Art lovers, start saving up sleep now… In just over one week (well, 8 days, 6 hours, 24 minutes and 45 seconds, really) Toronto’s first-ever all-night art festival Nuit Blanche will kick off, sending the nocturnal Culturati vulturalis scurrying for takeout espressos and glow-in-the-dark maps alike. What, besides undereye puffiness, will they be rewarded with? 23 curated exhibitions and 42 independent projects featuring featuring hundreds of artists all over the city, with 55 galleries and 142 other destinations on the roster — all night, and all free.
Here’s just a few of the highlights to come: dancing all night in a club filled with rubber balls where 10-year-old DJs guide the groove; receiving a guided tour of Toronto’s lawn art by some of the city’s most eccentric academics; and using your camera cellphone to contribute in realtime to changing art installation about ethnicity. Keep your eyes open and you’re bound to see much more, like maybe some slow-dancing policiers. Uh huh. See what a little Parisian-style all-night-art-romancing can do? Hmmmm? (Nuit Blanches have happened in Paris since ’02, and in Montreal in the last few years as well.)
Toronto’s Nuit Blanche takes place from sunset at 7:01 p.m. on September 30 to sunrise at 7:15 a.m. October 1, 2006. For more info – including a free survival guide – check out nuitblanche.livewithculture.ca.