Rhode Island College Fine Art Center

Request for Qualifications – Open to All Artists

Public art for the new Rhode Island College Fine Art Center, located at 600 Mt. Pleasant Avenue in Providence, Rhode Island, will be commissioned through Rhode Island's Public Art Law, which mandates that 1% of all state capital construction and renovation funds be allocated to the purchase and maintenance of public art. The project budget is $153,000. Panelists seek artwork either for the exterior copper clad panels at the southwest corner of the building or for the two-story interior atrium. Artwork that draws the eye up and identifies the building as an art center would be ideal. The piece should be recognizable from a distance, connect with the identity of the college, and embody a spirit of creativity in a way that is an asset to the institution. Panelists are looking for a fine art/fine craft element designed to harmoniously augment or engage the preexisting architectural elements.

This Request for Qualifications is the first step in the public art selection process. At this preliminary selection stage, submissions should consist of six images representing current work completed within the past ten years, resumes, and a brief description of potential site-specific proposals. Applications will be reviewed by the public art selection panel to assess the quality and appropriateness of the artist's work, interest in their proposal idea, and the artist's ability to carry out a substantial public art commission. Three finalists will be selected and each will be paid an honorarium of $2,500 to craft detailed proposals including an itemized budget, scale models and renderings, and an in-depth project description. This stipend includes all travel expenses for both the site visit and the subsequent presentation meeting.

All materials must be submitted in digital format through CaFÉ (www.callforentry.org). There is no charge to the artist for applying or submitting digital images. Each application must include a current resume for each artist, six digital images of relevant artwork with accompanying annotations listing media, size, title, date of completion, and a written statement not exceeding 3000 characters addressing the artist's preliminary concept or potential approach for the site and the proposed project budget. The deadline for submissions is February 18, 2013 at 5:00 p.m. EST. Finalists will be notified in late February 2013, with site visits scheduled for late March 2013 and finalist presentations to the selection panel in May 2013.