Cultural Districts

Downtown Core
Ground mural, Living Arts Drive

If you’ve been in the downtown in recent weeks, you will likely have seen the new colourful ground murals along Living Arts Drive. Interconnection is a new temporary public artwork by Moonlight Murals Collective. This series of ground murals run along the buffer zones of the cycling lanes on Living Arts Drive and tell the story of people in a growing city like Mississauga. Each thematic panel focuses on the relationship between humans and the natural environment, inspiring viewers to discover their imagination, emotion, interaction, and relationship with their surroundings.

Clarkson

Banner post art, Clarkson. Image Credit: Kyle Jarencio

Walking along Lakeshore Road West in Clarkson, you will notice Clarkson Cultural District’s newest public artwork – ten banner posts wrapped in public art by local artists Yen Linh Thai and Sima Naseem. The designs follow the theme of ‘treasured community’ and depict unique community features, areas and activities of the Clarkson community that are treasured, taking inspiration from its people, diverse businesses and natural surroundings. In collaboration with Clarkson BIA, the City commissioned STEPS Initiative and local artists Yen Linh Thai and Sima Naseem. The beautified banner posts aim to encourage more pedestrian activity in Clarkson by created an enhanced and vibrant main street.

MaltonThe Mobilizer 5.0 is a prop to facilitate conversations within a community. In this context, at the Malton Greenway, it will be used to broadly discuss our changing climate and the importance of neighbourhood green spaces through various inputs and outputs. As a multi-faceted performance piece, it will occupy the site by being pushed through the trail and the mall while engaging with the local community. The formal language of the structure is informed by its surroundings - in particular the infrastructure found at the back of the mall’s loading dock - the mobilizer 5.0 desires to be useful with all its gadgets, to be seen and heard.

It will listen and react as the local passersby interact with it, it will acknowledge their presence through their motion and voices. The more engagement it receives, the more it disrupts its biases and internal thoughts.

Mobilizer 5.0 will be heading to Malton Greenway on August 4th and 6th, 2022.

For more information, take a look at the project page here.

Downtown Core

Skate park murals, Sculpture Court Park, City Hall. Image Credit: Tylor Key Carr

The City’s Public Art Program commissioned local artist Ray Vidal to create a digital mural series in the Sculpture Court Skate Park, located right next to City Hall. The artwork was then printed and installed on the walls surrounding the skate park.

This digital mural series is about the constant flow of energy that skateboarders and breaker dancers channel to create something cosmic that can change the course of someone’s life. How these activities can bring you closer to being at peace with one’s own self, realize what is important in your life and how to work hard towards your goals, hopes and dreams.

As part of National Youth Week in May 2022, the artist and Public Art team hosted a launch event to showcase the artwork and celebrate the project. The artist performed with his band - the Five and Tens - alongside local DJs Ronny Royce and LJones. Around 50 local skateboarders and community members attended the event, enjoyed live music and skate competitions, and viewed the artwork.

For more information, take a look at the project page here.

Downtown Core
From November to December, 2021, Mississauga’s Celebration Square launched Light Up the Square, an annual outdoor, multi-week winter destination festival of lights in Mississauga’s downtown core!

As part of the festival, there was an open call to artists looking for interactive and light-based artworks that could activate the space in Celebration Square. Three artists were selected through this process and their artworks were installed in the square for the duration of the festival:

Carriers by Meghan Cheng. Image credit: Adam Pulicicchio

Carriers is an interactive light sculpture based on a flock of birds taking flight into the sky. The installation allows visitors to see their joys and hardships of the past two years translated into pulses of light and sent out into the world by the birds. The installation is intended to instill a sense of hope for the viewers - it acknowledges the highs and lows we’ve gone through throughout the pandemic and creates something beautiful out of our experiences.

To participate, visitors could type a message through a webpage which was sent to the birds. These messages were then transformed into unique pulses of light that were transmitted through the artwork. Every participant’s output was unique, based on their individual text input.

Beacon Silo by Chris Foster Image credit: Adam Pulicicchio Beacon Silo mimics the iconic silo forms of southern Ontario, gesturing to them in a playful, imaginative way. Housed within the structure, a slowly rotating mirrored sculpture projects dynamic columns of light on to the surrounding landscape. This beacon, both lighthouse and disco ball, is visible from a great distance and creates a constantly changing spectacle throughout the day and night.

Candycombs by Monkey C Interactive. Image credit: Adam Pulicicchio

Monkey C Interactive’s practise centres on engaging experiences that combine technology and art to inspire play, impart a sense of wonder, and reward curiosity. Their work is animated by human activity to ignite conversation, spark imaginations, and create a sense of shared community in public spaces. Candycombs is an interactive dance floor, where users trigger lights and sounds by stepping on the panels, providing a space for participants to come together through music and dance.

For more information, take a look at the project page here.

Clarkson, Cooksville, Downtown, Malton, Port Credit and Streetsville Cultural Districts

Banners representing all the Cultural Districts by Mississauga Civic Centre. Image credit: Tori Lambermont

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In late summer 2021, banners representing the six Cultural Districts were installed on light poles across Mississauga, animating and enhancing the city’s streetscapes. These banners are a continuation of a joint project that was initiated in 2020 between the City of Mississauga’s Public Art Program and Tourism Mississauga‘s #MississaugaMade movement, in response to COVID-19 recovery.

For the 2021 edition of the project, the Public Art Program commissioned a new series of custom-designed banners and expanded the partnership to include Mississauga’s five Business Improvement Associations (BIAs). Six “neighbourhood portrait” banners were designed by local multidisciplinary artist Asli Alin (@aslialin), one for each of the six Cultural Districts. The Cultural District-specific banners are on display in their respective communities as well as part of a cohesive installation collecting all the banners in the Downtown.

The designs for the 2021 Cultural District-specific banners are seen below:

Clarkson	Cooksville	Downtown
Malton	Port Credit	Streetsville

In the artist’s words…

“My goal was to capture neighbourhood portraits, each with a hint of local flavour, reflecting their natural habitat, cultural identity, and heritage. My portraits celebrate the unique culture and characteristics of Mississauga’s neighbourhoods, while unifying the city in an impactful and creative way to foster local pride and positivity. Each banner utilizes a similar visual style, employing colours from the existing colour palettes (of the BIAs) along with complementary colours; creating a cohesive yet individually colourful street banner collection.”- Asli Alin

Banners created in 2020 for the first run in the project, designed by local artist Pranavi Suthagar (@notpranavi), have also been repurposed and installed in Meadowvale, Applewood, Churchill Meadows, Erin Mills and Erindale. Through commissioning Cultural District-specific banners in 2021 and repurposing 2020 artwork, the banner program is working towards supporting local businesses and bringing vibrancy to communities across the city.

Downtown Cultural District

Image credit: Creos.

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From July 30 – September 5, 2021, Mississauga Celebration Square is home to Mi Casa, Your Casa, an interactive installation designed by Mexico City-based artists Esrawe and Cadena. Visitors are invited to step inside one of 14 red frame houses and spend a moment reflecting on being back home on the square.

Mi Casa, Your Casa is inspired by the mercados of Latin America, lively street markets where human connections are made every day.

The installation features a series of three-dimensional red frames that illustrate the warmth, comfort, and safety of our homes. With their basic shape recognizable by all, the tiny houses form a blank canvas for community engagement and activity, where people of all ages can socialize in a playful spirit.

When a casa is empty, a welcoming white glow bids you to enter. Once inside, the glow intensifies to show that someone is home.

Streetsville Cultural District

Vivian Rosas, “Blissful Release”, 2021. Photographs by Tori Lambermont.

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The City of Missisauga’s Public Art Program commissioned professional artist Vivian Rosas (@vivianrosas) to paint a rainbow ground mural to honour and celebrate 2SLGBTQ+ communities in Mississauga.

Following a public vote that saw almost 400 responses, Streetsville Village Square was selected as the location for the mural. 70 people participated in virtual dance and drawing classes, where they collaborated to help the artist envision the mural’s final design.

The mural was funded by the Region of Peel, in recognition of their support of 2SLGBTQ+ communities in Peel.

In the artist’s words…

"This isn't just another rainbow road. This is what joy in the 2SLGBTQ+ community looks like! With this mural I wanted to envision the magical places where 2SLGBTQ+ folks can come together to share in safe space. Where they can blissfully release and feel like their true selves without fear of judgment. Moving together, crashing to the same beat, finding joy and pride for who they are. Each so different, yet finding community, and chosen family in one place and feeling held. These are the spaces 2SLGBTQ+ folks need more than ever." -Vivian Rosas

For more content, take a look at the photo set and a time-lapse video of the installation!

Downtown Cultural District

Image credit: Daily tous les jours

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From June 25 – July 4, 2021, Mississauga Celebration Square (MCS) hosted We Can Dance, a pop-up dance studio that broadcasts recordings of people dancing as part of a never-ending onscreen dance party. Visitors were invited to step into a modified shipping container and perform a series of dance moves, and then see themselves up on the big screen at MCS dancing alongside all the other dancers that participated.

For its presentation in Mississauga, Daily tous les jours and the City invited local dancer and MCS personality Mariah Amber and DJ Andre 905 to collaborate on the creation of an original dance and soundtrack. This unique pop up experience offered a safe and welcoming way for visitors to the Square to dance together.

About the Installation
We Can Dance is a tribute to the acclaimed filmmaker Norman McLaren and his signature animation film Canon (1964). The film explores the concept of “canon”, a musical and dance technique where performers reproduce in regular intervals parts of a song or choreography.

About the Artist
Daily tous les jours is an art and design studio based in Montreal. Over the past 10 years, Daily has brought its project of placemaking, community-building, and connection-making through large scale public artworks to more than 40 cities around the world.