Chabot College Public Art Project

Chabot College seeks accomplished artists to create permanent, highly visible public artworks for prominent sites across its campus. The college is renewing its forty-year-old façade through a tax-funded facilities bond and is interested in commissioning original artworks (sculptures, murals, mosaics, etc.) and/or visual enhancements (fountains, decorative benches, ornamental railings, etc.) that make strong aesthetic and educational statements and beautify exterior and interior spaces. Artworks should welcome students, faculty, staff, and the community; create a public identity for the college; and offer focal points for discussion, appreciation, and congregation.

Themes of interest include multiculturalism/diversity, empowerment through education, education as a lifelong journey, active and compassionate citizenship, and the place of the individual relative to the larger world. Other themes will be considered as well. Style and medium are entirely the purview of the artists. The college is open to works in any medium appropriate and sustainable for safe, long-term, low-maintenance public display. Installation sites under consideration include interiors and exteriors of the Community & Student Services Center and Instructional Office Building, new gateway plazas opening onto Hesperian Boulevard, and the Fine Arts Plaza. Finalists will be invited to suggest final installation sites.

The selection process involves blind elimination rounds to identify fifteen to twenty top applications, followed by scoring by members from all college constituencies. Top-scoring applications will undergo technical evaluation, resulting in three to five or more finalists. Finalists will visit Chabot, receive guided tours, undergo informal interviews, and submit final proposals. Finalists will be compensated $2,000 and have from May 15 through August 6, 2010 to complete proposals. Final proposals will be exhibited in Fall 2010, followed by public forums and campus commentary. Chabot College has a total of $500,000 for all phases of this public art project, seeking to purchase several highly visible artworks in a variety of media.