Nuit Blanche Toronto 2025 Full Programming Announced

“Translate the city through art” on October 4

Detail of work from Intergalactic Planetary by Tracey Snelling, 2024.

Nuit Blanche Toronto 2025

October 4 – 5, 2025 | 7pm – 7am
Free | Across Toronto
toronto.ca/NuitBlanche

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

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.

Inspired by the multilingual nature of cities like Toronto, where more than 200 languages are spoken, this theme explores the many ways—visual, sonic, cultural and emotional—through which urban life is understood, expressed and reimagined.

This year’s event features 85 projects from local, national and international artists, including three curated exhibitions presented by the City of Toronto.

Registration is now open for a free series of talks, tours and workshops taking place September 13 to October 7. The series invites audiences to engage with artistic processes, civic themes and creative futures through hands-on activities, dialogue and behind-the scenes insight.

Explore the full programming and register at: toronto.ca/NuitBlanche.

City-Produced Exhibitions

Nuit Blanche 2025 spans three major exhibition areas across Toronto.

Collective Composition
Curated by Laura Nanni
North York | Willowdale West

Collective Composition explores how cities translate and are experienced as dynamic compositions. In North York, immersive and participatory works invite reflection on our shared role in shaping urban life—revealing the city as a living fabric woven through shared care, creativity, and responsibility, where everyone plays a part.

Poetic Justice
Curated by Charlene K. Lau
Downtown City Centre | Chinatown

As a continual site for reconciliation and memory, the city is always in translation and its publics mixing. Poetic Justice brings together the multilayered histories of Toronto as Indigenous homelands and as a city of global arrival and departure to consider concepts of land, treaties, justice and reform.

From here, there, everywhere
Curated by Renata Azevedo Moreira
Etobicoke | Humber Polytechnic Lakeshore Campus

From here, there, everywhere tells a version of any big city’s story: being a permanent or temporary home to millions of people. The exhibition translates many meanings of home—as layered as the many cultures shaping the city, transforming familiar South Etobicoke spaces into places of hope, connection, and resistance.

(english is a foreign language) PROTECT THE SACRED VOICE by Demian DinéYazhi’, 2024.

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 incorporating Hong Kong Sign Language, created as a love letter to Toronto’s diasporic communities. Presented with the Hong Kong Tourism Board and the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office.

Under Sight 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. Presented by Exhibition Sponsor Humber Polytechnic.

Lamination 1.0 by Studio Rat
A suspended canopy of reclaimed plastic tiles co-created with community members in North York, transforming waste into a vibrant public artwork. Presented with GWL Realty Advisors.

A Place I Call Home by Faisal Anwar
An interactive installation exploring what “home” means in an era of migration, instability and change. Presented with CityPlace and the Fort York BIA.

Plastiscapes (2024) by Studio Rat. Photographed by Michael Patton.

Nuit Talks, Tours and Workshops

Leading up to the event, audiences can deepen their engagement through a free series of talks, tours and workshops September 13 to October 7. To view the full series and to register, visit toronto.ca/nuitblanche.

Translating the City: A Midday Gathering
September 21, 2025, 1 – 4pm

Featuring a keynote by Elder Duke Redbird, as well as curators and artists in a dialogue about art, language and urban life.

Weaving Futures: Dream Weave with Blessyl Buan
September 13, 2025 | 2 – 4:30pm*
September 20, 2025 | 2 – 4:30pm*

Multidisciplinary artist Blessyl Buan leads the creation of The Dream Weave, a living tapestry inspired by Filipino weaving traditions, community storytelling, and sustainable materials. The final artwork will debut at Nuit Blanche in North York.
*Separate Sessions. Pre-registration required.

Pressing Futures: DIY Plastic Crafting with Studio Rat
September 27, 2025 | 11am – 4pm

In this hands-on workshop with Studio Rat (Emily Allan & Dom Di Libero), participants transform soft waste plastics into vibrant, quilt-like tiles—either to take home or contribute to a new commission as part of Nuit Blanche in North York. This is a generative experience that invites reflection on waste, reuse, and artistic collaboration across materials and generations.

Archives 101
October 7, 2025 | 2 – 4pm

This workshop, presented with City of Toronto Archives, offers an introduction to archival research and civic history through the lens of Toronto’s documentary records. Developed in connection with the Nuit Blanche project Future Perfect by Mia + Eric & Action Hero, that explores how municipal by laws can be transformed into poetic reflections on public life.

Accessibility:
Nuit Blanche 2025 introduces expanded accessibility measures, including on-site ASL interpretation at Event Centres, tactile experiences, captioning and an accessibility webpage with searchable program details.

An 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 North York.

Nuit Blanche Toronto
Learn more about Nuit Blanche 2025 at toronto.ca/NuitBlanche, and follow on social media:

Facebook @nuitblancheTO
Instagram @nuitblancheto
X @nuitblancheTO

Image Descriptions:
1. Close up of an installation featuring clusters of miniature multi-coloured buildings illuminated from within.
2. Poster reading “ENGLISH IS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE,” held by a person with a tattoo on their wrist.
3. Interior view of a large installation made from stitched-together plastic sheets in various colors and patterns, forming a quilt-like patchwork that curves upward into a dome-like space.

Akimbo is a media partner of Nuit Blanche 2025.