The Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), seeks an artist or artist team for a unique project-based artist residency in one of the bridge towers on the Fremont Bridge.

The selected artist(s) will undertake an in-depth exploration of the historic bridge and create an art project in response to the experience. The residency includes access to a workspace in one of the bridge towers. Artists cannot live in the tower, but may use the space as a studio, a platform for observing the bridge and its surroundings, or as a base from which to interact with the community.

The artist residency will begin in the spring or summer of 2009 and last two to three months. The residency will culminate in the public presentation of an art project produced during the residency. The artist may create work in any media, including video, film, sound, performance, installation or other diverse media. The art project should go beyond a straight representation of the landmark bridge and represent or illuminate some aspect of the bridge or bridges in general, be it real or metaphorical.

The call is open to established professional artists living in Seattle or within 100 miles of Seattle. The project budget is $20,000 and includes all residency costs, development of the art project, a public presentation and documentation.

The application deadline is 11 p.m., Monday, Jan. 5, 2009. A link to the online application is available at www.seattle.gov/arts.

The Fremont Bridge has four control towers. A bridge operator works in the southeastern tower, the only tower actively used for bridge control. SDOT is renovating the three unused towers to create offices for SDOT staff and a Bridge Tower Studio in the southwestern tower. Artist Daniel Mihalyo recommended the bridge tower artist studio in an SDOT Art Plan he authored in 2005 as part of an artist residency at SDOT.

The Fremont Bridge - listed on the National Register of Historic Places - opened in 1917. It is the key transportation link between the Fremont neighborhood and the Queen Anne and Westlake communities. It rises for marine traffic an average of 35 times a day, making it one of the busiest bascule bridges in the world. A bascule bridge is a moveable bridge that swings upward.

This is not the first art project associated with the bridge's towers. In the 1990s, Rodman Miller's neon "Rapunzel" and "Elephant and Child" were installed in the bridge's northern towers, where they remain. Fremont residents and the Fremont Arts Council chose the bridge's distinctive blue and orange colors in a 1995 poll conducted at the Fremont Street Fair.

For more information about the artist residency contact Patricia Hopper, public art project manager, at patrica.hopper@seattle.gov or 684-7311.