Call for Public Art / Current

(Previously titled Art Along the Bow)

︎︎︎SUBMIT HERE︎︎︎

Deadline to submit: April 29th, 2026

The New Gallery is searching for public artwork such as;

• site responsive performance (artistic performance, dance, music, etc.)
• sound art
• video work
• outdoor sculpture
• process based artworks
• social practice work
• photo-methods (cyanotypes, photograms, etc.)
• light installations & projection
• outdoor centred workshops

Artists will contribute their ideas and projects on-site throughout early June, with public workshops and demonstrations taking place during that period. The festival culminates in an outdoor exhibition from June 22nd to June 30th . Activation locations span the Bow River pathway from 10th Street SW to the confluence of the Bow and Elbow Rivers, with exact locations to be confirmed.

Works proposed can be existing and physical works can be reproductions. Artist collectives are encouraged to apply.

Questions? Email: winona@thenewgallery.org

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“It matters what stories make worlds, what worlds make stories”
Staying with the Trouble - Donna Haraway

The river is not static; its banks shift with seasonal flooding, glacial melt, and erosion. As it meanders from its alpine source, crossing the foothills and flowing through the city, sedimentary deposits are transported and water levels rise and fall. Countering these natural processes, rivers are also highly engineered—systematically reinforced and shaped to protect urban environments and the infrastructure built to sustain them—fixing their edges in place.

This theme invites artists to slow down and work directly within the liminal space of the river’s edge, its riparian habitat, transition to the urban environment, the physical materials (both the natural and the unnatural) that the current both carries and deposits, and the meanings they hold. Through site-specific, process-based practice, participating artists will contribute projects and ideas in response to these particular conditions.

Current asks how our singular and shared histories are held in place, how to make them visible, and draws parallels between ecological and creative process. This project does not only reflect the river and its edges, it invites artists, makers and the public to slow down and be present.

Curated by Bridgette Badowich