hard hats

The ARTery:
Connecting Hopkins with Art

The City of Hopkins desires to create a plan and design for a vibrant, interactive, "pedestrian seductive" 8th Avenue between the proposed Hopkins LRT station and historic downtown Hopkins. It is envisioned that the process to get us there will include an art summit to create the vision  for integrating public art into the experience of the corridor - helping tell the story of the new transit linking to the historic Mainstreet while meeting the under lying goal of encouraging pedestrian movement. The process and resulting plan will then inform the technical design of the corridor.

Local Implementation Capacity grant funds will be used to hire a consultant to design and facilitate engagement between the community, artists, city staff, and technical experts and to create an optimal plan for using art to connect the Hopkins LRT station to downtown Hopkins via the 8th Avenue corridor – The Artery.

It is assumed that the successful responder to this RFP will have expertise in community facilitation, the arts and public space design.  This may require a team-approach.

Proposed Scope of Work:

Task One:  Visioning with Community (Art Summit)

The consultant will work with The Artery committee to design a community art summit, anticipated to take place in November 2012.  The goal of the summit is to gather everyone with an interest in transforming 8th Avenue into a pedestrian-seductive, art-infused corridor, brainstorm how art can be used to draw future LRT riders (and others) from Excelsior Boulevard to our historic downtown, and develop consensus around mediums, messages, and placement of art to inform the development of concept plans.  The consultant will be responsible for facilitating the Summit in a way that allows us to achieve this goal. 

Example of the types of questions we would ask people to think about may be:

  • What are we trying to communicate about Hopkins?
  • Who are we trying to appeal to?
  • As we rebuild the sidewalks, how can they (or should they) be used as a canvas? 
  • Should the focus be on murals, sculptures, light art, or water features – or none or all of them? 
  • What are the important vantage points, gathering nodes, places that need a pull?
  • How important is it that the art be interactive and how can that be accomplished?
  • What needs do artists have that are not being met in the community?
  • How can the transition from the busy, noisy LRT station on Excelsior Boulevard to the historic, quaint Mainstreet be communicated in art? 

We will be relying on the consultant to facilitate the discussion, get the ideas flowing but at the same time put those ideas through a real-life lens of cost, durability, and artist’s perspective.   

The Committee will be responsible for conducting outreach to the summit’s participants including developing a mailing list, mailing the notice, and making personal contacts.  All community stakeholders will be invited including artists, art-related businesses, business and residents along 8th Avenue, City Council, Planning & Zoning Members, etc.  The Committee will also be responsible for reserving the space and the logistics of the meeting.

Task Two: Development of Concept Plans

Based on the input gathered during the summit, the consultant will develop a series of concept plans.  The concept plans will not detail specific art pieces but will identify elements such as:

  • Where certain mediums will be used
  • The messages that we would intend the art to convey
  • The extend to which the art is interactive and the placement of interactive pieces
  • Any other design elements that would be important such as scale, color, style, etc.
  • The infrastructure that would be needed to accommodate the art

The concept plans will be shared with the community and feedback will be sought, through various communication methods including the City of Hopkins and Hopkins Center for the Arts websites, electronic newsletters, community organizations and summit participants.   The Committee and Consultant will review the feedback to inform the final design plan.

Task Three: Detailed Design Plan

The final design plan will use narrative and illustration to detail all the elements important to implement the vision.  The final design plan will also include a rendering of how the street would look if the plan was realized, from a vantage point of Excelsior Boulevard and 8th Avenue South. 

Task Four: Financing Options

The City of Hopkins does not have the funds necessary to fully implement the plan, and will be seeking outside dollars through grants, donations, and fundraising.  The consultant will be asked to identify resources and provide an estimate of the cost of each of the art elements called for in the plan. 

Budget:

The budget for the entire project is $50,000.  All costs associated with the logistics of the summit (room rental, refreshments, mailings) will be outside of this budgeted amount.  

Proposal:

Proposals for this scope of work should include a description of the process being proposed, the anticipated timeline, qualifications of the team and example of your previous related work. 

Contacts

  • City Hall
    952-935-8474
    1010 1st St S
    Hopkins, MN 55343
  • Ask The City

Downloads

The ARTery Post Summit Report