Houston Arts Alliance Seeks Artists for Public Art Roster

Houston Arts Alliance (HAA) is Houston’s designated, local arts and culture agency. Through its Civic Art + Design department, HAA manages the process of commissioning, acquiring, and conserving artworks for the City of Houston Art Collection. HAA accomplishes this by entering into contracts with City departments and with affiliated local government corporations, including Houston Airport System and Houston First Corporation. Civic art projects thus constitute a collaboration between HAA and City of Houston departments and corporate entities.

In anticipation of future commissions and opportunities, HAA invites artists and artist teams to submit qualifications for potential inclusion in the 2018 HAA Artist Roster. The roster will be one tool for rapid response artist selection for a range of permanent and temporary public art projects associated with the construction of new civic buildings, parks, and other areas within the City of Houston.

HAA seeks to include visual artists working in a wide variety of media and artistic approaches. Certain projects may also offer opportunities for an artist to work as part of a design team along with the project architect/designer.

Deadline:  October 18, 2017  11:59 p.m. CST

Eligibility: International

Artwork Goals
The purpose of the HAA Artist Roster is to provide a streamlined application and selection process for quick turnaround public art project commissions. The process requires one application from interested artists. A panel of public art professionals will convene to consider all eligible applications for selections. Artists will be invited to apply annually.

The selection panel will recommend artists to the HAA Civic Art Committee and Board of Directors, who formally approve the artists selected for the roster. HAA is then able to utilize the pool, in whole, or in part, for artwork opportunities. Selection from the Roster is not an exclusive way for artists to be considered for artwork commission. Additional open calls will be posted for individual projects. Selection panels will be convened for each individual project to review the qualified candidates and make short list recommendations.

The list of artists in the Roster and their websites will also be made publicly available for consideration by private developers or independent public art commissioning entities.

Artwork Location Description
All artworks will be executed in Houston, Texas.

Eligibility

• As a global city, this opportunity is open to professional visual artists or artist-led teams from the U.S. and abroad.  For the purposes of this open call, “professional artist” is defined as “a practitioner in the visual arts with an original, self-conceptualized body of work, generally recognized by critics and peers as a professional possessing serious intent and ability.”
• Houston-area artists, artist-led teams and team members are strongly encouraged to apply. Our goal is for more than half of the selected artists represent the Greater Houston area.
• Artists who apply as part of a team may not apply as individual artists.
• Applications not meeting all eligibility criteria will be withdrawn from consideration.

Application Requirements

• Resume: 3 page(s) maximum
• Work examples: 1 - 10
• Artist Statement: 500 word maximum
• Letter of Interest
• References: 3

Artists are allowed to apply in teams.
Artists applying as a team must split the allotted number of work examples between themselves.

Selection Process
HAA will convene a selection panel to evaluate artist qualifications. The selection panel will consist of arts professionals from the region.

Applicants will first be screened for the following minimum qualification criteria:

• Complete application;
• Application submission represents the artist’s own original creative work;
• Application submission reflects basic professional quality of craftsmanship, mastery of skills/techniques, professional approaches to processes and presentation, and/or communication of a unique vision or perspective; and
• The artist’s resume reflects evidence of professional competence. Qualifying activities would include some combination of the following: education and training as an artist; an exhibition record in museums, commercial art galleries and/or nonprofit art spaces; previous public or private commissions; and/or participation in artist-in-residency programs (as well as other related activities indicative of a professional practice).

The panel will then use the following criteria to score all remaining eligible portfolios:

• Artistic excellence;
• Appropriate imagery or style for public spaces. A broad range of imagery and styles appropriate for a public place may be considered (figurative, representational, abstract or non-objective). Examples of non-appropriate imagery include artwork with religious and sexually explicit content;
• Professional experience; and
• Suitability for the City of Houston Art Collection.

Artists that score within a competitive range will be included in the 2018 HAA Artist Roster.

PLEASE NOTE: Inclusion in the roster does not guarantee a commission.

Selection Criteria

• Artistic quality: Artists or artist-led teams exhibit excellence, innovation, technical experience and originality as demonstrated by examples of past work.
• Responsiveness: Availability to meet with the design team during the final design phase; willingness to sign contract with HAA upon selection (a contract template is available for review by request); ability to respond effectively to the goals and parameters of particular projects.
• Demonstrated technical abilities: Ability to successfully execute innovative public art projects in a complex design environment; capability to accomplish the technical aspects of the project.
• Project management ability: Demonstrated ability to successfully execute a public art project on time and within budget; ability to successfully collaborate with architects, contractors, potential vendors and manufacturers.

Qualified applicants will have demonstrated experience working with five figure budgets; materials suitable for public indoor or outdoor settings; site-specific design; and collaboration with other artists, design professionals or community members. Certain projects may also offer opportunities for an artist to work as part of a design team along with the project architect/designer.

Timeline

• Monday, October 16, 2017: Deadline for questions
• Wednesday, October 18, 2017: RFQ submission deadline
• By Monday, December 4, 2017: RFQ selection panel
• By Friday, December 22, 2017: Selected artists are presented for a vote to the HAA Civic Art Committee
• By Monday, January 8, 2018: Selected artists are presented for a vote to the HAA Board of Directors
• Mid-January 2018: Finalists are notified in writing by HAA
• January 2018 – December 2018: Artists in the 2018 HAA Artist Roster are considered for fast track civic art commissions and are invited to submit proposals for specific projects
• August 2018: Application cycle for the 2019 Houston Prequalified Artist Pool opens

Applicants to the 2018 HAA Artist Roster are expected to be notified of their status by mid to late January 2018.

PLEASE NOTE: This schedule is subject to change at any time.

Additional Resources
http://houstonartsalliance.com/publicart/opportunities/

Contact Information
civicart@haatx.com

Submission Instructions
Website Address
www.houstonartsalliance.submittable.com/submit

Website Submission Instructions
To submit an application, visit houstonartsalliance.submittable.com/submit. All documents submitted as part of the application should be in at least 12 point font, single spaced, with at least a ½ inch margin.

QUESTIONS? Email Sara Kellner, Director of Civic Art + Design, at civicart@haatx.com.

Artists interested in other HAA public art commissions and opportunities are encouraged to visit both http://houstonartsalliance.com/publicart/opportunities/ and Artshound.com. New calls will be posted there as they arise. All information contained herein does not constitute either an expressed or implied contract. These provisions are subject to change.