Seattle's Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs and SDOT is looking for an artist to do a residency inside one of the Fremont Bridge towers in summer 2009. Details on the jump.

SEATTLE - The Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, in partnership with
the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), seeks an artist or
artist team for a unique project-based artist residency in one of the
bridge towers on the Fremont Bridge.

The selected artist(s) will undertake an in-depth exploration of the
historic bridge and create an art project in response to the experience.
The residency includes access to a work space in one of the bridge
towers. Artists cannot live in the tower, but may use the space as a
studio, a platform for observing the bridge and its surroundings, or as
a base from which to interact with the community.

The artist residency will begin in the spring or summer of 2009 and
last two to three months. The residency will culminate in the public
presentation of an art project produced during the residency. The artist
may create work in any media, including video, film, sound, performance,
installation or other diverse media. The art project should go beyond a
straight representation of the landmark bridge and represent or
illuminate some aspect of the bridge or bridges in general, be it real
or metaphorical.

The call is open to established professional artists living in Seattle
or within 100 miles of Seattle. The project budget is $20,000 and
includes all residency costs, development of the art project, a public
presentation and documentation.

The application deadline is 11 p.m., Monday, Jan. 5, 2009. A link to
the online application is available at www.seattle.gov/arts.

The Fremont Bridge has four control towers. A bridge operator works in
the southeastern tower, the only tower actively used for bridge control.
SDOT is renovating the three unused towers to create offices for SDOT
staff and a Bridge Tower Studio in the southwestern tower. Artist Daniel
Mihalyo recommended the bridge tower artist studio in an SDOT Art Plan
he authored in 2005 as part of an artist residency at SDOT.

The Fremont Bridge - listed on the National Register of Historic Places
- opened in 1917. It is the key transportation link between the Fremont
neighborhood and the Queen Anne and Westlake communities. It rises for
marine traffic an average of 35 times a day, making it one of the
busiest bascule bridges in the world. A bascule bridge is a moveable
bridge that swings upward.

This is not the first art project associated with the bridge’s
towers. In the 1990s, Rodman Miller’s neon "Rapunzel" and "Elephant
and Child" were installed in the bridge’s northern towers, where they
remain. Fremont residents and the Fremont Arts Council chose the
bridge’s distinctive blue and orange colors in a 1995 poll
conducted at the Fremont Street Fair.

For more information about the artist residency, contact Patricia
Hopper, public art project manager, at patrica.hopper@seattle.gov or
(206) 684-7311.

The Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs promotes the value of arts and
culture in and of communities throughout Seattle. The 16-member Seattle
Arts Commission, citizen volunteers appointed by the mayor and City
Council, supports the city agency.