POV: It’s About Time

A GPS app provides the directions on how to get to a particular destination and how long it will take to get there, a convenient service we rely on, cancelling much of the individual challenge and experience of the journey. The 2026 theme of the Bridgeport Art Trail is a prompt to enjoy the experience of looking at art in real time in person, not mediated through a digital screen. Take a break from the digital world, slow down the busy schedule, pause the inundation of media overload, the clickbait and algorithmic manipulation of facts that enrages and polarizes, prompting culture wars and isolating echo chambers. Physics states the obvious, that two things cannot be in the same place at the same time. Therefore, in a specific instance, every individual is at a different place experiencing a different POV. 

Among the POV determining factors are place, environment, race, gender, ethnicity, culture, age, class, wealth, and lived experience. As we move through life our POV roams, attitudes and conditions change. Depending on different points of view, more than one perspective can be true at the same time. The multiplicity creates an all you can eat buffet of ideas, options, and sensory experiences, all parts of the fascinating limited engagement of being in this corporeal realm. 

An artwork can crystallize an idea or feeling that may otherwise be difficult to present or receive. In art, ideas and elements are organized, arranged, composed, and presented to the audience to experience and contemplate. The Bridgeport Art Trail represents thousands of creative expressions and diverse POV’s, from art makers to the interactions of the viewers and audience members.

 “POV: It’s About Time” is not only a call to action to pause and acknowledge the constant existential absurdity of the fleeting quality of every precious moment, but also poses the question of how are you spending your time and with whom? What are you doing with the precious time you have? How do you relish your time? How do you act and react to things we can and cannot control? How do you celebrate and contribute to the greater good? How are you present, aware of your actions and reactions, acknowledging that time (our time, your time, shared time with others) is precious? Enjoy the journey, indulge, allow yourself a new POV, if only for a moment. Welcome to the Bridgeport Art Trail. Food for Thought: “One must never let the fire go out in one’s soul, but keep it burning.” —Vincent Van Gogh