Art Connects 2025/26: Mural Workshop
Art Connects is an ongoing initiative that started in 2019 to address North York Arts’ (NYA) role in Truth and Reconciliation. As North York Arts builds programs, partnerships, and relationships, we continue to ask ourselves “As a non-Indigenous organization, what can we do to support the process of decolonization and build right relations with Indigenous communities?”
This year, in lead up to Earth Day 2026 launch, we are hosting community based workshop led by local Indigenous artist Shawn Howe.
Workshop Details:
This February, Indigenous community members are invited to gather for a hands-on communal mural workshop exploring our connection to the land — and how it sustains, comforts, and brings us joy during the longer winter months.
Participants will work together on a shared canvas using mixed materials gathered from the land alongside traditional art supplies such as acrylic paint, tempera, paint markers, and collage elements. Through collaborative creation, we will explore themes of warmth, resilience, belonging, and relationship to place.
This workshop is about more than making art, it is about shared experience. Together we will create space for laughter, reflection, healing, and connection. No prior art experience is needed. All skill levels are welcome. Participants are encouraged to come as they are and reconnect with the creative spirit within us all.
The themes and ideas that emerge from this gathering will directly inform and inspire a new digital mural to be installed at Gibson House Museum for Earth Day 2026.
You can register for one of the two dates below.
Date(s): February 22nd or February 26th
Time: 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM (both dates)
Location: Gibson House Museum (5172 Yonge St, Toronto, ON M2N 5P6)
Capacity: 8 -10
A $25.00 honorarium will be provided to each participant.
Registration closes February 19th, 2026 @ 5pm!
Please note: This workshop is intended for Indigenous community members.
Please contact Habiba, programming@northyorkarts.org if you have any questions.
Date: Feb 22nd & 23rd
Time: 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM (both dates)
Where: Gibson House Museum, 5172 Yonge St
Price: Free
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Program Lead: Shawn Howe
Shawn Howe (They/Them/Theirs) is an Anishinaabe, Indigiqueer non-binary, neurodivergent, disabled artist. Their Spirit name is Red Cedar Tree and they are Bear Clan. They come from Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation with membership in Sipekne’katik First Nation. They are a self-taught artist, residing in Toronto (Treaty 13), where they work as a mural artist, digital illustrator and community engagement art facilitator. Their murals are primarily seen in the GTA and surrounding areas in local frontline Indigenous agencies. They love to create murals where Indigenous people can feel safe and comforted when accessing healthcare and support.
Instagram: @shawnhowe_
Indigenous Community Mural Space
Visit The Gibson House at 5172 Yonge Street to see rotating community artworks on display in this space, designed and led by Indigenous Artists.
2023/24 Art Connects Community Mural
skyworld and beyond
Designed by Mo Thunder
Join us for the unveiling of skyworld and beyond! This is a collaborative mural piece created by Indigenous Artist Mo Thunder. During two interactive art-journalling workshops led by Mo, North York community members had the opportunity to contribute to the creative brainstorming process that inspired the artwork.
Art Connects is an ongoing initiative to address North York Arts’ role in Truth and Reconciliation. As North York Arts builds programs, partnerships, and relationships, we continue to ask ourselves “As a non-Indigenous organization, what can we do to support the process of decolonization and build the right relations with Indigenous communities?”
Learn more about Mo Thunder
Mo is a nonbinary/fluid, neurodivergent multidisciplinary artist and facilitator who grew up in a small town along the St. Clair River, they currently live in T’karonto, which has been home for over a decade. They are Haudenosaunee (Oneida Nation of the Thames), French-Canadian and Anishinaabe (Aamjiwnaang First Nation). Mo holds a BFA in studio art with a focus on drawing, silkscreen printing, photography and video from Fanshawe and Lethbridge University, however, they are also self and community-taught. In June 2022, Mo graduated from the Toronto Art Therapy Institute. Through their multidisciplinary art practice (painting, murals, mixed media, beading, journaling, poetry and textiles), they create visual stories about their lived experiences in connection to their personal healing. Mo is also inspired by intergenerational connections and healing, family and memories, personal and collective empowerment, and all of creation, especially skyworld.
2022/23 Art Connects Community Mural
Two-Row Wampum Belt
Designed by Lindsey Lickers
In 2022, North York Arts hosted seven Indigenous talks about Treaty, the geography of North York, our responsibilities to Water and Land, and Indigenous Stewardship, Symbolism, and Art. This series was curated by Lindsey Lickers, and featured Jason Mercredi, Chyler Sewell & Daniel Rotsztain,Carolyn King, James Carpenter, & Raiden Levesque.
Inspired by these talks and teachings, community members and program participants were invited to come together to create a collaborative mural led and designed by lead artist Lindsey Lickers.
This piece depicts the Two Row Wampum, being restored in collaboration with the broader community, supported by the inclusion of participants’ visual responses to the truths shared within the Art Connects, I-Talks series. The wampum beads, stories, and commitments are framed by Lindsey’s stylized interpretation of spirit world above, with land and water below. Watch the mini-documentary below for a closer look into the creation of this project and mural.
Learn more about Lindsey
Lindsey Lickers is a Haudenosaunee/ Anishinaabe multi-media artist, arts facilitator, and program developer originally from Six Nations of the Grand River with ancestral roots to the Mississaugas of the Credit. Her traditional name is ‘Mushkiiki Nibi Kwe’, which translates to ‘Medicine Water Woman’ and she is of the turtle clan. Recently, she was awarded a commission to create a permanent public installation for the Region of Waterloo’s light rail transit system that will speak to the historical stewardship of the land base of Waterloo and the importance of agriculture from a First Nations perspective.
North York Arts is committed to continue working along Indigenous peoples to deepen our understanding and to bring truth to our programs.
In Partnership with The Gibson House Museum
