From condo towers to circus staples, there's a range of great attractions coming to Toronto in 2012.

Here are some highlights of what's already going on and what you can look forward to in the coming year:

Art Gallery of Ontario

Until Jan. 15, the AGO is featuring works by Marc Chagall and the Russian avante-garde.

The paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs and film that comprise the show include works on loan from the Centre Pompidou in the French capital Paris where the Russian-born Chagall did his most famous work.

There is also a companion exhibit -- Constructing Utopia: Books and Posters from Revolutionary Russia (1910-1940).

Chagall was part of a generation of Russian painters who embraced the trends sweeping the European art world at the time -- but with a Slavic twist.

He was also a contemporary of Pablo Picasso, whose work is featured in the AGO's next blockbuster show. Promoting Picasso as the "most inventive and influential artist of the 20th century," the AGO will be displaying works on loan from the Musée National Picasso in Paris starting on May 1.

"Though some of Chagall's work was influenced by Picasso's cubism, and although they worked in close proximity, the two artists' bodies of work differ drastically," the AGO's Jessica Bright told CTV News.

"Still, visitors to the Picasso exhibition who saw Chagall at the AGO will notice that they shared an affinity for colour and unmuddied hue. In fact, Picasso famously commented that ‘When (Henri) Matisse dies, Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what colour really is.'"

Royal Ontario Museum

The ROM's big winter exhibit is Maya: Secrets of Their Ancient World, which runs at the downtown museum until April 9.

The show focuses on artifacts from the period between 250 and 900 CE, including some culled from the ROM's existing displays and others that have never been on display before.

Besides the collapse of the Mayan civilization and the now infamous Mayan end-of-days legend, the exhibit also explores jungle cities such as Palenque in Mexico.

"We featured Palenque in the show because it's such a beautiful place," said Justin Jennings, one of the show's curators, about the ruins site located about 100 kilometres southeast of the Mexican city of Villahermosa.

Due to the ROM's connections, "we had an inside track on some of the best stuff coming out of that site," he said.

"We take people on a trip to the temples, the tombs, the cities and across the agricultural fields," Jennings explained.

For animal-lovers, the ROM is offering the Earth Rangers' Bring Back the Wild Holiday Show. Some of the animal ambassadors that children will be able to meet include a ring-tailed lemur, a pine marten and a bald eagle. It ends Jan. 6.

While details of the lineup for the rest of 2012 aren't available yet, the ROM will have a dinosaur-related exhibit to anchor its summer season.

Ontario Science Centre

The current marquee exhibit is Leonardo Da Vinci's Workshop, which ends with the school holiday on March 18.

Regarded as one of history's true geniuses, Da Vinci not only painted the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper, he was also an inventor who foresaw helicopters, for example, centuries before they were built.

The Science Centre exhibit offers lifesize models of 20 Da Vinci inventions.

"For example, there's a robot soldier and a mechanical lion," said Anna Relyea, the centre's director of strategic communications.

There's also reproductions of his drawings and large, innovative touchscreens that allow people to start with drawings and see them through to three-dimensional objects, she said.

Children like the technology while the adult attendees like browsing through the drawings, she said.

This summer, the centre will be bringing back its Circus exhibit. Its 23 components examine the science behind circus mainstays such as the trapeze and the human cannonball.

It's suitable for "anybody who likes circuses," Relyea chuckled.

For Star Trek lovers, Star Trek Live starts June 3 and runs to September. "It's a theatrical performance but there's lots audience interaction," she said.

Another major attraction this summer is Sport, which will focus on the science behind the athletics. It starts June 23 and runs until January 2013.

Visitors will be able to throw a baseball against a radar gun or try out a rowing machine. "Again, it has lots of action. You get to do these things," Relyea said.

Theatre

War Horse will be coming to the stage of the Princess of Wales theatre on Feb. 10. The story is set during the First World War and shows the conflict through the eyes of a horse named Joey and the boy who loves him, Ted.

While movie-goers can see Stephen Speilberg's take on the story in cinemas, the stage version holds its own as a National Theatre of Great Britain production that has already won six Tony awards.

At the Royal Alexandra Theatre, Mirvish Productions will stage The Blue Dragon, a Robert LePage creation. It is scheduled to run from Jan. 10 to Feb. 19.

According to its website, the play tells the story of a Canadian expatriate living in Shanghai whose life gets seriously complicated by two women -- one from his western past and another from his Asian present.

Trump Towers

A tourist attraction in the sense that it's a hotel and condominium, Donald Trump's Toronto development is scheduled to open on Jan. 31.

This will be the first building the Trump empire has constructed in Canada.

Located at 325 Bay Street, on the corner of Adelaide Street West, the 65-storey tower bills itself as a luxury condominium. "The Trump® Lifestyle is yours to be defined," its website states.

Prices start at $960,000.

Re-opening the Bloor Cinema

Sometime in the new year, the Bloor Cinema will be re-opened as the new home of the Hot Docs documentary film festival. Its new name will reflect the change: It will be known as the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema.

Hot Docs and the Blue Ice Group purchased the venerable repertory theatre earlier this year and have been busy renovating it ever since.

Upon re-opening, it will have a vertical sign on the front of the building -- a nod to the building's 1940s era when it was known as the Midtown, according to the cinema's website.

The programming will change with the ownership. Expect four out of every five films shown to be documentaries.

Is there anything new coming to Toronto in 2012 that you're looking forward to? Leave a comment below.