Submit to Bridge Songs: Faerie

Bridge Songs invites you to share your art with the community!

Art should be a meditation on the theme “Faerie”, which in general touches on childlike wonder and imagination. You can read more about the theme here.

We are looking for many different angles and many different forms. To submit work(s), simply download and submit the form below. Your form can be emailed to bridgesongsart@gmail.com or brought to an Urban Bridge Church gathering any Sunday between 10 AM and noon at the Royal Alberta Museum.

Bridge Songs 2010 Visual Art Application (PDF)

Submission Deadlines

If you are submitting art for the main gallery, your submission must be received by May 17, 2010.

If you are submitting art for the feature gallery, your submission must be received by May 3, 2010.

Submission Questions

How can I email a submission form to you?

You can either fill in the form (available through the link above), scan it and email it, or just copy and paste the questions into an email, fill in your answers, and email that to bridgesongsart@gmail.com. It is not the form itself we are interested in as much as the answers to the questions it is asking. When you email your submission, please include images of your work where possible, images of samples of your work or a proof of concept if your work is still in progress.

How do I get my art to you?

Bridge Songs is a “one night only” event. This means you’ll need to bring it to the Avenue Theatre (9030 118th Ave) the day of the event (June 5) by 3 PM. You can arrive as early as 11 AM. Then, you’ll need to pick it up at the end of the night to bring home with you (about 10 PM).

Can I sell my art?

We hope that this event helps support your art and gain exposure for your work. You are welcome to discuss sales with people at the event if they are interested in any of your pieces, but the event does not include a formal art sale, and any transactions will need to be handled by yourself. No commission is required for the organizers of Bridge Songs: Faerie.

My work will not be complete by the deadline. Can I still submit?

Yes. All we need is a “proof of concept”. We want to see what you have in mind, and perhaps some sample images of progress or of other work you’ve done to give us a feel for your work. You do not have to actually provide the pieces until June 5th, the day of the event, so you have up until them to finish them. We recommend starting a little earlier than that though. We’re artists too. We know how it goes.

I’m unsure of that “in harmony with the values of Urban Bridge Church” bit?

We wrestled a lot with the wording of that section on the submission form. Our hope is that it will not deter anyone from submitting work, but simply provide some guidelines for the work to be chosen for submission. Here is what it reads …

“We reserve the right to refuse submissions not in harmony with the values of Urban Bridge Church, not in accordance with the theme, or not meeting an acceptable artistic standard.”

It may be helpful to state the “values” that are mentioned in the above statement. There are five of them, and they are;

grace, creativity, mercy, authenticity and loving relationships

This is not so much a church event as it is a community event that happens to be put together by a church. We want to engage with the community on meaningful themes and we believe in an open conversation through our work. People of all faith backgrounds, or no faith background at all, are invited to join the dialog.

This statement does not mean we want only religious or “Christian” art (we’re not sure that exists anyways).  It does not mean we want art that is not challenging to those from a faith background. Our goal here is to be open to submissions as widely as possible, but still maintain some pre-defined, openly stated standards by which we can select works. Being as open as possible, we also seek to be sensitive to two groups of people; those who have a strong Christian faith and families with young children. Many people who do have strong beliefs have put in many hours to make this show a reality, and we want to honor them. We also want to honor families who will attend and have a variety of views on what is acceptable work for the children to engage. This does not mean we are closed to works that challenge faith, the church, or even Urban Bridge Church specifically. Constructive criticism and challenge is healthy. From a place of constructive, considered criticism, some incredible work is born. It does mean that work that is extremely offensive, or whose purpose is to attack or undermine the church community who is organizing this event may not be selected for display. We think that is a fair balance.

At Urban Bridge Church, we practice “acceptance without agreement”. This means you do not need to agree with us or what we stand for, but when we are together, as with this art show, we seek to live in harmony with one another. Having said all of this, to be honest, we’ve never had any work submitted that even comes close to warranting a refusal on these grounds. We just feel for the purpose of authenticity we should be upfront about this, so that if such questions do arise from a submission, we have a clearly defined place to speak from.