Project Title

Kroger Art Program: Brownsburg, IN

Deadline for Applications

Friday, May 14, 2021, 5:00 p.m. This is NOT a postmark deadline. No exceptions.

Eligibility Requirements

To be eligible to apply for this opportunity, artists must:

●      Live in central Indiana (Boone, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Johnson, Marion, Morgan, or Shelby counties; all else being equal, preference will be given to professional artists living in Hendricks County, as they are local to the Brownsburg project site)

●      Be age 18 or over

●      Be willing to meet all contractual obligations and adhere to a strict budget and timeline

Project Budget

The project carries a commission fee of $10,000. This fee is intended to cover all of the artist’s personal compensation and anticipated expenses for the following items: artist design fee, artist labor, artwork materials, delivery of completed artwork to the project site, and attendance at the store opening event. The artist will not be responsible for installing the artwork, but may opt to supervise installation by construction personnel (no additional compensation will be provided for this activity). Finalist artists will be paid a flat $400 fee to develop a conceptual proposal for the site.

Description of Opportunity

The Arts Council of Indianapolis is pleased to partner with Kroger Co. to offer a site-specific mural artwork opportunity for artists living in the greater Indianapolis area. The Arts Council will act as the project manager to facilitate the artist selection process, supervise the design and execution of the work, and coordinate installation requirements between the artist and the Kroger construction team. The Arts Council will also ensure that the artwork is delivered on time and installed according to the artist’s instructions.

The Kroger family of stores is honored to use the talents of local artists to create an uplifting experience in their stores. The company aspires to create a safe store environment that conveys a sense of connectedness to the communities within which they operate. The objective of the commissioned art program is to create a space that encourages community gathering and celebrates the spirit of the neighborhood. As a company, Kroger values honesty, diversity, inclusion, integrity, respect and safety. These values are expressed by the artwork commissioned for each store.

The Arts Council of Indianapolis is seeking qualified artists to execute a mural in a new Kroger store, opening in December 2021 at the following location:

●      Store #215, 975 N. Green St., Brownsburg, Indiana

The artwork design will incorporate references to the locality’s history or culture, will engage and inspire the community, will use durable materials that require minimal maintenance, and will be resistant to vandalism or other damage. Any medium, material, or artistic technique that can be mounted to a wall, and extends 4 inches or less into the adjacent space, will be considered.

The site is interior and measures 8 ft. h. x 24 ft. w. (total 192 sq. ft.). It is located prominently within the store’s vestibule.

Artists will execute the artwork in their choice of media on an appropriate substrate (e.g., Dibond panel, canvas, wood panel, etc.) and will include an appropriate hanging system.  They will complete the project in their own working space and will deliver it to the site ready to be installed by the store’s construction team. The artist may choose to be present to advise during installation, but will not be compensated separately for his/her presence.

Kroger will provide a plaque identifying the artist, artist’s city or town of residence, title and medium of the artwork, and date executed along with brief information about the artist and the artwork. Kroger will also provide appropriate lighting for the artwork.  The artist is expected to attend the community celebration of the new store as part of their commission fee.

Additional information will be provided to artists selected as finalists for the site.

Resources

About the Kroger mural program: https://www.krogerstories.com/murals/

Past Arts Council collaborations with Kroger: https://indyarts.org/public-art/past-projects/item/collaboration-with-kroger-co

History of Brownsburg, Indiana: https://sites.google.com/site/pl100kinga/home/history-of-brownsburg

About Brownsburg: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownsburg,_Indiana

Images of Brownsburg: https://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p1819coll13

Selection Process

Artists interested in being considered for this project must provide their information to the Arts Council on or before 5:00 p.m. on May 14, 2021. * Representatives from Kroger, the Arts Council of Indianapolis, and the store’s host community will review artist materials and select up to three finalists to create an artwork proposal.  The proposals are reviewed by the same representatives and one proposal will be commissioned.

While this is the intended selection process, in the event of an insufficient number of qualified applicants the Arts Council of Indianapolis reserves the right to invite an artist to propose, or to directly select an artist or artwork; and also reserves the right to cancel the opportunity entirely at any point and for any reason.

*artists in the Arts Council’s prequalified muralist pool may email jmoore@indyarts.org prior to 5:00 p.m. May 14, 2021 and request that their materials on file be reviewed.  It is the artist’s responsibility to ensure that images and texts on file are current: to update materials, please email jmoore@indyarts.org .

Selection Criteria

Finalists will be selected based upon the following criteria:

Artistic quality: artist’s past work is appropriate to its context, innovative, creative, and stylistically distinctive

Aesthetic sensibility: artist’s past work displays an aesthetic that would be desirable for the store in question

Technical ability: artist’s past work and qualifications indicate professionalism and skill with materials and techniques

Project Timeline

This timeline represents the project as it now appears.  Changes may be necessary as the project progresses.

●      Release Request for Qualifications: Wednesday, April 7, 2021

●      Deadline for artists’ materials: Friday, May 14, 2021 by 5:00 p.m.

●      Notification of status: early June, 2021

●      Finalist proposals due: by July 15, 2021

●      Notification of selected project: by August 1, 2021

●      Commissioning, final design and fabrication: August-November, 2021

●      Delivery for installation: on or before November 17, 2021

●      Store opening celebration: December, 2021, date TBD

How to Apply

Artists must provide the following information digitally using this application form.* The Arts Council will not accept hard copy submissions. If you find you cannot use the form, please call Julia Moore at (317) 624-2556 to discuss alternative methods to provide your application.

1.     Applicant Information: Complete all of the fields noted as “required” on the application form. Some fields are optional, but completing them now is appreciated as it will save time later.

2.     Website URL: If you have a website for your artwork and it includes all the information requested in #3-5 below, you may provide the URL (website address) and you are done! We will look at the information. If you have a social media account (Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, etc.) dedicated to your artwork you can provide that address instead of a website, but please ensure that ONLY information related to your artwork is represented and that the privacy settings are set to “public”.

3.     Artist Narrative Biography, Professional Resume, or CV: You may type or copy/paste this information from another document into the application form, or you may attach a separate document. An attached document should be 3 typed pages or less and be in .doc, .docx or .pdf format.

4.    Examples of previous artwork: Provide 3-10 digital images (JPG, JPEG, PNG, BMP, TIF, PSD, PDF formats accepted) of your previous completed work. When selecting images, try to include images of projects that are of similar size or scale and similar price/budget to this commission opportunity, and in the visual style that you would use for this commission if you are selected. You may include any number of past artworks or projects and any number of images for each project, but do not exceed 10 total images. Instead of uploading individual images, you may choose to assemble all your images and information into one PDF file and upload it. Do not submit design ideas for this project!

5.    Image information: You may provide information about the artworks you attached as examples of your previous work.  Information you provide could include title, date, medium, concept, budget/price, or any other information you feel is important for the review panel to know when looking at your work. Providing this information is optional, but is helpful for the review panel to understand more about your work.

6.     Demographic information: All demographic information is optional, but we encourage you to complete it. Doing so will help ensure that our programs and services are equitable.

There is a total of 25MB of uploads allowed on the application form. The form will not submit properly if you have attached more than 25MB. Please try to keep your images to 2MB or less per image, and your text files to 500K or under.

*artists in the Arts Council’s prequalified muralist pool may email jmoore@indyarts.org prior to 5:00 p.m. May 14, 2021 and request that their materials on file be reviewed.  It is the artist’s responsibility to ensure that images and texts on file are current: to update materials, please email jmoore@indyarts.org.

Delivery of Application

Applications must be provided using this form. You may start your application and save it to return to it later to finish; however, the form will not save any uploads if you exit without submitting it. We recommend that you wait to upload your materials until you are ready to press “submit”.

The form will automatically close at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, May 14, 2021. Applications left incomplete at that time will not be reviewed. The Arts Council is not responsible for transmission delays or service outages resulting in delayed delivery of the form.  If you encounter problems as you complete the form, please email jmoore@indyarts.org or call (317) 624-2556.

For questions, contact:

Julia Moore, Director of Public Art, Arts Council of Indianapolis, (317) 624-2556  or email jmoore@indyarts.org