Nuit Blanche Toronto returns October 4 with an invitation to “Translate the city through art”

Nuit Blanche, Toronto’s free, all-night celebration of contemporary art, returns for its 19th edition on Saturday, October 4 at 7 p.m. through Sunday, October 5 at 7 a.m.  

This year’s theme, Translating the City, envisioned by Laura Nanni, Artistic Director of Nuit Blanche, invites audiences to explore the ways art interprets and transforms urban life, bridging language, culture, identity and place. 

Translating the City reflects Toronto’s multilingual character where more than 200 languages are spoken, and reimagines how we communicate and connect through spoken, written, visual, gestural, sonic and emotional forms. 

Three City-produced exhibitions 

This year, Nuit Blanche once again expands outside the downtown core with three major exhibition areas across Toronto: 

• In North York, Collective Composition, curated by Laura Nanni, who concludes her two-year term as Artistic Director with this year’s edition of Nuit Blanche, invites audiences to actively participate in immersive works that reveal the city as a living fabric woven through shared care, creativity and responsibility. 

• In Etobicoke, From here, there, everywhere, curated by Renata Azevedo Moreira and supported by Exhibition Sponsor Humber Polytechnic, reflects on the many meanings of home in a big city shaped by migration, hope, connection and belonging. 

• In the downtown core (Dundas Street West around Chinatown), Poetic Justice, curated by Charlene K. Lau, explores Toronto’s multilayered histories as Indigenous homelands and as a city of global arrival and departure to consider concepts of land, treaties, justice and reform. 

Each exhibition transforms civic spaces and unexpected places into sites of connection where artworks explore different languages in spoken, written and signed forms to convey identity, memory and community. Alongside these exhibitions, programming presented by major institutions and self-produced Independent Projects by Toronto-based artists will animate spaces across the city.  

Notable Highlights 

This year’s program features large-scale projects made possible through the support of valued partners: 

• The Eye of Wisdom by Ellen Pau: A large-scale projection incorporates Hong Kong Sign Language created as a love letter to Toronto. This project is sponsored by Arts in Hong Kong. 

• Undersight by Cassils: A list of banned words is sent into the night sky using Morse code, reclaiming censored language as a public and political statement. This project is supported by Exhibition Sponsor Humber Polytechnic.  

• Lamination 1.0 by Studio Rat: A suspended quilt-like canopy of reclaimed plastic co-created with community members in North York, transforms waste into a vibrant public artwork. This project is sponsored by GWL Realty Advisors.    

• A Place I Call Home by Faisal Anwar: An interactive installation that explores what “home” means in an era of migration, instability and change. This project is sponsored by CityPlace and Fort York BIA. 

Multilingual, interactive and participatory 

The 2025 program embraces the idea that translation is not simply the conversion of one language to another but the connection and understanding it creates. This spirit shapes participatory work across the city where audiences are invited not only to observe but to co-create participating in interactive dance floors and communal weavings to multilingual poetry and projections. 

Nuit Talks, tours and workshops 

Leading up to the event, audiences can deepen their engagement through a free series of Talks, Tours and Workshops taking place from Saturday, September 13 to Tuesday, October 7. A highlight is Translating the City: A Midday Gathering on Sunday, September 21 at The Bentway Studio featuring a keynote speech by Elder Duke Redbird, as well as curators and artists in a multisensory dialogue about art, language and urban life. 

Accessibility and remote access 

Nuit Blanche introduces expanded accessibility measures including on-site ASL interpretation at all three event centres, tactile experiences, captioning and an accessibility webpage. 

A new addition this year is The Nuit Blanche Remote Access Hub, developed in partnership with Tangled Art + Disability. Part livestream, part art tour and part gathering, the Hub offers audiences across Toronto and beyond a hybrid way to experience the night, whether online or in-person at the North York exhibition. 

Partners and sponsors 

The City of Toronto thanks: the Province of Ontario; Humber Polytechnic; Arts in Hong Kong; GWL Realty Advisors; CityPlace & Fort York BIA; Chelsea Hotel, Toronto; Knorr and Ryde: for their contributions to this year’s program. 

The City also thanks its media partners for helping to bring Nuit Blanche to audiences across Toronto and beyond: boom 97.3; Akimbo; CP24; NOW Toronto and Toronto Star. 

More information about Nuit Blanche, a complete list of art projects and how to sign up for the Talks, Tours and Workshops can be found on the City’s Nuit Blanche website: Toronto.ca/NuitBlanche.  

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