THIS CALL HAS CLOSED. |
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Budget: $44,000 | ||
Activated: 07/18/2017 Deadline: 10/19/2017 |
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Call Summary The City of Austin Art in Public Places (AIPP) program of the Cultural Arts Division, Economic Development Department (EDD) seeks to commission a professional visual artist, or artist team, to design and fabricate artwork for the Dove Springs Recreation Center at 5801 Ainez Drive Austin, TX 78744. The City of Austin requests qualifications from professional visual artists, or artist teams, who live and work in Williamson, Travis, Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays, Burnet and Blanco counties. No artist currently under contract with the City of Austin Art in Public Places Program at the time of application deadline is eligible to apply. |
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Budget Description The funds for this project are derived from the 2% for public art portion of the City of Austin’s contribution to the estimated construction budget. The total award for an artist contract is $44,000, inclusive of design, fabrication and installation, including permitting fees, travel and shipping expenses, insurance and other project related costs. |
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Project Description The Parks and Recreation Department is expanding the existing building to provide a commercial grade kitchen and add flexible spaces to meet the desires for new and expanded programming from the $1.75M in funding allocated in the 2012 GO Bond for a renovation and expansion of the Recreation Center. The building expansion will be integrated with improvements to the park and playscape, which opened in spring 2015. Construction on the expansion is scheduled to begin in October 2017 and continue through October 2018. The facility will be closed to the public during construction. |
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Artwork Goals The Art in Public Places program seeks to commis¬sion works of art of redeeming quality that advance public understanding of visual art and enhance the aesthetic quality of public places through the selection of a qualified artist who can innovatively and thoughtfully design within the context of this project. For the Dove Springs Recreation Center, the AIPP program seeks to a commission a contemporary work of art that is interactive and family oriented. The goals of this specific public art project are to: » Create an iconic artwork that heightens awareness of the facility; » Demonstrate an interest in sustainable materials and builds upon the vision of the on-site wildlife habitat; » Integrate educational elements that promote an investigation of the natural environment (educational elements could be physically or visually interactive); » Consider the diverse community served by the center and the surrounding neighborhood; » Enriches or adds to the depth/breadth of the City of Austin’s public art collection |
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Artwork Location Description This public art opportunity is open to a wide range of ideas to be proposed by the selected artist, or artist team, in consultation with the project’s design team. The selected artist or artist team will coordinate with City staff and stakeholders to develop an artwork to be integrated into the interior of the existing building. The selected artist, or artist team, will work closely with the project’s design team to develop a comprehensive design for artwork. The project’s fast track schedule will require the selected artist, or artist team, to begin work immediately and complete installation by summer 2019. |
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Site History Located in District 2 in south east Austin, Dove Springs Recreation Center offers Youth, Adult and Senior Programs as well as Sports Leagues and Special Events. The 18,000 square foot center contains: a gymnasium, weight room, arts and crafts room/computer lab, class room, dance studio, conference room, lobby and television room. On the property are: 3 baseball fields, 3 soccer fields, 1 swimming pool, 2 outdoor tennis courts, 1 outdoor basketball court, 1 pavilion, 1 playscape, 1 sand volleyball pit, and a nature walking trail. In 2013, the Parks and Recreation Department (PARD), in collaboration with the Austin Parks Foundation (APF), formed a pilot partnership to actively lead the design and installation of an innovative playscape and nature pathway for Dove Springs District Park. The innovative design centers around a custom “treehouse” playscape that encourages active play, exploration and reconnecting children and families to the natural environment. http://www.austintexas.gov/DoveSprings The Dove Springs nature-based children’s play project originated as a necessary replacement of an existing set of children’s play equipment that had outlived its useful service life. As an alternative to replacing obsolete play equipment with traditional, off-the-shelf equipment, the Parks and Recreation Department worked with TBG Landscape Architects and custom playscape manufacturer GameTime to conceive of an interconnected natural play area that addresses the concepts of habitat and discovery. Features of the play area include a constructed dry-creek that bisects the play site with fallen log crossings and climbing boulders, a custom-fabricated tree-form play structure, an interactive bird’s nest feature atop a viewing hill, a mulch discovery trail with natural play stations, conventional play equipment pockets and lawns for gathering, equipped with picnic tables and grills. This area opened to the public in the spring of 2015. The Dove Springs area has been identified as a high priority area for several reasons: high obesity rate in children and adults and the presence of a food desert due to the lack of grocery stores in the area. An intensive collaborative effort has formed to improve local community health through a number of community initiatives. The Dove Springs District Park is located in the heart of the local neighborhood and is surrounded by many opportunities for an improved civic experience within this parkland setting. |
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Eligibility Professional visual artists, or artist teams, at least 18 years of age who live and work in Williamson, Travis, Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays, Burnet and Blanco counties are eligible to apply. A professional visual artist is defined as “A practitioner in the visual arts with an original self-conceptualized body of work, generally recognized by critics and peers as a professional possessing serious intent and ability.” Applications not meeting all eligibility criteria will be withdrawn from consideration. Full-time, permanent City of Austin employees including employees of the Parks and Recreation Center and the Economic Development Department are ineligible to apply. Employees of the project consultants and sub-consultants are also ineligible to apply. Artists who currently have one active contract for a permanent artwork with the Art in Public Places program or who have more than three commissioned permanent works in the AIPP Collection are ineligible to apply. Artist teams are considered as separate entities; their projects do not count as projects by the individual artists. Applications not meeting all eligibility criteria will be withdrawn from consideration. |
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Application Requirements | ||
Resume: 2 page(s) maximum Work examples: 10 Letter of Interest: 700 word maximum References: 3 |
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Artists are allowed to apply in teams.
Artists applying as a team must split the allotted number of work examples between themselves. |
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Additional Requirements | ||
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Selection Information | ||
Selection Process A Request for Qualifications will be solicited to professional visual artists who live and work in Williamson, Travis, Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays, Burnet and Blanco counties. The City of Austin Art in Public Places Panel will convene a selection panel to evaluate the submissions. The selection panel shall review qualifications (portfolio, resume, letter of interest, references) and select one artist or artist team and one alternate. Up to three finalists may be selected for interviews. This recommendation will be presented to the Art in Public Places Panel and Arts Commission for approval. |
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Selection Criteria The selection of an artist, or artist team, shall be based on whose qualifications best meet the requirements contained in this Prospectus. In addition to the standard project selection criteria found on the City of Austin’s Art in Public Places website (http://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/aipp_selection_criteria.pdf), the Selection Panel will review and consider the following evaluation criteria: » Artistic merit and technical expertise; » Demonstrated ability to successfully execute innovative public art projects in an outdoor environment; » Demonstrated ability to successfully execute a public art project on time and on budget; and » Expressed interest in creating artwork for the community. |
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Timeline Tuesday, July 18, 2017 Request for Qualifications (RFQ) released Tuesday October 10, 2017 Artist Information Meeting 6:30 pm at Pleasant Hill Branch, 211 W. William Cannon Dr. 78745 Thursday, October 19, 2017 Deadline for RFQ submission Tuesday, October 31, 2017 Selection panel review of applications Tuesday, November 14, 2017 Artist Interviews December 2017 Approval of artist and alternate by AIPP Panel and Arts Commission January 2018 Artist contract begins and Facility construction begins March 5, 2018 Mid-Design review by AIPP Panel May 7, 2018 Final Design review by AIPP Panel and Austin Arts Commission Summer 2019 Artwork installation October 2019 Anticipated project completion |
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Additional Resources | ||
www.austincreates.com | ||
Dove Springs Request For Qualifications (PDF) | ||
Contact Information | ||
Bryana Iglesias Art in Public Places Coordinator P. O. Box 1088 Austin TX 78767 United States Bryana.Iglesias@austintexas.gov 512-974-7841 |
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