The impact of public art on a community is priceless and immeasurable and once experienced it only appreciates. Public art has the power to energize our public spaces, arouse our thinking, and transform the places where we live, work, and play into more welcoming and beautiful environments that invite interaction. Public art can make strangers talk, children ask questions, and calm a hurried life. It enhances the quality of life by encouraging a heightened sense of place and by introducing people to works of art that can touch them and generations to come.

The University Museum of Contemporary Art at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in conjunction with the Summer Provost office and the Department of Art, Art History, and Architecture, is excited to announce a call for public art to activate the façade of the Fine Arts Center on the UMass Amherst Campus. It is intended to spark the thinking of the UMASS creative community about the nature of Public and Private and to articulate those ideas in the context of the UMASS Campus.

Proposal Guidelines:

The proposal could explore the opportunities for exchange between different spheres (the world of Art, Science and Education,) in a public Institution of Higher learning, devoted to research and the generation of new knowledge. We are particularly interested in work that can energize this public space, arouse our thinking, and transform what might be considered a campus gateway into a welcoming and beautiful environment that invites interaction. This call for Public Art proposals is intended to spark the thinking of the UMASS community about the nature and role of public art on the UMASS Campus and address the previously mentioned qualities and characteristics.

The artwork should:

1. Consider the site and context of the community in which it is located.

2. Address the pedestrian nature of the area

3. Display a high quality of technical skill, imagination and creativity.

4. Energize this public space,

5. Arouse our thinking,

6. Transform what might be considered a campus gateway into a welcoming and beautiful environment that invites interaction.

• The pieces are to be part of the public realm so that all pieces are easily accessible to the public and truly appear as public, not private pieces of art.

• The work must be suitable for reproduction or projection

• The work will be removed by the university on the agreed upon date negotiated with the Artist

We are interested in receiving proposals that illustrate your relationship to the region and are site specific.

Site specific work on digital file to be printed on 12 x 24’ banner

Images must be submitted in the following format:
2400 pixels
JPEG
File size no large than 5mb

Please send your work AND your submission form (see next page) to: summerarts@art.umass.edu
Submission Deadline: May 1st, 2012
For questions, please contact Eva Fierst 545 1176 or efierst@art.umass.edu

University Museum of Contemporary Art