Museum of Illusions toronto

Toronto is getting a Museum of Illusions

An Instagram-ready creative space with fans from LA to Zagreb is gearing up to open its first Canadian location, right here in cool-as-a-cucumber Toronto.

Museum of Illusions, scheduled to launch late this summer, will be the biggest permanent tourist attraction to open in Toronto since Ripley's Aquarium in 2013 — according to organizers.

While technically a museum, the company says that visitors can expect a "visual, sensory and participatory" custom experience — similar to LA's Museum of Ice Cream, which was famously designed with our snap-happy generation in mind.

If you liked Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirrors exhibit at the AGO, you're going to love this place.

Founded in Croatia three years ago, the Museum of Illusions has since expanded to six locations worldwide, with eight more on the way in 2018 alone.

New York, Dubai, Berlin, Amsterdam, Athens, Kuala Lumpur and, of course, Toronto, are among the cities set to join Vienna, Belgrade, Muscat and others as part of the tribe this year.

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"Filled with holograms, optical illusions, installations and unusual rooms, the concept of the Museum of Illusions is based on the principle of fun and offers an original experience to visitors, locals and tourists alike," writes a marketing executive for the Museum. 

"The Museum is an impressive destination where illusions can be experienced in addition to being seen."

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Now under construction at 132 Front St. East in Toronto's St. Lawrence Market district, Museum of Illusions will have 60-70 exhibits to start.

These include a number of what the company calls "Grand illusions" and "Master illusions": things like tilted rooms, vortex tunnels, reverse rooms, holograms, stereograms and "head-on-a-platter like experiences."

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It'll take you anywhere between 45 minutes and a few hours to tour through the entire thing (depending on how many pictures you pose for).

Like the aforementioned Museum of Ice Cream and Infinity Mirrors exhibit, you might have to wait in line for a chance to experience the Museum of Illusions — at least in the beginning.

The company says that every concept location around the world to date has "very quickly established itself as a leading city attraction with annual visitors exceeding over a million."

Knowing how much Torontonians, in particular, love to participate in all kinds of hype, one could imagine how busy the attraction will be when it opens the week before labour day.

Keep an eye on the Museum of Illusions Canada website for more information to drop. Let's all hope buying tickets doesn't involve a futile digital queue.

Lead photo by

lazarlilla


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