HONOURING HAZEL

Former Mississauga mayor is featured in her own art exhibit,

She has inspired paintings, crayon drawings, even a Mississauga version of the Mona Lisa.

Now former Mississauga mayor Hazel McCallion is getting her very own art exhibit to show off these tributes.

Stuart Keeler, curator and manager of museums for Mississauga, said the city is looking for submissions from the public and doesn’t think they will be hard to find.

“Sometimes monthly, we get phone calls of, ‘I have a painting of Hazel,’ ” he said. “This is a common occurrence.”

They’ve already received 25 works of art for the spring show and there’s no cap on how many they’ll take.

The art will be part of a larger exhibit with an “artifact collection” documenting the history of the city, along with a new video on McCallion’s experiences as Mississauga’s longestserving mayor. She served in the post from 1978 until 2014.

Keeler said there’s just something about the woman known as “Hurricane Hazel.”

“I think that people respond to her spirit and her determinedness, her honesty and her integrity,” he said. “She’s the people’s mayor.”

The title of the show, Do Your Homework: A Tribute to Hazel McCallion, is an homage to the phrase she often used to let people know the importance of doing research and listening to others before forming an opinion.

Ron Duquette, a volunteer with the Hazel McCallion Foundation for the Arts, Culture and Heritage who has known her for 45 years, will donate a bobble head of her to the exhibit.

“She’s been hugely popular for so long that it’s not surprising,” he said of the 96-year-old’s status as pop-art icon.

McCallion did not respond to requests for comment. But Keeler said she knows about the show and is excited.

“She smiled,” he said. The free exhibit runs from April 12 to 26 in the Great Hall of the Mississauga Civic Centre. Anyone with art to submit can make an appointment with museum staff by emailing museums.collections@mississauga.ca.

“I think that people respond to her spirit and her determinedness, her honesty and her integrity.” STUART KEELER MUSEUM CURATOR

CITY OF MISSISSAUGA PHOTOS Hazel McCallion was depicted as Mona Lisa in a 2008 painting by Aleandro Russo, La Gioconda Mississauga. Top right, McCallion in 2011. Bottom right, Hazel, by Jacek Rembecki, will be part of an exhibit on the former mayor.