CITY OF MEMPHIS | VANCE AVE

VANCE AVE CROSSWALKS  | CALL TO ARTISTS

Release Date: Wednesday, September 17th, 2025

Budget: $25000 (includes three finalist honoraria of $500 each) 

Deadline: Monday, November 3, 2025 at 11:59 pm

Eligibility: Any artist living and working within the Memphis metropolitan area. Artists are invited to submit collaborative work if desired, but may only submit one proposal per project opportunity. Artists are encouraged to identify collaboration with experienced crosswalk fabricators, if needed, prior to submitting an application.  While there is no limit to the number of calls an artist may apply to at once, UAC strongly encourages artists to consider both the time and scale of each call.
 

BACKGROUND

About Vance Ave Community

The Vance Ave Corridor is known for being a vibrant business district and cultural hub. The neighborhood is home to prominent churches. Local musicians such as Rufus Thomas, Carla Thomas, and Bobby Blue Band have lived in the neighborhood. Music is a huge component for the Vance Avenue community. Some musicians such as Al Green and Elvis Costello have recorded at the nearby Memphis Magnetic Recording Co.  

Some example neighborhood institutions include but are not limited to: NAACP Memphis, Cornelia Crenshaw Memorial Library, Vance Youth Development Center, Memphis Magnetic Recording Company, Off the Walls Arts, Cynthia Place,  Paradise Club, Advance Memphis, Memphis Inner City Rugby, Grigg’s Business College, R. S. Lewis & Son’s Funeral Home, Historic Mount Nebo Baptist Church,  Greater Love Miracle Center Church, St. John’s Church, and SCORE Community Development Center.
 

About OFF THE WALLs ARTS 

OFF THE WALLs ARTS is a nonprofit arts organization working to build a stronger, more prosperous Memphis by creating equitable access to the arts in our South Memphis neighborhood 38126. We supply shared resources and financial opportunities to artists, create unique collaborative art events, offer community workshops, and provide a wide range of spaces for exhibitions, music performances, aerial and fire arts, film and video screening, set design, and art fabrication.

About UAC:

The UrbanArt Commission (UAC) works to create opportunities for artists and neighborhoods to connect and shape spaces through public art. Since 2002, UAC has managed the City of Memphis’s Percent-For-Art Program, which allocates funds annually to develop public art in connection to capital improvement projects. UAC also facilitates public art projects throughout the city working with various partners and clients to support artists and new experiences with art.
 

SITE SPECIFICS

UAC and the City of Memphis, in partnership with Downtown Elementary School, are seeking an artist to create three distinct crosswalks. The preferred location is at the intersection of N 4th Street and Court St.

Vance-Lauderdale St. Intersection

Vance-Lauderdale St. Intersection

Vance-Orleans St Intersection

 

Vance-Walnut St Intersection
 

SCOPE OF WORK

UAC and the City of Memphis, in partnership with OFF THE WALLs ARTS, are seeking an artist to create four crosswalk murals along Vance Avenue celebrating the neighborhood’s history as a thriving community and business district, hub for Black culture, arts, and education, and heart of the civil rights movement. The crosswalks will be site-specific to their proximity to the institution, located at the Vance-Walnut St, Vance-Orleans St, and Vance-Lauderdale St intersections.

The selection committee has expressed interest in crosswalks that:

• Include themes of community, sports, youth, education, and music
• Pays homage to the rich history of the area
• Creatively highlights the significant historic and current community, faith, and cultural centers in the neighborhood
• Complies with the City of Memphis crosswalk guidelines (This information will be shared with selected finalists.)
• Selected artists will also host workshops with students from Booker T. Washington High School and Bellevue Middle School to install the crosswalks.

PROJECT EXPECTATIONS

A selection committee organized by UAC will review submitted portfolios, and will invite finalists to submit site-specific design proposals. All finalists will receive a stipend of $500 for their designs. The selected artist will be expected to work closely with the Selection Committee and UAC to execute the proposed sculpture.

SELECTION COMMITTEE

• Alison Heverly- OFF THE WALLs ARTS
• Ann Koonce- Historic Mt. Nebo Missionary Baptist Church 
• Barbara Nesbit- Vance Avenue Youth Development Center
• Carrenna Montgomery- Neighborhood Art 
• Jacob Steimer- Advance Memphis
• Rebecca Matlock-Hutchinson- SCORE CDC
• Scott McEwan- Memphis Magnetic
• Yvonne Bobo- OFF THE WALLs ARTS
   

PROJECT BUDGET

Total project budget is $25000, including artist honoraria - up to three finalists will receive a $500 honorarium for a site-specific proposal. Design budget $5875; Fabrication budget $17,625 all-inclusive.
 

PROJECT TIMELINE

Wednesday, September 17th, 2025           RFQ released 

Wednesday, October 15th, 2025                UAC Information Session

Monday, November 3rd, 2025                   RFQ deadline 

Late November 2025                                  Notify finalists of RFP invitation

January 2025                                               Finalists Presentations & Artist Selection

Fall 2026                                                      Completion celebration

APPLICATION GUIDELINES

Please submit the following materials online by following the "Vance Ave Crosswalks” link at uacmem.org/calls-to-artists:

• Completed application form
• A typed letter explaining your interest in the project and your general approach/concept to its design and production. Please do not submit design proposals at this point.
• Up to 20 images of past work including title of work, date, medium, budget and project partners, if any.
• Résumé or CV, not to exceed 2 pages.
• List of three professional references, including current phone and email.

1. To apply to an open Request for Qualifications (RFQ) or Request for Proposals (RFP), go to uacmem.org/calls-to-artists. Follow the “Downtown Elementary Crosswalks” link to view more details.
2. Clicking on the Submit button will redirect you to our Submittable page, which contains all of our current open opportunities. Click the Submit button next to the opportunity that you wish to apply for, or if you are already within an opportunity, scroll down to the Create your account / Have an account? Sign in form.
3. If you already have a Submittable account, click the Have an account? Sign in tab to sign in to your account.
4. If you don’t have an account, you must create one to apply. Create your free account by filling out the Create your account form. Fill in all information and click the Create Account and Continue button to continue with the submission process.
5. From there, you will be able to complete and submit your application. You can now use this account login when submitting to all future UAC opportunities. Once you have submitted your application, you will receive a confirmation email that confirms receipt of your full application.

For more information about this project, please contact:  

Kayla J. Smith-Hardy | Sr. Program Manager

901.343.6983 | kayla@uacmem.org 

This RFQ can be found on www.uacmem.org/calls-to-artists
 

INFORMATION SESSIONS

UAC will host an information session for interested artists on Wednesday, October 15, 2025. The session will be recorded and a link made available to applicants who are unable to attend during that time. Interested artists who have not completed a public art project previously or not completed a mural at this scale are strongly encouraged to reach out to the UAC team in advance of submitting their application. Artists may also schedule a meeting with UAC staff to review their application and portfolio. Appointments are available until 1 week prior to the close of the call to artists. See project contact information in the above section. RSVP here

DISCLAIMERS

UAC is committed to equity and inclusion in our work. People of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, differently-abled and neurodiverse persons, indigenous peoples, youth, seniors, and women are strongly encouraged to apply. 

Applicants will be notified as to the status of their application. Commissioning of artists by UAC and the pursuit of all UAC activities are implemented without preference to racial or ethnic origins, gender, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, disability, or age.

UAC reserves the right to modify this solicitation and to request additional information from participating artists.

UAC reserves the right to accept or reject, at any time prior to the commissioning of a work, any or all proposals when the acceptance, rejection, waiver or advertisement would be in the best interest of the project. 

The staff of UAC will be responsible for all correspondence and communication by and between applicants and members of selection panels. Discussion regarding these projects by and between any applicant and any member of a selection panel outside of regularly scheduled meetings during the selection process may be grounds for the disqualification of the applicant. Such determination shall be at the discretion of UAC.