Strawberry Way Public Art Request for Qualifications

The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership (PDP) is creating a temporary painted mural on the street surface of Strawberry Way in Downtown Pittsburgh. As a partner in the Office of Public Art’s Pittsburgh Creative Corps (PCC) – a resource that seeks to provide equitable access of local artists to local opportunities – the PDP will select an artist for the 2022 iteration of the Strawberry Way mural from members of the PCC. This opportunity provides a local artist working with the PDP and downtown stakeholders to produce a temporary mural on this major pedestrian thoroughfare, highlighting its use and enhancing its aesthetics, in the spring/summer of 2022.

About the Project | Information Session | Project Site | Project Budget & Details | Selection & Creation Process | Timeline | Artist Submission Form

About the Project

2022 marks the third manifestation of the Strawberry Way street mural project. The PDP and the Envision Pittsburgh Initiative commissioned artist Deanna Mance to create the first temporary street mural on Strawberry Way, entitled City Composition, in 2016 (more here), and in 2018, Julie Mallis was chosen to take over the space with Who Gets To Eat The Most Fruit?” (more here, via Pgh City Paper).

The PDP now seeks to commission an artist to create a new work of temporary art in the same location on Strawberry Way, from Smithfield to Grant Streets, in Downtown Pittsburgh. 

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The mural commission is intended to be temporary – expected to be in place up to 3 years, wearing away “naturally”, and/or cleaned off at some point in that term. However, while in place, the mural will complement programming initiatives along this corridor, as well as enhance the user experience as a pedestrian passage. For example, in the summer, Strawberry Way is typically closed in limited sections to vehicle traffic to allow tables and chairs to be placed along this corridor for patrons of local restaurants, downtown employees, and visitors to use. The selected artist will be tasked with working with the PDP to design a mural that would denote this area as being a pedestrian-friendly route and allow for the outdoor dining experience while adhering to the City of Pittsburgh’s policies regarding painting vehicular thoroughfares (these guidelines will be provided upon hire).

In this third iteration of the project, there is a new component: an artist residency with Pittsburgh CAPA high school (located nearby)! Actual details of the residency (days of week, duration, extent of interaction with students, etc) will be determined by the selected artist and CAPA staff upon final selection and is targeted currently to occur within an approximate one-month period at end of March, through April 2022 (see timeline below). It is expected that this interaction will be largely collaborative between the artist and students (30 total, 8th – 11th grades, visual art majors) including design development, and at the end of this period, the final design will be its deliverable. Given COVID and other changing parameters, this date and scope will be subject to change up until the time for implementation. However, the intent of the project is to allow the artist the greatest flexibility to design a preferred and creative period of collaboration with students of CAPA during the design development phase, which could include students assisting in the painting of the mural should this be amenable to the artist. Since this mural is located on the street surface, it is a rare opportunity to safely engage young students/artists in painting. CAPA and PDP staff will aid in support of any such activities. 

Information Session

An Information Session was held via Zoom on Thursday, March 3, 6:00 p.m.

Note: captions are currently processing and will be made available shortly.

Project Site

Strawberry Way is a great asset to downtown Pittsburgh as it provides a safe pedestrian walkway that can take one from the business/government sector of Grant Street, all the way down to the edge of the cultural/entertainment sector at Smithfield Street in just a few minutes. This corridor has been the site of many pieces of public art—both intended to be temporary and permanent over the years because of its essential and cherished nature as this pedestrian portal to the heart of downtown. Go here for more info and images about this and other sites in downtown Pittsburgh, that the PDP has activated through public art. 

The mural area runs along Strawberry Way, terminating at Grant Street on one end (East), and Smithfield Street on the other (West). See the map below. To view on Google Maps, go here.

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Strawberry Way will be closed to vehicles during intermittent times, but the major intersections will remain open to traffic. Therefore, intersections of Montour Way and William Penn Place will not be painted, as vehicle traffic destroys the paint quickly.

Project Budget & Details

The budget for this project is $20,000. The budget includes design finalization (meetings, presentations), materials, and labor to produce the mural. CAPA students will receive $100 each for their work in collaboration on the project, separately, by the PDP and need not be considered within the artist budget.

Note: paint, primer, and sealer will be provided by the PDP, and will not be deducted from the artist budget. 

Paint System (to be provided/required):

• PPG Permanizer (Manor Hall replacement) Exterior Paint and Primer, 100% Acrylic 
• PPG Perma-Crete Plex-Seal, WB interior/exterior clear sealer (used to clear coat and seal)
• Zinsser Skid-Tex, non-skid additive (mixed in with the Perma-Crete, available through PPG)

This three-part paint system was developed by the Office of Public Art (Pgh), based on recommendations from the Oval Mural Project in Philadelphia. 

Selection & Creation Process

Morton Brown, consultant/project manager to the PDP, will facilitate artist selection, and oversee the design and installation process.  The PDP will select an artist for the 2022 iteration of the Strawberry Way mural from members of the PCC. The process will advance in two stages. 

During the first stage, qualifications (portfolio examples and other info) will be reviewed by a selection committee consisting of staff of the PDP, Pittsburgh CAPA, the Office of Public Art, the First Lutheran Church, and Hotel Monaco.  A limited number of finalists (3-5) will be selected to be interviewed by the committee via Zoom. During the interview, artists could be asked to discuss past work, experience working collaboratively with community/other artists/high school students, ability to work on a public art commission, and their general interest in this project. Selection will be based upon experience, portfolio, and potential for impact on the community. 

The selected artist or artist team will enter into an agreement (provided by the PDP) that will cover the residency with CAPA, design development, production of the actual artwork, temporary nature of mural, and licensing/usage of the artwork and its image. Once under contract, the artist will proceed with the residency with CAPA. The artist and CAPA staff will be able to design the residency to be mutually amenable in terms of duration and number of interactions/scope of work, but the intent is that the artist approach this as a collaboration with CAPA staff and students. There will be a maximum of 30 students, ranging in grades 8th through 11th, with a single point of contact in CAPA admin. With COVID and other concerns, it is to be expected that the majority, if not all, residency interactions (except onsite painting in Strawberry Way) will be remote – done in Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or others.

It is further expected that students will be available to assist the artist in painting the mural on Strawberry Way (and each student will be paid for their work from the project budget). At the end of the residency period, the artwork design is due. The design will be approved by the PDP at this time, and the artist may need to further develop the design in discussion with the PDP, and/or as per City requirements for safety, etc. However, all relevant data on these issues will be given to the artist upon hire. This process will also be facilitated by Mr. Brown/Project Manager, and he will be on hand to advise as needed. Once the design is finalized, the project will be presented to the City’s Art Commission for its endorsement, at its regular hearing (ETA May). The Project Manager/PDP will handle this process, but the artist may be asked to join and contribute to the presentation to the City’s Art Commission (expected to be online). Once this final approval is gained, the Project Manager will work with the artist to schedule installation. All street closures/permitting will be handled by the PDP/project manager, coordinated with the artist. 

NOTE: All artists and/or persons involved in onsite work will be required to provide General Liability Insurance while onsite/during installation. Insurance will only be required during onsite installation, and therefore can be procured and provided once the design is completed, and prior to installation. Also, note that artists working with Pittsburgh Public Schools will need to procure and provide state clearances prior to beginning any school interactions. Instructions and guidance to procure these clearances will be provided upon hire.

Project Timeline

• Art Commission Conceptual Approval: 2/23/2022
• RFQ Distributed to PCC members, curated (online/GPAC/OPA): 2/24/2022
• Information Session: 3/3/2022 via Zoom (6:00-7:00 p.m.)
  • Attendance is not mandatory. Please RSVP if interested here.
• RFQ Deadline: 3/10/2022 
• Selection Committee Review of Applicants: Mid March                            
• Shortlisted Artists are notified: Mid March
• Artist interviews*: 3/25/2022 via Zoom      
  • (10 a.m. – 2 p.m.) 1/2 day/back to back, each artist gets 20 minutes, plus 5-10 minutes Q & A, jury deliberates at end of the day, circa 30 minutes 
• All artist(s) are notified: 3/25/2022
• Artist under contract/Design Developed*: 3/30/2022
• CAPA Residency/Design for artwork is finalized*: 3/30/2022 – 4/30/2022
• Design due*: 4/30/2022
• Art Commission Final Approval application due: 5/4/2022
• Art Commission Presentation*: 5/25/2022
• Fabrication/Installation/Painting of artwork: End of May/June 1, 2022 
• Unveiling: June 2022

*Artist may be required to attend/participate in meetings (anticipated as virtual/via Zoom or similar)

Artist Submission Form

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