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Different Colors: Boston Calling brings back Blank Canvas art campaign for September festival


We’ve exactly six weeks away from the sixth-ever Boston Calling Music Festival, and the process of dolling up the brutalist structure of City Hall Plaza remains a common cause. As the City of Boston continues construction of the glass-encased Government Center MTBA station and rolls out some Astroturf on the new “front lawn,” the music fest’s organizers have announced another Blank Canvas art contest.

Boston Calling’s Blank Canvas campaign is designed to showcase local and national artists and their interpretations of the festival’s grounds and lineup, and five winners will have their physical work on display at September’s festival.

“The response for Blank Canvas has been tremendous since we first launched the contest at Boston Calling’s September 2014 edition,” Boston Calling co-founder Brian Appel tells Vanyaland in an email. “We’ve seen an overwhelming number of entries and we especially love that some of them are coming from different areas around the country. These artists and their creativity have enhanced the visual appeal of the festival which has further solidified art’s role in Boston Calling’s layout.”

Here’s some fine print on how to submit:

Boston Calling asks that artists design an 8.5” X 11” sketch, PDF or electronic doc and send to art@bostoncalling.com or mail to Crash Line Productions 4 South Market Building Suite 5055 Boston MA, 02109 no later than 12:00pm on September 8th, 2015. Each submission must be accompanied by name, address, and date of birth.

Each of the winners creations must be created on canvas no larger than eight (8) feet long by six (6) feet tall when completed, and stretched over wooden backed frame. The contest will be conducted August 12th to September 8th, 2015. Deadline for entries is 12:00pm on September 8th, 2015. Winner(s) will be notified by September 10th, 2015.

Four (4) qualified sketches will be chosen by in house team at Crash Line Productions to be created for Boston Calling Music Festival. One (1) winner will be chosen by the attendees at Boston Calling via various online voting options. Each of the five (5) winning qualifiers will receive seven hundred and fifty dollars ($750) in cash, two hundred and fifty dollars ($250) to cover supplies and four (4) VIP festival passes for all three days of Boston Calling Music Festival. All additional costs to produce, create and move canvases will be incurred by the creator.

This fall’s Boston Calling goes down September 25 to 27 at City Hall Plaza, with The Avett Brothers, Of Monsters and Men, and Gregory Alan Isakov announced as Friday performers. The Saturday and Sunday schedules will be released in the coming weeks. The rest of September’s lineup features: alt-J, Alabama Shakes, Hozier, Chvrches, Ben Howard, Chromeo, Walk The Moon, Nate Ruess, Father John Misty, Sturgill Simpson, Misterwives, Skylar Spence, Daughter, Twin Shadow, Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks, FIDLAR, Doomtree, Bully, Dirty Bangs and Grey Season.

Here are some of the Blank Canvas finalists from this spring’s festival.

Boston Calling canvas 5

Boston Calling canvas 3

Boston Calling canvas 2

Boston Calling canvas 4