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!
Roller Skate Lessons
Fridays from Aug 7 to Sep 25, 2026. Two sessions: 6:30pm-7:30pm or 7:30pm-8:30pm.
Learn how to roll with us! This summer, we’re offering weekly roller skate lessons for those who are looking to gain basic skills. Our expert instructors will help novice skaters build confidence on wheels and navigate our figure-eight trail.
Roller Skate Party
Meet us under the Gardiner to move and groove at our monthly Roller Skate Parties! Whether you have superfly moves to share or are working on the basics, all are encouraged to cruise our figure-eight trail together.
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.
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.
Opening – Artist Talk and Neighbourhood Walk
Guided by the exhibiting artists, this tour visits two new artworks shaped by CityPlace’s layered histories and rhythms. Experience the inaugural Step-Up Series mural which threads vivid colour and narrative into the architecture of West Block, and celebrate Staging Ground’s final chapter, evoking our place in a collective urban ecology.
Shared Rhythms: Music at West Block
Gather at West Block for a joyful afternoon of live performances as musicians from Small World Music’s Incubator program create a shared listening space that celebrates community and cultural exchange. Set against Anahita Akhavan’s newly unveiled mural مجلس Majles / Sitting Room, the event invites neighbours to linger, listen, and connect.
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.
Daylight Saving Skate
Daylight saving steals an hour of sleep, and we’re giving it back the best way we know how: on the ice! On our final day at the skate trail, we’re inviting neighbours to reset their internal clocks together with complimentary coffee and an extra hour of skating –pajamas encouraged!
Bentway After School
Two 5-week session options; Jan 6-Feb 3, or Feb 10-Mar 10.
This winter, The Bentway invites young urbanists to explore and learn about their city with lots of fun, creativity, and outdoor discovery along the way! The program empowers participants to understand and influence concepts in urban design, city building, and placemaking through neighbourhood investigations, storytelling, and recreation.
Howl’oween (2025)
It’s the ulti-mutt fall celebration: Howl’oween at The Bentway, presented with Ren’s Pets! Gather the family, two-legged and four, for our spook-tacular costume contest. Enjoy prizes, music, local vendors, and cozy fall treats on this festive afternoon full of laughter, wagging tails, and Halloween fun for pups and their people!
Documentary Screening: A Lake Story
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After the on-water performance, gather at Harbourfront Centre’s Concert Stage during Nuit Blanche for a celebration of A Lake Story. Enjoy a documentary chronicling the project’s creative journey, see the wind-activated colour field paintings up close, and honour the community partners, paddlers, and artists who brought this story to life.
Petal and Stone
October 2025 through to 2027
A 10,000 square-foot mural project inaugurates the Gardiner Wallworks series, transforming this concrete expanse into a poetic tableau of site memory, native flora, and symbolic passage. Inspired by the architecture and ecological communities bridging The Bentway and Exhibition Place, it offers commuters and residents an evocative new lens on their urban landscape.
A Lake Story
Sep 27 & 28, 2025. Procession at 11am & 4pm
A procession of over one hundred canoes moves in unison across Toronto’s eastern Waterfront on September 27/28, each carrying colour field paintings made with pigments sourced from the lake/shoreline and activated by the wind. A Lake Story will articulate Lake Ontario’s colour story across the sky and water, amplifying the lake’s own voices of vibrancy, ecosystem, and community.
Cool Spots: Remapping a Hotter Toronto
Public submissions collected July to September, 2025
Discover and share the places that keep you cool in Toronto! From shaded underpasses to breezy green spaces, your submissions will help shape a growing community map of urban relief and resilience.
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.
Canopy Connections: Sunset Concert with The Taylor Academy
Students from The Taylor Academy – Canada’s leading classical music training program – share their music. Enjoy their showstopping virtuosity under the cover of the Moving Forest canopy and enjoy a beautiful sunset that will sweep you into the weekend.
Canopy Connections: Sunset Concert with The Taylor Academy
Students from The Taylor Academy – Canada’s leading classical music training program – share their music. Enjoy their showstopping virtuosity under the cover of the Moving Forest canopy and enjoy a beautiful sunset that will sweep you into the weekend.