{"id":36812,"date":"2025-09-11T12:44:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T16:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=36812"},"modified":"2025-09-18T15:22:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T19:22:13","slug":"culture-days-will-be-three-week-showcase-of-arts-culture-and-heritage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/culture-days-will-be-three-week-showcase-of-arts-culture-and-heritage\/","title":{"rendered":"Culture Days will be three-week showcase of arts, culture and heritage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Arts, culture and heritage will be firmly in the spotlight this month as Aurora takes part in Culture Days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking place from September 19 to October 12, the three-week series of events will showcase local historic sites through Doors Open, the music and dance of the cultures that call Aurora home as the Town hosts its annual Multicultural Festival, and much more as community groups like the Pine Tree Potters Guild, Society of York Region Artists (SOYRA), the Aurora Community Band and Borealis Big Band, and more put the finishing touches on programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday, September 20 will kick-start a big weekend for Culture Days as the Aurora Multicultural Festival returns to Town Park from 9 a.m. to 12 noon, before moving to Aurora Town Square from 12.30 to 6 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis exciting festival will include vibrant cultural performance shows, sample appetizers from around the world, an interactive Community Zone and fun activities for the whole family!\u201d say organizers. \u201cExperience how other cultures celebrate song and dance with a fully-packed entertainment line-up. And don\u2019t miss the free samples at Aurora Town Square, as we celebrate food from around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also on September 20, the York Chamber Ensemble will offer a free concert at the Aurora Public Library that will be \u201csure to captivate your ears and lift your spirits.\u201d The concert will get underway at 2 p.m. in the Library\u2019s \u201cLiving Room\u201d space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Society of York Region Artists (SOYRA) will be at Town Hall on Saturday, September 20, and Sunday, September 21, with their 38th<\/sup> annual SOYRA Fall Art Show & Sale, while the Sunday will also see the return of Doors Open Aurora from 10 \u2013 4 p.m. at various sites around the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very excited to bring it back this year,\u201d says Nichole Campsall, Cultural Development Coordinator for the Town of Aurora. \u201cThere are various sites throughout Aurora that are participating and we will have quite a few activations at Town Square. A few of our cultural partners are also participating, so we\u2019re very excited \u2013 the Aurora Cultural Centre, the Aurora Public Library, Pine Tree Potters, are all part of Doors Open.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doors Open, adds Phil Rose, Manager of Cultural Services for the Town of Aurora, has been a \u201cfun project to work on\u201d as the Aurora Museum & Archives has curated a variety of sites and activations for the schedule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of the sites that we are making available for Doors Open, some of them are available to the public on a regular basis, but really the criteria for Doors Open is if you\u2019re allowing access to Heritage properties that aren\u2019t typically available to the public 364 days a year, that one day of the year is an opportunity to open those spaces.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Offerings on September 21 include a chance to watch members of the Pine Tree Potters Guild \u201cbring the clay to life\u201d at the Aurora Public Library from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; a woodcarving workshop hosted by the Aurora Cultural Centre from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., and watercolour workshops for an array of ages throughout the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Closing out programs on September 21 is an open rehearsal from the Aurora Community Band, which members of the public are invited to attend in the Aurora Cultural Centre\u2019s Brevik Hall from 7 \u2013 9 p.m. Another open rehearsal, this time by the Borealis Big Band, will take place on Wednesday, September 24, from 7.30 \u2013 9.30 p.m. in the same location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rounding out the program so far, as new events are being added all the time, is a free intro to ballroom dance hosted by T&S Dance Club at Aurora Town Square at various times on Friday, September 26; the unveiling of a new community mural, Unity on Canvas: Painting our Community Story, on Monday, October 6, at 6 p.m. at the Aurora Family Leisure Complex; and the \u201cFall Faves\u201d event at Mirkopoulos Platia \u2013 Aurora Town Square\u2019s outdoor space \u2013 on Saturday, October 11 from 10 a.m. to 12 noon, featuring outdoor games, a story time with the Aurora Public Library, line dancing with New Age Country Entertainment, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are excited to bring back our Fall Faves Festival,\u201d says Campsall. \u201cLast year, as part of the [Aurora Town Square] grand opening, we had our free family event here in the outdoor square and we had a pumpkin carving-themed story time with the Aurora Public Library, there were photo ops and outdoor games, and we\u2019re very excited to bring that back this year. It\u2019s on the Saturday of Thanksgiving, so it is a great way to celebrate fall.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the programs come together, organizers are eager to showcase all the cultural elements Aurora has to offer, particularly as the Town\u2019s Cultural Action Plan and Public Art Policy continue to take shape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think culture, starting with the letter \u2018C\u2019 really stands for community and as we develop [programs] it\u2019s really brainstorming what the community is already doing well and it really defines collaboration with the programming the Town is doing and marrying that up with what the community organizations are also doing,\u201d says Shelley Ware, Special Events Coordinator for the Town of Aurora. \u201cIn terms of our specific programming, we routinely look for gaps, gaps in services, gaps in offerings, but culture is ever-evolving. It’ll never be completed, it’ll never be a one-and-done, so because of that, that’s what makes it a creative canvas each year to look at; what did we do last year, what can we do differently this year, and then what are our partners doing so, again, we can focus on any gaps.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adds Campsall: \u201cIt\u2019s a unique representation of Aurora in that we have the participation from all of our cultural partners. When Shelley says you don’t know what to expect, they look at their expertise and what they have to offer and that’s where they build what their programming is going to be. I think that’s just such a neat thing to see. It shows you what there really is here in Aurora, that you might not already know is here. The community can really look at visual arts, performing arts, heritage. There’s so much to do here!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For an up-to-date list of Culture Days programs, including a full schedule for the Multicultural Festival and list of sites and activities associated with Doors Open, visit aurora.ca\/culturedays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arts, culture and heritage will be firmly in the spotlight this month as Aurora takes part in Culture Days. Taking place from September 19 to October 12, the three-week series of events will showcase local historic sites through Doors Open, the music and dance of the cultures that call Aurora home as the Town hosts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9zK","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-09 15:50:06","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36812"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36813,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36812\/revisions\/36813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}