Ten years after the first Countdown pebble mosaic was unveiled in Eganville, the Countdown Public Art Project is marking a decade of community-powered creativity, remembrance, and collective action to end gender-based violence.
Since 2016, founding organization ReDefine Arts has engaged more than 5,000 people through 125 community arts workshops and events, resulting in 13 large pebble mosaic public artworks and approximately 300 smaller “stepping stone” mosaics in accessible public spaces across Ontario. Countdown monuments can now be found in communities including Pembroke, Eganville, Pikwàkanagàn First Nation, Peterborough-Nogojiwanong, North Bay, Carleton Place, Brantford, Almonte, Bancroft, Combermere, Killaloe, Barry’s Bay, North Hastings and Smiths Falls.
The project has also continued to evolve through initiatives including the Renfrew County Inquest Public Art Response in 2022 and the Pathways of Resistance Arts Festival in 2023, bringing communities together through art, dialogue, remembrance and action.
In 2026, Countdown returned to the Ottawa Valley with a summer of workshops, community gatherings, music and creative action. Highlights have included community concerts, pebble mosaic and printmaking workshops in Killaloe, Golden Lake and Eganville, a special tie-dye workshop at the Killaloe Craft and Community Fair, and community singing workshops leading toward the September finale.
Connecting the Monuments
This year also marks the inaugural Countdown Moves, a series of community journeys by paddle, walking and rolling that will connect Countdown monuments and communities across the Ottawa Valley.
Three public journeys will take place in August and September, travelling between Killaloe, Pikwàkanagàn First Nation and Eganville. Participants can join for part of a journey or the full route. Together, these journeys transform the connections between Countdown monuments into a living act of collective movement, conversation and community action.
Ten Years of Countdown
The summer programming culminates with Countdown Live, a free community concert on Sunday, September 20 at 3pm at Gerald Tracey Park, located at 165 John Street in Eganville, beside the Bonnechere River.
Beginning with opening words from Elder Aimee Bailey (Algonquins of Pikwàkanagàn First Nation citizen), and followed by speaker Anna MacDonald, gender justice worker from the CRC Watershed program, the concert will feature RAW Taiko, The Salt Cellars, Lyra Ensemble, Sigrid & Lady Flora, and The Countdown Community Choir.
The concert takes place at the site where the first Countdown pebble mosaic monument was unveiled in 2016, bringing the project back to its starting point as it celebrates ten years of creative collective action.
“Countdown has always been about what becomes possible when people gather to make something together,” says Anna Camilleri, Founding Artistic Co-Director of ReDefine Arts. “Ten years later, the monuments are reminders of what communities have created together — and invitations to keep imagining and building safer communities.”
The current iteration of the Countdown Public Art Project will continue through summer 2028, with further opportunities for community gathering, music, creativity and collective action. For more information and a complete listing of upcoming Countdown events, please visit <linktr.ee/CountdownProject>.
