North Central BRT Shelter Artwork 2023: Info Session Online

Welcome to the North Central BRT shelter at Work Information Session. Oh, sorry. Technical difficulties here. My name is Jaclyn Blackwood, and I’m a public art project lead. My manager, Heather Campbell, is not here. But if you guys need any assistance, you are welcome to reach out to either of us for help applying or any accessibility issues. You may like us to help you with.

Oh, so sorry. Something weird is happening on here. Okay, so my pronouns are she and her. I’m a public art project lead with Calgary Arts Development and the main contact person for this project. And like I said earlier, you may reach out to me directly if you have any questions or need support of mine. The purpose of this session is to provide an overview of the North Central BRT project and application process.

It’s also an opportunity for applicants to ask questions in regards to their application. Please make sure you read through the project guidelines online before you apply. I’d like to begin with the land acknowledgment, before we get into this session. We would like to acknowledge the land we gather on, Mohkinsstsis. This is the ancestral territory of the Siksikaitsitapi – the Blackfoot People – comprising the Siksika, Kainai and Piikani Nations, as well as Treaty 7 signatories, the Tsuut’ina Nation, and the Îyârhe Nakoda Bearspaw, Chiniki and Goodstoney First Nations. Today this land is home to the Metis of Region 3 as well as many First Nations and Inuit peoples from across Turtle Island.

We acknowledge that there has been art, music, dance, storytelling and ceremony on this land since time immemorial. And it is in the spirit of this land and its people that we do our work.

We are going to start with some information about Calgary arts development, also known as Kata and the Public Art Program. Our overarching vision is a creative, connected Calgary through the arts where everyone is empowered to live a creative life. So as I’m talking, people are entering the room, so I might pause.

As the city’s designated Arts Development Authority, we invest and allocate municipal funding for the arts provided by the City of Calgary and leverage these funds to provide additional resources to the arts sector. Our programs support hundreds of arts organizations, individual artists and artist collectives in Calgary as the Arts Development Authority. We are uniquely positioned to deliver and create a future public art program built upon our knowledge and strong relationships with the arts community.

As of 2021, Calgary Arts Development is engaged in a multi-year transition with the City of Calgary to take over as operator of the public art program. We are creating a public program that is engaging, relevant and accountable. This program must reflect the rich diversity of the city, including connecting with indigenous voices to tell the past, current and future stories of Calgary, Kansas.

Our intent is to foster meaningful connections and dialog between artists and communities, utilizing art in the public realm to reflect Calgary’s diverse stories and values. Canada’s role is commissioning new artworks through open competition programing for example youth programs, artistic development and temporary exhibition ends, and building public awareness and activating the collection. The city is responsible for conserving and maintaining the collection, as well as activating the previous collection.

Calgary Arts Development is committed to working with communities that have historically been underserved. We are guided by the core principles of equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility. We are committed to the process of eliminating institutional racism, legalism and barriers in our programs, policies and practices by centering the creativity and leadership of those communities most impacted by structural inequities. Our commitment outlines a vision for a city where Calgarians of all backgrounds can access, create and participate in art as part of their everyday lives.

These four pillars of this vision are equity creating equitable access for Calgarians, who have had less opportunity for philanthropic, philanthropic and governmental support due to systemic barriers that exist in our community. Diversity supporting artistic endeavors that reflect our diverse community. And in supporting the work of artists of diverse backgrounds. Inclusion. Engaging a wide variety of voices and perspectives.

And shaping and furthering the work that we do. Inclusion. Engaging. Engaging. A wide variety of voices. And I’m sorry, did I just say that? In shaping and furthering the work that we do. Accessibility. Eliminating systemic barriers that prevent people who encounter physical, mental or cultural barriers to spaces and services from participating in the arts.

Is there a question? Sorry, I can hear somebody now.

Accommodation and exclusive access. I’m just going to mute everybody.

Thank you. Okay. Kata. We recognize that barriers within the arts community exist. Particularly for equity seeking communities. In recognition of this, we will work one on one with applicants who experience barriers to access, develop and develop accommodations that suit their unique abilities and situations. Some examples of accommodations are translation of written materials into other languages, including ASL, transcription of verbal meetings or audio and video recordings into a written document.

Language interpretation for meetings and grant writing assistance. There are two policies available for anyone who may need support to apply to this program. The Accommodation and Accessibility Policy. You can find this online as well as in the link within the call and the Application Assistance Policy. The links to both policies are in the guidelines under the Accessibility Tab.

We can provide funds to support application assistance, for example, high rating hiring translators. We will work one on one with applicants who experience barriers to access and to develop accommodations that suit their unique abilities and situations. If you are looking for assistance or have questions about eligibility, please reach out to us before applying. You can email the public art team at Public Art at Calgary Arts Development Dotcom, or you can reach out to myself or Heather directly.

I’ll have our contact information at the end of this slide show as well. And you should have received an email from me earlier today, so you should have my contact.

So now we’re going to get into talking about the North Central BRT shelter project and the timelines. So the full guidelines for this project were published on October 5th. The applications opened on the 12th of October and the application deadline is November 10th at 430 Mountain Standard Time. We anticipate the evaluation of the applications to happen in early December and ideally we will notify you by mid to late December with the results and we will distribute funding in January and work with you on acquiring artwork images for production.

So about this project, Calgary Arts Development is partnering with the City of Calgary’s Bus Rapid Transit Program to integrate artworks within the class of new bus rapid transit shelters. Selected artworks will be enlarged and printed onto the glass of 16 bus shelters for the North Central Bus Rapid Transit Project. Up to 32 images may be selected from this call.

So that means that there will be two artworks side by side in each shelter. So this is a shelter in this image that shows three, but it’s actually just the two. It’s the same style of shelter, though, just for an idea. We welcome artists who live, work or hold a connection to North Central Calgary, specifically along the transit line from Central Street through Harvest Hills Boulevard North to submit digital images of existing original 2D artwork that demonstrates how being a part of a nursing community impacts your everyday life through shared values, trust and care.

There’s a map included in the call to artists for this project that is also shown here on the slide show. So when we’re talking about connection to community anywhere along this line and adjacent to these are these transit stations or shelters, sorry, is where we’re talking about. The goals for this project include providing pedestrians and vehicle vehicle traffic with an engaging visual visual art experience, which celebrates the diversity and uniqueness of the communities along the north central BRT line by capturing the spirit, personality and our history of the communities attached create.

And we also would like your artwork to create a sense of collective well-being and care for transit users and pedestrians, as well as enhance the overall experience of transit users to support the attainment of the project goals. The artwork installed for this project will enliven the visual experience through color, texture and content, enhance the transportation infrastructure, minimize future maintenance requirements and costs, conform to applicable design codes and standards.

The City of Calgary’s guiding principles for this project are contemporary, a fresh, engaging and contemporary approach in your artwork reflective art that is community and site oriented and that provides distinct, distinct expression of the people and communities in which it exists along the line. It’s responsive art that is developed in an open and informed atmosphere and is founded in community input and engagement.

Inclusive supports a wide range of participatory and experimental opportunities for a demographically diverse audience. The local arts community and interested Calgarians.

So sorry. I think there’s something missing here. That’s okay. So artworks for consideration. So this opportunity is open to anyone who self-identifies as an artist and is recognized by their peers as an artist. Artist working in any two dimensional medium are encouraged to apply. So this could be anything from painting, drawing, printmaking, graphic design, illustration, fiber art so strongly encouraged, such as quilters, weavers, embroideries and photographers.

Digital art all will be considered, but your artwork must be original to you. We would like to see your work displayed in a new way, and we’d like to draw attention to different artists working in different mediums where this project you may submit up to ten PDF or JPEG images of your existing or original artwork for consideration. Images may people may be presented individually or in pairs.

So that means if you have a series of painting that you would like to have displayed in the shelter, that’s where the template that has been attached in the call comes in handy for us so we can see how you would like your artwork displayed. So each bus shelter will have two images, as I said. But if you’re only thinking of one image, you can put that in the shelter and then we would match that with another artist and their work.

Once we see the submissions, your images, maybe some adjusted for specific locations that you have a connection to. And you should also indicate in your description of the images if you are open to having them considered for all of the locations along the line. If you’re selected, you must be prepared to provide a high resolution digital image of your submission.

So if the artwork that you provide to us for the submission comes in and it’s clear and it’s great, and we choose you to reproduce this artwork and the quality isn’t high enough. We may be arranging for photographers to document that artwork so that it reaches the quality needed for reproduction. And we will help you with that when the time comes.

So in addition to the submitted images, like I said earlier of your artwork, please include a mockup of how you would like your artwork displayed in the shelter using the template that was provided. So there’s the shelter template. You’ll download it, and all you really have to do is cut and paste your artwork and center it in the shelter.

You don’t have to worry about Photoshopping those lines into it, but that’s just a guideline for you to understand that it’s not a full sheet of glass that is going to house your artwork. It’s going to be three panels of glass. So there will be a line between the artwork. So this is just for you to envision how that would be displayed, and also for our selection committee to understand what the layout would look like.

So you must include this in addition to your artwork images. So here’s an example of what that would look like. But like I said, do not feel the need to Photoshop those lines. And if you would like to, that’s great. But I think we can imagine that for ourselves.

So for fabrication, please be advised that your artwork will be a large term maximum width of 182.9 centimeters or 72 inches. Due to limitations. Limitations of printing on glass. The reproduction. Reproduction will not be an exact representation of the original artwork. This is because the technology is not as advanced as other printing mechanisms are. This is like a ceramic print, so it’s like a berry.

It’s like a fruit glass ink that gets printed onto the glass. So the colors may not be identical to the colors in your artwork, but it will be very representative of what you are submitting for this call. And if you’re looking for an example, I strongly encourage you to check out the bus rapid transit shelters that currently exist with artwork in them.

International of 17th out of Southeast is the most current BRT shelter project that we did with Art work in it. So that will be a good reference for you to understand what the reproduction will look like. So all submissions must be cleared for copyright reproduction. That’s something for you to know. And if your artwork is selected for reproduction for this project, small samples of a section of your art work will be provided before we continue with the printing process.

So what that means is the fabricator will print a square section like the corner of your artwork or an area with a significant amount of detail, and they will send it to us to review to make sure that there’s no banding. So banding or is like a printer line or any major color discrepant phase. So we’ll get those samples and you’ll be able to come into our office and review them or we’ll document them and send them to you over email just so you know what your reproduction will likely look like.

So there will be that component of engagement between the project lead and the artist. So here’s an example. Technology may have advanced since the last project. We the way that this project is being managed is the City of Calgary is responsible for the fabrication of the shelters. So that includes the hiring, the fabricator who is going to be embedding the artwork into the glass.

So that call for the fabricator just doesn’t close until October 31st. So once we have them on board, we’ll know more. But this is a good example of what the previous fabrication companies were able to achieve. So this artwork below is a good example of what the quality would look like. It may be a little bit brighter than the glass prints and simulation, and I strongly encourage you also to watch the videos that were included in the artist call that explain the process of how this artwork will be printed on the glass.

Okay. Moving on to the evaluation criteria. So assess first, we’ll be scoring your application based on the following criteria rated out of a possible 100 points, your letter of intent. So this includes a response to each of the following questions, which are going to be prompted in the smart, simple application portal. So what is your connection to one or more of the communities along the central Calgary BRT line?

How does your artwork reflect what it means to be part of a community and describe your artistic practice and how it connects to the project goals? Your artistic practice will be graded out of 30 points. This is excellent of work in conceptual, esthetic and technical terms. The quality of the images submitted for consideration are strong enough for reproduction and your CD.

So your artistic experience and background and the project goals does this application meet? The goals of the project celebrates the diversity and uniqueness of the communities along North Central BRT line. By capturing the spirit, personality and or history of the communities attached creates a sense of collective well-being and care for transit users and pedestrians and enhances the overall experience of transit users.

The proposals will be evaluated in a ranked ranked according to the outlined below. The evaluation will be based on a zero out of ten scale, ten exceeds expectations, eight somewhat exceeds expectations. Six meets the expectations or somewhat meets expectations to does not meet expectations and zero is basically you provided no response or didn’t complete your application. So I’m going to quickly run through the application process.

So in order to apply for this project, you need to create a profile file on Smart Simple. So when you’re in the call, there’s a link for you to go here. So you’ll go in and you’ll enter in your email. So create a password and then it will send you an email giving you access to this portal. When you register for this project, we’re accepting individual artists and artist collectives, so make sure you choose one of those two in order to be able to view the call.

And then once you get in there, it’s going to show you what opportunities are available to you. So currently there’s the one opportunity. So you’ll click on this box and I’m just going to show you hold on 1/2, I’m going to just pause my video and I’ll walk you through this quick, okay? I hope everyone can see this.

So once you go in, once you go into the portal, like I said, you’ll see an opportunity that is available to you and you’ll click on this once you create your profile, your profile, and make sure when you’re creating your profile that your artist statement is up to date. It’s really important that you’re speaking about your current work, and in some way it’s kind of informed by the questions that are being prompted to you in this call because that is going to be ported over for assessors to review.

So once you’re in here and you see the opportunity, you’ll click on this and you’ll hit apply and you’ll begin your application. And it’s pretty straight, simple. But like I said, if you need any help, you are welcome to contact us and we will walk through it with you over Zoom or in person. So your name, last name.

What type of applicant your resume or CV will be uploaded in your contact information area? Specify your artistic discipline, your years of practice, and then, like I said, your artistic statement, and then these things will be ported over into your submission. So then once you’ve done this or I’ve got to go down, you would hit you can save your draft and come back and make edits, but you must save it before you go into your submission requirements.

So you would hit submit when you’re ready. And then you go into submission requirements and you would answer all of the questions that are prompted for this call. So how did you hear about us? Your letter of intent is broken out into three sections. Each question has 300 words for you to create a response. Do not feel required to use all 300 of those words, but if you are able to, that would be great.

So you’ll describe your artistic background and how it connects with the goals. Then you’ll describe your connection to one or more of the communities along the North Central Line and that one’s got 500 words, and then how your artwork reflects what it means to be a part of a meaningful community. So for that, that’s just kind of sharing, like how being a part of a community evokes good feelings, how you interact with one another, buying support and community or neighborly interactions, things like that.

And then once you fill that part out, you will go down and you will to upload your artwork for consideration. And so for each piece of artwork, you have to share the title of the artwork, the date that it was created or finished, the size of it, the medium used a brief description, if you’d like, and the location, the location that you would like it to exist.

So then here’s where you upload your artwork, so you just drag and drop your files here. But in addition to your artwork images, this is also where you upload, you drag and drop your bus shelter templates. So please don’t forget that. So for every artwork you upload, you also upload the bus shelter template with the artwork in it.

So you can just copy the same information that you’re sharing for that individual artwork into the shelter description. And just maybe like just say Sunshine and Sunshine Template might just change the title so that we understand that they’re both in their and then that’s it. So once you’re, you’ve got all your stuff in there, you save and validate, you can come back to it and edit it.

But once you hit submit, that is gone into the system and you cannot go back and make changes. If for some reason you feel the need to make changes, you’re welcome to reach out to us and we can go into the system and re-open it for you. But that just please try and make sure that you just save it as a draft.

Yes, we know that you’re going to come back to it. I’m just going to go back to my PowerPoint here. So that’s not again, my name is Jaci or Jacqueline. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out.