What's Next
It’s now 2025. After health battles, freelance pivots, and a handful of personal reckonings, I’ve returned to solo creation. I consult, coach, design, and paint. Leaning into the flexibility and unpredictability that defined my start.
Humanity In Art as a partnership has closed its chapter. But the essence continues. These days, I’m open to collaborations, commissions, and conversations... especially if they involve murals, bright palettes, or offbeat ideas with heart. If you're here, there's probably something you care about too. Don't be shy, feel free to reach out.


Community Work
In 2018, I co-founded Humanity In Community, a nonprofit initiative born from the belief that even temporary beauty can make a lasting change. Our team, alongside a local business owner and a local comedian, raised funds to transform a derelict building into an open-air art gallery in the heart of downtown Nanaimo. It was, at the time, the largest organized mural site on Vancouver Island( It doesn't exist anymore, which is good, its been redeveloped into commercial retail space!). Eight artists volunteered. We even ran a pilot “open wall” for anyone to paint freely. A radical invitation in a city unused to street-level art.
That project later evolved into Hub City Walls, where I served as Artistic Director and Curator, developing a public art festival and mentoring other artists. Even through pandemic pivots and shifting plans, the walls kept getting brighter. And so did the people around them.
The Work
I’ve been painting under the name “Humanity” since I was a teenager. Initially solo and sometimes anonymously (sorry, Mom). Before any partnerships or paperwork, I was already deeply involved in the work: building community through murals, mentoring informally, and transforming neglected spaces into unexpected places of care.
In 2016, I was honoured with the Emerging Cultural Leader Award from the City of Nanaimo’s Arts & Culture Department. For someone who spent years trying to find their footing and occasionally a reliable ladder, that recognition meant a lot. It acknowledged what I'd been quietly building: a public art practice rooted in accessibility, emotional honesty, and social impact.
In 2017, Humanity In Art evolved from a solo project into a legal partnership. That shift allowed me to expand scale, take on bigger walls, and work collaboratively in teaching and mentorship. Our projects brought together seasoned artists and folks just learning. We created big art, taught mural design, and even a few life lessons that don't come with a brush.
Together with community partners, underhoused residents, and a few skeptics turned believers, we created work that transformed our community.
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About Lys Glassford
My business coach asked me, "If you had to sum yourself up in one sentence, what would you say?"
'Spray cans, spreadsheets, and a lot of lived experience."
I'm Lys. I create public art, build websites, and consult on creative projects that live somewhere between colourful sensibility and strategic execution. I was born in rural Saskatchewan, where the sky goes on forever and teenagers get inventive with rebellion. My first canvas? A train. My first commission? Age 16.
Since then, I’ve produced over 40 public art installations, co-founded two nonprofits, and maintained an entirely separate life as a front-end designer and digital marketing expert, program and project manager, and a business consultant... which is just another way of saying I’ve done a few things and worn too many hats.
I live with AUDHD and an invisible physical disability(EDS & Type 1 Chiari Malformation). I’m unapologetically trans non-binary and queer. And I believe that art doesn’t need a master’s degree to be meaningful. My work is built on that idea: accessibility, community care, and sharp aesthetics that don’t apologize for having an edge.

I moved to Nanaimo in 2013 with my cat from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. No connections, and a medical file thick enough to make a dent in a coffee table. I worked part-time at Michaels (ask me literally anything about paint) while waiting for brain and neck surgery. It was a tough chapter. But somewhere in there, I started painting walls that people had stopped looking at, and soon folks noticed.
With community support, I transformed alleyways deemed “dangerous” into spaces of connection. We planted wisteria, picked up garbage, and created 14 murals in one stretch. No press. No grant. Just humans reclaiming a piece of their city. Someone later told me it was called Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design. I just thought it looked better when people cared.