Call to Artists: Request For Qualifications Fairytale Town A Storybook Park and Educational Center in Sacramento, CA Issued: September 1, 2016 Deadline: October 30, 2016 Questions: Kathy Fleming kfleming@fairytaletown.org 916 808 7060 History and Background Fairytale Town is a 3.5 acre storybook park and education center in the heart of Sacramento s William Land Park. Open to the public since 1959, the facility has introduced millions of children and families to creative experiences in literature, arts, culture and agriculture. Fairytale Town s mission is to promote imagination, creativity and education of children. To meet our mission and serve our community, Fairytale Town offers a wide variety of arts experiences. Music, art, dance, theater and puppet shows are offered regularly in collaboration with local arts organizations. Week long camps in literature, visual arts and performing arts are offered each summer, and we are home to an award winning theater training program for youth called the Fairytale Town Troupers. We are proud to be a place where many people experience visual and performing arts for the first time, and we are committed to making these introductions dynamic and engaging so our audiences will be inspired to continue their involvement in the arts. Our efforts have been well received. We attract more than 250,000 visitors each year from more than 100 zip codes in northern California and beyond, have more than 2500 member families, and are recipients of numerous awards from the Arts and Business Council, Nonprofit Resource Center, and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to name a few. Project Overview Fairytale Town is requesting information from artists and/or arts organizations interested in designing, fabricating and installing an interactive exhibit that represents a children s story, folktale or fairytale. The primary audience for the exhibit will be children and families of all ages. The exhibit is expected to be installed for a period of ten years or longer. Each interactive component will allow visitors to experience an arts activity that helps bring the story to life. The project for which we seek proposals is the repurposing of a shallow waterway that winds throughout the park. Due to the drought, we have kept the waterway dry for the last few years. Our Strategic Plan identifies the repurposing of the waterway as a high priority. The waterway has become a poor use of space and we would like to use the property for a more dynamic purpose. The waterway is also unsustainable as it wastes water and is difficult (if not impossible) to keep well maintained. In the past five years, we have made significant capital improvements to the property (the Children s Theater building, Sherwood Forest, King Arthur s Castle, and the Old Woman in the Shoe Slide to name a few). These newly renovated facilities are in sharp contrast to our unthematic and unusable waterway making it stand out even more as an out of date and deteriorating component of the Park. Fairytale Town Call for Artists Page 1 of 5
We have a long history of employing artists and artisans to create, install and renovate our exhibits, and would like to continue this tradition for the repurposing of the waterway. We believe the arts community will respond with many creative ideas for the space, but examples follow in case needed. Once the moat is demolished and filled in, an artist or arts organization may propose to create an interactive exhibit based on the Anansi the Spider folk tales in the space. The exhibit could use drums to build the legs of the spider giving children the opportunity to engage in both the story and a form of artistic and cultural expression. Or, an artist or arts organization may propose to build a climbing wall to represent Rapunzel s Tower that contains words and/or images from the story, uses pieces from the demolished moat, and has an area for children to write or draw their own images inspired by the fairytale. The successful project will reflect a story, folk tale or fairytale and not a playground. Visitors, children in particular, will intuitively know how to interact with the exhibit, and will engage with the content physically and intellectually through experiential and playful activities to better understand the story and its relevance to the world around us. The successful project should be durable enough to be in an outdoor area for at least 10 years. Budget: $60,500 Artist Fees, including design, fabrication and installation. Timeline: Applications Due: October 31, 2016 Artist Finalists Selected: November 2016 Artwork Design Development: December 2016 February 2017 Artist Selection: April/May 2016 Artwork Fabrication/Installation: November 2017 February 2018 Minimum Qualifications: In order for a proposal to be considered responsive, the proposer must have the following minimum qualifications to perform the responsibilities in the scope of work. Experience in managing an exhibit s design, fabrication and installation. It is preferred, though not required, that some experience is in an outdoor environment. Must have successfully completed an exhibit design, fabrication and installation for a museum, gallery, public art program or park within the last five years. Must have current professional licenses and permits required by federal, state and local laws for the performance of this project. Artist Selection Criteria: 1. Artistic Merit as evidenced by representation of relevant past work in images. 2. Appropriateness of the artist s medium, style and previous experience in relation to the project goals and setting. 3. Experience with projects of a similar scale and scope including familiarity with the public art process, the public review approval and permitting process, and/or collaboration with non profit organizations, and design agencies; and art selection juries. 4. Demonstration of good communication skills and the ability to work with diverse community members. 5. Artist s knowledge of, and ability to, work with durable materials that are appropriate for exposure in a public environment and that require minimal care and long term maintenance. Fairytale Town Call for Artists Page 2 of 5
Artist Selection Process: Artists will be selected through a promoted call to artists. An artist selection panel will convene to pre screen the artists applications and select up to 5 artists to be interviewed for the project. Finalists will be required to attend a walk through of the site. Two walk throughs will be scheduled in fall 2016. Finalists will receive a $1,000 contract to develop a design and create a model, charrette, or mock up. (Fifty percent of the contract will be paid upon signing; and 50 percent upon submission of design documents, etc.) The design proposal will be reviewed and approved by the panel. Additionally, the design must be approved by the Fairytale Town Board of Directors. Application Procedure: Interested parties may submit materials by email, mail, or in person. Please do not staple any materials. Applicants must submit the following information. 1. Application: See attached one page application. 2. Resume: four pages maximum 3. Statement of your approach to making art and the concerns of public art and art for children and families in particular. 4. Ten images of your past work on a PC compatible USB Drive (flash drive, thumb drive). All images must be in a PowerPoint or JPEG format. a. PowerPoint Images: i. PowerPoint Images are to be named with the artists last name, first initial (ex: jonesm). ii. Number each slide in the lower right corner, corresponding to the annotated image list. b. JPEG images: i. Each image file to be named with artist s last name, first initial, underscore and number corresponding to the annotated image list. (ex: jonesm_01.jpeg) ii. Image size must be at least 1024 pixels (14.222 ) on the longest side, at 72 dpi. 5. Annotated Image List must include: a. Title of artwork b. Media, dimensions c. Year completed d. Budget e. Commissioning agency f. Number corresponding to a CD file name g. Brief description h. A thumbnail of each image Materials that are not requested will not be reviewed. Fairytale Town Call for Artists Page 3 of 5
Application Deadline and Submission: Application materials must be received no later than 5:00 pm on Monday, October 31, 2016. Postmarks are not accepted. Mail or drop off application packets to: Fairytale Town, ATTN: Artist Application 3901 Land Park Drive Sacramento, CA 95822 Submit electronically to: sdadams@fairytaletown.org Subject line must be: Artist Application Fairytale Town Staff not responsible for lost electronic applications with a different subject line or emailed to a different email address. It is recommended you follow up with Fairytale Town staff by phone or a separate email to make sure an application was received. For questions about the application process please contact Kathy Fleming at kafleming@fairytaletown.org or 916 808 7060. To follow up on the receipt of your application please contact Sherri Adams at sdadams@fairytaletown.org or 916 808 5388. Fairytale Town Call for Artists Page 4 of 5
Artist Application: Request For Qualifications Fairytale Town A Storybook Park and Educational Center in Sacramento, CA Artist/Arts Organization Name: Address: City/State/Zip: Email Address: Preferred Phone: I have enclosed the following (in addition to this application page): Resume (4 pages maximum) Statement of approach to making art Ten (10) images of past work on a PC compatible USB Drive Annotated Image List with thumbnail image next to each Send Application Packet to: Fairytale Town, ATTN: Artist Application 3901 Land Park Drive Sacramento, CA 95822 Submit electronically to: sdadams@fairytaletown.org Subject line must be: Artist Application Fairytale Town Staff not responsible for lost electronic applications with a different subject line. Fairytale Town Call for Artists Page 5 of 5