CREDIT: SAMMY ROACH
Londoners have the chance to showcase their bad art on April 28 at the Bad Art Festival II.

On April 28, Brown and Dickson Booksellers and LondonFuse are hosting an event that will showcase an array of bad art and questionable live performances submitted by the local community.  The event will take place at the LondonFuse headquarters at 24 Bathurst St.

Sammy Roach, the volunteer co-ordinator for LondonFuse explained that the Bad Art Festival II is all about inspiring and encouraging the community to be creative by showcasing their bad art that they have produced at some point in their lives.

The event will consist of both daytime and evening programming sessions. The daytime programming will take place from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. and will include a macaroni station to create works of art and an open mic session at 2:30 p.m. The evening programming will take place from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. and will consist of awkward live performances including poem readings and films.

Admission is by donation with a $5 to $10 recommendation. All the proceeds from the event will go towards LondonFuse. LondonFuse is a not-for-profit organization that publishes online content relating to London's art, culture and music scene. The organization also helps train individuals in media skills such as photography, video production and article writing. The proceeds will assist the organization in hosting events, keeping the community informed on arts, media and culture and helping train individuals to become media professionals. “LondonFuse's contributor program is incredible for helping people discover new talents, hone their existing ones and end up with a really impressive community-driven portfolio of work,” Roach said.

Roach explained that when we create bad art, we grow and learn from our previous work to improve our skills. “It's something that I struggle with as a creative person all the time. You have to start off making bad things. It's a part of the growing process. When we revisit those things from our past, whether it be teen poetry or crappy anime fan art, it's not only a chance to laugh at those things, but also see how far you have grown since then,” Roach said. 

According to Roach, the first Bad Art Festival took place back in 2016 and was a huge success. She explained that Vanessa Brown and Jason Dickson from Brown and Dickson Booksellers were the ones who started the festival. During the first Bad Art Festival, Dickson and Brown read some of their teenage love poetry to the crowd.

Roach said she hopes attendees will get some laughs and hopefully be inspired to create more works of art. “I hope people just come out to the event, have a good time and it would be great if it inspired them to go home and paint for the first time or try writing a poem. Everyone has got to start somewhere,” Roach said.

For more information about the event, check out the LondonFuse website and the Bad Art II Facebook event page.