Artist Applications for the 2024 BUMP Festival are open!
Friday January 5, 2024
Welcome to the eighth year of the BUMP Festival! We are excited to open our 2024 artist applications! We invite local, national and international artists to submit portfolios and qualifications to be considered for our summer festival. The BUMP Festival (formerly known as the Beltline Urban Murals Project) has grown considerably over time, creating landmark public art pieces in The City of Calgary and playing an essential role in growing our artistic community. Our goal has always been to foster a robust creative ecosystem that is diverse, inclusive, and has the capacity to change our city from within. The 2024 BUMP Festival will be our most ambitious year, with exciting developments that we will announce as the year unravels.
We look forward to learning more about you and programming an exciting, boundary-pushing festival this August. For the 2024 Artist Call, we have two streams that require separate submissions; please see below for more details:
2024 Murals
Murals are the core of the BUMP Festival, and a limited number of walls are programmed in August each year. Selected artists are invited to paint in Calgary, bringing their unique style, ideas and experience to the festival. The locations and key details for the murals will be provided to successful candidates. Artists will be assigned to walls with consideration of the artist’s skills and experience, building owner preferences, and the jury’s evaluation of location characteristics. Artists are welcome to work in teams, bring assistants, etc., provided they are also covered by the artists’ insurance.
Artists selected for this stream of the festival have a range of experience in muralism. Newer artists to the medium will be paired with an experienced mentor to assist with learning and overcoming challenges.
2024 Roadworks
BUMP Festival developed the ROAD WORKS program with help from the City of Calgary to create safer adaptive patios using road infrastructure. The ROAD WORKS program creates small-scale public art installations on concrete traffic barriers that are utilized in neighbourhoods across Calgary. Artists selected to be a part of ROAD WORKS are given the opportunity to create a series of 2-5 ROAD WORKS pieces, which will encourage them to think about art that is functional, playful, and transient in the public realm.
ROAD WORKS barriers provide a canvas for artists who like working on unique surfaces. It can be an interesting opportunity to experiment with design and functionality. It can be a way for emerging artists to learn and practice scaling up their work. Painting for the ROAD WORKS program will take place in early spring 2024. Only artists local to Calgary will be selected for the ROAD WORKS program.
You can apply to both streams of applications.
At BUMP Festival, we value creativity, diversity and talent in artists and encourage artists to approach our festival with creative vigour, thoughtfulness and spark. We are an inclusive project intended to be enjoyed by all classes, genders, cultures, ages and abilities. We strive to create a safe and equitable space for cultural diversity to be celebrated and represented through visual art.
Please read through our complete 2024 Artist RFP documents, which can be found below. These documents contain required information, a link to the application portal and the types of projects you can apply for. Please review the documents carefully to ensure your application satisfies our requirements.
Application Deadline: February 2, 2024, 6:00 PM MST
Please note that due to the volume of applications we receive each year, only successful applicants will be contacted in the spring.