A Canvas of Culture Call to Artists

The Mayor’s Office of Arts & Culture (MOAC), via the Boston Art Commission and in partnership with Street Theory, is thrilled to enter the second year of A Canvas of Culture—a multi-year initiative that brings murals to Boston’s neighborhoods. With a focus on Boston Public School (BPS) sites with capital projects, selected artists will be matched with a specific site based on project type, scale, and demonstrated experience level. Artwork by selected artists will amplify the diverse, inclusive, cultural, and social richness of communities while adding vibrancy to the city’s landscape.

This is a Call to Artists to share their qualifications to create new, original, long-term 2D murals, and public art installations at BPS sites across the city. Most artworks will be installed in the summer/fall of 2025.

Anticipated project budgets will be determined by project square footage and complexity. Selected artists will be matched with project sites.

• Small to medium scale projects: Up to $25,000
• Medium to large scale projects: $25,000—up to $150,000
• Design only projects: Up to $25,000

Program Goals

The goals of “A Canvas of Culture” are to:

• Beautify the city
• Amplify the vibrancy of Boston's neighborhoods, schools, and communities
• Provide opportunities to artists at different levels of experience
• Integrate public art throughout our diverse neighborhoods, reflecting and enhancing the cultural, aesthetic, social, and educational environments at capital improvement sites in Boston

We're looking for 2D public art

We invite individual artists and artist teams specializing in two-dimensional (2D) public art media to bring their creativity and vision to selected sites. 2D media may include hand-painted murals, tile and mosaic murals, printed digital artwork and illustrative applications, shallow relief sculptures, tactile and sensory artwork, and/or other wall mounted prefabricated 2D applications. Each project will be thoughtfully matched to its site, emphasizing the importance of material maintenance, safety, and durability.

In this Call to Artists, we present two distinct opportunities: one for exterior or interior, artist-installed murals and another for interior, design-only projects, with fabrication and installation facilitated by the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture Public Art team. We encourage you to thoroughly explore the details and consider the project type that aligns most closely with your interests, experience, and creative vision. Our team will carefully match artists to specific sites based on the best fit with their portfolios and submissions.

Opportunity 1: Artist–Installed Exterior or Interior Murals

For Opportunity 1, we are excited to collaborate with Boston Public Schools at various locations where recent capital-funded improvements have been made. Artist-installed mural locations include school building exteriors, interior student gathering areas, and a variety of play spaces. 

• Anticipated budget range: Up to $150,000
• Project timelines are expected to range from 8-18 months

Opportunity 2: Design–Only Interior Vinyl or Mosaic Murals

For Opportunity 2, we have carefully selected project sites in newly renovated interior locations. These interior sites will provide an opportunity for artists to participate in design-only projects. Selected artists will create the artwork utilizing graphic illustration, design and/or traditional art-making techniques, which they will digitize, prepare and deliver as high-resolution design files. Artists will oversee the transformation of their designs into 2D vinyl graphic murals or tile mosaics. This process will be professionally facilitated and managed by MOAC through expert fabrication and installation methods. 

• Anticipated budget range: Up to $25,000, artist & design fee
• Project timelines are expected to range from 6-9 months 

Eligibility

This call is open to all professional artists and artist teams—local, national, and international—with a strong preference for those who have a connection to Boston and/or the overall themes. 

Application Review Criteria

• Artist Experience: We seek submissions from professional artists or artist teams that have a strong, original, artistic vision, and who demonstrate experience through their original work samples and the ability to execute similar public art projects. 
• Submission Clarity: We believe artists should be paid for their design work and are only accepting written application qualifications. Applications that include design proposals for this project cannot be considered. We maintain that artists should be credited for their work and may reject submissions that contain images of other artists’ creative works without crediting them or clearly identifying the submitters’ role or the use of Artificial Intelligence.
• Community Engagement Experience: We are looking for submissions that share plans for ways to engage community members. Your statement of interest should show consideration of the sites being located within Boston Public Schools and their communities. 
• Alignment with Curatorial Vision: Your experience and project concept should also align with the City of Boston's Curatorial Vision, as drafted by the Boston Art Commission (BAC).

There will be two virtual Question and Answer sessions:

• Thursday, February 6, 2025 at noon
• Thursday, February 6, 2025 at 6 p.m.

We welcome written questions until Wednesday, February 12, 2025 at 5 p.m. Email liza.quinonez@boston.gov or fill out this form. We will post answers and recordings on Wednesday, February 19, 2025 to our website.

To respond to the Call to Artists, prepare the materials listed below and submit through our online application page, found here.

Artist Description

Bio, resume, CV, or other documents that describe the artist’s background and experience. If submitting as a team, please identify the team leader and include information for ALL team members. Five files maximum; PDF, DOC, or DOCX.

Statement of Interest and Initial Project Concept (250 words or less)

Narrative describing an initial artistic concept for the school site(s), why you’re interested in this opportunity, and any specific or unique processes you might use for the project.

Engagement Examples (250 words or less)

A brief description of examples of engagement strategy experience from past projects. 

Relevant Work Samples

Show us up to ten images of completed past projects that best represents your work and is relevant to this call. One image per file; jpg, tiff, or MP4 file types; limit videos to two minutes or less. NOTE: including drawings or designs made specifically for this application or site will lead to disqualification. 

Annotated Image List

An annotated image list with title, media, dimensions, location, date, brief description, your role in the project (lead, assistant, etc.) and any other information that might be relevant. For collaborative artwork, clearly identify the work that belongs to each artist. PDF, Doc, or DOCX.

Itemized Budget

A sample budget based on a selected work example. Artist finalists will be asked to present an itemized budget for their matched project site. 

Diversity & Inclusion Plan (250 words or less)

The City of Boston prioritizes inclusive procurement practices for small and local businesses, including Small Local Business enterprises, Minority Business Enterprises, Woman Business Enterprises, and Veteran-Owned Small Business Enterprises. Please outline your approach to ensuring that subcontractors and suppliers for this contract are open to such businesses. If subcontractors and suppliers won't be used, describe your company's recent efforts to provide opportunities for these businesses in the past two years. Provide specific details in your plan.

All response and information submitted in response to this Call to Artists are subject to the Massachusetts public record law, Mass. Gen. Laws c. 66, s. 10, and Mass. Gen. Laws c. 4. s. 7(26), and will become property of the City.

The deadline to apply is Wednesday, February 26, 2025 at 5 p.m. ET. Please read the full call to artists before applying.

Apply