A buzz is building at Humber College’s Lakeshore Campus in anticipation of the all-night contemporary art event, Nuit Blanche.

Nuit Blanche starts at sunset on October 1 and continues to sunrise the next morning at locations across Toronto. This year’s event is billed as being the most expansive to date with artwork by more than 150 local, national, and international artists.  

Lakeshore Campus will host Nuit Blanche's first-ever Etobicoke neighbourhood hub.

“Nuit Blanche is a chance for residents to explore their community in new ways. These art displays allow us to enjoy and celebrate culture, diversity, and inclusiveness – all concepts Humber truly values,” said Kelly Jackson, vice-president of External Affairs and Professional Learning at Humber College. “Humber shares a strong commitment to the arts and is an incubator for creative and innovative expressions.”

Lakeshore Campus will feature several exhibitions and installations. There will also be works created by Humber students on display on campus.

Humber offers several fellowships that have students work with industry partners on projects. Two of these – the Nuit Blanche Fellowship and the Indigenous Transmedia Fellowship – involved Humber students creating projects that will be part of this year’s festival.

Stolen is a short fiction suspense thriller that’s inspired by the real-life horrors of the Sixties Scoop, the intergenerational impacts of which are still felt today. In the film, a young Indigenous mother wakes up one morning to discover her son is missing from their family home. Everyone she turns to for help either disbelieves her story or suspects her of wrongdoing.

Native Enough is a seven-minute art film that presents the struggles Indigenous youth face in the modern world where they are confronted by offensive stereotypes, blood quantum laws, and family expectations. It stars Caitlyn Murphy-Eagleson and Dave Monday as two people struggling with their own individual identities and follows their emotional journey of being Indigenous youths in the modern-day world.

Tawitihiwin is a short documentary film that addresses two-spirit and gender identity discrimination within Indigenous communities. The title translates to “To have an open heart” and that sentiment is woven through the stories of artists and spokespeople of the two-spirit community who share their experiences of celebrating their identities in the face of adversity.  

A Way Closer is a 10-minute interactive digital art piece that invites viewers to take on the role of an unnamed character trying to escape the commotions of everyday life. This immersive video game experience reflects on all the relationships people sometimes take for granted.

Together, Apart is a 15-minute immersive and interactive digital art projection that invites audiences to witness stories about migration, inclusion, distance, and acceptance, demonstrating how people emerge from hardship – sometimes stronger than ever before. It examines the vitality of storytelling by using a series of interviews conducted over the summer months exploring everyday connections people have with their kin, culture, and land.

A Humber graduate will also have an installation at Lakeshore Campus. Neon Roots uses light, colour, and nature to communicate feelings of loneliness and growth. It was created by Mercedes Psenicnik, who was also part of the 2021 Nuit Blanche Fellowship group.

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