In partnership with City of Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R), the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) invites artists/artist teams living in Oregon and southern Washington to submit qualifications for a site-specific interior artwork in the main lobby at the soon-to-be renovated and expanded Mt Scott Community Center. One artist/artist team will be selected to create a 2-dimensional artwork along the lobby’s multi-story stairwell north-facing wall. There is also opportunity to activate the ceiling areas above the stairwell/main lobby area. The budget available for the commission comes from the City of Portland’s Percent for Art Program and is $80,000. Submissions are due by Wednesday, April 24, 2024 at 11:59pm PDT.

Important Dates

• March 21, 2024 – RFQ launch
• April 24, 2024 – Applications due
• April-June 2024 – Panel review and artist selection (including interviews)
• July-September 2024 – Design Phase (including community engagement)
• October 2024-June 2025 – Fabrication
• July 2025 – Artwork complete and installed

Art Opportunity

This project is seeking an artist or artist team to create a site-specific interior artwork in Mt Scott Community Center’s main lobby area. The stairwell’s multi-story wall will be visible to visitors in the main lobby as well as street and pedestrian traffic on SE 72nd Ave due to the large windows on the building’s west elevation. The stairwell wall ascends from the basement through the 1st and 2nd floors. The stairwell wall is one of the first large-scale features visitors encounter upon arriving through the building’s main entrance and is directly across from the lobby seating area and adjacent to the center’s reception desk. Ideally, the artwork will mainly be focused on the 1st and 2nd floors due to the high visibility of those areas. While the stairwell wall primarily suits a 2-dimensional artwork, there is an interest to incorporate texture and/or 3-dimensional elements, created through either illusion or physical components.

Use of mediums such as textiles/fabric arts, ceramics, mosaics, paint, color, wood, metal and more could be considered. We expect the artist(s) to determine the media(s) for their work through conversations with the project team, taking other design considerations for the space into account.

Additionally, it is possible for the artwork to extend beyond the stairwell wall to two locations in the ceiling areas, allowing for a more 3-dimensional component. These two locations are in the main lobby above the west and east entryways and exits, depending on the artist’s vision and budget allocations. The stairwell wall is about 19’W x 28’H and the two 3-dimensional spaces are about 15’W x 15’H. The artwork should not exceed 100 lbs.

Please refer to the pdf attachment showing the locations of the artwork on the proposed floors at the site here.

Please see the commission portal link for full opportunity information.Click here for the application form.