A message removed from a Ford City billboard earlier this week is now being worn on shirts across Windsor-Essex.
Artist Cole Fortier launched a limited run of buttons featuring his “Windsor Had Drag Queens Before You Existed” artwork Saturday during the Dropped on Drouillard festival.
Fortier said several Ford City businesses and festival vendors began offering the buttons in exchange for a suggested donation of five dollars. By the time he spoke with CTV News on Saturday, they were nearly sold out.
“With the project being taken down, I decided that this would probably be the best way to get the message out there, with people wearing them on their shirts around Dropped on Drouillard today,” he said.
Fortier said proceeds will support future public art and community-based initiatives connected to the project.
“It’s been a really crazy week,” he said. “I’m just trying to continue the message. I think the message speaks for itself, and I think it’s a really important one.”
The original eight-by-eight-foot billboard was installed outside Artcite on Drouillard Road on July 23 as part of the New Voices program, operated in partnership with the Arts Council Windsor & Region (ACWR).
Artcite removed the billboard on Aug. 11 after the organization said its landlord demanded that the message come down and indicated future wording would require prior approval.
Artcite said the landlord characterized the matter as a lease-compliance issue and alleged approval was required whenever the billboard’s wording changed.
The gallery disputes that account, saying the landlord was informed that New Voices would feature changing, text-based artwork and gave written permission in April to “go ahead with this project.”
Artcite also said the lease provision cited by the landlord applies to the tenant’s identification signage, not individual artworks or exhibition text.
The landlord did not respond to multiple requests for comment from CTV News during its earlier reporting. As a result, CTV News has not independently confirmed Artcite’s account of the landlord’s position.
Fortier said he has tried to remain focused on the artwork rather than the disagreement surrounding its removal.
“I just want to continue to spread queer voices across Windsor,” he said.
Fortier, who also performs under the drag name Epoxy, said the artwork was inspired by Windsor-Detroit’s long history of drag performance.
According to ACWR’s previous research project curated by Fortier with research from local historian Walter Cassidy, the earliest documented drag performance in the Windsor-Detroit region took place in 1868.
“A lot of people don’t know that Windsor has actually had a drag community for over 150 years,” Fortier said. “We’ve been here and we’re not going anywhere.”
The physical artwork remains on display inside Artcite’s lobby until Aug. 18, while ACWR and the Ford City Business Improvement Association search for another outdoor location for the New Voices billboard.
The BIA previously said it was disappointed by the removal and hopes to keep the project in Ford City, describing it as a platform for underrepresented voices that contributes to the neighbourhood’s character.
Fortier said the response since the billboard came down has shown that its message extends beyond one location.
“The support shown over the past week has made it clear that the message resonates far beyond a single billboard, and these buttons are simply the next chapter of that story,” he said.
Additional merchandise and future releases are already being developed.