The Power Plant

The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery acknowledges that we are situated on the traditional territory of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples. Toronto is covered by Treaty 13, signed with the Mississaugas of the Credit, and the Williams Treaties, signed with multiple Mississaugas and Chippewa bands. Today, this city remains home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples.

As a cultural institution, we recognize that our responsibility extends beyond words. We are committed to supporting Indigenous artists, curators, and communities through our programming, partnerships, and practices. We honour Indigenous knowledge systems, languages, and cultural expressions as living and evolving practices that must be protected and celebrated. The Power Plant is committed to aligning our work with the principles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), ensuring that Indigenous leadership and sovereignty are respected in how we engage with art, land, and community.

The land where The Power Plant now sits was once underwater. At the outset of the 20th century, Toronto’s central waterfront consisted of boggy marshes and small-scale wharves animated by steamship traffic. In 1912, the Toronto Harbour Commission set out to transform the waterfront into a major port for larger vessels anticipated with the future expansion of the St. Lawrence Seaway. The city expanded south, burying the original wharves under ten metres of soil dredged from the bottom of the lake.

The original coal-burning powerhouse was built in 1926 to supply energy to the Toronto Terminal Warehouse (now Queen’s Quay Terminal), with both structures constructed atop 10,000 wooden pilings driven into the lakebed. The area bustled for decades, but by the 1970s, with industrial activity in decline, the central lakefront fell into disuse. The warehouse closed, and the powerhouse was decommissioned.

In 1972, the federal government acquired 100 acres of Toronto lakefront and created a Crown corporation mandated to revitalize the waterfront and use culture, education, and recreation to attract local and international visitors. After the Harbourfront Corporation was founded in 1976, the Art Gallery at Harbourfront was established and became a centrepiece of its development plan.

The Art Gallery was given the opportunity to renovate the powerhouse in 1980. Peter Smith of Lett/Smith Architects was selected to lead the renovations, with a design that honoured the building’s industrial history while addressing the needs of contemporary art. The Power Plant officially opened in its current location on 1 May 1987 and today is easily recognized by its smokestack and exterior façade, both restored to preserve its historical character. It has since become Canada’s leading non-collecting public gallery dedicated to contemporary art, attracting diverse audiences and anchoring a creative community at the edge of a once-again bustling waterfront.