Artists painting 9 new murals for Minneapolis Parks for All mural project
The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board and Forecast Public Art hired 9 artists to celebrate new parks plan
In an open call in late summer 2022, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) and Forecast sought nine artists to develop murals to foster Parks for All. We are thrilled to see the murals taking shape as the selected artists are completing murals fostering MPRB’s new comprehensive plan.
Project Overview
In fall of 2021, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board adopted a new comprehensive plan, Parks for All, to guide the next 15 years of the park system. In celebration of the new vision, MPRB and Forecast hired nine artists to paint murals in the park system to represent the new goals in the physical park spaces that the plan represents. These nationally and internationally renowned artists all have ties to Minneapolis. Now, they are painting murals at parks across the system, with mural concepts based on each of the new community-informed goals. The murals are being painted at different parks across the system so that the pages of the new policy will come to life in the parks, build awareness about the plan, and foster a culture of accountability to the new vision by shining a light on the new community informed goals.
Nine goals will guide future development, operations and maintenance of the Minneapolis Park and Recreation system through 2036 based on its mission. Numerous strategies are outlined to achieve each goal within the plan. Each of the nine murals will represent one of the following goals, and the representation of the goal will be developed by each selected artist, in collaboration with MPRB staff:
- Foster belonging and equity
- Steward a continuum of nature and recreation
- Provide core services with care
- Work from our strengths and determine our role in partnerships
- Expand focus on health equity
- Strengthen ecological connections
- Connect through communications and technology
- Cultivate a thriving workforce
- Operate a financially sustainable enterprise
Request for qualifications due September 19, 2022
The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board and Forecast Public Art seek artists to develop murals to foster Parks for All. There will be 9 artists selected to create murals in 2023.
Call Open: August 19 – September 19 at 11:59 PM CDT, 2022
Commission: $6,000 artist fee + $3,000 for materials (to include artist travel)
Project Overview
In fall of 2021, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board adopted a new comprehensive plan, Parks for All, to guide the next 15 years of the park system. In celebration of the new vision, MPRB is hiring 9 artists to paint murals in the park system to represent the new goals in the physical park spaces that the plan represents. Each artist will develop a mural concept based on one of the goals. The murals will be painted at different parks across the system so that the pages of the new policy will come to life in the parks, build awareness about the plan, and foster a culture of accountability to the new vision by shining a light on the new community informed goals.
Nine goals will guide future development, operations and maintenance of the Minneapolis Park and Recreation system through 2036 based on its mission. Numerous strategies are outlined to achieve each goal within the plan. Each of the nine murals will represent one of the following goals, and the representation of the goal will be developed by each selected artist, in collaboration with MPRB staff:
- Foster belonging and equity
- Steward a continuum of nature and recreation
- Provide core services with care
- Work from our strengths and determine our role in partnerships
- Expand focus on health equity
- Strengthen ecological connections
- Connect through communications and technology
- Cultivate a thriving workforce
- Operate a financially sustainable enterprise
Browse completed murals
Goal 1: Foster belonging and equity | Location: Powderhorn Park | Artist: Aaron Johnson Ortiz
Goal 2: Steward a continuum of nature & recreation | Location: Franklin Steele Square | Artist: Jacob Dwyer
Goal 4: Work from our strengths & determine our role in partnerships | Location: Lake Harriet Trolley Tunnel | Artist: Jacqui Rosenbush
Goal 5: Expand focus on health equity | Location: Van Cleve Park | Artist: Constanza Carballo
Goal 6: Strengthen ecological connections | Location: Bde Maka Ska Parkway | Artist: Thomasina Top Bear
Goal 7: Connect through communications & technology | Location: Boom Island Park | Artist: Kao Lee Thao
Goal 8: Cultivate a thriving workforce | Location: Windom NE Park | Artist: Rock “Cyfi” Martinez
Goal 9: Operate a financially sustainable enterprise | Location: West River Parkway | Artist: Xena Goldman
Selected Artists
presented in order of Parks for All goals
Aaron Johnson Ortiz
Read Aaron’s bio
Aaron Johnson-Ortiz is a Mexican-American/Chicanx artist based in Saint Paul. His art focuses on labor rights, immigrant rights, and the transnational Latino experience. Originally from Minnesota, Aaron grew up in Guatemala and Chiapas, Mexico. His “Workers United In Struggle” mural was named “Best Mural” by City Pages in 2018. For his day job, Aaron is the Director of Arts & Cultural Engagement at CLUES (Comunidades Latinas Unidas en Servicio), where he curates a Latino-focused art gallery and directs programming, including a folk arts program, a muralism apprenticeship, and community workshops. In his free time, he enjoys backpacking along Minnesota’s North Shore with his dog Aura.
Jacob Dwyer
Read Jacob’s bio
Jacob Dwyer’s painting practice exists at the intersection of public art, fine art, and applied arts. The motives of each setting influences his spectrum of style and content. He deconstructs subject matter into composition, color, and energy to achieve bold graphic legibility and enhance notions of power and unity. He combines those formal tactics with research to produce paintings of people, plants, and animals that are specific to the site and the stakeholders in the given community. In 2016 he moved to Detroit, MI to pursue opportunities in mural and sign painting. Since then some of his most significant mural commissions include clients such as the Detroit Institute of Arts, Ann Arbor Art Center, and the City of Detroit’s “City Walls” program. He’s now living and working in Minneapolis again, and hopes to use his skill set to add to the cultural landscape of his hometown.
Melodee Strong
Read Melodee’s bio
Melodee Strong received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in Illustration and her Masters in Arts Education from the University of Minnesota. Her multifaceted practice as an artist allows her to create using a wide range of materials and techniques but her portfolio largely consists of children’s book illustration, portraiture, community outreach projects, and murals giving attention to diverse cultures, feminism, and social justice. Melodee has participated in many gallery exhibitions, book readings, as well as presented to an array of audiences throughout her career; including Target’s Children’s Book Festivals in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, New York, and Boston. Her illustrations have received awards from the Society of Illustrators Los Angeles and Society of Illustrators New York, and she received a Teacher’s Choice, Mom’s Choice, and Moonbeam Award for her illustrations in children’s books. She has completed over 60 mural and large-scale projects in the Twin Cities and Jamaica. She is currently teaching visual art at Franklin Middle School in Minneapolis and is an adjunct instructor at MCAD, Augsburg, Metro State, and the U of M teaching courses in foundational art studies, K-12 Art Methods courses, and professional practice in illustration. She has recently earned The Minneapolis Educator Leadership Award from the Graves Foundation in 2020 and 2022.
Jacqui Rosenbush
Read Jacqui’s bio
With a decade of design experience, Minnesota-based artist Jacqui Rosenbush creates abstract expressionistic paintings, mosaics, and murals. Her deep interest in nature and healthy community relationships has guided her work, bringing over 35 murals to fruition through engagement, mural studio management, and collaboration within artist teams. She whimsically explores the intersection of natural elements, colors, and textures while bringing her bold and playful aesthetic into public spaces.
Constanza Carballo
Read Constanza’s bio
Constanza Carballo is best known for turning acrylic paintings as well as murals into voice pieces that highlight the marginalized. Inspired by her own bicultural and bilingual upbringing as an immigrant in the south Minneapolis Philips community, Constanza began painting murals at the age of 13 and has since been recognized as a statement maker. Her art, a form of community activism, has travelled through Latin America, Europe, and throughout the U.S. Here in Minnesota, she has brought fellow women artists together internationally and locally through large scale community events to celebrate International Women’s Day and specifically bringing attention to the inequalities women face in all sectors of society including economic, political, workforce, healthcare, and education. Her most recent physical art series; the Monarchildren, gives specific importance to the ongoing crisis at the border, where migrant families are separated, and children are in cages. The series depicts real images of children facing these tragedies as monarchs, while telling the story of actual monarchs who travel every year during their famous migration. The idea is simple, yet forgotten; in(migración) es natural; im(migration) is natural.
Thomasina Top Bear
Read Thomasina’s bio
Thomasina Top Bear is a self-taught artist, muralist, published illustrator and organizer from the Oglala Lakota & Santee Dakota Nations. She is a board member of the international all-female paint crew Few & Far Women and co-founder of City Mischief Murals, an all BIPOC artist collective centered on healing through art. Specializing in large-scale murals, her work can be seen on the sides of buildings throughout the country. Thomasina has organized several events focusing on empowering and creating safe spaces for youth and fellow artists to practice their crafts. She draws influences from her Oceti Sakowin culture while using art to express thoughts on community, social justice, spirituality, and togetherness.
Thomasina has worked with numerous institutes and organizations, including: Indigenous Roots Cultural Arts Center, Phipps Center for the Arts, Hennepin Theatre Trust, Minneapolis College of Art and Design and Saint Paul College. She is a grant recipient of Forecast Public Art, Knight Foundation, Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation and the Minnesota State Arts Board.
Kao Lee Thao
Read Kao Lee’s bio
Kao Lee Thao is the visual artist and 3D animator behind Inner Swirl, where she taps into the subconscious and releases hidden inner swirls in paintings. All of her inspirations come from her dreams and personal experiences. With every stroke she leaves behind a window into her soul, hoping to spark inspiration in others to transport viewers to a world of fantasy, reminding us not to forget what imagination can accomplish in life.
Rock "Cyfi" Martinez
Read Cyfi’s bio
Rock “Cyfi” Martinez is a visual artist and muralist born in Tucson, Arizona. He now resides in Minneapolis. As a self-taught artist, he developed his craft by learning alongside other graffiti writers in his community. This grassroots education and the trials that come from working in a street-culture medium outside of the traditional scope of fine art influenced his understanding of public places and spaces — namely who they are for, and by extension, who was not welcome. Throughout his body of work he explores this tension and seeks to amplify the voices and narratives of those who have been disenfranchised and marginalized throughout history. He draws on his Mexican American and Indigenous heritage to comment on the social, cultural, and natural history of site-specific surfaces, often using allegory, abstraction, and pop art devices to layer meaning.
Xena Goldman
Read Xena’s bio
Xena Goldman is a painter, illustrator, muralist, comic artist and educator. In her work, she explores how we move through the modern world and continue redefining our place in it. She believes that drawing upon vulnerability and raw emotions through the framework of art is a powerful tool to allow the public to find common ground, a common language, and a means of tapping into their own truth. Additional themes of interest include mental health, equity, transportation justice, technological relationships, queer identity and climate change. She grew up in the greater Chicago area, on Ojibwa, Odawa and Potawatomi land, and currently lives in Minneapolis, on Dakota and Anishinaabe land.
Mural Locations
The 9 mural locations were selected based on the following goals: to help reduce the amount of vandalism in the park system; to reduce reactionary maintenance efforts required for tagging removal; to beautify park walls, and to celebrate the park system and park users. There are specific sites in the MPRB system that are frequent targets for vandalism that require countless hours of labor each year to remove and repaint.
- Powderhorn Park
- Franklin Steele Square
- Cleveland Park
- Lake Harriet Trolley Tunnel
- Van Cleve Park
- West Bde Maka Ska Parkway
- Boom Island Park
- Windom Northeast Park
- West River Parkway
Based on conversations with the community and maintenance and operations guidelines, the locations of the murals were finalized and murals planned and installed across the park system in 2023 and 2024. Artists are paired with a site by the artist selection committee, and sites are selected by MPRB staff with the following goals in mind:
- Visible to the public
- Based on walls or sites in need of routine maintenance related to tagging removal
- Located in highly visited spaces
- Owned and maintained by the Park Board
- Distributed across all five MPRB service areas
- Aligned with master plans
- Surface material compatible with mural medium
- Recommended by community and staff
Budget
Each selected artist receives a total fee of $6,000, which includes artist fee and labor. A separate materials budget of $3,000 is provided for any other costs associated with the project.
Maintenance
The mural locations are prepped with a base coat by the MPRB Painting Crew and sealed with a seal coat. A plan will be established for restoring murals with the artist if any damage occurs for the determined life span of the mural, generally for 10 years.
Funding and Administration
Funding is provided by MPRB operations funding, donations from community and neighborhood organizations, and grants. The call for artists, contracting with artists, and maintenance planning is administered by Forecast Public Art. Artists work with MPRB staff on approvals, community engagement, and event planning.
What to Submit
1. Artwork Samples
- Submit up to 5 images of previous work including 2-3 samples of previously executed murals or large-scale paintings (larger than 4’ x 4’)
- Image List: Include date, location, collaborators, size, and medium
2. Proposal
Please include a written description of up to two pages that addresses:
- Why you are interested and what excites you most about the project;
- An overview of your process and how you would approach this project;
- An overview of how you engage community members and diverse groups in your projects;
- Confirm availability to do work on site in Minneapolis in spring of 2023;
- Please note if you have a preference of a specific park or neighborhood in which you would like to create a mural.
- Also please note if there is an MPRB Goal (listed above, under Project Overview) that you are most interested in representing in your mural. This will not determine if you are selected, but will help guide the committee in pairing you with a topic and a site.
3. Resume
A current resume(s), including contact information up to two pages.
4. References
The names, addresses, and daytime phone numbers of two references who can speak about your ability as a muralist.
Entry Requirements
- Artists must be at least 18 years of age.
- Preference will be given to artists with a connection to Minneapolis.
- Artists should not submit a concept for the mural in the proposal but selected artists will be asked to develop a concept in collaboration with MPRB staff.
- Artist will be required to attend an orientation prior to the project start.
- Artist is responsible for providing materials (paint, brushes, rags, etc) they may need. The mural wall will be cleaned, primed, and ready to be painted on.
- Artists are responsible for the entire mural execution including the hiring and paying of assistants if the artist so chooses.
- Insurance will be required for the project.
- Artists will need to develop a maintenance agreement with Forecast Public Art and MPRB.
How Will Applications be Reviewed?
The selection process for this project is guided by the City Public Art Policies. An artist selection panel will be required to comply with the conflict-of-interest policies and review and evaluate applications based on the criteria below. The panel will include Park Board staff, an artist, and an arts administrator. Late applications will not be considered. Please note that applications that do not follow the stated guidelines may not be considered.
Artist selection will be based on the following criteria:
- Stimulate excellence in urban design and public arts
- Enhance community identity and place
- Contribute to community vitality
- Involve a broad range of people/communities
- Value artists and artistic process
- Use resources wisely
Details
- The mural sizes will vary according to location.
- The fee includes materials, artist stipend, community engagement, and subcontracting.
- Nine muralists will be selected for 2023.
- Completed murals will remain on the MPRB land and be owned by MPRB.
- Maintenance plans will be developed in collaboration with MPRB.
- Artist retains copyright to the artwork design.
- Mural concept and materials will need to be approved by MPRB staff and Board.
- Each artist should conduct community engagement as part of their process.
- Emerging artists are encouraged to apply.
(651) 641-1128
INFO@FORECAST
