Large Murals on New Building in Jamaica Plain, Boston

The Stonybrook Neighborhood Association (SNA) and SSG Development and Construction are commissioning Boston-based artists or artist teams to design approximately 2,500 sq ft of murals for the exterior of an Extra Space Storage building located at Burnett, McBride, and Washington Streets in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston. The murals should be reflective of Jamaica Plain, whether its community, its history, or some other tangible or intangible aspect of this neighborhood. Two areas of the building are available for proposals: AREA 1 is wrapped around the northwest corner, directly facing the Southwest Corridor Park and English High School (north side approx. 1,077 sq ft; west side approx. 1,107 sq ft). AREA 2 consists of three square panels at ground-level on the east facade (121 sq ft each). Applicants are welcome to apply for one or both areas. The visual style may be abstract, representational, or anything in between, and must be viewable from a range of distances.

This is a two-round selection process. In the first round, applicants submit previous work to be considered for semifinalist status. Three semifinalists for each area will be selected and paid $500 each to create site-specific designs. From these semifinalists, two finalists will be chosen and paid $5,000 each for their winning designs. The jury includes Crystal Bi Wegner (artist, educator, and Creative Civic Design Lead), Sabrina Dorsainvil (Director of Civic Design, City of Boston Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics), Karen Haas (Museum of Fine Arts curator), and Rob "ProBlak" Gibbs (Artists for Humanity co-founder). Artists must be Boston-based (living, working, or teaching in Boston). There is no application fee. Submissions must include an artist/artist team statement (max 2000 characters), resume or CV (max two pages), letter of interest (max 3000 characters), and up to 15 images of prior work with an image key. This is a blind jury process; do not include your name or team name in any submitted documents or filenames. All applications must be submitted through CaFÉ by April 17, 2021 at 11:59 p.m. MDT. Semifinalists will be notified May 12, 2021. Semifinalists' proposals are due July 7, 2021. Finalists will be notified August 1, 2021. The chosen artist(s) will oversee the translation of their design into the large-scale final project; SSG Development will contract with a mural painting company to install the final designs.