SOUTH BURLINGTON – The City of South Burlington has launched its Art in City Center program with an invitation to eight Vermont artists to submit.... SOUTH BURLINGTON – The City of South Burlington has launched its Art in City Center program with an invitation to eight Vermont artists to submit proposals for its initial public art project. Artists Russ Bennett, Christopher Curtis, Daniel Gottsegen, Joseph Motto, Kate Pond, Janet Van Fleet, Rebecca Schwarz, and Andrea Wasserman have been asked to propose solutions for exterior ‘gateway’ public areas surrounding the new Healthy Living Market on Dorset Street that will house a restaurant, and retail and office space on the site of a former automobile dealership.



South Burlington’s City Center district is located between Dorset Street and Hinesburg Road, from Williston Road to Kennedy Drive. The City Center district, which includes a 45-acre undeveloped parcel flanking Market Street, is slated to see over $15 million in transportation, infrastructure, environmental and public space investments in the next five years thanks in part to funds from the FHWA and Lake Champlain Basin Program, and strong support from Senators Jeffords and Leahy. The objective is to create a new downtown district with commercial, residential, municipal, recreational and cultural facilities and which celebrates natural resources and community through innovative context sensitive urban design solutions.

In 2005, the City hosted a Community Workshop that involved residents, artists, local business owners and design professionals in planning diverse features of its urban plan. Public art was seen as critical to any plan for creating public spaces that support movement, safety and the vitality of the community. In 2006, the City hired design and communications group JZA of South Burlington, Vermont as its consultant to help formulate a public art plan that will create and maintain a distinct sense of place for the district. JZA creative director John Zwick envisions this pilot project as “... a very exciting first of potentially scores of different site-specific public art projects in South Burlington over the next ten years; each designed to enhance the experience of culture and community by people who live, work and play in City Center.”

The site identified for this first public art installation by the Art in City Center program is a result of the ongoing dialog among artists, engineers and civic leaders in South Burlington and will ‘set the bar’ for future placemaking projects in the district. The artists invited to submit proposals for this project were chosen on the basis of their demonstrated ability to conceive and produce strong context-sensitive art concepts that engage the public. An art selection panel will review proposals and invite three artist Finalists to present preliminary concepts to residents in April 2007.