Colourful new street banners pop up across Mississauga

Mississauga residents and those visiting the city may have noticed some colourful new pieces of public art hanging around lately.

As part of a continuing initiative launched last year, new “neighbourhood portrait” street banners have been popping up across the city in areas including Clarkson, Malton, Port Credit, Streetsville, Cooksville and the downtown core.

City of Mississauga officials, who introduced the banners last year as part of their #MississaugaMade movement to mark the ongoing recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, say the public art pieces capture the essence of each local area and encourage people to support the initiative. For example, the Clarkson banners depict, among other components, Rattray Marsh, the Port Credit pieces include waves to symbolize the waterfront and Malton’s banners include the Avro Arrow and other aircraft.

The program is a joint effort between the City’s Public Art Department and Tourism Mississauga, the latter of which spearheaded #MississaugaMade. A key objective is to encourage residents to support local businesses, restaurants and merchants across the city.

This year, the City commissioned a new series of artist banners and expanded the partnership to include local Business Improvement Associations (BIAs).

The custom-designed banner portraits, which hang from light posts on main streets, were designed by Mississauga artist Asli Alin.

“My goal was to capture neighbourhood portraits, each with a hint of local flavour reflecting their natural habitat, cultural identity and heritage,” said Alin. “My portraits celebrate the unique culture and characteristics of Mississauga’s neighbourhoods while unifying the city in an impactful and creative way to foster local pride and positivity.”

Alin added each banner uses a similar visual style, employing colours from the existing colour palettes of the BIAs along with complementary colours to create a cohesive, yet individually colourful street banner collection.

In the city’s downtown core, the collection of banners is displayed as one cohesive piece, celebrating the individual communities as being proud members of Mississauga, officials say. Other banners in the City Centre depict City Hall, the Living Arts Centre and the nightlife and entertainment flavour of the area.