This Winter, The Bentway’s Skate Trail will be transformed by a new installation by designer and artist Odudu Umoessien. Inspired by West African textile traditions, the commission brings pattern, movement, and cultural storytelling beneath the Gardiner Expressway.
Following a successful Call for Expressions of Interest and adjudication process earlier this year, The Bentway is pleased to announce the selection of artist and designer Odudu Umoessien to lead the return of Transform the Trail for the 2026-27 winter season.
Transform the Trail supports a new temporary commission that transforms The Bentway’s iconic figure-eight skating trail and surrounding landscape beneath the Gardiner Expressway. Each year, the program invites artists to create a new work of public art that celebrates the creative potential of winter, and fosters meaningful connections during the coldest months of the year.
This winter, Odudu presents Àdìrẹ on Ice, an installation inspired by àdìrẹ, the rich Yoruba textile tradition originating in southwestern Nigeria, that serves as a living form of cultural expression, storytelling, and communication. Created in collaboration with artist Chukwudubem Ukaigwe, the installation draws on àdìrẹ patterns, transforming the Bentway Skate Trail into a vibrant, immersive landscape that invites participation, celebrates movement, and encourages collective play.
“The Bentway is one of Canada’s most unique and treasured urban spaces. To contribute to its winter life through Transform the Trail is both an honour and a responsibility: an opportunity to reimagine skating as a civic ritual, and to extend my research into participation, movement, and collective identity at the scale of the city.”
Odudu Umoessien
Launching December 2026, Àdìrẹ on Ice, will invite Torontonians to experience a unique perspective on winter—one shaped by movement and cultural exchange. As The Bentway welcomes neighbours and skaters back for its ninth winter season, visitors can once again cruise the 220-metre figure-eight trail while encountering a bold new interpretation of the familiar site.
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transform the trail
Throughout the year, The Bentway strives to support civic life and social connection in public space, and believes winter is a season to be embraced and not just endured. From December through February, the Bentway’s skate trail becomes a beloved cold-weather destination featuring a dynamic natural ice-skating rink that has quickly become one of the city’s most unique distinctive urban amenities.
Weaving through the Bentway’s iconic columns, the skate trail is known for outdoor recreation and innovation, inviting diverse audiences to meet under the Gardiner and experience a traditional Canadian winter pastime in a new light each year. Selected artists and designers must embrace and collaborate with winter conditions; to educate, innovate, and create meaningful invitations for public engagement during the coldest months of the year; to build with sustainability in mind; and to inspire Torontonians—regardless of the weather.
