A Lake Story

A procession of over one hundred canoes moves in unison across Toronto’s eastern Waterfront, 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.

A Lake Story 
By Melissa McGill 
Commissioned and presented by The Bentway

On the occasion of the inaugural Water/Fall Festival, The Bentway is excited to extend its ambitious public art programming to celebrate the creativity and connectivity of Lake Ontario.

A Lake Story, a new commission by artist Melissa McGill, takes the form of a large-scale canoe procession that will write Lake Ontario’s story through colour, across the sky and water. Featuring 400+ local canoers and paddlers joining us for this memorable performance, participants will paddle in a coordinated, slow-moving procession. An epic celebration of Lake Ontario along the Toronto Waterfront, Melissa McGill’s project maps Toronto’s harbour and waterfront biosphere with the lake’s own vocabulary expressed through its natural colour palette. By giving visual voice to the interconnected relationships above and below the waters, the project invites us to shift our perspective to participate in and learn from nature’s wisdom and creativity.

The Bentway is currently inviting 500+ volunteers for both land and water-based roles to join the project. Those with experience and interest in canoeing, boating, arts/culture, community engagement, and/or ecology are encouraged to apply here!

Beyond volunteering, we invite all Torontonians and art-lovers to add their “Paddle Power” by making a donation in support of the project. As a special thank-you, donors can receive a take-home keepsake from A Lake Story: the actual canoe paddles used in the procession. 

McGill has developed this site-specific natural colour story in collaboration with Jason Logan of the Toronto Ink Company. Together, McGill and Logan gathered and worked with natural and found material from the waters and shoreline to collaborate with the creative expression of the lake itself. Featuring materials such as goldenrod, clay, algae, red brick, and wild grape sourced from Leslie Street Spit, Gibraltar Point, and the re-naturalized Don River among others, these colours have been used to create vibrant wind-activated colour field paintings that will dance above the canoe procession to communicate Lake Ontario’s vibrant resilience both above and below its waters. Together water, colour, wind, and paddlers find and speak the lake’s language and tell its vital story. Guidance for this project has been provided by local Indigenous wisdom keepers and ecologists.

This coordinated action will be visible from a wide range of viewing areas, creating an epic shared experience with Lake Ontario across the waterfront. Following the performance a celebration of the community partners and creative process will be staged along the western waterfront, featuring a documentary film and a presentation of the colour field paintings.

A Lake Story celebrates the ongoing environmental commitment of Toronto’s Waterfront and the re–naturalization of the Don River, and is only possible thanks to the collaboration of many partners involved, including Waterfront Toronto, Waterfront BIA, Ports Toronto, Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, Redpath Sugar, Toronto Foundation, and community support from the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority.

What to expect:

• A slow-moving procession of approximately 120 canoes with large, wind-activated colour field paintings will move through Biidaasige Park and the Eastern Waterfront towards Sugar Beach.  
• The entire experience will last approximately 2 hours from beginning to end. 
• The experience will be visible from many points along the Eastern Waterfront and Biidaasige Park in Oekwemin Minising. A full map of optimal viewing areas will be available in September.  
• For the safety of the canoe participants, the experience may need to amend its route or adjust starting times in response to high winds or inclement weather. Please follow @thebentway on social media for weather-related updates on the day of each performance.  
• We recommend dressing accordingly for the weather.

artist

collaborators

project team

Curator: Alex Rand

Associate Curators: Renee Castonguay, Megan Kammerer

Producers: Veronica Barton, Stephanie Dudek, Jeremy Forsyth, Sue Holland

Indigenous Wisdom Keeper: Dr. Duke Redbird

colour sources

Water and colour story ingredients collected from Gibraltar Point, Leslie Street Spit, Sunfish Cut, Budapest Park, the re-naturalized Don River, Keating Channel, and more.

Some of the Colour Story ingredients provided by the lake and shoreline include:

supporters