City of El Paso: Stanton Bridge Public Art Commission

The City of El Paso's Public Art Program invites professional artists or artist teams living within a 300 mile radius from El Paso, TX to submit qualifications for a public art project at the Stanton International Port of Entry in downtown El Paso. Applicants must be professional artists/artist teams, 18 years of age or older, and reside within a 300 mile radius from El Paso, TX. International artists living within this radius are welcome to apply with proper legal documentation. Current City of El Paso employees and Public Art Committee members may not apply. If applying as a team, the team leader must be designated to receive notifications.

As part of improvements to pedestrian and toll collection at the Stanton Port of Entry, a masonry wall measuring approximately 80 ft by 15 ft has been set aside for a mural, relief, mosaic, or similar artwork. The commissioned artist will be required to gather research and present an original design reflective of the local environment and character of El Paso, with areas of significant interest including border history, culture, and tradition. The Stanton Port of Entry is one of three area bridges connecting the United States-Mexico border of El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, with an average 1.2 million northbound crossings per year. Total project budget is $90,000 to include design, fabrication, and installation.

Applications must be submitted by Friday, March 5, 2010 using the CAFÉ online application system. Submission requirements include a letter of interest, current resume, and six images of completed past artworks with title, dimensions, medium, year of completion, location, three-sentence description, and budget amount. Images must be 1920 x 1920 pixels, baseline JPEG format, no more than 1.8 MB each. Three professional references (names, addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers) must be provided for each applicant. An artist selection panel will review applications based on aesthetic merit of past projects, experience with public artworks in collaboration with architects and community members, and potential for consideration in a public art selection process. For questions, contact Marisol Lopez, El Paso Public Art Program Specialist at (915) 541-4257 or [email protected].