Utah State University, along with the Utah Arts & Museums Public Art Program, announces a commission opportunity for an artist or artists to create site-specific artwork(s) for the new Utah State University Life Sciences facility in Logan, Utah.

BUDGET
$313,000 is available for all related expenses of this Public Art commission(s) including (but not limited to) artist fees, fabrication, insurance, shipping, travel, installation, documentation, etc. The Committee may commission more than one artist.

ELIGIBILITY
Resident US citizen or legal resident artists / artist teams. Utah artists are strongly encouraged to apply.

Entry Deadline: 7/21/17

LOGAN, UTAH and UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY
Logan is nestled at the foot of the nearly 10,000-foot high Bear River Range. Residents consider Logan Canyon, a 40-mile community park that leads to 18-mile long Bear Lake, the Rocky Mountain Caribbean for its azure blue waters. Logan boasts outstanding fishing, biking, hiking, skiing, and golfing. Logan’s physical aspects and its quality of life are phenomenal, but what truly defines Logan is its people. Ultimately, it is people who make a community. Hardy pioneer stock, immigrants from the four corners of the globe, students who loved the city so much they couldn’t leave, and many others have blended to make wonderful neighborhoods and a great small city. What attracts and keeps most people here is “home”.

The top-notch research university that is Utah State University, Logan, hosts a strong agricultural base – Cache County is Utah’s leading agricultural producer. With a heritage dating back over 150 years, the cultural offerings are excellent with a resident opera company, repertory theatre, several dance companies, renowned artists, and outstanding facilities to show them off.

UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF SCIENCE and the NEW LIFE SCIENCES BUILDING
USU’s College of Science strives to fulfill student goals by providing critical, gateway courses in biology, chemistry and other disciplines that enable students in all of the university’s colleges to reach higher and achieve growing benchmarks of excellence.  The new Life Sciences Building at Utah State will be the new center for student achievement in the life sciences and beyond. This building signals one of USU’s most historic investments in the sciences. The facility will add 13 teaching laboratories, five lecture halls and classrooms, four research laboratory suites, and collaboration and student study spaces.

SITE LAYOUT
The building has been divided into three portions; laboratory spaces, common spaces, and classroom / offices. The laboratory spaces are in a five-story tower to the north. The classroom and offices are located in a three-story volume to the south. Between the north and south wings is a central glazed beacon that contains the building’s social / public spaces that knit the building together. The common space volume includes a lobby, lecture hall, student study spaces and a café and forms a figurative bridge that links one side to the other. This division (with the punctuated glass center) gives the building its characteristic form.

BUILDING FORM

This new Life Sciences Building has been imagined as a living breathing organism, much like the specimens that the building’s faculty and students will study.

The building’s west edge parallels and defines the busiest student thoroughfare on the campus. This important pedestrian oriented edge of the facility was envisioned as a stone canyon wall, a phenomenon prevalent throughout the entire state of Utah. One can imagine the various types of life-forms that will ultimately inhabit the crevices and ledges of the formation. The stone-like skin of the west facade is made of a GFRC (glass-fiber-reinforced concrete) configured into horizontal striations, much like the layers of sandstone deposited and cut by forces of wind and water.

The beacon that centers the building is made of glass surrounded by a metallic zinc frame. Zinc is a natural earth element that never requires paint or upkeep and will naturally patina over the building’s lifetime.

ARTWORK SITE(s)

The following areas have been identified as potential sites for an artist’s contribution / integration, but the Committee is open to other areas that may be of interest to and suggested by the artist(s).

1. The exterior northwest plaza
2. The 60’ total vertical space of the interior atrium from 1st level floor to the 4th floor ceiling
3. Glass banisters at each floor opening of the atrium
4. The north facing wall surfaces of the atrium
5. All of the “plenum” space between floors facing the atrium

TIMELINE
July 21, 2017 – Deadline for receipt of preliminary materials
August 8, 2017- Committee Review
October 3, 2017 – Finalists interviews and presentations
October 2018 – Project substantial completion

SELECTION PROCESS
The Selection Committee will review all material properly submitted. Finalists will be selected from the first phase of applicants submitting qualifications. Selection of the commissioned artist(s) will be based on proposals presented to the Selection Committee on October 3, 2017.  Once finalist artists are selected, we will work to provide as much information and access as possible to assist in the artist’s research while developing their proposal.  An honorarium will be offered to the finalists to assist with the costs associated with the preparation of a proposal and travel. This honorarium will be applied toward the commission amount for the artist(s) awarded the commission.

SUBMISSION OPTIONS, INSTRUCTIONS AND REQUIRED MATERIALS
Interested artists may submit applications EITHER online or by USB flash drive or compact disc/DVD. The deadline is the same for both methods and is not a postmark deadline. Please do not include supplemental materials beyond the requirements listed below.

ONLINE METHOD:
Register at www.callforentry.org and follow the directions in the project call for submitting material for this Public Art Request for Qualifications.  This online application process will prompt you for all necessary documents. Movie files cannot be submitted via the online method.

USB FLASH or CD/DVD METHOD:
Provide a PC-compatible USB flash drive or DVD/CD labeled with applicant’s name and contact information, and containing:

• A letter of interest of not more than two typewritten pages in pdf format. This letter should include the artist’s reasons for interest in this project in particular. In doing so, the artist should also describe how his/her work and/or experience relates to the project.
• Up to six (6) images maximum of previous site-specific public work. All images must be in JPEG format, 1920 pixels maximum on the longest side, 72 dpi, with compression settings resulting in the best image quality under 2MB file size. The image files should be named so that the list sorts in the order of the image listing.
• A pdf document identifying each image to include title, year, medium, dimensions.
• A professional resume in pdf format

If the work cannot be documented well with still images a movie file (of no more than 3 minutes) may be submitted as documentation of artist’s projects. Please note only one media, movie file or images, can be presented to the committee per artist in this preliminary phase.

If the artist wishes the material returned, an addressed and stamped envelope of ample size and postage for return of the flash drive, CD or DVD should be included. Material that is not accompanied by a stamped envelope cannot be returned.

Please send, deliver or courier flash drive, CD or DVD applications to:
Mackenzie Morton, Utah Public Art Program
Attention: USU Life Sciences
Utah Arts & Museums
300 S Rio Grande
Salt Lake City, UT 84101

QUESTIONS?  Contact: Mackenzie Morton at 801-245-7270  mmorton@utah.gov or Jim Glenn at 801-245-7271 jglenn@utah.gov