what’s on

Check out our ongoing and upcoming events and series.

events calendar

February 2025

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February 2025

Free Hot Chocolate Mondays: February 3
Stop by The Bentway skate trail to enjoy free hot chocolate every Monday evening from January 6 – February 10! Starting January 6, enjoy free hot chocolate every Monday evening (5:00pm-8:30pm) and explore the local neighbourhood. A big thank you to our friends at CityPlace Fort York BIA for their generous support!
Family holding free hot chocolate and smiling at the Bentway Skate Trail

Billy Bishop Free Rental Thursdays: February 6
Enjoy free skate rentals at The Bentway skate trail every Thursday evening from January 9 – February 13! Starting January 9, enjoy free skate rentals every Thursday evening (5:00pm-8:00pm) thanks to the generous support of Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport.  The last time to rent skates is 8:00pm and all skates must be returned by […]
A skater picks up their ice skates at the Bentway's rentals shipping container
Partner Event Skate with Ausma
Join Deputy Mayor Ausma Malik at skating rinks across the ward to embrace winter fun and meet your neighbours! Deputy Mayor Ausma Malik invites you to lace up your skates for her skating party at The Bentway! Courtesy of the Deputy Mayor Malik’s team, we are excited to offer: Be sure to check out other […]

Free Hot Chocolate Mondays: February 10
Stop by The Bentway skate trail to enjoy free hot chocolate every Monday evening from January 6 – February 10! Starting January 6, enjoy free hot chocolate every Monday evening (5:00pm-8:30pm) and explore the local neighbourhood. A big thank you to our friends at CityPlace Fort York BIA for their generous support!
Family holding free hot chocolate and smiling at the Bentway Skate Trail

Billy Bishop Free Rental Thursdays: February 13
Enjoy free skate rentals at The Bentway skate trail every Thursday evening from January 9 – February 13! Starting January 9, enjoy free skate rentals every Thursday evening (5:00pm-8:00pm) thanks to the generous support of Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport.  The last time to rent skates is 8:00pm and all skates must be returned by […]
A skater picks up their ice skates at the Bentway's rentals shipping container
TDSB PA Day
The Bentway Skate Trail is open 12pm-9pm on Friday, February 14!
Family Day (2025)
Join us for this season’s final day of skating at The Bentway Skate Trail! We will be open 12pm-9pm on Monday, February 17.
Panel: Rx for Social Connection
Exploring how public space design and programming can combat loneliness and strengthen communities. This event welcomed attendees to discover insights from Rx For Social Connection: Public space as a strategy to combat loneliness with the interdisciplinary research team from The Bentway, Gehl (New York) and Dalla Lana School of Public Health (University of Toronto) during […]
People seated on a hill and walking on the skate trail at The Bentway's summer kickoff party.

on view / ongoing

  • Canopy Connections: Summer Wonder with TPL Fort York

    Canopy Connections: Summer Wonder with TPL Fort York

    Listen to family friendly stories that have been carefully selected to get you thinking about the significance of trees and the principles of shade equity.  Enrich your learning through interactive games and activities delivered by Fort York library staff.

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  • Art Socials: July 2

    Art Socials: July 2

    Get ready for an all-ages drawing night full of games and activities. Characters are the heart of any story. They’re also one of the most fun things a person can draw! But what goes into making characters that really stand out? Join professional comic book artist Josh Rosen as he shares character design techniques used…

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  • Roller Skating with SUSO Skate Co.

    Roller Skating with SUSO Skate Co.

    June 11 – September 28, 2025. Wednesday-Friday: 4pm-8pm, Saturday-Sunday: 1pm-7pm, Roller Skate Parties: 6pm-10pm

    Our friends at SUSO Skate Co. are back this summer, making The Bentway Skate Trail the best place to rock and roll! Book your skate rental and time slot ahead of time on the SUSO website, then come on down for good vibes and memorable moments. Whether you’re trying roller skating for the first time…

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  • Second Shade

    Second Shade

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    Echoing both the towering structures of downtown skyscrapers and a forest of trees, Mary Mattingly’s Second Shade combines lush greenery and repurposed construction materials to make a unique 20ft tall urban canopy, showcasing the cooling potential of green roofs, soft landscaping, and responsive architecture.

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  • la sombra que te cobija / the shadow that shelters you

    la sombra que te cobija / the shadow that shelters you

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    A geometric pavilion invites you to cross under the Gardiner, casting both a cooling effect and ornate shadow patterns. Edra Soto’s installation references the shade-making façades of working-class Puerto Rican bungalows to create an expansive, sun-filtering threshold, reflecting on the intersection of heat-responsive architecture, place-making, and cultural heritage. 

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  • Casting a Net, Casting a Spell

    Casting a Net, Casting a Spell

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    Artist duo Celeste’s majestic, quilted canopy casts welcomed shade down to a seating area below, offering relief from the heat and a space for gathering. Like a suncatcher, Casting a Net, Casting a Spell embraces and harnesses the sun, weaving in archetypes that have surrounded the sun since ancient times. 

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  • Declaration of the Understory

    Declaration of the Understory

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    Secwépemc artist Tania Willard approaches the space below the highway as a tree canopy, reminiscent of the “understory” floor of southern Ontario forests, where pockets of shade and sunlight shape unique ecosystems below. In a stunning mixed-media installation, floral motifs, iridescence, and powerful slogans offer a mediation on the power of shade as a lifeforce.

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  • Bathed in Strange Light

    Bathed in Strange Light

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    Working in collaboration with the sun’s rhythms, Natalie Hunter’s photographs on the windows of The Bentway Studio (facing Canoe Landing Park) explore how ever-shifting sunlight shapes our experience of public spaces. As the sun moves throughout the day, translucent images cast down a colorful, slow-moving cinema.

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  • Seeing Celsius

    Seeing Celsius

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    What happens when we can see heat? By adding thermal-imaging technology to the familiar viewfinder found at scenic lookout points, LeuWebb Projects enables you to see the temperature differences across The Bentway space and the bodies that move through it. It’s a new perspective that will shift how you view urban spaces and the materials…

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  • Moving Forest

    Moving Forest

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    A flock of 50 trees in shopping carts playfully travels throughout the city, stopping to create a refreshing shade canopy in usually-sunny spaces. Follow their eight-week journey throughout the city – from The Bentway, to YZD at Downsview, to the Waterfront – enjoying pop-up readings and performances along the way.

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  • Waterfront ReConnect: Boom Town

    Waterfront ReConnect: Boom Town

    On view now

    Boom Town employs vibrant colour, playful characters, and environmental lighting to enliven the York Street intersection, improving safety and accessibility for pedestrians and cyclists.

  • Waterfront ReConnect: Pixel Story

    Waterfront ReConnect: Pixel Story

    On view now

    Pixel Story references the multitude of vantages, scales, speeds, and distances at which to view the Expressway, enticing passersby to move forward towards the waterfront, or pause to reflect on its diverse stories.

  • Bentway Staging Grounds

    Bentway Staging Grounds

    On view now

    Bentway Staging Grounds is a site of active, environmental learning that continues The Bentway’s creative work along the Gardiner Expressway. Visitors are invited into a living laboratory for urban ecology, with experimental gardens that use rainwater run-off from the highway above to support the growth of flowering plant species.

  • Memory Work  

    Memory Work  

    On display May 1, 2022 onwards

    Situated at the western entrance to The Bentway, Memory Work is a mural made up of twelve embellished photographic portraits of revolutionary women and non-binary figures from a future Toronto. Initiated by studio From Later with artist Rajni Perera and Memory Work Collective, this speculative monument imagines a city characterized by collective care and politics…

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