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Tobin Public Art Meet-And-Greet March 24

caution sign The information on this page may be outdated as it was published 3 years ago.

Aerial view of Tobin Montessori and Vassal Lane Upper Schools complex, Cambridge.

Tobin Public Art Meet-And-Greet March 24

What Would You Like The Artists To Know?

Join Cambridge Arts for a virtual Meet-And-Greet on Wednesday, March 24, from 6 to 7:30 p.m., to give input on public art being planned for Cambridge’s new Tobin Montessori and Vassal Lane Upper Schools complex.

Register: https://cambridgema.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_MpT47BTITvWHbXirpzW9Bg

Meet the four finalists for the art project, which is being overseen by Cambridge's City Manager's Office, the Department of Public Works, Cambridge Public Schools and Cambridge Arts. Share your thoughts and ideas about the site to inspire the public artworks being designed as part of a reconstruction of the educational and community hub at 197 Vassal Lane, which is being planned by the architectural firm Perkins-Eastman.

An art jury—comprised of Kai Alexis Smith, David De Celis, Jessica Martinez and Caitlin Gilman—met on Jan. 21 and 28. They selected four finalists:
• Daily tous les jours of Montreal
• Gregory Gómez of Newtonville and Rodrigo Nava of Putney, Vermont
• IKD, founded by Yugon Kim and Tomomi Itakura, of Boston and San Francisco
• The Urban Conga of Brooklyn, New York

Each finalist is being paid $3,000 to design concept proposals based on site parameters and developed in consultation with city staff and community members. One of these artists or teams will be chosen for the final $650,000 commission by a committee of stakeholders based on community feedback, proposal presentations, and interviews with the finalists. The final artwork is expected to be installed around 2024 to 2025.

As part of anti-racism efforts, Cambridge Arts has been expanding its outreach to potential applicants. In seeking public artists for the Tobin project, Cambridge Arts researched and added nearly 400 new contacts to our Public Artist Registry outreach mailing list. This significantly expands outreach to communities of color, as well as organizations working with women, and artists with disabilities, locally and nationally. Cambridge Arts is dedicated to continuing this work in partnership with the City and will continue to strengthen this resource for this and future commission opportunities.

Tobin Project Call for Artists (Request for Qualifications), September to December 2020:
• Total applications submitted to Cambridge Arts Public Artist Registry: 316
• Black, Indigenous and People Of Color (BIPOC) applicants: 66 (21%)
• First-time applicants: 195 of the 316 (62%); 53 of the 195 were BIPOC (27%)
• Re-submissions (were in the registry, but updated their profile in response to this call): 121 of the 316 (38%)
Page was posted on 3/15/2021 5:20 PM
Page was last modified on 7/24/2023 8:01 PM
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