Johnson County's Sunflower Fire Station Public Art Project

Sunflower Fire Station #13, a new modern facility opening November 2025, is located at 35050 West 99th Street, De Soto, Kansas 66018. The facility supports Northwest Consolidated Fire Department's (NWCFD) Administration, emergency fire responders, and Johnson County government's MED-ACT emergency responders. The station includes administrative offices, a community training room, shared responder living areas, office spaces, designated training locations, and four large bays for emergency responder service vehicles. The project has an established public art budget of approximately $130,000.

One or more commissions may be selected for the project, pending the advice of the Artist Selection Panel (ASP) and approval of the Public Art Commission (PAC). The selected artist will have a contract with the Board of Commissioners of Johnson County Kansas for design, documentation, fabrication, construction, and installation of the artwork. The artist must carry insurance including General Liability ($1,000,000 per occurrence, $2,000,000 aggregate), Workman's Comp ($1,000,000 if subject to statute), and Commercial Auto ($1,000,000). Final artwork cost includes all aspects of design, fabrication, transportation, installation, lighting, and other required work scopes, which may include excavation, site remediation, landscaping, structural engineering, travel expenses, and insurances.

The Artist Selection Panel will evaluate submissions based on past experience and success, capacity and resources to achieve success, overall approach to the project and site, and excellence in past public artwork. Artists should demonstrate dedication to high-quality installations, ability to collaborate with the design team, and genuine interest in this specific project and site. For permanent installations, maintenance is a central concern; artists should demonstrate experience with materials appropriate for long-term installations and provide detailed information on materials and care strategies. Artwork must be specific to this site and responsive to this opportunity, commissioned and produced specifically for this project. Artwork concepts or specific project proposals are not necessary for initial submittal; the artist statement should communicate overall insights on approaching artwork development for this site and project type. Submission deadline is November 3, 2025 at 11:59 PM CDT. Submissions received after this deadline will be automatically disqualified. Work sample requirements: minimum 5 images, maximum 15 images; minimum 0 videos, maximum 2 videos; total samples minimum 5, maximum 17.