University professor looks to keep a historic Winnipeg art piece alive
Posted February 4, 2025 5:50 pm.
Last Updated February 4, 2025 6:29 pm.
While the redevelopment at Portage and Main continues, the future of a special art piece titled ‘The Wall’ which still sits in a concourse underground, has one Winnipeg family doing whatever they can to preserve it, for generations to come and with the help of the University of Manitoba, they are able to do so by using virtual reality.
When Judy Waytiuk heard that the concourse was set to close as the city works to reopen Portage and Main as a pedestrian crosswalk, Waytiuk was heartbroken, as the piece was created by her late husband Bruce Head in 1978.

“My place is full of Bruce’s art, but this piece was so close to his heart,” explained Waytiuk. “It really was what he intended to be a legacy to both the city and the province.
“Closing the concourse would essentially mean burying what is an extremely important piece of western Canadian contemporary art that is recognized nationally and even internationally.”
While Waytiuk turned to Manitoba professor Jason Shields for help, and he was quickly tasked with creating a 3D digital copy of ‘The Wall’.

“Those are all the separate scans that occurred within the wall and there all interconnected now in one larger circle allowing us to create this very unique 3D model,” explained Shields.
Shields and his team went down to the concourse late Monday night to take scans, which will allow ‘The Wall’ to be digitally re-created in various mediums such as virtual reality, and allow for the piece to live on.

“We’re just kind of at the start of determining how to best to distribute this to the public because the real end goal of this is to allow future generations to engage with it,” said Shields.
Waytiuk hopes that once completed, the virtual piece can somehow be incorporated into the Portage and Main redevelopment or shown in galleries across Manitoba.

“Jason’s 3d virtual reality version means that the wall will essentially live forever,” said Waytiuk.
As for the original, the city says they’ve hired a consultation team to look into it.