The John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design is pleased to launch the Architecture and Design Gallery, a unique, experimental space — the only gallery of its kind in Toronto — located in the lower level of the Daniels Building at One Spadina Crescent.

Curated by Professor Richard Sommer and New York-based designers, Pillow Culture,

the Gallery’s inaugural installation, New Circadia (adventures in mental spelunking),

prompts participants to ask: What would happen if we disconnected from standard time and external stimuli within a dream-like space specifically designed for relaxation, reflection, and repose?

New Circadia (an approximate translation from Latin for “New Day”) has been conceived to engage the city and the University of Toronto community alike in an immersive environment— an underground, cave-like, soft utopia.

“Architecture today is inextricably bound up in the urbanization of the planet, and it needs to pay as much attention to the marking of time, as it traditionally has to the shaping of space,” says co-curator, Richard Sommer, Dean and Professor at the Daniels Faculty. “With New Circadia, we are acknowledging architecture’s complicity in an increasingly stressful and zombie-like world by presenting an antidote to the over-mechanization of everyday life and our plugged-in, 24/7 culture. Might it be time to put architecture to sleep?”

The interactive installation will be made up of three zones. Beginning at the east entrance of the Daniels Building, visitors will enter a subterranean space through a Transitory Zone or “mouth of the cave,” illuminated with an artificial skylight created via digital technology. Here, visitors will store their belongings and choose from a variety of body wearables or “spelunking gear”.

Then, moving through a felt envelope, participants will enter the main cave space, an uncanny Dark Zone, with a large yet soft rock-like lounge-scape, animated with responsive sound and light. Oneiroi will invite visitors to anonymously record their personal dreams and listen to those recorded by others. Throughout the installation, visitors will be encouraged to make use of the cave’s soft infrastructure, including its felted floors and walls, to engage in self-directed rest and meditation.

Inspired by both the 1938 Mammoth Cave Experiment (the first staging of a scientific research laboratory for studying natural human cycles of sleep and wakefulness) and the synesthetic happenings of the 1960’s and 70’s, this haptic installation will offer visitors a variety of experiences, including a series of thematic lectures, multidisciplinary performances, dialogues, film screenings, and nocturnes. New Circadia’s events and programming will be organized around six time-based themes: story time, deep time, wasting time, break time, marking time, and dream time.

“We have transformed the new Architecture and Design Gallery into a soft utopia to conjure a greater sense of geological, mythical, mechanical, and biological time, and to explore how we might nurture a more sustained interior life by incubating dream-like states of rest, reflection, and reverie,” say co-curators Natalie Fizer and Emily Stevenson of the firm Pillow Culture.

Both the space and programming of New Circadia is aimed at demonstrating that idling, whether by sleeping, dreaming, napping, or meditating, is not lost, unproductive time, but rather an essential state of mind and body, connected to experiences vital to our survival and evolution.

Exhibition support is provided through the Lorne M. Gertner Fund.

Please join us in exploring New Circadia at the launch event on November 7, 2019 at 7:30pm.

The installation and affiliated events will run until April 30, 2020. Children must be supervised at all times.

Gallery Hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 9:00am to 9:00pm

Please check the Daniels Faculty website and/or social media for details on upcoming talks and events associated with the installation.

Be the hero. Discover the magic. Save the dragons.

You have been asked to embark upon a dangerous quest: to save dragons from extinction. To do so you’ll need to sneak into a mysterious tower where the last dragon egg is rumoured to rest. Will you find the egg and learn the secret of the dragon’s song?

The Casa Loma Escape Series invites you into a fantastic world, full of strange science and mystical wonders. It’s the perfect adventure for the whole family. Ages 8+*

*Please note that The Dragon’s Song is available to be played at both the Easy and Difficult experience levels with Easy games running at 1:00 and 3:00 PM.

Comedy Kapow is your Friday night spot for laughs and entertainment. Every week we bring a new lineup of 10+ amazing comedians, plus a free to enter karaoke afterparty starting at 11pm.

Held every Friday at 120 Diner (120 Church Street). Great selection of diner food and full bar.

Presale Eventbrite tickets $5. Door $10.

Comedy show at 9:30pm.

Reservations are required for guaranteed seating. Send an email to reserve your seats vicente.ernie@gmail.com. Tickets will sell out.

Toronto’s longest running Black History Month festival, Harbourfront Centre’s KUUMBA, marks 25 years of celebrating the heritage, culture and traditions of Black Canadians with a series of talks, workshops, events and performances throughout February. The 2020 festival is curated by Ashley McKenzie-Barnes, who most recently spearheaded Nuit Blanche in Scarborough and is responsible for introducing internationally acclaimed projects and artists to new audiences in Toronto. As one of Toronto’s foremost contemporary arts festivals, this year’s silver anniversary theme is A Silver Lining: examining the past through cultural expression, ritual and memorabilia, while re-envisioning our identities through art, culture and education.

Festival highlights include: Building Black: AMORPHIA the premiere of eight new artworks using 50,000 pieces of LEGO®, sneaker design workshops led by one of the most in-demand footwear designers among the industry’s top brands and celebrities, D’Wayne Edwards (Jan. 16 & 17), the return of Trey Anthony’s Black Girl in Love (with herself): Speaking the Unspeakable Tings (Feb. 7) and a new line-up of comedians in Dat Gyal Funny: A Night of Stand-Up Comedy (Feb. 8). Also, combine art and activism with T.W.O.S: The Welcoming of Synergies (Feb. 15), the Canadian stage debut of Jon Boogz and Lil Buck of Movement Art Is.

Hamilton is the story of America's Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, an immigrant from the West Indies who became George Washington's right-hand man during the Revolutionary War and was the new nation’s first Treasury Secretary.  Featuring a score that blends hip-hop, jazz, blues, rap, R&B, and Broadway, Hamilton is the story of America then, as told by America now.  

With book, music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, direction by Thomas Kail, choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler and musical supervision and orchestrations by Alex Lacamoire, Hamilton is based on Ron Chernow’s biography of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton.

Hamilton’s creative team previously collaborated on the 2008 Tony Award® Winning Best Musical In the Heights.

Hamilton features scenic design by David Korins, costume design by Paul Tazewell, lighting design by Howell Binkley, sound design by Nevin Steinberg, hair and wig design by Charles G. LaPointe, and casting by Telsey + Company, Bethany Knox, CSA.

The musical is produced by Jeffrey Seller, Sander Jacobs, Jill Furman and The Public Theater.

The Hamilton Original Broadway Cast Recording is available everywhere nationwide. The Hamilton recording received a 2016 Grammy for Best Musical Theatre Album.

A timely reflection on the cycles of abuse and addiction of Indigenous women in contemporary Canada, Theatre Passe Muraille, and Native Earth Performing Arts present the manidoons collective production and four-time Dora nominated bug. Created and performed by Yolanda Bonnell, and directed by Cole Alvis, this timely and moving solo production is onstage February 7 to February 22, 2020 at the Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace Theatre.

bug follows The Girl as she navigates her way through her intergenerational trauma while being followed by Manidoons, the physical manifestation of her addictions. The Girl develops an addictive personality that clings to anything that gives her power or makes her feel loved. As her addiction grows and manifests as the creature Manidoons (Ojibwe for bug, insect or worm), and as she gets older, the Manidoons take over and her addictions become more and more dangerous.

Performances run from February 7 to February 22 at 7:30pm, with Saturday matinees at 2:00pm

Previews: February 7 - 9 at 7:30pm, and every performance has a post-show Q&A