Humber Polytechnic’s Lakeshore Campus will again serve as a hub for the popular contemporary art event Nuit Blanche, which is right around the corner.

Nuit Blanche is a free, all-night celebration of contemporary art that transforms public spaces and animates cultural sites throughout Toronto. This year’s theme is Bridging Distance and it invites audiences to explore the ways in which they experience and perceive distance through works by local, national and international artists. This year’s event starts at 7 p.m. on October 5 and runs to 7 a.m. the following morning.

Lakeshore Campus is hosting a dozen projects and eight of them have a Humber connection – whether it’s faculty, students, alumni or staff.

Eric Cator, a visual artist and professor in Humber’s Film and Television Production program, is the artist behind “The Vastness of Space” project. It’s a live drawing performance that invites viewers to witness the transformation of space in real time, beginning with an empty environment and relying entirely on imagination.

Humber offers several fellowships that have students work with industry partners on projects. Three students who were part of last year’s Nuit Blanche Fellowship applied as artists for this year’s event and were accepted.

They include Ashley Aalto, who partnered with Harin De Mel, for the light installation project “LineScapes” that puts forth a visual representation of the unseen connections that exist between all things in our universe.

There’s also Natalie Chiu who collaborated with Elham Fatapour on the interactive installation “Bodies of water, Bodies of rocks.” It’s an acrylic painting spanning approximately six metres that focuses on the cyclical nature of departure and return.

Tristan Bolton, who goes by TDAWXG, is the artist behind “Maybe We Should Talk More.” It’s a multimedia installation consisting of stylized neo-expressionist portraits interwoven with hundreds of dazzling lights that symbolize the invisible threads that connect people to one another.

The 2024 Nuit Blanche Fellowship created “Echoes of a Garden,” a multidisciplinary exploration of connection, nostalgia and the bridging of distances across generations, for this year’s Nuit Blanche. It will also be on display in the L Space gallery from October 21 to December 13.

Also, the Intercultural & Creative Music Fellowship will have a presence at Lakeshore Campus and will offer a series of pop-up performances throughout the night.

Melissa Poliah, program lead with Humber Galleries, said last year’s event drew more than 200,000 people to Lakeshore Campus and they received overwhelmingly positive responses from those who attended. Poliah added that being part of Nuit Blanche can have many benefits for young artists and students looking to build their professional network.

“It’s a great way to get that experience and exposure for students by them being part of an event of this scale,” said Poliah.

“It’s giving our students a big chance to flex their creative muscles right out of their program,” said Casey Norris, project lead for Humber Galleries and the Centre for Creative Business Innovation.

While the Humber Cultural Hub won’t be hosting any projects for Nuit Blache, it will be an opportunity for the community to see the progress that’s been made on the facility that will feature a 500-seat Performance Hall as well as a 140-seat Music Recital Hall and an informal interior amphitheatre designed for festivals, public events, and community gatherings.  

Meanwhile, several of the Nuit Blanche projects will be extended at Lakeshore Campus for another week including “LineScapes,” “The Moon, the Earth and Us,” and “The Vastness of Space.”

More information can be found by visiting the Nuit Blanche website.