« The City of Calgary Public Art Program is seeking up to three professional or emerging artists for a 12- week community-based public art residency from Aug. 8 to Oct. 30, 2016. Of the three studios available two will be reserved for local and regional artists and one will be open to artist on the national level. For this pilot year, only Canadian resident artists are eligible.

The Open AiR program aims to provide time and space for artists to research and develop their ideas and allow them to explore issues of community, geography and place through a public art lens in a way that encourages and supports active involvement of the community throughout the process. The artists will have the opportunity to information share and work together; they will also have the support of the public art program and the community liaison in order to assist them in deeper research for their practice.

The residency will be located in the historic Fire Hall #6 (1101 Memorial Dr, N.W.) in the Hillhurst Sunnyside community next to the Louise Bridge connecting to the West Downtown community. Artists are welcome to consider both communities in their exploration.

The first week of the residency will be programmed in a way that will facilitate exploration of the neighborhoods by providing exclusive access to elements that make it unique such as spaces, local people or events. The programming will be tailored to the selected artists and developed in collaboration with the host community, the advisory team and the project team. Further programming and access to special equipments may be negotiated.

Artists are invited to propose their own approach to best meet the needs of their practice within the established structure of the Open AiR residency.

The all-inclusive artist budget for this project is up to $21,000 per artist or collective, travel and accommodation assistance is available to artist living outside of Calgary please see budget details bellow.

The intention of this Call to Artists is to select an artist(s) based on qualifications, experience and references. Design concepts and prices are not required.

The submission deadline is Tuesday, May 24th, 2016 at 4 p.m. MST.
Info Session: For local artists and community members interested in learning more about the program a Public Art 101 session will be held at the Fire Hall #6 (1111 Memorial Dr. N.W.) on Wednesday, May 11, 2016 from 6 to 8;:30 p.m. »

For more information about the project, please see this Open-AiR-CallToArtists pdf.

-posted with permission by the City of Calgary