AGO Neighbourhood Commissioned Walls

Neighbourhood: Kensington · Address: Dundas St W between McCaul and Beverly, Toronto, ON · Hours: Mon 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM | Tue–Fri 9:00 AM – 9:00 PM | Sat–Sun: Closed · Price Range: Free · Editorial status: Not yet verified

Why Visit

You'll see huge murals by Toronto artists that transform the buildings around the AGO, sometimes changing before your eyes. It's a unique way to experience new art outside, for free, with no tickets or hushed galleries.

What Makes It Unique

Unlike most mural clusters in Toronto, these commissions are curated by both the AGO and Toronto Mural Festival, making the selection sharper and more experimental. The artworks change more often than the museum’s permanent collection, and you can occasionally catch artists mid-process — something you rarely see elsewhere.

If you’re curious about how public art can shape the feel of a city, Mississauga Civic Centre Public Art is absolutely worth the trip west from Toronto. This isn’t a single sculpture you glance at for 30 seconds and move on from. It’s a whole civic landscape where architecture, plaza design, and art are working together. The Mississauga Civic Centre at 300 City Centre Dr has one of the strongest municipal public art settings in Ontario, and what makes it memorable is that the art doesn’t feel tacked on. It’s built right into the identity of the place. The Civic Centre itself has that unmistakable postmodern look, playful but still formal, with a clock tower that acts like a visual anchor for the whole square. Even if you’re not usually into architecture, you’ll probably find yourself stopping to take it in because it has a real presence. Then there’s the granite floor of Celebration Square, which is one of those details people sometimes walk across without fully noticing at first. Slow down and look at how the ground plane is designed. The paving isn’t just functional; it gives the square rhythm and structure, and it helps the whole space read like a public artwork rather than just an open event plaza. What I like about this spot is that it changes depending on what’s happening. In the daytime, it’s easy to appreciate the lines of the plaza, the relationship between the tower, the surrounding buildings, and the open space, and the way the art becomes part of everyday civic life. You’ll see office workers cutting through, families hanging around, kids running across the square, and people taking photos by the fountains when they’re on. It feels lived in, not overly precious. If you go in summer, the free concert series at Celebration Square really shows why this place works so well. Once there’s a crowd, music, food vendors, and people spread across the plaza, the art feels activated instead of static. The granite underfoot, the scale of the square, and the Civic Centre backdrop all start doing what good public art should do: giving shape to a shared public moment. It’s one thing to look at the plaza when it’s quiet, and another to see it filled with thousands of people on a warm evening. Both are worth experiencing, but if you can time it for an event, do it. A practical tip: go during the day first, especially if you want to actually study the design details and take photos without stage setups or crowds blocking your view. Since it’s open 24 hours and free, you can always come back later for whatever’s on. And if this kind of thing is your lane, check the Mississauga Arts Council website before or after your visit—they’ve mapped public art across the city, which makes it easy to turn this into the starting point for a bigger self-guided art crawl. It’s in the City Centre area, so it’s easy to pair with Square One or a walk around the neighbourhood, but honestly, the Civic Centre and Celebration Square are the main event. If you want to understand how Mississauga presents itself publicly—modern, civic-minded, and a little theatrical—this is one of the clearest places to see it.