South Street, Granville by night (Credit: Parramatta City Council)
A grand sum of $300,000 is up for grabs by experienced artists, designers or curators to plan, develop and create public art as part of the urban design of two Parramatta City suburbs: Granville and Westmead.
Parramatta, named after the traditional inhabitants, the Burramattagal people, is a growing and dynamic city. As part of the Community Strategic Plan adopted by the Council in June 2013, the Parramatta City Council is working in areas of urban design, land use planning, precinct planning, social outcomes, economic development, environmental outcomes and transport planning. With its vision of transforming Parramatta into a centre of excellence, the Council invites anyone from artists, arts planners to architects to bid for this large tender with regards to public art.
The initiative means that artists get entire cityscape as their canvas to create public artworks that speak to the residents of these suburbs and all those who engage with the artwork. Information about the suburbs, proposed sites for art works, and park and street names can be found in the tender documents, along with other necessary details needed to apply.
When it comes to the process, usually when public art goes up, there’s an Expression of Interest (EOI), but a tender system is different and depends on the sum of money involved in the tender, which in this case is quite large. Because the artists have to manage a large sum of money, the tendering process involves a fee for downloading the tender documents.
Bidding for a tender is a bit more competitive and complex than an EOI. There’s a select criteria under which the artists can apply, and addition criteria under which their project will get assessed. These criteria are included in the tender documents, which artists can download for $53.10 (ex GST) via the E-tendering Portal. A hardcopy of these can also be purchased for the same amount by contacting the Council’s Procurement Advisor, Noel Clarke via email or on telephone 9806 5379.
Some of the criteria will be around previous professional experience in a public art environment or the proposed price of the project – although it’s not necessary that only the lowest tender may be accepted. Artists or artist teams can be of any nationality and place of residence in order to bid for the tender. The two growing suburbs of Granville and Westmead have several sites allocated for site-specific artwork or even multiple works of art.
For Granville, proposals can include sites such as the town centre area which is close to the Granville railway station, as well as major streets like Carlton, Russell, William, and Blaxcell streets among others.
With 51.1% of its population born overseas, the top three ancestries in Granville are Lebanese (17.3%), Chinese (12.0%) and Australian (9.9%). Bound by A’Beckett Creek in the north and the Duck River in the east, Granville is named after Lord Granville, a British statesman. It was previously known as Parramatta Junction.
Westmead, which is also New South Wales’s largest health precinct, includes hospitals of international repute like the Westmead Hospital and the Westmead Private Hospital, among others. Sites for works and plans in Westmead can include but are not limited to streets in the main town centre area near the railway station, Hawkesbury Road, Railway Parade and other streets along with the option of reserves and parks as well.
Some of the most travelled to cities in the world have great public art that engages tourists and locals alike. Urban design, which includes public artworks, is often a reflection and expression of the local flavour, history and the stories of the residents. Working on such rich and potent grounds presents endless opportunities to artists to literally set their art in stone for a long time to come.
Artists’ proposals can include artworks that are across any material, media or formats; either single or multiple works; static or kinetic works, which maybe technology based or new media works like analogue and digital technologies, responsive, powered, networked, sound or video motion based. The artworks can be based around wayfinding or be interpretive in nature.
In addition to the artwork, proposals can also include master planning components, design and curatorial rationale or themes for the precinct areas.
Tenders close at 10.00am, Friday 30 January 2015 and submissions must be fully received by this time, either by post or online.
Enquiries should be directed:
1. Via the online forum,
2. Via email or
3. Via phone to Council’s Procurement Advisor, Noel Clarke on 9806 5379
Watch a video of what the Council hopes Paramatta might look like in the future:
