Until January 23, the 200,000-plus people who travel through Union Station each weekday will be find themselves among a series of international art installations in the station’s Great Hall. The installations are part of the Villa project, "a roving art event that moves from city to city every couple of years" with an aim to “connect artists, galleries, and audiences from around the world.” Toronto is the project's fourth international stop, and Stu Monck, an alumnus of the University of Toronto’s Visual Studies program who graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Studies in 2013, is Villa Toronto's project coordinator.

Writes James Adams in the Globe and Mail:

Defining Villa Toronto is next to impossible, so description might be the best way to limn its contours and content. It’s actually the fourth iteration of an event/exhibition/performance/party that was started in 2006 by Warsaw’s Galeria Raster and held for a week in a villa in the Polish capital. Others have since been staged in 2010 and 2011 in, respectively, Reykjavik and Tokyo – centres that, though not global arts hubs à la New York and Berlin, nonetheless “have a lot happening” and deserve wider exposure, according to Villa Toronto project co-ordinator Stu Monck.

Don’t think of Villa Toronto as kin to, say, Art Basel Miami Beach or the Toronto Art Fair. All Villa Toronto happenings are open to the public and free. Nothing’s housed in cubicles. And forget about selling. The Great Hall is Villa’s heart and hub, hosting 24 or so artworks or events from eight Toronto and 11 international arts institutions (including galleries from Milan, London, Tokyo and Berlin), but none of what’s being presented there carries a price tag.

The “event/exhibition/performance/party” was also covered by Murray Whyte in the Toronto Star.

For more information on Villa Toronto, visit its website.