The City of Ballarat is seeking responses from interested poets to create a public display of their poetry at Little Bridge Street Pocket Park.  The poem(s) will be incorporated into new seating in the Pocket Park design. The selected poet will work with selected street furniture designers to successfully incorporate the poem into the selected seat design.

The commissioned poetry will reflect the stories of the local community. The selected poem will reflect the theme of contemporary life in urban Ballarat.  The commissioned poet should consider the broad appeal of the poem they submit, noting that the area is used by a cross section of the Ballarat community including families.

A sum of $2,000 and will be paid to commission the poem.  The City of Ballarat will provide and install seating for the poem(s) and will cover the cost of integrating the poem to the seats up to the value of $3,000 (as arranged by the seat designer in collaboration with the poet)

The selected poet will work with the selected designer and seat manufacturer ‘Street Furniture Australia’ to produce the poetry seating.  The selected poet will work with an existing seat design and input into the seating colour, spacing and layout of text and the integration of the words onto four seats (for example this may be etched or printed, an audio recording or another creative integration).  The poet will be asked to strongly consider how public interaction may affect their work and include in their proposal how their design addresses threats of graffiti vandalism, incidental and wilful damage and any ongoing maintenance requirements.

 

Submission date and requirements

Interested poets should provide one PDF file containing the following to publicart@ballarat.vic.gov.au  by 5pm Monday 29 January 2018.

 

  • The full name and contact details and CV of the poet (maximum 2 pages)
  • A one paragraph biography of the poet
  • Up to four poems for selection for the poetry seats (i.e. one poem across all seats, or one per seat)
  • A one page description/design of your concept for the poetry integration onto the seats including an indicative production cost (to be confirmed once seat design is selected)

 

If you have queries or concerns about these requirements, please contact Kate Gerritsen on 03 5320 5199 for assistance.