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Manidoo Ogitigan (Spirit Garden) by Terence Radford, Lake Ontario Park

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The City’s Public Art Program supports the creation of contemporary public art by emerging and established artists through commissions and artist collaborations. The program produces art for public spaces throughout the city, contributes to developing a vibrant public realm in Kingston, and enhances our sense of community across the City, in the downtown, suburban, rural, and natural areas.

The City is committed to working with artists, businesses, and citizens in the ongoing development and implementation of public art projects to establish Kingston as a hub of creative placemaking that recognizes and builds on the City's diverse history, engages its community, and inspires its future leaders.

Public Art staff support processes of commissioning or acquiring art for installation in public places including permanent public art projects; temporary public art; community art; and public art as part of private development. The City’s Public Art Program also invests in local artist, curator and arts administrator training and development.

Artist Calls for Submissions to create publicly commissioned art are issued throughout the year, and citizens are invited to contribute through public consultation. The following policies, programs and guidelines provide more detail on the public art process:

Stay on top of all City of Kingston Public Art News through the public art e-newsletter.

Current Public Art Projects

Through the Public Art Master Plan, the City supports the creation of permanent, temporary and community public artworks and projects. Public art funded by the City’s capital planning and budgeting process is included in plans for new and renewed facilities, parks and infrastructure and will become part of the Civic Collection. The City also supports the commissioning of works of temporary public art – including street art – to promote diverse cultural expression in a variety of mediums in civic spaces, places, and neighbourhoods.

  • Princess Street Sidewalk Project – a playful and interactive permanent sculpture, "The Wilds of Kingston" by Brandon Vickerd located at the intersection or Princess and Division Street in downtown Kingston.   
  • Alderville First Nation Commemoration Project – commemorating the historical and contemporary ties between Alderville First Nation and the Katarokwi/Kingston region through a living public artwork, “Manidoo Ogitigan” (“Spirit Garden”) by Terence Radford.
  • Victoria Park Public Art – a new sculpture, “Horse and Cart” by Kingston-based artist Nicholas Crombach located in Victoria Park in Kingston’s Williamsville neighbourhood.
  • Mural Project at the YGK Airport – a collage of graphic elements in a vibrant mural titled “HOM(E)ING” by local artist Vincent Perez that references Laurene King-McGill's quilt previously installed at the YGK Airport.
  • The Hub Project – bringing public art to the area of Princess and Division Street to animate and enliven the intersection as a gateway to the downtown core and nexus of neighbourhoods.
  • INVISTA Centre – a large-scale mural titled “Waterway” by Danielle Folkerts inspired by the Kingston community and Lake Ontario, and the day-to-day activity of the centre, and two temporary installations including “Portals Series” by Shannon Brown and “The Toy Camera Series” by Anna Soper.
  • Paved Paradise – an annual temporary outdoor public art project at Brock Street at Ontario Street near City Hall.
  • Street Art Wall – Kingston’s only legal wall for street art and graffiti art, located in Douglas Fluhrer Park and open year-round.
  • Art all Around – a City-wide public art project that engages 20 local artists in the conversation of city-building, resiliency, and recovery post-COVID-19.

Artist Opportunities

There are no artist opportunities at this time.

Public Consultations

There are no public consultations at this time.

Explore Public Art

Discover our featured new and existing public art as part of the City of Kingston
Arts Walk.

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