Markham Public Art Launches Our Park 2025: Learning from Mushroom

Detail of mycelial growth. Photo by Xiaojing Yan.

Presented by the City of Markham’s Public Art Program, Our Park returns in 2025 with Learning from Mushroom, a city-wide public art initiative exploring what mycelial growth can teach us about community, resilience, and connection. Inspired by how mushrooms create rich ecosystems through decay and interdependence, this year’s program asks how material culture is made—through local ecologies, immigrant histories, and collective care.

Rooted in Markham’s complex ecological and infrastructural context—including its relationship to Lake Ontario, the Rouge Valley, and the shared water systems of the Greater Toronto Area—the 2025 program unfolds across multiple sites and events, each shaped by collaborative, cross-cultural making.

Launched in 2022, Our Park brings artist-led programming to under-invested areas of Markham using a retrofit model to animate existing park infrastructure. Its first iteration supported contemporary dancer Zeo Kwan’s community-engaged project at Ada Mackenzie Park. In 2025, the program continues at Milliken Mills Park, Rouge Valley Trail, and the Varley Art Gallery of Markham, featuring a new artist commission, hands-on workshops, and a culminating public gathering.

The Underground Sun

A Living Installation by Xiaojing Yan
Currently on view
Milliken Mills Park

Woven into the landscape of Milliken Mills Park, The Underground Sun is a 2,500-square-foot living installation that takes its form from the branching patterns of mycelium. Composed of plants native to Ontario and designed in dialogue with the park’s existing mowing patterns, the piece functions as both a restorative ecology and a symbolic infrastructure.

Artist Xiaojing Yan worked with public art consultant Catherine Dean and local native plant nursery EcoMan to select perennials that bloom in staggered waves across the seasons. From goldenrod and cup plant to coreopsis, all the flowers share a yellow palette—radiating different shades of warmth and brightness to attract pollinators throughout spring, summer, and fall.

Rather than excavating or laying new ground, the planting process carefully disturbed only small pockets of soil, placing each plant within unmown areas defined by existing turf. The result is a subtle, evolving pattern that shifts with weather and growth, held in balance between human care and natural process. As a whole, the work invites viewers to reflect on how slow transformation, unseen connection, and patient care shape both ecological and civic life.

From Forest to Sky

Ink-Making Workshop with Jason Logan
August 23, 2025 | 10am – 3pm
Rouge Valley Trail & Varley Art Gallery of Markham

Led by artist and Toronto Ink Company founder Jason Logan, this two-part workshop blends art and science to explore how place-based inks can be made from the land itself. Participants will learn to safely and ethically gather pigment-rich materials from the Rouge Valley Trail—such as black walnut, wild grape, and goldenrod—then transform them into vibrant inks using simple, household methods.

These experimental, handmade inks will later become airborne as part of the kite-making workshop.

Open to all ages; children under 6 must be accompanied by an adult.
Limited availability. Registration required.
To sign up, please email: publicart@markham.ca

Paper and Wind

Kite-Making Workshop with Annyen Lam
August 24, 2025 | 10am – 3pm
Varley Art Gallery of Markham

Artist Annyen Lam leads this hands-on workshop in traditional and experimental kite-making. Participants will construct bamboo-and-washi kites using Japanese paper and environmentally conscious materials, then personalize them with pigment and pattern.

Across many cultures, the kite is a lightweight tool of aspiration and memory, shaped by both design and natural forces. This session furthers the program’s exploration of material culture, tying together handmade ink, airborne structures, and the diverse cultural heritages that shape Markham’s landscape.

Suitable for ages 13+ (younger participants welcome with adult supervision).
Limited availability. Registration required.
To sign up, please email: publicart@markham.ca

Pictures of the Sky

A Kite-Flying Gathering
September 21, 2025 | 3 – 6pm
Milliken Mills Park (Reservoir Field)

The project culminates in Pictures of the Sky, a community kite-flying event that brings together participants, artists, and neighbours to celebrate shared creation. Held atop the open field of a major water reservoir—part of the vast infrastructure connecting Markham and Toronto—this joyful gathering invites everyone to fly the kites made in the workshops, or to bring their own.

Join us with your own kite for an afternoon of wind, colour, and connection.

Artists Annyen Lam and Jason Logan will be on site offering condensed versions of their earlier workshops. A food truck will also be on site during the event.

Open to all. No registration required.

Site plan for The Underground Sun (2025), a living installation by Xiaojing Yan at Milliken Mills Park, Markham.

Our Park is conceived by the City of Markham Public Art Program. The 2023 edition was co-produced with the York Region Arts Council in the form a community art project grant—the first of its kind in the York Region—and the 2025 edition is co-produced with the Varley Art Gallery of Markham through its Community Artist in Residence program.

For more information about the artists, installation, workshops, and kite-flying gathering, please visit: yourvoicemarkham.ca/ourpark

For questions and inquiries, please contact: publicart@markham.ca