Iowa City seeking designer for interactive public art

IOWA CITY - Officials from Iowa City are hoping the community's next public art project is more than just, well - art.

Earlier this month, the city announced the Public Art Committee has requested information and letters of intent from artists, architects, engineers or other qualified groups to work on a STEAM art project.

STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, art and math, and city staff hopes the piece is interactive and uses some of the STEAM concepts.

'So much of art any more is not your typical static installation,” said Marcia Bollinger, Iowa City's neighborhood outreach coordinator. 'It is interactive or there is some movement to it.”

The city wants the piece to include cause-and-affect learning and be accessible to people with a wide range of abilities, including those who may have sight, hearing or other limitations.

The budget for the project is $4,000.

The piece of art is planned to replace a 1983 mural on an 8-by-15-foot wall in the Robert A. Lee Recreation Center, 220 S. Gilbert St.

Bollinger said city officials have been working to give the rec center a 'face-lift” in recent years, and staffers determined this to be a good location for the STEAM art project.

The city likes to tap into local artists whenever possible, Bollinger said, and the theme of the piece could potentially connect to Iowa City or Iowa.

Instead of art design proposals, officials are simply asking for interested artists to submit their qualifications.

Bollinger said the city chose to go this route because staff wanted to be involved in the design process.

'I think the staff has a lot to share and a lot of good ideas,” she said. 'I think ... we need to pay very careful attention to the general safety and maintenance of it.”

City officials are asking that artist qualifications be submitted by Dec. 23, and the entire project be completed by June 15.

Bollinger said the timeline for the project was chosen, in part, because it would give students or classes the potential to participate.

City leaders felt it made sense to have the art project be STEAM based because that's a focus for a lot of education, Bollinger said.

A list of qualities city staff is seeing in the art piece can be found on Iowa City's public art page, icgov.org/publicart. The list includes aspects like a sense of play, teamwork or a potential for multiple users at once and low maintenance, among others.