Request for Artist Qualifications: City of Issaquah Miyawaki Forest Artwork

The City of Issaquah seeks artist qualifications for artwork at the Miyawaki Community Forest, located at 190 NW Dogwood Street, Issaquah, WA 98027. This urban reforestation project is situated on a 3000 square foot plot in the Old Town Issaquah neighborhood, next to Issaquah Creek. The forest serves a diverse group of community members including neighbors, Green Issaquah and Issaquah Aps Trails club volunteers, students from Gibson Ek High School and other local schools, UW students majoring in Forestry, Botany, and Sustainable Urban Planning, and adults and youth interested in plants, gardening, and climate change resilience.

The artwork consists of two components: 1) a welcoming entryway public art feature and 2) an interpretive sign design. The entryway artwork should be designed of natural wood, ideally incorporating found wood or branches from the 2024 Issaquah Bomb Cyclone, with a rustic quality that resourcefully uses natural materials. The artwork should embody a welcoming spirit that invites people to enter the forest and evoke the feeling of a threshold where you leave the urban to enter a native forest. For the interpretive sign, the city will provide text content while the artist is responsible for graphics and design that tie to the entryway artwork. The city will handle fabrication and installation of the sign.

Applicants must live in Washington State and may be working artists, designers, landscape architects, etc. The budget is $6,000 inclusive of all artist fees, travel, design, insurance, fabrication and labor. Applications require a letter of interest (one page limit), resume/CV, two professional references, and visual support materials of previous public artwork or creative projects (10 images max). Selection will be based on proven ability to coordinate and collaborate with project managers, design teams and community members, and quality and strength of artwork as demonstrated in application materials.