Event Details

Jumpstarted by a generous $25 M donation from philanthropists Judy and Wil Matthews and incorporated in 2016, The Bentway is a unique and innovative public space that will transform the vacant and forgotten area underneath Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway into a new gathering place for the city’s growing population. Stretching from Strachan Avenue to Bathurst Street, this 1.75 km trail and series of public spaces will knit together seven neighbourhoods – Exhibition Place, Liberty Village, Niagara, Fort York Neighbourhood, Bathurst Quay, Wellington Place and CityPlace – and become a gateway to the waterfront, while providing access to important attractions and destinations – from the Budweiser Stage to the Rogers Centre and Harbourfront Centre. This dynamic new urban corridor will activate the community with a continuous multi-use trail providing access to year-round activities and events, including gardens, a skating rink, recreational amenities, public markets, public art, special exhibitions, festivals, theatre and musical performances and more.

This application is for “Playing in Public at The Bentway” The project will be free to the public and will include:

(1) “Double Dribble” (May to August 2020): a new installation by Ontario-based artist Esmaa Mohamoud that will transform the Bentway into an interactive basketball court comprised of 30 basketball nets of varying colour and diameter with court lines running dysfunctionally underneath and upwards to the Expressway above. Related programming includes weekly basketball soirees facilitated by professional athletes and educators, a series of artistic workshops, and a large-scale photography installation;

(2) “Pop Up Playground & Performances” (May to August 2020) including: (i) Daily tous les jours from Montreal will twist conventional structures like the jungle gym, taking the familiar acts of climbing and walking and transforming them into expressive choreographies; (ii) Assemble from London, England will build a series of play structures modelled after classic and modernist designs by famed Italian-born Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi; (iii) Younger Than Beyonce will install a communal Rube Goldberg machine; and (iv) roaming performances by Ontario-based artist Hazel Meyer;

(3) “Third Annual Block Party” (July 2020): featuring free concerts, family friendly activities, open-air food and beverage, pop-up art installations, a giant slip-n-slide, and Toronto’s largest tug-of-war;

(4) “Title TBC” (fall 2020): led by local artist Max Dean five to seven artists will be commissioned to create site-specific pieces, both at the intimate person-scale as well as larger-scale installations; and

(5) “Heartbeat” (winter 2021) by Daan Roosegaarde (creator of The Bentway’s successful Waterlicht installation) will mount a design intervention and experiment at multiple sites under the Gardiner Expressway. The project will use new technology to harvest energy from elevated roadways and bridges and transform it into light shows.