Qualifications are requested from artists and/or artist teams interested in creating a site-specific exterior public artwork or series of artworks for Front Range Community College’s Health Care Careers Center in Fort Collins, Colorado. The total budget for this opportunity is $158,400 and the deadline for submission is May 20, 2019.
 

ABOUT FRONT RANGE COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Front Range Community College (FRCC) is the largest community college in Colorado—with three campuses and other facilities in communities along the Front Range. FRCC focuses on the success of more than 27,000 students annually in credit classes and more than 5,000 people in business training and continuing education. The college offers more than 100 degree and certificate programs from locations in Boulder County, Larimer County, Westminster, Brighton, and online.

 FRCC is the No. 1 transfer institution for the University of Colorado-Boulder and Colorado State University, and a major transfer school for other Colorado colleges and universities. Studies from the four-year institutions show FRCC students do as well as—or better than—students who started there. FRCC’s commitment to career/technical education is reflected in the college’s more than 20 Associate of Applied Science or certificate programs that have state, regional, and/or national accreditation. Through these programs, they train students for immediate employment and careers in more than 35 high-demand fields.
 

 PROJECT DESCRIPTION – ABOUT THE HEALTH CARE CAREERS CENTER
The Health Care Careers Center (HCCC) will be a two-story 61,000 square foot facility constructed at the intersection of Harmony Road and Shields Street on the Northwest corner of FRCC’s Larimer Campus in Fort Collins, Colorado. The building will open in summer 2020. The HCCC will include a multi-story lobby, welcoming students and community members alike as they enter the facility. Small group meeting and study spaces will be scattered throughout, encouraging collegiality and collaboration. The lobby will include a grand staircase, and lobby finishes will include a mix of tile, durable carpet and an abundance of student touchdown seating. The outdoor entry plaza will serve as a gateway to the building—and to learning—for students and community members, contributing to FRCC’s goal that all individuals feel valued and welcome. FRCC’s pollinator garden, which provides bumblebees, wild solitary bees, and honeybees with nectar and pollen from carefully selected native shrubs, will be enhanced, and there will be plenty of outdoor seating.

 The building will be a hub for FRCC’s various health care programs, including nursing, Emergency Medical Services (EMS), dental and medical assistanting, phlebotomy, and other medical careers. The HCCC will allow the opportunity to bring these programs together from other buildings/campuses, and will provide the resources and facilities for these students to learn about and obtain practical experiences in a variety of fields. The nursing wing of the HCCC will include two nursing skills labs, a high-fidelity simulation lab, and a 48-seat student classroom, with two more 48-seat classrooms on the first floor. The wing is designed to meet the growing need of simulation in nursing education. Located centrally on the first and second floors, the simulation labs will be equipped with high- and mid-fidelity mannequins for use by nursing, EMS, and other health career students, allowing much needed interdisciplinary collaboration. This new facility also provides debrief rooms for post-simulation reflection, and practice rooms available for individual or small group student skills practice.

  The Integrated Health Skills Suite will be a teaching space and public clinic and will include contemporary stations to teach and practice massage, reflexology and various energy medicine modalities, along with space for trainings in yoga, wellness coaching, holistic nutrition, herbalism, and aromatherapy. This state-of-the-art skills suite will support learning for students pursing diverse practices in the progressive fields of Integrative Health and Medicine. The HCCC will also include a Nurse Aide and Medical Careers Exploration Lab, Home Health Lab Suite, Medical Assisting and Phlebotomy Skills Lab. These lab spaces will house equipment found in real health care settings, so students can master skills prior to caring for residents in their clinical rotations and future careers. The building’s facilities will expand integrative health programming to promote and sustain overall health and wellness through nutrition support services and wellness education to positively impact physical, social, and emotional health.  Integrated wellness is a key focus of all the health care programs.
 

 BUDGET: $158,400
All costs associated with the public art project including, but not limited to, artist design fee, structural engineering, insurance, materials, fabrication, transportation, installation, building or site modifications, travel to and from the site, per diem expenses, project documentation, contingency to cover unexpected expenses and any other costs related to the project are covered by this budget. Selected semi-finalists will be invited to propose artwork for the location listed below. Out-of-state semi-finalist artists will receive $1,500 and in-state semi-finalists will receive $1,000 as an honorarium for the creation of a design proposal. 
 

 OPPORTUNITIES FOR PUBLIC ART
The Art Selection Committee is looking to commission an artwork for the exterior of the new Health Care Careers Center building. The committee is interested in an artwork that can activate the exterior of the building in an engaging fashion. One possible site that the committee has pinpointed is in the plaza area, just southeast of the main building entrance. This entrance will be the main connection to the rest of campus and the parking lot, and will be the main approach to the building. Another possible exterior site is located on the north side of the building, along Harmony Road. This site would create a visual experience largely for car traffic, with the goal to create interest in the otherwise closed-in side of the building that faces that street. There is also an opportunity for an artwork to be located in or near the pollinator garden, which will be just east of the HCCC building.

 The committee is highly interested in seeing proposals in which multiple artworks in a series utilize the various exterior selected sites. The artwork(s) should be freestanding, as they cannot attach to the building. The campus in general has a focus on the outdoors. All of the other buildings on campus are named after classic 14,000-foot high Colorado mountains –“14ers” – and the building will focus on health and wellness. The committee would like an artwork(s) that considers the campus’ and the building’s priorities holistically.

 The Selection Committee will consider the following:

·Artistic excellence

·Technical competence

·Conceptual compatibility

·Scale, material, form and content

·Appropriate relationship to the function of the site and the campus as a whole

·Resistance to general wear, vandalism, or theft

·Ease of maintenance, minimal and low cost maintenance, including the ability of work to withstand the intense sun and snow, wind and temperature extremes and fluctuations characteristic of Colorado’s climate.

 Artists from Colorado and the Rocky Mountain region are encouraged to apply.

A PDF of the full Request for Qualifications is available here.
 

APPLICATION PROCESS
All applications for this project are being accepted through the online platform, CaFÉ™ (www.callforentry.org ). No hard copy or emailed submissions will be accepted. The applicant will be asked to submit digital images of art (see below for more information), a resume, and a brief statement of interest. There is no application fee to apply or to use the CaFÉ™ online application system. Assistance in using the CaFÉ™ system is available during regular business hours by calling 303-629-1166, 1-888-562-7232 or email cafe@westaf.org.

 Digital Images. In order to be considered for this project, the applicant must electronically submit, via the CaFÉ™ system, no less than six (6) and no more than eight (8) digital images of previously completed artworks. Instructions on how to use CaFÉ™ and format images can be found at www.callforentry.org/image_prep.phtml.

 Resume: Submit a current résumé, via CaFÉ™, that outlines professional accomplishments as an artist. If applying as a team, please submit a resume for each artist, with the lead artist’s resume first.

 Statement of Interest: A statement of interest of 250 words or less must be submitted via CaFÉ™. It should briefly outline the interest in the specific opportunity and applicable experience.
 

 COLORADO ART IN PUBLIC PLACES PROGRAM
In 1977, the Colorado General Assembly passed the Art in Public Places Act requiring that 1% of the construction costs of new or renovated state-owned buildings be used to acquire works of art for permanent installation at the project site. Colorado Creative Industries is responsible for implementation of the law. All works of art commissioned pursuant to this request are owned by the State of Colorado via Colorado State University. De-accession of the public art, if necessary, will follow the policies and procedures established by Colorado Creative Industries.

 SELECTION PROCESS AND SCHEDULE
The Art Selection Committee will review all complete submittals. A short list of semifinalists will be invited to prepare and present a final proposal in person and be paid an honorarium of $1,000 for in-state artists and $1,500 for out of state artists. Final selection(s) will be made from the semifinalists’ proposals. The schedule is as follows:

 Monday, May 20, 11:59 pm MST - Deadline for receipt of submittal via CaFÉ™ system

June/July 2019 – Selection committee meets to select Semi-Finalists

July 2019 - Notification of Semi-Finalist selection

August/September 2019 – Artist presentations to the Art Selection Committee at FRCC

September 2019 – Artist selected

Summer 2020 - Building scheduled for completion and artwork installation will be arranged in correlation with FRCC
 

 QUESTIONS
If you require more information or clarification, please contact Ruth Bruno, Public Art Program Manager, at 303-892-3813 or ruth.bruno@state.co.us.
 

 ADDITIONAL SOURCES OF INFORMATION
https://www.frontrange.edu/campuses/campus-locations/larimer-campus
https://www.coloradoan.com/story/money/2018/09/18/front-range-community-college-fort-collins-plans-new-building-health-care-students/1335068002/https://www.frontrange.edu/programs-and-courses/academic-programs/cacs/health-sciences-wellness

Application Requirements

Eligibility Criteria