Tracey Emin in Lassonde Art Trail

Located in the City of Toronto park called Biidaasige Park, the Art Trail is a series of 15 interconnected public art sites spanning over 4 km of paths that weave through 60 acres of new parkland along Toronto’s waterfront. Themes and relationships explored by art commissions and loans acknowledge the site’s layered histories, geographies, and changing social dynamics. These include Indigenous contexts; the city and lake; civic society and the public realm; waterways past and present; industrial histories; wetland restoration and bioengineering; native plantings and local ecosystems; and the environment and sustainability.

The Lassonde Art Trail is at the heart of a massive $1.4b project that rerouted the mouth of the Don River and built flood protection for downtown Toronto. This feat of civil and bioengineering created a new island in the city harbour called Ookwemin Minising. The project established a new river valley with functional wetlands and 60 acres of publicly accessible open space along the riverbanks and inner harbour. It cleaned and restored soils contaminated from past industrialization, and naturally accommodated the effects of flooding and erosion. In the process it re-established aquatic and terrestrial habitat where Indigenous species of plants and animals can thrive.

For its launch season, LAT presents newly commissioned artworks and signature loans across the 4.2-kilometre trail by leading contemporary artists including: Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka (Japanese - Canadian), Alexandre Arrechea (Cuban), Caroline Monnet (Algonquin Anishinaabe - French) & Dean Baldwin Lew (Canadian), Hank Willis Thomas (American), Kara Hamilton (Canadian), Kent Monkman (Cree), Lisa Hirmer (Canadian – Mexican - German), Monira Al Qadiri (Kuwaiti), Nadia Belerique (Canadian) & Tony Romano (Canadian), Oluseye (Nigerian - Canadian), Ryan Gander (British), and Tracey Emin (British). A newly commissioned permanent destination sculpture by Joana Vasconcelos (Portuguese) will follow in 2027. Together, the artists contribute to a dynamic cultural landscape of permanent and rotating installations that reflect a wide spectrum of artistic voices, materials, and perspectives. From large-scale sculptures to site-responsive interventions, the artworks will transform Toronto’s evolving waterfront into a hub of reflection, community, and exchange.