The City of Marathon has been awarded a $10,000 Art Builds Community Grant from the Florida Keys Council of the Arts for an art installation titled “Beautiful Benchmarks” depicting the effect of Sea Level Rise in our community. “The objective of the ABC grant is to strengthen community by fostering relationships between artists, arts organizations, and civic organizations within the Florida Keys to generate greater cultural equity.”
“The Florida Keys Council of the Arts is committed to ensuring that everyone in our community has equal access to the arts and the fundamental right to express their culture through the arts. Many of our residents experience vast disparities in terms of access to and participation in arts and culture activities. We believe the arts have the power to change hearts and minds and inspire social change.”
With this in mind, the City of Marathon is searching for an artist to partner with to show the benchmarks of sea level rise in an area of Marathon that is important to the entire community. The goal of Beautiful Benchmarks is to provide community engagement regarding flooding and sea level rise that is outside the standard scope of flood mapping and statistical analysis. Low-income residents tend to face increased safety risks during floods as research suggest they are more likely to remain in low-lying areas. By engaging the community with the artist, they will be able to have a visual representation of the data and analysis that crosses the language barriers, and acts as a local benchmark to know how they may be impacted in the future from storms, high tides, or other climate change events.
The City will provide the technical data and analysis, coordinate public meetings, and provide the staff needed for accurate measurements. The audience will engage with the artist to develop the art that best represents them and their community. The artist will then merge the relevant data and representation into the art and will coordinate with City Staff for placement of the piece. The goal being that the audience informs the artist, and the resulting art informs the audience; allowing for a large audience to help shift and guide developmental and policy changes within the City of Marathon.
The artist will receive the entirety of the grant award ($10,000) for this installation and may request up to one-third of that amount at the start. This opportunity is open to any artist listed in the Florida Keys Council of the Arts Artist Registry. Interested artists please submit the following information no later than October 31st November 14th to Maria Covelli, Grants Coordinator, City of Marathon, at covellim@ci.marathon.fl.us:
Artist Name
Artist Email Address
Artist Phone Number
Preferred Medium
1st and 2nd Choice of Public Location in Marathon where you would like the final installation (i.e. Sombrero Beach, Jessie Hobbs Park, Coco Plum Beach, The Quay, 7 Mile Marina, etc).
Original source can be found here.
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