Wintery Woodbine Beach welcomes Winter Stations’ opening day celebrations
By JESSICA SHACKLETON
Woodbine Beach may have looked and felt like a frigid scene beyond the Wall in Game of Thrones, but Beachers didn’t let that stop them from celebrating the opening of Winter Stations on Family Day.
Now in its 11th year, the outdoor art installations are chosen from hundreds of submissions from around the world. This year’s theme was Dawn and the six winners now line Woodbine Beach from the Summerville pool to Ashbridges Bay Park.
Beaches-East York Councillor Brad Bradford, Mary-Margaret McMahon (who helped create the event while serving as local councillor in 2015), and RAW Designs architect Dakota Wares-Tani officially opened Winter Stations on Monday, Feb. 17, in what were wintery conditions featuring high winds and blowing, gusting snow .
“This has grown from a very small concept 11 years ago to something that attracts international talent, more than 300 submissions this year,” said Bradford. “All of our winners are international with the exception of the universities.”
Thanks to the deep snow covering the sand, this year’s opening was less busy than in some previous years, but many people made the snowy trek across the beach to interact with the pieces.
“We got what we asked for – a very wintery Winter Stations,” said Wares-Tani. “Winter Stations has always been about activating public space with a free outdoor art exhibition filled with larger-than-life installations.”
The event is always kicked off on Family Day and invites visitors to appreciate the neighbourhood in a new way.
“What has always been my favourite part is bringing all of Toronto, Torontonians, folks from across the region out to experience the beach in the wintertime,” said Bradford. “Most people think about coming to Woodbine Beach in the summertime. It is a different experience coming out here in the middle of winter with a fresh snowfall.”
After opening remarks, the assembled group made their way through the snow on the beach. They took a walking tour of each of the installations where the artist introduced their piece.
The one winner from the city was Solair by Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU). Solair was designed by second-year architectural sciences students Arjun Jain, Finn Ferrall, Jade Wong, Nicholas Kisil, and Marko Sikic.
Jain is from Mississauga and said he had never been to Woodbine Beach before starting the project.
“I never really had a reason to come all the way over here,” he said. “We visited and got to work on it.”
The reflectors on Solair face Lake Ontario and shimmer in the wind. The group suggested sunrise as the best time to experience it, but any time of the day will give visitors the same effect.
“It’s rewarding to see the final product, see people looking at it,” said Kisil between gusts of wind on Monday.
Wong seconded the feeling of reward adding that “meeting design goals” of the Winter Stations project was part of that sense of success.
“Being in second year and having this opportunity unrelated to TMU, with all the support…it’s great,” said Jain.
The other winning designs making up this year’s Winter Stations are Peak by the University of Waterloo; Slice of Sun from Portugal; WATCH from the United States; Parade from the United States; and Ascolto from France.
Winter Stations is scheduled to be on display until March 30.
Winter Stations is sponsored by RAW Design, Northcrest Developments, Resident Properties, Crombie REIT & Sobeys, MicroPro Sienna, BEHR Paint.
For more information on Winter Stations 2025, please go to https://winterstations.com/
