About
BUMP IS CALGARY'S STREET ART FESTIVAL
Started in 2017 as the Beltline Urban Murals Project, the community-led, artist-focused BUMP Festival has exploded to become a city-wide street art movement reimagining public spaces through the visual arts and expanding the capacity of the local arts community. A diverse jury selects from among local, national and international artists for the BUMP Festival’s annual exhibition of new mural, Road Works and graffiti works in Calgary.
We believe that public art can enrich communities, create beautiful and captivating places, provoke conversation and add beauty to the everyday. To date, the BUMP Festival has transformed Calgary with over 270+ public art installations capturing the imagination of residents and visitors in a celebration of the arts and community.
MISSION
VISION
To create accessible public art that uplifts communities across Calgary.
To transform Calgary into an expansive, open-air contemporary visual art gallery that drives a thriving local arts community.
VALUES
Accessibility
We create art that is experienced by all.
Diversity and inclusion
We are inclusive of the diversity of Calgary and the traditional lands of the Treaty 7 First Nations.
Community
We foster community connection through public art.
Artistic pursuit
We celebrate creative liberty and exploration.
Education
We facilitate artistic growth and development.
City building
We seek to reimagine more vibrant public spaces.
OUR PROCESS
The BUMP Festival’s annual call for artists draws hundreds of submissions from around the world. A jury composed of a diverse cross section of local artists, members of various Alberta arts entities and community-leaders review the applications to develop an artist shortlist for the Festival. Due to the volume of applications we receive each year, artists are long listed and short listed internally before we decide on our final festival programming. Our jury is committed to looking at every single application to the BUMP Festival and to present a diversity of artists, styles, origins and experience.
In the spirit of respect, reciprocity and truth, the BUMP Festival honours and acknowledges the land of Moh’kins’tsis, the traditional Blackfoot name for the place we now call the city of Calgary.
We honour and acknowledge the traditional territories of the people of the Treaty 7 region in Southern Alberta, which includes the Blackfoot Confederacy (comprised of the Siksika, Piikani, and Kainai First Nations), the Tsuut’ina First Nation, and the Stoney Nakoda (including the Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Goodstoney First Nations). The City of Calgary is also home to Otipemisiwak Métis Government Districts 5 and 6.