O+ Festival Kingston

October 10-12, 2025

Submissions for the 15th Annual O+ Festival are now open!

Applications Open March 10th, 2025
All submissions due by May 4th, 2025 at 11:59p.m.

The O+ Festival is a celebration of art, music and wellness that offers access to health care for participating artists while providing the community with an opportunity to experience the healing and transformative power of art in all its 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 both 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. Click HERE for detailed information on our mission. 

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, sound-based work, 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. 

*ATTENTION MURALISTS: As of the 2025 O+ Festival submission cycle, we have created a separate Submittable form for mural proposals. PLEASE head back to the O+ Submittable Project page and click on O+ Festival Kingston 2025 MURALS for more information and to submit your mural proposal. 

O+ Festival builds its program around a new theme each year and we ask writers to consider the theme in their proposals. In a time marked by political turbulence and division, art emerges as a potent instrument of the people—a medium through which voices are amplified, dissent is visualized, and collective resilience is forged.

This year’s’ O+ Festival explores POWER. 

What is power? Who holds it? How is it sustained? When do we wield it, when do we resist it? How do we, consciously or unconsciously, uphold structures that reinforce inequitable access to it? How do we share it? What happens when it is redefined or redistributed? How do we reclaim it when attempts are made at taking it from us? 

O+ Festival 2025 offers a space to reconsider power not just as something to be held, but as something to be shared, dismantled, or reframed. Submissions are welcome that explore the nature of power in all of its forms, structures, expressions and complexity. We seek work that examines how it is wielded, challenged, distributed and reimagined. The structures that sustain power, the forces that resist it, and the possibilities for its transformation. Some pieces may confront systems of dominance, exposing the weight of authority, surveillance, and inequality. Others celebrate empowerment, resilience, resistance and the transformative potential of collective action. The interplay between these perspectives underscores the fluidity of power—how it shifts, adapts, and manifests in both visible and invisible ways.

Learn more about this year’s theme HERE.

Please remember that the festival takes place in traditional and non-conventional venues, both indoor and out. MOST art submissions will be presented in non-traditional venues and we strongly encourage submissions that are site specific, nomadic or amenable to non-traditional or outdoor exhibition, installation or performance spaces. We cannot guarantee the ideal setting for every accepted artist's work, and certainly cannot guarantee traditional gallery or stage space, but we will work with you after acceptance to secure a venue for sharing your work that will support its integrity and success within the festival setting. 

*Work that is a collaboration or hybrid between an art medium or modality AND either music or wellness may choose to submit in either the MUSIC, ART or EXPLO+RE WELLNESS category (ExplO+re opens in May). Please do not submit in more than one category.

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, and community members 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. 

You can expect to be notified regarding your submission by mid-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 and the budget we have to produce the work that is accepted. 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 2024 to reapply next year.

A note to O+ Alum: Lower priority may be given to those who participated in the previous three O+ Kingston Festivals (O+ 2024, 2023, or 2022), though we encourage all to apply. We want to make sure we reach those who have yet to participate and may have a need to acquire care. As our mission is centered in cultivating a diverse community of artists to whom we are offering access to healthcare and to be able to welcome more folks into the year round model of care now available through the O+ Exchange Clinic. 

We continue to expand our model of care through the O+ Exchange Clinic. Through art and wellness programming in that space, we are constantly looking for new ways provide care and opportunities to artists. If you aren’t accepted for this year’s festival, O+ may contact you over the year(s) ahead with additional ways to connect you with O+ and access to care. 

Thank you again for your interest in O+ Festival and support of our mission. 

We look forward to the opportunity to review your submission!

Positively, 

The 2025 O+ Kingston Art 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 8 hours of volunteer service, you will receive the annual festival volunteer T-shirt as well as (1) clinic visit of your choice. For 4 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 2025 O+ FESTIVAL KINGSTON 

HO+using for artists and musicians is needed to support the 15th Annual O+ Festival returning to Kingston October 10-12th, 2025. 

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 15th Annual O+ Festival October 10-12th, 2025. 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.

If you are a practitioner and are interested exchanging the art of medicine for the medicine of art, please join the team of providers in the O+ Festival Clinic. In exchange for 4 hours of service in our Artists' Clinic, you'll have access to the entire festival- a weekend full of art, music, wellness classes in our ExplO+re series, a public health expo at our BlO+ck Party, and more! This year, as a part of the exchange you'll receive a clinic shirt, a wellness bag full of locally curated gifts, a wristband for the weekend's festivities, access to the Greenroom, a meaningful connection with our creative community and our gratitude forever.

By offering your services in the O+ Clinic, you will be caring for artists and musicians who are chronically un- and under-insured in a friendly and casual setting free of the bureaucracy of institutions. We welcome folks who value the healing power of art and music as well as the power of working in community. 

The O+ Clinic welcomes ALL health and wellness providers from all schools of thought, areas of medicine and all alternative and complimentary care practices. We believe that wellness includes mind, body, spirit and connectedness. The O+ Artists’ Clinic is curated each year by the Wellness Team to ensure diverse, expansive offerings to meet as many needs as possible. Providers will be accepted on a rolling basis throughout the open submission period. Please indicate your preferred shifts by checking the boxes next to the days we have listed. Assigned work shifts, orientation sessions and information will be communicated upon invitation to participate. 

If you have any questions about this process, please e-mail jesse.scherer@opositivefestival.org.
  Stay PO+sitive,
  The KingstO+n Wellness Team