4 Bridges Arts Festival 2027

Association for Visual Arts (AVA) in Chattanooga, Tennessee, will present the 26th Annual 4 Bridges Arts Festival (4BAF) April 16-18, 2027. A highly anticipated and culturally prominent event, 4BAF is a juried show that offers awards totaling $15,000. Bolstered by 26 years of unparalleled community support, the festival has matured into a firmly established conduit for connecting visual artists with an audience of avid and knowledgable art buyers. This legacy of success is the foundation on which 4BAF has become a nationally significant arts experience as well as an annual destination for both seasoned and beginning art collectors.

The event spans three days, beginning with artist set-up Friday morning, and our festive Preview Party on Friday evening, which gives our donors, sponsors, and a ticket-buyers early access to buy from the festival artists. We are open to the public for 7-8 hours on Saturday and Sunday. The festival includes local live music acts outside the main pavilion, a food truck court, and children's activities. 4BAF's site is unique - a sprawling open-air pavilion created from the shell of a former industrial foundry. The pavilion has a roof, but is open air on the sides, providing both protection from rain and sun and great airflow, and has wonderful amenities like indoor restrooms and close parking for artists! AVA staff strive to provide excellent artist hospitality throughout the weekend with snacks, meals, and coffee/tea/drinks provided each day. 

Festival Site
First Horizon Pavilion
1826 Reggie White Boulevard
Chattanooga, Tennessee 37408
 
Festival Dates
Friday, April 16-Sunday April 18, 2027
 
Application Deadline
October 31, 2026, 11:59pm EDT
 
​Application Submission Requirements

• AVA only accepts applications submitted through ZAPPlication.org.
• Each application must include five digital photographs: four photographs must clearly show work the artist intends on exhibiting, and showing a single cohesive body of work, and one photo must be an image of the artist’s booth. Because the jurying process is blind, the booth shot must not have signage, branding, symbols, or attributes that reveal the artist’s identity.
• Each artist must pay a nonrefundable $45 fee for each application submitted. Discounts and fee waivers may be offered to members of Association for Visual Arts (Chattanooga, TN), as well as the previous year's 4 Bridges Arts Festival award winners.
• Artists pay the $45 application fee as part of the application process on ZAPPlication.org.
• Artists who want to present work in more than one medium will need to complete and submit applications and pay the application fee for each category.
• Collaborative teams of no more than two artists are welcome to apply.
• Applicants must be 18 years and older.

Admission

• Preview Party Tickets - $125/person
• Saturday and Sunday Admission (open to the public) - $5/person ($6 if paying by credit card) - Children under 18 years old are free

Important Dates

• Thursday, October 31, 2026 - Deadline for artists to submit applications.
• Friday, November 20, 2026 - AVA emails notification of acceptance to artists.
• Sunday,  February 28, 2027 - deadline for artists to submit booth fee and signed contract.
• Friday, March 12, 2027 - Final date when artists can cancel their festival participation and receive refund of their booth fee minus a $50 administrative charge.

Festival Site
First Horizon Pavilion is conveniently located in the Southside District of Chattanooga. The venue is a 50,000 square foot facility that is completely covered on top and partially enclosed on the sides. While the pavilion design provides shelter from rainy weatherand bright sun, the building is an open structure that creates an outdoor experience that is protected from the elements. The pavilion floor is concrete. Other amenities include interior restrooms and ample parking for cars, vans, and trailers. 

Festival Hours

• Friday, April 16, 6-9 pm - Sponsor/Patron Preview Party
• Saturday, April 17, 10 am-6 pm - open to the public
• Sunday, April 18, 10 am-5 pm - open to the public

Festival Timeline

• Friday, April 16
  • 8 am-3 pm                 Artists check-in and booth set-up. ID required at check-in.
  • 4:30-5:30 pm             AVA hosts artist dinner in the artists’ hospitality area.
  • 6-9 pm                     Preview Party opens the 2025 4 Bridges Arts Festival.
• Saturday, April 17
  • ​10 am-6 pm               First day of festival.
  • 10 am-3 pm              Jurors visit booths to determine the 2025 4BAF award winners
  • 4pm                           Festval awards handed out
• Sunday, April 18
  • 10 am-5 pm               Last day of festival.
  • 5 pm-8 pm                 Festival closes and artists breakdown and load-out.

Preview Party
Each year 4BAF makes its debut at the Preview Party. An exceedingly popular community affair, the Preview Party attracts about 1,000 local art enthusiasts: patrons who attend to support the visual arts. Most importantly, the Preview Party is a unique opportunity for artists to promote and sell their work while networking and socializing with passionate advocates and collectors.
 
The 2027 Preview Party is Friday, April 16, 6-9 pm. Artists must attend and have their booths open for sales at the Preview Party celebration.

Jury Process 

• Every year, AVA invites three highly respected, credentialed art professionals to participate as members of the 4BAF jury panel. Working independently and collaboratively, jurors evaluate each application without knowing the identity of the artist. The blind jury process ensures all work receives fair, open, and respectful attention and consideration.
• Jurors assess an application by reviewing the digital photographs and artist’s statement. The five digital photographs should be high quality images: Four images must represent the body of work the artist(s) intends to exhibit and one image must be a view of the artist’s booth. The booth photograph cannot feature signage, branding, symbols, or attributes that reveal the artist’s identity or trade name.
• Reflecting on aesthetic merit, originality, technical proficiency, and marketability, jurors review and assign scores using ZAPPlication.org. Each application receives a numerical score from each juror. The scores fall between one of the two ranges: 1-3 for lower scoring applications and 5-7 for higher scoring applications. This scoring system does not allow jurors to assign a score of 4. The three scores are totaled and averaged for a final score. Jurors record scores anonymously.
• AVA will create a wait list by category based on jury scores.
• Scores and comments are confidential and are not available for review by artists.

Awards
AVA celebrates the visual arts by distributing $15,000 in cash prizes. The 2027 jury panel has the discretionary privilege of selecting honorees and presenting the awards. The jury panel’s decisions are final.

Parking
After set-up, artists should move their vehicles into the spaces reserved for artist parking. AVA will provide a parking pass for one vehicle that artists should place inside their car on the driver’s side of the dashboard. Vehicles parked in handicap spaces during festival hours and that do not have official handicap tags will be towed at the owner's expense. Artists have access to free reserved parking and will receive a pass at check-in that should be placed on the vehicle dashboard. 

Sales and Sales Tax
Exhibitors are responsible for overseeing the promotion and sale of their work during festival hours. All proceeds earned from sales belong to the artists. By law, artists must collect sales tax on work sold during 4BAF. The sales tax in Tennessee is 9.25%. The State of Tennessee Department of Revenue will provide tax forms for AVA to distribute to artists. These will be sent via email immediately after the festival.
 
Security
AVA provides 24-hour security beginning at 5 pm on Friday, April 11, and continuing through the close of the festival at 8 pm on Sunday, April 13. However, AVA and festival organizers urge artists to be diligent and alert, and secure their booths as they would at any other event or festival. Exhibiting at the 4BAF is at the discretion of the artist and every artist participates at his or her own risk. AVA does not insure the personal property of any exhibitor/artist. All exhibitors/artists participate at 4BAF as independent contractors. 

Media Categories 

• 2-D and 3-D Mixed Media: Work created using more than one media.
• Basketry: Functional, decorative, and/or sculptural work created from materials that are woven or plaited.
• Ceramics: Functional, decorative, and/or sculptural work created using clay and/or porcelain. Clay or porcelain jewelry will not be accepted in this category.
• Drawing: Work created using dry media such as pencil, charcoal, pastels, or chalk or made using fluid materials such as ink or washes that are applied by pen or brush.
• Fiber/Leather: Functional, decorative, and/or decorative work created using fiber and/or leather. Wall hangings, quilts, rugs, wearable items, belts, handbags and sculpture qualify if the primary materials used are fiber and/or leather.
• Furniture: Functional or decorative furniture.
• Glass: Functional, decorative, and/or sculptural work created using glass. 
• Jewelry: Functional, decorative, and/or sculptural work created using precious and/or non-precious materials. Precious materials include but are not limited to 14K gold, sterling silver, precious stones, and enamels. Nonprecious materials include but are not limited to glass, ceramics, paper, fiber, wood, leather, polymer clay, and semi-precious stones.
• Metal: Functional, decorative, and/or sculptural work created using metals.
• Painting: Acrylic/Oil: Work created using acrylic or oil paint, as well as other mediums such as vinyl emulsion.
• Painting: Watercolor: Work created using watercolors or gouache.
• Printmaking: Works created using traditional printmaking techniques that involve plates, stones, and/or screens. Artist produces each print as part of a limited edition series, using archival quality materials. Artist must sign and number each print. Artist must provide details about his or her technique and disclose his or her creative and printmaking processes.
• Photography/Digital Art: Work created using an artist's original photographic negative or work created from an artist directing or supervising the digital image process. Artist must use archival quality materials and print images in limited edition series, signing and numbering each image. Artist must provide details about his or her technique and disclose his or her creative and printing processes.
• Sculpture: Three-dimensional work created by assembling, firing, welding, molding, casting, carving, shaping or combining materials such as plastic, text, light, stone, rock, marble, metal, glass, or wood.
• Wood: Functional, decorative, and/or sculptural work created using wood. Work must be hand-tooled, machine-worked, turned, or carved.

Rules and Regulations

1. AVA requires artists to be present and available during festival hours. AVA requires both members of a collaborating team to be present and available during festival hours.
2. Artists must remain at the festival site until 5 pm on Sunday, April 18. Artists who breakdown and leave early compromise their standing with AVA and 4BAF and may forfeit their ability to exhibit in the 2028 festival.
3. An exhibit must feature original, handcrafted art, created by the artist or collaborative team who applied to the festival. An artist must guarantee that the work presented is authentic and created as indicated in the artist’s application.
4. All work must be available for sale.
5. Artists must exhibit artwork that reflects the quality and craftsmanship of the pieces presented in their applications. Artists must exhibit artwork specific to the categories indicated on their applications and artwork that clearly relates to the body of work selected during the jury process. AVA will remove artists whose work is inconsistent with the quality and craftsmanship presented in their applications.
6. Artists can sell reproductions in browse bins.  Artists are responsible for understanding and abiding by the specifics set-forth in Policy for Selling Reproductions.
7. Artists cannot exhibit or sell subcontracted work for another artist. 
8. Artists cannot exhibit or sell work made using commercial casts/molds, kits, or patterns.
9. Artists cannot exhibit or sell copyrighted designs imports, t-shirts, stationary, plants, velvet paintings, commercially or factory-produced merchandise, etc.
10. Artists and their agents, associates, and assistants should maintain high standards of professionalism. Festival organizers reserve the right to remove an exhibitor whose conduct and/or merchandise are unacceptable and whose participation conflicts with the rules and regulations of 4 Bridges Arts Festival.
11. Artists participate at 4BAF at their own risk and assume responsibility for maintaining liability insurance that covers any damages or losses during the festival.

Policy for Selling Reproductions
AVA has revised this policy to allow artists to sell reproductions of original 2D artwork. AVA defines a reproduction as a machine-made, duplicate image of an original work. Machine-made reproductions are images produced on an off-set press or a serigraph press and/or images produced from a computer that prints using an ink-jet or electrostatic printer. This definition includes giclees and reproductions that include additional enhancements.

• Artists must provide buyers with information that discloses the process used to create reproductions.
• Artists applying in the Digital Art and Printmaking categories must sign and number their prints/works. In general, the remainder of this policy does not apply to these media categories, as they are inherently reproductive in nature.
• Artists must present and sell reproductions in a browse bin that is located inside the artist’s booth.
• All work hung on the booth walls for artists in the Painting, Drawing, and Mixed Media Categories must be original works of art, not reproductions. For these categories, reproductions may ONLY be shown in browse bins.
• Artists cannot refer to or label reproductions as prints. The word, print, references worked created by traditional printmaking techniques.
• Artists must attach a label on the browse bin, that clearly identifies the works as a “reproduction of an original.”
• Artists cannot sell original work and reproductions in the same browse bin.
• Artists must produce reproductions in limited editions of 350 or less and must number and sign each image.
• AVA will remove artists who ignore, disregard, undermine, and/or violate this policy.

Booth Fees and Sizes

• Standard Booth
  • Fee: $550, Size: 10’ wide x 12’ deep
• Corner Booth  (limited number available)
  • Fee: $650, Size: 10’ wide x 12’ deep  
• Double Booth Fee  (limited number available)
  • Fee: $1,100, Size: 20' wide x 12' deep  
• Double Booth Fee with Corner Booth  (limited number available)
  • Fee: $1,200, Size: 20’ wide x 12’ deep

The number of corner booths and double booths is limited. Organizers assign corner booths and double booths on a first-come, first-paid basis.
 
Booth Assignment
AVA and its festival partners are responsible for assigning booths and attempt to accommodate requests for specific booth locations whenever possible. After March 15, 2027, all booth assignments are firm and nonnegotiable. Artists are not allowed to swap booth locations without the permission of the show director.
 
Booth Display

• Artists can decide how best they want to showcase their work; however the overall booth presentation should be representative of the image provided in the application. Although the venue has a roof, tents/canopies are highly encouraged due to the fact that birds have been known to nest in the rafters.
• All booth spaces will have access to electricity: 20 amps x 120 volts = 2400 watts.
• The floor in the pavilion is concrete, and all spaces are handicapped accessible. Even though the pavilion is a covered venue, the sides are open. Exhibitors should make arrangements to accommodate rain and some breeze/wind. 
• Artists must furnish their booth display, which includes tables, chairs, contents, etc. Artists need to be certain their booth and its contents easily fit into the area provided and are able to withstand large crowds and weather. Festival organizers and AVA are not responsible for damages to artists' booth or work. 

Booth Set-Up

• Exhibitors can register and set-up between 8 am and 3 pm on Friday, April 16. During registration, artists should be prepared to show a photo ID if needed. 
• AVA does not provide dollies, hand trucks, wagons, or other moving equipment. Some AVA volunteers may be available to assist.
• During set-up, artists may unload from the nearest parking space or from space that is close to their booths. Driving vehicles into the pavilion is strictly prohibited. Since most parking is close to the pavilion, unloading booth equipment and artwork is usually easy and quick. Please be concsious of other artists' time and space, and if necessary, unload belongings from your vehicle and then move it to a further-away space to allow another artist a close unloading spot.
• At 4:30 pm, AVA will begin serving a complimentary dinner in the artist hospitality area. Artists' booths must be set-up and ready for sales by 5 pm.
• The 4BAF Preview Party begins at 6 pm, and guests may arrive early. Artists may not set-up booths during the Patron Preview Party.

Booth Breakdown and Load-Out
Artists can begin breakdown and load-out at 5 pm on Sunday, April 18. All booths must be completely removed from the festival site by 9 pm on Sunday, April 18.
 

Important dates for our refund policy:

• February 28, 2027 - deadline for artists to submit booth fee and signed contract.
• March 12, 2027 - Final date when artists can cancel their festival participation and receive refund of their booth fee minus a $50 administrative charge.
• After March 12, 2027, a refund (less the $50 administrative charge) is at the discretion of the festival director. 4BAF tries to be as accommodating as possible for instances like illness, family emergency, and other unavoidable contingencies.
• Usually, refunds can be issued directly through Zapplication to the method of payment originally used. After February 28, 4BAF/AVA may need to issue refunds by check.