Click here for submittable application.

The City of Tempe is seeking an experienced visual artist or artist collective to create a participatory art piece that is site specific to 8 Arts in the Parks events occurring between September 23 to November 7, 2024. The installation must integrate or address illumination to ensure that the piece remains visible in both daylight and darkness for events spanning from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM. This artwork should be vibrant, dynamic, and engaging to encourage community exploration and creative collaboration. The artwork must incorporate components that can be touched, arranged, or modified by attendees of all ages over the course of the event(s). Possible approaches could include but are not limited to artist made objects that the attendees are encouraged to alter or construct with, or artworks designed with movable parts, interactive elements, or mechanisms that allows park visitors to become active participants in shaping the visual and sensory experience within the park. Successful candidates are expected to attend Arts in the Parks events and meetings related to this project. Artists with an interest in responding to and collaborating with community are encouraged to apply.

Park locations are in Tempe, Arizona: Indian Bend, Scudder, Corbell, Mary and Moses Green, Meyer, Optimist, Clark, and Daumler.

Arts in the Parks Program Description

Arts in the Parks is a City of Tempe Community Arts program that brings arts-focused events and activities to parks throughout Tempe, Arizona. With sixteen free events throughout the year this program activates outdoor community spaces and gives Tempe residents an opportunity to connect with their neighbors and professional artists while expressing their creativity.

These hyper local events are customized for each park community based on feedback received at previous events and advertised exclusively to the households in close vicinity to each park. Around 250-600 residents of all ages attend each Arts in the Parks event to enjoy themed arts activities, listen to live music, and indulge in the offerings of local food trucks. The Arts in the Parks program places a strong emphasis on inclusive arts encounters that are accessible to everyone, recognizing the diverse composition of each park community in terms of age, cultural backgrounds, and abilities.

www.tempe.gov/ArtsintheParks

Qualifications

Artists who meet the following qualifications are encouraged to apply:

• Experience in visual arts and/or multi-modal arts.
• Demonstrate the ability to complete site-specific projects.
• Interest in using creative skills to connect and collaborate with community.
• Reside in the regional southwest: Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, or New Mexico
• Will be available the week of September 23rd , the week of October 15th , and the week of November 4th .

Expectations

• Attend up to four in person or virtual meetings about progress.
• Design, fabricate, transport, and store a community collaborative artwork that is illuminated, colorful, vibrant, and encourages participation from event attendees of all ages.
• Facilitate community engagement with artwork at 8 weeknight Arts in the Parks events. Event hours are from 5:30 PM-7:30 PM.
• Artists must be fully self-sufficient in transporting, setting up, and storing artworks for and in-between Arts in the Parks events.
• Access to power or water utilities is not available in these parks. If the artwork necessitates these elements, it becomes the artist's responsibility to make appropriate arrangements or find suitable alternatives.

Restrictions

This commission will not fund:

• Augmented reality experiences and/or artworks that rely on personal cell phones
• Community murals
• Artworks that are 100% projection as it needs to be visible in both daylight and darkness.
• Artwork cannot physically attach to the ground, or any existing structures within the park.

Timeline

• March 29th  - Call opens
• April 25th - Virtual pre-submittal meeting on Zoom. Sign up to receive the pre-submittal meeting zoom link here. If you are unable to attend, a recording of the meeting can be provided upon request.
• May 6th - Call closes at 5PM
• Mid-May – Finalists are notified. A stipend of $300 is provided to each finalist to develop a proposal that fits this call.
• Beginning of June– Proposal presentations and interviews. Artist selected and notified.
• June– Sept - Planning/Fabrication/Meetings
• Sept 23rd – Nov 7th - Arts in the Parks weeknight events from 5:30 PM-7:30 PM.

We will host a pre-submittal info session on April 25th! Sign up to receive the pre-submittal meeting zoom link here.

Schedule a one-on-one meeting regarding this call here.

Click here for submittable application.

Project Name: Riverdale Regional Park Water Tower Mural

Budget: $55,500

Amount inclusive of all costs associated with the design and installation of a mural on the Riverdale Regional Park water tank. This includes but is not limited to, artist fees, meetings, site visits, site survey, design, materials, material tests, fabrication, site access (scaffolding, lift, etc.), installation, community engagement, insurance conforming to Adams County requirements, travel, transportation and expenses, fabrication documentation, post-installation documentation, maintenance plan, consultants’, and subcontractors' fees for, and all other costs associated with this project. Please note that primer and sealant are not part of the mural artist’s scope and will be contracted separately by the County.

*Additionally, 3-5 finalists will be awarded a $500 honorarium to complete a project-specific proposal.

Open To: Professional Artist(s)

Project Number: 2024.030

Project Description:

Adams County Cultural Arts seeks an artist or artist team to create an original mural on a water tank located at the Riverdale Animal Shelter in Riverdale Regional Park at 12155 Park Blvd, Brighton, CO 80601.

The mural design for this highly visible landmark should reference the deep connection between humans and the environment.

Artist’s budget includes mural design, materials, and installation as well as community engagement and documentation. Primer and topcoat are not part of the artist’s scope.

Project Vision

Mural Design

Situated within the larger context of Riverdale Regional Park, the water tank mural will honor the deep connection between humans682777325 and the environment.

The South Platte River winds through Riverdale Regional Park. Over millions of years, it’s flooding banks and changing course created the fertile soils of this river valley. Early inhabitants of the region, plains tribal nations, established agricultural settlements and nomadic routes in the region shaped by movement of the river and buffalo.

Now, Riverdale Regional Park is the site of recreational activities and cultural events as it’s prairie and river ecosystems continue to host a diversity of plant and animal life. People come to Riverdale year-round to visit the Adams County Fair, the Adams County Historical Society & Museum, the Riverdale Animal Shelter, and Mann-Nyholt Lake. Residents play disc golf, fish, and celebrate family reunions, quinceañeras, Pride, and Festival Latino in the park. Protected Open Spaces in Riverdale support habitats for local plains and wildlife and continuous habitat corridors along the South Platte.

We invite artists to explore the rich environmental and cultural history of the Riverdale Regional Park.  The nearby Riverdale Animal Shelter has many pet-focused artworks, we do not want to repeat that theme in the water tank mural design. A successful mural design will be impactful when viewed up close and at a distance. Most viewers will view the mural from 500 – 4,000 ft away while passing by on foot, bike, or car. Folks on the trail system or visiting Riverdale Animal Shelter can walk right up to the tank for a detailed view. The selected artist must consider both vantage points in the mural design.

Site Information

The water tank is located at 12155 Park Blvd. Brighton, CO 80601. It sits next to the Riverdale Animal Shelter and can be seen from the surrounding park trails, the South Platte River Trail, and the Adams County Historical Society and Museum. It is also visible from the following major roads: East 120th Parkway, Riverdale Road, Henderson Road, and Brighton Road.

The textured steel tank is 26 feet high with a circumference of 103 feet. See linked photos and elevations for more information. The water tank is part of the Riverdale Animal Shelter, which is open to the public. Artists are encouraged to visit the site to inform their applications.

A paint vendor contracted by Adams County will be responsible for primer and top-coat materials and installation. The selected artist will be responsible for mural materials and installation. The selected artist will work closely with Adams County staff and the contracted paint vendor to ensure that planned materials, site access, and installation process will not compromise the functionality of the water tank.

Community Engagement

We want public art to be relevant and accessible to everyone in Adams County. The selected artist or artist team will invite the public into their art practice through community engagement. Engagement can take many forms. It is unique to each project and shaped by each artist’s practice and process. We ask artists to thoughtfully engage the public to facilitate creative and unique experience for our residents. Past examples include community artmaking at the project site, a County event, or a County facility, gathering community input and idea-making, social media campaigns, and workshops or other ways to let the community into your art practice and process .

Project Documentation

Adams County requests photo and video documentation by the artist or artist team, and will be used to share the selected artist’s art practice with the public during and after the installation is complete. Documentation includes photo and/or video of the design process, community engagement, artwork fabrication, artwork installation, and artwork post installation. Documentation may be used in the following ways: Adams County websites, social media, newsletters, and print content, or for media inquiries

Project Timeline, subject to change.

May 12: Applications Due at 11:59 pm MDT

May 24: Finalists notified

May 28: Finalist info session

June 20: Finalist Proposals due

June 25 & 26: Finalist Interviews

July 1: Project Awarded

July 1 – 15: Contracting

July 15 – August 15: design

August 15 – September 1: Installation plan finalized

September 1 – September 30: Site prep & installation

* Timeline subject to change.

Payment Schedule

15% upon generation of PO

20% upon approval of mural design

20% upon completion of community engagement

20% upon approval of site access and installation plan

25% upon final installation approval, receipt of all, project documentation files, and maintenance plan approval.

Located on the UNK campus, the Rural Health Education Building addresses a critical need for additional health care professionals in rural communities by allowing more students to study and train in central Nebraska. The new facility — the second facility of the Douglas A. Kristensen Rural Health Education Complex — will bring more health care education opportunities to the University of Nebraska at Kearney campus through expanded health programs administered by the University of Nebraska Medical Center. The $95 million facility — funded through a public-private partnership — will expand nursing and allied health programs in Kearney, as well as add programs in medicine, pharmacy and public health. 

The Rural Health Education Building is a cutting-edge facility that will grow the state’s rural health care workforce and help communities thrive. The building will include state-of-the-art classrooms, extensive simulation, and clinical skills laboratories for pre-clinical education and complex clinical scenarios and simulated primary care spaces, administrative and faculty and staff office space to accommodate current and expanded numbers of faculty and staff members, and secure storage space for research and academic records. It will allow UNMC to expand the presence of its allied health and nursing programs in Kearney while launching new programs to train physicians, pharmacists and public health professionals there.

The design of this new building focuses on the land throughout western Nebraska, the large expanse and soft edges of the topography in the Sandhills. The design first completed project for Nursing was focused on the water that runs through Nebraska. While it does not have to be a literal expression of either healthcare or the Nebraska landscape, the Committee feels that some connection to those elements might lead to a successful and compelling artwork in the new building.

The indoor site of this building is primarily in the large public space on the second floor. The priority for this site are the two walls pictured below, with a possible additional site on the first floor at the based of the staircase. The staircase leads upstairs directly from the main entrance. The artwork for the indoor site will be completed by one artist for the full listed budget, and should create a cohesive experience for this space.