• Create a sculptural artwork that is meaningfully rooted in the people, stories, cultural heritage, and lived experiences of Northside Denver. The work should convey a clear sense of local identity and contribute to community pride.
• Interpret the park’s history and the broader heritage of Northside Denver while also offering a hopeful and forward-looking vision. Artwork should create a meaningful connection between the community’s past and its evolving future.
• Establish a memorable visual and cultural focal point within the park—one that invites people to gather, linger, reflect, interact, and return. The artwork should contribute to the park’s role as a shared “third space” for the community.
• Develop an artwork that encourages curiosity, storytelling, learning, and dialogue about the park and the surrounding community. The work should provide opportunities for people of different ages and backgrounds to find personal or cultural connections to the site.
• The artwork should communicate its connection to the community and place in a way that is visually engaging and readily accessible to a broad public audience. While artists are encouraged to bring their own creative perspective, the work should avoid being so abstract or ambiguous that its relationship to the site is lost.
• The completed artwork should be visually compelling, warm, engaging, and inspiring. It should have the potential to become a recognizable feature of the park and a place where community members want to gather, take photographs, and share their experience.
  The artwork should be appropriate to the park’s physical and social context, durable within a public outdoor environment, and capable of remaining meaningful to the community over time.
• The artwork should be complimentary to and in conversation with existing artworks within the park.

Artists from Denver with strong ties to the Northside are strongly encouraged to apply.

Location

Today, La Raza Park continues to function as a place for recreation, celebration, cultural expression, and community connection. Ceremonial danza, Día de los Muertos, La Raza Park Day, lowrider gatherings, memorials, and other events bring together generations of residents and visitors. Community members describe the park not simply through its individual events, but through its ability to bring people together and maintain connections between generations.

The park’s significance lies in this continuity. La Raza Park is a physical expression of the history of Denver’s Northside—its immigrant communities, cultural evolution, activism, artistic traditions, and enduring spirit of community. It is both a place to remember the past and a living space where culture continues to be created, shared, and carried forward. Its designation recognizes the park as a source of community pride and cultural understanding and as an important site associated with the social movements that shaped Northside Denver.

The selection panel has chosen two possible locations on the Northwest and Southwest corners of the park where the artwork could be located.

Materials & Media

The selection panel is looking to see sculptural works of diverse mediums.

Maintenance & Durability & Accessibility

This artwork will become a permanent addition to the Denver Public Art collection. All applicants must consider the issues of long-term conservation and maintenance of public art, along with time and budget. These projects are in the public realm and will be exposed to physical stress as well as being subject to vandalism. Public art projects should be fabricated of highly durable, low-maintenance materials. Finalists are encouraged to consult with a professional conservator prior to the submission of a final proposal. Awarded contracts will be reviewed by the City of Denver’s Public Art Committee to ensure conformity with city standards of maintenance and durability, as well as Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards. All finalists are expected to stay on budget and to complete work in an approved timeframe.

Who May Apply

This project is open to artists residing in the United States. Denver Arts & Venues is committed to building a public art collection that represents a broad diversity of artists and encourages applicants from historically marginalized and underrepresented communities, including artists who identify as Black, Indigenous, Latino/x, People of Color (BILPOC), people with disabilities, and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersexual, asexual, Two-Spirit+ (LGBTQIA2S+) communities. Denver Arts & Venues also encourages applicants at various stages in their careers and applicants that practice a variety of artistic disciplines.

Can a team apply?

Applicants may apply as a single artist or multi-person collaborative group. If applying as a team, please submit one résumé for the team with no more than one page per team member.

Applying for these opportunities

In response to this RFQ, applicants will be asked to submit the following items via www.CallForEntry.org (CaFÉ™).

1. Six to eight digital images of past work
2. Résumé
3. Statement of interest (no longer than 2,000 characters)

From these applications, the selection panel will choose three to five finalists who will be invited to create site-specific proposals and be interviewed in person or virtually. Artists will be paid an honorarium for this work. Artists/teams selected as finalists will be required to submit a Diversity & Inclusiveness Form for their proposals to be considered, which will be provided upon notification. As directed by Executive Order 101, this form must be submitted for all city solicitations of proposals. Denver Public Art staff can guide you in filling out this form. The selected artist or artist team will work with the Denver Public Art Program staff, and Denver Parks and Recreation staff when finalizing their designs for installation.

Diversity and Inclusiveness

Denver Executive Order No. 101 establishes strategies between the City and private industry to use diversity and inclusiveness to promote economic development in the City and County of Denver and to encourage more businesses to compete for City contracts and procurements. The Executive Order requires, among other things, the collection of certain information regarding the practices of the City’s contractors and consultants toward diversity and inclusiveness and encourages/requires City agencies to include diversity and inclusiveness policies in selection criteria in solicitations for City services or goods when legally permitted. Diversity and Inclusiveness means inviting values, perspectives and contributions of people from diverse backgrounds, and integrating diversity into hiring and retention policies, training opportunities and business development methods to provide an equal opportunity for each person to participate, contribute and succeed within the organization’s workplace. “Diversity” encompasses a wide variety of human differences, including differences such as race, age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, disabilities, appearance and historically underutilized and disadvantaged persons, as well as social identities such as religion, marital status, socio-economic status, lifestyle, education, parental status, geographic background, language ability and veteran status.

Budget

The budget for this commission is $136,000.00 USD which will be allocated to the artist/team selected. These funds come from the City of Denver’s 1% for Public Art Ordinance resulting from several renovation projects at La Raza and Ciancio Park. This contract amount is inclusive of all costs associated with the art project including, but not limited to: the artist’s design fee, other consultation fees such as structural engineering consultation, insurance (including Colorado Workers Compensation), tools, materials, fabrication, transportation, installation, any building or site modification required, travel to and from the site, per diem expenses, project documentation, contingency to cover unexpected expenses and any other associated costs. For all work done on city property, prevailing wage requirements will be applied.

Timeline

The timeline is subject to adjustments:

October 15^th,2026, 11:59 P.M. MST           Deadline for entry (via CaFÉ™ system)
November 5^th, 2026                                       Finalist Selection
December 1^st, 2026                                       Artist Selection
December 2027                                              Art Installation

Artists must be available to attend two meetings, a community meeting with representatives from the selection panel and a technical meeting with representatives from the Denver Public Art Program, Denver Arts & Venues, Public Art Committee and the Denver Commission of Cultural Affairs. These two meetings will take place in October, and may be virtual, if necessary. The finalist presentation meeting will take place in December in person, and all artists must be available to present their concept proposals during this time.

Project Selection Panel

According to Denver’s Public Art policy, the project selection panel plays an active role in the acquisition of public art for the City and County of Denver. The selection panel is comprised of 12 voting members. The selection panel is responsible for reviewing the site, establishing criteria for a request for qualifications, reviewing applications, selecting and interviewing finalists and finally for selecting an artist or artist team for the commission.

Selection Process

1. Three to five artists/artist teams will be selected as finalists for the commissions. Those selected will receive more specific information regarding the sites and have the opportunity to meet with community members from the selection panel and Denver Public Art staff.
2. The selection panel will review the proposals, interview the finalists and recommend an artist/artist team for the commission.
3. The final recommendation of the selection panel will be presented to the Public Art Committee, the Denver Commission on Cultural Affairs and the Executive Director of Denver Arts & Venues for final approval.

*All decisions of the City and County of Denver are final.

Materials to be Submitted

Please read this section carefully. Incomplete applications will NOT be considered. The applicant’s name must appear on all materials submitted.

All materials must be submitted online, via the CaFÉ™ website (www.CallForEntry.org). There is no application fee to apply or to use the CaFÉ™ online application system.

Digital Images—To be considered for this project, the applicant must electronically submit six to eight digital images of previously completed artworks through the online CaFÉ™ system. Artists who wish to submit kinetic, sound or media works must submit a complete CaFÉ™ application and will have the opportunity to upload one video file.

IMPORTANT: If submitting audio or video files, do not use them as your very first image. They must be submitted last in your image sequence.

Instructions on how to format images to CaFÉ™ specifications can be found at https://www.callforentry.org/uploading-images-audio-and-video-files/. Assistance in using the CaFÉ™ system is available here: https://www.callforentry.org/artist-help-cafe/.

If an artist does not have access to a computer, s/he/they may call (720) 515-5768 to make arrangements to use a computer at Denver Arts & Venues.

Can a team apply?