
The West Palm Beach Downtown Development Authority (DDA) and the West Palm Beach Arts & Entertainment District will task local artists with amplifying and enhancing downtown West Palm Beach’s mural and public art experiences. The organizations will issue two Requests for Proposals on Monday, September 21, for art ideas for the ”canvases,” which consist of twelve utility boxes throughout the district and a mural on the west-facing wall between Rivales Taqueria and Duffy’s on Olive Ave.
The theme for both projects center around innate and organic joys of living. The artwork for the utility boxes will follow a “Nature in the City” theme to showcase that nature is the best medicine. The mural will be entitled “Love Comes Naturally” to foster community unity.
“We chose these themes to celebrate two aspects of what make downtown West Palm Beach a dynamic place to live, work, or visit: our inherent access to beautiful landscapes and our strong sense of community,” said Teneka James-Feaman, associate executive eirector of the DDA. “We are excited to see what our talented local artists submit, and then add the winners’ work to our Downtown experience.”
The utility boxes will be designed as an “open medium, two-dimensional artwork” that will be digitized and wrapped around the boxes. Single artists and artist teams can submit up to three proposal designs for the utility boxes.
Artists interested in responding to the request for proposal for the mural on Olive Ave. will interpret “Love Comes Naturally” in their own way, while “reflecting on love, diversity, togetherness, and community.” A jury will select three semi-finalists to be presented on downtown West Palm Beach’s social channels (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram). The community will select the winning artist through popular vote.
“Since the mural is about community unity, we thought the public should select the winning concept,” said Sherryl Muriente, manager of urban placemaking for the DDA. “We are also asking artists to be creative and think of an out of the box way to engage the community in a contact-free format as part of their plans.”
The DDA will accept submissions for both projects through Monday, October 19. More details on how to submit to each RFP can be found on the DDA’s website.
Facebook Comments