Artists: Apply Now To Design Avenue C Plaza Floor; Winner Gets $2,000 Award And $2,000 Budget
Calling all muralists!
Get your Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo hats on. You have until Friday, August 14 at 5pm to submit a design proposal, along with samples of your artwork, to be considered for the design of a floor mural at NYC Department of Transportation’s (DOT) new plaza at Avenue C on McDonald Avenue, which will be dedicated this fall. Upon completion of the project, the winner will receive a $2,000 award. The project also has a $2,000. budget. Design proposals should be sent to AveCPlazaArt@thehort.org.
To add some pizazz to what is basically a cement triangle in the middle of McDonald Avenue opposite the MTA’s Avenue C green relay center, the DOT, Neighborhood Plaza Partnership (NPP), a program of The Horticultural Society of New York (The Hort), Councilman Brad Lander and The Kensington Stewards are sponsoring a design contest for the plaza floor.
The winner, selected by the sponsors, with input from the Avenue C neighbors, the nearby Bangladeshi mosques and the Orthodox Jewish school on McDonald across from the new plaza, will supervise the installation of the final design, which must be in no more than four colors, and in very simplified shapes, so that stencils can be cut easily and used to paint the final design on the asphalt triangle. The NYPP and DOT will then stock the refurbished and painted plaza with café chairs and tables, umbrellas, granite blocks and planters for public use. Expect the official dedication and opening in mid-October.
In addition to the $2,000 award money, the artist will be given a $1,500 budget for art supplies and $500 for materials to cut and produce the stencils. The winning artist will also supervise the volunteers chosen by the NPP to install it. The contest is open to any NYC artist. Of course, Kensington and nearby residents, in particular, are encouraged to submit their design ideas. The final winner selected by the DOT.
The neighborhood is extremely diverse, with more than 24 languages spoken at the local school, PS 230. Thus, inspiration could come from almost any culture or approach. Immediately around the plaza is a strong Bangladeshi community, as well as several Orthodox Jewish schools, but just blocks away there are Chinese, Russian, Mexican, Ecuadorian, Albanian, Nigerian, Haitian, and West Indian communities, among others. For more than a century, the area has also been an Italian, Irish and Jewish stronghold, and there’s a burgeoning secular professional class.
Examples of asphalt art installed elsewhere include “Modern Tapestry,” which is an asphalt “carpet” by Kim Sillen located at the DOT Division Street Plaza on the Lower East Side, and “Lovely to See You” by Emily Caisip, a design of leaves on a pale blue ground used in Tribeca in front of the Franklin Street BikeShare Station. The red brick wall design of geometric shapes by Eltono, at Brooklyn Bridge Park One, at Jay and Prospect streets in Dumbo, is an idea often used in mosaic and patterned floor designs.
The full NPP and Kensington Stewards’ RFP (Request for Proposal) requirements are given in great detail here, in the Avenue C proposal. The first, and most important date, is Friday, August 14 at 5 pm. That’s when your design and supporting info must be on file at AveCPlazaArt@thehort.org.
May the best design win!