The Bentway recently announced its Summer 2024 season which will feature large-scale parties, community recreation, and free public art presented under the Gardiner Expressway that will run from May 24 to October 6, 2024.
While the latest Toronto Foundation Vital Signs Report named Toronto ?one of the loneliest places in the country,” the Bentway asserts that urban public spaces play a fundamental role in bolstering social connections and building community health.
“Cities are becoming increasingly lonely places to live, in part due to rising costs and increased demands on daily life, but also in how our communities are designed. We believe that shared public spaces like The Bentway can help us meet the growing challenge of urban isolation by creating the conditions for shared experiences, encouraging people to reconnect to their neighbours,? said Ilana Altman, co-executive director of The Bentway. The cornerstone of the season is The Bentway?s free public art exhibition, Softer City. It consists of a series of six commissioned art installations, performances, and events that explore ?softness? as a collective strategy for social connections.
Softer City introduces the Canadian premiere of Rosana Cade?s performance work, Walking:Holding, a project that invites one audience member at a time to walk hand-in-hand with a series of local strangers, and invites “reflections on hypervisibility and intimacy in public space.”
Esteemed artists Nnenna Okore an...