The art selection committee for the new Wentworth School located in Scarborough, Maine is announcing an international call for artists to submit a proposal to design, create and install art work at Wentworth School, a new grades 3-5 intermediate school undergoing construction in Scarborough, Maine USA. Fall 2014 is the anticipated opening of the school.

Total project budget is $40,000.

Submission deadline is June 1, 2013

Background: The Wentworth Art Committee is seeking a single artist or artist team to create a single, memorable art piece that reflects the community, but also inspires the thousands of young children expected to attend the school over the next two decades.

One of several defining features of the community is the 3,100 acre estuary known as Scarborough Marsh, which is the largest salt marsh in the state, comprising tidal marsh, salt creeks, freshwater marsh and uplands. The marsh is particularly important for wildlife as a resting, breeding and feeding ground. Scarborough also sits on the Atlantic Ocean and has several miles of sandy beach access for the community. In addition, Scarborough is home to Winslow Homer’s studio. The Winslow Homer Studio is one of the most significant locations in the history of American art where the great American artist Winslow Homer (1836-1910) lived and painted many of his masterpieces from 1883 until his death.

The location of the piece would be in the one and a half story, octagonal atrium, which features exposed wood beam construction, just beyond the main entrance to the school. This location serves as the main thoroughfare into all parts of the school and is right next to the library, which will have inspirational quotes surrounding it. There is abundant natural light that will filter in from above, and we will consider suspended artwork. Additionally, the new building will employ a geo-thermal heating and cooling system, light harvesting features and innovative green technologies.

The architect for the project is Dan Cecil who can be contacted at dcecil@harriman.com. The site is currently under construction and not ready for a site visit at this time, however, CAD models are available for viewing and specs on the precise size of the space is available by contacting Anthony Roy at aroy@harriman.com. All other questions can be directed to Mark Ouellette at mno@maine.rr.com, chair of the Arts Committee.

Project Budget: The funds for this project will be raised through a variety of means. The committee is comfortable that $40,000 can be raised to support this project. The beginning stages of that effort are underway. An artist proposal must include and cover all design, fabrication, transportation, documentation and installation expense. 

Selection Process: The Wentworth Arts Selection Committee, comprised of arts professionals, educators and members of the user community, will jury submissions. The committee will review materials to determine whom to invite for a second round of evaluations. The Artist(s) selected for the second round would receive a design fee of $1000 for fully developing and budgeting their proposals. Final proposals will include detailed models, drawings, renderings and samples of work and/or materials depending on the nature of the proposal. All finalists will present their final proposals to the committee in person, with the exception of international candidates who will be interviewed via technology.

Who is Eligible: The project is open to all professional artists over the age of 18, regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, military status, sexual orientation, marital status or physical disabilities. Artist teams are eligible to apply, including teams of artists from multiple disciplines.

Deadline: June 1, 2013 at 11:59 EST is the deadline for submission of preliminary materials. Materials received after this time may be excluded from consideration. Materials will be evaluated approximately one month after the deadline and all applicants will be notified shortly thereafter.

Materials Needed in Initial Submission:

·  A current resume.

·  A brief – one page- written proposal describing your work and your concept and approach to the site. Please do not submit detailed models, drawings, samples or final proposals for this round of the selection process. A simple sketch may be included to clarify your idea if necessary, but it is not encouraged.

·  A rough budget estimate to give the committee an idea of your general compensation expectations. A precise budget will be requested for those invited to the second round.

·  Up to 5 digital images of your recent work (no larger than 1.5 MB per image). The optional proposal sketch does not count as an image.

·  A list of the submitted images identifying the artist, title, medium, size, location and other pertinent information about the image submissions.

All submission items should be sent as an attachment to an email, or sent via mail on a disk. Please include all of requested materials. Missing pieces of the submission may be grounds for disqualification. Please send documents in a common format, such as Word and pdf or jpg.

How to Submit Materials:

Emailed materials should be sent to: mno@maine.rr.com

Disk submissions should be sent to:

Mark Ouellette, 21 Clover Leaf Lane, Scarborough, Maine 04074