Nuit Blanche is this weekend in Toronto – Here’s what you need to know

TORONTO, September 19, 2023 – Starting this Saturday at 7 p.m., the City of Toronto will come alive as Nuit Blanche fills Toronto streets with more than 80 contemporary art projects created by nearly 250 artists. The free all-night celebration of contemporary art will feature in neighbourhoods across the city with exhibitions in Etobicoke, downtown and Scarborough.

Planning ahead

Information about participating artists and the complete event programming is available on the City’s Nuit Blanche website. The Nuit Blanche webpage offers an interactive map for enhanced event navigation and details on exhibition locations, project descriptions, road closures, TTC information and more. Browse commissioned, independent, special projects and installations by participating cultural institutions.

Event goers can collect a printed map at event centres located at:

• Bay Adelaide Centre – 333 Bay St. (Downtown)
• Humber College, E Building – 11 Colonel Samuel Smith Park Dr. (Etobicoke)
• Albert Campbell Square – 150 Borough Dr. (Scarborough)

Navigating the art by neighbourhood

Art projects are clustered in easy-to-navigate Nuit Neighbourhoods, making exploring the event more convenient for audiences. Neighbourhoods include Don Mills, East Danforth, Bloor-Yorkville, North York, Sterling Road, Fort York, Weston, West Queen West and the downtown waterfront. Full exhibition areas can be found in Etobicoke, downtown and Scarborough.

Etobicoke

Shoaling, the Etobicoke exhibition, is curated by Lillian O’Brien Davis. Audiences are invited to enter a multivocal exhibition focusing on connections between land and water that link threads of memory, climate, race and labour through performance, video, sculpture and technologies. Etobicoke will also showcase a large variety of independent projects presented by Exhibition Sponsor Humber College and the local arts community that the public can experience.

Etobicoke sites include Assembly Hall, Humber College’s Lakeshore Campus and Colonel Samuel Smith Park. Featured projects include a 150-foot-long light installation, a land-based installation along a beach and two newly commissioned film works.

Downtown

The Disturbed Landscape exhibition, curated by Kari Cwynar, will occupy Toronto’s downtown core with creative reversals and disruptions to our built environment. Unearth centuries of development in the City’s financial centre as commissioned artists highlight the ever-present relationship between land, economy and power in urban environments. The downtown neighbourhood will also feature various independent projects and installations delivered in partnership with leading cultural institutions.

Scarborough

Explore ideas of togetherness, friendship and collectivity pointing to Scarborough’s unique urban topography and discover public spaces transformed through shared experiences. Eight commissioned projects comprise the In the Aggregate exhibition, curated by Noa Bronstein. Visit Scarborough Town Centre to experience a descending fleet of space vessels made of bamboo and discarded plastics, a 40-foot video installation on queer dance and resistance practices and hand-embroidered letters stitched onto silk saris bringing with them feelings of nostalgia, loss and a desire for connection. Scarborough Town Centre is the proud sponsor of this exhibition.

Getting around

To provide safe event attendance and improve free-flowing access to the art projects, various road restrictions will be in effect, including:

• From 9 p.m. on Friday, September 22, until 11 a.m. on Sunday, September 24:
  • Temperance Street, from Yonge to Bay Streets, will only be open to local traffic.
  • Queen Street, from York to Bay Streets, will be closed to vehicles.
• From 5 a.m. on Saturday, September 24, until noon on Sunday, September 24, Bay Street, from Dundas Street West to Front Street West, Armoury Street, Albert Street and Hagerman Street will be closed to vehicles.

More information about road restrictions is available on the City’s Road Restrictions webpage.

People planning to attend Nuit Blanche are encouraged to take public transit or other travel methods, such as walking or cycling. Those who need to drive should plan their route in advance, stay alert and allow for extra time to get to and from their destinations.

Major non City of Toronto-run events, like Nuit Blanche, generate significant economic and cultural benefits for Toronto and raise the city’s profile on the world stage. Festivals and events are a major contributor to the local economy, bringing millions of visitors to Toronto each year and are an important means of conveying Toronto’s diverse culture and heritage. The ripple effects of these activities play a key role in supporting the city’s tourism and hospitality sectors.

In addition to the regular all-night Blue Night Network service, the TTC will run subway service all night on Line 1 Yonge-University, Line 2 Bloor-Danforth and the shuttle bus network on Line 3 Scarborough. Day passes purchased on September 23 will be valid until 7 a.m. on September 24.

GO Transit will operate regularly scheduled service during Nuit Blanche this year. While there will not be any additional late-night rail service available, those wishing to experience art all night can still take advantage of the GO Weekend Pass. Visit the GO Transit website  to plan your trip with GO to Nuit Blanche.

Parking for Nuit Blanche

A list of Green P parking lots available during Nuit Blanche is available on the GreenP website .

For the Scarborough Nuit Blanche exhibition, parking will also be available at the Scarborough Town Centre parking lot.

The City thanks the Government of Ontario for providing funding; exhibition sponsors Humber College and Scarborough Town Centre; sponsors Cadillac Fairview, Concord Adex, Johnnie Walker, QuadReal, Shine Foundation and Waterfront Toronto, as well as media partners Boom 97.3, CBC Toronto and the Toronto Star for supporting Nuit Blanche.

About Nuit Blanche Toronto

Nuit Blanche Toronto is the city’s annual all-night celebration of contemporary art, produced by the City of Toronto in collaboration with Toronto’s arts community. Since 2006, this award-winning event has featured more than 1600 art installations by approximately 5,800 artists and has generated over $489 million in economic impact for Toronto. Information and updates are available on the Nuit Blanche website on Facebook , Twitter  and Instagram . This year’s event hashtag is #NBTO23.

SOURCE City of Toronto

lead photo Flotilla by City of Toronto , 2023

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