Submit a Project

Call for Participation

FIGMENT Toronto September 21 & 22, 2019

Dufferin Grove Park

Founded in 2007 on New York City’s Governors Island, what began as a few thousand enthusiasts enjoying a handful of participatory art projects on a sunny September afternoon has ballooned into a multi-day, multi-city event that drew over 30,000 participants in NYC, Jackson, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Washington DC and Boston in 2012. FIGMENT seeks to continue its mission to offer free, inclusive and participatory art to entire communities, removing the barriers of museum and gallery walls and entrance fees and blurring the lines between those who create and those who enjoy art.

This year, FIGMENT will take place in Toronto on September 21 & 22 at Dufferin Grove Park. FIGMENT Toronto is an ongoing event designed to promote spontaneous collaboration, active communication, and significant fun. Scheduled artists will commingle with contributors bringing unplanned commissions to the site, and a series of music acts will perform throughout the duration of the event.

The curators of FIGMENT Toronto invite proposals for interactive art of all mediums from local and regional artists, as well as artists across the United States and internationally. From installation, to performance art, to dance and video, FIGMENT Toronto hopes to showcase a diverse range of interactive and collaborative works. Selected works will highlight FIGMENT principles such as inclusion, self-reliance, participation, and de-commodification. Artists are welcome to submit a previously exhibited art pieces, please contact [email protected] if you wish to resubmit a project from a previous year.

Before you submit your proposal for an interactive project to FIGMENT Toronto, please take a moment to read the FIGMENT Toronto Artist FAQ and the information on this page – to give you the necessary guidelines to submit your project as FIGMENT-worthy as possible!

To Submit an Art Project:

FIGMENT asks that you create an account on the FIGMENT Artist Submission Portal to begin your process of submission. This is your account to keep, so please document your username and password.

Once you’ve created your account, you’ll log back in and you can choose the city you’d like to create a project for.

You can incrementally save your project. This allows you, the artist, to begin a project proposal, and come back to it another day. Remember though, once you’ve clicked the ‘submit’ button, you’ll no longer be able to make changes to that project and will need to email the curators to make changes.

Please do not set up multiple submissions for the same projects! Email us and we will work with you to edit and submit anything you need help with, including projects you have previously shown at FIGMENT.

Additionally, should you choose to take the project on the road to one of our other cities, you may reuse the project and apply it to other cities.

It is our hopes that this will create an easier, more fluid submission process, archives for the artist and FIGMENT, as well as, a way to collect all the wonderful info FIGMENT needs to produce FIGMENT and support our artists.

Submission Deadlines and Registered Artists Notification Dates

An entry form will be made available. The earlier you submit your project, the more personal attention you will get from our Curatorial Team!

SUBMIT YOUR PROJECT: Enter the FIGMENT Artist Submission Portal

We will notify artists if their project has been selected to be part of FIGMENT Toronto 2019.

As soon as we have accepted your project, we will hook you up with one of our FIGMENT Team Curators. He or she will be your contact, guiding light and trouble-shooter in the time leading up to and throughout the FIGMENT 2018 event.

Entries are encouraged from individuals or teams of any age or experience level, provided they are prepared to carry out the project.

Proposal Criteria:

FIGMENT participants can choose to enter their submission in one of the categories covering two main fields: Performance and Installation — or, simply put, People and Things. Projects can include but are not limited to: installations, games, workshops, (roving) performances, multimedia, electronic art, music.

Your FIGMENT Weekend project can be submitted by an individual or group of individuals. Projects will be included based on creativity, interactivity, structural integrity, sustainability, feasibility, budget, and community involvement:

Creativity:

Your piece should be visually stunning and wildly innovative. Your proposal should state a clear concept, theme or central idea. You are welcome to submit previously exhibited projects.

Interactivity:

Your project MUST provide for ongoing interactivity and participation from visitors to FIGMENT. This could be as simple as a way visitors can move, influence, or play with your art, or simply involving the audience in your performance. It could also involve transforming, adding to, or fundamentally altering the art project over the course of the day. In the questionnaire, please be sure to fully explain how your project will be participatory and engage visitors at FIGMENT.

Structural Integrity:

This is not a traditional art event. When you design a piece for FIGMENT imagine that it will be climbed on by 15 children at a time, kicked, walked on, etc. – for an entire day. If it rains, there is limited shelter, and water will gather in low-lying areas. Keeping that in mind, build for the apocalypse and consider a modular design for ease of transport and installation and de-installation. Although we have not had acts of intentional vandalism, anything that moves, is shiny or removable will be played with and pulled on in ways you did not imagine. Also when thinking about your submission, think about how your project will affect other projects. Is it noisy? Does it require quiet? Does it have the potential to be messy? Finally, remember that all artists must adhere to Toronto Park guidelines and rules, with regard to environmental presentation and general safety. You are allowed to hang your art from the trees as long as you ensure the art piece and installation/removal do not damage the trees in any way!

Context and Impact:

When thinking about your submission, especially when you are bringing a performance, think about how your project will affect other projects. Is it noisy? Does it require quiet? Does it have the potential to be messy? See the FIGMENT Toronto Artist FAQ.

Sustainability:

Please consider your materials carefully. Where do they come from? Where will they go after the event is over? Given the temporary nature of any installation, if possible please consider creating your work from found waste materials, or from materials that can be temporarily appropriated and then reused after the installation. One of FIGMENT’s main principles is Leave no Trace. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. Be prepared and committed to clean up your art project after FIGMENT is done, to leave the park in a better state than you found it. From experience, we highly recommend not using any paper that is left alone as paper tends to rip and create MOOP (Matter Out Of Place) volunteers and artists must clean up Saturday night.

Feasibility:

Please note that you will be responsible for the design, construction, maintenance, installation, execution and de-installation of your project. All projects will be installed in Dufferin Grove Park starting Saturday, September 21 at 6.30AM. Projects must be designed to be disassembled. De-installation will occur from 8PM Sunday, August 18th. All projects must be removed by 10pm on Sunday, September 22nd. Your proposal MUST include a cleanup plan. Artists are solely responsible for the successful installation and de-installation of their projects.

Budget:

Think carefully about the materials that you will be using to create your project. Since FIGMENT is a completely volunteer run organization and event, we are unable to supply materials and there is no funding available for material stipends. We encourage artists to seek outside sources of funding. As FIGMENT grows, we will strive for art grants from the City of Toronto and Provincial/Federal art grant organizations.

Community Involvement

FIGMENT is a large-scale participatory arts project that is created by a diverse community of volunteers. We look forward to your being a part of this community, and to volunteering to help make the FIGMENT event and exhibitions happen.

We encourage you to consider the following before submitting your project proposal:

Drawing inspiration from other community-based arts events, the development, production, and experience of FIGMENT are guided by 11 principles, one of which is DECOMMODIFICATION. FIGMENT seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorship, transactions, or advertising. We will not substitute consumption for experience. For all 11 Principles of FIGMENT, click here.
Artists will work with their assigned curator to realize their project; your curator will answer any questions you might have during the course of preparing for, installing and de-installing your project.
Artists must plan to personally be on site during any days in which their project is on site.
Artists are responsible for any volunteers needed during the weekend, or for installation or de-installation. FIGMENT staff will work with you and your curator to try and assist with volunteer needs, but we cannot promise anything. Remember that FIGMENT is about radical self-reliance.
Selected artists will be asked to sign a waiver before they submit their project, signifying that they understand what will be asked of them from FIGMENT to install and de-install.