We’re looking for musicians, performance artists, dancers, visual artists, storytellers and all creative people to participate in one of the area’s largest public arts festivals.

ArtBeat will be held on the streets, plazas, and theater in Davis Square, Somerville on Saturday, July 11, 2020

If applicable, send in proposals using “chance” as an overarching theme. Although bands, for example, don’t need to relate a proposed performance to the festival theme (although they are welcome to try), we hope many other applicants will tie proposals to this year’s theme.

“Chance” is a celebration of all things unexpected, unplanned, fluky and fortuitous. We invite artists and community members to interpret this theme in a variety of ways. “Chance” conjures many things:  games, gambles, chance encounters and dada, an early 20th-century art movement that celebrated chance as opposed to reason or logic. Let’s take a chance at ArtBeat this year and explore how things happen when we don’t follow detailed plans and instead embrace serendipity.  

Perhaps artists will create dada-inspired public artworks or interactive games involving chance, or dancers might explore movement that responds to an element of chance—like a surprise shift in music. Comedians might plan an improv workshop and storytellers might explore themes of unexpected outcomes. We look forward to your creative interpretation of this theme!

Deadline March 27