project overview
Memphis Sports And Event Center MUral | Liberty Park
Artist: Allie Mounce X Anthony Lee
Total budget: $75,000 (includes three finalist honoraria of $500 each)
Upcoming benchmark/update: Schematic Design
Next committee meeting date:
aRTIsts:
Allie Mounce + Anthony Lee
Allie Mounce
Allie Mounce is a lifelong Memphian and designer. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville with a BFA in Graphic Design in 2010, and has since created award-winning work in illustration, branding, and web design for creative agencies, national brands, and international clients under her own name and as part of her design studio, Pretty Useful Co.
Mounce’s clean, geometric illustration and branding style is influenced by midcentury artists like Charley Harper. A digital native, she creates compositions and then tranfers them to physical applications including painted murals and screenprints.
Past clients include: Meta, Paramount, FedEx, Critical Role, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, Memphis Tourism, and more.
Anthony Lee
Anthony D. Lee is influenced by the culture and heritage of the places that he’s lived, though he considers himself a Memphis Native. Lee credits his West Indian roots as an important contributing factor in his creative development- his vivid palette was inspired in St. Croix, of the U.S. Virgin Islands, his boyhood home. During the 1990s, Lee was a student of Bill Hicks, an instructor at the nearby Memphis College of Art. Lee studied briefly at NC State’s School of Design in 2001, after having served a stint as a paratrooper in the U.S. Army’s 82d Airborne Division.
Lee’s initial bodies of work were mixed-media panels with heavy color saturation and symbolic narrative content. His work has been featured at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Powerhouse, Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis College of Art, Arkansas Arts Center, National Civil Rights Museum, Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts, and several galleries throughout the U.S. He has also created many public art projects and large-scale mural works, of which one was nationally recognized and awarded in 2009.
BACKGROUND
About Memphis Sports And Event Center:
The newly-opened Memphis Sports and Events Center is a 227,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility designed to promote sports tourism while simultaneously engaging Memphians. Programs within include tournaments, youth and adult leagues, camps, afterschool programs and much, much more. Situated in Liberty Park, the MSEC boasts 16 basketball courts or 32 volleyball courts which can be converted to accommodate many other sports (i.e., futsal, wrestling, cheer, dance, gymnastics, etc.) and events (such as graduations, fairs and conferences). In addition, the Center has a full-service cafe, spectator seating for thousands, VIP suites and will soon open other amenities such as a kids entertainment area and an esports studio. This venue is among the largest indoor sports facilities in the Mid-South, making Memphis the destination for all youth sports tournaments. Beyond attracting many traveling families for weekend athletic events, this center serves a great number of our city’s youth throughout the week.
*for more information visit: https://themsec.com/
About Liberty Park:
Liberty Park land was once purchased from the old Deaderick Plantation, which would eventually become Orange Mound - the first neighborhood subdivision built for and by Black Americans. The property was later home to the Montgomery Park Race Track, organized by Henry A. Montgomery in 1851 who also established The Memphis Jockey Club on the park grounds. The City of Memphis bought Montgomery Park from the Jockey Club and eventually the property was turned into the Mid-South Fairgrounds- a regional attraction. After the purchase of the land by the City, architect George Kessler was hired to design the park, who also designed the Parkways, Overton Park and Riverside Park. The Fairgrounds has been home to one of the first competitive rodeos known in the South, Libertyland amusement park, and the Mid-South Coliseum (one of the first public auditoriums in Memphis to be planned as an integrated facility). Wrestling was a fan favorite for all at the Coliseum. Liberty Park neighbors Tiger Lane, where the Memphis Tigers play football and where the Southern Heritage Classic is held.
Credit: http://historic-memphis.com/biographies/montgomery-park/montgomery-park.html
https://www.landerscenter.com/mid-south-fair/history
SCOPE OF WORK
UAC and The City of Memphis are seeking an artist to create a mural for the new Memphis Sports and Event Complex. On the North side of the building, two HVAC units will be covered by CMU walls to hide the equipment and provide a surface for a vibrant mural project. The walls surrounding the equipment will be 12 feet tall by 44 feet wide and approx. 10 feet tall by 35 feet long (detailed dimensions and drawings for the walls will be provided to finalists during the RFP stage). The mural will continue on the East facing side of the building along a series of glass windows using a vinyl application.
The selection committee has expressed interest in a mural project that:
Reflect the usage of the Memphis Sports and Event Complex including basketball and volleyball programs for both youth and adults, college fairs, graduations and concerts
Reference the history and other landmarks from the Liberty Park complex (i.e. Tiger Lane, Liberty Stadium, Creative Arts Building), while keeping the focus on the current use of the sports complex building most prominent
Designs for the glass windows on the East facing side of the building must support a line of sight both into and from inside the building
Give consideration to visitors to the facility that will be traveling to Memphis for various events and tournaments
Selection Committee
Antonio Perez, General Manager, Memphis Sports and Event Complex
Celia Newman, Founder, She Got Game
Dillon Holliam, City of Memphis Housing and Community Development
Marcha Allen, Deputy Director, City of Memphis Parks Department
Tracy Treadwell, artist
Jasmine Marie, artist
Erich Miller, City of Memphis Engineering Department (nonvoting)
