2024 THEME OF THE YEAR

THE 2024 THEME CHALLENGE

Pelham Art Festival proposes a Theme Challenge to its artists and artisans every year. Visitors to the 37th Inperson and Online Pelham Art Festivals will be treated to artwork inspired by and specially created for this year's theme challenge.

When an artist has been juried into this year's Festival, if they wish, they may participate in this challenge by creating and entering one artwork that represents their interpretation of the 2024 theme. 

As part of their collection, artists are invited to create one artwork to interpret the 2024 Theme Challenge - Transformations                                                                                              

These artworks will be featured in a special online Curated Collection and one artwork will be selected by the curator for the Online Best of Theme Award. Visitors to Pelham Art Festival in the Meridian Community Centre will vote for their favourite theme artwork to select a People's Choice Best of Theme Award. Both awards will be presented to the creators of the winning artworks on Mother's Day weekend at the Festival.

Transformations:  ‘The art of changing how we see our world’

  • Transformation is a dramatic change of form or appearance.  It has been the catalyst for human evolution throughout history.
  • Transformations are the past, present and future restructuring of all aspects of our world:  social, economic, political, technological, cultural, and natural.
  • Individual transformation helps people give meaning to their environment, understand the world, elevate their mood and open their minds to new ideas 
  • Art and artists have the power to transform how people see the world, opening them to new perspectives, ideas and values by reflecting on the past, pushing into the future and fostering a broader understanding of their society and world today.
  • Transformations in art include raising awareness of social, political, environmental and cultural events and movements.
  • Transformations in art media include new technologies and using media that change perspective and the visual impact of everyday objects.                                                                                                                          

Theme Challenge 37th Inperson Pelham Art Festival:

  • NB: Artists and artisans participating in the theme challenge at the 37th Inperson Pelham Art Festival are asked to email [email protected] with the artwork title to obtain a tag to identify their art entry. The tag will be enclosed in your Artist Information package when you arrive at the Accipiter Arena in Fonthill Meridian Community Centre.

Theme Challenge 37th Online Pelham Art Festival:

  • Particiating artists and artisans must include the Theme Challenge title Transformations in their artwork title when filling out the form in edit mode after the artwork is uploaded into their gallery. The title will identify it for a specially curated collection featuring selected artworks from all the theme challenge submissions.                                                                                                                                                        
  • Artists should also choose the Theme Challenge name Transformations in the Subjects dropdown menu when filling in the form for the 2024 theme challenge. That way, it can be identified by the site search engine which the curator will be using to pull up all the Theme Challenge entries. If you do not select Transformations as a subject for your Theme piece, the curator will likely not find it.                   
  • Whether it's in your Online gallery or Inperson booth at either Festivals, only one artwork should be assigned the special subject designation or labelled with a special tag if you participate in the Theme Challenge. This enables the curator to find all the theme challenge artwork identified by participating online artists for consideration for the Theme Curated Collection. This is also the case for visitors at the Inperson show, tasked with choosing a Best of Theme artwork from the art labelled with special theme tags provided by the Festival to help viewers identify the participating works.                                                                                                                                                                               

We look forward to viewing your "Transformations" artwork at the Festivals!