Viestenz-Smith Mountain Park Memorial Public Art Commission

The City of Loveland seeks an Artist or Artist Team to design, fabricate, and install public artwork for the Viestenz-Smith Mountain Park located in the Big Thompson Canyon in Loveland, Colorado. The park reopened to the public on September 28, 2018, after being closed since September 2013 due to a devastating flood. The reconstruction has transformed the park from a manicured, urban park with irrigated turf to a foothills mountain park with non-irrigated native grasses. The public art project is intended to create a feature that honors the 50+ memorials that were previously on-site but washed away by the flood. The City is open to artistic interpretation and does not expect the artwork to list names or provide the opportunity to accumulate additional names over time.

Viestenz-Smith Mountain Park is nestled in the Big Thompson Canyon off Highway 34, approximately twelve miles west of downtown Loveland. This historic park is eligible for listing in the National Register and contains three Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) stone buildings and an archaeological site. The restoration effort has focused on making the park more resilient during future flood events and ecologically sensitive to the river that bisects it. A maximum of $55,000.00 has been allocated for this project, which is all-inclusive and covers design, structural engineering, insurance, fabrication, equipment, installation, travel, contingency, and incidental costs.

The project is open to any professional artist or artist team legally residing in and authorized to work in the United States with demonstrated experience in creating distinctive public artwork. The selected Artist/Artist Team must work effectively and collaboratively with the Project Design Team. The design concept must be fabricated from durable outdoor material, sensitive to the natural character of the park, and sensitive to the historic significance of the park. The Artist/Artist Team will present a formal design proposal to the artwork jury panel in February 2019. The intention is to have the memorial installed by mid-July 2019. The selected artist/artist team will be required to carry general liability insurance of $1 million. Applications must include a letter of intent (limited to 3000 characters), 10 images of public artwork completed within the past seven years, artist resume (limited to 5000 characters), and 3 professional references with contact information.