PROGRAM OVERVIEW
The Community Corners public art project is a program funded by a one-time $25,000 grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies to create an asphalt art mural in the City of Long Beach. Long Beach was one of twenty-six cities granted to administer this program in the United States. This project will be administered by Arts Council for Long Beach in partnership with the City of Long Beach Public Works Department, and Habitat for Humanity.
Arts Council for Long Beach has also secured a matching grant of $25,000 from the JAG Foundation, which has created the opportunity to hire more artists from our community and extend the project’s impact.
The open call will close on [extended deadline] Wednesday, February 22, 2023. Semi-finalists will be selected from this list of applicants and invited to submit a full-color art proposal for the four corners and awarded $250. The finalists will be selected via in-person and virtual community voting from March 15-24 and announced on April 5, 2023.
KEY DATES
FEB 3 Launch Calls for Artists
FEB 22 Application Closes [extended deadline]
MAR 1 Semi-finalists Selected
MAR 8 Art Proposals Due
MAR 15 Community Voting Starts
MAR 24 Community Voting Ends
APR Finalists Announced
APR 7 Press Conference
APR Mural Installation
MAY Community Celebration
CALL TO ARTISTS OVERVIEW
Applying artists should have strong ties to the Washington community.
Artists are encouraged to join the Artist Registry or update their current artist profile by or before [the extended deadline of] February 22, 2023 to be considered for the project.
In the application artists will provide the following:
- Three art works demonstrating artistic style.
- Title for proposed artwork.
- Description of the art proposal articulating the vision and meaning.
- Describe their connection to Long Beach and/or Washington Community.
- Artists must incorporate the theme in their written art proposals to be considered:
Fearless Love Fearless Dreams focusing on uplifting children and youth who use the intersection every day.
WASHINGTON COMMUNITY
The project will create four bulb-out murals at each corner of the intersection of Chestnut Avenue and 15th Street in the diverse Washington community.
Each mural will expand pedestrian space, substantially reduce crossing length, and will alert drivers of the intersection’s four-way stop by providing a colorful visual signal and improve the overall safety of Long Beach’s most vulnerable road users.
Curb extensions (also known as bump-outs or bulb-outs) are extensions of the sidewalk installed at crossings. This traffic calming treatment is used to visually and physically narrow the roadway. Curb extensions both shorten a pedestrian’s crossing distance between the corners and create additional space for amenities like public art. The existing angled parking along Chestnut Avenue will translate to larger curb extensions, which will provide the community with an especially large “canvas” to work with in the roadway.
