week of classes, the schoolchildren were impatiently awaiting the arrival of the holidays. The oppressive heat still gave them a taste of the summer to come. While some educational institutions organize music shows or Olympics to reward the work of their students, the Pierre-de-Coubertin school had a slightly more original gift to offer its primary-age students.
On Wednesday, in association with Tennis Montréal, the school’s director, Nadine Lalancette, inaugurated a mural bearing the image of tennis player Leylah Annie Fernandez. Mural on which students and residents of the neighborhood can also learn about the sport practiced by Quebecers by hitting the ball against the wall.
“We are a school with a sports component. So, we develop athletes, we develop children, and this, in different branches, explains Ms. Lalancette on the telephone, a few minutes before the ceremony. And for tennis, we didn’t have any facilities and it was such an original and simple way to add tennis for our students. »
This mural becomes the third unveiled by Tennis Montréal, after the first two revealed at the IGA stadium at the beginning of May.
This initiative developed by Tennis Montréal is part of the organization’s mission to make tennis more accessible.
“There’s no simpler way than slamming the ball on the wall. All the great champions started like this. It’s really the most accessible way to discover tennis,” explains general director Hugues Léger.
In his opinion, “the wall is the partner that never fails. It’s the most democratic way to start playing tennis.”
This project was made possible thanks to the support program for regional sports associations of the City of Montreal.
The mural project was submitted in the fall of 2023. Tennis Montréal will therefore have the opportunity to create 12 murals across Montreal. The fourth is already planned at Reine-Marie college, in the Saint-Michel district. The announcement of the fifth mural will be made later this summer and all of the works should be unveiled by 2026.
With this project, the ambition of Tennis Montréal lies in the desire to present examples of success to children or initiates. Currently, two mural models exist: one with Fernandez and another with Félix Auger-Aliassime. When it came time to choose, the leaders of the Pierre-de-Coubertin school were unanimous, specifies Ms. Lalancette.
“Everyone wanted Leylah. First of all, she’s a female role model, so that was important. She’s also someone from an immigrant background, as we’re right in the heart of Montreal North.”
At first glance, the school director said she was “seduced by this idea of showing the image of people who have succeeded from nothing”.
For Ms. Lalancette, Fernandez and Auger-Aliassime “show an accessible model of success.”
These murals by Fernandez and Auger-Aliassime do not yet have the prestige of the one illustrating Leonard Cohen on Crescent Street, or the one honoring Beau Dommage between Saint-Denis and Saint-Vallier streets, of course. Nevertheless, Tennis Montréal wanted to take advantage of the cultural and artistic wealth of the metropolis to beautify certain schools in addition to allowing young athletes to learn tennis.
“Montreal is a city of urban art, that’s well known,” says Mr. Léger. So I think that marrying urban art, which is in Montreal’s DNA, and tennis, which is a sport adored by Montrealers, is an interesting idea. »
In her perspective, artist Jenna Schwartz’s work represents “a space for practice and a space for inspiration.”
In other words: “It’s a work of art, this mural. »