NOTE – PUBLIC ART IS USING A NEW APPLICATION SYSTEM SO WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO START YOUR APPLICATION EARLY. The system is user friendly but as with anything new, please allow time to register an account and apply in advance of the deadline. We are here to help with any troubleshooting. Contact Brennan Jernigan at brennan.jernigan@4culture.org or 206-263-1587 if you have any questions.

Opportunity

4Culture and King County’s Wastewater Treatment Division (WTD) want to commission four Associate Artists to create intrigue and stimulate curiosity, raise awareness, and foster an emotional connection to the largely invisible Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) system and make its importance resonate at a city-wide scale. Through new, commissioned work centered on a curatorial framework of topics developed by lead planning artists Sans façon, we envision a program of global significance and reputation. The works and experiences created throughout the Seattle CSO system by a cohort of artists should engage an international audience and reflect practices at the forefront of contemporary art in relation to water, infrastructure, society, and the environment.

Selected Associate Artists will have the opportunity to create meaningful artwork that engages issues of social, economic, and environmental relevance. They will build relationships with a cohort of other committed Associate Artists responding to related themes and working in a diversity of disciplines to produce a variety of outcomes. Throughout the project, Associate Artists will enjoy support from and close dialogue with both WTD staff and lead planning artist team Sans façon.

Background

In the 1950s, +20 billion gallons of untreated or poorly treated wastewater flowed from combined sewers into major Seattle lakes, the Duwamish River, and Puget Sound. The CSO Program began in the 1970s to address this problem. King County is committed to limiting combined sewer overflows to one per year at each outfall by 2030 through its adopted policies and control plan and agreement with the U.S. Departments of Ecology and Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency.

King County’s CSO control plan in Seattle is a complex network of facilities, treatment, and conveyance. Seven projects will be built throughout the city’s diverse neighborhoods—including Montlake, University, Beacon Hill/Rainier, Georgetown, Pioneer Square, and SODO—and within the industrial lands along the Duwamish corridor.

Understanding and caring about the CSO system and its impact on water quality and public health is important. Since the beginning of public art programs in this area, artists and their works and ideas have been incorporated into the planning and design of regional transportation and water infrastructure systems to help engage the public and to express these systems as a unique part of civic life. As part of an art program that will span 15+ years and 7 projects, we want to enhance awareness and understanding of the Seattle-area CSO system and increase a sense of ownership and connection to the system for the public at large. Instead of commissioning unrelated and isolated artworks and amenities, this system-based approach requires a comprehensive vision and a conceptual framework that brings both broad artistic thinking and solid understanding of the physical, social, economic, and environmental context to ensure continuity over a multi-year implementation process.

In 2014, 4Culture and King County hired Sans façon (Charles Blanc and Tristan Surtees) to create the CSO Art Master Plan. The plan articulates the context of the system, a curatorial framework, and a process that focuses on topics and the nature of the whole CSO system. It creates opportunities for the artist and client (WTD) to have ongoing dialogue and for artists to work deep in context and in relation to one another. All the commissions are cumulative, connected to, and built upon each other. As there will be commissions taking place simultaneously and addressing the same topic, it is intended that there be a relationship between the Associate Artists and their research, ideas, and responses. This dialogue and exchange will provide a richness and depth to the experience of each project and of the art program. It will nurture a stronger, more impactful outcome.

The CSO Art Master Plan describes five topics in the curatorial framework.

Project Locations

The civic scale of the CSO system necessitates the “site” to be the city, the audience, or the people it is engaging and serving. The topics were chosen in relation to specific projects in the system and their unique context and treatment options, as well as timeline. Three Seattle facilities will be involved in this first round of Associate Artists project development: Georgetown Wet Weather Station (4th Avenue S and S Michigan Street in the Georgetown neighborhood), Chelan (Chelan Avenue and the Duwamish Waterway in the Delridge/South Park/Highland Park area), and Rainier Valley wet weather storage (S Hanford Street and 27th Avenue S in the Beacon Hill/Mt. Baker neighborhood).

Research the Client

Download the CSO Art Master Plan
King County Wastewater Treatment Division
The history of our mission
Protecting Our Waters (CSO control)
Wastewater Services Education programs
WTD flickr

*Applicants should be available in this timeframe in order to participate in an orientation and interview if selected as a finalist. Out-of-town finalists will be reimbursed for travel and lodging expenses to attend the interview and orientation in Seattle, Washington. If applying as a team, the allowance for travel may not fully reimburse all team members.

The panel reserves the right to make no selection from the submitted applications or finalist interviews.

Artwork Project Timeline

2018—2022

The commissioning structure sets up a process that marries topics with capital project parameters and defines two commission types: long-term and short-term. These two types of artist involvement provide a range of possibilities for artists to work in different ways and in overlapping timelines.

Eligibility

This project is open to artists or artist-led teams residing in the United States.

Artists and artist-led teams in all disciplines may apply, including performing, literary, visual, time-based media, and social practice. Four artists/teams will be commissioned.

A wide range of outcomes is expected and encouraged, including residencies, performances, publications, film and video, events, installations, and permanent visual art, as well as temporary interventions and artist-initiated actions.

Selection Criteria

Finalists will be selected on the basis of the following criteria:

Selection Process

Tier 1: Staff and Discipline Expert Review
4Culture staff from Public Art and Arts program areas will work with “discipline leads” and Sans façon to review all incoming applications and select those from a variety of disciplines and artistic practices that best meet the selection criteria. These applications will be forwarded to Tier 2 review.

Tier 2: Finalist Selection
A five-person selection panel (plus advisors that include discipline experts and Sans façon) will review the applications forwarded from the Tier 1 review. The panel will select up to 12 finalists for interviews. The panel will include two WTD staff and three neighborhood arts representatives.

Tier 3: Finalist Interviews and Commissioned Artist Selection
Finalists will be matched with subject matter experts from each of the topic areas, given an opportunity to learn about and consider a topic area, and participate in an orientation of the Seattle-area CSO system before the interview.

Applicants must submit the following materials via online application.

Please note that we are using a new application system, apply.4culture.org, so we encourage you to start your application early. The system is user friendly but as with anything new, please allow time to register an account and apply in advance of the deadline. We are here to help with any troubleshooting. Please contact Brennan Jernigan at 206-263-1587 or brennan.jernigan@4culture.org.

Please note that we are using a new application system, apply.4culture.org, so we encourage you to start your application early. The system is user friendly but as with anything new, please allow time to register an account and apply in advance of the deadline. We are here to help with any troubleshooting.

If you have questions or concerns, please contact:

Brennan Jernigan
brennan.jernigan@4culture.org
206-263-1587

Cath Brunner
cath.brunner@4culture.org
206-263-1596

Download the Protecting Our Waters: Cohort 1 | CSO Associate Artists call.