Winter Stations: International Design Competition returns to the snowy beaches of Toronto, Canada in 2026
Calling local & international artists, architects, and designers to submit public art proposals by November 3, 2025 for the exhibition ‘Mirage’, exploring the boundary of what is seen and what is real in the age of AI
Winter Stations launches its 2026 design competition, inviting proposals for interactive public art installations on Toronto’s urban beaches. This year’s theme, Mirage, explores the illusory nature of truth in the age of AI, calling on applicants to render illusion into architecture and consider public art’s role in drawing people back into shared reality. Submissions are open worldwide and free to enter. The annual six-week exhibition draws more than 8,000 visitors annually, bringing creativity, community, and colour to the shoreline of Lake Ontario in the coldest months of winter.
“At its heart, Winter Stations is a launching pad for new ideas in public art,” says Winter Stations organizer Dakota Wares-Tani. “Proposals are judged solely on their design, creativity, and feasibility—jurors do not know your name, country, social media, or where you went to school, worked, or exhibited. Winter Stations places the imaginations of emerging artists and designers alongside established architecture studios on the same stage. Having won the competition in 2017, I know how transformative the experience can be, both personally and professionally.”
Winter Stations began in 2015 as a competition by RAW Design, Ferris + Associates, and Curio, capturing the attention of the local and international artists, designers, and architecture studios with the provocation to transform the utilitarian lifeguard stands along Toronto’s beaches into striking works of public art. Its appeal has remained undeniable, each year attracting around 300 entries from over 90 countries.
Now in its twelfth year, Winter Stations has continued as a community initiative led by the Toronto-based architectural and interior design firm RAW Design, with support from the strategy & communications studio kg&a, in collaboration with fabricator Anex Works and a host of sponsors. The team is looking toward Winter Stations’ next evolution, strengthening its cultural and public mandate, and drawing inspiration from Toronto’s growing network of arts organizations working in the public realm.
“Toronto has an incredibly vibrant community of civic-minded arts organizations and creatives reimagining how we connect and coexist in public space through art,” says Winter Stations organizer Katarina Prystay. “We’re putting in the work now to see Winter Stations grow as a cultural organization that can continue platforming emergent ideas in public art from around the world for years to come, while always staying rooted in The Beaches neighbourhood and broader Toronto communities that make our exhibitions so meaningful.”
Submissions for the 2026 competition are open until November 3, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. EST. Proposals must be structurally independent of the lifeguard stands, suitable for both a sandy beach environment and a flat urban surface and designed to withstand Toronto’s winter weather. The number of winning proposals built is funding-dependent, though as in previous years, Winter Stations aims to build four to six installations. Each winning team will receive a $2,000 CAD honorarium.
Winners will be announced in early January and unveiled to the public on Family Day Weekend (February 16, 2026), remaining on view until March 30, 2026.
For more information about the competition, visit https://winterstations.com/competition/
2026 EXHIBITION THEME: MIRAGE
A mirage is a shimmer at the edge of reality, appearing real only to dissolve when approached. The present moment feels much the same, bent and distorted by the rise of digital silos and artificial intelligence, where the truth we seek is always shifting.
A promise and a trick, desire and deception, a mirage is a vision of what we long for most in a state of absence—water in a desert, fire in the cold. What longings define our time, and in what forms do they take?
For Winter Stations 2026, artists, designers, and architects are invited to tickle the boundary between what is seen and what is real. The Stations should transform the shoreline into a place where illusion becomes architecture, offering glimpses of uncanny possibilities. Participants might also consider what imaginative public infrastructures could prompt people to set aside their devices and gather in shared reality.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Competition Deadline: November 3rd, 2025, 11:59pm EST
Winner Announcement: Early January 2026
Exhibition Dates: February 16, 2026 – March 30, 2026
Location: Kew and Woodbine Beach, Toronto Ontario, Canada
For more information, please visit winterstations.com.