Project Overview: Aptos Blue, is hiring an artist to interpret a historic house and garden that will serve as the community center of a new affordable housing complex. Aptos Blue is a 40 unit apartment complex which will serve low and very low income individuals. It is located on part of the original and historic Aptos Rancho, once a 6,686-acre Mexican land grant given to Rafael Castro in 1833. “The Castro House”, built by Rafael Castro’s son Vicente Castro, is being fully renovated and will serve as Aptos Blue’s Community Center. The developer of Aptos Blue, MidPen Housing Corporation, is commissioning an artist or design team to interpret the history of the site and develop a unique display that encourages the public and the residents of Aptos Blue to engage with stories of the property’s past, particularly The Castro House, which will be a major part of daily life at Aptos Blue. About The Community Center and Garden: The renovated Farmhouse style home and surrounding garden will not only serve as the Community Building, but as the center point for services and events at Aptos Blue. The Castro House will contain Property Management and Resident Services, including a community kitchen, a computer lab, after-school programs, and Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) services for select residents. Artwork to Interpret History: The artist will have freedom in choosing the media and strategy that will best bring to life these particular historical characters and place. It is preferred that the artist integrates the historical material in several locations, with display modules both indoors and in the garden area. Art works must be durable and compatible with public access and the multiple functions of the Community Center. For design research, the selected artist will have access to CDs containing oral history collected by the Santa Cruz Historic Resources Commission and the Aptos History Museum. In addition, the artist will be able to salvage materials collected during demolition of the 137 year old Castro House and will be strongly encouraged to incorporate some of these original parts, both reducing waste and giving a tactile veracity to the art. Budget: $20,000 Includes design, production, and installation. Eligibility and Application Requirements: * Limited to artists living in California * Applications must be processed through Call For Entry (CaFÉ): www.callforentry.org. (Artists may join for free: CaFÉ hosts your online resume and image database, as well as provides access to job listings, RFQs, and other art opportunities). * Images of Past work: please submit 3 to 6 images. Include short description, title, date, medium, location, and dimensions. * Current Resume: If applicable, please limit to past five years. * Provide two professional references including physical address, job title, email address, and phone number(s) * Artist Statement demonstrating your stance toward public art or other relevant work experience. This step is optional, yet recommended. Selection Criteria and Community Involvement: Through a juried process, artists will be selected based on merit of past work and appropriateness of medium to a community center setting. The committee will be looking for interest or experience in creating functional art in collaboration with the housing agency and the landscape architect.  Artists with experience in museum studies or other display and installation fields are encouraged to apply. Project Timeline: * Application deadline: January 15, 2013 Midnight, Mountain Standard Time. * Jury period ends: February 29, 2013 * Design: March 2013 * Production: April – July 2013 * Installation: September 2013 Site Considerations: Background on the Aptos Blue Project Aptos Blue will provide 40 units of affordable rental housing for families, with 5 studio units set aside for persons with mental disabilities under the MHSA program. The residences will be garden-style walk up apartments. The property consists of over 5 acres with development on roughly 2 of those acres. The balance of the site slopes steeply down to Aptos Creek and is protected by a conservation easement. The development will have an extensive landscaping plan which will include Southern Magnolia, Coast Redwood, Live Oak, Lemon, Maple, and Cherry trees as well as Lilac, Sage, Rosemary, and Huckleberry shrubs. Existing Redwoods and Coast Live Oaks will be protected. The property is half a block from Soquel Drive and is across the street from the Rancho Del Mar Shopping Center. Brief History of The Castro House: As stated in the Project Overview, in 1833 Rafael Castro received a land grant for over 6,600 acres. 22 years later he gave 700 acres of land to his son, Vicente Castro. In 1867, Vicente began selling portions of his 700 acres and purchased a 7.5-acre piece of land from his parents, which would become 7839 Soquel Drive, the Aptos Blue site. Vicente Castro became a prominent rancher and successful orchardist. To accommodate his growing family he built a new two-story house in the middle of his orchard property. In 1887, Castro sold his house and orchard property to Claus Mangels, a businessman who owned a large portion of the former Aptos Rancho. The Vicente Castro House and property at 7839 Soquel Drive remained in the possession of Claus Mangels until his death in 1891. In 1927 a Mangels heir named Fred A. Tillman received the deed to the Vicente Castro House and orchard property. Tillman made the house his primary residence. Between 1931 and 1932 he modernized and remodeled the house. His renovation also altered the exterior of the house, including the addition of flat-roofed, open-sided porches on the east and west sides. Tillman lived in the house until 1941, when he sold the property to Montgomery Hawks. Hawks and his wife owned the property for only one year before selling it in October 1942 to Bartley Crum, a prominent San Francisco attorney, who used the property as a summer and weekend house. Because of Crum’s association with powerful politicians and Hollywood celebrities, the family had many well-known guests at their Aptos summer home. The Crums sold the property in August 1952 to Joseph Miller, who operated a dental practice in Santa Cruz. He and his wife Dorothy made the former Castro House their principal residence over the next decades. The Vicente Castro House and the surrounding property achieved much of its current appearance by the late 1960s. It is a product of an extended period of development and includes architectural features from multiple decades of occupation by successive owners. The relatively austere 1870s farmhouse constructed by Vicente Castro was extensively altered by the 1930s Tillman alterations and additions, as well as ongoing alterations and additions by the Crums and the Millers during their respective periods of ownership. While some of the building’s exterior fenestration and ornamentation likely date from the Castro period, much appears to date from later decades, most notably from the Tillman, Crum, and Miller periods of ownership.

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Eligibility Criteria