St. James Park Public Art Invitational

St. James Park has served as a significant public landscape and urban refuge in central San José for over a century. The park has adapted through San José's evolution from Spanish pueblo to seat of Silicon Valley, conveying historic, aesthetic, and civic values. The park features public monuments including a statue of William McKinley, a memorial to Robert F. Kennedy, and a sculpture of Brigadier General Henry Morris Naglee.

This public art opportunity is a design collaboration between CMG Landscape Architects and a public artist, focusing on the major organizing landscape features of the park redesign, specifically the Victorian Garden and Monument Walk. The artist will participate in design workshops with CMG to develop conceptual, schematic, and design development proposals; engage with community stakeholders; provide sketches and materials; attend meetings with CMG and City staff; advise on cost estimates; participate in value engineering; and prepare presentation materials. Approximately 6-10 meetings are anticipated over the course of the project. The artist fee for design services is $20,000. Design development will be initiated in January 2018, with Schematic Design presented to San José City Council in May 2018.

This opportunity is open to individual artists or artist-led teams working or living in the United States. All applicants must have necessary documentation and permits to live and work in the United States at time of submittal. Artists currently under contract with the City of San José Public Art Program are not eligible unless their current project will be complete by December 2018 or is suspended. If submitting as a team, a professional artist with public art experience must be the lead team member. Selection criteria include aesthetic excellence of past projects, experience collaborating with design professionals, practice of working with active stakeholder groups, and experience developing artworks in outdoor environments. A two-phase selection process will identify 3 finalists for interviews on December 13, 2017, with final selection on December 19, 2017.