SPARK Up Your April

2023 marks the 10th Anniversary of SPARK Photo Festival, Ontario’s most comprehensive regional photography festival, with 29 new exhibits displayed in public venues throughout Peterborough, the Kawarthas and Northumberland County. For a full month, 24 host venues will present art from more than 100 photographers across the region.

Ken Powell, Board Chair says, “As always, every exhibit in the Festival is free to visit and open to the public thanks to financial support from City of Peterborough Investment Grant, LLF Lawyers, Part Time CFO Services, Peterborough DBIA, and our other community sponsors and private donors.”

Celebrating 10 Years of Excellence: Juried Exhibit Winners are on display at the Peterborough YMCA Balsillie Family Branch. One of three SPARK curated exhibits, this honours SPARK’s ten-year history with 40 themed juried photographs awarded the top prizes in our annual Ontario-wide competition.

Also in town is the Emerging Artists Exhibit at the Peterborough Public Library. The culmination of SPARK’s new program to mentor first-time exhibitors through providing them the basics of creating an exhibit, from concept to finished work on the wall. It’s called Light the SPARK: Emerging Artists Exhibit and launches six selected emerging photographers to a more advanced stage in their photographic journey.

Twenty-five images have been selected by professional jurors from the over 200 submission for the Themed Juried Exhibit:Water.. The print exhibit, with funding support by Cambium, is showing at Chasing the Cheese in Peterborough, plus there’s an online virtual exhibit of “SPARK Selects” bonus images. The 4 images deemed the best of the best from the print exhibit will be presented cash prizes at the opening reception and juried awards event at 2 pm on Sunday, April 2nd at the Peterborough Public Library.

The heart of SPARK Photo Festival are the open call exhibits. With creative works by photographers in their teens to octogenarians, including students, hobbyists and pros, in venues from Brighton to Lindsay and points between.

To help you navigate the exhibit, the Toureka! mobile app, developed by Peterborough’s Brad Carson, returns for 2023. Free to download from app stores, Toureka! is your interactive guide for the SPARK Photo Festival with info and directions to all of the photography installations at your fingertips. On the app you can preview exhibits, read up on photographers, mark and get to the exhibits.

Exhibition locations: https://www.sparkphotofestival.org/exhibits/

On social media: @sparkphotofestival