From the press release:

Artists Sought to Spruce Up Downtown Benches

A downtown Olympia group is inviting area artists to submit designs to artistically enhance existing benches in downtown Olympia. The PBIA (Parking & Business Improvement Area) will be selecting up to five artists for the project, which is designed to add artistic interest to the streetscape of downtown Olympia, engage the local arts community in a downtown project, and create a more inviting, welcoming atmosphere to downtown. Each artist will receive an honorarium of $1000 plus up to $500 for materials.

Dave Rauh, PBIA committee member and one of the jurors for the bench project said, "We're fortunate to live in a community with a national reputation for the quality of its artists. We're looking to put some of those artists to work by having the take everyday objects for seating and making the beautiful, one-of-a-kind objects for seating. The ideas must be practical, functional, durable and original. It's a real design challenge, and we're thrilled to see what they'll come up with."

Rauh said that artists may contact him at 360-943-9937 (ext. 107) or downtownbench@mixx96.com for proposal guidelines or go to www.olympiapbia.org and click on the link for the Downtown Bench Project. The deadline for application is 5:00 P.M., April 25, 2008.

I've attached the full Press Release, the RFP and the Application. I hope to see some great OlyBlog participation! -Katherine