Two not-for-profit art organizations in Saskatoon have teamed up with another in Hamilton for a shared venture called the national billboard exchange.

AKA artist-run and PAVED Arts in Saskatoon run out of a building in the 400 block of 20th Street West that has a billboard on its exterior wall and Hamilton Artists, Inc also has a billboard, so the idea is to share the works back and forth, which brings more coverage for the artists who produce the pieces.

Artistic Director of PAVED Arts, David LaRiviere, says right now, the billboard at their location is from Vancouver artist Janet Wang. Her work is based on research of Chinese-Canadian settler histories.

LaRiviere says a lot of that has to do with restaurants, because many towns had a Chinese restaurant and most larger cities would have a Chinatown area. Coincidentally, LaRiviere says, where PAVED and AKA are situated, used to be a Chinese restaurant called Toon’s Kitchen.