What you need to know about Nuit Blanche: exhibitions, road closures, TTC service

The annual all-night arts festival Nuit Blanche is set to take over Toronto’s streets this weekend, with installation areas downtown, North York and in south Etobicoke.

The event runs from 7 p.m. on Saturday until 7 a.m. on Sunday.

The TTC will be providing all-night service on all three lines. See below for details.

Road closures will be in effect ahead of the festival and until Sunday afternoon. Scroll below for a list.

Here are the top exhibitions to check out:

Collective Composition

Collective Composition is an exhibition curated by the artistic director of this year’s Nuit Blanche, Laura Nanni. It will be collection of immersive works that “invites reflection on our shared role in shaping urban life.”

It will also include Tangled Art + Disability multimedia installation which will be a live broadcast hosted by members of the disability art community, streaming online. The hosts of the installation will guide viewers through the festival, share personal experiences and engaging with installations across the city.

The pieces will be on display at the North York Centre and in Mel Lastman Square.

Poetic Justice

The main downtown exhibition is called Poetic Justice which will work to bring together the histories of Toronto as Indigenous homelands and also a city of global arrival.

The works, curated by Charlene K. Lau, will include sculptural installations, participatory performance, video and text-based works.

“The works in this exhibition consider concepts of land, treaties, justice and reform through acts of collective healing and community building,” read the city’s description of the exhibition.

The exhibition can be found from Nathan Phillips Square over to Chinatown.

One of the installations, that will be available for extended viewing until Oct. 13, is called “Protect the Sacred Voice” which utilizes text statements from the artist’s social media posts.

From Here, There, Everywhere

The last major exhibition will be in South Etobicoke and focused on the “many meanings of home … transforming familiar spaces into places of hope, connection and resistance.”

Curate by Renata Azevedo Moreria, some of the works will explore the immigrant experience while others “reflect on the courage it takes to inhabit one’s body, the echoes ancestral lands carried through generations, and the urgent need to protect the right to live safely and without fear.”

It will be happening at Colonel Samuel Park and Georgian College’s Lakeshore campus.

A full map of all the works can be found on the City’s website

Road closures

Downtown

Toronto police say the following road closures will start on Friday and be in place by noon on Saturday:

• Dundas Street West between Spadina Avenue and University Avenue
• Chestnut Street and Armoury Street (only local traffic only will be permitted)

North York

The following road closures will be in effect around Mel Lastman Square beginning at noon on Saturday:

• Yonge Street between Park Home Avenue and Elmhurst Avenue

Etobicoke

The following road closures will be in effect in the area of Humber College Lakeshore by noon on Saturday:

• Colonel Samuel Smith Park Drive between Colonel Sam Smith Park Road and Lake Shore Boulevard West

Police say all roadways are expected to be open by 12 p.m. on Sunday.

In a media release, police caution there will be traffic delays in the above areas and advised drivers to take alternative routes.

TTC service

The transit agency says subways on Line 1 (Yonge-University), Line 2 (Bloor-Danforth) and Line 4 (Sheppard) will run every 15 minutes from 1:30 a.m. until regular Sunday schedules resume at 8 a.m.

The following bus and streetcar routes will also run extended hours and with more capacity:

• Extra buses will be added to the 100 Flemingdon Park route for overnight service to the Agha Khan Museum art installations
• 944 Kipling South Express will run overnight between 1 a.m. and 8 a.m. on Sunday
• The Blue Night Network will run as usual with extra service in and around Islington Station every 15 to 30 minutes

With the road closures noted above, the following routes will be diverted:

• From 12 p.m. on Saturday to 9 a.m. on Sunday, the 97/320 Yonge will divert onto Beecroft Road between Park Home Avenue and North York Boulevard
• From 5 p.m. on Saturday to 1 p.m. on Sunday, the 505/305 Dundas will divert between Church Street and Bathurst Street