Art Connects Community Mural
Art Connects 2025/26: Mural Workshop
Join us as we come together to honour the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and celebrate Indigenous art, culture, creativity, and community through the unveiling of our new Art Connects mural. 🎨
We invite our community to the grand unveiling of the new Art Connects mural, created by the talented Indigenous artist Morgan of Waskwane Designs! 🎨🌿
ABOUT ART CONNECTS
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, leading up to a September 2026 launch, we commissioned a new artwork to be created in consultation with local community members. Rooted in community engagement and collaboration, the mural reflects the voices, stories, and spirit of the community while celebrating Indigenous creativity, culture, and connection.
Join us on September 26th and come enjoy:
⭐ The 2026 Art Connects mural unveiling
⭐ An artist talk featuring Morgan of Waskwane Designs
⭐ Indigenous food and beverages
⭐ And more!
📆When: Saturday, September 26th
📍Where: Gibson House Museum, 5172 Yonge St, North York
🕐Time: 2PM-4PM
You can get your FREE tickets to the unveiling by using the link below! Let’s come together to celebrate Indigenous art and the community! 🎉
Date: Sept 26th
Time: 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Where: Gibson House Museum, 5172 Yonge St
Price: Free
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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.
2026/27 Art Connects Community Mural
The Guiding Place
Designed by Morgan Morgan of Waskwane Designs
Join us for the unveiling of The Guiding Place! This is a collaborative mural piece created by Indigenous Artist Morgan Morgan of Waskwane Designs. This year, leading up to a September 2026 launch, we commissioned a new artwork to be created in consultation with local community members. Rooted in community engagement and collaboration, the mural reflects the voices, stories, and spirit of the community while celebrating Indigenous creativity, culture, and connection.
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 Morgan
Morgan Kagesheongai is an Anishinaabe-Ojibwe from Whitefish River First Nation and a graduate of Seneca College’s Illustration program.
They live and work in the GTA as a multiple-disciplinary artist and workshop facilitator for a wide breadth of individual clientele and community led organizations. They animate short films, draw comics, make paintings, create murals and design for print and web.
As an Indigenous person, they aspire to bring their cultural understanding and historical knowledge into the forefront of their work, taking on projects that can act as a vehicle for their stories, practices and unique understanding.
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
