BUMP 2026 HAS LANDED
Of Simmering, and the Surge
What began in 2017 as a mural festival has grown into one of Canada’s most ambitious public art organizations, transforming Calgary into an open-air gallery while expanding into sculpture, music, film, education, conferences, and year-round cultural programming. As we celebrate this milestone year, we remain committed to a simple belief: BUMP is for the people.
This year’s theme, Of Simmering, and the Surge, asks us to consider how change takes form, both slowly and explosively. How do we respond to the forces that shape our world, at both the intimate and systemic level? What are the ideas, noise, gestures, and resistances that gather in the margins, in undergrounds, in small rooms, in fleeting conversations? And how do these moments accumulate, building pressure until they break through into the larger public sphere?
Throughout August and beyond, you’ll encounter an extraordinary collection of local, national, and international artists creating new public works across Calgary. From large-scale murals to the inaugural BUMP Public Sculpture Program, this year’s festival asks how public art can become more than something we simply look at. How can it become a portal into new ways of thinking, gathering, and imagining our shared future?
For the first time in BUMP’s history, we’ve invited guest curators to help shape the artistic direction of the festival. We are honoured to welcome Ken Lum, one of Canada’s most influential voices in contemporary public art, Marigold Santos, whose multidisciplinary practice has profoundly shaped artistic conversations in Calgary and beyond, and Said Dokins, an internationally celebrated artist from Mexico City whose work examines language, memory, and public space. They have assembled a remarkable group of artists whose practices reflect the diversity, complexity, and ambition of contemporary public art today.
This year also marks the third BUMP Urban Art Conference, taking place August 13-15 at Contemporary Calgary. Over three days, artists, writers, musicians, journalists, architects, curators, and cultural leaders from around the world will come together to explore the ideas shaping public life today. Through keynote talks, panel discussions, and conversations, the conference extends the questions raised on our walls into broader discussions about cities, culture, identity, ecology, technology, and the future of public space.
Whether you’re discovering BUMP for the first time or have been with us since the beginning, we invite you to experience the city differently this August.
We’ll be announcing details for our 2026 Festival Finale in the coming weeks, along with additional public programming and events taking place throughout the festival.
Thank you for being part of BUMP’s first ten years. We can’t wait to show you what’s next.