FAQs
General FAQs
Biennial means “every other year”, and is most commonly used to describe large-scale international contemporary art exhibitions. Currently, there are over 250 biennials in the world, the majority of which are institutional. There are only six independent, city-based biennials in North America.
The Toronto Biennial of Art’s mission is to make contemporary art accessible to everyone. A ten-week event every two years, the Biennial commissions artists to create new works for a city-wide exhibition in dialogue with Toronto’s diverse local contexts. Year-round public and learning programs bridge Biennials and invite intergenerational audiences to explore the ideas that inspire our events. Building upon past editions and offering new ways of seeing and listening, each Biennial connects people to spark meaningful dialogues and imagine new futures.
Our collaborative, cross-disciplinary event aims to spotlight and amplify Toronto and Canada’s vibrant arts ecosystem through:
- Showcasing Toronto’s rising international status as a destination for arts and culture
- Positioning Toronto as an international leader in the arts
- Engaging a global audience
- Leveraging visibility for all artists and participants
- Expanding understandings of contemporary art practices
- Supporting local arts communities
- Driving placemaking, tourism, and economic development
The Toronto Biennial of Art is a free, multi-venue event that features contemporary art from around the world over the span of 10 weeks.
During the Biennial, Torontonians can engage with contemporary art and their city through authentic relationship-building, dialogue, and meaningful connections with artists and each other. Local, national, and international artists present ambitious artworks through thoughtful curatorial visions, engaging with new audiences in innovative ways and creating access to underrepresented stories.
TBA presents year-round, artist-led public programs and community engagements that provide inviting entry points to contemporary art for intergenerational Torontonians, and leverage partnerships to reduce barriers to participation. In addition, TBA produces artist publications, podcasts, videos, and digital content that build connections with artists and audiences across Toronto and beyond.
The Toronto Biennial of Art would not be possible without the generosity of its patrons, corporate partners, and government funders, as well as its committed team, board members, artists, and partners.
To learn more please visit the following pages:
Donors & Supporters
Our Team & Board
Participants
Creative Partnerships
Key highlights of the 2024 Biennial include:
90+ Artworks
55+ Exhibitions and Programming Artists
11 Exhibition Sites
20 Commissions
TBA aims to ensure that exceptional experiences with art are available to, and meaningful for, everyone.
Created for participants of all ages, TBA programs include performances, moments for exchange and conversation, hands-on workshops, and learning experiences. Visit the Programs Overview page to learn more.
The Toronto Biennial of Art is a carefully curated event, with artists from Toronto and around the world invited to contribute to exhibitions and programming based on a specific theme. The 2024 edition involved a year-long research process, including studio visits and meetings with art professionals. Recommendations from colleagues, peers, and artists ensured diverse perspectives were considered.
There are a variety of ways to support TBA. Please visit the Support the Biennial page to learn more.
Explore our website for job calls and the latest TBA information. You can also stay in touch by signing up for our newsletter or following us on Instagram and Facebook.
To join the Toronto Biennial of Art volunteer team, please email volunteers@torontobiennial.org
2024 Biennial
The third edition of the Toronto Biennial of Art ran from September 21 – December 1, 2024.
The complete list of 2024 artists and participants can be found here.
The 2024 Toronto Biennial of Art spanned 11 indoor, outdoor, and partner Exhibition sites.
For a map of all 2024 Biennial sites, click here.
“For the third edition of the Toronto Biennial of Art (TBA), titled Precarious Joys, we have been immersed in dialogues and active listening, a crucial element in our curatorial journey traversing national and international landscapes, numerous artist studios, and art encounters in Toronto, throughout Canada, and beyond. Our interactions have traced connections between artistic creations reflecting social and ecological imperatives, resulting in us identifying key directives drawn from the artists’ endeavours: “Joy,” “Precarious,” “Home,” “Polyphony,” “Solace,” and “Coded” are terms that encapsulate how TBA artists’ practices amplify political consciousness and reassert the power of aesthetics in shaping collective existence.
Some of the presented artworks address the various layers of history that define life in Toronto, while others reflect broader social and political structures of inequality and power under global neoliberal governance. Key issues that resonate across the exhibition include environmental justice, sovereignty, self-representation, belonging and migration, land dispossession, collective memory, feminist genealogies, diasporic sonic cultures, sacred plant wisdom, weaving as spiritual listening, resistance and resilience, ancestorship, and queer worldmaking. Rather than presenting a single theoretical assertion, however, Precarious Joys is organized around open dialogues and poetic connections. Together, these many works will conjure sparks that light a fire amidst the fragility of existence.”
—Dominique Fontaine and Miguel A. López
Artworks featured in the Biennial are not for sale through TBA.
Please get in touch with artist gallery representatives directly, or email info@torontobiennial.org to receive contact information.
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.
For TBA’s 2024 edition, titled Precarious Joys, the Programs team adopted the methodologies put forward by the exhibition curators, Dominique Fontaine and Miguel A. López, to centre dialogues and active listening in the development of programs. Inspired by conversations with artists over the lead-up to the 2024 iteration, Programs Curator Jenn Goodwin worked with artists to create performances and workshops that centre the body as a container of time and attention. In parallel, Mary Kim, TBA’s Senior Manager of Learning & Mediation, collaborated with artists and educators to create meaningful learning tools and activations of the exhibition, continuing TBA’s commitment to decolonial practices and land-based, embodied learning grounded in the Toronto region’s complex contexts.
Visit the Programs Overview page to learn more.
Toronto Biennial of Art Publications is a growing library of content, contexts, and concepts emerging from, and expanding on, TBA’s Exhibitions and public programs.
In partnership with Art Metropole and Goose Lane Editions, TBA releasd the exhibition catalogue, Precarious Joys, at the opening of its third edition on September 21, 2024. Edited by the Biennial’s 2024 curators, this publication includes conversations between artists, curators, community and staff members, as well as reproductions of artwork by featured artists. Together, the texts and images offer readers insights into how artistic practices can amplify political consciousness and reassert the power of aesthetics in shaping collective existence.
Please visit the Publications page to learn more about where TBA Publications are sold.