Percent for Art Competition: Buxton Center Elementary School

PERCENT FOR ART COMPETITION PROSPECTUS:

MSAD #6 - Buxton Center Elementary School

OVERVIEW:

The Maine Arts Commission is making a call to all artists living in Maine to submit proposals to design, create and install artwork at the new Buxton Center Elementary School's Percent for Art site in Buxton, ME. Total project budget is approximately $44,000. Submission deadline is November 25, 2009.

The Percent for Art law in Maine reserves one percent of the construction funds for all state-funded building projects to provide art work for the public areas of these buildings and /or their exterior renovations and additions.

BACKGROUND:

The Buxton Center Elementary School is a 144,000 sq. ft. new building that is that is currently under construction and is expected to open in September 2010. The project is LEED registered. Submissions should emphasize sustainability issues as well as the environmental sensitivity of the design. It is also the interest of the committee to have proposals reflect the rural and natural setting of the region. The Buxton area includes forests, farms and waterways that define the community's relationship to its environment.

The school has three, two story classroom wings each housing grades K-2 on the first floors and 3-5 on the second floors. The wings or "Villages" are named Pine, Maple and Oak. There are common meeting areas where the three villages can come in contact with each other.

The interior design features of the school employ warm wood accents, muted color schemes, and local slate accents in the floor, all of which alludes to the natural environment and is an effort to create a calm atmosphere. There is an extensive use of glass throughout the building so that nature can be seen from within. Pre-cast, concrete low-relief "medallions" ranging in size from 16 to 24 inches square, depict native materials from the area and are visible on the school's interior and exterior brick walls.

Possible placements for public art include the Main Entrance Lobby; a two-story atrium space filled with natural light. Large glass panels that separate this lobby from the library could be addressed. Just off the Public Events Entrance Lobby, the Cafeteria has a sizeable wall to the right of the stage on which artwork could be installed. Outside freestanding artwork is possible between the Main Entrance and the Public Events Entrance, at the point in the Bus Loop, and the walkway between the Parent Drop-Off Loop and the Bus Loop.

Architectural renderings and elevations that define these areas will be posted on the Maine Arts website at http://mainearts.maine.gov/public/percent/Site_Documentation/BuxtonSite.pdf

If you have questions about the architectural elements, the architect representative for this project is Jeff Larimer and can be can be contacted at jlarimer@harriman.com. The site may be visit by contacting Gloria Leveillee at gleveillee@sad6.k12.me.us to set up an appointment. All other questions can be directed to Alison Ferris, Assistant Director of the Maine Arts Commission.

PROJECT BUDGET

There is approximately $44,000 in Percent for Art funds available for this project.These funds will be used to commission work(s) from a single artist or artist team. An artist budget proposal must cover all design, fabrication, transportation, documentation and installation expenses, including any building or site modifications associated with the artwork.

SELECTION PROCESS

A Percent for Art selection committee of five members will jury submissions for the project. The committee will review the materials to determine whom to invite for a second round of evaluation. Artists selected for the second round will receive a $1,000.00 design fee for refining 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. Please do not submit detailed models, drawings, samples, or final proposals for the first round of the selection process.

WHO IS ELIGIBLE

All professional artists who live in Maine may apply for consideration to this project. Artists who are employees of MSAD #6 are ineligible for Percent for Art projects at the location where they are employed, as are members of the selection committee and their immediate families. The project is open to all artists age 18 and over, 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. Contact Alison Ferris at the Maine Arts Commission with questions.

DEADLINE

November 25, 2009 at midnight is the deadline for submission of preliminary materials. Materials received after this time may be excluded from consideration. Materials are usually evaluated within a month of the deadline and all applicants are notified shortly thereafter of the committee decisions.

MATERIALS NEEDED IN INITIAL SUBMISSION

-A current concise resume (sent as an email attachment or on a CD).

-A brief written proposal (sent as an email attachment or on a CD) describing your work and what you plan to do to address the potential art area(s). Write approximately one page about what your concept and approach will be in addressing the public art space(s) of 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. Emailed documents must be sent as attachments, not embedded in the email.

-A rough budget estimate (sent as an email attachment or on a CD) to give the committee an idea of your general compensation expectations. A precise budget will be requested for those invited to the second round of evaluation.

-Five digital images of your recent work (sent as an email attachment or on a CD) resolution of 96 dpi at a minimum of 5 x 7 inches. Jpg or pdf format no larger than 1.5MB per image. If an artist team or artist organization applies, they may only submit five images for all artists. The optional proposal sketch does not count as an image.

-A list of the submitted images (sent as an email attachment or on a CD) identifying title, artist, medium, size, location, and other pertinent information about the image submissions.

All submissions should be in digital form. Document files should be in pdf or doc formats, image files in pdf or jpg formats. Name each image file with your last name first and name of the document, e.g.: ferris_alison_resume.doc. To have your images viewed in a certain order you can number them, e.g.: ferris_alison_1_Title of the work.jpg. Use underscores to separate words in file name, not punctuation. Please make sure submissions are labeled correctly, that you identify the Percent for Art call you are applying to, and that your name, address and other contact information is in every document. Improperly submitted or incomplete submissions may not be accepted.

HOW TO SUBMIT MATERIALS

Emailed materials should be sent to:

alison.ferris@maine.gov

For email, please write: Buxton MSAD#6 Percent for Art, in the subject line. Please attach all images and documents to the email, embedded images or documents written in the body of the email will not be accepted. Send document files as Word docs or pdf's and image files as jpg's or pdf's.

Mailed materials should be addressed to:

Percent for Art Competition: Buxton MSAD #6

C/o Alison Ferris, Assistant Director

Maine Arts Commission

193 State Street, 25 SHS

Augusta, ME 04333-0025

Contact Information

Contact: Alison Ferris
Phone: 207/287-2710
Email: alison.ferris@maine.gov