Prince George’s County Art in Public Places Program has released three requests for qualifications (RFQ). These public art opportunities pertain to the Laurel Library, District VII Police Station, Fort Washington and the Brandywine Fire Station. See project descriptions below or at pgahc.org.

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Laurel Library
Prince George’s County, Maryland, is accepting qualifications from artists or artist teams interested in a public art opportunity at the County’s new library in Laurel. The selected artist/team will design, fabricate, and install two works of art in the form of exterior sculptures that have the potential to become landmarks or identifiers for Laurel. Download the RFQ

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District VII Police Station

Prince George’s County, Maryland, is accepting qualifications from artists or artist teams interested in a public art opportunity at the County’s new Police Station in Fort Washington. The selected artist/team will design, fabricate, and install a work of art in the form of an exterior sculpture that has the potential to become a landmark or identifier for Fort Washington. Download RFQ

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Brandywine Fire Station

Prince George’s County, Maryland, is accepting qualifications from artists or artist teams interested in a public art opportunity at the County’s new Fire Station in Brandywine. The selected artist/team will design, fabricate, and install a work of art in the form of a mural that has the potential to become a landmark or identifier for Brandywine. The selected artist will also work with the Art in Public Places Program to implement a community engagement plan with students at Gwynn Park High School, located directly across the road from the new Fire Station. Download RFQ

This is the twenty-fourth in a series of interviews with each of the Sondheim Award Semifinalists. Finalists have been announced, and will be on exhibit at the Walters Art Museum June 21 to August 17; remaining semifinalists with be exhibited at the Decker, Meyerhoff and Pinkard Galleries at MICA  July 17 to August 3, 2014.

Name: Amanda Burnham
Age: 34
Website: www.amandaburnham.com
Current Location: Hampden
Hometown: Toledo, OH
School:  undergrad/BA – Harvard ’01 grad/MFA – Yale ’07

30 BurnhamCurrent favorite artists or artwork: Anyone who draws. I’ve always really enjoyed Barry McGee’s work. Dieter Roth is another huge favorite. Locally I think there is a lot of great stuff being made, but I especially like Nora Sturges’ work (she is a colleague at Towson) and Gary Kachadourian’s work.

What is your day job? How do you manage balancing work with studio time with your life? I’m an Associate Professor in the Department of Art+Design, Art History, and Art Education at Towson. It’s a full time position, so, during the school year, I tend to work in fits and spurts – in the evenings and on weekends. Summers, however, are expansive and wonderful for studio time. I try to get as much done as possible! Throughout the year, I travel several times to do installation projects at various spaces, and the large scale and quick turnaround on these works keeps me going when my studio time is otherwise sparse.

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How would you describe your work, and your studio practice? Maximalist. I like packing lots of tiny little novelistic details into all the drawings I do. Lately (over the past several years) most of my work has had to do with describing cities, which is a theme that attracts me, I think, because cities contain so much. I also work best between extremes – very small, dense, and tight sometimes –  big, explosive, and rough other times.

What part of artmaking to you like or enjoy the most? The least? I love seeing something that had me nervous for weeks finally snap together. Of course, the uncertainty that precedes that immense feeling of relief and surprise never ceases to be uncomfortable…

What research do you do for your art practice? One of the most important research activities I engage in these days is running. Running is an incredibly direct way to encounter the city and see things I’d miss from a car. The speed of running is a great balance between covering a lot of ground without compromising an awareness of detail. I get compositional ideas from seeing elements of my surroundings converge and separate as I approach and ultimately move past them. It’s a terrific way to get a sense of a new place – I make a point to go for a long run (or several, if possible) anywhere I travel. It also reliably puts me in a headspace that is more energized and inventive. Walking, sitting, and watching are also terrific, but I usually use my runs to generate ideas about *where* to return and subsequently linger.

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What books have you read lately you would recommend? Movies? Television? Music? I’ve recently discovered Mary Roach and am tearing through all of her books – “Packing for Mars” is great, and I’m eager to get going on “Gulp”, which is a tour of the human digestive system. I read “The Tender Bar” by J.R. Moehringer lately, and thought it was a lovely memoir. The currently airing remake of “Cosmos” with Neil DeGrasse Tyson is gorgeous, occasionally very pleasingly biting – a wonderful homage to the original.

 Do you ever get in creative dry spells, and if so, how do you get out of them?
Sure – but I’ve come to regard “dry spells” as a necessary and inevitable part of the overall process. I find that at times that I have a hard time making, I’m often soaking in a lot of stuff that will come out in later work.

How do you challenge yourself in your work? I analyze past work, and I try to keep apprised of my conceptual peers (both past and present). I ask myself whether I’ve made something too conventional, or whether I’m repeating myself too much. I always try to do something new and untested (by me) in everything I do – whether that’s an idea or a process, there has to be some element of the unknown and potentially worrisome for work to stand a chance of being interesting.

What is your dream project? I’d like to construct an installation work in a large, dedicated, and very public venue, inviting participation by passersby, for a very long period of time. I imagine a huge living drawing that goes through many permutations and has no real endpoint- much like cities themselves.

Pyramid Atlantic 2014 Book Arts Fair– Call for Exhibitors and Presenters

Pyramid Atlantic is currently accepting applications for exhibitors and presenters for its 2014 Book Arts Fair. This year’s theme, Outside the Margin, focuses on book art and contemporary prints that explore the outer edges of the mediums.

The deadline for applying is July 15, 2014.

For more details, visit: www.pyramidatlanticbookartsfair.

Request for Proposals: IMPACT 2014
SITE: Hopkins Plaza

Application Deadline: Saturday, June 21, 2014 by 5pm

Maryland Art Place (MAP) is now accepting applications for its fall 2014 IMPACT project. IMPACT is an annual, public art program developed to extend Maryland Art Place’s reach to broader audiences. Each IMPACT project is unique and developed based on the partnering site. MAP plans to sponsor roughly three to four IMPACT projects over the course of 2014.

This fall, MAP is partnering with the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore. The Downtown Partnership is offering Hopkins Plaza in downtown Baltimore for an artist or team of artists to create an original temporary outdoor installation based on light. Artists are strongly encouraged to visit Hopkins Plaza prior to submission. A small area or the entire plaza area may be incorporated for this installation (see images below). MAP and the Downtown Partnership encourage proposals using light and/or light elements. The proposed work(s) must be able to withstand the weather elements and may not block any of the sidewalks or security measures in place. Suggested installations may also include: sound, projections, etc. Because potentially proposed work will include the use of electricity, a schedule of illuminated hours will be made available to the public for viewing.

Eligibility: This call for proposals is open to all artists residing in the state of Maryland.

**Please note that work should be appropriate for viewers of all ages.

The selected artist/artist team will receive a $750 stipend to cover the cost of materials and direct costs of the project. Installation is scheduled to take place the last two weeks of September 2014. MAP and the Downtown Partnership will host an opening reception at the site on October 3, 2014. Press Announcements will be produced announcing the selected artist or artist team the last week of July.

Please send your proposal to impact@mdartplace.org by 5pm on June 21, 2014. Along with your application, you are welcome to submit up to 3 images or illustrated sketches. Past installation work samples will also be accepted.

Application Deadline: Saturday, June 21, 2014 by 5pm

Click here to download the full application.

GENERAL TIMELINE:
RFP: May 2 – June 21, 2014
Announce selected artist/artist team: Week of July 14
Installation: September 15 – September 28, 2014
Opening Reception: October 3, 2014
De-installation of Work: TBD

About the Downtown Partnership, Baltimore: Downtown Partnership makes Downtown Baltimore a great place for businesses, employees, residents, and visitors.

Downtown Partnership is supported by over 650 member organizations. The most prestigious employers from Baltimore and its surrounding counties and states—ranging from Downtown’s largest businesses and institutions to the smallest entrepreneurial firms—are members of Downtown Partnership. We provide our members with a wide range of benefits, including but not limited to: networking events, marketing assistance, access to strategic research, and constituent services—benefits you won’t find anywhere else.

Contact: MAP’s Program Manager, Paul Shortt at impact@mdartplace.org or 410.962.8565 for more information about the IMPACT project at the The Downtown Partnership/Hopkins Plaza.

This is the twenty-third in a series of interviews with each of the Sondheim Award Semifinalists. Finalists have been announced, and will be on exhibit at the Walters Art Museum June 21 to August 17; those not selected as finalists with be exhibited at the Decker, Meyerhoff and Pinkard Galleries at MICA  July 17 to August 3, 2014.

Name: Elizabeth Crisman
Age: 39
Website: elizabethcrisman.com
Current Location: Baltimore, MD
Hometown: Vienna, VA
School: BFA Virginia Commonwealth University, MFA Maryland Institute College of Art

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Current favorite artists or artwork: Uta Barth, Kiki Smith, Big Man by Ron Mueck and too many more to list…..

What is your day job? How do you manage balancing work with studio time with your life? Currently adjunct professor and run a gallery at a community college. It can be hard, especially mid-semester when everything is happening at once.  I try to incorporate moments here and there, such as stopping somewhere on my way to work and taking a few photographs or work on the mold making in between other priorities.

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How would you describe your work, and your studio practice? It has many layers. It’s hopefully thought provoking and poetic. Slow and steady with pausing moments to think about what I’m doing.

What part of artmaking do you like or enjoy the most? The least? I like the playing and experimenting that goes on in the studio.  I sometimes don’t like to finalize a piece cause it has so many possibilities and directions it can go.

What research do you do for your art practice? Depends, I’ve researched techniques and used them in my work. Sometimes it is more reading and experiencing new places. These days, I’m interested in archaeology and the sociology of man kind where I’ve done a bit of reading on evolution and how man lived through Paleolithic and Neolithic time periods. I’ve also volunteered on archaeology excavations in Israel as well as local areas in Anne Arundel County.

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What books have you read lately you would recommend? Movies? Television? Music? In the Woods by Tana French, Radical Face – The Family Tree: The Roots

Do you ever get in creative dry spells, and if so, how do you get out of them?Definitely! Play with materials and ideas until something peaks my interest.

How do you challenge yourself in your work? Try to incorporate new concepts and techniques over time.

What is your dream project? Would like to travel more in the US and overseas and create a series of images/artifacts. Maybe even create a series specific to historical sites from these travels.

Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation through its Creative Fellowships program annually supports residencies for writers, composers, and visual artists at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. The visiting artist is provided with a private studio, room and board, and the company of other artists from around the nation, for an intensive period of self-guided creative exploration and development. In addition to sponsorship support, a small travel subsidy is awarded to the selected artist.

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Interested artists in Delaware, Maryland, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Virginia, and West Virginia should apply directly to the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. More information is available here.  

The next deadline for applications is May 15, 2014.

Star-Spangled Spectacular Call for Entry

On behalf of Star-Spangled 200, Inc., the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts (BOPA) seeks exhibitors and entertainers to be featured in the Star-Spangled Spectacular Festival Villages at the Inner Harbor and Fort McHenry, September 11-15, 2014. We are looking for family-friendly, interactive exhibits and entertainers that feature the Star-Spangled Banner, either the song or the flag itself, and its iconic role in America’s past present and future. Exhibits and entertainment may also feature general American patriotism, and/or the heritage, history and culture of Baltimore and Maryland.

Exhibitors
Proposals for exhibits may include, but are not limited to, craft-making activities, period re-enactments, games and demonstrations. Exhibits should be designed to engage thousands of festival-goers each day of the festival, at no cost to the festival-goer (to help offset the cost to reach these mass audiences, honorarium for supplies may be available, as well as volunteer support to supplement staff). Exhibit space will generally be limited to a 10’ x 10’ footprint, although additional space may be provided to accommodate the content of the exhibit. As a general rule, sales will not be permitted within exhibit space, but can be addressed on a case-by-case basis for non-profit exhibitors only.

Exhibitors must be available to present their exhibit all days and hours that the Star-Spangled festival villages are open to the public:

Thursday, September 11, 2014
11:00am – 6:00pm
Friday, September 12, 2014
11:00am – 6:00pm
Saturday, September 13, 2014
11:00am – 10:00pm
Sunday, September 14, 2014
11:00am – 6:00pm
Monday, September 15, 2014
11:00am – 6:00pm

Entertainers
Proposals for entertainment may involve street theater, pop-up performances and impersonators as well as music and dance stage performances. Performances should be 30-60 minutes in length. All performances will take place at outdoor performance venues only. Please indicate the number of performances you are able to offer and which festival dates/times you are available.

How to Apply
To submit an exhibit or entertainment proposal, please send the following information to Kim Marshall (kmarshall@promotionandarts.org) no later than June 30, 2014.

  • Name/Organization
  • POC Information: name, mailing address, phone and email address
  • Description of Exhibit or Entertainment
  • Requirements/Requests

BOPA festival coordinators will review all proposals, and reserve the right to ask for revisions if needed.

Please Note
Commercial displays or exhibits that do not complement the theme of the festival will not be considered through this call for entry. To learn more about sponsorship opportunities and package pricing, please contact Ann Beegle, Executive Director, Star-Spangled 200 Inc. at 410-767-6274 or abeegle@starspangled200.com.