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10TH SIDEWALK FESTIVAL 2025
WILD. RESISTANCE. RHYTHM. STORY 
APPLICATION PERIOD: MARCH 20-APRIL 24
SIDEWALK FESTIVAL: AUGUST 1-2, 2025 AT ELIZA HOWELL PARK

Sidewalk Festival is a vibrant biannual celebration of arts and culture featuring a variety of site-specific performances, interactive installations, music, dance, and community-centered workshops. It highlights creativity in outdoor and public spaces, often transforming unconventional locations like parks, streets, and neighborhoods into dynamic stages for artistic expression.  We’re looking for bold, site-specific performances, interactive installations, music, dance, and community-centered experiences that transform public spaces into immersive artistic environments. The festival emphasizes themes such as environmental justice, spatial equity, and community engagement, creating opportunities for local artists and audiences to connect. Participating artists will be expected to follow the theme and artistic guidelines and attend one site visit before the festival Sidewalk Detroit is accepting applications for its 10th bi-annual Sidewalk Festival starting March 20, 2025. This summer’s theme is WILD. RESISTANCE. RHYTHM. STORY 

Your work should embody the essence/ energy of WILD. RESISTANCE. RHYTHM. STORY. Let the WILD beauty of Eliza Howell Park inspire your creative expression. Selected works should explore one or more of the following:

  • the RESISTANCE needed to move forward 

  • the RHYTHMS of daily rituals that shape our lives and communities
    and the STORIES of the present and future that need to be told

 
 
 

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

  1. Which word from the theme resonates with you the most, and why?

  2. How will your work facilitate collective care, environmental justice, or resistance?

  3. How does your work invite resistance in a direct and tangible way?

  4. How can this park be a site of sanctuary and community building through creativity? 

SELECTED WORKS WILL:

CULTURAL & COMMUNITY ALIGNMENT

  • Align with Sidewalk’s larger values to support the voices of Detroiters, Black women, queer, people with disabilities or elders and youth artists.

  • Resonate with the community, and cultural landscape of the festival.

INNOVATION & ARTISTIC MERIT & EXCELLENCE

  • Chart new creative territory.

  • Exemplify artistic excellence in concept, execution, and presentation.

  • Demonstrate artistic merit and a high level of craft.

SITE RESPONSIVENESS & ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATION

  • Engage meaningfully with Eliza Howell Park’s natural environment.

  • Be site-specific or intentionally designed for Eliza Howell Park.

  • Considers sustainability, environmental justice, and climate change in its concept or execution.

THEMATIC ALIGNMENT

  • Clearly aligns with the festival’s curatorial theme in tangible and clear ways.

Important Notes:

  • We are looking for experiential and thoughtful creative experiments that are highly engaging and interactive.

  • These works will occur in the natural landscape of Eliza Howell Park, there are no elevated stages, artists are encouraged to respectfully interact with natural environment of the park, with consideration of protecting and honoring the plant and animal life thee

  • We consider the Sidewalk Festival a playground for experimentation. Give us your most intentional creative dreams and we will help bring them to life!

Want to Learn More? Join an Info Session!

We'll be hosting two info sessions for further details and to answer any questions before the application launches online and then in-person at Eliza Howell Park

March 18 (6-7 PM, Online) – Q&A Session Zoom Registration Link

March 22 (5-6PM EST, In Person) – Q&A Session @ Eliza Howell Park

Questions? Email info@sidewalkdetroit.com