Nuit Blanche East Danforth, 2022


Nuit Blanche is coming to back East Danforth for its second time! Join us for this special all-night celebration of contemporary art from sunset to sunrise!

Nuit Blanche – East Danforth
Saturday October 1, 2022 | 7pm – 7am
Various locations along Danforth Avenue, between Greenwood and Woodbine TTC Stations
Cost: FREE to attend!
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Toronto’s sunset to sunrise celebration is the largest contemporary art event in North America – and after no in-person programs for 2020 & 2021, will be back at last in 2022! Thanks to our main partner, The Danforth Mosaic BIA, we’re bringing Nuit Blanche back to our East Toronto communities for a second time between Greenwood and Woodbine TTC Stations!

Inspired by the Nuit Blanche theme “The Space Between Us”, our thematic focus for our 2022 east end hub is “The Space Beneath Us”. Looking down below the sidewalks and sewer grates, we draw inspiration from lost rivers and ancient shorelines, as well as the more recent stories of place, home, and the resurgence of nature. While the veneer of “civilization” begins to peel away, Nuit Blanche East Danforth will invite communities to create and celebrate stories of home, of wilderness, of memory, and of just how deep roots can grow.

QUICK LINKS:

MAJOR ART INSTALLATIONS:

  1. Major Installation: East Danforth Wildlife
    Location: East Lynn Park, 1949 Danforth Ave.
    Artists: Secret Art Collective featuring Blondy & Peanut
    Instagram
    Artist Statement: All of this was wilderness once, and the wilderness comes back home any chance it gets. Even prior to the periods of social distancing during the pandemic, communities of East Danforth worried about the return of the coyote. Public information meetings were held, town halls with elected officials and neighbours were up in arms. During lockdowns we saw more and more coyotes in our neighbourhoods, ravines and parks.

    East Danforth Wildlife responds with whimsy to fears of humankind’s precarious place within the natural world by installing a series of brightly coloured and dynamically lit life size plastic coyotes along the shores of what was once “Small’s Creek”, but what is now East Lynn Park.
    Artist Bio: The Secret Art Collective first formed in 2017 when a group of ragtag artists, arts workers and producers came together on An Honest Farewell: A 4-day city festival that celebrated Toronto’s infamous Honest Ed’s department store prior to its imminent demolition. This four-day festival honored the legacy of one of the city’s most iconic institutions, welcomed over 15,000 guests, and showcased the interwoven narrative of Toronto as a global model for inclusivity, innovation and community by creating an immersive art maze transformed by multidisciplinary artists. The Secret Art Collective featuring Blondy and Peanut used found objects from the former department store and elevated common discount store items into multiple activations that challenged visitors perceptions of art and became some of the most talked about (and photographed) installations in the building. Since then the Collective have met regularly, while maintaining solo art practices, and are excited to come together again for Nuit Blanche East Danforth. They are particularly inspired by the home grown, pop up art projects that emerged all over Toronto during our many pandemic lockdowns finding them inspiring and delightful during dark times.
  2. Major Installation: Mycelial Meditations
    Location: BOMB Fitness, 1502 Danforth Ave
    Artist: Diana Reyes a.k.a Fly Lady Di
    Instagram | Website
    Artist Statement: Transforming an urban gymnasium of care into a silent disco of mycelial meditations, you’re invited to join us as we celebrate the passing of recent times when we were not allowed to dance. Come heal your minds, bodies, and souls together through movement and music!

    Mushrooms provide incredible healing powers to everything on our planet: they are crucial to just about any ecosystem, from helping plants thrive, to decomposing organic matter back into fertile soil, to providing essential nutrition to animal species (including humans). Now, after two long pandemic years, we invite you to join us for an all-night mycelial themed dance experience that celebrates relaxation, healing, and togetherness.    Curated by multi-disciplinary artist, Fly Lady Di, come and connect to the beats, patterns, and rhythms of the Danforth; scan the crowd to see the headphones light up a color-coded network of sounds that melt the mind;; dance the night away to break through to bliss, and to be swept away into a moment of connection with yourself and those around you.
    Artist Bio: If Toronto native Diana Reyes a.k.a Fly Lady Di has been known for rocking parties and stages from New York to Mumbai since her early 20s, she wants to spend the latter part of her 30s onward recognized for her work as a creator; streamlining her abilities as a dancer, choreographer, DJ, writer, actor, performer and producer.  Her one-woman show THIRD WORLD has become the embodiment of this, showing the world her potential for creating and producing material that is relevant and yet timeless.

    Reyes has been hired by major arts institutions to animate spaces with her vibrant brand of dancing and DJing.  Such engagements have included Theaster Gates’ How to Build a House Museum at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Tiff Boombox: FAME Edition, Grand Performances in Los Angeles, Stern Grove Festival in San Francisco, and more. As a DJ, she has spun for recognizable brands like Dior, Fenty, Twitter, Reebok, Toronto Maple Leafs, Sentaler, in spaces like the Royal Ontario Museum on New Year’s Eve, SOHO House Toronto, the Elevate Tech fest where she opened for Akon, as well as a private party for Eric Andre!
  3. Major Installation: Piñatas Bring Us Together
    Location: Walkway outside Coxwell TTC Station
    Artist: Ana Gabriela Lopez Castro
    Instagram | Website
    Artist Statement: In Mexico, piñatas are street gatherings where neighbours listen to music, share stories, drink hot fruit punch, and break at least one piñata while singing Dale, dale, dale! which means give it, give it, give it. The piñatas are usually filled with oranges, sugar canes, tangerines, sweets, and peanuts. The highlight of the evening is always breaking the piñata. As a child, the artist used to look forward to the December holiday season when the ceilings of market aisles were filled with colourful piñatas. Sometimes, the artist’s mom would buy her and her sister the materials to make piñatas. Most times, their mother would generously allow them to choose an already-made piñata. The piñatas were so beautiful and unique – because of their handmade nature, no piñata is ever the same – choosing one was certainly an exhilarating experience. In Toronto, piñatas are used for birthday parties or other special celebrations; piñatas still hold their power to bring people together. This installation reminds us that it is time to connect or reconnect with our family members, friends, and members of our communities, and that we can make new friends, surrounded by colourful piñatas, while we spend Nuit Blanche together.
    Artist Bio: Ana Gabriela Lopez Castro, is a Mexican Visual artist based in Toronto, living in the East End. Her artistic formation started in the areas of photography and printmaking in 2000, where she first found the best way to express her voice. She is an active exponent of Mexican folk art, through the presentation of her artistic and handcrafted alebrijes, fantastic creatures made with paper mache. The love for her roots and Mother Nature is always present in her work.
  4. Major Installation: Girls & Enby Mural Camp Exhibition
    Location: The Danny BIA, 1432 Danforth Ave.
    Artists: Mackenzie C., Ivy O., Maiko R., Oli D., Ethne M., Kyla T., Nomsa P., Poppy G., Lea E.K., and Imogen M.
    Website
    Artist Statement: This piece is a literal take on the theme, “The Space Beneath Us”, taking us into the sewers and tunnels underneath our feet. A perfect mix of aerosol, comedy, and rodents, this mural shows an intricate world below our city; a complicated tangle of lives just as rich and fulfilling as our own.While we could have taken a more serious approach to this year’s Nuit Blanche East Danforth theme, we wanted to keep it playful and fun. A simple idea of an animal multiplied and grew into an entire animal kingdom. There are rat couples who kiss and love, rat families that sleep and fight, and other creatures who live down below the ground. This beloved piece is filled with imaginative creatures who each have their own elaborate lives and backstories; we all contributed our own ideas and personalities to this work of art.Ultimately, this mural reminds us that each life is complicated and different with its own stories and lessons. It never hurts to look at the space beneath us, because then we discover the incredible worlds that exist down below.
    Artist Bio: Girls & Enby Mural Camp (GEMC) is a summer arts program for youth between the ages of 14-18 who self-identify as young women, girls, or non-binary. Through a combination of in-class learning and at-home practice, participants of this camp explore the history of street art, graffiti and murals, and develop their own individual artistic style. The camp always culminates in a collaborative mural that the campers create with their fellow campers and under the guidance of renowned street artists! This year’s camp took place from August 8-12, and was led by muralists Monica Wickeler and Bareket Kezwer. For the mural design, our campers explored the theme, “The Space Beneath Us”, based on our 2022 Nuit Blanche hub theme.

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 1st, 2022, twenty 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 Installation: Elestial Lace
    Location: Illustrative.TO, 1769 Danforth Ave.
    Artist: Asli Alin
    Instagram | Website
    Artist Statement: Elestial Lace is a parametric art installation by Asli Alin, in which iridescent surfaces are assembled together to form a complex geometric structure, resembling a cluster of colourful crystals from an underground cavern. In geology, elestials are multi-layered or etched crystals with many small terminated geometric formations. The installation “Elestial Lace” is formed by many polyhedra, threaded together delicately, representing one of the many magical transformations of the earth’s crust that happens beneath us. As an artist, I am inspired and fascinated by recurring forms found in nature and their ability to magically adapt to their respective environments in a variety of ways – appearing in the world around us with mathematical perfection. These varied forms show up in countless manifestations: coral reefs, plant textures and patterns, snowflakes, minerals, and crystals. I am amazed by this inherent intelligence displayed in nature’s architectural systems, particularly the ability to create complex structures using simple elements. I often borrow from this overarching concept in my own creations by employing modularity to create complexity.
    Artist Bio:  Asli Alin is a multidisciplinary artist traversing disciplines of painting, installation and photography who holds a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture. Read more about this artist HERE.
  2. IN VIEW Installation: Buried Pleasures
    Location: Good Intentions, 1434 Danforth Ave.
    Artist: Stephanie Avery
    Instagram | Website
    Artist Statement: As an artist, I love looking at the familiar objects of our daily lives through the lens of a future in which human life is absent to see how they evolve without our interference. Buried Pleasures imagines a future in which our contemporary, commodity-based life has been long buried and forgotten. It imagines what it would look like to a future explorer who stumbles upon a cavern of over-grown, warped, and luminescent relics of our disposable culture. It captures a sense of wonder, turning familiar objects into strange and precious discoveries.
    This installation also asks viewers to consider the potential long-term effects of our consumer habits, and how we deal with disposable objects. Much of our garbage gets buried (in Toronto about 50% of our residential waste alone goes to landfills). With it being out of sight and out of mind it’s easy to take for granted the amount of waste our lifestyles accumulate. While the reality of our underground reservoirs of trash isn’t as sparkly as my installation, I hope this piece inspires thought and dialogue about the many ways we collectively create garbage and what happens to it once it’s gone in the space beneath us.
    Artist Bio:  Stephanie Avery is a Toronto-based multi-disciplinary artist with a degree in visual art from York University. Read more about this artist HERE.
  3. IN VIEW Installation: Our Unconscious
    Location: Mary-Margaret McMahon (Beaches—East York), Constituency Office, 1821 Danforth Ave.
    Artist: Natalie Very B.
    Instagram | Website
    Artist Statement: Our Unconscious is a window mural that responds to the theme, “The Space Beneath Us”. When I think of the space beneath us, my art psychotherapy training connects it to the unconscious parts of the human mind. This colourful illustrative mural explores the whimsical world that exists within each one of us, lying beneath the protective layer of societal norms and misconceptions. Through this installation, I invite viewers to ask themselves: What would your true self look like if it was a shape or a colour? How would you identify yourself if societal approval didn’t matter? What are you really made of? What kind of energy is hidden within you? What part of you is yet unexplored? What is your biggest dream? What is your most important value?This mural has been an exciting collaboration with the east end community. Leading up to Nuit Blanche, I have asked east enders these kinds of questions on social media. The images and symbols that you see within this piece amongst the stars and galaxies represent the diverse experiences and identities of east end community members. 
    Artist Bio:  Natalie Very B. is an award-winning Polish-Canadian illustrator, muralist, and Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying). Read more about this artist HERE.
  4. IN VIEW Installation: Duration
    Location: Toronto Public Library – Danforth/Coxwell Branch, 1675 Danforth Ave.
    Artists: Trotter Brothers
    Instagram | YouTube
    Artist Statement: Duration imagines a future display of an Anthropocene core sample. The samples are composed of found objects from our current era and include opportunities for surprise viewer interaction through the use of mirrors and lighting.
    The core samples represent the future “Space Beneath Us” that is actively being created now. Viewers are challenged to reflect on their impact on the future as well as the deep time legacy of their daily actions – specifically as consumers. The intention is to encourage viewers to recognize their responsibility for change and in doing so, to create a space for hope. Seeing oneself through the damage of the past, towards an interaction with the future.
    Artist Bio:  Adam Trotter is a member of the Flick the Switch Artists Collective. Chris Trotter is an experimental musician and multimedia artist. Read more about these artists HERE.
  5. IN VIEW Installation: Unwrapping the unhappy
    Location: Crying Out Loud, 2005 Danforth Ave.
    Artist: Vridhhi Chaudhry
    Instagram | Website
    Artist Statement: What is the space beneath us? A space we hide from, emotions and experiences we hide from the world? A space that protects our vulnerabilities, insecurities and sorrows? We hide them because we are scared of how they may portray us to the world. Society has made us believe that our insecurities and grief make us weak when in actuality, these things build us and make us who we really are. It our truest self in the space beneath us, who we protect in the depths of darkness and unknownness. Grief encompasses more than just pain. Where there is love, there is grief. This space changes shape over time and holds space for many other emotions and experiences. Grief doesn’t disappear nor do we recover from grief after the loss of someone significant. Grief is born when a loved one dies, and as long as that person remains significant, grief will remain.Unwrapping the unhappy taps into the depths of darkness and unknownness to pull out the truest self that lives in there. It isn’t an easy task to get in there but it is an important one for the growth of the self.
    Artist Bio:  Vridhhi Chaudhry is an Indian artist based in Toronto and holds a MFA in Interdisciplinary Art, Media and Design from OCAD University. Read more about this artist HERE.
  6. IN VIEW Installation: How They Run Deep
    Location: Madame Gateaux, 2034 Danforth Ave.
    Artist: Steph Cloutier
    Instagram | Website
    Artist Statement: How They Run Deep is a paper cut installation that attempts to make the invisible visible by highlighting our city’s forgotten waterways. Working with archival maps and photos of Toronto’s past, the presence of creeks, brooks and streams remain hidden from view, but they are still with us. Most have been covered over, converted into sewer drain ways, or altered in form as the planning of our city made way for development and growth. Our gain of a bustling, expanding metropolis is our loss of natural habitats and ecosystems. How They Run Deep attempts to highlight these waterways. Cut out from layers of paper, they are shown as their original form before subtracted from our present view.
    Artist Bio: Steph Cloutier is a Tkaronto/Toronto based Francophone artist working in textiles, paper, video, and installation. Read more about this artist HERE.
  7. IN VIEW Installation: Suspended Animation, (Not All Shadows Are Dark #3)
    Location: Danforth Coxwell Library, 1675 Danforth Ave.
    Artist: Monica Gutierrez
    Instagram | Website
    Artist Statement: Suspended Animation is a shadow-based project and continuation of my “Not All Shadows Are Dark” series, which uses light, shadow, and movement in public installations to engage audiences in visual conversations around surviving pandemic isolation and the human need for interaction, community, compassion, and caring. It features a back-lit underground scene of tunnels, burrows, native fauna, and animals. What all these animals have in common is a period of self-preserving inactivity in reaction to challenges or changes in daylight, temperature, or food availability. Animals have evolved to take care of themselves during these difficult periods, and then they come back alive once conditions are right.
    In a parallel scenario, human beings across Toronto have suspended their lives for over two years, and we are now emerging from this period of forced inactivity and pause. As we leave our homes and return to work, to see our friends and families, to attend concerts, sports games and festivals, we can gain wisdom from animals that experience these cycles on a regular basis. We can feel comforted by the resilience of these species, and by their judgement on knowing when to take care of themselves, when to take a break, when to return to life.  
    Artist Bio: Monica Gutierrez (she/her) is a Colombian-born, Toronto-based visual artist known for her groundbreaking projects. Read more about this artist HERE.
  8. IN VIEW Installation: Unconscious Collective
    Location: Vilnes Hair Salon, 1436 Danforth Ave.
    Artist: Sarah Imrisek
    Instagram | Twitter | YouTube | Website
    Artist Statement: Unconscious Collective is a projection-mapped animation featuring an individual, flowing and changing, while still rooted to the earth and experiencing dreamlike memories of the land on which we stand. A motion sensor allows the animation to detect the presence of passersby and bring the viewers into the dream.This installation takes a broad and abstract approach to the theme “The Space Beneath Us”, focusing on the diversity of the ancestors of the land. It depicts the depth of our influences and interconnectedness, in a style that evokes a deep dive into the collective unconscious. There is much more to our roots than we will ever know; we can only open our hearts and senses to receive such wisdom as we can from our ancestors, predecessors, and the earth itself.As visitors approach the window, the animation will become more colourful, vibrant and active, reflecting how each generation has the opportunity to breathe new life into the traditions and memories we inherit, by engaging with them and considering our own lives in the light of the lives of those who have walked this road before. 
    Artist Bio: Wave whisperer. Artist and coder in Toronto. (11 year resident of East Danforth). Previous career as a programmer making educational games. Read more about this artist HERE.
  9. IN VIEW Installation: Once a Tributary: An Homage to the Tenacity of Small’s Creek
    Location: Ethel, 1781 Danforth Ave.
    Artist: Andria Keen
    Instagram | Website
    Artist Statement: Once a Tributary is a collaged homage to the tenacity and beauty of Small’s Creek and the idea of wilderness over manicured control and progress. Small’s Creek is one of the city’s last ravines from an underground waterway. It is now severely impacted by construction underway to install a massive retaining wall and a fourth rail for east/west trains. Like many in my area, I spent much time with my children there, exploring a natural oasis within the heart of the city and pondering the magic of this ravine that springs from the earth. It is a significant loss, and I want to pay my respects.‘Beneath us’ are numerous lost waterways, a spattering of buried dumps and emptied clay pits—a history of progress with painful natural consequences for the environment and the people. The current destruction within the creek touches on sacrificing land in the name of progress, and the use of recycled plastic bags and packaging sparks questions around the debate about these materials. I hope this installation will spread awareness and engage people in contemplating beyond the usual concrete underfoot. 
    Artist Bio: Andria Keen (she/her) is completing her BFA in cross-disciplinary Life Studies at OCADU, in Tkaronto. Read more about this artist HERE.
  10. IN VIEW Installation: Revelations
    Location: Areej Artists Centre, 1896 Danforth Ave.
    Artist: Noor Khan
    Instagram | Website
    Artist Statement: Revelations is a light installation using custom lamp shades attached onto found lamps and lighting fixtures, to tell the story of diaspora, with particular reference to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s Immigration Policy established in the 1970’s, which allowed entry of many immigrants of colour into Canada without equal access to resources, and at the neglect of Indigenous communities. Many of these immigrants ended up living and working in the Danforth Area, including my uncle and his family, who still live in the area. This installation uses writings, photographs, and maps to reveal the effects of Eurocentric policy-making, such as the 1970’s Immigration Policy. It exposes what is beneath the surface of policies that appear to be serving the people, but in fact are laid down to further marginalize those who were always here, while also still controlling the upwards mobility of communities that were finally allowed in after years of White-only immigration into North America.
    Artist Bio: Noor Khan is a community-engaged artist, art director and producer. Read more about this artist HERE.
  11. IN VIEW Installation: Jupiter’s Beard (A Meeting of the High Up and the Deep Down)
    Location: Red Rocket Coffee, 1364 Danforth Ave.
    Artist: Nancy Lalicon
    Instagram
    Artist Statement: Jupiter’s Beard is a valerian wildflower native of the Mediterranean and can now be found all over the world. It is often seen on roadsides or wasteland as it is a very tolerant plant. In the “Space Beneath Us” the focus is on the mass of roots – the beautiful element of a plant which is often unseen yet essential for plants to thrive. My choice of flower was made through its name – Jupiter’s Beard. It was named after the main Roman God, Jupiter, who was portrayed with a burly beard. Jupiter is also the largest planet in our solar system. It can be seen in the early summer night sky using a simple telescope.
    When making paper flowers I often study their botanical structure, their history, and their cultural significance.  I look at the flowers around me – in the gardens of my neighbourhood and the wildflowers that peak up from cracks in the concrete, or grow in the brambles along a city hiking trail. The installation invites viewers to join me in the portrayal of awe when looking at the beauty of flora, but also looking at the beauty of the night sky.  Grab a flashlight or use your phone to shine light on the art installation.
    Artist Bio: Nancy Lalicon discovered the art of making realistic paper flowers in early 2020. Read more about this artist HERE.
  12. IN VIEW Installation: Petroleum Imprints
    Location: Danforth/Coxwell Parkette, 1549 Danforth Ave.
    Artist: Jungle Ling
    Instagram
    Artist Statement: Petroleum Imprints is an installation consisting of 2 freestanding paper mache mammoths constructed from discarded steel mesh fence material as internals. They have built-in LEDs which allow a yellowish glow much like lanterns. The mammoths stand over an area slightly larger than their collective footprint covered by plastic shopping bags and plastic garbage bags. Historically, the mammoth, which had a range throughout North and South America many centuries ago, has become layers of soil or petroleum oil beneath us. We “exhume” their remains in the form of oil beneath us and transform them into disposable plastic bags we’d use to create our own
    eventual “layer” to be below the next generation of Earth’s occupiers. This installation challenges viewers to consider what ” imprint” or “layer” we are leaving or want to leave beneath for the future generations of all of the Earth’s creatures.
    Artist Bio: Jungle Ling is a Canadian artist based in Toronto, Ontario. He was born in Taiwan of Hakka heritage and was raised in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Read more about this artist HERE.
  13. IN VIEW Installation: Walking with the Invisible
    Location: Celena’s Bakery, 1938 Danforth Ave
    Artist: Marzieh M. Miri
    Instagram | Website
    Artist Statement: Walking with the Invisible explores the course of the buried Taddle Creek in today’s Toronto. It encourages looking and listening to what cannot be immediately seen or heard —a lost piece of nature and Indigenous history in the city, retrieved through a multimedia installation– a video and cyanotypes I made in Taddle Creek (they are still wrinkled because of the touch of the water on them). Through studying a hidden river, this project explores how humans have reshaped the natural environment of the city. It aims to represent a hidden phenomenon, by capturing the trace of it on cyanotypes, walking the course of it as an experimental performance and juxtaposing photo and sound to create a mental image. This project depicts, not the river but the “absence” of it— to make a sense of longing—for the river and for the sense of place it could create. This work is representing a present absence; a spatial memory of a lost landscape.
    Artist Bio: Marzieh M. Miri (she/her) is a Toronto-based documentarian. She has an MFA in Documentary Media from Ryerson University. Read more about this artist HERE.

  14. Photo credit, Caitlin Woelfe-O’Brien.

    IN VIEW Installation: to grow an armour and a prayer
    Location: Fabric Spark, 1992 Danforth Ave.
    Artist: Erin Poole
    Instagram
    Artist Statement: to grow an armour and a prayer is a projected video work of site-specific movement choreography. The projection screen is framed in the space with hanging handmade textile artworks that I made with felted sheep wool.Over the last 2 years I have been incorporating my new fascination working with the process of creating felt fabric, into my existing dance and performance practice. I brought my materials to various East Danforth locations to make a series of custom felt pieces. Each piece is a unique small attempt to make a sense of the ground it was made upon, more visible and tangible through my making.

    Working with the sheep wool brings me a sense of earth, the animal and cycles of growing and shedding. My movements in the projected video reveal a process of asking: How can I feel what I cannot necessarily see? What is just below the surface of my understanding?

    This installation is an embodied and sensorial response to Nuit Blanche East Danforth’s theme “The Space Beneath Us”. Reconfiguring and interconnecting the different felt pieces, made in different places; playfully approaching them as a gown, as soft armor or shell – as pathways to move deeply and deeper.

    Artist Bio: Erin Poole is a dance artist of European settler ancestry, based in Tkaronto. Read more about this artist HERE.
  15. IN VIEW Installation: A forest
    Location: Clean Cuts Barbershop, 2013 Danforth Ave.
    Artist: Naz Rahbar
    Instagram | Website
    Artist Statement: What you see is a crowd. Why they have come together is unknown. My thoughts around this piece have changed over the past few years, which is encapsulated in the drawing itself, and varied gestures. It has traveled with me from studio to studio, and home to home. I have worked on it during and between projects, in still moments of my practice, pre and post covid. The meaning of a crowd itself has shifted for me during this time. As have many things in the world.The moment a crowd comes together in celebration, grief or protest, holds a lot of power. In those moments we are united, closest to nature and each other. In those moments like other living things, we exist together as a whole, perhaps without an ego, together like cells.  In these moments we are like trees in a dense forest, together and strongly rooted. Yet somehow these moments are also black and white. Not everyone is at the same celebration, or protest. A single tree without its forest family is more vulnerable, a tree without roots to help them communicate is more fragile. An old growth forest is strong and full of diversity, knowledge and community. In these moments we are like trees in a dense forest, together and strongly rooted.
    Artist Bio: Naz Rahbar is an Iranian born Tkaronto based multidisciplinary artist with drawing at the core of her practice. Read more about this artist HERE.
  16. IN VIEW Installation: The Space Beneath Us
    Location: The Pink Studio, 2053 Danforth Ave.
    Artist: Sarvenaz Rayati
    Instagram | Website
    Artist Statement: The Space Beneath Us is about soil: the importance of it, and our connection and life giving exchange with it. This light installation shows many different layers of soil, from top grass to the water canals beneath. Two feet stand on the soil, and we can see the exchange of energy from the ground to the feet. The ‘Space Beneath Us’ is the soil we walk upon, where our roots are. Life begins from it and returns to it. Soil is also grounding. We can walk barefoot on it to achieve a healthy balanced life, and we can feel the exchange that happens between soil and our bodies. It helps us heal and be healthy. I hope this installation shows the important relationship we have to soil, and the vitality of it to our existence.
    Artist Bio: Sarvenaz Rayati is a multidisciplinary artist based in Toronto. Read more about this artist HERE.
  17. IN VIEW Installation: const(i.e.)llations: X
    Location: Create Art Studio, 1801 Danforth Ave.
    Artists: Riya Razdan, Zen Alladina
    Riya: Instagram | Website
    Zen: Instagram | Twitter | Website
    Artist Statement: const(i.e.)llations: X is an Augmented-Reality poem, designed for storefront display. The physical display is an illustration of a row of buildings in the east end of Toronto, printed in poster size. At the center of the artwork are the words “YOU ARE HERE.” A play on the adage “X marks the spot,” viewers will be invited to hold their phone over the image to view the image in AR. Here, the familiar city view is changed: covered in leaves, vines, and new life taking root over the structures that exist today. What is beneath has always been there: growing, and waiting to emerge.
    The poem that accompanies this piece interrogates the phonetic sound of ‘X.’ Exclusion. Extraction. Excess. Exile. At the same time, X corresponds with a sense of place-making, and relocation. Exploration. Expectation. Excitement. What exists beneath the spaces where we position ourselves? What seeds are waiting to sprout anew?
    Artist Bio: Riya Razdan is a UX/UI designer and illustrator who majored in Cognitive Science with a focus on human-computer interaction. Zen Alladina is a writer, poet, and tea sommelier living on the Treaty 13 land known as t’karonto|Toronto. Read more about these artists HERE.
  18. IN VIEW Installation: It’s Getting Hot in Here
    Location: Fresh Paint Studio, 1849 Danforth Ave.
    Artist: Tennesha Skyers
    Instagram | TikTok | YouTube | Facebook | Website
    Artist Statement: This painting reminds us that the space beneath us is a limited resource, and we as a people need to reduce our use of fossil fuels. Over usage of fossil fuels will cause the atmosphere to heat up causing more forest fires, ice melting, floods , the rise of salt and minerals in our water killing aquatic life, and many more devastations due to the chain reaction. It’s Getting Hot in Here contrasts my memories of how Canada has changed through time. I contrast what Canadian winters used to look versus the space beneath us now heating up and melting away the ice and snow. Each year our winters and summers are becoming warmer. My hope is to inspire people towards sustainable solutions like using solar energy, bicycles, eating foods that don’t require deforestation, and producing items that don’t emit carbon. I want to show the viewer how we need to collectively reduce our use of resources to sustain the space beneath us. 
    Artist Bio: Tennesha Skyers is a multidisciplinary artist using painting, video, photography, and digital art to create art. Read more about this artist HERE.
  19. IN VIEW Installation: Memories
    Location: Broad Lingerie, 1763 Danforth Ave.
    Artist: Sara Vargas Nessi
    Instagram | Website
    Artist Statement: Memories invites viewers to dig inside and bring forward precious memories that happened to us in East Danforth. Whether it was from our childhood or from yesterday, the exploration is meant to go beneath the surface of our recollection. While you look at this installation, I invite you to remember the moment of your first kiss, eating ice cream with your sibling, or celebrating a special birthday. These memories are part of what constitutes the history of East Danforth, and they are hiding beneath us in the architecture, landscape, and roads. These memories live and just as shadows, sometimes go unnoticed. But how do we keep a moment from vanishing away forever? The shadows captured in this installation show moments frozen in time. Silhouettes of the flora that compose East Danforth, while the hanging circles represent the fragility of the memories. These are being suspended just like they are in our minds. However, the shadows act as a reminder that they can slip away the moment we forget them.

    From hanging mobiles to photographs of temporary things, this installation invites visitors to reflect on what lies beneath us, and the experiences from places that give shape to memories.
    Artist Bio: Sara Vargas Nessi is a fine artist who captures natural light and shadows over her paintings. Read more about this artist HERE.
  20. IN VIEW Installation: Won’t you Stay a While?
    Location: Urban Foam, 1494 Danforth Ave.
    Artist: Jes Young
    Instagram | Website
    Artist Statement: Won’t you Stay a While? is a small sitting area consisting of discarded furniture covered in hundreds of cast hydrocal barnacles. The barnacles are intuitively attached, densely populating the bottom and growing sparser as they “grow” further up the furniture – mimicking barnacles latching themselves onto various objects immersed in water. One creature that appears all over shorelines and any vessel that stays just underneath the water line are barnacles. These strange and wonderful calcified arthropods manage to make their home wherever they find a place to rest and attach themselves to. This project brings together these creatures that dwell and cement themselves just below us, mirroring how we cement ourselves to our homes (in any and every semblance of the word) and the furniture/objects we spend a lot of our time on – while literally having the barnacles occupying the space beneath us. 
    Artist Bio:  Jes is a non-binary mixed media sculpture artist and educator based in Toronto, Canada. Read more about this artist HERE.

FOOD & BEVERAGE OPTIONS:

Nuit Blanche East Danforth audience members are encouraged to visit the following list of businesses for a bite to eat or drink during your visit! Make note of the special deals these businesses are providing for the night of Nuit Blanche:

GRAB A LATE DINNER (sit down):

GRAB A LATE NIGHT SNACK (quick, to-go):

LATE NIGHT HANG OUT (open past midnight):

INFO & REFRESH STATION:

During the night of Nuit Blanche East Danforth, you can stop by our Info and Refresh Station located at the Parkette at Coxwell and Danforth. Here you’ll find:

  • Washrooms, including one accessible washroom;
  • Information on other Nuit Blanche Toronto hubs;
  • #EastEndLove Merch for sale;
  • EEA Staff and Volunteers to ask questions!

Please note that there will also be washrooms available at East Lynn Park as well!

SOCIAL MEDIA CONTEST:

Our dedicated hashtag for the evening of Nuit Blanche East Danforth is #nbED2022. We encourage you to take photos and videos, share them on Instagram or Facebook, and tag us at @eastendartsTO! You’ll be entered into a random draw to win one of three cool pieces of printed art from Secret Planet Print Shop! Please note that the main hashtag for Nuit Blanche Toronto-wide is #NBTO22. (All images below from Secret Planet Print Shop website).

ART & BUSINESS HUB MAP:

Find here a visual map of where you can find our art installations, businesses for food and drink, and more! You can save the image below to your phone, or access it for download HERE.

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 1st by taking the TTC, biking or walking. Please note that the TTC will be operating all night on the evening of October 1st, 2022. Day Pass/Group Day Passes purchased for use on October 1st will be valid until 7 a.m. on October 2nd. Also note that there will be free entry at Scarborough and North York stations!

Directions:

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.

2022 marks the 17th edition of the event, with programming taking place in neighbourhoods across the city, including Scarborough, Downtown, Fort York, West Queen West, North York, Danforth East and more. On Saturday, October 1, sunset to sunrise, the city will be transformed through contemporary art. This is an exciting opportunity to celebrate and showcase Toronto’s arts community, the City’s commitment to contemporary art, and installations that engage both uninitiated and devoted art lovers from Toronto and beyond.

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 Business Improvement Area (BIA) was formed in 2008 with membership comprised of commercial property owners and business owners on Danforth Ave. between Jones and Westlake. 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.

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