Art Socials: June 18
Find out how fun and easy it can be to screen print designs on felt to create your own custom patch and pouch! Erin MacKenna will show you how to print using small frameless screens of illustrations inspired by The Bentway’s Sun/Shade exhibition and share simple techniques for stitching and assembly. You can use what you made to add a little personality to your favourite backpack and finally have a place to keep your headphones (or a secret snack).
Sun & Shade take centre stage at The Bentway this summer
April 14, 2025
The Bentway’s summer 2025 programming explores sun as a creative collaborator, shade as a new essential resource, and brings back visitor-favourites like roller skating.
Art Socials: August 27
Get ready for an all-ages drawing night centered around making comics. Comic books are a fantastic art form for sharing stories of all kinds. But if you’ve never made a comic before, then where do you start? Join professional comic book artist Josh Rosen as he leads a series of fun, beginner-friendly comics activities. He’ll be sharing tricks of the trade and teaching participants the quick path towards making comics of their own.
Art Socials: August 13
Explore linework and pattern making with this fun and accessible approach to creating prints. In this workshop with local artist Sarah Aranha, you’ll create your own designs by carving custom foam blocks and then apply ink to these forms to print your own set of greeting cards, just in time for the approaching fall season.
Art Socials: August 6
Curious about the world of bookmaking and type? In this workshop with local printmaker Phoebe Todd-Parish, you’ll ink and letterpress print your own alphabet from antique wood type on a line-o-scribe press—a midcentury sign press! While your print dries, cut out letters from previously printed alphabets to assemble your banner and share your message with the world to display wherever you please.
Art Socials: July 30
Find out how fun and easy it can be to screen print designs on felt to create your own custom patch and pouch! Erin MacKenna will show you how to print using small frameless screens of illustrations inspired by The Bentway’s Sun/Shade exhibition and share simple techniques for stitching and assembly. You can use what you made to add a little personality to your favourite backpack and finally have a place to keep your headphones (or a secret snack).
Art Socials: July 23
The gateway of visual art mediums, collage is as individual as it is accessible. This whimsical workshop led by local collective Collage Grad encourages free-expression and experimentation using a curated selection of rare and vintage print media. Curiosity and playfulness are the only prerequisites as you learn to cut, paste, and curate different materials.
Art Socials: July 16
Explore linework and pattern making with this fun and accessible approach to creating prints. In this workshop with local artist Sarah Aranha, you’ll create your own designs by carving custom foam blocks and then apply ink to these forms to print your own set of greeting cards, just in time for the approaching fall season.
Art Socials: July 2
Get ready for an all-ages drawing night full of games and activities. Characters are the heart of any story. They’re also one of the most fun things a person can draw! But what goes into making characters that really stand out? Join professional comic book artist Josh Rosen as he shares character design techniques used in comics and animation, and engage in fun drawing exercises based around inventing characters of your own.
Art Socials: June 25
The gateway of visual art mediums, collage is as individual as it is accessible. This whimsical workshop led by local collective Collage Grad encourages free-expression and experimentation using a curated selection of rare and vintage print media. Curiosity and playfulness are the only prerequisites as you learn to cut, paste, and curate different materials..
Art Socials: June 11
In this workshop, you will learn some of the basics of creating miniature foods using polymer clay. Together with instructor Kiana Simmons, participants will mix clay to achieve realistic colours, shape the pieces, and add details using clay and clay tools. You will take home a tiny wooden box of miniature food and the skills to continue exploring polymer clay miniatures at home! All supplies will be provided, and you may even have some extra clay to take home.
Art Socials
Every Wednesday from June 4 to August 27, 2025.
Looking for a fun night out with a creative twist? Our weekly Art Socials at The Bentway Studio are back by popular demand. Learn the basics of screen printing, watercolour painting, letterpress, and more while connecting with neighbours. No experience necessary!
Moving Forest @ Harbourfront Centre
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See you at the Harbourfront Centre, July 14 to July 20! A flock of 50 trees in shopping carts travels throughout the city, stopping to create a refreshing shade canopy in usually-sunny spaces.
Moving Forest @ Waterfront Neighbourhood Centre
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See you at the Waterfront Neighbourhood Centre, July 7 to July 11! A flock of 50 trees in shopping carts travels throughout the city, stopping to create a refreshing shade canopy in usually-sunny spaces.
Moving Forest @ The Bentway Studio Terrace
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See you on the Studio Terrace, June 17 to July 4! A flock of 50 trees in shopping carts travels throughout the city, stopping to create a refreshing shade canopy in usually-sunny spaces.
Moving Forest @ YZD
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See you at YZD, May 23 to June 15! A flock of 50 trees in shopping carts travels throughout the city, stopping to create a refreshing shade canopy in usually-sunny spaces.
Moving Forest @ The Bentway Skate Trail
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See you at the Bentway Skate Trail, May 23 to May 24! A flock of 50 trees in shopping carts travels throughout the city, stopping to create a refreshing shade canopy in usually-sunny spaces.
Sun/Shade Curators’ Tours
May 24 & 25, 2:00pm-3:30pm. June 19, July 17, August 21, September 18, 6:30pm – 8:00pm.
Go behind the scenes of our Sun/Shade outdoor art exhibition by joining a curators’ tour with The Bentway’s Programming team. Learn about the inspiration behind the season, the creation of each artwork, and how they fit together. Sun/Shade explores new ways of collaborating with the sun, as well as the importance of shade, in our urban spaces.
Sun/Shade Opening Night Party
Get ready to feel the heat at the summer’s coolest party! Join The Bentway, Fashion Art Toronto, and Canada’s Drag Race’s Jada Shada Hudson under the Gardiner for a Sunglasses at Night fashion show, celebrating the opening of The Bentway’s latest outdoor art exhibition. Runway shy? Come dance, mingle, and enjoy the show!
Sand Flight
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Experience the world premiere of Sand Flight, from internationally renowned choreographer Ingri Fiksdal. Eight dancers and a 50-person choir descend on a massive sand dune under the Gardiner Expressway for a powerful performance that speculates on climates-to-come, where shade-worshipping becomes a new tradition.
Moving Forest
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A flock of 50 trees in shopping carts playfully travels throughout the city, stopping to create a refreshing shade canopy in usually-sunny spaces. Follow their eight-week journey throughout the city – from The Bentway, to YZD at Downsview, to the Waterfront – enjoying pop-up readings and performances along the way.
Seeing Celsius
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What happens when we can see heat? By adding thermal-imaging technology to the familiar viewfinder found at scenic lookout points, LeuWebb Projects enables you to see the temperature differences across The Bentway space and the bodies that move through it. It’s a new perspective that will shift how you view urban spaces and the materials that shape them.
Bathed in Strange Light
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Working in collaboration with the sun’s rhythms, Natalie Hunter’s photographs on the windows of The Bentway Studio (facing Canoe Landing Park) explore how ever-shifting sunlight shapes our experience of public spaces. As the sun moves throughout the day, translucent images cast down a colorful, slow-moving cinema.
Declaration of the Understory
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Secwépemc artist Tania Willard approaches the space below the highway as a tree canopy, reminiscent of the “understory” floor of southern Ontario forests, where pockets of shade and sunlight shape unique ecosystems below. In a stunning mixed-media installation, floral motifs, iridescence, and powerful slogans offer a mediation on the power of shade as a lifeforce.