"In other words, if the shortlist is 3 artists on a $1 million project, then $40K is being spent on proposals that will not be realized."

The irony is that it is untenable for cities to spend $40K on proposals that will not be realized, but it is perfectly fine for those two unselected artists to not be fairly compensated for their time for the most creatively challenging phase of a project (THE CONCEPTUAL DESIGN) and arguably the most time intensive due to the need to not only conceptualize an idea, but research the project, create drawings, powerpoint presentaions, models, travel to present, etc.  Not only that, to suffer the death of that (usually) site-specific work, which for artists is a death of a sorts.

(I was trying to stay out of this rebirth of an old dialogue, and failed.)

On Wed, Jan 17, 2018 at 8:45 AM, James Martin <artinkc@gmail.com> wrote:
Liz, I agree with you, I like the proposal process as the next step after evaluating RFQ submissions. I usually advise my clients to follow the process that Sallyann outlines below: paying a shortlist of artists to develop proposals.

At the PAN conference a couple of years ago, I asked colleagues how much to pay each artist for proposals. The consensus was that the *recommended* amount is 2%. However, in my experience, municipalities have not been able to pay that much.

As for why not...I’m guessing that it’s probably politically untenable to pay out $20,000 per artist in an honorarium/design fee on a $1 million total budget, for example. In other words, if the shortlist is 3 artists on a $1 million project, then $40K is being spent on proposals that will not be realized.

One of my clients recently suggested graduated honorarium/design fee amounts. All 3 artists receive half of the stipend plus lodging to present in person. After presentations, the selected artist is awarded the commission, but no more stipend. The “2nd place artist” (in my client’s words) receives a greater amount of the remaining stipend than the “3rd place artist.” I’m still trying to decide what I think of their idea.

James Martin
http://artinkc.biz

On Tue, Jan 16, 2018 at 4:36 PM Sallyann Kluz <skluz@pittsburghartscouncil.org> wrote:
Hello Elizabeth:

We do this all the time and rarely request proposals from artists before they are under contract. In some cases, we pay a shortlist of artists a stipend to develop a concept for the final selection, but typically we select a shortlist based on RFQ and then the finalist based on interview with panel, with the addition of reference checks. 

We do not ask artists to do unpaid work, such as developing a design proposal without a stipend, in any selection process. 

In many cases, members of the selection committee stay engaged with the project and become part of a review team that meets with the artist throughout the concept and design development, which I think gets to your issue.

Thank you -

Sallyann 

Sallyann Kluz
Director, Office of Public Art
Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council

412.391.2060 x251


On Jan 16, 2018, at 5:05 PM, Elizabeth Bowman <Elizabeth.Bowman@kcmo.org> wrote:

Hello Art Admins;

 

Have you ever sent out an RFQ and hired the artist directly from there without them developing a proposal?  I’m thinking you are missing a big piece of the process by eliminating the selection panel on the final process by doing so.  Would appreciate your thoughts and opinions please.

 

 

<image001.png>

Elizabeth Bowman

Public Art Administrator

Architecture Division

General Services Department

City of Kansas City, Mo.

414 East 12th Street

Kansas City, MO 64106

Email: Elizabeth.Bowman@kcmo.org

Phone: 816-513-3422            

Fax: 816-513-2727

 

 

To unsubscribe from this list please go to http://archives.simplelists.com
To unsubscribe from this list please go to http://archives.simplelists.com
--
James Martin
Art consultant, curator, educator, writer
artinkc@gmail.com
913-485-5267
To unsubscribe from this list please go to http://www.simplelists.com/confirm.php?u=PTPrEM8umNrhfLeESg76L0pJfzeygalt