Marfa Open ANNUAL Art Festival

A 3-week-long artist-run and curated immersive arts festival based in Marfa, TX. Now in our 9th festival year, this year’s rotating program emphasizes cross-media collaboration between artists and experimentation in media or process. We typically feature work from a dozen or more artist and our festival schedule includes live performances, art exhibitions, outdoor film screenings, live musical performances, dance, and installations.

Each year a selection of artists across a broad variety of mediums are invited to Marfa to participate in the Open Festival. Over three weeks in our remote desert town, artists will create connections and collaborate with one another as they put on showcases of their work. In years past, artists have both arrived with their work and created new work during their stay, allowing for plans to evolve and change as they meet new people, places, and concepts.

Basically, we invite artists to come to Marfa for 3 or 4 weeks to create art across all mediums. Interactive and immersive installations, performances, exhibitions of all shapes and sizes. While they’re here they’ll have full use of our entire space to create new work over the course of their stay.

We also show our support by assisting with any supplies and materials needed to complete the project. At the end of the residency we host an exhibition of the work. In 2016, Marfa Open presented its first festival: an offering of the works of various international photographers in events open to the public. Subsequent years have seen the progression evolve into a collective experience of growth and creation for both the community of Marfa and the participating artists.

We’re actively planning for our 9th annual festival set to begin on September 22, 2023 and closing on Sunday October 15, 2023