SMCM Guidelines for Public Art Projects

Creating public art means learning how to navigate the process of getting permissions from those that inhabit these places. Sometimes it is about meeting with community member and leaders sometimes it entails submitting proposals and getting permission from officials who have authority and oversight over public and private spaces and functions.

Here at St. Mary’s our process is to submit a proposal to the head of the Office of Planning and Facilities (currently Dan Branigan). Write a proposal, email it to me and I will submit it with my endorsement.

Proposals should include the following information:

· A brief description of what you will be doing

· Dates and times

· Description of any physical impact to the site 

· Overall comments as to how you plan to ensure that your activities will not damage nor interrupt ongoing functions of the campus.

Here are examples of excellent proposals students have submitted in the past:

Examples of Public Art Proposals

Example #1:

Hi Mr. Jackson, 



My name is Michael Bargamian and I am currently a student in Lisa Scheer's Sculpture Studio class. Our next project is based around the concept of "interactivity" and for my project I wanted to create a message that I would hand to other students in the form of a flyer, personal note and/or letter. As you are Head of Facilities, I was wondering if you could tell me what the school's protocol is if I wanted to either put these messages on people's car windshields (slipping a flyer under their wiper), or hand them out outside the Great Room, or send it to other students via on-campus (snail) mail.

My thoughts behind my project are that I want my viewers to know that I need a thriving personal relationship/co-existence with them, and that the best way to create this realized relationship is to contact them directly through the message: "I can’t breathe when you sleep" - which would be printed on these notes, flyers, and letters. As this work would put me into direct contact with other students in a way that they may not expect, I want to make sure that no violations of school policy occur.

Thank you very much for your time and insight, 

Michael Bargamian

Example #2:

Dear Mr. Jackson,

I am currently in Sculpture Studio and was writing for your permission to install my art piece outside of Montgomery Hall.  The specific location is a cluster of trees and stumps in front of Caroline near the theater entrance to Monty. They are pieces made of wood, plaster, wax, and sawdust that I am planning to just set on top of the stumps on the afternoon of the 12th for the duration of our critique and I will remove them immediately after.

Thank you, Caitie Harrigan

Example #3:

Dear Mr. Jackson,

 I am currently an art major and am enrolled in Lisa Scheer's advanced sculpture class. Right now, we are working on sculptures based on interactivity. The main goal of this project is to have the sculpture interact with either the environment or other people. For my project, I would like to put an installation in St. James Pond. My concept is to build a sea monster and place it by the crossroads where students walk. The size of the monster would be no larger than five feet in length.

The basis of this project is interactivity, so I would start off by posting fliers around the school, containing a silhouette of the sea monster. There would be a caption, such as " Have you seen this creature?" Without an explanation, people will begin to build up their curiosity. I would start a page on Facebook to enforce the curiosity, and possibly the idea of naming the creature.

The actual displaying of the sculpture will only take place over a few days. The fliers would go up a week in advance, and the actual sculpture will begin to up the week of the first. I plan on installing the sculpture in parts, starting with a fin and gradually putting up the entire thing. I will create the piece with entirely eco friendly materials that will not harm the pond or any of its inhabitants. The project is due on March 10th, so the piece would only be up for a very short period of time.

The artwork would consist of three or four pieces that make up a whole. The main goal of the design is to allow people to recognize the shape of the creature and connect it to the posters that will go up.

This piece would allow the students to be more observant and try and connect the serpent to its environment. This, it would almost become like the Lochness monster of the St James Pond. I am writing this email to ask for permission to install this sculpture in the pond, seeing as the pond is a very important landmark of St. Mary's College. I can assure you that this piece will not harm the pond, and the concept is simply an idea to experiment with interaction because of its location, and the element of water.  Thank you.

Sincerely, Kat Eisenberg

Example #4 (excellently planned with pictures):

Dear Mr. Jackson,

My name is Molly Dougherty, and I am a student in Professor Scheer’s Advanced Sculpture class. For our next project I am interested in doing an installation off the path, by St. John’s pond. Attached are the following, a drawing of the structure, drawings of methods of installation, and photographs of scaled markings in the desired location. I plan on installing the structure early Sunday, March 4 and removing it early Wednesday, March 7. As you can see from the spike drawings, I would be using removable metal ground fasteners to secure the structure in the ground.

As you can see from the image below, the door would be 25 inches wide, plus about 2 inches for frame, 85 inches tall. The door would be elevated 3 inches from the ground at its base, making the total height 88 inches. The decking structure that is seen behind the door would be 4 feet long, 25 inches wide. The removable metal stakes used to secure the wood structure in the ground are seen I blue, and are 34- 7/8 inches long. The two options for this tool are seen in these images:

The structure would be located on the opposite side of the pathway by St. John’s pond and the fork in the path. Here are some images to help understand where the structure would be, and the size/ dimensions.