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Art Policy & Guidelines

Arts & Culture Board

Artist Opportunities

Since its inception as the first public agency in the region to establish a civic collection, Port of Seattle’s Art Program has flourished, continuing to achieve critical acclaim with its diverse and innovative art pieces. The Port invites you to become part of the cultural legacy by applying to an upcoming project or temporary exhibition.

The Port of Seattle solicits artwork for permanent and temporary exhibition through commissions, acquisitions, and loan agreements. For all opportunities, a selection committee of Port of Seattle’s professional staff and members of the regional art community will review the artist submittals. Submissions will be evaluated based on professional merit, previous public art projects, experience with unique art installations, and ability to collaborate with various Port departments. The purpose of the committee is to eliminate bias in the selection process and promote equity in alignment with the Port of Seattle’s Diversity in Contracting goals.

Permanent Collection: Commissions & Acquisitions

Commissions are posted as Requests for Qualifications (RFQs) on the Port’s VendorConnect site. RFQs are used to assess the expertise of an Artist’s qualifications for selection to create new, original artworks that are often site-specific. Commissions can be associated with capital projects, when there is new construction or a renovation associated with part of a Port-owned facility. Artists may work closely with the Port of Seattle’s Public Art program and capital project teams to ensure their artwork meets thematic, structural, and safety requirements.

Unlike many calls for public art, the Port of Seattle prioritizes issuing RFQs because it believes that artists should be paid for the time and expertise it takes to develop proposals. Once an RFQ is awarded, the selected artist will engage in a proposal development process wherein the Port will then determine if the concept will proceed into construction.

Acquisitions are posted as Requests for Acquisitions (RFAs) on the Port’s VendorConnect site. They are the direct purchasing of an Artist’s completed artwork from either the Artist or the Gallery representing the artist.

Temporary Exhibition: Loan Agreements

Temporary exhibits are curated every 6-12 months throughout the airport and maritime facilities. They showcase existing, original artworks through a temporary loan which are paid through an honorarium.

To apply for Temporary Exhibitions, create a packet with the following information. Packets must follow this format to be considered for selection.

Name your PDF using the following convention:

1. "artist's last name, first initial, packet.pdf"
2. Example: doejpacket.pdf

Create a single PDF with the following content in this order:

1. Professional resume/CV (limited to 2 pages)
2. Artist Teams: each team member may submit a resume (limited to 2 pages each)
3. Contact information of 3 professional references
4. Artist statement (maximum 500 words)
5. 4-6 image samples of previous work

For your work samples, include the following information:

1. Title of the piece(s)
2. Dimensions
3. Date of completion
4. Value
5. Materials

Send your packet to [email protected] with the subject line "Temporary Exhibition Application"

Frequently Asked Questions