The City of Tenino’s Creative District is holding a public art design contest for new metal banners to be displayed on 23 street light poles in downtown Tenino, according to a news release from the city.
“The goal is to provide imagery that represents the history, culture, recreation and natural beauty of Tenino. Celebrating what makes a place special both in the past and in the present makes a strong community and a great place to visit. We think 23 pieces of public art will help us do that,” Tenino Mayor Wayne Fournier stated in the release.
Art must be done in a silhouette style. Entrants are advised to use simple shapes and images for the best street art. Since final designs will be suspended in the air, designs cannot have “floating” pieces.
Winning designs will be cut from a sheet of metal and one will be hung from each of the 23 light poles running down Sussex Avenue in downtown Tenino.
All work must be submitted in black and white with no color, grayscale or shading. All art must also be vertically oriented and fit on an 8.5-by-11 inch paper. Artists are invited to use either traditional or digital mediums, but only submit copies of their art.
Once the winning designs have been chosen, the original artwork will be requested, or the original uncompressed, high-resolution digital file if art was submitted digitally.
All artwork is considered conceptual and submitting artists agree to allow minor modifications that might be required to better suit the art to the fabrication process.
Submissions can be made one of three ways. Artists can mail photocopy submissions of art to Tenino PARC Specialist Jessica Reeves-Rush at P.O. Box 4019, Tenino, Washington, 98589 or drop submissions off in-person at Tenino City Hall, located at 149 Hodgden St. S. in Tenino. Digital submissions can be sent to Reeves-Rush at jreevesrush@cityoftenino.org in JPEG format.
The deadline for submissions is March 15 at 5 p.m. and final selections will be made on March 31. Banner fabrication will begin April 7 and banners are due to be installed by June 28.
All Washington state residents are welcome and former Tenino residents are still encouraged to make submissions. Three submission categories are available, including for artists ages 5 to 11, ages 12 to 17 and for artists 18 and older.
Each artist can submit up to 10 designs. Artwork created by groups will also be accepted. Winning artists will be recognized on the city’s website.
For more information and to download the application and template, visit https://cityoftenino.us/city-govt/page/arts-recreation-culture-history-commission.
This public art project is funded in part by the Washington State Arts Commission Certified Creative Districts Capital Projects Program.
