Aurora Public Art Festival will showcase common threads, celebrate anniversary

August 27, 2026 · 0 Comments

A two-week celebration of the ties that bind us together will form the heart of the inaugural Aurora Public Art Festival.

Common Threads: Aurora Public Art Festival will take place in Mirkopoulos Plateia, the outdoor gathering space at Aurora Town Square, from September 16 – 27 and feature three large-scale art installations by artists Khadija Aziz, Yifu Ding & Zishuo Li, and Roda Medhat.

Hosted by the Aurora Cultural Centre, the Festival will not only be a contribution to Aurora’s Month of Culture, but also serve as a celebration of the Centre’s second anniversary back at its traditional home within the Town Square complex.

This is the Centre’s first gallery installation in the outdoor square.

Having this space available to be used in this way has been a “great extension,” to what the Centre can offer, says Executive Director Suzanne Haines.

“The Town has been using it in a number of different ways and, for us, bringing art out there that can be shared and enjoyed just passively is a real gift, especially bringing people back into the community after they may have been away over the summer, but also during Doors Open, the Multicultural Festival, and the Canadian Art Hop.

“These are activities that bring people into the centre of Aurora and help us celebrate arts and culture. Us being able to be a part of that has been really powerful.”

Powerful is a way the incoming textile pieces can be described as well.

Medhat, for instance, will be installing a 16-foot textile sculpture in the shape of a minaret in the Square. The sculpture itself is covered with a carpet of his own design based on Kurdish textile traditions and rugs.

“It’s a really fabulous piece about how these towers act as a place for people together,” says Gallery Manager Ashlyn Gregory. “The rug goes out eight feet in all four directions and people are invited to come up close to it and really experience the pattern.”

Next up is Aziz, an artist currently in residence at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre. She focuses on South Asian embroidery traditions and “how you can disrupt those traditions by adding in technology,” says Gregory.

“She has five tapestries using a traditional South Asian mirror embroidery as a practice and they are going to be located on the garden path from the Plateia up to Church Street. They’re very reminiscent of South Asian traditional fashions, so it is going to be really beautiful and colourful in that space.

Ding and Li have created a site-specific installation called Wind Blessing in Red. As part of this installation, the Centre will host an activation on Yonge Street during the Town’s Saturday Night Fever event on September 12 where people can write a wish in their preferred language on red textile strips that will then form the core of the piece.

“My intention behind bringing these artists together is to show people what public art can actually be,” says Gregory. “It’s not always just murals, metal statues, and things like that. It can also be temporary, it can also be ephemeral, textile, and there’s many different ways these artists can approach textiles, but they all say something about cultural heritage, identity, and how textiles are a way to explore that cultural heritage. All three exhibitions really encourage audiences to reflect on their own understanding of textiles in their lives and textiles as symbols of visibility and belonging.”

As part of the Town’s Multicultural Festival on September 19, artist Medhat will host a small loom weaving workshop the Centre says will be very kid-friendly, and they will also co-host with the Town of Aurora a panel discussion on public art the following day.

The installations will also be a destination on the Canadian Art Hop, a cross-country movement organized by the Canadian Art Dealers Association, connecting arts-minded organizations across Canada, all open on the same day, allowing participants to “hop” from gallery to gallery.

For more about Common Threads, visit auroraculturalcentre.ca/common-threads.

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter