TO Live’s explorations program unveils its 2025 cohort, expanding support for seven groundbreaking artists. The initiative champions research, risk, and innovation.
Toronto’s artistic landscape thrives on experimentation, and TO Live is making sure that spirit has the room it needs to flourish. The multi-arts organization has announced the 2025 cohort of its explorations program, now entering its fifth year. Designed as a platform for experimental research, explorations gives artists the chance to pursue ambitious inquiries free from the usual pressures of production timelines or predetermined outcomes.
This year marks a significant expansion. For the first time, seven artists—up from six in previous editions—will each receive a $7,000 grant to deepen their research. It’s a move that reflects TO Live’s growing commitment to innovation and the often-overlooked process of artistic discovery.
“Research is an essential part of the creative process, yet it rarely receives adequate support,” says Clyde Wagner, President and CEO of TO Live. “With explorations, we provide artists at all stages of their careers the resources, time, and space to take risks and expand what artistic development can mean.”
A legacy of support
Launched in April 2020, explorations has already left an impressive mark. More than $300,000 has been awarded directly to 43 artists, while hundreds more have benefited from access to TO Live’s spaces, residencies, rehearsal and recording opportunities, and co-production support. Collectively, these efforts have impacted over 250 artists and companies, strengthening Toronto’s cultural fabric.
The program is made possible by supporters of the TO Live Foundation, with generous contributions from Power Corporation of Canada.
The 2025 explorations artists
This year’s cohort embodies the breadth and diversity of Toronto’s arts scene, spanning sound, design, performance, and movement. Each artist brings a bold vision for reshaping their discipline:
- Marcos Arcentales leads Indigenous World: A Sonic Research Journey Across Turtle Island and Abya Yala, uniting Indigenous artists across continents to co-create soundscapes rooted in improvisation and cultural exchange.
- Phil Baljeu, a video artist, investigates the sculptural and perceptual qualities of images through custom-built analog electronics and stereoscopic imaging. His work is shaped by living with aphantasia—the inability to visualize images in the mind’s eye.
- Iman Bhatti explores resilience in public spaces through site-specific installations of veiled figures. Her mixed-media and projection-based works challenge narratives of hypervisibility and erasure around Muslim women.
- Lisa Karen Cox presents Visual Echoes and the Sonics of Motion: Co-Authoring Living Design, a research project blending responsive environments, digital projection, and participatory storytelling with an emphasis on queer and global majority voices.
- Mahmoud Halat reimagines the intricacies of Islamic arabesque geometry through parametric design, fusing traditional aesthetics with contemporary algorithmic and laser-cut technologies.
- Matias Recharte pushes the boundaries of sound design by reinventing the Afro-Peruvian cajon as a hybrid acoustic-electronic instrument, creating new grooves at the intersection of tradition and electronic production.
- Sixth Sense Collective, led by Charlotte Carbone and Cassandra Myers, introduces CHRONIC PAIN CRIP WAACK. This disability-led research redefines street dance through somatic practices and a justice lens, centring slowness, sensation, and access.
Looking ahead
The 2025 cohort demonstrates why explorations has become such a vital fixture in Toronto’s arts ecosystem. By prioritizing risk, research, and the act of questioning, the program enables artists to move beyond traditional constraints and envision new creative futures.
As TO Live continues to expand its investment in experimental practices, it reinforces the value of artistic inquiry as a cornerstone of community life. Each project in this year’s lineup offers more than a creative experiment—it is an invitation to imagine new possibilities for how art connects, challenges, and transforms.
For background on the 2025 explorations artists and full program details, visit tolive.com/explorations
