Norman Arts Council, on behalf of The City of Norman, is seeking an artist (or team of artists) to create a mural on the Silos in Griffin Park located at 1001 E. Robinson Street, Norman, Oklahoma. The area of the park that is included in the current project is approximately 83 acres within the total 110 acres of the park.
Norman is a growing, progressive city located 20 miles south of downtown Oklahoma City and is the third-largest city in Oklahoma. The citizens of Norman initiated NORMAN FORWARD, a proposal to renovate, expand, construct and fund Quality of Life projects, such as multiple recreational facilities, libraries, parks, athletic venues, public art, trails, swim complexes and other quality of life projects throughout Norman. The initiative went to the City Council from community groups, stakeholders and Norman residents, who prepared an initial package using analysis and information from recreational planning professionals and research firms. In 2015, the City Council placed NORMAN FORWARD on a ballot that was overwhelmingly supported by Norman voters. For more information about Norman, please see http://www.normanok.gov/cm/norman-forward and www.visitnorman.com. It is the intent of the City and NAC to continue its dedication to Public Art.

Griffin Park History
Of the 64 neighborhood and community parks in Norman, Griffin Park has perhaps one of the most unique histories within the City of Norman. In 1891, a State mental institution was established on over 600 acres of land in Norman. Much of that land was occupied by the hospital’s 450 head of cattle. This area was a farming operation that produced most of the food for the facility and the dairy was run by the patients of the hospital. Today, the old grain storage towers remain in the park - an unmarked reminder of the past use of the land.
The farming operation closed in the 1960’s and now 320 acres of the land are leased to the City of Norman. Over time, The City built soccer, baseball, and football fields in the park. Just to the north of the park is the George M. Sutton Urban Wildlife Park. After decades of popular use by families in Norman, the Park has recently been renovated and updated for use by both residents and the Norman Youth Soccer Association with plans to attract major regional and national youth soccer tournaments to the park.

The Artwork
Sitting at the entrance to Griffin Park are the iconic Silos. The City of Norman seeks an artist to create a mural on the Silos. The mural can cover all of the Silos or a portion. There are seven silos, six exteriors at 60' in height with one interior that adds 20'. This would be a total of 246 LF @ 60’ HT = 14,760 square feet of surface for the six exterior silos. With the addition of the interior (62 LF @ 20’ HT = 1,240 square feet of surface) the total square feet is approximately 16,000.
The tops of the silos can also be painted if the artist desires for an additional 2,150 square feet. 

This location has been selected because of the potential for the artwork to be very visible and accessible to the largest number of visitors to the park.
The renovated park contains 22 soccer fields and will be completed in 5 phases. The Norman Youth Soccer Association (NYSA) leases the fields from the City and all of the fields, including WindRose, a sculpture created by Project One Studio, are gated and locked at night. The local use of the fields reaches over 3,000 children during spring and fall leagues with thousands of family members attending games each season. NYSA and the City of Norman hope the new fields will also allow the community to host 2 to 3 large, national tournaments that would include over 200 teams of both adult and youth players bringing 7,000 to 8,000 visitors to the park each tournament and to increase the park’s attraction to even more tournaments in the future.

Application Requirements

All applications must be submitted via CaFÉ
Submissions for this project must contain the following materials:
• A design of the proposed mural
• A one page maximum typed letter of interest outlining your qualifications for and interest in the project, as well as the general idea for your approach. Please consider the following questions when developing your letter of interest:
o Why do you want to work on this project?
o How would you approach this project?
o Have you worked on similar projects? If not, what relevant experiences do you have?
o How does this project relate to your current work?
• Resume/CV
• Artist Bio/Statement
• Three references with whom you have worked on a public art project, including current telephone number and email address.
• 1 - 5 high-resolution images of previous work you feel would support your ability to carry out this project. Include all pertinent information on your Cafe slides: title, medium, size, date of completion, location, and project details (i.e. Budget commissioning agency, etc., if public art).

Eligibility Criteria

Open to professional artists with experience working on murals of this scale.
Artists identifying with an ethnic, cultural, sexual, gender, economic, or ability minority are encouraged to apply.