TBA Programs are a key component of the Biennial’s activities, offering accessible public and learning programs that engage artists, partners, collaborators, and intergenerational visitors year-round, with a particularly generative period during each Biennial. Artist-led, participatory programs inform and are informed by each Biennial edition’s curatorial direction.
Until the opening of our 4th edition on September 26, 2026, TBA’s programmatic focus centres on intimate community engagement as well as some public events, like artist talks and our Curatorial Encounters series which invites the general public to converse with our curator. Please sign up for our newsletter and follow us on social media for updated event information.
The Programs team is currently preparing for TBA’s 2026 edition, working closely with Curator Allison Glenn to develop all public and learning programs. As with past Biennials, our events and activities will critically be shaped by artists, partners, and key collaborators to ensure impactful and relevant ways to come together around contemporary art. Engagement in 2026 includes performances, workshops, artist talks, and gatherings as well as our growing collection of Mobile Arts Curriculum tools, Storytelling Sessions, and School Programs.
TBA’s Learning Programs are made possible with the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Rossy Foundation, the Lewitt Family Foundation, the Ouellette Family Foundation, the Goodman Family Foundation, the Carey Diamond and Tina Urman Foundation, and the F.K. Morrow Foundation.
The Mobile Arts Curriculum (MAC) is a collection of learning resources developed by artists and centring decolonial practices through the arts. Each learning tool supports and expands learning curricula, building upon the curatorial ideas explored in each Biennial edition.
TBA’s Storytelling Program offers visitors of all ages new ways of engaging with the artworks presented in the Biennial by offering artist-led participatory sessions in the exhibition spaces. For each edition, local multidisciplinary artists are commissioned as Storytellers and offer booked and drop-in tours to intergenerational audiences through the duration of the Biennial.
School Programs are led by Storytellers who engage with students and educators through artist-led, narrative, and embodied sessions and workshops. Storytellers are practising artists in the areas of spoken word/poetry and movement, and they lead learners in response to the artworks presented in the Biennial.
TBA grows its library of content and concepts with online and printed Publications connected to its exhibitions and programs.
The TBA Podcast series is a collection of curator-led conversations with 2019 and 2022 exhibition artists that approaches reflection, listening, and learning with an engaging and experiential lens.
The Programs Fellowship is a platform for reciprocal mentorship supported by TD Bank Group through the TD Ready Commitment. The Programs Fellow engaged, taught, and learned with artists, Biennial staff, and fellow culture workers, and connected with local, national and international audiences.
TBA’s Onsite Library at 32 Lisgar St offered a collection of text and visual resources as an extension and expansion of the research behind the Biennial exhibition and programs. The Library offered deeper dialogue through an array of books by or about exhibition and programs artists, poetry, zines, non-fiction and critical texts, exhibition catalogues, and children’s books.
Public Programs is a platform for artist-led programming with a two-pronged approach, responding to the artists and the 2024 curatorial vision, while also creating a platform to address the diverse needs and local contexts that emerge from the communities with which the Biennial collaborates.
