Dr. Jeremiah Cameron Park Public Art Commission

The City of Kansas City, Missouri One Percent for Art program seeks qualifications for a professional visual artist or artist team to design, fabricate, and install permanent public art within Dr. Jeremiah Cameron Park that will help tell the history of the Steptoe Neighborhood, the Penn School as the first African American school west of the Mississippi, and the legacy of the neighborhood's former current and past residents. Two to five semifinalist artists will be asked to advance to the RFP phase and propose designs. Semifinalists will be paid a design proposal stipend of $4,200.

As part of a $30.3M stormwater, water, and streetscape infrastructure investment for Kansas City's Westport District, Dr. Jeremiah Cameron Park is playing a critical role in stormwater management. The area that is now W. 43 Street south to W. 44 Street, and from Wornall Road to Summit Street became known as the Steptoe neighborhood around 1857. The area began attracting families in the 1860s, including many newly freed from slavery, and became home to the Penn School, the first school west of the Mississippi to solely educate Black children. Since the 1960s, many of the homes and institutions have been lost but former residents are working to keep memory of the neighborhood alive.

The artwork should be a structure or shelter that pays homage to the Penn School and its students and the Steptoe neighborhood and should be visible from the street. The minimum budget available for this project is $280,000, all inclusive, covering artist's fees, travel, fabrication, supplies, material costs, meeting and administration hours, labor, permits, licenses, insurance, lighting, equipment rental, shipping, delivery, documentation, foundations, footings and installation. Space limitations exist due to underground concrete storage units, requiring a minimum of 1.5 feet of vertical clearance and maximum allowable loads of 300 pounds per square foot or 16,000 pounds for column/post loads.