Cooksville: Our Food Stories
Cooksville is one of the most diverse places in Canada and its strip plazas host many ethnic restaurants and independent businesses. Through creative placemaking, community engagement and the talents of local artists, the City of Mississauga partnered with STEPS to celebrate the diversity of Cooksville, the city’s vibrant food scene, and unique food stories shared by community members that are showcased through various public art installations.
Project at a glance
Location: Cooksville, Mississauga, including the north-east corner of Hurontario St and Dundas St. E (electrical box), southeast corner of Hurontario St and Dundas St. E (Cooksville sign), Dundas St. E between Confederation Pkwy and Hensall (light pole banners), Confederation Pkway and Dundas St. W (bus shelter artwork), Hurontario St and Dundas St. E (bus shelter artwork), and various local restaurants, public spaces and community centers (poster artwork)
Artist(s): Ashley Mozo, Debbie Woo, Jenn Liv
Year: 2022-2023
Photographer/Videographer: Alicia Reid
Services: Public Art Management
2
local artists engaged
100+
community food story submissions
1
animation artist
4
types of artwork created
4
community engagement events
100+
community members engaged
About Cooksville: Our Food Stories
Everyone has a unique story, moment or memory that centers around food. Our Food Stories is a public art and creative placemaking project by the City of Mississauga and STEPS to foster community connections and celebrate the cultural food scene at the center of Cooksville, one of Mississauga’s Cultural Districts and Canada’s most diverse places. Through community activities, public surveys and engagement with local artists, several public art activations can be found across Cooksville to ensure the unique community identity continues to shine through neighbourhood transitions.
“Collaborating with the City of Mississauga, STEPS, Jenn, and most importantly, the Cooksville community was truly an honour. Our collaboration demonstrates how connected our community is and the passion we have towards art.”
Cooksville: Food Stories Community Engagement: What Does Food Mean to You?
From August to October 2022, STEPS hosted a series of free in-person community events in Cooksville to gather memories, experiences, stories and connections to food. STEPS partnered with Heart Comonos and the Cooksville Library to engage with the local community and ask the following questions:
- What does food mean to you? How does food impact your life or culture?
- Where are your favourite places in Cooksville to experience food?
- How is food used to celebrate special moments?
- Do you have a favourite food memory?
- Do you have a recipe that is special to you or passed down to you from family or friends?
- What is unique about Cooksville’s community and food culture?
- What is your favourite food and why?
Community materials were also translated in Urdu, Polish and Arabic to enhance accessibility and connections to the diverse Cooksville community. For those who could not join in person, an online survey was distributed for community members to share their food story via voice message, text, video, voice recording or online form submission.
By the end of the in-person and online engagements, we connected with 100+ community members and received over 100 quotes on Cooksville’s experiences, memories and connections to food!
Read some of the community submissions:
- I love to go to community events, like the events run by Heart Comonos, where good food and friends get together
- Making food and sharing it with others is one of the most intimate and connecting experiences
- I am a baker and back in India before I moved to Canada, I would make Indian-Western fusion desserts like gulab jamun cheesecake. I always made all the desserts for my friends and family and special occasions.
- I learned how to cook adobo from my mother who would make it for me as a child
- In Cooksville, you can find restaurants and dishes from all over the world! There is no need to travel to other countries when living here.
- During the pandemic when it was especially hard to go out to restaurants, we made a lot of traditional South Korean food at home. My favourite is bibimbap over rice with lots of vegetables and hot sauce.
- I love home-cooked meals cooked by my mother. My favourite is Thai food! It always brings a big smile to my face.
- My favourite dish is very special to me because my grandmother always made it. It is a Vietnamese dish called “suon chien sa” which means pork rib fried with lemongrass.
- I love the Colombian soup changua that my mom makes
- Each weekend I spend my morning with loved ones cooking large family-style meals. This provides me with connections to those I care about.
Cooksville: Our Food Stories Public Artwork
Local artists Ashley Mozo and Debbie Woo were selected to create artwork that reflect Cooksville’s cultural food identity and the food stories shared by community members. The artists created artwork that are displayed on various canvases at different locations in Cooksville, including:
- Posters for local restaurants, businesses, public spaces and community centers
- The Cooksville Sign at Four Corners
- Light pole banners
- Bus shelter artwork
- Electrical box artwork
To further engage the community and encourage interactions with the installations, STEPS and the City of Mississauga worked with artist Jenn Liv to add augmented reality (AR) components to the public artwork. See the sections below to learn more about the artists and their artwork, as well as identify the sites that include AR animation!
“Having personal ties to this area myself, through a family food business especially, has made this opportunity that much more notable to me and I am happy to have been involved in the project.”
More for Us To Share by Debbie Woo
Local Mississauga artist Debbie Woo created public artwork for an electrical box at the north-east corner of Hurontario St and Dundas St. E. Inspired by the food stories shared by the Cooksville community, this piece represents the human connections made through food.
Artist Statement
The diversity of the Cooksville area, rich in cultural food dishes to explore, is the forefront inspiration. Written responses collected from the community were incorporated on each side to represent an aspect of human connection found through food. We have the ingredients collected from gardens grown together or picked up from go-to community grocery stores.
The act of cooking together solidifies into forever moments and traditions to be passed down through recipes. Then we can sit down to share the meals, flowing through conversations while building friendships. The simple enjoyment of eating itself brings comfort and can transport you to places you’re craving for.
More For Us to Share represents how food has always been more than sustenance alone, it is the connections made and always one to share.
Food City by Ashley Mozo
Mississauga artist Ashley Mozo created public artwork for display on posters at local businesses, the Cooksville Sign at Four Corners, light pole banners across main streets, and a bus shelter.
Artist Statement
A place of rich culture, vibrant community, and an abundance of flavourful cuisines; Food City symbolizes multiculturalism in the form of traditional dishes synthesized as homes, buildings, and stores that line the streets of Cooksville. Food is symbolic of the diversity that lives within and is the heart of what brings communities together—signifying companionship, nostalgia, and intimacy with friends, family, and even strangers.
With each dish situated on top of a large table, it creates a harmonious environment that is indicative of communal potlucks—bringing warm welcomes, sharing of meals, and creating memorable experiences with those around you. It showcases Cooksville’s plentiful and endless selection all in one place for many to enjoy, with each dish playing an important role in its cohesive connection.
Food City embodies everyone’s love of food, shows a glimpse of unique cultures, and holds a significant part of Cooksville’s united identity.
Bringing Cooksville: Food Stories to Life
Through augmented reality (AR) components created by artist Jenn Liv, Food City by Ashley Mozo was animated through the free Artvive app. The Cooksville Sign (at the southeast corner of Hurontario St and Dundas St. E) was an interactive site to bring the public artwork to life.
About the Artists
Debbie Woo
Lead Artist
Debbie Woo is a South Korean born, multidisciplinary artist currently based in her long time home of Mississauga Canada. Majored in illustration, she graduated with a Bachelor of Design from OCAD University. Debbie is always inspired by human relationships and is interested in using her own perspective as a lens through which to bring a sense of warmth and nostalgia to viewers. Her current artistic practice consists of using illustration in a way that involves interaction with the viewer which includes public art and more.
Ashley Mozo
Lead Artist
Illustrator and Graphic Designer, Ashley Mozo, was born in the Philippines (1999), currently residing in Mississauga, ON Canada. Her work focuses on the aesthetics of visual creation — with the endless possibilities that reality and fantasy can offer. They are meant to portray how she sees the world in its entirety and to show her appreciation for the beauty that we tend to overlook. Starting off as sketches then transforming them digitally, she strives to create work that identifies with her and represents her beliefs, values, and overall interests. Her style follows a bright, vibrant, and crystal-like colour palette that is reflective of her imagination.
Jenn Liv
Animation Artist
Jenn Liv (刘洁颍 Jennifer Liu, She/They) is an award-winning Chinese Canadian-American illustrator, motion designer, and assistant professor at the University of Arizona, School of Art. Since 2015, she has worked with a wide variety of notable clients including Google, Microsoft, All Nippon Airways, The New York Times, and many more. Jenn’s work has been recognized by both Society of Illustrators and American Illustration. Currently, she is represented by RappIArt in North America.
Partners
This project was commissioned by the City of Mississauga. In 2021, Cooksville was identified as one of Mississauga’s Cultural Districts along with five other neighbourhoods where there will be a strategic focus on arts and cultural development. This project is one of many placemaking projects in Cooksville, with an aim to strengthen and enhance Cooksville’s unique identity with a focus on Food, Cultural Heritage, Music & Entertainment.
