Scroll down to learn about this Mural Project completed in the summer of 2025 in Dentonia Park (East York, Toronto)!
We Are All Relatives
A Mural Project for Dentonia Park (East York, Toronto), 2025
By Nêhiyaw Cree/Metis Artist Rebecca Baird and Students from Secord and Crescent Town Elementary Schools
This Dentonia Park mural project engaged students from Secord and Crescent Town Elementary Schools with local green spaces through art and environmental education. In the summer of 2025, children learned about local habitats, plants, animals, and water systems through workshops with the Toronto Regional Conservation Authority. Students then engaged in hands-on exploration of local plants and animals, the ways we are all interconnected, and why we need to take care of our green spaces, forests, and waters. In subsequent workshops, Nêhiyaw Cree/Metis Artist Rebecca Baird worked with students to build on their learnings and create preliminary drawings of native plants and animals for the mural design. Students, Baird, and her team then came together again, in the park, to paint the mural on the Dentonia Park recreation building. Together, they created a vibrant, colourful mural that focuses on the biodiversity of local ecosystems and reminds us that we are all connected through the great web of life!
Photos, from Workshops to Celebration
Photo Credit: Thank you to the talented Jennifer Lee (@msjennifer.lee on Instagram) for these photos! Included are photos from youth workshops, and the different phases of this mural project including priming, projection, painting, and a final community celebration day!
Thank You!
Thank you to the many wonderful people who made this project happen:
- Artist Rebecca Baird and team
- Secord and Crescent Town Students (Grades 2-4)
- Project Lead, Jessica Hein
- Secord Principal, Janice Chisholm
- Secord Vice Principal, Natasha Garda
- Secord Teacher, Lindsay Butson
- Crescent Town Teacher, Jennifer Hart
- Mural Artist, William Lazos and team
- Photographer, Jennifer Lee
- Taylor-Massey Community Members, for working together to prime the building
- Linda Salem, Brad Bradford, and the Toronto Parks Team for supporting the project
- Mary-Margaret McMahon and Dentonia Danforth Village Community for the “no litter” yard signs
- Opal Sparks and the Afro-Indigenous Nova Scotia Collective for Indigenous Ceremony and Welcome
Funders & Supporters
Thank you to the following funders and supporters who helped to make this project possible!
