Artists Wanted To Help Design Cal Anderson Park’s AIDS Memorial Pathway

ACT UP protests will be one part of the AIDS Crisis to be remembered with the AIDS Memorial Pathway

Work on actual planning for the AIDS Memorial Pathway is well underway with an impending deadline looming to find an artist/team of artists to help design the project due to be completed by 2020. The project is to be centered at Capitol Hill’s Cal Anderson Park and also tied to the new development underway at the Capitol Hill Light Rail Station adjacent to the park. 

The AIDS Memorial Pathway, aka “The AMP” has been a project in the works for many years, “will use public art to create a physical place for remembrance and reflection; utilize technology to share stories about the epidemic and the diverse community responses to the crisis; and provide a call to action to end HIV/AIDS, stigma, and discrimination.”

And, the site chosen will be in the heart of Seattle’s traditional LGBTQ neighborhood and partially centered on a park named after a Seattle queer pioneer, CAL ANDERSON, Washington State’s first openly gay elected official,  who served in both chambers of the Washington State House from 1987 until his death in August of 1995. Anderson would have been 70 years old on May 4th of this month.

Here’s more info on the call for artist(s) via the AMP website (go here for the story). Deadline is next Tuesday, May 29th.

The AMP: AIDS Memorial Pathway, in partnership with Seattle’s Office of Arts & Culture, community leaders, and a range of City agencies, will select a professional artist or artist team to work with a design team of developers, architects, landscape architects, community members, technology artists/consultants, and others to develop, plan, and scope artworks and art concepts for a community-driven memorial project honoring the impact of the AIDS epidemic on Seattle and King County. Through extensive collaboration with the design team, careful consideration of the sites, deep investigation of the history of AIDS and those most impacted by the disease, and thorough engagement of the impacted communities, the design team artist(s) will scope and propose future public art projects at multiple sites in and around Cal Anderson Park in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, the historic and cultural center of the AIDS epidemic in King County. The memorial artworks will be integrated into the Capitol Hill Transit-Oriented Development, a series of residential and commercial buildings, open spaces, and access to Cal Anderson Park.

Each part of The AMP can and should evoke different responses and provide varied experiences, while also acknowledging that they are part of a larger memorial. Art along the pathway will be experienced primarily by pedestrians and cyclists. The works will communicate with and engage diverse visitors – from school children to healthcare workers, from park visitors to area residents, from the LGBTQIA+ community to those outside of it, artists, AIDS survivors, and those whose lives were affected by the crisis. Participants will find themselves in an atmosphere conducive to remembrance and reflection and be led to gain awareness of the varied communities’ responses to AIDS. Through these direct experiences, the art will address social and cultural concerns in which humans face the hardships of fear, discrimination, and the bewildering loss of loved ones. AIDS was and is a crisis that affects all people, and it is a priority that this project be accessible to the widest possible range of communities.

An independent creative digital team, with whom the selected lead design team artist(s) will work, will be contracted separately to construct an integral Augmented/Extended Reality (A/XR) component. The A/XR technology will be instrumental to fulfilling the project goals, and this lead artist position will collaborate with the A/XR digital team to integrate art experiences into this technology platform

Review Capitol Hill TOD developer Gerding Edlen’s original Design Proposal to the Seattle Design Review Commission or learn more about the project’s history, site selection, and current status here.

Please read the full call for more details.

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Budget.
The budget is $40,000 USD, inclusive of all artist fees and expenses, presentations, documentation of the work, travel, and applicable taxes. Payment will be made in installments based on benchmarks established by the Office of Arts & Culture in consultation with the artist(s).

With a separate budget of approximately $1.1 million inclusive of funding for the Augmented/Extended Reality (A/XR) and technology component, the selected design team artist(s) will scope future projects for fabrication/installation, and coordinate with an independent creative digital team who will be contracted to build an A/XR platform.

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Eligibility.
The call is open to established professional artists living in the United States who are over 18 years of age. We encourage diversity in our collection. Artists whose work is well represented in the city’s collection are eligible to apply, but the artist selection panel will consider artistic diversity as one factor in the selection process. Students are not eligible to apply.

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Deadline.
Tuesday, May 29, 2018, 10:59pm PDT.