O+ Festival Kingston 2023
October 6-8, 2023
Submissions for the 13th Annual O+ Festival are now open!
Applications Open March 6th, 2023
All submissions due by May 1st, 2023 at 11:59p.m.
The O+ Festival is a celebration of art, music and wellness that offers access to health care for its participating artists and musicians while providing the community with an opportunity to experience the healing and transformative power of art in all forms. O+ (pronounced Oh Positive) fosters physical, mental and social well-being by connecting visual artists and musicians directly with a coalition of healthcare/wellness providers and resources in a shared vision to nurture the individual and the community. By exchanging the art of medicine for the medicine of art, O+ empowers communities to take control of their collective wellbeing.
O+ Festival Kingston is now accepting submissions from artists of ALL mediums and modalities including (but not limited to) 2D or 3D visual art, large-scale murals, sculpture, temporal work, installation, film, animation, projections, theater, dance and performance in public spaces to transform the city into a shared art experience. The O+ Art Committee aims to curate work that contributes to or reflects the meaningful juxtaposition between Kingston’s dynamic, multicultural neighborhood communities and compelling, radical, relevant contemporary artwork.
O+ Festival builds its program around a new theme each year and we invite artists to respond to the theme in their proposals. This year we are focusing on, investing in and celebrating the expansion of health care for artists and musicians, progressing toward our goal of providing medical support 365 days a year.
The theme of the 2023 O+ Festival is FO+rward.
Forward is an action, a description, a position, a choice and a direction.
Forward is where you are heading and the movement of a body through space, through pain, through healing. It is one day at a time. It is an arrow pointed in a direction determined by where you are facing or where you are trying to go. It is sending a letter on to a future location. It is moving ahead more quickly through time than if you were to just sit and wait for something to happen.
Forward, the adverb, is defined as “to move onward so as to make progress; toward a successful conclusion.” And when we consider progress, we think of it as forward movement towards a destination or towards a better, more complete ideal. Forward is movement, it is a choice to do better, to keep trying, to survive. Not back… only forward.
Additional information and reflections on the theme FO+rward can be found HERE. We look forward to seeing and hearing your interpretations of this theme and to reviewing your work through the lens of all of its meanings.
All submissions will be reviewed, and the festival art program will be curated, by the O+ Art Committee - a group of O+ alumni, practitioners, industry professionals, etc. representing different practices, identities and perspectives. Accepted submissions will be invited to participate at this year’s festival in exchange for access to care in the O+ Artists’ Clinic.
Please remember that the festival takes place in traditional and non-conventional venues, both indoor and out. While there will be opportunities for more traditionally exhibited work we strongly encourage submissions that are site specific, nomadic or amenable to non-traditional/outdoor exhibition, installation or performance spaces.
*Work that is a collaboration or hybrid between visual art/movement and music or art/wellness may choose to submit in either category.
Please do not submit in more than one category.
Click HERE for detailed information on our mission. You can expect to be notified regarding your submission by the beginning of June. This year, we expect to receive hundreds of submissions for a finite number of artist slots. Capacity is determined, in large part, by the amount of care we are able to provide at our clinic during the festival weekend. We ask for your patience and understanding should your submission not be accepted for this year and encourage all who are not chosen for O+ Festival 2023 to reapply next year.
A note to Muralists: The O+ Mural Program has grown significantly over the last decade and we now have approximately 55 existing murals in the Kingston area alone. Our focus when pursuing walls for murals is finding the right context for selected artists and their proposed concepts. Beyond the quality of the work, we also have to consider what walls are available, what wall owner preferences are, city and historic area regulations, neighbors of a given location, representation and more. We will hustle to find the best possible wall for your work if it is selected but cannot promise artists their ideal location or surface quality and ask that artists who are selected remain open to producing their work in the locations available to us.
A note to O+ Art Alum: We may give lower priority to artists who participated in the previous three O+ Kingston Festivals, though we encourage all to apply. As our mission is centered in cultivating a diverse community of artists to whom we are offering access to healthcare, we want to make sure we reach those who have yet to participate and may have a need to acquire care.
We are currently expanding our art programming towards a year-round model, as we are constantly looking for new ways provide care to artists. If you aren’t accepted for this year’s festival, you may be contacted over the next year if there are other ways to connect with O+. We thank you in advance for your understanding.
If you're interested in volunteering for a free festival wristband or in exchange for a clinic visit please click HERE
Thank you for your interest in O+ Festival and our mission.
We look forward to the opportunity to review your submission!
Positively,
The 2023 O+ KINGSTON Art Committee
Please do not let any barriers, personal, perceived or technical, get in the way of submitting your work. Please reach out to us for assistance in applying if you need support of any kind.
Contact info@opositivefestival.org or call (845) 399-5343 for assistance.

O+ FESTIVAL KINGSTON 2023

October 6-8, 2023
Submissions for our 13th Annual O+ Festival are now open!

Applications Open March 6th, 2023
All submissions due by May 1st, 2023 at 11:59p.m.

The O+ Festival is a celebration of art, music and wellness that creates a bridge to access health care for its participating artists/musicians while providing the community with access to the healing and transformative power of art in all forms. O+ (pronounced Oh Positive) fosters physical, mental and social well-being by connecting visual artists and musicians directly with a coalition of healthcare and wellness providers and resources in a shared vision to nurture the individual and the community. By exchanging the art of medicine for the medicine of art, O+ empowers communities to take control of their collective wellbeing.

O+ Festival Kingston is now accepting submissions from musicians of all mediums and genres: bands, solo artists, DJs and ensembles. Performances take place in traditional and non traditional venues both indoors and outdoors throughout Kingston. We encourage music submissions that are site specific, nomadic, mobile, unplugged, and those that prefer a typical staged production. ALL genres and forms of music or sound pieces are welcome. Please note, we do not generally book cover bands unless the material is presented with an unexpected/innovative twist or original arrangements/improv. If your submission includes music as part of a multimedia presentation or visual art/dance hybrid which would not be ideally performed in a concert/stage setting, we ask that you submit under O+ Kingston - Art 2023.
The theme of this year’s festival is FO+RWARD. 

Forward is the button you pressed on the VCR when you couldn’t wait to get to the best part of the film.
Forward is an action, a description, a position, a choice and a direction.

For those who would like to know more about our theme, or may consider tailoring your set with this in mind (which is always appreciated), you can find more information HERE.
All submissions will be thoroughly reviewed by the O+ Music Committee: a rotating group of 6-8 alumni, musicians, industry professionals, etc. representing different genres, identities and perspectives. 

Accepted musicians will be invited to perform at this year’s festival in exchange for access to health care in the O+ Artists’ Clinic (with options for in-office dental and optical appointments), a small honorarium for travel expenses, and homemade food and drink in our Greenroom throughout the weekend. 

Musicians will be notified of acceptance by early June. This year, we expect to receive hundreds of music submissions for only 30-40 performance slots in which we carefully consider cultural and musical diversity and medical needs. We give lower priority to acts who performed at O+ Kingston in the previous three festivals, though we encourage all to apply. Capacity is determined, in large part, by the amount of care we are able to provide at our clinic during the festival weekend. We ask for your patience and understanding should your submission not be accepted for this year and encourage all who are not chosen for O+ Festival 2023 to reapply next year. We hope to bring as many artists into our community as we can! 

Click HERE for detailed information about our mission.
We are currently expanding our music programming towards a more year-round model, as we are constantly looking for new ways to provide care to musicians through that channel. If you aren’t accepted for this year’s festival, you may be contacted over the next year if there are other ways to connect with O+. We thank you in advance for your understanding. It is our hope to maintain a connection with alumni and cultivate new relationships with musicians.

If you're interested in volunteering for a free festival wristband or in exchange for a clinic visit please click HERE.

Thank you for your interest in O+ Festival and our mission.
Looking Fo+rward,
The 2023 O+ Kingston Music Committee

Questions or difficulties completing the submission form?
Don't let any barriers, personal, perceived or technical, get in the way of submitting your work. Please reach out to us for assistance in applying if you need support of any kind.
Please contact info@opositivefestival.org or call (845) 399-5343 for assistance.

O+ FESTIVAL KINGSTON 2023

October 6-8, 2023
Submissions for our 13th Annual O+ Festival are now open!

Applications Open March 6th, 2023
All submissions due by Sunday, May 1st, 2023 at 11:59p.m.

The O+ Festival is a celebration of art, music and wellness that creates a bridge to accessing health care for its participating artists/musicians while providing the community with access to the healing and transformative power of art in all forms. O+ (pronounced Oh Positive) fosters physical, mental and social well-being by connecting visual artists and musicians directly with a coalition of healthcare and wellness providers and resources in a shared vision to nurture the individual and the community. By exchanging the art of medicine for the medicine of art, O+ empowers communities to take control of their collective wellbeing.

 We welcome folks of all ages and levels of experience to read, recite, perform, sign, or speak words of all forms, languages and genres. We call this annual gathering around the written/spoken WO+rd is not just a collection of works so much as meeting of minds, voices and perspectives. We strongly encourage, and may prioritize, original work but are also open to found text, dramatic interpretations, etc. We expect those submitting to provide appropriate and thorough credit for all text that is not your own.

O+ aims to curate work that contributes to or reflects the meaningful juxtaposition between Kingston’s dynamic, multicultural neighborhood communities and compelling, radical, relevant contemporary work in all forms. 

O+ Festival builds its program around a new theme each year and we invite artists, writers and performers to respond to the theme in their proposals. This year we are focusing on, investing in and celebrating the expansion of health care for artists and musicians, progressing toward our goal of providing medical support 365 days a year.

The theme of the 2023 O+ Festival is FO+rward.

Forward is an action, a description, a position, a choice and a direction.

Forward is where you are heading and the movement of a body through space, through pain, through healing. It is one day at a time. It is an arrow pointed in a direction determined by where you are facing or where you are trying to go. It is sending a letter on to a future location. It is moving ahead more quickly through time than if you were to just sit and wait for something to happen.

Forward, the adverb, is defined as “to move onward so as to make progress; toward a successful conclusion.” And when we consider progress, we think of it as forward movement towards a destination or towards a better, more complete ideal. Forward is movement, it is a choice to do better, to keep trying, to survive. Not back… only forward. 

Additional information and reflections on the theme FO+rward can be found HERE. We look forward to seeing and hearing your interpretations of this theme and to reviewing your work through the lens of all of its meanings.

All submissions will be reviewed, and the festival art program will be curated, by the O+ WO+rd Committee - a group of O+ alumni, practitioners, industry professionals, etc. representing different practices, identities and perspectives. Accepted submissions will be invited to participate at this year’s festival in exchange for access to care in the O+ Artists’ Clinic.

Click HERE for detailed information on our mission. You can expect to be notified regarding your submission by the beginning of June. This year, we expect to receive dozens of submissions for a finite number of performance slots. WO+rd at O+ Festival is typically a 2 hour performance within the broader festival schedule. Each writer/performer with receive approximately 10min during the WO+rd event and no more than 12 folks chosen each year. We ask for your patience and understanding should your submission not be accepted for this year and encourage all who are not chosen for O+ Festival 2023 to reapply next year.

A note to O+ Alum: We may give lower priority to those who participated in the previous three O+ Kingston Festivals, though we encourage all to apply. As our mission is centered in cultivating a diverse community of artists to whom we are offering access to healthcare, we want to make sure we reach those who have yet to participate and may have a need to acquire care.

We are currently expanding our programming towards a year-round model, as we are constantly looking for new ways provide care to artists. If you aren’t accepted for this year’s festival, you may be contacted over the next year if there are other ways to connect you and your work with O+. We thank you in advance for your understanding. 

f you're interested in volunteering for a free festival wristband or in exchange for a clinic visit please click HERE 

Thank you for your interest in O+ Festival and our mission. We look forward to the opportunity to review your submission!

Positively, The 2023 O+ KINGSTON WO+rd Committee

Please do not let any barriers, personal, perceived or technical, get in the way of submitting your work. Reach out to us for assistance in applying if you need support of any kind at info@opositivefestival.org or by phone at (845) 399-5343.

The O+ Festival is a celebration of art, music and wellness that creates a bridge to access health care for its participating artists/musicians while providing the community with access to the healing and transformative power of art in all forms. O+ (pronounced Oh Positive) fosters complete physical, mental and social well-being by connecting visual artists and musicians directly with a coalition of healthcare and wellness providers + resources in a shared vision to nurture the individual and the community. By exchanging the art of medicine for the medicine of art, O+ empowers communities to take control of their collective wellbeing.

Volunteers are essential to the success of the festival and yearround programming through which that exchange is made possible.

We do what we do because we see vividly the inequity of the healthcare system in our country, and because we are able to creatively support our musicians and artists in this way so they can keep doing what they do best -- make music and art. In recognition of your service, we offer volunteers the opportunity to receive healthcare services in our clinic during the festival. For eight hours of volunteer service, you will receive the annual festival volunteer T-shirt as well as (1) clinic visit of your choice. For four hours of volunteer service, you will receive an annual festival volunteer T-shirt. 

We expect our volunteers to show up on time and participate for the duration of their shift. All volunteers are required to attend a volunteer orientation prior to the festival (date options coming soon) and there will be an additional training for any volunteers managing financial transactions/handling money. When filling out the form, please select the types of work you are interested in and we will do our best to accommodate your requests! 

Thank you for volunteering with us and for your support of the exchange of art, music and wellness at the center of our mission. 

HO+USING for the 2022 O+ FESTIVAL KINGSTON 

October 7-9, 2022

HO+using for artists and musicians is needed to support the 12th Annual O+ Festival.

Do you have a spare room in your home? Do you have a second home or apartment in town? Or a really comfortable couch, a finished basement, a yard that is perfect for camping in, or an RV in your driveway? Are you a hotel, B&B or apartment building manager who would like to offer a room or two or ten to support a local arts non-profit organization through an in-kind donation? 

The O+ Festival is seeking accommodations for artists and musicians who will be performing, exhibiting, producing and activating the City of Kingston during the 12th Annual O+ Festival October 7-9, 2022. O+ Festival is a celebration of art, music and wellness that creates a bridge to access health care for its participating artists/musicians while providing the community with access to the healing and transformative power of art in all forms. O+ (pronounced Oh Positive) fosters complete physical, mental and social well-being by connecting visual artists and musicians directly with a coalition of healthcare and wellness providers & resources in a shared vision to nurture the individual and the community. By exchanging the art of medicine for the medicine of art, O+ empowers communities to take control of their collective wellbeing.

The ability to provide safe, welcoming, local housing for participating artists and musicians, at low to no cost, is essential to the success of O+ Festival Kingston. Artists and musicians may need one night of accommodation following their performance, activation or installation of their work. They may need two to three nights of housing to allow them to participate and also attend the festival. And we also have mural artists who will need to be housed for 5-14 days depending on the scale and complexity of the mural they are producing. 

By providing artists/musicians with a place to stay while they offer their talents and that joy to our community, you contribute to the health of the festival but also their sense of connection to our community. 

That said, providing housing for O+ Festival participants does not mean that you need to "host" them. We do not have the expectation that artists and musicians would be fed or entertained through housing that is offered. We do expect that both you and the person/people staying in your home are respectful of each other, safe during their stay and are in communication about any issues or concerns. 

All housing offers will be reviewed and a staff member will follow up with any further questions or concerns to ensure that any placement in your home is in-line with the accommodation offered, needs of the artist/musician and will be as positive of a fit as possible. 

Click HERE to learn more about O+ Festival. You can expect to be notified regarding your accommodation by early September. 

If you are also interested in volunteering in exchange for a clinic visit (minimum 8 hour requirement) please click HERE.

Thank you for your interest in O+ Festival, our mission and for your willingness to open your home to artists and musicians. 

Positively,

The O+ Team

Please do not let any barriers, personal, perceived or technical, get in the way of connecting to O+. Please reach out to us for assistance if you need support of any kind.

Contact info@opositivefestival.org for assistance or call/text 845-481-9146.

With the support of local building owners, O+ gifts public artworks to the community, bringing beauty and positivity to our neighbors and everyone who passes through Kingston.

Thank you for your interest in the O+ mural program. O+ works on the exchange of equal value. We believe sharing resources through these partnerships strengthens our community. Your building will become a focal point for our city and the artist who paints your building will be doing so in exchange for medical and dental services.  

Walls do cost thousands of dollars to produce. Because of this we ask you what you would like to do/are able to provide to offset this expense. It could be fiscal, but may also be something you or your business can provide the artist or O+ as an exchange. Remember, your building will not just be an attraction as the mural is being produced during O+ Festival week; the large-scale artwork will draw people to your building yearround. Your building and the mural will also be featured on a printed (and digital) mural map and included in educational materials. Your building will be photographed and Instagrammed often and may be part of a time lapse video or O+ mini-documentary. O+ murals have been featured in a number of regional and national media outlets. 

Some of the costs of mural production are listed below. These are NOT items you would be invoiced for. This is meant to give you a sense of the scope of production and help to guide/validate any fiscal or material support you are able to offer. Again, the mural program is not driven by capital and not being able to cover the costs listed below does NOT determine your eligibility for housing an O+ mural. 

Materials

We have a wonderful paint sponsor that donates thousands of dollars worth of mural paint, but we still need to purchase primer, prep and materials like brushes, rollers and drop cloths, and spray paint (for artists who use that medium).

Lifts, Lights, Action!

Perhaps our biggest cost is lifts and lights. We want our artists to work in the best and safest conditions. Lifts cost between $1,500 and $3,500 to rent a week; lights rent for around $400 a week. This expense is our biggest issue to determine how many murals we can produce in a year.

Insurance

• $500-$1000 to underwrite each mural production

Travel Lodging and Food

We need to get the artist here, house them and keep them well fed and hydrated. If you have a restaurant and want to feed them that is wonderful. Got an extra room in your building and want to house them? Fantastic!

In what ways are YOU able to participate in the exchange? Financial support may be a pressing need BUT remember if you can’t fully fund a mural production we encourage you to think outside the box and not be discouraged. We would love to learn more about you, see your wall and discuss mural program in more depth with you. 

Thank YO+U for supporting O+