Call for Submissions: Hamilton Winterfest 2024

Caillin Kowalczyk

Hamilton Winterfest 2024
Call for Artists

Application Deadline: August 25, 2023
To view full call details visit: www.hamiltonwinterfest.ca

Hamilton Winterfest is co-produced by Cobalt Connects and the City of Hamilton. This Call for Artists covers opportunities at the Winterfest HUB and the all-new Winterfest POP exhibition.

Winterfest HUB Opportunities

The Hamilton Winterfest HUB takes place from February 9-19, 2024 on the rooftop of Jackson Square. The expansive rooftop plaza will be filled with installations, video and projection works, a site soundtrack, live music performances, and a series of special events designed to attract a wide-ranging audience.

Exploring the theme of BOLD, BEAUTIFUL & BRIGHT, the artwork should create moments of interaction for our audience to help them explore this urban space. All installation locations have access to power, onsite staff, and security for the duration of the festival.

Adam Monture

The following commissioned opportunities are available:

Once Upon a Fountain – $10,000
Central to the festival site is a former water fountain. Its concrete form speaks to the best intentions that it was designed with, but the decades of inactivity symbolize downtown’s lost potential. We’re seeking a work of scale that celebrates the sense of what is possible through artist intervention in urban spaces that engages the built form of the fountain. View Location

Grove of Trees – $10,000
An undiscovered space to some, the rooftop unexpectedly includes a number of treed plateaus that bring nature into this concrete, glass and brick mass. They soften the space and remind us that this is a living space for us and others, that requires maintenance and nurturing to thrive. We’re seeking an artwork for this site that incorporates light and explores the natural environment of downtown Hamilton. View Location

Exhibition Beacon – $10,000
New to the festival is Winterfest POP, an exhibition that will be hosted inside the mall. The Exhibition Beacon is the first space guests will encounter when travelling from the inside exhibition space to the outdoors Winterfest HUB. This work needs to be bold, exciting and interactive as it sets the tone for our guests to further explore the festival rooftop. View Location

Stage Grounds – $5,000
The rooftop plaza includes a raised area and a stage for live performances. This large open space has a grass base and is the central location for the audience during concerts, drag performances and our Family Day Extravaganza. For this site, we’re seeking a work that can respond to the activity on stage, act as a meeting space for guests and be a point of interaction for the audience. View Location

Clear Eyes Collective

Skylight Inflatable – $5,000 + 100m of white ripstop fabric
Each year Hamilton Winterfest creates an inflatable work in partnership with Fabricland. Cobalt Connects also owns bouncy castle blowers that serve to inflate works of monumental scale.

Originally built as a feature in the former Black’s Photography retail space inside the mall, this skylight remains intact but disengaged from the rooftop. Yale Properties intends to refurbish the skylight in the future, so we want to celebrate that renewal by creating a work that explodes from the inside out onto the rooftop. View Location

Picture This – $2,000 design fee
Thousands of guests visit the Winterfest HUB and want to take amazing photos with their friends and family. Let’s embrace their love and give them a backdrop that helps them express their sense of adventure and exploration with the phrase BOLD, BEAUTIFUL & BRIGHT.

This location provides a brick façade that can accommodate a mural (2D) work that is up to 80’ long and 12’ tall. Working in collaboration with our Print Sponsor, the selected artist will design a work to be printed on panel (print and installation costs covered by the festival). View Location

Projection Mapping Video – IMAA Fee Schedule ($150 for initial screening, $91 per additional screening, 30 screenings over 10 days)
The Winterfest HUB will feature two large-scale video presentation spaces on the rooftop of Jackson Square. Adding to a collection of curated works, we’re seeking one additional active projection mapping piece that explores the BOLD, BEAUTIFUL & BRIGHT theme (10-15 minutes).

Lauren A. Pirie

Winterfest POP Opportunities

A new element of Hamilton Winterfest 2024 is Winterfest POP. Winterfest POP is an indoor, 10,000-square-foot former bank space transformed into an exhibition and interactive experience playing on pop culture, amusement and retro design. The exhibition includes a 6-hole mini putt course designed by the Young Architects of Hamilton, a 1963 Jukebox filled with local music, neon signs, pinball machines, a giant Rube Goldberg machine, displays of pop culture collectables and much more!

Rube Goldberg Machine / Marble Run
$5,000 (onsite production space available at no cost)

We’re seeking an artist or artist team to create a large-scale Rube Goldberg machine / Marble Run. The work will:

• embody the theme of the festival BOLD, BEAUTIFUL & BRIGHT and Pop Culture
• be a visual spectacle taking up to 20’ linear feet, or 200 square feet of display space
• meet AODA guidelines so all visitors can interact with the work
• be built safely and professionally to ensure smooth operation for the duration of the festival
• be designed for repeat activation without manually resetting elements

Interactive Slat Wall Light-based Work
$5,000 (onsite production space available at no cost)

A main feature of Winterfest POP is a 50’-wide curved white wall with 70 horizontal grooves. We’re seeking an artist who works with LED strip lights to engage this wall with an interactive light element that will:

• create a dynamic element to the exhibition space
• be responsive in some way to the audience (sound, proximity, text or image input, social media interaction, etc.)

For more information, contact:
Cobalt Connects
Email

www.hamiltonwinterfest.ca
Instagram @hamiltonwinterfest
Twitter @HamONWinterfest
Facebook @hamiltonwinterfest