Call for Participants: Imagine Next - “Future Cities” Workshop

Deadline: September 17th, 2025

About the opportunity

Toronto’s biggest celebration of city builders and city lovers is back! Toronto the Good Party, created by ERA Architects, is held each year to spark fresh ideas for our urban future — highlighting a contemporary theme in a setting that challenges us to see the city in new ways.

This year’s edition takes place within Art=Waterfront, another bold ERA initiative addressing Toronto’s cultural spaces crisis by envisioning a cultural corridor along the city’s entire waterfront — supporting both new and existing spaces for art, culture, and community.

For 2025, ERA has invited Culturans, an international NGO based in Mexico City that uses art, culture, and social innovation to imagine and build sustainable cities, to bring its “Art You In?” platform to Toronto — an initiative that shows how the arts can transform constant negative narratives into positive action. In this edition, “Art You In?” will also act as a creative bridge between Canada and Mexico, highlighting the shared commitment of both countries to building a sustainable future for all.

Now, ERA Architects, Culturans, and OCAD University have come together to launch “Imagine Next” — a collaborative project designed to engage Toronto’s youth in imagining and designing the waterfront of tomorrow, with a special focus on Exhibition Place as a model for the Art=Waterfront vision.

The call features two distinct opportunities, both aligned with the vision of Imagine Next and the Art=Waterfront initiative:

1. Digital art submissions of already existing student work, which will be showcased through QR codes in a unique art activation titled FutureFront, created by Culturans.
2. Student participation in a hands-on co-creation workshop, hosted by Culturans, that invites the local waterfront community to dream, design, and shape the future of Exhibition Place and Toronto’s waterfront.

This open call has been developed by Culturans, in collaboration with OCAD University and with the support of ERA Architects.

Entry fee

There is no entry fee charge

Price  

Four students will be chosen to take part in the Future Cities Workshop — a hands-on session bringing together Torontonians passionate about shaping the future of Exhibition Place and the city’s waterfront.

Eligibility

This call for entries is open to

• Graduate, undergraduate and alumni from OCAD University, all faculties and programs are eligible to apply.

• Participants must be available to attend the full workshop session in person on the scheduled date.

   

Location and Time

The Future Cities Workshop will be held at 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. on October 1st at 115 McCaul, Lower Level. Attendance is mandatory for all selected participants. This immersive, hands-on session will run for three hours, but we recommend allowing four to five hours in total to account for travel and any unforeseen delays. Together, we’ll collaborate with Torontonians to envision bold, creative, and sustainable futures for Exhibition Place and the entire waterfront area.

Calendar

The timetable in relation to the call for entries is as follows:

1. Submission Deadline - September 17 2025
2. Selected candidates will be announced by - Monday September 22nd, 2025

Selection Process

We are looking for creative, curious, and engaged students ready to dive into a collaborative experience and contribute fresh ideas for the future of Toronto’s waterfront. 4 students will be selected for this unique opportunity to co-create with community members.

Selected participants will be notified directly by email, and the final list of winners will also be announced through the official channels of OCAD U and Culturans.

Submission requirements

To submit, complete the form HERE

Award

Selected participants will join the Future Cities Workshop hosted by Culturans, where they will collaborate with local community members, city builders, and fellow creatives to imagine the future of Toronto’s waterfront. This is a unique opportunity to contribute your voice to a live civic dialogue, gain valuable experience in participatory urban design, and build connections with key stakeholders.

Funding

Participation in the workshop is free of charge. Travel or personal expenses are the responsibility of each participant.

For any inquiries or information please contact:

• OCAD University

Daniela Lee-Kim- dleekim@ocadu.ca

• Culturans

Karina López - community@culturans.org

About Toronto The Good Party 2025

For 15+ years, ERA has hosted an annual party for city builders and city lovers whose aim is to highlight a contemporary theme, issue, or topic, often held in a location that underscores and interrogates those ideas. Last year Toronto The Good was at The Bentway and our focus was the Art=Waterfront initiative generally. (The Mayor of Toronto gave a great speech in support.) We are excited about this year's TTG!

About Art=Waterfront

Art=Waterfront is an initiative by ERA that's advocating to address Toronto's cultural spaces crisis by creating a cultural corridor across the city's whole waterfront with supports for new and existing cultural spaces. We've held a series of events involving artists, city builders, policymakers, and cultural professionals from across the city; authored op-eds promoting the idea of using the waterfront to foster more cultural spaces in Toronto; and formed a diverse coalition of supporters with whom we produced a

Policy Document showcasing different tools for stimulating waterfront spaces last year. We're looking to support and promote a diversity of cultural spaces on the waterfront through adaptive reuse of existing buildings, new developments, meanwhile uses, and larger reimaginings of under-used waterfront neighbourhoods such as Exhibition Place. ERA has previously been involved in and led large-scale transformations Toronto's Distillery District and Evergreen Brickworks.

About ERA Architects

ERA Architects Inc. (ERA) is an award-winning architecture and planning firm focused on conservation through reactivation. Working across a lively spectrum of scales and locales, we develop heritage planning approaches that renew and improve the built environment. Creative adaptive reuse strategies and building conservation techniques are a core expertise established at the firm’s founding in the 1990s by Edwin Rowse and Michael McClelland. Since then, we have expanded our in-house expertise to encompass a broad range of consulting, design, and advocacy work. For over 30 years, we have provided a high level of professional service to the public and private sectors from our offices in Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa and we are currently licensed to practice architecture in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and Quebec. The more than 130 talented individuals who comprise our integrated, multidisciplinary team are members of an array of professional associations and advocacy organizations.

About Art You In?

Art You In? is a movement and year-round initiative that connects art with the imagination of sustainable futures in creative, fun, and participatory ways — transforming negative narratives into positive action. Through a series of projects, collaborations, and events, it brings together young people, companies, universities, artists, local communities, and civil society to co-create spaces of discussion, creation, and celebration. Art You In? demonstrates the power of art to turn even the most difficult topics into empathetic and constructive conversations, setting new cultural trends. This journey is leading up to the first International Festival of Art and Futures held in Toronto and Mexico City in 2026, where the public, private, and academic sectors will meet in a dynamic program of conferences, exhibitions, installations, and a big closing celebration.

About Culturans

Culturans uses art, culture and social innovation to imagine and create sustainable cities –on a human scale. We work with local and global communities to transform urban well-being for people and nature. Our team offers a unique perspective on urbanism that combines creative industries, community engagement, and sustainable development. We see urbanism as a network of social relationships that combines community-based action with global cooperation. We work with and learn from grassroots communities, scientific and educational institutions, civil society organizations, and government agencies across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Culturans is based in Mexico City and works internationally.