An informational meeting to help staff the efforts for The Uniting Line public art project will be held Wednesday, July 14 at Noon at the Arts Center of the Capital Region. The partners with The Uniting Line, including the Arts Center, the city of Troy, TAP Inc, and the Collar Works, are looking to hire creatives in the region for the mural project which will culminate with painting multiple piers under the Hoosick Street Bridge/Collar City Bridge later this summer and potentially into the early fall.
An initial informational gathering took place on the evening of July 7 at the Arts Center’s Black Box space. About a dozen people attended this info session.
Positions to be filled include: an Artistic Director, Superintendent, Skilled Mural Artists, Volunteers, and Mural Artist Apprentices. In total, about five teams will be hired for the work which is planned to begin in mid-August and likely take between six and eight weeks to complete.
Pay will range from about $15 per hour for apprentices to $35 per hour for the lead artist.
“Art is real work,” said Barbara Nelson with TAP Inc. She said exact hours and daily/weekly schedules are still being formulated. “This is an adventure and really exciting.”
The apprentice program is for people over 14 years old and to give people experience in this trade while also providing them a stake in the project which will be in their community.
About 23,000 square feet of painting will be completed as part of The Uniting Line.
The public art project, which is partially being supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies as part of their Asphalt Art Initiative, hopes to use the colorful murals to unite neighborhoods of the city of Troy which have in part been physically divided by the construction of the Hoosick Street Bridge.
Surveys have been conducted to get a sense of preferred designs for the murals, with an emphasis on hearing from neighbors around the bridge. Door knockers were put on doors all around the area near the bridge and neighbors were referred to an online survey.
Elizabeth Reiss, CEO of the Arts Center, said residents near the bridge overwhelmingly preferred bright, cheerful, and colorful designs.
Jade Warrick, who was selected as the lead artist for the project, said she is looking forward to working with people on this project who want to support a local black artist and help her work be seen.
To learn more about these positions and to apply, you can visit The Uniting Line site.
