At the end of the month, a fleet of 120 canoes will take to Lake Ontario in a choreographed performance meant to reconnect Toronto with its shoreline. In each boat, a volunteer will wave a silk banner dyed with pigments foraged from the waterfront — part of A Lake Story, a large-scale public artwork commissioned by The Bentway and led by New York-based artist Melissa McGill, who calls herself a “water storyteller.”
Before turning to public art, McGill spent more than 20 years exhibiting her drawings and sculptures in international galleries. Now, she hopes to inspire action outside traditional spaces. “There’s a lot of fatigue around climate change discussion right now, and people don’t know what to do,” McGill says. “If you bring people in close contact with water in sustainable ways, hopefully, they’ll care more about our shared water.”
She worked on the project with her longtime friend Jason Logan, a Toronto artist known for foraging natural colours from the environment and turning them into ink. Together, they gathered natural sources from Lake Ontario — including crab apple and vinegar from Leslie Spit, roasted chicory root from Garrison Creek, and water from the Don River, among others — and created the chemical reactions needed to turn them into 120 unique ink colours. Along with students from OCAD University, they then painted these onto regeneratively farm-sourced silk flags. “I’m so excited to scale up my small-scale, often intimate practice of unearthing pigments in a way that allows the materials to sing themselves to the whole city,” Logan told The Star.
A Lake Story will be performed twice daily — at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. — on Sept. 27 and 28, along the waterfront. The performance can be viewed from Biidaasige Park and is free to the public.
Ilana Altman, co-executive director of The Bentway, says she brought McGill in for the project because of her large-scale, water-based practice and commitment to co-creation. “With our Great Lake shared by New York and Ontario, McGill’s cross-border perspective makes the collaboration especially meaningful,” Altman says.
The project began when a group of waterfront organizations approached The Bentway with a simple ask: help bring Torontonians back to the lake. “It’s also a demonstration of the power of public art to connect partners, places, and priorities — and to help us see our city anew,” Altman says. Funded through philanthropy, grants, sponsorships, and community donations, the project brings together major waterfront stakeholders working collaboratively for the first time.
One of the key partners is Waterfront Toronto. President and CEO George Zegarac says A Lake Story aligns with the organization’s broader efforts to support public art and placemaking. “A Lake Story brings together art, nature, and community in a vibrant celebration of our waterfront,” Zegarac told The Star. “This project invites discovery, adventure, and a renewed connection to the water.” Other groups involved include the Waterfront BIA, PortsToronto, Nieuport, Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, and Redpath Sugar.
While A Lake Story celebrates the beauty and wonder of Lake Ontario, the performance also comes at a time when the lake faces ongoing environmental challenges. Urban runoff, shoreline development, and the impact of climate change have raised growing concerns among conservation groups. For artists like McGill, the goal is not only to inspire awe, but to foster deeper awareness and stewardship.
McGill has been particularly inspired by the collaboration and commitment she’s seen from local water-focused organizations. “It’s not something you see every day as someone who works in public spaces,” she says. “Toronto’s relationship to the lake is amazing. There’s a lot to do environmentally, but there’s a lot already being done in the right direction.”
For McGill, the performance is a kind of conversation. “Hundreds of people coming together on the water invites a shift of perspective as we learn from nature’s creativity and vitality,” she says. “I’m interested in the lake’s expression and speaking the lake’s language. What if we listen to the lake’s wisdom, and the life the lake supports?”
