INTRODUCTION

The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) invites professional artists and artist teams with a demonstrated history of completing complex, permanent, large-scale, outdoor public art projects to submit their qualifications for a $500,000 exterior public art commission at the Joint Public Safety Training Campus (JPSTC), located at 4443 W. Chicago Avenue, in West Garfield Park.

PERCENT FOR ART & CAPITAL PLAN

This project is funded by the Percent for Art Ordinance and the City of Chicago’s Capital Plan. In 1978, Chicago’s City Council unanimously approved an ordinance that requires 1.33 percent of municipal construction or renovation costs to be allocated to the commissioning or purchase of on-site artworks. DCASE through the Public Art Program administers the Chicago Public Art Collection and implements the City’s Percent for Art Ordinance. The Collection provides the citizens of Chicago with an improved public environment and enhances city buildings and spaces with quality works of art by professional artists. The Chicago Public Art Collection includes more than 500 works of art exhibited in over 150 municipal facilities around the city, such as police stations, libraries, and CTA stations.

Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot announced a Five-Year Capital Plan to improve the quality of life for all Chicago residents by investing in infrastructure and City facilities in all 77 communities. The Five-Year Capital Plan promotes equity, public safety and year-to-year project continuity by funding improvements in every neighborhood. In conjunction with the Five-Year Capital Plan, the City will announce a Public Art and Infrastructure Program that will integrate public art into capital and infrastructure projects. Much like the transformative work of the W.P.A federal art programs, this project will employ artists and cultural workers and contribute to the economic vitality of neighborhoods.

SUMMARY OF THE OPPORTUNITY

The City is building a new Joint Public Safety Training Campus to provide comprehensive, joint, best-practice training for the Chicago Fire Department (CFD), the Chicago Police Department (CPD), and the Office of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC). The campus will expand the City’s ability to prepare for new and emerging threats through joint-training exercises and address inadequacies of the City’s existing training facilities.

Important goals of the project include fostering stronger relationships among the community, businesses, and public safety personnel, both locally and city-wide. The campus is a significant investment and meant to catalyze economic development on the West side. The JPSTC will be a modern training campus that will encompass multiple enhancements and operational training improvements including: community spaces, computer labs, classrooms, indoor and outdoor scenario training, indoor shooting range, vehicle training and burn props.

The locations for this public art commission are the public entry plaza (75’x50’) on the east end and a concrete abutment with small plaza (65’x13’ tapering to 6') at the west end of Building One, the main academy building on Chicago Avenue. The east end plaza entry artwork must be a freestanding object that creates a sense of invitation and welcome while also being a visible new landmark in the neighborhood. The main west end artwork should be wall-mounted and may also have a sculptural component placed on the small plaza. Even though the two sites are not visibly contiguous they should function as a related suite, complementing each other and contributing to a comprehensive sense of place for the JPSTC.

Successful public art proposals will approach the artwork’s setting with a bold and creative vision that is sensitive to the surrounding neighborhood, its diverse residents and to the mission of the JPSTC. Designs will be informed by a robust community engagement process that interacts with project area neighborhood residents, interested members of the public from across the city, and public safety personnel who will use the facility. Designs should include elements of an appropriate size, scale and orientation to engage viewing from multiple potential vantage points, including pedestrian and vehicular traffic. The artwork must be engineered to withstand the demands of its environment and require minimal to no annual maintenance; only durable and resilient media will be considered.

Community members are encouraged to share this opportunity with artists they hope will apply.

Site

The JPSTC site is located within the Chicago city limits at 4443 West Chicago Avenue, in an industrial and commercial area in the West Garfield Park neighborhood.

The site is 32 acres of land formerly used as a railroad yard, from around 1900 until the late 1980s. The site is bounded by Chicago Ave on the north, Kilbourn Ave to the west, private industrial property to the south, and Kolin Ave to the east.

The JPSTC will be a modern training campus that will encompass multiple enhancements and operational training improvements including: Indoor scenario training, Indoor firing range, outdoor scenario training, classrooms, vehicle training, burn props, computer labs and community spaces.

The JPSTC construction project will have three phases:

• Phase 1                 Main academy building and site work
• Phase 1A              Community Center (Boys and Girls Club of Chicago) and two restaurants (Peach’s and Culver’s).
• Phase 2                 Outdoor scenario village

COMMUNITY

The communities surrounding this facility’s main project area are Austin, West Garfield Park, East Garfield Park, and Humboldt Park. The broader area of community engagement includes the Lawndale, North Lawndale, and Belmont/Cragin neighborhoods. The neighborhoods around the site consist mostly of low density single and multi-family residences. Based on the 2020 Census the area’s demographics are approximately 69% Black, 27.2% Hispanic or Latino, 1.8% White, and 0.4% Asian. The mean household income is $45,522.

Additional neighborhood conditions and demographic information can be found by visiting the INVEST South/West website and viewing the Existing Condition Maps for the adjacent neighborhoods.

https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/sites/invest_sw/home.html

SELECTION PROCESS

Following the RFQ application deadline, DCASE will convene a selection panel of community representatives, arts professionals, JPSTC staff, and elected officials to review the applications. The committee will select 3-4 finalists, who will be commissioned to develop public art proposals. Finalists will present their design proposals to the selection panel and a final artist or artist team will be selected.

SCHEDULE*

* All dates are approximate.

BUDGET

Finalists will be paid a $2,500 honorarium to develop proposals.  

The artwork commission will be $500,000, inclusive of all costs and fees for the artist to execute the project from design through structural engineering, fabrication, site preparation, and installation.   

ELIGIBILITY

This opportunity is open nationally to all professional artists and artist teams, though the project advisory panel may have a preference for locally-based artists and artist teams.

SELECTION CRITERIA

Applicants will be shortlisted based on a competitive review of the following:

·         Artistic excellence: demonstrated skill and quality craftsmanship in examples of past work; strength and originality of concept conveyed in the letter of interest.

·         Meaningful relationship of the artwork with the mission of the JPSTC and the community.

HOW TO APPLY

Application is available via CaFÉ (www.callforentry.org)

Interested applicants should register with CaFÉ in order to view the application. Deadline for submissions is 11/21/21, 11:59pm, CST. 

WHAT TO SUBMIT

Each artist or artist team must submit an entirely digital application. 

Incomplete applications will not be considered.

     Applications should include:

a)       A one- (1) page letter of interest stating why the specific site of the JPSTC is meaningful and appropriate for the applicant’s work, as well as potential approach and initial conceptual ideas.

b)      Six (6) to ten (10) total images of past large-scale public art and infrastructure projects by the artist or the artist team’s lead artist(s).

c)       Optional: one (1) video, edited to no more than two (2) minutes in length, may also be submitted but is not required.

d)      Annotated Image List: An annotated image list that includes the title, media, year completed, dimensions, location (if site-specific) project budget (if applicable) timeline, and client or commissioning entity for each corresponding image. 

- If a video is submitted, please include two (2) to three (3) sentences to describe its context.

- Please note, the annotated image list may include thumbnails of submitted images but does not replace the need to upload individual image files in fulfillment of a) above.

e)      If applying as an artist team, a list of key team members and their roles/affiliations.

f)        A one (1) to two (2) page resume or curriculum vitae (CV).

- If applying as an artist team, provide one (1) resume or CV for each member in one (1) pdf

QUESTIONS

An artist information session will be held on November 3, 6 PM (CST) via ZOOM.

ZOOM Meeting ID: 827 7255 8258

Passcode: 69614

No phone calls.

Email: Nathan Mason, Curator of Collections and Public Art

publicart@cityofchicago.org

Application Requirements

See HOW TO APPLY.

Eligibility Criteria

See APPLICANT ELIGIBILITY.