City Centre

at Big Spring

Artists everywhere invited to submit qualifications for $530,000 Huntsville art project

Arts Huntsville invites local, national and international artists to submit qualifications for $530,000 public art project

By Erin Dunbar at WHNT.com

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. –  Arts Huntsville announced an international Request for Qualifications to design a large-scale, multi-site public art installation in downtown Huntsville.

The project expected to span three sites will include a renovated plaza area in Big Spring Park, an interior plaza at RCP Companies’ CityCentre mixed-use development, and a pocket park adjacent to Redstone Federal Credit Union’s new branch located along Huntsville’s developing greenway system. The award for the project is $530,000, making it the largest-scale public art project ever recorded in Huntsville.

Selected semi-finalists can propose artwork based on the project criteria. Up to four semi-finalist artists or artistic teams will receive $3,000 honorariums to create and present a design proposal. The deadline to submit qualifications is Friday, February 15th.

RCP Companies, the Community Foundation of Greater Huntsville, Redstone Federal Credit Union, the City of Huntsville, and Arts Huntsville are the collaborators of this massive project. Arts Huntsville will manage the project and the City will own the pieces.

The project aim is to represent a visual link between Big Spring Park, CityCentre, and the pocket park. It will also create a collaborative space that provides social opportunities with the community. Strong visual aesthetics are necessary in order to represent the community of Huntsville and celebrate the community’s core values.

“We’ve watched temporary public art in Big Spring Park captivate the community this past year, and now this group of community partners are going to help an artist create pieces that will engage and inspire us each day in the heart of downtown,” said Allison Dillon-Jauken, Arts Huntsville executive director.

Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battled added, “Huntsville is an innovative, smart city driven by creative people. It’s been a long-standing community vision to integrate more public art into our daily lives. This exciting project takes this vision to the next level.”

Interested artists can learn more and apply at www.artshuntsville.org