Annual art extravaganza Nuit Blanche will make its 13th appearance in the streets of Toronto with over 75 installations, beginning at 7 p.m. Saturday and running through the night.
Nuit Blanche 2018 will transform the city’s downtown streets and, for the first time, stretch into Scarborough, featuring unique art projects created by over 300 local, national and international artists.
The City of Toronto has produced three exhibitions in the following areas:
- STYLL, located at Scarborough Town Centre and Scarborough Civic Centre. This 10-project installation was curated by Alyssa Fearon.
- Dream Time: We All Have Stories, located at Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto City Hall, the Church of the Holy Trinity and the Toronto Coach Terminal. This eight-project installation was curated by Karen Alexander.
- The things they carried, located at Yonge-Dundas Square, Bay Street between Queen Street West and Wellington Street, Line 3 Scarborough (Kennedy, Lawrence East, Ellesmere, Midland and Scarborough Centre stations) and Scarborough Civic Centre. This eight-project installation was curated by Tairone Bastien.
This year’s Nuit Blanche will focus on the event-wide curatorial theme “You Are Here,” which views the “new Toronto as a city of change.”
“A city in progress,” reads the descriptor on the Nuit Blanche website. “A city of endless personal, collective and cultural histories: of journeys and arrivals, of borders and crossings, of memory and history, of past and future, of centres and edges, of community and communities.”
Aside from the trio of city-produced exhibits, Nuit Blanche will include special projects, major institutions projects and independent projects with different collaborations between various artists, institutions and organizations.
Click here for a map of all the installations in Toronto.
WATCH: The city is preparing for more than 1 million people to descend on Toronto for the 13th annual Nuit Blanche. Katherine Ward gets a sneak peak at some of the exhibits that will on display tonight.
Getting around Toronto
The TTC will be operating all-night subway service on Line 1 (Yonge-University) and Line 2 (Bloor-Danforth) for Nuit Blanche visitors, while Line 3 (Scarborough) will also be running overnight to help facilitate the exploration of the extended exhibits. Free entrance will be given at Kennedy, Lawrence East, Ellesmere, Midland, Scarborough Centre and McCowan stations as well, and TTC commuter parking lots will be free all night long.
The blue night bus network service will also run throughout the night, while the 501 Queen streetcar will be diverted onto King Street between Spadina Avenue and Church Street to navigate event street closures.
As a result of the Nuit Blanche event, the following road closures will take place throughout the city:
- Borough Drive will be closed between Brian Harrison Way and Town Centre Court from 8 a.m. Saturday until 9 a.m. Sunday.
- Queen Street West will be closed between Yonge Street and University Avenue from 4 p.m. Saturday until 9 a.m. Sunday.
- Bay Street will be closed between Dundas Street West and Adelaide Street West from 8 a.m. Saturday until 9 a.m. Sunday.
A free shuttle service will also be available between Bloor, Yorkville, Don Mills and Scarborough, running every 30 minutes from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. and then every 60 minutes from 3 a.m. to 7 a.m.