Check out our ongoing and upcoming events and series.
events calendar
Roller Skate Lessons: September 5
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.
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!
Dino Run: September
If your kids like dinosaurs, they’ll love Dino Runs! This fun-filled morning starts with costumed Dino Specialists teaching participants about dinosaurs through song, dance, storytelling, and games. Then, the kids will set out as Dino Explorers on an exciting, non-competitive chase to recapture runaway dinosaurs. These fun and educational events sold out in 2024!
Roller Skate Party: September
The Melanin Skate Crew is a trio of talented people with one shared goal: to spread love and joy through roller skating. In skate culture, crews are formed to showcase choreographed tricks and move together on the rink, similar to your favourite pop bands and dance groups growing up!
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A Lake Story
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.
on view / ongoing
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Billy Bishop Free Rental Thursdays: January 29
Enjoy free skate rentals at The Bentway skate trail every Thursday evening from January 8 – February 12, thanks to the generous support of Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport.
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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.
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Skate Sharpening
Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays from from 5:15pm – 7:45pmHit the ice in style, sharpen those skates so you can sharpen those skills! Starting January 5, we will be offering bookings for skate sharpening.
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Bentway After School: Cohort 1
Tuesdays, January 6 – February 3This 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.
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Winter Skating
toWe’re delighted to welcome neighbours and visitors back for another magical season of ice skating under the city lights. Lace up your skates and glide into the holidays with us! Be sure to check our Holiday and New Year hours before you visit.
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Petal and Stone
October 2025 through to 2027A 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.
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Declaration of the Understory
May 23, 2025 to Spring 2026Secwépemc 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
May 23, 2025 to Spring 2026Working 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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Waterfront ReConnect: Boom Town
On view nowBoom Town employs vibrant colour, playful characters, and environmental lighting to enliven the York Street intersection, improving safety and accessibility for pedestrians and cyclists.
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Waterfront ReConnect: Pixel Story
On view nowPixel 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.
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Bentway Staging Grounds
On view nowBentway 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.
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Memory Work
On display May 1, 2022 onwardsSituated 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…