City of Seattle: Center City Street Connections Public Art Plan

The Office of Arts & Culture (ARTS), in partnership with Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), will commission one artist to work with SDOT and ARTS staff to research, develop, and create a Public Art Plan for downtown Seattle based on current capital projects. SDOT's Center City projects include the Center City Connector (1st Avenue streetcar), Third Avenue Transit Corridor Improvements, and Pike/Pine Improvements Project. The City of Seattle seeks to align these opportunities to implement a cohesive visual vocabulary of public art throughout downtown Seattle.

The selected artist will be commissioned for approximately six months, beginning April 2016 and running through September 2016. During Phase 1, the artist will work with SDOT staff, project design team consultants, project stakeholders, and community members to examine Seattle's capital projects in the downtown core. A work space is available in SDOT, though some work may be conducted remotely. At the mid-point of the research period, the artist will present a progress report indicating possible directions for the art master plan. Upon completion, the artist will prepare and deliver a final report including an outline for the art master plan.

Phase II involves developing a Public Art Master Plan that outlines potential for public art projects to be incorporated into SDOT's capital projects. The plan should provide a cohesive vision, budgets, equity and cultural space considerations, artistic elements, impactful sites, programmatic directions, and guidelines for public art and private development. The total budget is $45,000, with $22,500 for Phase 1 and $22,500 for Phase 2. All project fees are inclusive of travel expenses, taxes, and other project costs.

Eligibility: Individual artists residing in the United States and British Columbia who are eligible to work in the U.S. Artist teams of no more than two people are eligible if able to show evidence of past collaborative work. Students are not eligible. Applications must include a letter of interest (not to exceed 2,000 characters), résumé, three references, up to 16 images, and an image identification list (not to exceed 500 characters for each image). Sample art master plans or arts integration projects may be emailed to Sandy Esene at [email protected] with "Center City Street Connections Public Art Plan Call Materials" in the subject line. Selection will be based on conceptual quality, experience working with design teams, demonstrated ability to develop innovative arts planning, experience collaborating with stakeholders and community groups, ability to translate complex ideas, demonstrated written and oral skills, and ability to produce permanent and/or temporary art projects.