ACT Public Art – Open Calls
Public Art at PVDFest 2024
The City of Providence Department of Art, Culture and Tourism (ACT) calls artists to submit qualifications and designs for Public Art at PVDFest 2024.
Sites have been pre-selected by PVDFest organizers and the Art in City Life Commission. Semifinalists will be asked to submit design proposals specific to one of these pre-selected sites. There will be two awarded finalists at two of the three sites (2 artists total, one site will not be selected based on the artist proposals and panelist discretion).
This call is open to individual artists or artist teams that are 18 years old or older with a home or studio address in the Providence Metro Area (defined as all of Rhode Island and Bristol County Massachusetts). Artists or artist teams that have received a PVDFest Public Art Commission in 2020 or 2021 are not eligible to apply for a 2024 commission.
Awardees will be given $22,000 to realize their temporary projects.
Selected works will be installed in August 2024 and remain on display for up to one year.
To apply, click here.
Providence Commemoration Lab
Funded by the Mellon Foundation and the American Rescue Plan, The Providence Commemoration Lab is a program co-administered by The Department of Art, Culture and Tourism (ACT) and the Rhode Island Historical Society (RIHS). The Lab will site and stage new, temporary projects on public property that invite unexpected ways of understanding commemoration as a communal process of historical redress and spatial reclamation.
ACT and RIHS will commission 9 creative practitioners to interrogate the ways that Providence residents construct and share memory and culture at three distinct sites: Columbus Square, Roger Williams Park, and Public Street.
Nine, twelve-month (one-year) artist residencies will begin in spring 2024. The total budget for the Providence Commemoration Lab is 1.4 million dollars to be spent down over two years.
This call is now closed.
Providence Housing Authority – One Nation One Project – Call for Artists
The City of Providence Department of Art Culture and Tourism (ACT) invites an artist or artist team with a community driven social practice to work with the Providence Housing Authority (PHA), the Providence Healthy Communities Office (HCO), and Chad Brown/Carroll Tower residents to co-design and facilitate monthly arts activities reflecting on the prompt: “There’s no place like home.” These activities will inform an inclusive process that will lead up to the production of a final, large-scale work of art or performance as part of a collective unveiling in 18 cities across the country in the Summer of 2024.
Two twelve-month (one-year) artist residencies will begin in Fall of 2023. The total budget for this project is $150,000, split evenly between the two project sites. $40,000 from each site budget will be earmarked for artist stipends to support labor and time, and $10,000 will be reserved for supplies to be used for regular arts activities. The final $25,000 will be set aside to pay for the installation/production of an original work (e.g. mural, theatrical pageant).
This call is now closed. To read about our awarded artists, click here.
Elmwood Community Center Façade Art Call for Artists
The City of Providence Department of Art, Culture and Tourism (ACT), Providence Art in City Life Commission, and the Department of Public Property invite artists and artist teams to design and install a permanent public artwork on the exterior of the newly renovated Elmwood Community Center building at 155 Niagara Street. This call is open to artists working in a variety of mediums – including, but not limited to painted murals, cut 2D acrylic sculpture, metal work, sound and light art – and we encourage artists with a wide range of practices to apply. Three artists or artist teams will be selected to develop a concept for the site, each receiving a $500 stipend for their design work. One artist or artist team will be selected to proceed with their proposed art concept. The call is open to individual artists and artist teams nation-wide. Applicants must be 21 years or older to be eligible to apply. Providence residents and/or artists with previous lived experience in Providence are encouraged to apply. The total project budget is $30,000, of which the awarded artist will receive $28,500 for artist fees, materials, labor, and installation. Please see the budget section below for more information.
This call is now closed. To read about our awarded artist, click here.
Mural at RFK Elementary School
The City of Providence Department of Art, Culture + Tourism (ACT), Providence Art in City Life Commission, Councilman Salvatore, and RFK Elementary School invite muralists to design and install an original mural on the exterior of the building. The mural is intended for an exhibition of five years, contingent on funding available. The awarded artist or artist team will be engaged in Summer 2022 to install the mural in early September, 2022. This call is open to individual artists and artist teams with a Rhode Island home or studio address. Applicants must be 21 years or older and able to submit a clean BCI if awarded. Providence residents, artists with previous lived experience in Providence, and PPSD graduates will be preferred. The total project budget is $18,000 of which the awarded artist will receive $12,000 for artist fees and materials.
This call is now closed. To read about our awarded artist, click here.
Ground Mural at Bailey/Baxter Green School Yard
The City of Providence Department of Art, Culture + Tourism (ACT), Providence Parks, Providence Healthy Communities Office, Robert L. Bailey, IV Elementary School, and the Providence Art in City Life Commission invite muralists to design and install an original ground mural to connect the school with a newly developed Baxter Park. The awarded artist or artist team will be engaged in Spring 2022 and will collaboratively install the mural in early September alongside Bailey students, staff, and neighbors. This call is open to individual artists and artist teams with a home or studio address within the Providence Metro Area (all of Rhode Island and Bristol County Massachusetts).
This call is now closed. To read about our awarded artist, click here.
Broad Street Cultural Corridor Plaza Ground Mural at Daboll and Public streets
The City of Providence Department of Art, Culture + Tourism (ACT), Rhode Island Latino Arts (RILA), The Partnership for Providence Parks, Rec Centers, and Streetscapes (P3), and the Providence Streets Coalition (PSC) invite RI-based muralists to install an original ground mural at the intersections of Daboll and Public Streets, and Public and Broad Streets. This ACT Public Art Civic Infrastructure project is funded in part by a grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies through its Asphalt Art initiative. The awarded artist or artist team will be engaged in Spring 2022 and will work during Summer 2022 to install the mural.
This call is now closed. To read about our finalists, click here. To see documentation from our installation with selected artist Rene Gomez, click here.
Mural at Davey Lopes Rec Center + Parachute Cloth Workshop
The City of Providence Department of Art, Culture + Tourism (ACT), Department of Public Property, and Department of Recreation invite RI-based muralists to participate in a week-long workshop on mural design and execution using parachute cloth at the Davey Lopes Recreation Center.
Up to six awarded muralists will w to create a collectively devised mural of approximately 48’ long and 8’ high during April 2022.
This call is now closed. To read about our awarded artists, click here.
Public Art Residency at Lillian Feinstein Senior Center
The City of Providence Department of Art, Culture + Tourism (ACT), Mayor’s Office for Senior Services, and the Lillian Feinstein Senior Center invite RI-based muralists to install an original permanent mural.
The awarded artist or artist team will begin a residency in late September 2021 and will work with the Lillian Feinstein Senior Center for up to six weeks or until the mural is installed.
Public Art Residency at Hartford Park
Public Art Residency at Providence Office of Sustainability
Call For Artists: Creative Community Health Worker Fellowship
The City of Providence invites artists with a social practice to participate in a new pilot training in Artist Facilitation and Community Health Work followed by a three-month residency in a community-based organization. Co-led by Providence’s Department of Art, Culture + Tourism (ACT) and Healthy Communities Office, the Creative Community Health Worker Fellowship will provide a cohort of five Providence-based artists 70 hours of training under Dr. Dannie Ritchie, Director of Community Health Innovations of Rhode Island and three Artist-Facilitators, Laura Brown-Lavoie, Vatic Kuumba and Valerie Tutson. This pilot program is designed to support artists to become RI certified Community Health Workers, expanding the impact of the arts on addressing social determinants of health. This fellowship is an extension of the City’s Sowing Place Initiative, generously funded by the Kresge Foundation.
Awarded fellows will begin weekly classes in core competencies on February 12, 2020, through the first week of July. ACT will then place each fellow as an artist-in-residence in community-based organizations in Providence’s West End and Upper Southside from July through October 2020.
Awardees will be provided a $1000 stipend for their participation in the training and up to $5000 for their summer 2020 residency (this all-inclusive budget shall include an artist fee and materials, pending budget approval).
This call is now closed. To read about the fellows and their work, click here.
Public Art @PVDFest
Selected artists will design, fabricate, and install temporary work at PVDFest 2020 to enhance pedestrian-level interactions and make the streetscape more vibrant, interactive, playful, surprising, or beautiful.
This call is now closed. To read about awarded artists Allison Newsome and Deborah Spears Moorehead, click here. To read about awarded artist Karen Giusti, click here. To read about awarded artist Jerold Ehrlich, click here.
To read about 2018 artists PVDFest public art awarded artists, click here and here.
Providence Parkist in Residence
Public Art Ideas Competition
ACT invites emerging and established artists in the Providence metropolitan area to submit an idea or concept for “Animating Public Space” that they would like to explore though a temporary work of art on City-owned public property or land. Up to four selected artists will each receive up to $10,000 to realize his/her/their idea during the time-frame of fall 2019 to spring/summer 2020. As this competition aims to create new opportunities for artists and to help artists gain skills necessary to work in public space, no public art experience is required of applicants.
This call is now closed. To read about awarded artists, click here.
Public Art Residency at Rogers Recreation Center
ACT and Rogers Recreation Center are proud to announce Providence artist Ysanel Torres has been awarded the City’s The artist-in-residence at Madeline Rogers -Selim Recreation Center will work with constituents to co-design, fabricate and install a mural on the center’s exterior wall.
Torres began her arts career as a painter/muralist in her hometown of Providence. One of her most known local public art projects is a series of utility box murals created to inspire women for a female empowerment project. Torres has studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of The Fine Arts where she spent most of her time creating installations conceptually driven by the materials used. Her most recent work has been in response to what she calls the “crucial status of American politics and systemic oppression.” She aspires to continue to carry her activism through her work individually and as an instructor as well.
Torres will begin her residency at Rogers Recreation Center this April, where she will design and install a mural on the exterior wall in collaboration with children and youth.
Visit the residency website on our blog for updates.
Public Art Residency at City Archives
ACT and City Archives are proud to announce artists Lynsea Montanari and Anna Snyder have been awarded the residency at City Archives. This artist team will embed themselves in archival research for six months to develop new, original works in response to the prompt Colonial Providence.
Montanari and Snyder have proposed to illuminate their research into place and create new works that will act as a visual exploration of Providence’s colonial history, examined from both the Indigenous and colonial viewpoints. New artworks will be the combine Ms. Snyder’s extensive experience as a multimedia public artist and Ms. Montanari’s work in the visual arts and on language revitalization (the study and teaching of the Narragansett language with the goal of bringing fluency to the Indigenous community). The pair will utilize archival material from Providence City Archives as well as support from the Tomaquag Museum.
Montanari and Snyder will exhibit these new works on the second floor of City Hall from January 2020 – March 2020. The work will appear with the permanent display of the 1637 Town Charter between Roger Williams and the Narragansett Tribe.
Woonasquatucket River Greenway Arts: Animal Habitats
Selected artists designed, fabricated and installed sculptural animal habitat(s) that enhanced the design of civic infrastructure (the greenway) by improving people’s experiences of using this place and interacting with its natural ecology and cultural amenities. This project is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and as such, the art/artist selection process will be implemented with project partners.
Visit our project page for more information.
Woonasquatucket River Greenway Arts: Temporary Art
The WRGA selection panel and ACT are pleased to announce that Keri King’s “What’s In The River?” has been selected for the site at 99 San Souci Drive and Brendan Rose’s “Dandelion” has been selected for Riverside Park.