UCCS Science and Engineering Building Public Art Commission

The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs is seeking artwork for the Science and Engineering Building's three-story entry atrium. The Art Selection Committee requests that artwork utilize this entry location, which will house a Foucault pendulum (purchased separately by the University). The Committee is looking for art that is diverse in media and can be integrated into this space. The artwork should engage in a dialogue with the pendulum as well as articulate the nature, aspects, or mysteries of the scientific disciplines located in the building. Lighting is important on this campus and should be considered as an element of the artwork.

The Science and Engineering Building brings together the departments of biology, physics, and mechanical and aerospace engineering as well as the National Institute for Science, Space and Security Centers and the CU Institute for Bioenergetics. The 156,000 gross square feet complex will be LEED Silver certified and will include innovative classrooms, teaching labs, research labs, and faculty and staff offices. The building will feature an integrated K-12 outreach theme with interactive centers called 'Imagination Stations' for secondary school students.

$90,000 is available for all related expenses of this Public Art commission including artist fees, fabrication, insurance, shipping, travel, installation, documentation, and other costs. The artist may enhance the pendulum as they see fit. The artist will need to address an unfinished floor area below the pendulum and design a barrier to surround the swing of the pendulum. This project will need to be fast tracked once awarded, with occupant move-in in Spring 2009. The program is open to all U.S. artists. An artist with an existing public art contract with the Colorado Council on the Arts is not eligible to accept another Art in Public Places project until the current contract is substantially complete.