Nuit Blanche East Danforth, 2025


Nuit Blanche is coming back to East Danforth for its fourth time! Join us on Saturday October 4th, 2025 for this special all-night celebration of contemporary art from sunset to sunrise!

Nuit Blanche – East Danforth 25
Saturday October 4, 2025 | 7pm – 7am
Various locations along Danforth Avenue, between Greenwood + Coxwell TTC Subway Stations
Cost: FREE to attend!
RSVP ON FACEBOOK NOW

Nuit Blanche, Toronto’s sunset to sunrise celebration is the largest contemporary art event in North America, and we’re so excited to be welcoming our fourth hub in East Toronto this fall! Thanks to our partners, The Danforth Mosaic BIA, and Native Women in the Arts, we’re presenting another all-night art experience to our East Toronto communities along Danforth Avenue, between Greenwood + Coxwell TTC Stations!

This year’s City-wide Nuit Blanche theme is Translating the City, which speaks to our desire to centre the hidden artistic stories and voices of the East Danforth neighbourhood with a focus on different languages, cultures, stories and ideas of the neighbourhood not yet explored or platformed.

On Saturday October 4, 2025 we invite you and your families to join us for Nuit Blanche East Danforth 2025 (#NBED25), and enjoy the return of our IN VIEW series, an impressive storefront gallery exhibition; stop into an all-night forest-themed Silent Disco in collaboration with Native Women in the Arts; experience a multimedia kite installation about longing and limitation, hope and entrapment; immerse yourself in a Bangla and English textile and poetry installation, and more! Scroll down to learn more about everything this year’s hub has to offer.

WEBPAGE CONTENTS:

  • The Hub Map
  • Major Art Installations
  • IN VIEW Art Installations
  • Info Hub & Washrooms
  • Food & Drink Options
  • Directions to Hub
  • Funders & Presenters

2025 HUB MAP:

Check out our 2025 Hub Map to help you locate all of our art installations, businesses for food and drink, and more! You can save the image below to your phone, or pick up a physical map at our Information Hub (while copies last). (Big thank you to @chelsvcreates and @merrynmoon on the EEA Team for creating this!)

MAJOR ART INSTALLATIONS:

  1. Major Installation #1: O’notsta’kéha (Shake the Bush) – A Silent Disco Celebrating Art, Nature, and Indigenous Tradition

    Location: Bomb Fitness Danforth – 1480 Danforth Ave
    Artist: DJ Kookum, supported by Native Women in the Arts
    Instagram: @djkookum
    Facebook: @djkookum
    Website: www.djkookum.com
    Artist Statement: O’notsta’kéha the Kanienʼkehá꞉ka (Mohawk) phrase meaning “Shake the Bush” draws inspiration from the Haudenosaunee social dance, characterized by call-and-response singing and expressive footwork. The dance symbolizes a spiritual dialogue with the natural world, evoking the stirring of life within the forest.In a vibrant reimagining of this tradition, the event will feature acclaimed Indigenous DJ and sound artist DJ Kookum, known for high-energy sets and genre-bending mixes that blend hip-hop, EDM, and Indigenous sounds.

    Under the glow of the forest night, DJ Kookum’s exclusive sets will be featured on one of the three silent disco channels, adding a dynamic, contemporary edge to this deeply rooted cultural celebration.O ’notsta’kéha (Shake the Bush) is more than a dance party—it is a sensory experience that fosters reflection, connection, and celebration. It stands as a living tribute to Indigenous resilience, land-based knowledge, and the power of music to unite.  within the natural world.

    Artist Bio: DJ Kookum is an Indigenous-renowned DJ and producer from the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation and based in Vancouver, BC. Known for her versatile skills and ability to transcend genres, Kookum is always cooking, keeping the atmosphere alive, fresh, and electrifying. Blending EDM, hip hop, bass music, and global sounds, Kookum creates high-energy performances that resonate with music lovers of all backgrounds. With an extensive music library, Kookum ensures each performance is tailored to the crowd, igniting a shared sense of connection through the power of music.

    This international star has taken her performances across the globe, captivating audiences in Germany, Australia, Mexico, and America. Closer to home, Kookum has graced some of  Canada’s most prestigious events and festivals including Basscoast, Bastid’s BBQ, Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week, Nuit Blanche Toronto, Ted Talks after party, and the Vancouver Michelin awards, among many others.Aside from her reputable solo career, Kookum has been DJing for the hip hop duo Snotty Nose Rez Kids for nearly a decade, performing and touring across North America.Beyond her musical prowess, DJ Kookum is a facilitator, mentor, and motivator. By fearlessly breaking boundaries and celebrating her identity, she sets an inspiring example for aspiring DJs and producers around the world. Through her groundbreaking work and dedication, she leaves a significant mark on the music industry, proving that women play a vital role in electronic music.

  2. Major Installation #2: Opening of the Mouth

    Location: Croquembouche – 1494 Danforth Ave.
    Artist: Yasmeen Nematt Alla
    Instagram: @yasmeennematt
    Website: www.yasmeennematt.com
    Artist Statement: Dozens of handmade kites hang from the ceiling, caught mid-motion. Their lines twist into each other, forming knots that feel both accidental and inevitable. They are objects built for flight, but here they remain restless and waiting. There is also a video playing in a quiet loop. I run across an open field, over and over again, trying to launch a kite into the sky. Each attempt feels urgent. Each failure accumulates. There’s no triumph, no final lift—only the repetition of trying.

    This work traces the space between longing and limitation. It begins with the dream of flight and follows what happens when that dream is met with resistance. The kites want to soar, the body wants to succeed, but something interrupts. The room is too small. The wind never comes. The world doesn’t make space. And still, I run.    The installation is a site of both hope and entrapment—where the desire for freedom tangles with the conditions that shape what is possible. It asks: what would it take to live in a world that allows us to fail without punishment? To try again without shame? To dream without needing to win? It is a quiet, persistent plea for room enough to fall, and time enough to try again.

    Artist Bio: Yasmeen Nematt Alla is an Egyptian immigrant and settler on the unceded and stolen lands of Tkaronto and Waawiyatanong, Turtle Island. Her visual and writing practice create machinations that attest to the existence of the Brown Disabled Queer Self, resisting systems programmed to forget us. She has most recently exhibited at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Cranbrook Art Museum, HATCH, Bronx River Art Center, Heaven Gallery, and Xpace Cultural Centre.

  3. Major Installation #3: Adhar – Space

    Location: Bomb Fitness (Clubhouse Space) – 1478 Danforth Ave.
    Artist: Saretta Khan
    Instagram:     @dipiartdesign
    Artist Statement: “Adhar-Space” is multi-media experience. It features textile work on saree panels featuring both Bangla and English. Each panel showcases unique calligraphy appliqué, embroidery, and painting by blending Bangladeshi-inspired art and patterns. Inspired by the artist’s mother’s poetry book “Adhar-Space”, the installation allows the audience to touch the saree panels and listen to the poems in both languages, with closed captions provided. Hard copies of the text will also be available for visitors to take home if interested. The combination of textile work, audio, and captions aims to bring joy to all visitors. The artist’s goal is to ensure accessibility, making the installation available to a diverse range of viewers and enabling everyone to engage with the piece and learn more about Bangla culture and its beautiful language.


    Artist Bio:     Saretta Khan, a Bangladeshi-Canadian born and raised in Toronto, has been passionate about art since childhood. She is a multidisciplinary graphic designer and artist who graduated from the ArtWorksTO program and completed her Graphic Design studies at George Brown College during the pandemic. Most recently, she designed the illustration and branding for Toronto’s Newcomer Day event for 2024–2025. In her spare time, Saretta enjoys working with a wide range of art mediums, continually advancing her skills and experimenting with new techniques.

IN VIEW ART INSTALLATIONS:

IN VIEW: East Danforth Storefront Installations pair local business owners with artists from across the city to transform their storefront windows into exciting gallery displays. For the night of October 4, 2025, fourteen independent artists will bring storefront windows and outdoor spaces to life along Danforth Avenue! Join us to enjoy the following IN VIEW Installations:

  1. IN VIEW #1: Be Not Afraid

    Location: Patisserie La Cigogne, 1419 Danforth Ave.
    Artist: Alex Poutiainen
    Instagram: @alexlovepoutine
    Artist Statement: Toronto’s diverse voices, perspectives, and cultures have given its residents a broad imagination for what could come next, making it no surprise that our city has long been a hub for science fiction storytelling whether on the page or on screen. Be Not Afraid draws inspiration from Toronto’s transformations into alien landscapes and utopias/dystopias for TV series such as The Expanse, The Handmaid’s Tale, and many Star Treks. Just as those productions explore questions of identity, belonging, and how conflicting values can co-exist in fictional worlds, this installation hopes to inspire audiences to imagine new futures shaped by unexpected possibilities and reimagined identities.

    Artist Bio: For as long as I can remember, science fiction has been a passion of mine.
    Outside of my full-time career as a “gaffer” (aka lighting designer) in the Toronto film and TV industry, I love indulging in art projects to explore visions of the future both in solo installations as well as collaborative art events.

  2. IN VIEW #2: re-membering

    Location: K H Davis Engineering Consultants, 1468 Danforth Ave.
    Artist: Elaine Chan-Dow
    Instagram: @elainechandow
    Website: www.elainechandow.ca
    Artist Statement: This mixed-media window installation features Victorian terrariums also known as Wardian cases set on plinths of varying heights to activate the full window space. Each case houses a delicate ronghua (绒花), sculptural interpretations of botanicals taken from China during British imperial expeditions in the 1800s. These flowers, once stolen and cultivated abroad, are reimagined using a traditional Chinese art technique that is nearly lost due to the industrialization of craft. Constructed from recycled materials and plant debris from their hybrid descendants, the vitrines merge Qing dynasty aesthetics with colonial display structures transforming the storefront into a site of reflection, memory, and resistance.

    Each case is paired with a bilingual poem (English and Cantonese)- scan the QR code for the poem!  These poems offer an intimate, poetic lens on the flowers’ imperial histories and diasporic echoes.
    re-membering translates the personal and historical into something shared and visible, asking viewers to consider how colonial legacies live on in the everyday.
    Artist Bio:     Elaine Chan-Dow is a Chinese Canadian transdisciplinary artist, researcher and educator whose work explores the entanglements between land, culture, and ecology. Her current artwork is grounded in sustainable and site-responsive practices, her installations often emerge from foraged, repurposed, or cultivated materials that reflect the diasporic experience and the ecological politics of place. Working at the intersection of plants, memory, migration, and environment, Elaine’s projects incorporate participatory methods and storytelling through both visual and sensory forms. Her ongoing research, supported by the Ontario Graduate Scholarship and the SSHRC Fellowship, focuses on plant histories, herbal knowledge, and the embodied transmission of culture through plant, food and land-based practices. Elaine is the co-founder of Edgeland Collective, an eco-creative initiative dedicated to transforming urban wilds into spaces for ecological and cultural regeneration in the east end of Toronto. Her recent exhibitions include Union Gallery, Agnes Art Centre, and ArtLab, Western University. Elaine is currently developing permaculture experiments and eco-art residency at her farm in Prince Edward County.Her work for IN VIEW will build on these foundations—reimagining storefronts as vessels of translation and memory, while honouring the materials, voices, and local culture of East Danforth.

  3. IN VIEW #3: Woven Into Us 

    Location: Blossoming Minds, 1530 Danforth Ave.
    Artist: Eva Connelly-Miller
    Instagram: @e.v.a_rose and @moodmove
    Artist Statement: Woven Into Us weaves together fabric and dance to create a kaleidoscopic collection of memories from East Enders. Community members from the East End were invited to lend fabrics of emotional significance to them and share the stories attached to them. A blanket that belonged to a loved one, a quilt made from a father’s shirts, a project that carried that through a hard time- every fabric here has a story that transcends its use. I’ve taken the memories shared with me about each fabric and have translated them into dance, which I then filmed in in an area of importance to the owner. These dance films are projected amongst the fabric, linking space, movement, cloth and memory all at once.

    By connecting fabric with memory and dance, this installation reflects the Danforth’s spirit of diversity and sense of community. Woven Into Us is a love letter to the Danforth and the people who call it home. A massive thank you to those that have shared their stories with me, and in turn, with all of us. I hope I have done justice to the memories these fabrics keep.
    (Headshot by Drew Berry)

    Artist Bio: Eva Connelly-Miller (she/her) is a contemporary dance artist and creator based in Tkaronto. Her dance practice has taken her to Spain, Portugal, Berlin, New York, Montreal and Salt Spring Island. She is a graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University, where she finished with honours and was the recipient of the Nadia Potts Heart and Soul award. She is one of the foundingmembers of ZESTcreative, a dance and music collective, which has performed at various shows and festivals, including at The Toronto Fringe in 2019, 2022, and 2025. Eva has a keen interest in finding innovative ways to merge various artistic disciplines, and believes in the power of art to help create compassionate beings.

  4. IN VIEW #4: Entre Mundos y Sueños (between Worlds and Dreams)

    Location: Pegasus Community Project – Polaris Site, 1428 Danforth Ave.
    Artist: Izzy Paez
    Instagram: @izzypaez
    Website: www.izzypaez.com
    Artist Statement: Entre Mundos y Sueños is inspired by alebrijes—anthropomorphic spirit animals that are a traditional form of Mexican folk art. Alebrijes are believed to be guides to the spirit and dream worlds. They are often depicted as colorful, fantastical creatures with varying forms; their animal characteristics can range from the recognizable to the unrecognizable.

    In this installation, which combines 2D and 3D elements, alebrije figures are suspended against a dreamlike backdrop depicting sugar skulls dancing around a bonfire, celebrating the cycles of life under the moonlight. The alebrijes appear as though they are flying overhead. Made from papier-mâché and painted in vibrant colors, the figures are set against a raw canvas backdrop. This installation centers on themes of life’s celebration and nocturnal mysticism, exploring Mexican culture through a contemporary, stylized lens. Entre Mundos y Sueños (Between Worlds and Dreams) serves as a mosaic of Mexican folk traditions, celebrating the richness of Mexican culture along the Danforth and honoring those who have made the neighborhood their home over the years.
     Artist Bio:     My childhood in Mexico was shaped by folkloric tales that warned children of danger or conveyed important lessons. But the most impactful stories, for me, were the ones children told each other—blending familiar folklore, imagination, and life reflections. Drawing from this storytelling blueprint, my work navigates the spaces of familiar memory, the subconscious, dreams, and femininity. Through these lenses, I explore internal and external journeys across uncharted imaginative landscapes. I often use anthropomorphism to blur boundaries between animal, nature, and human—reflecting psychological states and symbolizing the layering of stories. Similarly, I use this layering to push forward and reimagine the familiar and the subconscious within my work.

  5. IN VIEW #5: Mirroring the Land Mirroring Us

    Location: Wiklém Design inc, 1404 Danforth Ave.
    Artist: Khadija Aziz
    Instagram: @_khadija_a_
    Website: www.khadijaaziz.com
    Artist Statement: Mirroring the Land Mirroring Us is an installation that explores community-building and identity formation in Toronto. By reflecting on our multifaceted identities and cultures as immigrants on Turtle Island, Mirroring the Land Mirroring Us celebrates our identities by bringing our heritage into public spaces. The title Mirroring the Land Mirroring Us suggests reciprocity: the land shapes us, and we shape the land. What is our responsibility, as immigrants, to this stolen land that we benefit from?

    Reflecting on her parents’ careful choices about which parts of their family’s identities to carry with them and which to leave behind, Mirroring the Land Mirroring Us is an ode to the recent immigrants of Canada, many of whom are fleeing violence, human rights violations, or lack of opportunities, all of which are usually the aftermath of Western colonialism, historic or contemporary.
    This installation is made up of a series of glass mirrors – their edges decorated with South Asian embroidery techniques. Mirroring the Land Mirroring Us is about reflecting on our roles and responsibilities to the land we live on; the stories we carry with us and the histories we’ve forgotten.

    Artist Bio: Khadija Aziz is a Toronto-based textile artist and educator. Her specialization in textile arts is needlework, including beading and South Asian embroidery. She marries these slow hand-craft techniques with the immediate and chance-based outcomes of digital manipulation methods using a photo scanner. Her art has been exhibited in Canada, the USA, Australia, and Austria, and received recognition through awards from Craft Ontario (2025, 2020, 2019) and the Surface Design Association (2020). Khadija’s art has also been published in magazines, books, and conference papers in Canada (Canadian Craft Federation, 2020 and 2021; UPPERCASE Magazine, 2021; and more), the USA (the Surface Design Journal, 2020), and Prague (TEXTile Manifestos, 2022). Khadija is currently an Artist-in-Residence at Harbourfront Centre.

  6. IN VIEW #6: Family Gathering

    Location: Outside Linsmore Tavern, 1298 Danforth Ave.
    Artist: Ksenija Spasic
    Website: www.pulpartparty.ca/about-old/our-team
    Artist Statement: Family Gathering shows four illuminated figures embracing one another. Each represents one of East Danforth’s four language families: Afro-Asiatic, Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, and Niger-Congo.We often see languages presented as tree limbs spreading away from each other. This installation offers a reminder about connection and interdependence in the ways we communicate. Branches extend from the torsos towards each other to symbolize the flow of ideas and the touching of cultures. Secured to the branches are small speakers. Nuit Blanche attendees can hear voices reciting poems in this neighbourhood’s many languages. As you lean close to hear one poem, you can’t help overhearing a few others. The rhythms mix, the words cannot stay separate.

    Artist Bio: I am a poet, an installation and community artist and a college professor. My chapbook The Beautiful The Bearable was published in February of 2025. Last year, my Nuit Blanche project was Continuous-Connected – an immersive installation asking “Who are you? “ What made you?” “Who do you want to become.” I have run community art projects funded by the TAC and the OAC and am a director at PULP Reclaimed Materials Art & Design, where I help organize events and run reclaimed art activities. I have also created several installations for PULP. My work in the arts has taken me all over Toronto. I crafted a moveable poetry fence installation with elementary school kids in Bloordale, I’ve run community-engaged projects for Arts in the Parks and Artists in Libraries in North York and Don Mills respectively. I’m excited to create an art installation closer to home.

  7. IN VIEW #7: Mother Tongue

    Location: Hair Sensation + Skin Care, 1356 Danforth Ave.
    Artist: Lynn Kain
    Instagram: @echoes_of_lynn & @studio.7
    Artist Statement: Mother Tongue explores how language carries cultural identity and memory, particularly for immigrant and refugee communities in East Danforth. Through layered visual, tactile, and auditory forms, the work reflects the neighbourhood’s multilingual character and makes visible experiences of displacement, resilience, and belonging. Translation becomes both poetic and political—recovering silenced voices and reimagining the Danforth as a living archive of global experience.

    Hanging from the ceiling at varying depths are mesh portraits: ethereal, semi-transparent depictions of real and imagined faces from diasporic communities. These portraits appear as ghosts of memory, suspended between glass and space, suggesting how identity persists even when fragmented by time, distance, or language. Each portrait is paired with short handwritten excerpts (in Arabic, English, and other languages present in East Danforth) that appear on nearby translucent textile strips or scorched parchment. These excerpts include childhood memories, refugee stories, common phrases or lullabies, and Personal expressions of silence, longing, or loss. The floor of the display includes scattered belongings (e.g., shoes, suitcases, torn books), made sculptural or abstract to avoid literalness. Viewers can also find removable chalk to write a word in your native language on the sidewalk: something meaningful, or untranslatable.
    Artist Bio: I’m Lynn Kain, an interior designer and artist dedicated to exploring the intersection of aesthetic form and emotional resonance. Originating from Lebanon, where culture, history, and conflict intertwine, my creative journey began as a young girl turning to art to process a complex world. Drawing and painting became a refuge: my way of expressing what words could not.

    My work (ranging from abstract portraits to installations) is a visual exploration of memory, identity, and resilience. Living across Lebanon, Oman, and now Toronto, I carry a sense of displacement that shapes both my art and design. My recent portrait series reflects on civilian suffering and survival, layering texture and chaos with moments of hope. These works pay tribute to silenced voices and untold stories. As an interior designer, I approach every space as a narrative, blending texture, light, and emotion to create environments that resonate deeply. Art and design are inseparable in my process: each space is a canvas, each project a reflection of the human experience. Whether I’m painting, designing, or installing, my goal remains the same: to create work that speaks to both the inner world and the collective memory, offering beauty, healing, and meaning through form.

  8. IN VIEW #8: Teenage Dirtbag

    Location: Good Intentions, 1434 Danforth Ave.
    Artist: Maddie Alexander
    Instagram: @constant__craving
    Website: www.maddie-alexander.com
    Artist Statement: Teenage Dirtbag is an installation by trans artist Maddie Alexander (They/He) exploring boyhood in the late 90s and early 2000s. Set under the tableau of his own imagined teenage bedroom, Alexander reflects on feelings of yearning, dreaming, teen angst, and moments of catching your reflection through pop culture. Using the vehicle of 90’s and early aughts nostalgia, Alexander explores the culture that shaped their queer sensibility and gender exploration. This work is a love letter to the trans kids who become trans adults, and every neighbour that makes up his home– East York. Our futures are vivid.


    Artist Bio: Maddie Alexander (They/He) is a trans artist, archivist, arts worker, and 90’s kid born and raised in Toronto’s East York, who currently resides in Halifax, NS. He holds a BFA from OCAD University (2016), and an MFA from NSCAD University (2020), where they received The Reznick Family Fund for Student Creativity. Their work has been exhibited locally and internationally. He is a 2025 AGO x RBC Emerging Artist-Researcher, as well as an Artist in Residence at the SPAO Photographic Arts Centre. His practice has been supported by Arts Nova Scotia, and the Canada Council for the Arts.

    His artistic practice explores lived queer and trans experiences through an autoethnographic approach, blending archival materials and personal records. Their research based projects centre themes of desire, failure, care and dissonance and are often site responsive and rooted in community collaboration. While his work reflects contemporary concerns, it frequently draws on the visual and cultural histories of 1980s and ‘90s queer activist aesthetics, primarily the DIY print and installation practices of that era. Blending analogue and digital processes is a reflection on the fluid and layered nature of their trans experience, coming together to construct something that feels real and whole.

  9. IN VIEW #9: Tunog ng mga Tala/Sound of the Stars

    Location: From There to Here, 1344 Danforth Ave.
    Artist: Maria Patricia Abuel
    Instagram: @mpabuelstudio
    Website: mpabuelstudio.com
    Artist Statement: Tunog ng mga Tala/Sound of the Stars celebrates the Filipino community through parols that shine as brightly as the voices of Filipinos. Parols are traditional Philippine star-shaped lanterns that are iconic symbols of the holiday season – representing hope and joy. Imagined with bright colours and upcycled materials, the parols reflect the rich memory of East Danforth.

    Accompanied by holiday karaoke, the installation evokes the Filipino love of song and the joyful Christmas season that runs from September to January. Created by both the artist and community members, the parols carry messages of hope in Tagalog and baybayin, honouring our voices and stories. After the exhibition, the parols will be gifted to local residents, extending their light into future celebrations.


    Artist Bio: Maria Patricia Abuel (she/they) is a Toronto/Tkarón:to born and raised Filipinx interdisciplinary artist, community worker, and arts and culture educator and administrator. Her practice explores the intersections of family history, memory, and the body – working primarily with performance, video, and textile. She aims to create dialogues between inherited narratives and contemporary realities to create a space for reflection, resistance, and reimagination. Patricia has extensive experience with arts organizations and collectives across the GTA including the KAPISANAN Philippine Centre for Arts and Culture, Images Festival, and East End Arts. They are also a workshop facilitator for elementary and high schools in the GTA to teach students about Philippine arts and culture. She has exhibited at various galleries including Art Museum, Artspace, Xpace Cultural Centre, and Gallery 101.

  10. IN VIEW #10: Haƞwi – Moon in the Dakota Language

    Location: Blossoming Minds, 1530 Danforth Ave.
    Artist: Richael Laking
    Instagram: @richaelart
    Website: RichaelLaking.com
    Artist Statement: Haƞwi features a shifting projection of the moon, moving through the four sacred colors: red, black/blue, yellow, and white. These colors represent all peoples and all directions around the earth.

    The moon pulls us inward while also pushing us toward the shadowed deposits of our existence. It is a reminder of the vast expanse above us, and of the unique home that nurtures the molecules from which we are all formed. The moon holds both the moments we keep quietly in private thought, and the spectacular phenomena we gather to witness together.

    The moon carries a name in every language.

    Scan the QR code and share the word for moon in your language. What are the stories your grandparents told, now carried forward by you?


    Artist Bio:     Richael Laking (b. 1989) is Sisseton-Whapeton of Sioux Valley Dakota Nation and Irish mix born in Toronto Ontario.
    She works with acrylic and mixed media on various surfaces. Her paintings explore socio-political issues masked by the media and pop culture, as well as her own surreal world.

    Her work is purely expressive and takes place between here and the intricate mysteries of the human subconscious. She invites viewers to explore the hidden meanings through each colour, texture, shape and line.

  11. IN VIEW #11: Contesting Erasure – A Not So Silent Protest

    Location: Good Vibes Kitchen, 1299 Danforth Ave.
    Artist: Roxane Tracey
    Instagram: @createpoeticart
    Website: www.poeticart.ca
    Artist Statement: Erasure. Silence. Backspace. Delete.

    These are the actions of the intentional smothering of a culture and of a community, to push it back into the shadows of silence. At this very moment – south of the border and perhaps not always so far south – this crisis lies before us. Our history. Our people. Our voices. Drowned out and buried to make space for those that need no more space. My heart bleeds for us. As a woman of colour with Caribbean heritage, I am carving out space to reflect on the positionality of my voice and creative spirit and where it is allowed to exist and where it is silenced.

    This installation visually explores our current condition of encroaching grey that attempts to smother the vibrant voices of protest, culture and creativity of a community by centering hegemonic voices. These actions are at times insidious, and the absence of voices speaks to the power of gatekeepers to incite erasure.

    Contesting Erasure – A Not So Silent Protest features a sculptural abstract face and upper body torso of a figure covered in layers of coloured encaustic wax. The wax represents the colours of their essence which demands to breathe despite only seeing their partial presence in a melted form. The inside of the head contains layers of wax, dried flowers and written messages on pieces of fabric, paper and wood symbolizing thoughts of opposition which struggle to be seen and heard. The words on the panels behind attempt to scream in unsilenced opposition.

    Artist Bio: Roxane Tracey is a Toronto-based Poetic Artist who combines empowering poetic verse with vibrant visual art to convey inspiring messages of community strength and hope. Her artwork is expressed on wood and fabric and attempts to disrupt through its exploration of poetic dialogue. Roxane’s artwork has been exhibited throughout Canada and the US.

  12. IN VIEW #12: Bedtime Stories and Other Journeys

    Location: Superior Bookkeeping Services Ltd, 1337 Danforth Ave.
    Artist: Sabrina Tu
    Instagram: @breetwo
    Website: www.breetwo.com
    Artist Statement: “Bedtime Stories and Other Journeys” transforms the act of a grandparent sharing a folktale with their grandchildren into a living diorama. Tonight, the grandparent tells a Mid-Autumn Festival story, of Chang E, who is separated from her husband Hou Yi when she is threatened by bandits and takes an elixir that floats her to the moon. Each child wears a makeshift rabbit headband and eats moon cake. The shadow puppet creatures that come to life dance around them in the room, like a rabbit jumping from the moon to meet Chang E as she arrives and clouds drifting around them.Inspired by the mom and pop shops of the Danforth, this piece represents the magic of oral storytelling between neighbours, patrons, guests and friends. Like a bedtime story, it becomes a visual metaphor for communication, belonging, and the magic of shared cultural memory.

    Artist Bio: Sabrina (she/her) also known as Breetwo, is an illustrator, bird admirer and introvert. Sabrina was born to Taiwanese parents who have always shared the importance of storytelling and appreciating the beauties of nature. She studied and graduated from OCAD University in 2018 with a degree in Illustration. Since graduating she has expanded her artist practice to explore different mediums as vehicles to share her illustrative work. She has worked with city-run, non-profit and private organizations to develop creative programming and produce public art. Sabrina now works out of her studio, Studio 1502, with her friend and fellow illustrator, Wandy Cheng, as a freelance illustrator.

  13. IN VIEW #13: Echoes of Form

    Location: Booster Juice, 1381 Danforth Ave.
    Artist: Victor SY Wei
    Instagram: @victorsywei
    Artist Statement: Echoes of Form is a painterly 3D animation displayed as a looping video installation. Set in a surreal outdoor field, the piece features birds, fish, and land animals roaming freely in a fluid digital ecosystem. At the center floats a monumental rotating head, split across three axes. Each rotating segment wears a mask inspired by a different world culture, suggesting transformation, hybridity, and layered identity. The installation captures the tension between old and new, traditional and digital. It invites viewers to consider how culture is preserved, remixed, and re-expressed across generations. This work continues Victor’s exploration of masks as symbolic vessels-carriers of heritage, emotion, and story-now expanded into a digital dimension. Echoes from home is an homage to the shared urban-natural space of the Danforth neighborhood.


    Artist Bio:     Victor Wei is a multidisciplinary artist based in Toronto working across murals, painting, and digital 3D art. His practice bridges traditional and digital techniques, blending vibrant hand-painted aesthetics with sculptural and animated forms. With a strong visual language rooted in urban art and cultural symbolism, Victor often draws from traditional motifs and reimagines them in contemporary contexts. His work explores identity, mythology,and the translation of physical form into digital environments.

  14. IN VIEW #14: The Agreements of Turtle Island

    Location: Blossoming Minds, 1530 Danforth Ave.
    Artist: Wolf⁷a:z
    Instagram: @wolfaz.otahyoni
    Artist Statement: The Agreements of Turtle Island is a multimedia canvas piece centered on the powerful image of a snapping turtle—an animal deeply rooted in the creation stories of Turtle Island, the name many Indigenous Peoples use for what is now called North America. Through layered imagery, texture, and symbolic design, this work brings forward visual narratives of peace, governance, and shared responsibility for the land.

    The turtle, long revered as a foundational being, carries not only the earth in its cultural significance, but also the layered agreements that have shaped our collective presence on these lands. A symbolic belt encircles the turtle’s form—an echo of historic treaty relationships between First Peoples and settlers, rooted in mutual respect, care, and stewardship.

    This piece is a visual reminder that these original agreements were not only made between human nations, but also with the Earth itself. Today, everyone who calls these lands home is called to honour those original understandings—to care for and protect our shared home, Mother Earth.

    In Indigenous worldviews, life moves in cycles. The Earth is not a commodity, but a living relative with whom we are in constant relationship. Humans are not above nature, but part of a vast web of interdependence—one that includes the waters, winds, animals, plants, insects, and stars. Each holds meaning. Each plays a role. As the two-legged, we are called to uphold our responsibilities with humility, respect, and care for all living beings.

    Key elements in the artwork include:

    • The Great Tree of Peace, with an eagle perched above and weapons buried beneath its roots—an emblem of the Great Law of Peace, the founding constitution of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. This law is one of the world’s oldest participatory governance systems and promotes values of unity, peace, and collective responsibility. The eagle atop the tree serves as a guardian, watching for danger and reminding us to protect the peace. The act of burying weapons beneath the tree symbolizes the end of conflict and a commitment to peaceful coexistence.
    • The Haudenosaunee Confederacy belt, representing the unity of the Six Nations: Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora.
    • Recognition of the traditional caretakers of the Toronto area, including the Haudenosaunee, the Huron-Wendat, the Mississaugas of the Credit, and the Anishinaabe.
    • The One Dish, One Spoon, One Bowl agreement, a longstanding treaty between the Haudenosaunee and the Anishinaabe. It teaches three core principles: 1. Take only what you need; 2. Leave some for others; 3. Keep the dish clean.

    Artist Bio: Wolf⁷a:z is a Haudenosaunee Two-Spirit artist from the Gayogohó:nǫ⁷ Nation of Six Nations of the Grand River. For over 18 years, they have developed a multidisciplinary practice that spans public mural installation, carving, jewelry, fabrication, welding, and epoxy resin work—deeply rooted in their heritage and lived experience. Through their murals, they actively promote the revitalization of the Gayogohó:nǫ⁷ (Cayuga) language, incorporating it into each project and donating 10% of profits to a language program within Six Nations. Their goal is to Indigenize urban spaces and foster empathy, kindness, and respect through visual storytelling. Wolf⁷a:z has painted murals in Canada, the U.S., Scotland, England, Mexico, and Germany. One of their interactive works in Hamilton features a QR code linking to their YouTube channel, where viewers can hear Cayuga & Mohawk spoken. Their work was featured in The Concrete Canvas Graffiti Book (2023), and they were honoured with the Toronto Arts Foundation Indigenous Artist Award in 2025.

INFO HUB & WASHROOMS:

During the night of Nuit Blanche East Danforth come and stop by our Info Hub located at Robertson Parkette, 1549 Danforth Ave. Here you’ll find:

  • Two accessible porta potties;
  • Paper copies of our Nuit Blanche East Danforth hub map;
  • Paper copies of the Nuit Blanche Toronto map (city-wide installations);
  • Art Installations to view and interact with;
  • EEA Staff and Volunteers to ask questions!

FOOD & DRINK OPTIONS:

Nuit Blanche East Danforth audience members are encouraged to visit the following list of businesses that fall within the borders of our 2025 Hub (Coxwell to Linnsmore Crescent) and are open during your visit to the strip, 7pm-7am!

DIRECTIONS TO THE HUB:

We encourage local community members and visitors to the east Danforth Nuit Blanche hub to visit us on the night of October 4th, 2025 by taking the TTC, biking or walking. Please note that the TTC will be operating all night on the evening of Nuit Blanche. Day Pass/Group Day Passes purchased for use on October 4th will be valid until 7 a.m. on October 5th.

Directions:
  • The subway stations that are along our Nuit hub are Coxwell Station, and Greenwood Station;
  • There are bike rings along Danforth Avenue to accommodate your bike if you choose to cycle;
  • If you choose to drive, there are many on-street parking options on residential streets surrounding the Danforth.

FUNDERS AND PRESENTERS:

ABOUT NUIT BLANCHE TORONTO

Nuit Blanche was originally conceived in Paris, France in 2002, with a mandate to bring contemporary art to large and diverse audiences in public spaces. In 2006, the producers of the founding Nuit Blanche from the City of Paris invited the City of Toronto to join an assembly of more than six founding European cities producing similar art and cultural events. Toronto was the first North American city to model itself based on the City of Paris Nuit Blanche, and has since inspired similar celebrations. The Toronto event is produced by the City of Toronto.

Nuit Blanche Toronto is a free, 12-hour contemporary art event that has a mandate to connect contemporary art to the broadest possible publics and to create opportunities for audiences to explore and engage with contemporary art in public space.

The 19th annual Nuit Blanche Toronto will transform the city’s neighbourhoods and streets on the first day of fall with dazzling art installations, from 7 p.m. on Saturday, October 4 to 7 a.m. on Sunday, October 5. Featuring three exhibitions located in North York, Etobicoke and downtown and more than 85 works by local, national and international artists, the city becomes a living book created not just with words, but through sights, sounds, movements and shared spaces. Entry will be free for the public to engage with the art projects.

Since 2006, this award-winning event has featured almost 1,600 art installations by approximately 5,800 artists and has generated over $489 million in economic impact for Toronto. Browse past art projects. This year’s event hashtag is #NBTO25.

ABOUT EAST END ARTS

East End Arts is a non-profit community arts organization that serves the east end of Toronto. We provide inclusive arts programming, events and services to our local communities, and we provide professional development opportunities to both emerging and established artists and arts organizations. Our vision is to unite, inspire and enhance the communities of east Toronto with the transformative power of the arts.


ABOUT THE DANFORTH MOSAIC BIA

The Danforth Mosaic has everything you need within walking distance on Danforth-East between Jones Avenue and Westlake Avenue. We’re a true mosaic of people and Cultures. The BIA works in partnership with the City to create thriving, competitive, and safe business areas that attract shoppers, diners, tourists, and new businesses. Their vision is to create a vibrant and well-maintained business area with diverse shopping and dining opportunities and services to attract the local community as well as visitors.

ABOUT NATIVE WOMEN IN THE ARTS

NWIA (Native Women in the Arts) is a not-for-profit organisation for First Nations, Inuit and Métis women and other Indigenous gender marginalised folks who share the common interest of art, culture, community and the advancement of Indigenous peoples.

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