TORONTO.- What do we want the future to look like? What if we ask the children what they want?

This spring, The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery invites visitors to freely interact with the artworks in Colourful Parachutes: Imagining Alternative Futures Through the Power of Play, a participatory new exhibition opening April 25, 2026.

Bringing together ten artists from Canada and around the world, Colourful Parachutes transforms the gallery into an engaging, hands-on environment where visitors of all ages are encouraged to interact with the art. Designed with young audiences in mind, but just as inviting for adults, the exhibition reimagines what a gallery can be, and what’s possible for the collective future when creativity is put into action.

“Colourful Parachutes is for audiences of all ages, while foregrounding children’s potential as creative agents and future-makers,” says Adelina Vlas, Artistic Director of The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery. “By centering play as a critically creative force, the exhibition reconsiders how imagination, as well as care and responsibility for the future can be shaped in and beyond the gallery.”

Art You Can Actually Play With

Colourful Parachutes asks younger generations to think about what kind of future they imagine for themselves and positions creativity as a powerful tool for shaping it.

● Climb, swing, and move through Lagos-based artist Temitayo Ogunbiyi’s interactive sculpture

● Experiment with natural materials in a hands-on environment by Montreal duo Leisure (Meredith Carruthers & Susannah Wesley)

● Step into Harold Offeh’s The Mothership Collective 2.0 (2025), a vibrant space for people to come together, play, experiment with sound and text, and consider their version of a speculative future

● Enter dream.lab (2024–25) by Brazilian artist Rivane Neuenschwander, an interactive shadow booth designed in collaboration with children, which prompts reflection on how the world of dreams might allow us to tap into our hidden hopes and fears

● Participate in the erasure of a large-scale graphite mural of the Athabasca Glacier by Toronto artist Claire Greenshaw’s, while gradually reshaping the image over time

For a more reflective moment:

● Experience a large-scale, site-specific work by South African artist Robin Rhode, created with children using oversized crayons, turning the gallery into a hand-drawn waterscape

● Discover stop-motion films by Sassa Linklater and Tobias Linklater (Omaskêko Ininiwak and Sugpiaq), created when they were children. The videos offer touching reflections on the meaning of treaty relations, and travel across land and through water to enter past and future worlds

● Watch the Cuban American artist and educator Ana Mendieta’s Parachute (1973), which captures the joy of a group of children playing the parachute game in a playground, echoing the spirit of the exhibition

Big Ideas, Made Accessible

Building on a legacy of radical, interactive art, dating back to Palle Nielsen’s 1968 transformation of a museum into an adventure playground, Colourful Parachutes reimagines the gallery as a space shaped by its visitors.

Through playful, participatory works, the exhibition explores:

● Climate anxiety and environmental awareness
● How to give young audiences agency and a voice in shaping their own future
● The importance of connecting with nature from a young age
● The power of imagination, collaboration, and collective action