The Winter Stations exhibit is an international design competition featuring four winners from a field of almost 300 entrants. Since 2014 the art installations have been placed along the beach, injecting bright colours and interactive content into our winter days. The displays make use of the waterfront’s environment; wind, sun, sand, snow, ice and water.
Along with the kids, bring the dog. During winter months the beach is converted into a fenced in off leash park.
This year’s event began on Family Day and ends March 30. Admission is free.
Visit at Woodbine Beach, at the foot of Woodbine Avenue welcoming Toronto locals to this sandy beach at the edge of Lake Ontario. Stretching three kilometres in length with the Martin Goodman boardwalk trails running near the shoreline, access by bicycle or walking is easy. (Or should I say cross country skis and snowshoes) You can also drive to the parking lot located next to the beach with a Tim Horton’s open all year round to help you warm up afterwards. Set your navigation system to 1675 Lake Shore Boulevard East, Toronto.
Kaleidoscope of the Senses by Charlie Sutherland. Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
Kaleidoscope of the Senses makes uses your visual and auditory senses. Wind passing through the open tower causes the pendulum to strike the steel frame causing an array of sounds. Horizontal, vertical and diagonal creations provide a foreground to views of the lake and city. “Balanced yet dynamic composition of elements which are both a visual and experiential celebration of the senses and a metaphor of the body in space. “
Mirage by Cristina Vega and Pablo Losa Fontangordo. Madrid, Spain.
“Mirage was designed to react to the movements of the sun and the people.” Depending on where I stood in relation to the position of the sun, clouds in the sky, I’d see either a red-orange coloured transparent screen simulating a setting sun or a bright yellow screen simulating a risen sun.
Beach’s Percussion Ensemble by Centennial College. Toronto, Canada.
The Beach’s Percussion Ensemble has cowbells of varying shapes and sizes. You can never have enough cowbells right! Some of the structure’s prisms double as steel drums. Drumsticks are provided to keep you banging on your drum all day.
“The elements of the lake’s environment will release the bells’ sound like a wind chime.”
Noodle Feed by iheartblob. Vienna, Austria.
Interaction truly required from this exhibit. We are encouraged to move the noodles in any imaginable way to create our own art. The visual display will be different from day to day and even moment by moment.
Noodle Feed “goes beyond physical senses and creates a shared augmented reality environment where people can interact in new ways.” Give it a try, get onto it or into it. Take a selfie.
“With rocks in hand, we tossed them into the water. It seemed I had forgotten how to do this simple activity. My first few rocks landed with a loud splash. However, after several tries, I began to see my rocks gently skim the top of the water. I would select another rock and throw it, counting each time it skipped and bounced. “
The Deliberate Mom
Day Trip In An Hour 