Mid Massachusetts News

Design murals to be printed and displayed along Cambridge’s new community trail, the Grand Junction Multi-Use Path. Cambridge Arts is looking for two artists to create lenticular murals for the 2-mile-long, shared-use path that will run alongside, but separated from, an active freight rail track, the Grand Junction Rail Line. The line marks a southwest-to-northeast route from the Charles River at the Boston University Bridge, through the Kendall Square / MIT and East Cambridge neighborhoods to Somerville.

Anticipated budget will be approximately $40,000 per mural project. Submit images of past work and biographical information to be considered for this project. See details below. (No proposals at this time.) Apply by July 10, 2023, 5pm, at http://cac.slideroom.com.

SUMMARY:
The new path, approximately two miles long, will link five Cambridge neighborhoods, each with a distinct character: Cambridgeport, The Port, MIT, Wellington-Harrington, and East Cambridge. It will also provide important connections for people walking, biking, or rolling to and from Somerville, Boston, and beyond. The shared-use path will be a landscaped open space corridor and is anticipated to serve a high volume of residents, workers, and visitors.

The city is seeking artists interested in designing a lenticular mural – a mural applied to a fence structure made of vertical fins or slats, set at a 45-degree angle to each other. This project will not entail painting on a wall. Rather, artists’ designs will be digitally printed for vertical fence slats. With a lenticular mural, someone traveling northbound would see a different image than someone traveling southbound. Lenticular fencing, designed by the project design team with integrated light standards, will be used along the length of the Grand Junction Multi-Use Path to protect path users from the trains, with murals applied to selected sections.

After design approval, the artists’ designs will need to be translated into a digital format appropriate for printing on vinyl strips. Examples of lenticular fence artwork can be found online, e.g.: https://www.3dlenticularfactory.com/en/blog-post/Very-Urban-Very-Lenticular 

THE OPPORTUNITIES:
Cambridge Arts is looking for artists to create lenticular designs that respond to the character of the Grand Junction site. It is an opportunity to create a dynamic visual experience for path users and surrounding neighborhoods.

• There are two opportunities, each comprising approximately 200-300 linear feet of lenticular fencing to be covered with artist-designed imagery.
• One opportunity is to address a continuous stretch of lenticular fencing.
• The second opportunity is to create a suite of shorter, periodic murals occurring at selected points along the path.
• The two mural opportunities have comparable scope and square footage for artwork.

BUDGET
Anticipated artist’s budget will be approximately $40,000 per mural project. The final budget will be determined during the selection process. Artist’s budget will need to include artist’s design fee, digitization, collaboration with city staff, review meetings, and community engagement as needed. Artist’s budget will not need to include fabrication of the vinyl or installation on the fence.

BACKGROUND:
The Grand Junction Railroad and Depot Company began in 1847, connecting railroads entering Boston from north and west to the wharves in East Boston. It was one of the first north-south rail links in the Boston metropolitan area. It also connected the communities of Cambridgeport and East Cambridge to Charlestown, Everett, Chelsea, and East Boston. Today its presence reflects the rich industrial and manufacturing history of Cambridge.

The future Grand Junction Multi-Use Path (GJMUP) will pass through diverse environments – parklands, architecture expressing the city’s manufacturing past, the academic environment of MIT, the life science and high-tech industries of Kendall Square, dense residential neighborhoods, and the lively historic commercial district of Cambridge Street. For more information on GJMUP visit: https://www.cambridgema.gov/CDD/Projects/Transportation/GrandJunctionPathway 

DETAILS:
1. Artists will be required to create a design and a digital file of that design. Original artwork can be digital, or it can be created by hand and translated to digital format. When completing your application, please use the “artist statement” section to describe your experience using digital programs and computer software in your artistic practice.
2. The city’s project contractor will engage a fabricator to fabricate the vinyl strips using the artist’s design file. The vinyl fabricator will also install the vinyl on the lenticular fence.
3. The path will intersect with several streets where the lenticular fence will end on one side of the street and restart on the other.
4. The fence fins vary in height from 2.5’ to 4’, depending on the surrounding path conditions.
5. The fence will be installed along the top of a running concrete base that will have a consistent height throughout at 1.5’. See diagram below.
6. Mural locations will be identified for maximum visibility from the perspective of path users and surrounding neighborhoods.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Experience creating art responsive to public spaces
• Experience creating artwork that is in scale with a large site
• Experience managing time and budget for a public art project
• The ability to create a high-quality digital file of one’s artwork to be used to print on vinyl applied to the vertical fence slats
• Experience collaborating with project stakeholders
• Availability over the course of a multi-year project
• Preference will be given to local artists based in the Boston area.

SELECTION PROCESS:

1. We invite any artist who is interested in this project to attend a virtual Information Session on one of two dates. Please register at the following link, and zoom information will be emailed to you: https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/49d9d233fa9d434d9c5021452a342b03 

a. June 12, 2023, 7:30-8:30 p.m.
b. June 13, 2023, noon-1 p.m.

2. Interested artists apply through our Public Art Registry on SlideRoom.

3. A Selection Committee will choose four finalists based on qualifications, which we define as past work and experience.

4. Cambridge Arts public art staff will work with each finalist to prepare for an interview so that each finalist understands the site and city project goals.

5. A Site Committee representing city staff, the design team, and stakeholders will interview each of the four finalists and select two artists to be commissioned.

TIMELINE:

June 9, 2023 Call-for-artists launched

June 12, 7:30-8:30 p.m. Info Session (on Zoom). Registration link above.

June 13, noon-1 p.m. Info Session (on Zoom). Registration link above.

July 10, 5 p.m.  Final date to submit visuals and biographical information

Summer 2023 4 Finalists selected

September 2023 Site Committee interviews 4 finalists and s elects two artists to be commissioned. 

We invite you to submit images of past work and biographical information to be considered. We are not requesting proposals at this time.

HOW TO APPLY

Submit images of past work and biographical information on SlideRoom: http://cac.slideroom.com.

If you are not in our artist registry, registration is free and easy – upload digital files of work samples and complete the form for artist information. Once you are in our registry you will be considered for this project as well as for future public art commissions administered by the City of Cambridge.

If you are already in the registry, we encourage you to update your portfolio on SlideRoom. To make updates, you must send an email to request access to your portfolio. Email Hilary Zelson, Public Art Administrator at hzelson@cambridgema.gov.

For technical support using SlideRoom, please email support@slideroom.com. For other questions, please contact Hilary Zelson at hzelson@cambridgema.gov  or 617-349-4388. 

Original source can be found here.