Qualifications deadline: June 26, 2015
Saint Louis Science Center (SLSC)
5050 Oakland Avenue
Saint Louis
MO 63132
Request for Qualifications (RFQ)—this request to artists will provide our selection committee with a basic artist letter of interest, resume, and portfolio of work. This will in turn be used to determine a smaller pool of artists that will receive a Request for Proposal (RFP) for several of the in-house exhibits, in addition to building a database for future projects as the art initiative evolves.
Project description: The artist-commissioned projects will include various installations that focus on different aspects of agriculture. The scope will be to use content already identified by the SLSC to design and develop a unique work of art that is able to communicate variations on existing content in some fashion to an audience at the museum. These installations will be installed in spring of 2016 to be experienced by the public later that year. The artist will collaborate with a team of educators, science experts, and evaluators to produce a high-quality installation.
Project timeline:
Qualifications deadline: June 26
Qualifications evaluated: June 26–July 3
RFP’s will be sent for individual exhibits: July 6
Deadline for proposals: July 31
Proposals evaluated: July 31–August 6
Contracts signed: August 7
Design and fabrication of work: August 10, 2015–February 2016
Installation of work: April 2016
Project budgets: Individual art piece budget ranges from 3,000–35,000 USD. All expenses such as fabrication, travel and artist fees must fit within the budget.
RFQ requirements:
– Letter of intent (no more than one page)
– Resume or CV (no more than three pages)
– References (at least three)
– Portfolio of relevant work
– Statement of curated work (no more than one page)
All must be in paper and electronic form—no links to website-based portfolios. Ideally electronic submissions will be delivered on a well-organized flash drive, but a cloud-based solution will also suffice. Submissions must be at the SLSC on the due date, late submissions will not be considered.
Please send questions to the email below. Please send paper and electronic copies of qualifications to the address below or send a link to your files to the email address.
Matthew Stevens
Saint Louis Science Center
5050 Oakland Avenue
Saint Louis, MO 63110
[email protected]
Scope of work:
The artist will work with their own team and a SLSC team that will include an educator, to ensure learning objectives are met; an evaluator to ensure effective communication to the target audience; fabrication and technology advisors to ensure the designs are feasible; and a scientific expert that will ensure the content is accurate. The scientific experts come from many disciplines ranging from farming experts, to bee experts, to plant experts, and so on. The nature of this collaboration is for the artist to have the freedom to create their work and the rest of the team will serve to support the artist through advice from their chosen science field. They will not dictate the direction of an installation, only guide and inform the design as it evolves. Depending on the needs of the artist, they may also serve to aid in fabrication and create the technology elements necessary for the completion of the project.
The permanent exhibition areas for the first set of exhibits will include, but not limited to:
– Multi-disciplinary mobile stations, including cooking, experiments, demonstrations
– Composting
– Weights and measurements/soil
– Small, multi-purpose structures
– Mississippi Valley agricultural history
– Interior hanging sculpture/mobile related to seeds
– Plant biology, chemistry and anatomy
– Bees and beekeeping
– Seed library
– Living space for chickens
Selection process:
Qualifications will be evaluated the week after they are due by a selection panel comprised of distinguished members of the Saint Louis art community and SLSC staff. Those selected by the panel will move on to the next stage of the process, receiving the RFP specific to the content areas above. Those not selected will be notified. The proposals selected to be funded will sign a contract with the SLSC upon selection.
