PROJECT BACKGROUND
Los Angeles’ Little Armenia has long served as home to one of the largest Armenian populations in the region. To commemorate this rich history, the community desires to have a Gateway to honor the ancestry and culture of the Armenian community. The Gateway will signify a warm welcome to all visitors to Little Armenia and to the City of LA. Council District 13 is interested in placing the Little Armenia Gateway near the intersection of Van Ness Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard. The Gateway will be a prominent visual symbol of mutual respect, serve as a cultural destination and contribute to the goal of creating a safer and livable neighborhood.
CRITERIA
Council District 13 and the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) are seeking artists interested in creating a gateway to celebrate the Armenian community in the City of Los Angeles. Artists must demonstrate the professional capacity to oversee the design, fabrication and installation of a cultural gateway in a public space. Artists must also demonstrate the ability to work in consultation with project teams, including architects, landscape architects, engineers, fabricators, and general contractors. The selected artist/artist team must be available for meetings with the principals of the project, City advisory committees, and the public.
Artists may apply individually or as a team. Artists’ teams may not change over the life of the project. Up to five artists/artist teams will be selected to develop proposals for the project. Selected artists will be required to attend the mandatory site walk-through.
ELIGIBILITY
This Request for Qualifications (RFQ) is open to professional artists/artist teams nationally and who live and work in the County of Los Angeles. Artists working in any media that have experience working in the public realm are encouraged to apply. Employees of the City of Los Angeles are ineligible to apply.
PROJECT BUDGETS
The budget for the project is $350,000. The budget is all-inclusive and must cover all expenses associated with the design, fabrication and installation of the gateway project. The City will prepare the site for the artist for the purpose of supporting and facilitating the implementation of the art project. Funding for the project is provided by the City of Los Angeles and from the Arts Development Fee Trust Fund.
SELECTION PROCESS
An artist selection panel may be composed of, but not limited to, arts professionals, a project engineer, representative of Council District 13, and a local community representative. The panel will review all applications and select up to five artists/artist teams based on their qualifications.The five finalists will each receive a $2,000 honorarium to develop a proposal. After presenting proposals to the selection panel, one artist/artist team will receive the commission based on proposal reviews and artist interviews.
HOW TO APPLY
All applications must be submitted electronically via Slide Room. Incomplete and late applications will be deemed ineligible and not be considered. Deadline to apply has been extended to October 14, 2016 at 11:59 p.m.
A complete application must include:
1.ARTIST’S CONTACT INFORMATION including name, business name (if applicable), physical address, mailing address, telephone and email. Teams must identify one artist to be DCA’s primary contact for the team, as well as contact information for each artist on the team.
2.STATEMENT OF INTEREST(PDF or DOC format only, 2 pages max) for creating a gateway in Little Armenia, City of Los Angeles.
3.CURRICULUM VITAE(PDF or DOC format only, 4 pages max); teams must submit a CV for each artist on the team.
4.TEN (10) IMAGES(JPG format only, 72 DPI min + 5 MB max per file) of completed artwork; image files must be named sequentially (i.e. 01, 02, 03…); teams may submit no more than ten images total.
5.IMAGE LIST(PDF or DOC format only) numbered to correspond with each image file; provide the title, year, size, materials and brief description for each image; for any commissioned project(s), also include the client, budget and location.
*Additional material included that is not requested by DCA will not be reviewed.
Questions: Please contact Tania Picasso, Arts Manager at 213.202.5544 or dca.publicart@lacity.org
RIGHTS + RESPONSIBILITIES
The Department of Cultural Affairs reserves the right to decline all applications to this RFQ, and/or cancel this RFQ at any time. This RFQ is subject to the City’s Campaign Finance, Contractor Responsibility, Equal Benefits, Equal Opportunity, Living Wage, Minority / Women Business Enterprise and Slavery Disclosure Ordinances, as well as any other ordinances in effect in the City of Los Angeles. The pre-qualified roster of artists will be in place for a term of two (2) years from the date of selection.