News release from the City of Fort Wayne:
Off the Wall Design Challenge Launched
(May 7, 2020) – The City of Fort Wayne’s Community Development Division, Art This Way and the Fort Wayne Public Art Commission are inviting architects, designers, engineers, and artists from around the world to take part in the Off the Wall design challenge to create an overhead sculpture in downtown Fort Wayne.
Off the Wall is the implementation of a recommendation from the Downtown Fort Wayne Public Realm Action Plan, created by consultants at Gehl and the City’s Planning & Policy Department. It is a follow-up to successful efforts to transform several downtown alleys into welcoming places, such as the Porch Off Calhoun.
The proposed overhead sculpture will be installed at the entrance to the alley on the south side of Berry St. between Harrison and Calhoun Streets. The sculpture will help demonstrate the potential of the alleyway network and create a visible entryway into the two-block area programmed through the Art This Way Alley Activation Project and the Porch Off Calhoun.
Proposals will be evaluated on the following characteristics: quality (artistic and aesthetic), context (scale, material, and form), durability, sustainability, diversity (reflective of diverse cultures), and uniqueness. Selected design teams will present their final design to a jury made up of members from the Fort Wayne Public Art Commission, Art This Way, the Downtown Improvement District, the Fort Wayne Museum of Art and other arts professionals.
The finalist(s) will have a budget of $19,000 to create their sculpture. This project is funded through a generous gift by the Knight Foundation and Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne, Fort Wayne Downtown Improvement District and Design Collaborative.
The deadline to apply is June 12, 2020. More information can be found at: www.fwcommunitydevelopment.org/artprojects.
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