Call to Central Indiana Visual Artists: High Art Outdoor Billboard Project

Deadline:  Friday, June 22, 2018

For the past five years, High Art has been a public art partnership between the Arts Council of Indianapolis and Fairway Outdoor Advertising.  The goal of the High Art program is to bring visual art to all areas of the city while allowing artists to realize their work on a grand scale. The Arts Council of Indianapolis seeks visual artists to submit images for the sixth round of High Art.

The project selects up to ten existing or new artworks, prints them on vinyl to fit a 14’ x 48’ billboard, and places them around the community on a rotating basis. The works will circulate for one year throughout Marion and the seven surrounding counties. For this sixth year, the program is expanding to include additional representation of the selected images on “poster” billboards, which measure 10’-5” x 22’-8”.  Each selected artist will have their image on one large billboard and one poster billboard. In September 2018, up to twenty images will be installed and will remain on view for four weeks. After this initial period, the images will be rotated in and out of various locations as billboard space becomes available.

At all times the artist retains full copyright of the work. The Arts Council and Fairway are not responsible for any third-party infringement of the artist’s copyright or for protecting the intellectual property rights of participating artists. To learn more about how to protect yourself and your public artworks, visit the Arts Council’s Artist Resource Directory: https://indyarts.org/artists/artist-resources/item/protecting-your-copyright-with-public-art

Each artist will enter into a contract with the Arts Council and must sign a Fairway Outdoor Advertising Rights Clearance Form as well as adhere to a decency policy, which states that the work will be appropriate for all audiences.

14’ x 48’ billboard

10’5” x 22’8” poster billboard

See current High Art Billboards here: www.indyarts.org/highart

Compensation

Each selected artist will receive $250 as a licensing fee for the use of their image as part of the project.

A “People’s Choice” voting campaign in September 2018 will select a winner from the selected images to receive an additional $500 award.

In addition to this compensation, participating artists receive considerable value for their inclusion. The Arts Council pays the production costs for the vinyl billboards.  Fairway donates the available billboard spaces and the installation and de-installation for a total estimated value of over $240,000 and an estimated 15 million views throughout the year.

Promotions

The Arts Council hosts a project webpage and keeps it updated with current location information for all the displayed work.

Fairway Outdoor Advertising and the Arts Council jointly promote the work through both social and traditional media channels. Artists are also encouraged to promote their work through their own publicity and social media outlets.

The People’s Choice winner receives special promotional attention through Fairway’s internal and client communications.

Timeline

• Call released: May 23, 2018
• Deadline for submissions:  Friday, June 22, 2018
• Jury selection process: Early July
• Artists notified:  By July 20
• Artists’ high-resolution images due: August 13, 2018
• Artwork installed on billboards (for 4 consecutive weeks): Monday, September 3, 2018
• On-line voting for People’s Choice award: September 3 – 9, 2018
• Billboards and posters circulate:  October 1, 2018 – August 15, 2019
• Vinyls available to artists:  after August 15, 2019

Eligibility:

• Artists must be 18 years or older and live in central Indiana (Boone, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Johnson, Marion, Morgan, or Shelby counties).
• Artists may propose new or existing artwork for consideration; however, existing artwork is preferred.
• The submitting artist must have produced the artwork, and the artist must own the copyright for the images or have permission to use copyrighted images in the design.
• The submitting artist must be willing to sign agreements giving the Arts Council and Fairway Outdoor Advertising limited use rights to use the artwork for the purposes stated in this call.
• Artists who have previously been selected for past High Art rounds are eligible to apply, but must submit artwork not previously selected.

Submission guidelines:

Please submit the following:

• Download and complete Applicant Information Form. (Submit as Word doc or PDF)
• Submit up to five images of existing or planned new work in JPG format.
  • Images do not need to be high resolution, but the image quality should be set to “high”.  The resolution should be no larger than 72 dpi and the file size for each image should be under 1MB. It is suggested that the low-resolution version be 7” x 20” @ 72 dpi (jpg).
  • Name your submitted digital files according to the following format: FirstLast_01.jpg, FirstLast_02.jpg, etc

If you are selected as a finalist, you will be asked to submit high-resolution files by August 13th.  These high-resolution files will be JPG or TIFF, 7.5” h X 20.25” w @ 300 pixels per inch. (NOTE: This measurement is slightly larger than your original submission file to allow for bleed in the printing process.) The file you send will be used for both billboard sizes.

Tips for submitting images:

• Do not put your name, signature, or website on the image itself. Each artist will be credited on an adjacent white space “label” on each billboard as well as on www.indyarts.org.
• If you use text within your work, know that larger text will read better and bright, bold colors behind the text with great contrast will be easier to see. Text with lots of small detail behind it or thin fonts will be difficult to see and your work will not be selected.
• The format is a long horizontal rectangle that may not be the natural shape of your artwork; some cropping may be necessary. Please submit your images already cropped to the correct dimensions. (see above)
• A good deal of fine detail will be lost on most viewers, as most of the images will be viewed from 300 – 500 feet for 5-10 seconds. Bright colors and images with high contrast and/or a central focus typically read best.

Selection Process:

Arts Council staff, members of the Arts Council’s Public Art Selection Committee, and representatives of Fairway Outdoor Advertising will identify up to 10 artworks to be recreated as billboards and poster billboards.

Should the Arts Council receive an insufficient number of entries, we reserve the right to change the process to an invitation process.

How to Submit:

Artists have two options for submitting entries:

•  Send via WeTransfer.com:  WeTransfer is a free, easy-to-use file sharing website. You will receive a confirmation when your entry is downloaded.
• Send via email to llord@indyarts.org, Subject: High Art Submission. Submit the images as JPEG/JPG attachments to one SINGLE email.  The body of the email should contain the artist’s name, contact information (address, phone, email) and list of works submitted. Please note that if the maximum file size of 1MB per image is exceeded, the email may not reach us.

For further information, contact Lindsey Lord, Public Art and Artist Services Coordinator for the Arts Council of Indianapolis at llord@indyarts.org or (317) 631-3301 ext. 214.