City of Memphis | UrbanArt Commission
Douglass Park | Call to Artists
Release Date: Monday, November 29th, 2021
Budget: $50,000 (includes three finalist honoraria of $500 each)
Deadline: Monday, January 10, 2022 at 11:59 pm
Eligibility: Any artist living and working within the Memphis metropolitan area. Artists may submit only one proposal per project opportunity, but are invited to submit as a team if desirable.
Information Session: Wednesday December 15th @ 5:30pm, RSVP now.
BACKGROUND
About Douglass:
Douglass was founded by William Rush-Plummer and named after Fredrick Douglass. It is a community on the north side of Memphis that borders Hyde Park and Hollywood and is surrounded by railroad tracks to the north, south, and west. It is a neighbor to the Binghampton and Nutbush communities.
William Rush-Plummer was born into a life of slavery as the only son of a white slave master and a slave from Africa. William’s mother demanded that William Jr. not be given the Rush family name, so their son was given the hyphenated last name of Rush-Plummer. When slavery in the South was abolished slaves were promised 40 acres and a mule. Although many newly freed slaves did not receive the promise, William Rush Sr. gave his son 40 acres in North Memphis. He turned his land into a community and named it after Fredrick Douglass, a man he had come to admire. William Rush-Plummer was ordained in his young adult years and began to develop the land after his family was released from slavery. He began opening many churches on his land including St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church (Need More Missionary Baptist Church), St. Stephens MB Church, St. John MB Church, St. Charles MB Church and at least three other local churches that were later sold to local Pastors and their congregations.
With children as the neighborhood’s focus, the Douglass community is home to Douglass Head Start, Douglass K-8 Optional School, Douglass High School and The Douglass Community Center. The Original Douglass High School was built in 1938, but after burning to the ground and a relocation, the current Douglass High School can be considered one of the oldest but newest Memphis City Schools with a state-of-the-art 1,500-seat varsity gym, a 1,100-seat auditorium, a football field with a walking path in the middle of Douglass Park, and baseball field at the northeast corner of Douglass Park.
Douglass Park, located behind the original and new Douglass High School, is where many children have come together since the 1960s for the Day Camp during the summer months. In Douglass Park, many children from the community were taught how to play such sports as basketball, swimming lessons, tennis, children's theatre, arts, and crafts, and they competed against other Parks in Memphis. In the fall and winter months, Douglass Community Center is where children and those within the community learned indoor sports, arts and craft, straight pool, bumper pool, table tennis, card, and board games, basketball, Girl and Boy Scout Troop meetings, piano lessons and they competed against other community centers in the City of Memphis. Still today, you will find children filling the center and the park each day. Additionally, celebrations such as Juneteenth are held in Douglass Park. Since 1993, residents have gathered with out of state visitors and locals to celebrate the holiday.
About TTINDRDC:
The Time Is Now Douglass Redevelopment Corporation (TTINDRDC) consists of concerned residents committed to restore, revitalize, and redevelop the Douglass, Bungalow, and Crump communities through charity and volunteerism to an economically viable, self sustained community that results in people living in a self-sufficient, enriched, and rewarding community.
About UAC:
The UrbanArt Commission (UAC) works to create opportunities for artists and neighborhoods to connect and shape spaces through public art. Since 2002, UAC has managed the City of Memphis’s Percent-For-Art Program, which allocates funds annually to develop public art in connection to capital improvement projects. UAC also facilitates public art projects throughout the city working with various partners and clients to support artists and new experiences with art.
SITE SPECIFICS
The Douglass Park Pool House is located at 1616 Ash Street, Memphis, TN 38108. Other nearby landmarks and institutions include Douglass High School, Douglass HeadStart, Douglass Community Center, and Douglass K-8 Optional School. The selection committee is interested in a mural that spans several amenities within the park including the exterior walls of the pool house building, the four Douglass Park basketball goals and an exterior wall of the community center to tie all three spaces together. The design elements linking the spaces should feel cohesive and are not expected to cover the entire wall in any location. Artists are encouraged to consider all of the activities that are hosted in the park and at the community center as well as the involvement of youth in these spaces.
SCOPE OF WORK
UAC and The City of Memphis, in partnership with The Time Is Now Douglass Redevelopment Corporation, are seeking an artist to create a mural that speaks to the pride of the community, engages neighborhood youth, and pays tribute to Douglass’s rich Black history.
The selection committee has expressed interest in a mural that:
Pays tribute to the name of the community, its founders, and the African American ancestors who are celebrated annually in the park on Juneteenth
Celebrates Douglass’s pride and longevity, the value of the land, and the establishment of a neighborhood built from slavery to ownership
Feels warm and welcoming to neighborhood youth who are active in the park
Compliments and considers nearby existing public art
PROJECT EXPECTATIONS
A selection committee organized by UAC will review submitted portfolios, and will invite finalists to submit site-specific design proposals. All finalists will receive a stipend of $500 for their designs. The selected artist will be expected to work closely with the Selection Committee and UAC to execute the proposed murals.
SELECTION COMMITTEE
Kathy Temple, The Time is Now Douglass RDC (Community Partner)
Rita Houston, Douglass Resident
Ericia Holland, Douglass Community Center Staff
Susan Maakestad, Artist Representative
Melissa Dunn, Artist Representative
Roger Ekstrom, Parks Representative
A City Engineering Representative (non-voting)
PROJECT BUDGET
Total project budget is $50,000, including artist honoraria - up to three finalists will receive a $500 honorarium for a site-specific proposal. Design budget $12,125; Fabrication budget $36,375 all-inclusive.
PROJECT TIMELINE
Monday, November 29th, 2021 RFQ released
Wednesday, December 15th, 2021 UAC Virtual Information Session
Monday, January 10th, 2022 RFQ deadline
Monday, January 24th, 2022 Notify finalists of RFP invitation
Monday, February 7th, 2022 RFP deadline
Spring 2022 Completion celebration
APPLICATION GUIDELINES
Please submit the following materials online by following the “Douglass Park Mural” via the Submit link below:
Completed application form
A typed letter explaining your interest in the project and your general approach/concept to its design and production. Please do not submit design proposals at this point.
Up to 20 images of past work including title of work, date, medium, budget and project partners, if any.
Résumé or CV, not to exceed 2 pages.
List of three professional references, including current phone and email.
To apply to an open Request for Qualifications (RFQ) or Request for Proposals (RFP), go to uacmem.org/calls-to-artists. Follow the “Douglass Park Mural” link to view more details.
Clicking on the Submit button will redirect you to our Submittable page, which contains all of our current open opportunities. Click the Submit button next to the opportunity that you wish to apply for, or if you are already within an opportunity, scroll down to the Create your account / Have an account? Sign in form.
If you already have a Submittable account, click the Have an account? Sign in tab to sign in to your account.
If you don’t have an account, you must create one to apply. Create your free account by filling out the Create your account form. Fill in all information and click the Create Account and Continue button to continue with the submission process.
From there, you will be able to complete and submit your application. You can now use this account login when submitting to all future UAC opportunities. Once you have submitted your application, you will receive a confirmation email that confirms receipt of your full application.
For more information about this project, please contact:
Whitney Williams | Program Manager
901.335.1343 | whitney@uacmem.org
This RFQ can be found on www.uacmem.org/calls-to-artists
INFORMATION SESSIONS
UAC will host a virtual information session for interested artists on Wednesday, December 15th at 5:30 pm. The virtual session will be recorded and a link made available to applicants who are unable to attend during that time. Interested artists who have not completed a public art project previously or not completed a mural at this scale are strongly encouraged to reach out to the UAC team in advance of submitting their application. Artists may also schedule a meeting with UAC staff to review their application and portfolio. Appointments are available until 1 week prior to the close of the call to artists. See project contact information below. RSVP now
DISCLAIMERS
UAC is committed to equity and inclusion in our work. People of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, differently-abled and neurodiverse persons, indigenous peoples, youth, seniors, and women are strongly encouraged to apply.
Applicants will be notified as to the status of their application. Commissioning of artists by UAC and the pursuit of all UAC activities are implemented without preference to racial or ethnic origins, gender, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, disability, or age.
UAC reserves the right to modify this solicitation and to request additional information from participating artists.
UAC reserves the right to accept or reject, at any time prior to the commissioning of a work, any or all proposals when the acceptance, rejection, waiver or advertisement would be in the best interest of the project.
The UAC team will be responsible for all correspondence and communication by and between applicants and members of selection panels. Discussion regarding these projects by and between any applicant and any member of a selection panel outside of regularly scheduled meetings during the selection process may be grounds for the disqualification of the applicant. Such determination shall be at the discretion of UAC.
