Check out our ongoing and upcoming events and series.
events calendar
Art Socials: June 4
This workshop will be something to write home about! Print your own letterpress postcards using two antique platen presses set up with an image and text. Learn from local printmaker Phoebe Todd-Parrish about traditional typesetting from wood and metal type, how it was used historically and how it can still be used today. Add colour to your image and write on your postcard to share a memory of summer with a friend or loved-one using this analog technology!
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Roller Skating with SUSO Skate Co.
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 or have moves to show off, SUSO has you covered.
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Sand Flight
Experience the world premiere of Sand Flight, from internationally renowned choreographer Ingri Fiksdal. Eight dancers and a 50-person choir descend on a massive sand dune under the Gardiner Expressway for a powerful performance that speculates on climates-to-come, where shade-worshipping becomes a new tradition.
Roller Skate Lessons: June 13
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.
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Canopy Connections: Weekends at YZD
What could be hiding in the tree canopy? Join artist collective, The Buck Teeth Girls Club to explore what ecosystems can exist as a byproduct of the shade, from the tops of the trees to down below the ground. Tracing shadows of the moving forest onto paper and pavement, come and draw in the spaces all that exists in relation to the trees!
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Moving Forest @ The Bentway Studio Terrace
See you on the Studio Terrace, June 17 to July 4! A flock of 50 trees in shopping carts travels throughout the city, stopping to create a refreshing shade canopy in usually-sunny spaces.
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. 
Sun/Shade Curators’ Tours: June 19
Go behind the scenes of our Sun/Shade outdoor art exhibition by joining a curators’ tour with The Bentway’s Programming team. Learn about the inspiration behind the season, the creation of each artwork, and how they fit together. Sun/Shade explores new ways of collaborating with the sun, as well as the importance of shade, in our urban spaces.
Canopy Connections: Sunset Concert with The Taylor Academy
Students from The Taylor Academy – Canada’s leading classical music training program – share their music. Enjoy their showstopping virtuosity under the cover of the Moving Forest canopy and enjoy a beautiful sunset that will sweep you into the weekend. 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. 
Canopy Connections: Sunset Concert with The Taylor Academy
Students from The Taylor Academy – Canada’s leading classical music training program – share their music. Enjoy their showstopping virtuosity under the cover of the Moving Forest canopy and enjoy a beautiful sunset that will sweep you into the weekend. 
on view / ongoing
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Second Shade
toEchoing 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
toA 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
toArtist 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
toSecwépemc 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
toWorking 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
toWhat 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
toA 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
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…