2023 Artist Residency: Dance in Public Space
May 11, 2023
Co-presented with Toronto Dance Theatre, our 2023 Artist Residency invites 3 artists with a focus on dance, movement, and/or embodied practice to participate in an open-ended project that furthers their practice and in turn, contributes to the evolution of The Bentway’s work to re-imagine the opportunities of urban spaces.
2023 Public Space Fellowship
May 8, 2023
The Bentway is proud to welcome our 2023 Public Space Fellows, Celeste Meledath and Ella Hough. Working with The Bentway over five months, the Fellows are exploring the intersection of sustainability and public space design, focusing on how to apply more ecological approaches to The Bentway’s work.
Submit Your First Winter Memories!
December 5, 2022
The Bentway and Toronto artist, Shellie Zhang, invite newcomer communities to reflect on and share your First Winter memories. Every newcomer remembers their first Toronto winter – watching streetcars make their way through snow-lined streets, finding their local neighborhood skating rink, or discovering local winter pastimes that help us embrace this cold season. As Toronto […]
“First Winter” Programming at The Bentway
December 5, 2022
This year, The Bentway’s winter season celebrates the diverse communities that make up Toronto and explores what it is to experience winter in our city for the first time. Every newcomer remembers their first Toronto winter – watching streetcars make their way through snow-lined streets, finding their local neighborhood skating rink, or discovering local winter […]
2022 Public Space Fellowship
September 29, 2022
Jess Misak and Faizaan Khan completed a five-month Public Space Fellowship and played a pivotal role in leading our 2022 Street Summit, an “un-symposium” that explored how cities everywhere can re-imagine their streets. With guidance from The Bentway team, the Fellows also advanced their own independent research.
The Confluences of Confluence by Shawn Micallef
September 29, 2022
The ground we walk on in Toronto is untrustworthy. Was it left here by the glaciers as they retreated or altered by the thousands of years of human activity that have taken place here?
Picnic Table on the River by Matthew Hickey
September 29, 2022
The picnic table has provided a place for all of these things to most anyone who grew up in what we now call Canada.
Reserve tickets for Confluence
September 15, 2022
Confluence invites visitors to flow through an engrossing convergence of natural and human-made forces. The picnic table, a familiar fixture in parks across the city, contorts into a dynamic sculptural installation; twirling, cascading, and cresting to evoke Toronto’s buried, lost rivers.
Waterfront ReConnect
January 5, 2022
The Gardiner Expressway is, and will remain, a major artery in and out of Toronto. The elevated portion of the Expressway stretches some 6.5km through the heart of the City, across the entire length of the downtown. From a regional perspective, the Gardiner represents an essential connection between the sprawling communities of the Greater Golden […]
The Field Guide to Digital and/as Public Space
November 19, 2021
The Field Guide to Digital and/as Public Space is a living document, designed to be rearranged, remixed, and expanded.
Measuring the personal impact of public art with HeART Lab
November 15, 2021
With CAMH’s HeARTLab, we surveyed those who attended Pulse Topology to learn more about their perspectives on public art, mental health and wellbeing, community, and the impacts of the pandemic. From our friends at HeARTLab: “At HeART Lab, we honour the strengths and knowledge of people and communities through co-design across the research cycle. Our […]
O Espaço (The Space) with Art Spin
October 1, 2021
Choreographed and performed by Pulga Muchochoma, O Espaço (The Space)examines a complex range of movement, starting with the very beating of the human heart and the spaces in which not just those myriad movements but existence itself is illuminated for us and others to witness. Co-presented with Art Spin. “How much information do we need […]
Pulse Topology
September 14, 2021
Pulse Topology uses 3,000 lights to create a landscape that reacts in real-time to the pulse of visitors’ heartbeats in the interior of the space of the under-Gardiner area of Exhibition Place.
2021 Artist Residency: Art and Recreation
September 4, 2021
Our 2021 artist residency focused on The Bentway’s identity as a public space where art and recreation meet. Featuring Toronto’s own Bekah Brown.
Digital and/as Public Space
May 25, 2021
COVID has produced the greatest big tech experiment of our time, driving everything – from education to cultural programming, health and wellness to social interaction – online. It seems likely that this newfound dependence on the digital realm is here to stay, and that public life post-COVID will continue to move back and forth between […]
The Bentway Announces Eight Micro-Residencies as Part of the Digital and/as Public Space Initiative
April 7, 2021
We are pleased to announce eight micro-residencies, investigating the convergence of digital and physical space as part of our Digital and/as Public Space initiative.
One year later… It's ALL (Still) Right Now
March 11, 2021
March 2021 marks one year of COVID-19. One year of lockdowns. One year of Zoom parties. One year of physical distancing, masks, remote working, parents under strain, and the unchanging everyday of the pandemic. One year where stark social inequities have been magnified for all to see. We are taking this opportunity to look back […]
Digital and/as Public Space 101 with From Later
March 3, 2021
What is Digital and/as Public Space? Find out everything you need to know about our new initiative with our facilitators and partners, From Later.
2021 Public Space Fellowship
January 13, 2021
Gelila Mekonnen and Nahomi Amberber joined our Safe in Public Space initiative, interrogating the meaning of public safety during a global pandemic and heightened focus on anti-Black racism. As emerging professionals in public health and urban planning, the Fellows helped shape editorial content and community engagement, while conducting independent research.
SURVEY: What Makes You Feel Safe or Unsafe in Public Space?
December 10, 2020
Safety in public space can mean different things, depending on who you ask. What makes some people feel safe can make others feel unsafe. Help us want to understand who feels safe and unsafe in public space within our neighbourhood by taking the Safe in Public Space survey.
Safe in Public Space Initiative
November 6, 2020
How do we define public safety and for whom? Safe in Public Space is a multifaceted initiative that aims to broaden the definition of public safety in the public sphere.
It's All Right Now
May 22, 2020
It’s All Right Now is a public art project and a collective movement that confronts and captures our varied perspectives, experiences and understandings of life in COVID-19.
Winter at The Bentway: Keeping Toronto Cozy Among the Concrete
January 16, 2020
It’s been two years since the opening of The Bentway Skate Trail and we’ve welcomed over 110,000 skaters—and counting—to “Skate the 8” and take part in this unique urban experience. But we couldn’t have done it without our incredible team.
2019 Artist Residency: Sound in the City
December 31, 2019
The hum of the Gardiner above, the rush of passing trains, and the occasional cannon blasts from Fort York make The Bentway site rich acoustic territory. Our 2019 Artist Residency featured Mitchell Akiyama and Brady Peters exploring The Bentway as an instrument. Co-presented with New Adventures in Sound Art (NAISA).