City of

Indoor artwork in hallways, Public Auditorium

CALL FOR ARTISTS Request for Qualifications (RFQ)

SPRING 2021

The City of Cleveland is requesting qualifications from artists who may be interested in producing two- dimensional artworks at one or more of six locations in ramped hallways between two floor levels at Public Auditorium, 500 Lakeside Avenue East.

The horseshoe-shaped Public Auditorium, which seats up to 10,000, opened in 1922. The 3,000-seat Music Hall and 600-seat Little Theater were added to the south (St. Clair Avenue) end of the auditorium building in 1928, and, at the same time, a new main lobby and terrace for the auditorium were added at the north (Lakeside Avenue) end. One central stage serves both Public Auditorium and the Music Hall.

Three artworks will be located in each of the ramped hallways that connect two of the auditorium’s lobbies—the “red lobby” on the entrance level and the “blue lobby” on the upper level. The hallways are each close to 200 feet long, with two rounded 90-degree bends and one switchback each. The artworks will be installed on the curved walls at the 90-degree bends and on the flat walls at the switchbacks.

The artworks are a component of a project that will involve making improvements to the hallways so that they will visually complement, but not visually compete with, the ornate lobbies, from which four of the artwork locations are clearly visible. (The switchback locations are visible only from within the hallways.) The other improvements will include repainting the hallways in welcoming colors consonant with the building’s history and aesthetics and upgrading the light fixtures to the high standard set throughout the public areas of the auditorium building.

Rather than submit pre-conceived proposals, the selected artist will work with city staff to develop innovative, original art.

Eligibility This competition is open to qualified artists and designers or teams thereof, aged 18 or over. Artists based in or with strong ties to the area are especially encouraged to apply.

Location of Public Auditorium The map below shows the location of Public Auditorium in black among the buildings of .

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Description of hallways The hallways connecting the lobbies on different levels of Public Auditorium serve as ramps between the floors—an innovative arrangement for a building designed in 1920. The hallways are gradually sloped and thus quite long.

The following photos show the paths of the hallways, the lobbies, and the proposed artwork locations. The hallway pictured on the next page is on the west side of the auditorium’s stacked lobby areas. It runs from the lower-level lobby, known as the grand reception lobby, to the inner or red lobby on the main floor, and then continues to the blue lobby on the upper level. A nearly identical hallway is on the east side of the lobbies.

Improvements in the form of new paint and light fixtures will be made along the entire lengths of each hallway. Artwork will be added only to the upper halves of the hallways—the sections between the red and blue lobbies.

The image below is of the main lobby, which is on the main or terrace level. It is immediately to the north of the stacked lobbies that are connected by the ramped hallways. The main lobby was part of an addition to the north end of the auditorium in 1928, six years after the building opened.

The inner lobby, also known as the red lobby, is immediately adjacent to and to the south of the main lobby. It is shown in panorama view below. The auditorium is visible through the open doors seen right of center. Notably, the lobby is not painted red at the present time.

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The next photograph shows the ramped hallway to the west of the lobbies. An artwork will be on the rounded wall visible at the top of the flight. The length of the flight from where the ramp begins to the point at the top, where the hallway turns 90 degrees to the left, is approximately 50 feet. The curved section of the wall at the top of the ramp is an artwork location. The curve is about 31 feet long and 12 feet in height—four feet on the lower portion of the wall and eight above.

The bottom photo is of the entrance, across the lobby, to the east-side ramp, which, as you can see, is more or less a mirror image of the west-side ramp. This image gives a slightly better view of the curved art wall at the top of the flight. The dimensions are the same as in the photo above.

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Going back to the west-side ramped hallway, the next flight, also about 50 feet in length, terminates at a flat wall on an interim level. The flat wall will also be an art site. Unlike the curved art walls, the flat art walls are not visible from the lobbies.

The next view is of the flat interim-level wall in its entirety. The wall is approximately 20 feet wide and eight feet tall. The door, about two feet from wall, is around three feet tall and two-and-a-half feet wide. The hallway makes a switchback at this location. The wall is visible, in part, to those coming up the flight shown above and those coming down the flight that extends upward from the switchback.

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There are two more flights of ramp after the landing by the flat wall. Another 50-foot-long flight extends from the landing and ends at another 90-degree turn (to the right). The curved wall at the turn is smaller than the curved wall farther down the ramp. This upper-level curve is about 15 feet wide and 8 feet tall. It is depicted in the lower image on this page.

After the turn, a shorter, 30-foot flight leads directly up to the upper lobby, which was known historically as the blue lobby. Reportedly, this lobby was once painted in several shades of blue, but it is now painted in more subdued colors. Major repairs to the walls and ceilings of the blue lobby are underway.

The blue lobby under repair

A view to the shorter flight of ramp off the blue lobby, looking down toward the smaller curved art wall

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The images below show a close-up of the repair work being done in the blue lobby (top) and examples of the stylish light fixtures and graphics found throughout the building (bottom).

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Project budget The budget for each artwork is $10,500. All artwork-related costs, except basic wall preparation and repairs must be covered by this budget.

Submission requirements Artists are required to electronically submit a one-page narrative describing their qualifications and explaining why they would be interested in working on this project. Artists should indicate what general vision they have and approaches they would take to this project and make note of how they would involve neighborhood residents, center staff, and others in developing their design.

Please note that artists are NOT being asked to submit proposals at this time.

Additionally, artists are required to submit, in electronic format:

 An up-to-date CV or resume;  Up to 10 images depicting completed relevant work in JPEG or PNG format (none of the images may contain identifying information), suitable for inclusion in a PPT or PDF presentation; and  An annotated slide list for the depicted artworks, including location, commissioning agency, materials, and total project budget. Submitters should note what their role was in producing the works depicted.

Up to three artists will be invited to interview with a selection committee.

Submission deadline Submissions must be received by 5 p.m. Cleveland time, on Monday, April 5, 2021. Entries must be submitted electronically to Jessica Gift ([email protected]), Tarra Petras ([email protected]), and Vince Reddy ([email protected]).

Direct questions to Vince Reddy, LAND studio, at [email protected].

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Additional images

The top photo shows a glimpse into the auditorium. The bottom image is of the auditorium building from the southwest.

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