Preface:  If you’re copied on this e-mail, I have a “Thank You!” for you below. 

 

Michael,

 

The City of Grand Prairie Public Art Program recently hosted our first Traffic Signal Box (TSB) Public Art Project.  As part of this project, we endeavored to be as inclusive as possible.  These are the steps we took…

 

-          We simplified our TSB Public Art Project Call to Artists so that emerging artists could participate.   By that I mean, we didn’t require a resume or CV, we only required a brief statement of their art experience.

-          We had Spanish communications available as requested.

-          We sought out all Junior College art programs in Texas, personally e-mailing the staffs of all the departments.

-          We invited VSA Texas – The State Organization on Arts and Disability to forward the call to artists to all of their participating artists.

-          We researched minority art groups in our region and sent e-mails directly to every single artist on the webpages. 

-          We sent e-mails to every single visual artist on the on the RAW lists for all cities in Texas.

-          We sent Instagram messages to those RAW artists who did not include an e-mail on their listing.

-          We sent e-mails to all artist registries we could find in Texas.

-          We communicated about our Call to Artists via all avenues of social media in which the city participates. 

-          We created a video inviting all residents to apply to “become a Traffic Signal Box artist.”  That video was a big hit (for us) garnering more than 190K views and more than 2,350 shares and more than 800 positive comments – The most ever for any City post of any kind.

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJOWRlGsOHI

 

All of those individual outreach efforts took about four hours a day for a week and a half.  We were hoping to get at least 40 entries, but were very excited to get 161 entries!

 

We also endeavored to be inclusive when developing our TSB Art Selection Committee for this project.  We invited local and regional artists, intentionally inviting minority artists and local artists to serve on the art selection committee.  There were 7 artists on the committee and only one of whom had ever participated in a Public Art Project.  Thus we hosted the Art Selection process as a training event to help them get a better understanding of the public art process as it related to this particular project. 

 

We also invited residents who live near each of the 20 TSBs that are in Phase 1, as well as representatives of businesses to serve along with key staff and two Council Members on the TSB Art Selection Committee.  All totaled 36 people were invited to serve on the TSB Public Art Selection Committee.  Twenty two people actually came.  It was great!  With each of the 161 artists submitting 3 sample art pieces, their proposals and the required paperwork (3 pages each), the committee ended up reviewing more than 720 powerpoint slides and scanning more than 5,000 double sided  documents as a group.  We did it somehow. 

 

Our TSB Public Art Selection Committee was comprised of:

-          5 people over 60 years old

-          6 African Americans

-          3 Hispanics

-          13 Whites

 

Here’s a photo from the judging.  A couple of people had stepped out when this photo was taken.

 

 

We had to have an auditor review our scoring forms for accuracy.  In the end, the committee selected the winning artists, which included:

 

-          9 male artists

-          11 female artists

-          14 White artists

-          5 Hispanic artists

-          1 Asian artist

-          1 disabled artist

-          An 81 year old photographer

-          A 13-year old student from the Grand Prairie ISD Fine Arts Academy

-          14 artists who have never before received a Public Art Commission

 

Our community is excited about this project and we look forward to seeing the art on the Traffic Signal Boxes this spring. 

 

It was a lot of work to be intentionally inclusive, but it was worth every ounce of effort!

 

I’ve attached our Call to Artists in case you would like to see it.  I wish to thank the following people for helping by sharing their knowledge and experience with us in response to an earlier list server inquiry.  Your help has been invaluable!...

 

Brianna McLean – Public Art Coordinator - Arts Missoula, MT

Kathi Olson – Berkshire Hathaway – Missoula, MT

John Coraor, Ph.D.  – Director of Cultural Affairs, Huntington, NY

Julia Muney Moore – Director of Public Art, Arts Council of Indianapolis, IN

Pax Bobrow – Project Manager, Greater Augusta Arts Council

Haley Carlson – Atlanta, GA

Deborah Clickman – City of Palm Desert, CA

Amara Geffen – Professor of Art, Allegheny College

Lauren Greenfield – Longmont, CO

Carrie Geraci – Director, Jackson Hole Public Art

Debra Alleyne, Arts and Cultural Affairs Coordinator, City of Dubuque, IA

Patricia Walsh – Americans for the Arts Staff

Elia Quiles – Up Art Studio, Houston

Sarah Green – Public Art Coordinator, North Richland Hills, TX

Sarah Dresser – Program Specialist – Office of Cultural Affairs – City of Columbia, MO

Catherine Campbell – Project Lead, Outside the Box StreetARToronto (StART)

 

 

 

Greetings Public Art Community –

 

                The public art policy group for Denver’s Commission on Cultural Affairs is interested in learning about and exploring efforts to increase diversity, equity and inclusiveness for the city’s public art process. If you have any examples to share, stories to relate, or advice to give on public art efforts you’ve undertaken in your communities to increase participation by traditionally under-represented populations, we’d love to learn more, and are happy to share what we gather. Thank you in advance!

 

We in Denver are looking forward to sharing our city with all of you at the convention in June!  

 

Best -

Michael Mowry

Cultural Affairs Commissioner

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