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Friday, March 26, 2010

South Grand Searching for Artists

According to a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) released yesterday, the City of St. Louis Board of Public Service is searching for an artist or artists to create two-dimensional artwork to be embedded in the reconstructed sidewalks of South Grand. The call for art is a result of a major streetscape overhaul now underway thanks to the East West Gateway Council of Government's Great Streets Initiative.

I love the idea of sidewalk art for South Grand! The RFQ notes:


The selected artist team may include, but is not limited to, visual artists, graphic designers, writers, and poets. Prior public art experience is helpful, but not required.

The artwork will need to fit into discrete sections of the reconstructed sidewalk. The size, location and dimensions of these sections can be determined by the artist, and will need to be coordinated and finalized prior to construction. The artist will be responsible for the final design, fabrication and installation of the artwork into these discrete sections. Final design specifications will be reviewed by members of the project design team and/or City officials.

The new sidewalks will be constructed with pervious concrete. The artwork inserts can be a non-pervious material, but must be durable and approved by the project team. Possible materials may include colored and/or textured concrete, lithocrete, lithomosaic, mosaic, stone, brick, metal, terrazzo or other materials. The inserts could include imagery, text, poetry and/or designs that reflect life on South Grand.



The project budget is $30,000 and the deadline is April 9, 2010. If you're an artist reading this blog, please apply! South Grand needs you!

Here are some examples of sidewalk art I came across:

Village of Rochester Hills, Michigan...sidewalk insets would be the most common form of sidewalk art. What would you recommend for insets along South Grand?


















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Okay...so this is faux-3-D chalk art, which I assume can't be permanent. But it's nevertheless something to think about.















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Tile mosaic sidewalk

















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Text-based art. If you stand from a certain angle, it looks as if the word "DOWN" is floating. Sure this is inside a parking garage, but since the RFQ allows for text-based art, there seem to be many possibilities here.















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As I said, if you're an artist or poet, get to work for South Grand! But send your plans to this blog first.

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