Nuit Blanche 2023: What You Can Expect For This Year’s All-night Toronto Art Celebration

As Toronto marks the arrival of fall on Saturday, it also falls on the same weekend as the City’s all-night Nuit Blanche art celebration which has the theme of “breaking ground” this year.

“It’s really a theme that encompasses all of the ideas around the changing landscape, the responsibilities that we hold around taking care of the land,” Jeanne Holmes, a programming manager with the City of Toronto, told CityNews.

“The artists are all working on projects that explore the ideas of what’s below the surface, what transformation has happened, what development has done to the cityscape.”

Compared to Nuit Blanche in 2022, which had a larger presence to mark the first event since the COVID-19 pandemic began, this year’s edition will be smaller with 88 installations and locations.

The event will run between 7 p.m. on Sept. 23 and 7 a.m. on Sept. 24.

Starting in downtown Toronto, one of the largest displays will be at Nathan Phillips Square. As part of the ‘Disturbed Landscape’ exhibition, Wellspring will take up a large portion of the space in front of city hall.

“The pavers that we walk on every day are literally lifted up and showing kind of all the things that are underneath — all of the pieces that might have fallen through … and then elevating that and highlighting that to make it clear that you know the impact that we have on the spaces that we are in sometimes goes unseen,” Holmes said.

While there will be several other installations at and beside city hall, she encouraged people to use Bay Street — which will be closed to vehicles throughout the duration of the event — to get to the other pieces and participating locations in the downtown, the waterfront and Fort York. Holmes said Union Station, for example, will features a large banner installation.

Humber College’s Lakeshore campus in south Etobicoke will once again serve as a hub for Nuit Blanche. The ‘Shoaling’ exhibition will be held on the eastern part of the campus and will run towards Lake Ontario.

“It really explores the relationship between land and water and how that dialogue between those two kind of spaces influences different elements of history, of memory of climate, so there’s some really beautiful projects that are like on this lovely, quiet path behind the campus,” Holmes said.

The other major Nuit Blanche hubs will be at Scarborough Town Centre, Scarborough Civic Centre and Albert Campbell Square.

CityNews spoke with Leeroy New, an artist from Manila, as he was in the midst of assembling his major sculptural installation at Scarborough Town Centre called Balangay Starfleet.

“We will have some vessels suspended in the ceiling of this atrium of STC and one giant vessel landlocked and they are a hybrid of sorts of the organic and synthetic,” he said during a brief break.

“It’s kind of speculative, sci-fi of sorts of what if the Philippines does end up becoming the destination for the world’s trash and what would we as a people come up with in terms of evolving a culture based off scavenging and reusing and upcycling these discards.”

In North York, Nuit Blanche won’t be at the civic centre like in 2022. However, Edwards Gardens, the Aga Khan Museum and the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre will have pieces. Locations in Wychwood, Weston, West Queen West and Dufferin Grove will also be participating.

Meanwhile, when asked about advice for powering through the night, Holmes said simple things like changing socks or clothing, or brushing teeth midway through the night can help you feel refreshed.

“Coffee always helps but it often stops working partway through the night, so drink lots of water. Have some protein (and) that will keep your energy up,” she suggested.

“Talk to other people. That’s the other key thing you get energy from each other. Find a partner … so that you’ve got somebody who can spur you on and they can spur you on.

“Don’t plan anything for Sunday because that’ll be your day of rest.”

The TTC will be have rare, overnight subway service on Lines 1 and 2 to provide extra transit service for Nuit Blanche visitors. 903 Kennedy-Scarborough Centre Express shuttle buses will also operate during the same period.

GO Transit hasn’t formally scheduled extra trains, but a spokesperson told CityNews in a statement extra service could potentially happen if crowding develops.