Sankofa Square Transforms Everyday Infrastructure Into Public Art With New Site Wide Installations

Sankofa Square is introducing a new layer of public art across the site, transforming 24 everyday pieces of public infrastructure, including 14 benches and 10 waste bins, into vibrant artworks that enhance the public space.

Curated by MakeRoom Inc. Art in the Square brings work from four artists to the space through an open call process that received more than 150 submissions and was selected by a community led jury. The installations debuted on June 2 as part of #HotSquareSummer.

The project reflects a broader commitment to strengthening social infrastructure within the Square, creating a space for pause, connection, and everyday experience.

Meet the Artists Behind the Transformation

Sharn Bassi

Toronto based visual artist Sharn Bassi brings a bold, botanical lens to the Square, working across painting, murals, and digital illustration. Her work explores identity, memory, and cultural inheritance through layered abstraction and vibrant colour. Her piece, Shared Ground, reflects the quiet coexistence between people and wildlife in Toronto, with foxes, raccoons, birds, and native plants forming a continuous urban ecosystem.

Apanaki Temitayo

Apanaki Temitayo is a Toronto based artist and facilitator whose work transforms African textiles into a powerful visual language rooted in Afro Caribbean identity. Through layered collage, she explores memory, resilience, and ancestral presence. Her installation, Oju Olorun: What Sees Us, draws from Yoruba cosmology and the concept of the “Eye of God,” a gaze that sees beyond the visible. Using rhythm, pattern, and colour, the work invites visitors to pause, feel seen, and consider their place within a shared, living history.

Chantelle Dorafshani

Mississauga based Filipino Persian illustrator Chantelle Dorafshani brings a vibrant, community driven perspective to the Square. A recent graduate of Sheridan’s Illustration program, her work blends traditional and digital techniques to explore identity, nature, and connection. Her design transforms benches and bins into bursts of colour, where organic shapes and human forms intertwine, reflecting Sankofa Square as a place to gather, grow, and celebrate Toronto’s diverse communities.

Adams Kofi Amaning

Toronto born Ghanaian Canadian artist and creative director Adams Kofi Amaning creates layered visual narratives that explore identity, diaspora, and cultural continuity. His work blends design, storytelling, and global influences to bridge past and present. His piece reinterprets traditional Kente cloth, drawing on the OBAAKOFO MMU MAN pattern, meaning “one person does not rule a nation.” By merging this historic motif with Toronto iconography, the work becomes a living pattern of connection, honouring heritage while reflecting the city’s evolving cultural identity.

Hot Square Summer Launch Week Schedule

#HotSquareSummer kicks off with a full week of free programming, introducing a new daily rhythm of music, movement, film, and community at Sankofa Square.

Media Preview
Tuesday, June 2
11:30 AM to 2:00 PM

First look at the new public art installations, with artists and Sankofa Square leadership in attendance.

Lunch in the Square (Launch Event)
Tuesday, June 2
12:00 PM to 3:00 PM

Transform your Tuesday lunch break with live DJ sets curated by DJ Killa Kels, who will also headline opening day, alongside three local food trucks, officially kicking off #HotSquareSummer.

Fitness in the Square
Wednesday, June 3
5:30 PM to 6:30 PM

Make healthy happen with an after work outdoor movement and wellness session.

Music in the Square
Thursday, June 4
6:00 PM to 10:00 PM

A free live concert launches the Summer Concert Series, programmed by MusiCounts, Canada’s music education charity, spotlighting emerging talent and the future of music in Canada.

Melanin Market in the Square
Friday, June 5
3:00 PM to 9:00 PM

The popular market that celebrates Black creativity returns for #HotSquareSummer with vendors, fashion, art, and handcrafted goods.

About Sankofa Square

Sankofa Square is a vibrant community hub and central gathering place in the heart of downtown Toronto. Originally established in 2004 as Yonge Dundas Square, the space is now guided by the Akan principle of Sankofa, meaning “to go back and get it,” encouraging people to look to the past for wisdom to build a stronger future.

As an inclusive space that welcomes everyone, the Square produces and hosts a dynamic calendar of community festivals, concerts, and public art. It serves as a place where people, cultures, and ideas come together to interact, transform, and reimagine Toronto’s future.

Sankofa Square is managed by the Sankofa Board of Management, a City of Toronto agency.