Public Art for Orr Elementary School, Washington, D.C.

The Department of General Services ("Department" or "DGS") is issuing this Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to engage individual artists and artistic teams (Artist) to respond to this Call to Artists with professional qualifications in addition to a proposal of site-specific artistic capital improvements for the renovation and additions to Orr Elementary School, located 2200 Minnesota Avenue, S.E., Washington, D.C. 20020 in Ward 8.

Budget:  $230,000 total (9 locations)

Deadline:  12/31/2017 5:00 PM Central Time

Eligibility:  Professional artists with a minimum of five years of site-specific and/or public art experience. Some categories are restricted to artists from Washington, D.C. or represented by a D.C. gallery. Artists are allowed to apply in teams. Artists applying as a team must split the allotted number of work examples between themselves. Artists should have demonstrated experience working with community representatives, youth, businesses, and government entities. It is also important that if the artist(s) selected for the project actively engage and collaborate with local residents.

Budget Description
1)  Southwest Corner of Site - Sculpture - $50,000.00
2)  Northwest Corner of Site Sculpture - $50,000.00
3)  Basketball Court - 2 dimensional - $15,000.00
4)  DC Artist Only - 1st Floor Student Commons - 2 Dimensional - $15,000.00
5, 8, 11) 1st, 2nd & 3rd Floor Corridor - $30,000.00 total
6)  DC Artist Only - Dining Room - 2 Dimensional - $15,000.00 (2D design to be transferred onto vinyl and applied to gIass curtain wall)
7)  DC Artist Only - 2nd Floor Student Commons - 2 Dimensional - $20,000.00
9)  DC Artist Only - Welcome Center - 2 Dimensional - $15,000.00
10)  DC Artist Only - 3rd Floor Student Commons - 2 Dimensional - $20,000.00

Total Commissions: $230,000.00.  Please be very specific (referring to Artist number) as which piece(s) of art you are responding to.  The Artists shall develop new, original, permanent works of art made specifically for the site.

Application Requirements

• Resume: 4 page(s) maximum
• Work examples: 1 - 10
• Letter of Interest
• One Page Letter of Intent (which can be your cover email) stating your interest in and qualifications for the project. Describe in detail the approach to engage the community. Within the letter, outline your past experiences working with communities.

Additional Requirements
Application Form A: PDF Form available from https://www.publicartist.org/artist/call.cfm?id=1699

Selection Process
The selection committee, representing diverse interests and expertise, will review images submitted by artists and recommend (3) three to (5) five Finalists for each project. Each Finalist will be awarded a $500 honorarium to create a site-specific design proposal that would include a scale model or rendering, an itemized budget, a project timeline, and a project narrative. An additional $500 is allocated for artists who've been-selected as finalists and reside outside of Maryland, DC, or Virginia for travel to present models. The selection committee will review the designs, references will be checked and then (1) one finalist/team for the project will be recommended.

Timeline

• Call/RFQ Released: By 11/17/2017
• Question submission deadline: By 12/1/2017
• Responses to questions issued: By 12/8/2017
• Submission Deadline for RFQ: By 12/31/2017
• First Round Panel Review & Announcement: By 1/12/2018
• Semi-finalists Notified and Announced: By 1/19/2018
• Site Visit Tour with Semi-Finalists: 1/25/2018 11 am
  Note - artists from outside of the DC area are not expected to attend due to the modest travel stipend meant primarily for the panel presentation of your proposal- but we will email you photographs and a list of questions and answers during the site visit.
• Site-Specific Proposals Due: By 2/16/2018
• Proposal Presentation: 2/22/2018 9am
• Reference Checks: By 3/2/2018
• Finalist Announced: By 3/9/2018
• Contract Executed: By 3/31/2018
• Final Design & Fabrication (3 months): Between 4/2018 and 7/2018
• Installation Complete deadline: By 7/30/2018

Additional Resources
FULL RFQ (PDF)

Contact Information for Questions
SANDY.BELLAMY@DC.GOV

Submission Instructions
Submit required materials via email to SANDY.BELLAMY@DC.GOV  You can use Google file sharing or Dropbox for large files.