Still Life Painting: BYOO – Bring Your Own Object!
BYOO – Bring Your Own Object from home and learn to paint a still life! This is a beginner friendly workshop where Mason will guide you through the creation process and help you discover just how fun and relaxing painting can be. Suggested objects: things that are nostalgic or sentimental. Bring something that you enjoy looking at and have good memories associated with! Mason will also bring his collection of interesting nostalgic objects in case you prefer to paint something new.
Printmaking: Toronto Trading Cards
Whether it’s cheering on your favourite Toronto sports teams this summer, grabbing a TTC transfer on the first day of a new year, spotting the elusive white squirrel of Trinity Bellwoods park, or grabbing a beef patty on your way home from school, this workshop is about commemorating the things that make Toronto a special place to you. You will learn how to create your own image on styrofoam blocks and then print a series of 5 “Toronto trading cards”. At the end of the workshop, you are invited to trade some of your cards with your fellow civic superfans and take home your own collection of uniquely Toronto experiences.
Collage: ReExpressway Edition
This summer, Collage Grad is inspired by The Bentway’s vibrant public space under the Gardiner Expressway! This monthly session explores art, urbanism, and placemaking through collage. Work with a curated mix of archival photos of Toronto, urban planning publications, and vintage magazines to express your own take on citybuilding and create your own reimagined built environment.
Textiles: Felted & Embroidered Pins
Learn how to “draw” with textiles this summer! Using needle felting, stitching, and other creative embellishments, design your own unique, wearable button. You’ll learn how to work with wool roving, and some simple embroidery stitches that are useful for adding lines, dimension, and artistic expression.
Watercolour Painting: Toronto Skies
Capture all the colours of our city’s beautiful summer skies in this 2-hour watercolour painting workshop.
You’ll learn an essential watercolour technique and then practice by painting a sunrise or sunset, completing it with a skyline of your favourite Toronto neighbourhood or public space.
Printmaking: Letterpress Postcards from Toronto
This workshop will be something to write home about! Print your own letterpress postcards using two antique platen presses set up with an image and text. Learn about traditional typesetting from wood and metal type, how it was used historically and how it can still be used today. Add colour to your image and write on your postcard to share your favourite memory of your Toronto summer with a friend or loved one.
Collage: ReExpressway Edition
This summer, Collage Grad is inspired by The Bentway’s vibrant public space under the Gardiner Expressway! This monthly session explores art, urbanism, and placemaking through collage. Work with a curated mix of archival photos of Toronto, urban planning publications, and vintage magazines to express your own take on citybuilding and create your own reimagined built environment.
Drawing: Art Games!
Cap off Toronto’s World Cup summer with some friendly competition, at the Bentway’s final art social of the season. Join cartoonist Josh Rosen and put your art skills to the test as you compete and collaborate in a series of fun drawing games. Work as a team, invent new characters, and race to see which drawings will rise to the top. Beginner-friendly, and appropriate for all ages. Prizes will be awarded! A spirit of sportsmanship is encouraged!
Art Socials
Tuesdays from Jun 2 to Aug 25, 2026.
Trade your usual night out for an evening of creative experimentation and social connection! Our weekly beginner-friendly Art Socials invite you to try hands-on creative techniques like miniatures, screen printing, and watercolour in a relaxed, social setting. Come solo or with friends, and leave with something you made yourself!
Nature in our Neighbourhood
Discover urban wildlife in Canoe Landing Park and CityPlace on this interactive walking tour. Learn to identify local plants and animals, explore how nature adapts in city spaces through hands-on activities, and take home native wildflower seeds to support biodiversity in your own garden!
Exploring Nature Beyond Sight
Experience urban nature through a guided sensory walk designed to engage with touch, smell, and sound. This interactive program and hands-on planting activity invites participants to slow down, connect, and explore public space in new ways.
Textiles: Bag Charms
Join the World Cup fever and make a leather tassel bag charm to represent your your favourite team in this workshop. No matter what country you’re rooting for, we’ve got you covered. Wear them to the stadium, put them on your bag, or rub them for good luck while you watch from home.
Textiles: Felted & Embroidered Pins
Learn how to “draw” with textiles this summer! Using needle felting, stitching, and other creative embellishments, design your own unique, wearable button. You’ll learn how to work with wool roving, and some simple embroidery stitches that are useful for adding lines, dimension, and artistic expression.
Printmaking: Letterpress Type Flags & Banners
For sports fans and creatives alike! Get ready for World Cup game days or create new artwork for your home through this fun and traditional printmaking technique. Design and print your own pennant flag from antique wood type on a printing press. While your flag dries, experiment with banner making with cut-out letters from previously printed alphabets and assemble a unique text-based artwork.
Sculpture: Miniature Polymer Clay Fruit, Pride Edition
Come make an adorable one-of-a-kind miniature fruit charm bracelet to celebrate Pride month! In this 2-hour workshop, you will learn some of the basics of creating miniature fruits from polymer clay. Together we will mix clay to achieve realistic colours, shape the pieces and add details using clay and clay tools. We will make a series of fruit beads, bake them together, and assemble your very own fruit charm bracelets using string and other fun beads provided in the workshop.
In Bloom: A Flower Market + Workshop
Explore offerings from local growers and take part in a drop-in arranging workshop as West Block blooms into a summer flower market. Guided by the new Step-Up Series mural’s floral imagery and striking colour palette, these sessions connect contemporary practice with cultural traditions and invite visitors into a shared moment of creativity.
Social Fabric: A Community Textile Activation
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.
Nibwaakaawin: The Balance of Warmth and Coolness
Friday, July 25, 6:00pm-10:00pm; Saturday, July 26, 1:00pm-4:00pm
From Milkweed to Monarchs
Did you know that monarch butterflies migrate 4,800km each year from Canada to Mexico? Join us for this hands-on workshop to learn how milkweed plants help support this journey with presented with Toronto and Region Conservation Authority!
Beautiful Native Plants
Why is it so important to re-plant native plants across Toronto? Come find out at this hands-on workshop with Toronto and Region Conservation Authority!
Casting a Net, Casting a Spell Art Workshop with Celeste
Meet artists María Fernanda Camarena and Gabriel Rosas Alemán, who together form the Mexico City-based duo Celeste, for an afternoon of art activities! Inspired by their installation Casting a Net, Casting a Spell – a large-scale quilted canopy evocative of a suncatcher – come explore the power of the sun through family-friendly creative exercises.
Softer City: Freestyle Socials
Join Athony Morgan and Aaron Fitzpatrick for their signature hilarious social game, Freestyle Socials. The game is simple! Through yes or no questions, share ideas and experiences about community and connection. There’s sure to be lots of laughter and you might even make a new friend!
Beading Workshop at The Bentway
June 22, 2024. Times: 12pm-2pm and 3pm-5pm
Join a community beading circle inspired by Nico Williams’s project Tracings, a series of large-scale Indigenous regalia designs installed under the Gardiner. Learn about basic beading techniques and the role that beading plays in healing practices in many communities.