Request for Qualifications: Tigard Outdoor Museum Major Works

The City of Tigard, Oregon and Tualatin Valley Creates seek qualified artists and artist teams to create original or significantly updated outdoor works for the Tigard Outdoor Museum, a three-quarter-mile linear museum that will connect a new public plaza on Main Street in Downtown Tigard to employment and housing. The museum will artistically interpret the history of Tigard and the surrounding region through the common thread of rail, housed on a former railroad bed. Themes include the history of underrepresented communities, such as the forced removal of Native Americans, southeast Asian labor and immigration, Japanese internment during WWII, and Latino migrant workers in the Bracero program. Artworks can explore migration patterns, the use and exploitation of immigrant labor, agricultural heritage, suburbanization, gentrification, and other themes revealing the region's rich and complicated history. Artists from historically underrepresented cultures and communities of color are encouraged to apply.

A total of three works will be commissioned with the goal of installation before the end of 2019. Each work has a maximum budget of $35,000, which includes all expenses from design, fabrication, transportation, installation, and artist fees. Artists may indicate interest in contributing one, two, or three works. There is no application fee. Complete applications must include a one-page letter of interest, professional resume, at least three images of past relevant work with descriptions, no fewer than three professional references, and an optional artist's statement.

Artwork criteria: works should be pedestrian scale; durable and free of precious or fragile materials; made of materials suitable to outdoor settings with pedestrian, skateboard, and bicycle traffic and reasonably vandal-resistant; easily maintained and meeting all public safety and accessibility requirements; and appropriate for an all-ages audience. Proposals will be reviewed by a committee composed of City of Tigard staff, Tualatin Valley Creates staff and affiliates, community members, business owners, and others as deemed appropriate. Selected artists will work with City of Tigard and Tualatin Valley Creates staff to create a timeline and budget for the project.