1. Introduction

The Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville, Art in Public Places and the City of Jacksonville, Florida are pleased to announce a Call to Artists for a Request for Qualifications for Cuba Hunter Park Neighborhood Public Art Project. The RFQ (Request for Qualifications) solicits artists who can address neighborhood park aesthetics with iconic and potentially interactive public art that serves to engage the culturally rich and diverse groups that reside in the nearby neighborhoods and utilize the park’s community center and amenities including but not limited to enhancing the street entrance to the park for approaching visitors, Community Center and Gymnasium facilities, and walking paths connecting the Wetland Nature Trail, the Green, Playground, and Skate Park. Artists are encouraged to explore ways to address public health and social engagement through wayfinding elements and public art with renewable materials and innovative design with kinetic, light, and sound technologies.  

Individual artists or artist teams may apply to address one or more prospective park sites while keeping wayfinding elements at the forefront of design for multiple sites in order to lead users through the overall space.  For the site categories of environmental 3-D sculpture, preference will be given to artwork that incorporates lighting or luminescent elements and/or media arts, sound art, or other digital interactive art for creative placemaking.  Jacksonville is interested in showcasing eco-friendly, forward thinking aesthetic designs that find solutions to environmental concerns, such as incorporating solar-powered lighting.

The artwork budget is currently $40,866.  An artist or artist team who addresses the neighborhood project with a comprehensive environmental impact scheme for one or more prospective sites would receive $40,866 for design, fabrication and installation. This is a national call and regional and local artists are encouraged to apply by submitting images of prior work, letter of interest, biography, artist statement and  resume with references.  Open through Café only until February 9, 2019, 11:59 MST.

2. Overview and Description

The Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville and its Art in Public Places is administering the Cuba Hunter Park Neighborhood Public Art Project installations on behalf of the City of Jacksonville. The City of Jacksonville’s capital improvement percent for art will fund iconic public artworks for the neighborhood. A nine member Art Selection Panel made up of community representatives, city department representatives and arts professionals selects the artists and the designs. Artists are not expected to produce proposals prior to selection and awarding. The Art in Public Places Committee will have final approval on designs, which will also be reviewed by an arts conservator for sustainability. Community involvement is integral to these projects and area stakeholders are encouraged to participate in public meetings with the artists. Artists should be prepared to meet and interact with local schools as part of the public meeting process.

3. Eligibility

This opportunity is open to participation by experienced local, regional and national artists or artist teams. Local artists are encouraged to apply. Artists or artist teams making application shall be of appropriate status and generally be recognized by recognized art professionals, as artists of serious intent and recognized ability, and shall not be a member of the project architectural, engineering, or design team or of the Art in Public Places Committee, Art Selection Panel or the Cultural Council Board or their respective staffs.

4. Neighborhood

The area encompassing this neighborhood public art project consists of single and multiple family residences, schools, churches, social service facilities, healthcare facilities (such as Brooks Rehabilitation, Memorial Hospital, and UF Health) and businesses. This public art will be the first installation in the neighborhood park.

5. Prospective Sites are as follows (see Site Plan for details, maps and photos):

Artist Qualifications Submissions under this RFQ are being solicited for one or more of the following prospective sites:

1. Park Entrance from Emerson Street
2. Community Center/ Gymnasium Entrances
3. Roundabout
4. Wetland Nature Trail
5. Green/ Gazebo Area
6. Pedestrian Pathways

An artist or artist team who wishes to create public art for all sites should consider a consolidated approach to the overall neighborhood project. Note that in any case, artists or artist teams selected will also be expected to create an engaging sense of place for the neighborhood.

• Artist or artist team must demonstrate artistic and technical excellence for each of the sites.
• Brief accompanying narrative in Descriptive Letter must address the reason for combining suggested project sites.

6.  Cuba Hunter Park Neighborhood Project Process

Selection    

Artist finalist selection will be based solely upon the criteria outlined in this Call for Artist Qualifications Submissions and will be initially judged by the representation of samples of artworks represented in the submitted images that encompass each category. Nine panelists will perform initial blind jurying based on viewing the images without having access to other information about the artists. Further jurying will be based on the individual artist’s proven experience with similar projects or design work as listed in the resume, bio, the artist’s letter and references. If an individual artist or artist team applies to address more than one of the prospective park sites, it must be represented that the individual or that among the team, the ability to accomplish the work is demonstrated.

Site Visit and Public Interaction

Following commission and the execution of the Artist Agreement, the final selected artist or artist team will be invited to Jacksonville for required site visits, design team meetings including other possible interaction with schools and public meeting in Jacksonville before creating design proposals. The cost for visits to Jacksonville are to be paid by the artist from commission price. Following the visit, the artist or artist team will create design proposals and submit to the contract administrator along with specifications and maintenance requirements.

Conservator Review with Artists

A conservator team, hired by Art in Public Places, will initially review the design proposals and confer with artists and APP staff.  The artist or artist team must be available to confer with the conservators and APP staff about the design proposals, respond and make modifications as necessary, before final approval.

Notice to Proceed to Fabrication and Installation

Following the conservator, City department and staff reviews, the Art Selection Panel will then review design proposals and make recommendations to the APP Committee for final approval. Following APP Committee approval, the artists will be issued an acceptance signifying the approval to proceed to Fabrication and Installation Phase. Artists are expected to be present for the delivery and installation of the artworks and according to a negotiated installation schedule.

7. Artist Budget

The Artist budget listed is a lump sum amount, made in five payments at certain milestones. The stated budgets are intended to cover costs for:

• Design, materials, detailing, fabrication, delivery, installation and anchorage of the artwork.
• Necessary integrated lighting elements, power sources, projection equipment, illumination methods or other technical components to create desired effect at night
• Electrical designs and engineering certification of method of attachment to substrate and related structural drawings to be reviewed by City of Jacksonville.
• Reasonable surface preparation specific to the particular artwork.
• Vehicular and pedestrian traffic mitigation and/or leased or metered parking spaces
• Any vendors, helpers or subcontractors hired by the artist
• The artist’s  warranties against defect of design, fabrication, installation and materials for one year after final acceptance by APP and City.
• Travel and accommodation expenses in connection with attending collaboration/coordination meeting(s) and associated public meeting(s) as well as installation of artwork in Jacksonville, Florida.

Artist’s application should address budget parameters in the letter of description.

8. General Artwork Criteria

The designs for public art will reflect artwork designed:

1. To be original and considered of high artistic quality, creative, innovative and display superior technical competence.
2. To be durable and with minimum maintenance required.
3. Of its location, place and surroundings: physically, functionally, historically, culturally and informed by community stakeholder and coordination sessions.
4. To reflect the overall identity of the City.
5. To be structurally secured to the substrate (as applicable) with tamper resistant fastenings.
6. To be capable of withstanding adverse weather conditions including high winds, high temperatures, humidity, heavy rain, storms, hurricanes, etc. if exterior.
7. To interface appropriately with and also withstand a high traffic, public environment.
8. With consideration of the safety of the public and without toxic materials.
9. To be compatible with pedestrian and vehicular traffic, public transit, parking amenities, existing structures and public or governmental use as applicable.
10. Without images which contain advertising, obscenity, profanity or content not accepted as appropriate to a public environment or by local community standards.
11. To develop and create an awareness of the unique aspects of the place’s built and natural environments and fulfill the civic responsibility of CCGJ and the City and promote aesthetics, artistic interest, curiosity, comfort and community pride.
12. To achieve any specific functionality expected and to comply with ADA requirements for access, if applicable, or any City requirements particular to the site.
13. To be visible to the public by day and by night.
14. To contribute positively to way-finding environment within the City.
15. To not include as public art items that are mass-produced or of standard design.
16. To serve the function for which it is intended.

9. Artist Agreement Items

The Artist or Artist Team selected for each of the two project categories or combination of categories will be required to execute an Artist Agreement with CCGJ for provision of the Artwork. Please find Sample Artist Agreement here, along with RFQ and Site Plan:

http://www.culturalcouncil.org/CubaHunterNeighborhoodProject.html

 Among other items, the following selective items will be included in that agreement:

• Insurance

Selected Artist and Artist’s subcontractors (if any) shall maintain the following insurance requirements that depend on the details of the project in the amounts and coverages required by COJ Risk Management and as outlined in Artist Agreement:

• Worker’s Compensation/Employer's’ Liability (if applicable):
• Commercial General Liability
• Automobile Liability (if applicable)
• Umbrella Liability (if applicable)

Artist, at his/her option, is responsible for any desired insurance against damage to or loss of artwork during fabrication, delivery or installation.

10. Proposed Project Schedule:

• January 10, 2019 Pre-submission Question-Answer Session at MOCA Learning Lounge, 333 N. Laura St., Jacksonville, FL 32202 at Every Single Artist Lounge 6:00pm
• February 9, 2019—Qualifications submissions for all categories due through Cafe by 11:59pm MST
• March 1, 2019—Notification of selection of artists/artist teams applying
• Late March/ Early April 2019 (Date TBD)—Artists’ site visits in Jacksonville, FL, public meetings, research, discovery and coordination/collaboration
• June 17, 2019—Design proposals due on-line
• August - December 2019—Fabrication, Installation, Dedication and Cataloging

11. Submissions-please read carefully. Do not submit a design proposal.

• All applications must be through the CAFÉ system only (callforentry.org)
• Submissions must include the following six items:

1. Application
2. Resume with Email/Phone Contacts for References
3. Brief Biography
4. Brief Artist's Statement 
5. Letter of Description of Artist’s or Artist Team’s vision for the respective project category or categories, budget parameters, and approach to collaboration with the community. This letter is not to be a design proposal. (One page narrative maximum.)
   Acceptable File Types for Documents:
   • Word document, Excel Spreadsheet, AND PDF files
6. Images of artist’s prior completed artwork with the following information: date of completion, value, dimensions and location. Please select images that best show your ability to address the category/categories for which you are applying. (4 images minimum, 8 images maximum and 2 video maximum).
   Acceptable Media File Types for Images:
   • File format: JPEG or JPG only
   • File dimensions: 1200 pixels or greater on the longest dimension
   • File size: under 5 MB
   • The maximum pixel dimension is 1920 pixels

• Acceptable Audio files: AIFF, WAV, XMF, MP3, under 10 MB with a minimum bit rate of 96
• Acceptable Video files: 3GP, WMV, AVI, MOV, ASF, MPG, MP4, M2T, MKV, M2TS, under 100MB with a minimum resolution of 640x480; minum 12 fps.

• Artist Teams:

1. Choose a name for your team and apply as that name through Café.
2. A team is relegated to providing no more than 8 images per category. Be sure to identify which images belong to which team member,  if separate, along with the designations of dimension, location, value and date.
3. Provide bios, resumes and reference information for each team member as one document under one Team Name unless there is a documented history of the Artist Team working under the Team Name.
4. There is unlimited space for fabricator credentials if part of a team in Resume/References
5. The descriptive letter and artist statement should represent the whole team
6. The Art Selection Panel (ASP) will review images and qualifications for all applicants within the team
7. Insurance should cover all members of the team
8. Artist Team must indicate which team member will sign the artist agreement, submit a W-9 form and receive the payments in his/her name.

• If Artist is using a fabricator as a vendor, the fabricator may be named in the descriptive letter.
• Note that there will be a pre-submission information session held on January 10, 2019 at 6 pm at Museum of Contemporary Art, 333 N. Laura St. Jacksonville, Florida, 32202  to field questions about the RFQ. The questions and answers will be posted on the Cultural Council website. Please consult the website for updates:  www.culturalcouncil.org

*For images and map of site locations see Cuba Hunter Park Neighborhood Project Area Plan below

For Café technical support for artists contact:

888-562-7232; 303-629-1166 (MST)

or café@westaff.org.

For further information or questions, please contact Ashley Sedghi-Khoi at 904-358-3600 or ashley@culturalcouncil.org

Application Requirements

Eligibility Criteria