Call for Submissions: Winter Wonders 2025 at Royal Botanical Gardens

The Historic Hendrie Gates and landscape lit with colourful lights for Winder Wonders.

Call for Artists
Royal Botanical Gardens – Winter Wonders Installations

Application Deadline: July 11, 2025, 5pm
Optional Site Visit: June 14, 2025, 10am – 12pm | RSVP to jfreiburger@rbg.ca
Event Dates: November 27, 2025 – January 4, 2026, 5pm – 10pm each night
Learn more about the Royal Botanical Gardens at www.rbg.ca

About Winter Wonders:

Winter Wonders is Royal Botanical Gardens’ signature winter experience attracting 30,000-40,000 visitors over 5 weeks. Guests explore illuminated outdoor trails, enjoy festive music and seasonal treats, and take in the beauty of winter landscapes throughout Hendrie Park. Inside, vibrant plant displays, holiday décor, and a charming model train exhibit offer warmth and wonder for all ages. It’s a joyful tradition that blends nature, light, and celebration.

What we’re looking for:

To enhance the experience RBG is seeking up to three installation works by Canadian artists that engage light, interactivity and a sense of magic. RBG’s audience is multi-generational and loves having interactive experiences with one another. These new installations should play off this desire to create magical moments together, a sense of exploration and curiosity, and be able to engage a visitor for a 5-10-minute duration.

Winter Wonders already includes:

• A sound-responsive Singing Tree
• An interactive light-based bonfire
• Light-filled lanterns and pathway lighting
• Environmental lighting that provides washes of colour and movement
• A 100-foot-long overhead canopy of lights
• Multiple geodesic domes filled with ‘Canadiana’ dioramas
• Real fires pits, vendor cabins, food vendors and atmospheric sound

All installations must be built to a level that can withstand being outdoors for 8 weeks in the Winter. Depending on the weather this can mean high winds, heavy snow, temperatures ranging from +10 to -20 degrees, and heavy public interaction.

Tree Love by ZemVision, Winter Wonders 2024

Location:

Winter Wonders takes place in Hendrie Park, located directly across from the RBG Main Centre. This gated park includes multiple gardens (dormant during Winter Wonders), the Dan Lawrie International Sculpture Collection of 20+ permanent works from around the world, the reflecting pond, Tea House, Mitchell’s Field, the historic Hendrie Gates and numerous other stunning features.

Working with our lighting and technical partners Winter Wonders includes many installation elements that are noted on the map below. Also indicated on the map are the opportunity sites we’ve identified for these commissions.

Signature Site – 1 commission
Global Garden – $20,000

This work will be a signature work of the event and must engage a high-level of interactivity and scale. This commission will be entrusted to a senior-level artist with multiple successful projects in the past.

The Global Garden was revitalized this summer and Bloodroot by Karl Unnuach is at its centre. The garden is surrounded in 8′ tall cedar bushes making it a hidden gem in the event layout.

Medium Site – 1 commission
Treed Grove – $15,000

80′ x 100′ area with undulating ground and 8 trees of various sizes. Across the path to the Southeast is a work by Ivan Black entitled Kinetic Symmetry.

Intimate Sites – 1 commission
The Kippax Trail – $10,000

Kippax Trail is a 700-foot-long trail that weaves through the North end of Hendrie Park, and has a small plot of land at its midday way point.

Site Map:

Fees:

RBG has allocated fee based on each site as follows:
$20,000 – Global Garden – 1 selection
$15,000 – Treed Grove – 1 selection
$10,000 – Kippax Trail – 1 selection

This fee is inclusive of all artists fees, transportation, materials, studio and fabrication costs, insurance, licensing, technical needs, installation requirements, stamped Ontario engineered drawings if required, and de-installation costs.

Selected artists will be required to provide proof of insurance for the duration of the design, fabrication, installation and exhibition period.

RBG will provide site drawings, a 3D scan of the selected site, electrical as required, and staff/equipment assistance with installation as negotiated during the contracting process.

Artists will retain ownership of their installation following its premiere at Winter Wonders.

Timeline:

Optional Site Visit: Saturday, June 14, 2025, 10am – 12pm
Application Deadline: Friday, July 11, 2025, 5pm
Selection Notification: Friday, July 18, 2025
Detailed Design: Friday, August 29, 2025
Installation: Late November 2025

How to Apply:

To apply to the Winter Wonders Call for Artists, please visit the RBG website and submit the following information:

Note: All documents should be submitted in PDF format, with 12 pt font, single spaced text.

Artist Details:
Name of Artist
Name of Business (if different)
City of Origin
Website
Instagram
Tik Tok
Facebook
Email
Phone

Artist CV:
3-page maximum artist CV outlining your experience & exhibition history.

Description:
2-page maximum description of your practice and how you would approach a commission for your selected location.

Location Selection:
Select one location. To apply to multiple sites, you will need to complete the application process for each site. Artists will only be selected for one location.

Photos:
Submit 5 photos of previously completed work. Do not submit renderings for projects that have not been realized. Do not submit images of proposed works for this Call for Artists. Embed all images in your PDF file. Provide an image list that includes the following information for each image: Name of Work, Materials, Year Created, Approximate budget, Installed Location.

Application Deadline: Friday, July 11, 2025, 5pm

Royal Botanical Gardens
680 Plains Road West
Burlington, ON L7T 4H4
www.rbg.ca
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