Salmon Creek Mosaic Mural
In the summer of 2025, Yoko Tomita, with Carmen Rosen and 180+ community volunteers, created a tile mosaic on the exterior wall of Renfrew Park Community Centre facing Still Creek. The mural measures 180 square feet, contains over 16,000 tiles, and took over 725 hours to complete.
The mural, titled Salmon Creek Mosaic, honours the salmon that have been returning to spawn in Vancouver’s Still Creek since 2012, and the community volunteer stewardship that has made their return possible after an absence of 80 years.
We hope that the mural will raise awareness of the creek and its status as a salmon-bearing stream, and engender pride in the community for the long-running and widespread neighbourhood volunteer efforts to restore and steward Still Creek and the Renfrew Ravine.
July 2025 | Making the Salmon Tiles
We hosted three public workshops and a workshop with the Renfrew Collingwood Seniors Society to create clay salmon tiles. Over 100 people contributed!
- Thursday, July 17 | Colour-Me-Local Dye Garden
- Saturday, July 19 | 12:30 – 3:00 Gaston Park – Collingwood Days
- Thursday, July 31 | 4:00 – 7:00, Colour-Me-Local Dye Garden
August & Septmeber 2025 | Installing the Mural
Over 13 days, artists and volunteers worked at Renfrew Community Centre to install glass tiles and clay salmon tiles onto the wall.
September 13, 2025 | Mosaic Completion Celebration
We celebrated the completion of the mural with music, dance and food!
Project Artists
Yoko Tomita (lead artist, right) is a community artist who has worked in the Renfrew-Collingwood Neighbourhood for over 20 years. She has been actively involved with Collingwood Neighbourhood House, Renfrew Park Community Centre, and the Renfrew Ravine Moon Festival. She has facilitated countless community art classes and community-engaged art projects during that time, including Building Blocks for Healthy Choices mural and water fountain mosaic 2009, Collingwood Cultural Harmony Walk banner project 2006-2008 Clinton Park Fountain Mosaic project 2008, Roof top Garden Mosaic project at Collingwood Neighbourfood House 2008, Norquay Park mosaic project 2010.
Carmen Rosen (left) is a visual artist, singer, and interdisciplinary performer with a long history of leading community-integrated projects in Renfrew-Collingwood, including murals, mosaics and large sculptures. As the Founder of Still Moon Arts Society, and in collaboration with many community partners, she created the Renfrew Ravine Moon Festival and other projects and events that shed light on Renfrew Ravine, Still Creek, salmon in the city, and the community’s creative capacity.
Project Funders & Supporters
