Àdìrẹ on Ice
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This winter, The Bentway Skate Trail becomes a canvas for Àdìrẹ on Ice, a monumental public artwork by Toronto artist and designer Odudu Umoessien. Inspired by Yoruba textile traditions, the installation brings vibrant sculptural forms, light and projection together, transforming the trail into an immersive celebration of pattern, movement, heritage, and collective joy.
Àdìrẹ on Ice: Artist Tour
See Àdìrẹ on Ice through the artist’s eyes. Join Odudu Umoessien for a guided tour of his Transform the Trail installation, exploring the West African textile traditions, sculptural forms, light and movement that bring the Skate Trail to life. Get a closer look at the ideas behind this year’s winter transformation.
Àdìrẹ on Ice: Guided Community Skate
Join us for an evening of playful movement inspired by the patterns and forms of Odudu Umoessien’s Transform the Trail installation. Follow projected patterns, move with others, and explore how a familiar winter activity can bring people together.
Àdìrẹ on Ice: Stitch-Resist Indigo Dye Workshop
Take a closer look at the patterns, stories and traditions behind Àdìrẹ on Ice. Begin with a guided viewing of Odudu Umoessien’s Transform the Trail installation, then head indoors for a hands-on textile workshop exploring Yoruba àdìrẹ traditions, pattern-making, and discover the ways textiles can carry memory and meaning.
DJ Skate Nights
Fridays, January 8 - February 26, 2027.
Friday night is skate night! Join us under the Gardiner for weekly live DJ sets, good music, cozy drinks, local food trucks and a trail transformed. Grab your friends and settle into the weekend with some groovy skating at The Bentway.
Skate & Create
Saturdays, January 9 - February 27, 2027.
Why choose between making art and hitting the ice? Skate & Create brings the two together with a drop-in art workshop and a spin around The Bentway’s 220m figure-eight Skate Trail. Warm up indoors with hands-on making led by local artists, then head back outside for more skating and winter fun.
The Bentway unveils monumental new public art, brings back Polar Bear Skate and extends winter season on Toronto’s iconic figure-eight Skate Trail
November 5, 2026
The Bentway is giving Torontonians more reasons than ever to get outside and beat the winter blues this season. Opening December 12, the city’s iconic 220-metre figure-eight Skate Trail will offer an expanded season of winter recreation, cultural experiences and community celebrations, alongside a monumental new public art installation, Àdìrẹ on Ice, by Nigerian-Canadian artist and designer Odudu Umoessien – all beneath the Gardiner Expressway.
Love Letter to the Great Lakes
On view since 2017
Love Letters to the Great Lakes is a public art and community project focused on giving voice to the Lakes. The project seeks to beautify neighbourhoods, galvanize community and stimulate a broader public awareness of the critical issues facing the unique natural resource of the Great Lakes.
Bentway By Night: Nuit Blanche 2026
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There’s more than one way to experience Nuit Blanche at The Bentway.
Social Fabric: A Community Textile Activation
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Drawing on the textile traditions reflected in Anahita Akhavan’s new mural, West Block becomes a place for shared making. Working with SHEEEP Studio, visitors of all ages will assemble textiles throughout the afternoon, gathering colour, pattern, and the gestures of many hands.
Public Pier brings free arts, food, music, dance and introduces SILO NIGHTS to Toronto’s waterfront
September 8, 2026
Day-to-night cultural experience launches September 18 at Marina Quay West
Decomposition No. 7: Undergrowth
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Projected onto the Canada Malting Silos, this immersive artwork transforms street-tree data into light and sound, revealing the interconnected rhythms of Toronto’s urban forest. A living portrait of slow, ongoing growth, it invites us to imagine the city not as it is, but as it could become.
Artist Talk with Paul Ramírez Jonas
To mark the Canadian premiere of Public Trust, join acclaimed artist Paul Ramírez Jonas in conversation with The Bentway’s Director of Programming Anna Gallagher-Ross about his imaginative body of work and his long-time engagement with democracy, participation, and the public realm.
Public Trust
Sep 15 to Oct 4, 2026
Torontonians are invited to make promises to themselves and their community—not just as inhabitants of the city, but as co-authors of its future. In a welcoming, non-partisan space, Public Trust reimagines civic engagement as something personal, accessible, and joyful.
The Bentway Launches a City-Wide Invitation to Give Your Word with Public Trust
August 11, 2026
Canadian premiere of Paul Ramírez Jonas’ Public Trust transforms thousands of personal promises into a city-wide public artwork exploring trust, democracy and civic participation ahead of the 2026 municipal election
Beacons
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Inspired by her own experience as a newcomer to Canada, Shellie Zhang’s Beacons glows with the dusk and dawn-time colours of Toronto’s skyline in winter, a reminder of the passage of time, and the warmth we draw from our community during these dark, frozen months.
Directions to Nowhere in Particular
Summer 2021
Directions to Nowhere in Particular is a game of chance that alters the ways you sense, make, and navigate public space. Anyone can play. Simply go outside, pick a random prompt, and follow the directions for interacting with your surroundings.
A Collective Sensemaking Session
Join The Bentway, From Later, and residents for the launch of the Field Guide to Digital and/as Public Space!
A Settler’s Land Acknowledge-ment: Public Space is Colonized Space
As a responsive creator investigating the power of Touch, choreographer Karen Kaeja is curious about what we can touch and cannot touch, and what is seen and unseen in public territory. In a raw live-stream performance that is intimate and up close, the presence and harmony of three womxn of different identities address public safety.
To Be Safe in our Skin
November 2020
As a responsive creator investigating the power of Touch, choreographer Karen Kaeja is curious about what we can touch and cannot touch, and what is seen and unseen in public territory. In a raw live-stream performance that is intimate and up close, the presence and harmony of three womxn of different identities address public safety.
Safe in Public Space: A Photo Essay
Summer 2020
Ebti Nabag travels beyond The Bentway to examine how ideas of safety manifest and are communicated in public space through borders and boundaries, signs and symbols, public space architectures, and delineations.
The Bentway as Hostile Architecture
Summer 2020
A call to reinvest the work’s production budget into community initiatives by establishing aid networks to disseminate resources to local affinity groups.