Public Art

In October 2024, the Town of Halton Hills hosted a celebration in recognition of a new public art installation marking the municipality’s 50th anniversary. Contemporary painter Denitza was the successful applicant for this project, selected from a pool of applicants responding to the Call for Artists to produce an artwork responding to the theme of Connected Communities: celebrating the people, places, nature, environment, and the urban and rural areas that make up Halton Hills.

Denitza’s creation is a large-scale vinyl mural that adorns the large windows in the publicly accessible Town Hall atrium. Artist Denitza noted that the intent was to create a visual tribute to Halton Hills, celebrating the diverse and interconnected elements that define the Town. Look for recognizable landmarks within the artwork, while taking in the vibrant hues of Halton Hills throughout the seasons

Kelcy Timmons Chan’s artwork on the banners installed at the entrance of the Library & Cultural Centre, Cultural Impact is a whimsical interpretation of the building's main facilities. Both panels mimic the exact architecture that exists in the real spaces in bold and vibrant colours, giving viewers a sneak peek into the centre and all the creative ways that one can participate. 

The panel under the Cultural Centre sign depicts the John Elliott Theatre and highlights the performers, the stage, the audience, as well as the backstage technicians, epitomizing how a show is brought to life and the many parts that are involved. The panel under the Library sign shows the art gallery and public library. On the top of the panel, workers are bringing in a large painting for installation and the signature stained glass window from the space is featured. The bottom of the panel depicts the public library where folks are learning, reading and sharing books.

The figures in Kelcy’s work are always the colour purple nodding to the queer community and represent that any person can be any gender. The similarity and simplicity of the people is to highlight that they all have something in common that bonds them as a community; in this case, it’s their love of arts, music and culture.

The Bell Box Mural Project uses existing Bell Canada infrastructure as canvases to enliven the streetscape and feature the work of artists. The first boxes were painted in 2022; this is an ongoing mural project initiative in partnership with Bell Canada.

Check out the details and stay tuned for additional painted box locations on the Bell Box Mural Project page!

Under Wraps re-imagines utility boxes as canvases to enliven the streetscape.

A funding recipient of “The Artist Next Door,” Halton Hills artist and colouring book creator Arielle Rahal transformed five plywood panels into canvases for the public to colour and enjoy. Two panels were painted as part of Culture Days 2022, and three panels were painted as part of the Downtown Georgetown BIA’s, Downtown Palooza event in 2023. Halton Hills residents and visitors of all ages contributed to the final products.

These community panels feature the historic McGibbon Hotel, the Limestone Conservation Area, and street views of downtown Georgetown. Find these panels installed on construction hoarding at the corner of Main and Mill Streets in Georgetown. These colourful panels weave heritage and community into a downtown construction site, for the public to enjoy. Find out more about Colour it Air here.

In 2022, the Town of Halton Hills Cultural Services Department partnered with the Downtown Acton BIA to bring you 'Art Around Acton'. Residents and visitors can still experience a variety of temporary and permanent public art activations in Downtown Acton.

Window Displays

Don't miss artwork by three local artists displayed in the windows of downtown businesses.

Location: Acton Discount, 52 Mill Street East

Artist: Elizabeth Bard

Residing in Acton for over thirty-five years, Elizabeth loves nature, wildlife and enjoys gardening and photographing the many different perennials and birds that visit for future paintings. The collection is a seasonal and remembrance series. Tulips represent the coming of spring, poppies represent summer and to remember all the brave soldiers that gave their lives for our freedom. Sunflowers represent the arrival of fall and is the Ukrainian national flower, representing peace.

Location: Music store, 115 Mill Street East

Artist: Kathleen Bignell

An Acton local, Kathleen has dedicated the last 30 years to a fulfilling career in teaching. She would often commute to work through the back roads of Halton Hills. Throughout the seasons she admired the light on the trees and fields. As she drove, she "painted" the landscape in her head. She has been yearning to get back to Creative Art. Now retired, Kathleen can pursue her painting passion and prefers working in Plein Air (outdoors). She loves to explore different mediums, but the buttery soft texture of oils is her most used and favorite medium. 

Location: ROXY, 6 Mill Street East

Artist: Sonja Mortimer

Acton based painter, Sonja Mortimer is a collage and mixed media artist. She is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art, York University's Fine Arts program and a former Visual Arts Specialist/teacher. Mortimer finds inspiration in nature’s persistence and resilience. The semi abstract landscape paintings are inspired by the infinite variety and combinations of twigs, bull-rushes, wildflowers and flowing grasses observed along rural side roads. Sonja translates her digital images onto canvas, taking into account the unique properties and challenges of converting light, colour and texture, from a digital format to canvas and acrylic paint.

Acton Solstice Festival

The Acton Solstice Festival at Prospect Park featured free family fun, including light installations and illuminated performers from the Department of Illumination, a festive community procession featuring giant puppets, Juno award-winning musician Richard Underhill and the Kensington Horns, illuminated circus artists from Trellis Arts, and more.

Wrapped Utility Box, Jaguar

Location: Main & Mill Streets, Acton

Artist: Andrea Rodriguez (aka andreacataro)

A creative, bold, and colourful woman, Andrea pulls her Inspiration from Latin American biodiversity. Rodriguez aims to create awareness about the loss of the tropical rainforest through engaging and eye-catching messages that motivate people. Andrea works in a multidisciplinary setting, combining her design knowledge with her love for mural and lettering art.

View Andrea Rodriguez's Instagram

Colour Unleashed, a banner series

Location: Downtown Acton

Artist: Shelley Newman

Filling her canvases with an abstracted impressionist interpretation of the Canadian landscape, local artist Shelley Newman aims to bring a smile to the community with this uplifting and joyful public art banner project displayed in downtown Acton.

She studied commercial art and continued her art education at various studios. She worked professionally in advertising and design for several years. While she has worked with other mediums, she always returned to oil paint because of its richness and luminosity. Shelley has been in numerous solo, group and juried shows and is an elected member of the Society of Canadian Artists and the Ontario Society of Artists. After she was selected as Artist in Residence in 2016 at the Red Door Gallery in Georgetown, and worked as a studio artist at Williams Mill Visual Arts Centre where she painted for 5 years. Shelley now works in her home studio keeping up with the demand for her work in galleries in Ontario and Quebec. Her originals and prints are enjoyed across Canada, the United States and around the world.

View Shelley Newman's Instagram

Picnic Tables

Local and GTA artists painted five picnic tables in the summer of 2022. The tables provided an accessible art experience to residents and visitors and made a vibrant addition to local restaurants in the Acton BIA core and Prospect Park. Town promotion included encouraging residents to take photos of themselves at the freshly painted tables, and posting and tagging the artist using #ArtAroundActon.

Artist Residency

Location: Acton Farmer’s Market

Artist: Ingrid Mayrhofer

Completing an 8-week artist residency at the Acton Farmer’s Market in the fall of 2022, Ingrid worked with a “Tree of Life” motif, creating clay tiles that were mounted to form a mural. Visitors contributed sketches, clay pieces, or chose to take a self-curing clay piece home with them. The final mural was presented by Ingrid Mayrhofer and Judi Henhawk Sault on November 26, 2022, at the Acton Library during an artist talk.

Want to see the final mural on display? The Mural can be viewed at the Acton Branch of the Library.

Ingrid Mayrhofer (BFA, MA, York University) is a visual artist, curator, educator and community arts practitioner who recently opened her own pottery studio in downtown Hamilton. Her work is part of the exhibition “Voices” at the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, Waterloo, Ontario, that opened on September 24. Residents in Halton Hills may recognize her printmaking works from the After Nature public art banners that were displayed in multiple locations in Town in 2020 and 2021.

Métis artist, Tracey-Mae Chambers has been building detailed temporary site-specific art installations across Ontario's outdoor and indoor spaces. The installations are constructed with red string, the colour of blood, passion and anger. The red string represents the connectivity between each other and our environment. The art illustrates the temporary nature of our lives and promotes discussion about truth and reconciliation and decolonizing public spaces in Canada. 

Watch the Virtual Artist Talk to learn more about this project and hear directly from artist, Tracey-Mae Chambers. You can also watch this video to see the artist install her work in Halton Hills in November 2021. The indoor and outdoor installations were on display at the Library & Cultural Centre for several months.

After Nature was the first project the Town undertook under the Public Art Master Plan. Banners were on display in six outdoor locations throughout Halton Hills. In response to requests from the community, the 2020 'After Nature' public art banner series was re-installed in select locations in spring 2021. 

The designs for Ingrid Mayrhofer's banners are based on her series of collagraph prints about climate change and at-risk species. The images resonate with both the built and natural environments. The compositions incorporate historical buildings of Halton Hills with images of flora and fauna native to Ontario. While many of these species are on the endangered list in Ontario, they are still present in the natural areas in the region.

Mayrhofer's method of individually inking parts of her plates results in vivid separations of colour that remain unified through the stylized lines and textures. With vibrant textures, colour and the layered feeling of the imagery, Mayrhofer intends to celebrate the past of Halton's built history while simultaneously drawing attention to the fragility of the future of our natural environment

About Ingrid Mayrhofer

Ingrid Mayrhofer (BFA, MA, York University) is a visual artist, curator, educator and community arts practitioner. She has her own pottery studio in downtown Hamilton. Residents in Halton Hills may recognize her printmaking works from the After Nature public art banners that were displayed in multiple locations in Town in 2020 and 2021.

Since her student years, Ingrid has placed her art production in its social context. In addition to her double studio major in printmaking and photography, she has worked with new media, and also employs printmaking techniques to create narratives for her pottery. Having moved away from overt “political” imagery in the nineties, she initiated a long-term hands-on intervention with culture and nature in 2000. Her practice includes numerous community art collaborations and curatorial projects, as well as international artists' exchanges. Since moving to Hamilton, she has participated in four public art banner projects there, as well as showing her work across Canada and abroad.

Species represented in banners

After Nature highlights at-risk species in Halton Region and Ontario. Look for these species in the banner images and the natural world.

A seven-week music series presented at the Acton Farmer's Market in September and October featured performances by Monty Greig, August Eleven, Paula Sofia,  Madison Galloway, Tragedy Ann, and  John Muirhead