Call for Proposals: Casa Mural Project “Reconciliation through the Arts”
Expression of Interest Deadline: February 13, 2023
The City of Lethbridge is inviting artists to participate in a two-stage public art competition. The winning submission with receive a commission to create a large-scale mural on the south side of Casa, located at 230 8th Street S. Lethbridge AB.
Background
Casa will be celebrating their 10th Anniversary in May 2023, and the commissioned artwork should celebrate the nature and role the building plays within the community as a place of gathering, creating, and healing through art and creativity. The successful artwork should speak towards the nature of inclusivity and togetherness that ties in the sensibilities of Reconciliation as we move forward, together. Creative expression is universal and intrinsic to all cultures, expressed musically, visually, through dance, writing, movement, and theatre. All these expressions are valid and available to the community within the Casa arts centre, and the intention of this mural is to celebrate that creative expression in the arts is a vehicle towards reconciliation.
Casa was purpose-built to celebrate the arts and has a variety of studio and classroom spaces for public use (including ceramics, woodworking, textiles, printmaking, and dance) along with a large Gallery and Auxiliary programming spaces for public presentations of local and provincial artists. It hosts several guilds and artist-member groups who enrich the Lethbridge community. Recently, the Saokitapi Gallery opened on the second floor of Casa and is among the first spaces in Lethbridge dedicated to displaying contemporary Indigenous work.
Eligibility
The competition is open to regional artists, with preference given to an Indigenous artist with connections to the Blackfoot or Metis community.
Site Considerations
Artists have an opportunity to create a mural using traditional materials on primed MDO panels. Applicants should be familiar with best practices and be able to work on a lift, with proper certification. The site itself will consist of 20 – 4’ x 8’ MDO panels, installed four panels high and five panels long; the total footprint of the mural is 16’ x 40’.