2025 BUMP URBAN ART CONFERENCE 
THEME: MONUMENTS AND MEMORY
AUGUST 5 – 6, 2025
CONTEMPORARY CALGARY
701 11 St SW, Calgary, AB T2P 2C4

Presented by Calgary Foundation

This summer, join artists, curators, cultural leaders, and city-builders for the second annual BUMP Urban Art Conference, centered around the theme “Monuments & Memory.” Over two dynamic days, explore how art shapes and reshapes our collective memory in the urban landscape. Through thought-provoking panels, hands-on workshops, and in-depth discussions, the conference tackles the evolving role of public art in a time of rapid development, cultural reckoning, and transformation.

From the politics of placemaking to the power of sound and story, this is a space for challenging conversations and visionary ideas about how cities remember, who gets to be seen, and what it means to build together. As a part of the larger BUMP Festival taking place Aug 1—18, BUMP has programmed over 350 public art projects to date and will bring to August new murals, initiatives, events and ideas in the height of Calgary’s summer.

Important RSVP Information:

—Guests must RSVP to each panel and workshop individually, as well as the keynote address.

—RSVPing to one conference event will not guarantee entry to other panel/workshop conference programming that you have not RSVP’ed for.

—All conference ticket holders will be welcome to join a private conference wrap party.

Special thanks to our incredible partners and sponsors Contemporary Calgary, Calgary Downtown Association and Carvel Creative.

Conference Schedule

Day 1

August 5, 2025

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
August 5, 2025

Introduction & Keynote: Ken Lum

Speaker(s):

Ken Lum

RSVP
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
August 5, 2025

Soft Power, Hard Shapes: Public Installations and Sculptures in the Age of Spectacle

Speaker(s):

Adam Weir , Sans façon (Charles Blanc & Tristan Surtees), Ciara McKeown

Moderator(s):

Khalid Omokanye

RSVP
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
August 5, 2025

WORKSHOP : Reimagining Fragments as Monument

Instructor(s):

Mao Projects

RSVP
5:00 pm - 6:00 pm
August 5, 2025

Welcome to Where?: Tourism, and the Aesthetics of Place

Speaker(s):

Seth Cardinal Dodginghorse, Mackenzie Brown, Harold Horsefall, Lauren Crazybull

Moderator(s):

Jared Tailfeathers

RSVP
Day 2

August 6, 2025

1:30 pm - 2:30 pm
August 6, 2025

Ghost Town or Gathering Place?: Reimagining Downtown Through Public Will

Speaker(s):

Courtney Walcott, Jennifer Thompson, Fabiola MacIntyre

Moderator(s):

Bethel Afework

RSVP
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
4:30 pm - 5:30 pm
August 6, 2025

The Age of the Editorial: Storytellers, Subjects, and the Shaping of Legacy

Speaker(s):

Liam Dawe, Wesley O'Driscoll, Leechuts, Stuart Teekasingh

Moderator(s):

Ryan Tram

RSVP
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
August 6, 2025

The Sonic Underground: Music and Monumentality in the New Calgary

Speaker(s):

Maud Salvi, Sheena Jardine-Olade AKA Donna Dadda, Rachel Weldon, Simone Chnarakis AKA WURLD2000K

Moderator(s):

Priya AKA. CONTRA

RSVP

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