A Public Outdoor Sculpture Competition

Sponsored by: City of Sandy Springs in partnership with Art Sandy Springs

For more information, contact: [email protected]

Location: Sandy Springs, Georgia (North Metro Atlanta area)
Honoraria:$1,500 to each of nine selected artists
Eligibility: Open to local, regional and national artists
Application Deadline: Friday, May 6, 2024 11:59 PM MST
Sculpture Installation: August 12 – 16, 2024
Public Unveiling Event: Date to be determined, 2024
This public sculpture competition was created to bring fine art to the parks and public spaces throughout the city of Sandy Springs, the second largest city in the metropolitan Atlanta area. Nine sculptures will be prominently displayed around the four-acre green at City Springs, the City’s town center. One or more sculptures from each competition will be purchased by the City to be permanently placed in public locations around Sandy Springs.

To view the current year’s finalists on exhibit please go to www.sandyspringsga.gov/art-walk

Benefits:

A $1,500 honorarium will be awarded for each sculpture selected for the exhibition. Should a sculpture be purchased, the honorarium will be applied to the purchase price.
Sculptures will be on display in the city’s four-acre City Green, the heart of the City Springs complex.
Sandy Springs will purchase one or more sculptures for permanent installation within the city.
All sculptures will be for sale and will be promoted as such.
A City of the Arts – and a great place for artists to showcase their work

Sandy Springs is home to more than 100,000 residents and is Georgia’s seventh-largest City. The City’s name is derived from an actual spring within the city, and Sandy Springs does not disappoint with its beautiful surroundings. The City is bordered by the Chattahoochee River and has developed a network of award-winning parks, including Morgan Falls Overlook Park and the Abernathy Greenway Park, known for its playable art park.

Sandy Springs exudes a suburban/rural feel with its serene rivers and pristine parks juxtaposed with premier dining and a thriving business community. Many of the Fortune 500 companies which call the metro area home are in Sandy Springs, including UPS, WestRock, Newell Brands, and Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange. This balance of business and amenities is attractive to both older and younger generations, with most of the City’s population under age 50.

The City of Sandy Springs is relatively young, incorporating in 2005. From the start, city leaders have prioritized incorporating arts within the City’s brand. Soon after incorporation, Art Sandy Springs (ArtSS), a nonprofit volunteer organization, was founded and launched Arts in the Open, establishing the foundation for building the City’s visual arts program. The organization’s first outdoor sculpture competition was held in 2008, attracting more than ten national and international submissions, with four permanent works purchased with private funds, catalyzing the City’s public art collection. In 2014, through the efforts of ArtSS, the Playable Art Park opened to national praise with six mega sculptures built by artists for kids to play on and interact with, becoming a popular regional destination for children of all ages.

In May 2018, the City opened City Springs, a walkable, multi-use complex including a 1,100 seat performance theatre, studio theatre, conference center, and four-acre City Green. City Springs was envisioned as a gathering place for the community and has filled that vision with its theatre and musical performances as well as becoming home to iconic community events, including the City’s annual Stars and Stripes Fireworks and Sparkle Sandy Springs Parade in addition to the Farmer’s Market and City Green Live Concert Series. The City Green anchors the outdoor stage and is the center point for City Springs.

In 2019, in partnership with ARTSS, the City launched the Arts in the Open Sculpture Competition at City Springs. The competition not only provides a showcase at City Springs, but the selection of pieces from each round has also transformed green spaces throughout the City into mini urban outdoor galleries.

Working in partnership with the City of Sandy Springs, Art Sandy Springs manages the competition, including the Call for Entries (CFE), evaluation and jurying of submissions, and the installation of selected sculptures.

Promotion

Sculptures will be installed on the City Green, the site of popular city activities, such as the Sandy Springs Festival, City Springs Live concert series, Movies By Moonlight series, and the Food That Rocks festival. Audiences at the 1,100-seat Byers Theatre and 350-seat Studio Theatre are steps away from the showcased sculptures.

Artists will be featured on four separate websites:
City of Sandy Springs – www.sandyspringsga.gov
City Springs – www.citysprings.com
Sandy Springs Hospitality and Tourism – www.visitsandysprings.org
Art Sandy Springs – www.artsandysprings.org
Sculptures will be showcased through the social media sites of the Sandy Springs organizations listed above.
Sculpture and artist information are shared with editorial media for additional exposure.
Artists and sculptures will be featured in the City of Sandy Springs e-newsletter.
Visit Sandy Springs, the City’s tourism agency, will promote the sculptures in their own marketing materials as well as in the marketing materials such as the Atlanta Metro Travel Association co-op marketing program, which is comprised of fifteen municipalities in and around Atlanta, and the Georgia 400 Hospitality Highway.
Each sculpture will feature a plaque with the name of the artist and the title of the work.
Daily foot traffic among the sculptures will include individuals visiting Sandy Springs City Hall for business and civic purposes as well as thousands of patrons of the Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center, community events, restaurants, and retail establishments.
Artists whose work are selected for exhibit acknowledge that the City of Sandy Springs, Visit Sandy Springs, Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center, and Art Sandy Springs may use photographs and videos of the artwork to promote the City’s public arts program as well as encourage visitations to Sandy Springs. Arts Sandy Springs will invite the artists to be interviewed and videotaped for possible use on community websites, apps, and in marketing materials that may include but are not limited to:

www.sandyspringsga.gov
www.citysprings.com
www.visitsandysprings.org
www.artsandysprings.org
2024-2025 Exhibition Guidelines

There is no fee for entry.
Artists may submit up to 3 individual sculptures for consideration. ***Each sculpture entry must be submitted INDIVIDUALLY / One Sculpture per Application***
All submissions must be made electronically through CaFE.org and should include a full description of the artwork with a minimum of three (3) photo images (front, side, and back views), an artist’s statement and artist bio. There is no fee to register as an artist through CaFE.org. https://www.callforentry.org/artist-help-cafe/
All artwork shall be the property of the artist submitting the entry.
Artists will receive a $1,500 honorarium for each piece selected for exhibition. If piece is purchased, the honorarium will be applied toward the purchase price.
All entries shall be existing works, completed prior to submission. No incomplete artwork will be considered.
Artwork shall be suitable for outdoor public display and be of high artistic quality as well as safe for an active pedestrian environment and appropriate for viewers of all ages.
Artwork must require only minimal maintenance, if any, and be able to withstand the effects of weather, be as resistant as possible to vandalism, and be able to withstand pedestrian contact.
Artwork shall be undamaged and unblemished. Artwork must be fabricated and finished with non-hazardous materials.
Artists are encouraged to visit the exhibition site during the application period and before the final jury decision.
Artwork will be on loan to the city of Sandy Springs during the exhibition period and may be available for sale to the public. If a sculpture sells, the artwork cannot be removed before the end of the exhibition period. There will be a 20% commission paid to Art Sandy Springs for pieces purchased by entities other than the city of Sandy Springs.
It is the artist’s responsibility to deliver and oversee installation of their sculpture and to be present for the sculpture’s removal at the end of the exhibition. Artwork cannot be shipped as there is no available storage space or staff available for this purpose.
The City of Sandy Springs and Art Sandy Springs reserve the right to reject work that is not the same artwork as was selected in response to this CFE. Artwork may also be rejected if it does not meet call requirements.
All artwork shall be structurally able to be secured to a concrete pad with anchor bolts. Concrete pads are provided for the display of each sculpture. The anchoring method will be approved by the city engineer. For selected artwork, each artist will be required to submit detailed information relating to the proposed anchoring method and provide any and all mounting bolts and hardware. Attachment B provides diagrams with location, dimensions, and weight capacity.
No artwork shall be exhibited without the artist and the city executing a document acknowledging that the artwork has been installed properly and satisfactorily and that the city accepts responsibility for the artwork from the time it is properly installed to the time it is de-installed.
No artwork shall be exhibited without the city of Sandy Springs first having obtained an Artist Agreement executed by each artist selected for exhibition in the competition.
During the exhibition period, the city of San...