U of T's all-night art party: The Night of Ideas in photos

An all-night international art party at the University of Toronto, Night of Ideas brought together pyjama-clad artists, faculty, staff, students and community members from Toronto and around the world. On the agenda: dance performances, a midnight swim, the Figures of Sleep exhibition at the Art Museum, and much more.

U of T was one of the first Canadian institutions to take part in the global all-night event, which takes place in more than 50 cities.

In case you couldn’t make it out and find yourself experiencing FOMO, we put together highlights from the night, in photos.

Beatriz Colomina of Princeton University explored how social media affects our behaviour, including sleep. “The line between what is public and private has been radically blurred,” said Colomina in her talk, “The Bed in the Age of Social Media.”

Hart House and the Art Museum were filled with pyjama-clad attendees, like Sarah Barrable-Tishauer, who we caught up with at the entrance of Hart House. Barrable-Tishauer goes by DJ Me Time, but fans also know her as Liberty Van Zandt from Degrassi: The Next Generation.

“My dad told me about the event,” said Barrable-Tishauer, who attended with her father. “Ever since I started exploring the idea of me time and the idea of being an extroverted introvert, I became really interested in private spaces and me time: What we do in private spaces, and how important that is for self-care and self-development,” she said. 

Next door, in the Reading Room, students and community members were busy connecting and crafting in the Get Crafty: Sleep Mask workshop. 

Alexia Christie (below, right) and Viola Baker (below, left) said they really enjoyed the talks at the event. “[Colomina] spoke a lot about how these days, art is often made to fit social media instead of just fitting the artist’s vision, which was really interesting,” said Christie, before dashing off to the pyjama pageant.

The pageant began with pyjama-clad attendees dancing down a runaway to Madonna’s Vogue.

And ended with a group selfie.

Hart House Warden John Monahan and Kelly Schnurr, senior project manager of the 100th anniversary of Hart House, also took a moment to strike a pose before getting ready for the next panel discussion,“To Think or Not to Think.”

Over at the Art Museum, meanwhile, attendees reflected on the cultural anxieties of sleep in Figures of Sleep, an exhibition that asks, “Is sleep in a crisis?”

Below, Ron Mueck's Old Woman In Bed. Be sure to check out the Figures of Sleep exhibition at U of T's Art Museum. It is open until March 3.

Learn more about the joint event between U of T’s Art Museum, Hart House and the Cultural Service of the French Embassy of Canada