[FILLED] Revitalizing Communities through Public Art
Host: City of Alameda
Region: Bay Area
Openings: 1
Project Focus: Transportation / Mobility, Urban Planning, Public Art
Skills Needed: Community Engagement, Project Management, Community Outreach, Stakeholder Engagement, Communication, Leadership
Service Needs & Plans
The Fellow will help the City in several ways:
1) Understand incentives and barriers to affordable housing development and improve services to its residents, both housed and unhoused.
2) Educate the broader community about the multifaceted nature of homelessness and the efforts underway to combat homelessness-related issues, prompting involvement and proactive measures.
3) Conduct policy analysis (affordable housing, alternative housing, et al).
4) Address homelessness and social service needs. The Fellow will be housed within the Housing and Human Services (HHS) department.
Project Description
Create vibrant and accessible public art installations that celebrate the cultural heritage of our community. Engage local artists, residents, and stakeholders to identify opportunities for permanent and temporary art installations and programming, activating public spaces and reflecting the diversity and stories of our city. Streamline grant processes to oversee an expanded set of public art projects with limited staff capacity.
Project 1: Restructuring Public Art Grants
•Assist in streamlining and simplifying grant call processes for both physical art and cultural art and arts programming.
•Develop systems for ensuring agreements with artists/arts organizations are vetted and executed in a timely and straightforward manner
•Develop a marketing strategy for promoting grant opportunities, with particular emphasis on reaching populations that are traditionally absent from conversations involving public art in Alameda (e.g. youth, seniors, lower-income households, non-English speaking communities, etc.).
•Help coordinate resources, including Q&A sessions, for artists/grant applicants as part of the grant application.
Project 2: Community Mural
•Hold space to foster dialogue regarding community murals. Gathering input, ideas, and stories from diverse community members.
•Promotion of local artists, providing them with a platform to showcase their skills and talents.
•Working with other city departments, local artists, and the broader art community, identify locations within the city where mural installations may have the most significant impact.
•Develop a strategy for beautifying these identified public spaces beyond the addition of public art/murals, which will help foster a sense of ownership and belonging among members of the community.
Outcomes: The development of a thoughtful, inclusive approach to the creation of community murals, one which is designed to give voice to and honor and commemorate the rich heritage and history of our community.
Project 3: Identification of location for physical art grant
•In preparation for a City-issued Request for Qualification (RFQ), this project would include the identification of a suitable site for future physical art in Alameda.
•Engage local artists, other city departments, the Public Art Commission, and other stakeholders in the arts community to identify potential locations for consideration. Short-listed locations should consider factors such as accessibility, geographic equity, visibility, potential impact, and other relevant characteristics of the physical site.
•Conduct due diligence on short-listed locations.
•Prepare a presentation of identified location(s) for the Public Art Commission.
Outcome: Identification of a suitable site for physical art that would be used in the issuance of a completive RFQ process for artists.
Project 4: Lead Expansion and Refinement of Public Art Website
•Development of walk and bike tours exploring City’s public art collection and proposal for how tours could be incorporated into the City’s public art webpage.
•Conduct interviews with artists that have created existing Alameda public artworks. Content from interviews to be posted on the website (alemedapublicartwork.com)
•Find additional creative ways to build upon the content of the website so that it increases engagement and provides additional information about public art in Alameda.
•Develop and implement marketing campaign to promote the website in order to help promote added content. Promotion should seek, specifically, to reach populations that are traditionally absent from conversations involving public art in Alameda (e.g. youth, seniors, lower-income households, non-English speaking communities, etc.).
Outcome: The development of an improved website intended to showcase the diversity of public art offerings in Alameda, celebrate artists, and connect new populations with public art. In doing so, this project would seek to leverage alamedapublicartwork.com as a mechanism through which to celebrate and promote cultural diversity, artistic expression, and heritage. Bringing people together in a shared celebration of art and culture, through a digital tool, would strengthen community bonds, foster a sense of belonging, and encourage social cohesion.
Desired Skills
The ideal Fellow is a passionate, creative, critical thinker who has a strong understanding of community engagement and advocacy. Interest in working collaboratively in an ever changing and fast paced environment. Project management skills, such as coordination, implementation, and maintenance of goals, are key skills. A commitment to listening, creating space for diverse perspectives, and the pursuit of inclusive and just outcomes is a must. This position has the rare opportunity to work closely with multiple department heads; therefore, high-quality work products will be expected. In turn, the Fellow will have the opportunity to work on interesting and complex problems and can expect high-quality mentorship and experience with a City.
Organization & Community Highlights
The City of Alameda is a 10.6 square mile island community located in San Francisco Bay. Alameda is seven miles east of San Francisco and less than one mile west of the City of Oakland. Alameda is a diverse community with a population of approximately 76,000. The Base Reuse and Economic Development Department (BRED) is a dynamic, diverse, and collaborative department responsible for implementing the Council goals for an economically diverse and financially sustainable community and fulfilling the community’s plans to revitalize Alameda Point into a mixed-use, transit-oriented development.
Base Reuse and Economic Development Department works with businesses and the Alameda community to cultivate and develop the city’s economic, social and cultural resources. The department actively works toward continuing to evolve Alameda into a thriving and resilient economy with a range of quality jobs by supporting innovative businesses, entrepreneurs, and artists; providing a wide range of housing; enhancing the vibrancy of retail, restaurants, tourism, and cultural destinations; leveraging its unique waterfront assets; improving multimodal local and regional transportation options; and pursuing clean energy solutions, while maintaining a commitment to environmental sustainability, climate action, social equity, and fiscal health. Collectively, the goals listed above provide insight into the Department culture and the work associated with being a public servant.
Remote or On-Site Placement
Hybrid