The North Carolina Arts Council is looking for artists for two park-sited public art projects, each of which will become a centerpiece of cultural tourism trails celebrating our state's rich traditions and artistic heritage.
The public art projects are components of the N.C. Arts Council's creative economy program that dedicates staff and grant funding to support rural areas that are utilizing traditions, such as music, to develop sustainable place-based economic development projects.
One commission is public art for the African American Music Trail in All-America City Park in Kinston, which has a $100,000 budget. The artist, in collaboration with landscape architects, would create site-specific, outdoor public artwork that interprets, commemorates and celebrates the African American musical history, heritage and culture of eastern North Carolina.
The selected artist will design and produce artwork for a proposed three-acre public park near the historic Sugar Hill neighborhood, an important music center of eastern North Carolina and a hub of the African American Music Trail. Kinston has fostered a deep and diverse African American cultural heritage of musical tradition-bearers and innovators including the Parker brothers, saxophonist Maceo and drummer Melvin, and saxophonist and composer Nat Jones¬.
The other project entails public art for the Historic Happy Valley project and the Yadkin River Greenway Trail in Patterson, which has a $60,000 budget. The artist would create site-specific, outdoor artwork which offers seating for greenway trail users and interprets, commemorates and celebrates the history, heritage, culture and landscape of Happy Valley, a picturesque rural region of the Yadkin River Valley spanning Caldwell and Wilkes counties.
Happy Valley is the setting of the ballad Hang Down Your Head, Tom Dooley, which recounts the alleged 1867 murder of Laura Foster by local Civil War veteran Thomas Dula. The annual Happy Valley Fiddlers' Convention celebrates the Valley's vibrant local music, and Mow Day and Plow Day continue longstanding agricultural traditions. A Web site, http://ncartstrails.org/happyvalley/, was developed as part of the project.
Artists responding to the call must be U.S. citizens or legal residents aged 18 or older. Artists may apply for both projects, but they must submit two separate application packages. The deadline for both of these applications is Tuesday, Sept. 7, at 5 p.m. (This is not a postmark deadline.)
Please see links below for project abstracts and links to full request for artist qualifications and additional resources:
http://www.ncarts.org/projectspecs.
http://www.ncarts.org/elements/project_specs/AAMT_PublicArt_RFQ_AllAmericaPark.pdf
http://www.ncarts.org/elements/project_specs/HappyValley_PublicArt_RFQ.pdf
For more information before Monday, Aug. 2, contact Katherine Reynolds, program assistant at katherine.reynolds@ncdcr.gov or (919) 807-6505.
For more information after Aug. 2, contact Brendan Greaves, public art and community design director at brendan.greaves@ncdcr.gov or (919) 807-6509.
