Since opening in 1981, the Toronto Sculpture Garden (TSG) commissioned temporary artworks by over 80 artists in a small City of Toronto park opposite St. James Cathedral on King Street East. Until 2014, it was operated as a partnership between the City of Toronto and the Louis L. Odette Family, benefactors who created the non-profit L.L.O. Sculpture Garden Foundation which funded and administered the exhibitions. Under the direction of Rina Greer, the TSG allowed artists to explore issues of scale and materials, as well as engage with the local community and visitors to the neighbourhood. For some, the expansion of their practice beyond the studio led to major public artworks elsewhere.
The TSG is now managed by the City of Toronto and acts as a stepping stone between studio work and public art, providing artists with the opportunity to work experimentally in public space. Exhibitions change twice per year, typically in the spring and fall.
October 17, 2025, to April 12, 2026
A sound-consuming serpent has ventured into the Toronto Sculpture Garden. Hungry, it ate various sounds from its surrounding. Its body now visibly holds sounds from a streetcar, the St. James Church bells, ringing chimes, and a bird as it digests its meal. The Sound Eater is a data visualization of the Toronto Sculpture Garden’s soundscape. The serpent’s spine mirrors audio waves from specific events, with the height of each segment corresponding to the amplitude of recorded sounds. Audio recordings from the garden were analyzed and applied to a parametric design for the sculpture’s shape. The data visualization is comprised of the urban, natural and cultural sounds that make up the chaotic, vibrant and contradictory soundscape of downtown Toronto.
Walk around the serpent, opening your attention to the audible world around you and feel a connection to the moment and space you are inhabiting.
Meghan Cheng is a violinist and new media artist based in Toronto, Canada. Her work integrates live performance, data and interactive technologies. She creates immersive installations and screen-based work where sound, image and data respond to one another in real time. Central to her practice is the idea that technology can be a tool for connection and a heightened awareness of our physical surroundings. By designing systems that generate visuals and sonic responses in real time, she aims to create spaces in which the audience is both witness and participant, focusing on the interplay between performer, instrument, and system. Cheng’s work has been presented in galleries, festivals, concerts and theatre performances, where she explores how technology can bring our attention to the current moment and our surroundings.
The TSG is located at 115 King Street East, just east of Church Street, directly across the street from St. James Cathedral and between two of the oldest buildings in the city, dating from the 1840s.
The park is approximately 80′ by 100′ (25m x 30m). With its proximity to King Street to the north and the St. Lawrence market neighbourhood to the south, the park serves a wide variety of users, from those who live and work in the area to visitors to the neighbourhood and the City, people of all ages, those seeking out art and those coming across it by accident.
9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily