Call to Artists:
Request for Qualifications for Public Art for the
MAPS 4 Fairgrounds Coliseum
RFQ-OCITY-131
Deadline for responses:
4 : 00 : 00 PM CDT October 19, 2022
Budget: $920,000

The Metropolitan Area Projects (MAPS) have transformed Oklahoma City over the last 27 years. In its latest phase, MAPS 4, the City continues to invest in its future by targeting health, mental health, social justice, homelessness, beautification, and innovation in addition to infrastructure projects. Among the infrastructure projects the single largest funds allocation will go to building a new multi-purpose arena at the State Fairgrounds, the Fairgrounds Coliseum.

The Coliseum will host events such as the state high school basketball and wrestling tournaments, concerts, monster truck shows, ice rink entertainment, and most prominently major national and international equine events. Oklahoma City is the premier horse show venue in the country with the American Quarter Horse World Championship and the Grand National & World Championship Morgan Horse Show among many others.

The 1% for Art funds generated through the construction of the Coliseum will be used to create a work envisioned to tower above its surroundings and be an enduring landmark for visitors and residents alike. The site will be near the main entrance of the Fairgrounds at the intersection of May Avenue and Gordon Cooper Boulevard on the direct route to the Coliseum.

The Will Rogers Trail, the most urban of all the trails in Oklahoma City’s 80+ mile-and-growing trail system, runs parallel to May Avenue. The new work is seen as a major landmark for the Trail as well as for the Coliseum and the Fairgrounds. It is not required to, but it is preferred that the work span the Arroyo. The work may incorporate a bridge spanning the Arroyo.

For full project information and application instructions, please see commission link portal.