Spring Garden El Underpass Mural: Call to Artists

A note from Northern Liberties Neighbors Association president Matt Ruben:

As part of the NLNA’s Spring Garden improvement project (which includes streetscaping, new trees, lighting, and other work along Spring Garden from Delaware Ave to 2nd St), the city’s Mural Arts Program is planning to do mural work beneath the Spring Garden El Overpass.
Below is a “request for qualifications” for artists who wish to make proposals and/or work on the mural.
Please note that because of moisture and other issues, this mural project probably will not be a traditional “paint on a wall” project.” It will be large in scale and require some flexibility in terms of materials, design, and so on. Also for this reason, people are especially encouraged to apply as teams.

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This Request for Qualifications seeks an artist or artist-led team to create artwork on the vertical walls beneath the highway and El overpass just east of 2nd & Spring Garden Streets in Northern Liberties.

This site-specific work is being commissioned as part of a broader community development strategy. The public art component is being managed by the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.  The selected artist or team will be asked to prepare conceptual designs for the gateway. The formal budget for conceptual design, creation and installation is $42,500. Additional funds are being solicited, and it is anticipated that an additional $15-20,000 will be available upon initiation of the project.
 
This call is open to professional artists or artist teams working in two-dimensional or three-dimensional media, whose work can be translated to the scale and visual environment of urban gateway sites.  Artists must take into consideration the leakage, and moisture that exists in the underpass when determining materials and installation.

Artists who are Northern Liberties residents are encouraged to apply.
Required Application Materials The application submission must include the information and materials described below, all of which are required to constitute a complete application.

a) Artist Statement of Interest
Submission shall include a no more than 1 page narrative with the following information:
i. What interests you about this opportunity?
ii. What themes/concepts relative to marking urban space do you explore in your work?
iii. What perspective and/or experience do you bring to your work that is unique?
 
b) Summary of Experience
Submission shall include a one-page maximum summary of relevant past public art experience.

c) Résumé: Submission shall include a current résumé that outlines your
professional accomplishments as an artist (maximum of 2 pages).

d) Images of Past Work: Submission shall include images of past artwork that demonstrate your qualifications for this project. Submit up to a total of 10 digital images that represent up to 5 previously completed projects. Images must be formatted as .jpgs. Images must be no more than 1920 pixels on the longest side and high-quality JPG file format at 300 dpi. Do not submit TIFFs, PDFs, Word or any other non-JPG formats.

e) Descriptions of Past Work: Submission shall include a list of the submitted
project images that clearly explain the both the projects and images. The image description must clearly indicate the corresponding images (e.g., the image is labeled project 1, detail 1, and the image description gives the same title description.)

Deadline
All submission requirements for this Request for Qualifications must be received by May 11, 2009 at the mailing/delivery address given below. Please note that submission will not be accepted via email or fax.

Mailing Address:
Cheryl Durgans
Northern Liberties Gateway Project
Philadelphia Mural Arts Program
The Lincoln Financial Mural Arts Center
1729 Mt. Vernon Street
Philadelphia, PA 19130