Wednesday, 16 October 2019

All Night Art : Nuit Blanche Toronto 2019

Uncharacteristically, we went to bed at 9pm on Saturday night a week ago, not because we were tired, but because we had a much anticipated art experience coming up first thing in the morning. When I say “first thing in the morning” I mean 2am, when the alarm went off and we got up and dressed and ventured out into the dark of night.

It was Nuit Blanche, Toronto’s all night art show. This year 300 artists present 90 projects in 9 different neighbourhoods throughout the city, from 7pm on Saturday until 7am on Sunday.

We stayed close to home, checking out the Fort York neighbourhood, where we saw 12 installations. A particularly interesting element was that we got to enter a few places that the public normally never gets to see. The theme of this group of pieces was “Creation : Destruction”

A couple of years ago, after at least a decade of annual Nuit Blanches, there was talk of it ending, when the main sponsor decided it was time for them to pull their funding. But, thankfully, other sponsors and the city stepped in, and Toronto continues to be treated to a truly excellent event.

Our friend Adam was visiting from Europe, so he joined us for what turned out to be a great and very memorable time. We loved it!

Our route was : South on Tecumseth, West on Wellington, South on Strachen and down to The Bentway. Then, East to Fort York public park, down and through the gates into the Fort York Historic site. Back through the gates and down to Fort York Blvd where we went East to Bathurst. Then we went North on Bathurst and into Stackt Market.

Here’s what we saw in the order in which we came upon them.

Rather than cutting and pasting a lot of script to give context to each project, I’ll include links to each piece on the city’s website, where you’ll find details on the project, the artists and interesting points about the location. Please click over if/where you’d like to know more.