From September 10-15, The Bentway presented the Museum of the Moon, under the Gardiner. The installation allowed visitors to experience the moon up-close and personal, reminding them of the moon’s influence on our daily lives despite urban barriers like light pollution and high-rise density. Visitors were able to further reflect on the moon through moon gazing and moonlight meditation, turning The Bentway into an open air planetarium.
A large series of activities took place throughout the moon-filled week include nightly moonlight meditation sessions with the Consciousness Explorers Club (September 10 – 13 + 15), an immersive multi-channel soundtrack – including children’s stories, self-guided meditation and an astronaut playlist – and free, astronomy talks with various speakers presented in partner-ship with Fort York National Historic Site and Friends of Fort York. Undercurrents, a photo-based installation curated by Courtney Miller and Valérie Frappier that calls attention to themes of water, memory, and history were also on view.
On September 14, starting at 7:30 p.m. as a full harvest moon rose over Toronto, The Bentway presented Moon Merge. Pondercast host Laurie Brown and Juno nominated electronic composer and musician Joshua Van Tassel was a live podcast recording, exploring how we urbanites merge with the natural world; through slices of sky, cracks in concrete, glimpses of water and postage stamp-sized parks. The evening also included a sing-a-long by Toronto-based group Choir! Choir! Choir!, a performance by Bernice and a special silent disco set by Halifax’s Rich Aucoin.
Films and astronomy talks took place in the Fort York Visitor Centre.