Winter Stations 2027 Competition: Monument

Winter Stations has opened its 2027 call under the theme Monument. The annual competition, held in Toronto since 2015, invites artists, architects, designers and students to turn the lifeguard stands of Woodbine and Kew beaches into public art installations for a six-week winter exhibition. Proposals are due on 15 October 2026 at 11:59pm Eastern time.

The brief asks what deserves to become a monument today. Monuments are being removed, reinterpreted and reclaimed around the world, and entrants are invited to question whether a monument has to be permanent, and whether it might honour an emotion, a community or a hope for the future rather than a person or a victory. The lifeguard stands become temporary monuments for one winter, judged by the gatherings and conversations they create.

Entry is free and open to anyone, from any country and at any level of experience. Winning proposals are chosen by a blind jury drawn from Toronto’s art, design, architecture and urbanism scene, and the organisers expect to build four to six installations, depending on funding. Each built project has a budget of $5,000 CAD for materials and $10,000 CAD for labour, and each winning artist or team receives a $2,000 CAD honorarium. Submissions are a single PDF of up to 10MB with two 11 x 17 inch design pages and a four-page application form, with no identifying information on the design pages, sent via Dropbox.