In its 10th year, #artadventcalendar participants post an original piece of art from Dec 1-24. Paintings, drawings, sculpture, textiles, beading, photography. If it’s art and it beautifies the timeline, you’ll see it.

History

I started Art Advent Calendar with a tweet in 2015 with the idea that things were somewhat dark and bleak and it would be nice to improve everyone’s Twitter timelines by posting and retweeting a bunch of art.

In 2015, over 20 Edmonton area artists participated and the hashtag had over a million impressions. In 2016, 66 artists from around the world participated with over 6 million impressions. In 2017, 200 artists from around the world participated with over 2300 original works of art posted and over 25 million impressions. In 2018 we had 257 artists and so many works posted, I never got around to counting them all. 2019 was similar with 272 artists and then in 2020 we had 484 participants from around the globe!

The 2021 event was a huge success with 552 submitting participants sharing over 8,000 images; almost 12,000 people who shared almost 80,000 tweets; and almost 30,000,000 people who would have seen one of the over 200,000,000 impressions.

The 2022 version was impacted by the decline of Twitter but there were 438 participants on Twitter: and 335 on Mastodon/Fediverse for a total of 773. On Twitter we had 69,155 Tweets, 23,608 Contributors 220,358,435 Potential Impressions and 35,977,056 Potential Reach. It also ran on Mastodon and was quite successful but there’s no way to track view stats there but in any case, it was all a bit mind boggling.

There are so many great reasons to participate both as an artist and and art lover

And even if you’ve never posted your art anywhere before, Art Advent Calendar is for you.

The 2024 Edition: Times Have Changed

I made the choice to not run the event on Twitter in 2023 and no longer post there at all. I could not support the direction the platform had taken and did not want to support it by providing content and clicks. With that said, if you are still on Twitter and want to post to the hashtag and encourage others to do so, go right ahead. (I would gently suggest you that you check out Bluesky (or Mastodon, Threads or Instagram if you must) and avoid Twitter entirely.

For Art Lovers

If you’re an art lover and would like to follow along, just search for #ArtAdventCalendar in your app. On Bluseky, you can subscribe the the ArtAdventCalendar Feed. Likes are fine, but please consider sharing as that helps promote artists and their work and also beautifies the timeline of your followers! And FOLLOW the artists! They post beautiful things 365 days a year. While I share all posts, please be sure to follow the artists in the original post. I guarantee your timeline will be better year round.

The clickable list of 2024 participants can be found HERE. I’ll be adding participant to the 2024 list once we get underway. They are added as they participate.

For Artists, Photographers & Makers

Between December 1 and December 24, post a picture of an original piece of your own work. Those participating should also share the work of their fellow participants. All posts should use the hashtag #ArtAdventCalendar. (Please use CamelCase for the hashtag for accessibility.) That’s it! No registration. No fees. No prompts. No themes. Just post.

Note that this isn’t a “create a new piece of art each day” event like Inktober. Unless you want it to be. You can post old work, new work, sold work…pretty much anything you want.

Almost all artists struggle finding an audience for their work. Social media can play a huge role in building a following and even driving sales. As the holiday season arrives, ArtAdventCalendar can help build your following, increase your profile in the general community and maybe even lead to some sales.

A Note For Bluesky Users

Bluesky does not have an algorithm so reposting is critical. Bluesky uses Feeds and I have created one for the event. From your home, click the Feeds link and then Search for New Feeds and enter ArtAdventCalendar. (or just click HERE Click the + sign to add it and then click Pin To Home. If you are posting on Bluesky, please use the hashtag as you would on any other platform as the custom feed needs it for your posts to be included.

Guidelines

• Art can be anything. Paintings, drawings, sculpture, textiles, beading, photography. If you think it’s art and it beautifies the timeline then post it.
• Use a single image per post.
• It’s a good idea to post title, year, medium used & size. People will ask.
• If you’re a photographer, details like location & date taken will be appreciated. Feel free to add EXIF data.
• PLEASE USE ALT TEXT. Create a spreadsheet with all your post text (title, medium, links. hashtags) and ALT text for each day’s posts to save time
• It does not matter if you “posted it last year”. Social media is ephemeral. Post it again.
• Art does NOT have to be seasonal. It can be pretty much any subject, but please keep it family friendly.
• You don’t need to be a “professional” artist, whatever that means. You don’t need to have sold art, been in a gallery or anything. If you make art at any experience level and want to show it off and make others happy, this is the event. You might be surprised at the feedback.
• Art must be original and it must be yours or from a family member… with permission. (except for sharing of course) This is an event for living artists.
• No NFTs or AI art please and keep the posts SFW.
• Please don’t cross post with links to other platforms ie: post a link to your Facebook post on Bluesky.
• Please do not post prices or use BUY NOW kinds of posts. This is not meant to be a sales event. Many artists do sell work. You can post links to your website.
• Please share posts and follow participating artists. This is both an exercise to build a following of art lovers and to build a supportive community of fellow artists.
• As “organizer” I do my best to share all art during the month but if I miss a post, please don’t take it as an insult or commentary on your work. There are -a lot- of posts and I may miss a few, especially with multiple platforms involved. Note that I won’t share posts that contain prices or buy now content. and I won’t intentionally share images without Alt-Text. This year, I’ll only be posting and hosting on Bluesky.
• Post 1 or 2 times daily with the hashtag #ArtAdventCalendar There is no specified time to post. It’s a world wide event so the time you post isn’t that important.
• Don’t worry if you miss a day or two. Post even if you only have 1 thing to show off that makes the timeline brighter.

Most importantly? it’s CalendAR not Calender

Also remember. #artAdventCalendar is just a hashtag with me as head cheerleader. There’s no organization behind it, there’s no monetization, just a desire to provide a bit of beauty to the often very bleak timeline of social media. If it’s not on a platform you like, feel free to become part of the cheer team and run it yourself.