Hello public art wizards,
For a relatively large, outdoor, gateway to the city, sculpture call (say 30’ in a given direction), we are contemplating the feasibility of having a pool of RFQ-vetted fabricators of various mediums expertise.
80% of the budget would be for the fabrication, installation, insurance, permits, etc., and would be handled by the fabricator who is chosen for the project. 20% of the budget would be for an artist to submit an idea and work with the fabricator to turn into reality.
In my mind, this allows our local artists with less experience doing big budget public art projects to get into the business, and learn the process, gain confidence for more big projects down the line. It also would allow the artist ideas to be presented to the public for input, without the burden of having to rule out artists who are less experienced.
Has anyone followed this process or something similar?
What I’m dreaming up would follow this flow:
· RFQ for fabricators to be pre-qualified by our City’s Procurement Department (this is a tax-funded project, so it is pretty much run by Procurement).
· Publish list of pre-approved fabricators.
· Call for artist ideas for sculptures, would include contact info for pre-approved fabricators who the artists could contact and confer with to see if their ideas are feasible.
· Vetting of feasibility of artist submitted ideas by the fabricators. (If fabricators say, “that cannot be done within the budget and would be hard to adjust it to fit into the budget” then we reject.)
· Put all the feasible artist sketches up for public review, feedback.
· Selection panel uses public input to select winning proposal.
Does this sound crazy, or maybe the start of a good idea, or maybe been done and perfected already elsewhere you idiot and this is the right way to do it…?
As always, I deeply appreciate the collective wisdom of the wizards!
Best,
Pax
Pax Bobrow
Greater Augusta Arts Council
Project Manager
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