Tuesday, April 20, 2010

UrbanArt RFQ: Riverwoods School, K-5

UrbanArt and Memphis City Schools is seeking an artist to create enhancements for Riverwoods School,  K-5.

Project Description:

The goal of the project is to use public art to provide an interactive, visual stimulus enhancing students’ reading, writing, computation, thinking, reasoning and problem solving skills; to provide a welcoming and pleasing environment reaffirming the importance of school; and to create a sense of ownership in the school.

It is expected that the art enhancements will be functional elements integral to the buildings. However, free-standing artwork may be appropriate. Example of the site plan for the school can be found below. Artists are encouraged to research the school and to contact the UrbanArt Commission for more information about each school.  Artists may submit a proposal for a specific school or outline a general approach to developing a theme.  The school is in a natural setting, located between a lake and a wooded area.  The Riverwoods Planning committee, has expressed that they would like to 'bring the outside in,' incorporating references to the natural envirionment.

Student involvement in the creation of the artwork is highly encouraged. Projects should include participatory elements, whether it is participation in the visioning or the creation of the artwork or ongoing interaction with the artwork.

Budgets:
Riverwoods School K-5:    $150,000.00
Proposal Deadline:           4:00 pm, June 5th
Artist Eligibility:                 Local    

All professional artists residing in the United States, regardless of race, sex, religion, national origin, or handicap, are invited to submit proposals for this project.  Preference will be given to artists living in the City of Memphis and to graduates of Memphis City Schools. Professional artists may include fine artists, architects, landscape architects and other design professionals provided they are not the project architect or an employee of the project architect. Artists should have experience or demonstrate skills in one or more of the following areas:  working with students; public art projects; collaborating with others towards an artwork/art enhancement; working with community based organizations; and working with committees/boards towards an arts-related goal. It is the policy of the Board of Education to select a diverse group of qualified professional artists that represent a wide variety of artistic styles, media and subject matter to design public artworks that best meet the needs of the students. 

Artists will be selected based on the materials submitted – please see the Application Guidelines below. Selection for this project will be made by a panel made up of representatives of Memphis City Schools, a Community Representative, an Arts Professional, and a Visual Artist. The UAC Project Manager will attend meetings but is not a voting member of the panel. The panel will be looking at the merit of the artists’ work, past experience at completing projects on time and within budget, and appropriateness of the proposed concept for the community.

Though specific concepts are not required, the selection panel would like a general idea of your approach to this project. Please see the questions listed in the guidelines to help you develop your letter of interest. You are welcome to submit drawings, but they should not be larger than 8 ½ x 11 and should not be originals.

Although specific concepts are not required, some level of student participation should be part of the project. Suggestions of student participation include:
•    Working with students directly (workshops) or indirectly (collecting information from the student body) during the design process and/or the fabrication process.
•    Designing an enhancement to be interactive and informative to insure relevance for many generations.


Application Guidelines:

• Typed, one-page letter of interest that explains your general concept including theme and materials.
• A sketch may be included but must be no larger than 8.5 x 11 inches. Artists with no previous experience in public art are encouraged to send some type of visual representation of their concept. Do not send original artwork.
• Resume, not to exceed 2 pages.
• Images of your work – all images should be digital, following these guidelines: Please note that only the first five images may be viewed during the first round of selection.
o Digital only– 4 to 10 digital images. Images must be JPEG format, 1920 pixels maximum
on the longest side, 72 dpi, with compression settings resulting in the best image
quality under 2MB file size. (This is a new policy – please call if you have questions.)
• Image identification sheet
• List of three professional references, including current phone number, and email address.
• Self-addressed, stamped envelope with postage sufficient for the return of your materials. Materials will not be returned without one.

Send applications to:
UrbanArt Commission
Attn: Riverwood
2549 Broad Avenue
Memphis, TN 38112

For more information contact UrbanArt:
Rodney Coleman, Project Coordinator
901.454.0472.  rcoleman@urbanartcommission.org

Commissioning of artists by the UrbanArt Commission and the pursuit of all UrbanArt Commission activities are implemented without preference to racial or ethnic origins, gender, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, disability or age. The UrbanArt Commission reserves the right to modify this solicitation and to request additional information or proposals from any or all participating artists.

The UrbanArt Commission reserves the right to accept or reject, at any time prior to the commissioning of a work, any or all proposals when the acceptance, rejection, waiver or advertisement would be in the best interest of the project. In addition, the UrbanArt Commission may solicit proposals from artists not responding to this call and reserves the right to select an artist outside of the pool of artists responding to this call.
The staff of the UrbanArt Commission shall be responsible for all correspondence and communication by and between applicants and members of selection panels. Discussion regarding these projects by and between any applicant and any member of a selection panel outside of regularly scheduled meetings during the selection process may be grounds for the disqualification of the applicant. Such determination shall be in the sole discretion of the UrbanArt Commission.

Note that the wall of the auditorium in front of the stair in the lobby area is of particular interest for some type of enhancement. This wall is approximately 45’ tall and 70’ wide with two doors leading into the auditorium.

The rendering above is of  Colonial Middle School. Note: Riverwoods school is exactly like that of Colonial, with the exception of the wing to the north of the building for the K-1.

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