2019 UAD Banner Art Project

Purpose

The Michigan City Mainstreet Association (MCMA) endeavors to celebrate the artists of Michigan City by affording them the opportunity, which they otherwise would not have, to display their artwork prominently downtown in the Uptown Arts District (UAD). MCMA created the UAD and has been its brand steward since its inception years ago, and continues to seek out new ways to bring artwork, people, and culture to the City’s core. This project will give local artists a sense of ownership and pride for the downtown in a way that has not been done before.

Project Details

There exist many new decorative light poles within the boundaries of the UAD which have empty pole banner holders. Therefore, the MCMA is requesting artwork from artists in and around Michigan City to be submitted to MCMA such that it can select a limited number of artworks to be digitized, converted into durable, polycanvas banners, and have those banners installed throughout the UAD on the available banner holders. There will be at least 20 banners created, which is contingent upon usable submissions, and the total number of banners could be as many as 134, which would fill all of the existing empty banner holders. The exact number of banners installed will be determined at the sole discretion of MCMA.

Submittal Requirements

All artwork submittals will be reviewed and selected by the MCMA Banner Art Project Committee. In the spirit of art itself, MCMA will accept artwork depicting any subject matter; however, the Michigan City Art Committee (MAC) has been charged with providing guidance regarding public artwork displayed on public property and will ultimately approve, based on their guidelines, MCMA’s final selections.

Specific Submittal Requirements

Note: required artwork size has been revised to 24″x54″ as of 5-29-2019. Please read on for more info.

  • All artworks shall be 2 dimensional (i.e.: sculptures and other 3D forms are not acceptable)
  • Artworks can be created in any medium (i.e. paint, pastel, chalk, fiber, mosaic, photo, etc.)
  • Artworks including any advertisements and/or logos will be rejected
  • Artworks depicting hate toward any group or individual will be rejected
  • If non-public individuals are depicted, a permission letter from that individual must accompany the submittal.
  • Artworks submitted electronically shall meet the following specifications: JPEG or TIF format files with resolutions of 3600×8100 pixels. This specification equals a 24”x54” banner @ 150 Dots Per Inch (DPI). Electronic submittals not conforming to this specification may not be selected. (Note: Files of this resolution may be large in size and Artist are encouraged to provide download links (DropBox or Google Drive) as most file attachments exceeding 25MB are rejected by email clients.)

Considerations for artists

  • Banners will be approximately 15 ft above the ground and text less than 4 inches in height may not be visible from the ground.
  • Portions of the artwork on the top, bottom, and one side of the banner may be hidden to some extent by the hanging pockets, seams, grommets, etc.
  • Banner art will be mirrored on the front and back of each banner.
  • Any artwork submitted whether physical or electronic not matching the 24″x54″ size or the electronic submittal specifications listed above are subject to being resized and cropped at MCMA’s discretion without input from the Artist.

How To Enter

Fill out and submit the Entry Form & Artist Agreement along with your physical artworks to 526 Franklin Street, Michigan City, IN 46360 by 5:00 PM CT on Monday, June 17th, 2019. Banners can be submitted any time Monday through Friday between the hours of 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM. If submitting electronically, email your artwork to banners@michigancitymainstreetassociation.org.

Click here to download the Application Form & Artist Agreement. (Note: both the entry form and the artist agreement must be filled out and signed by the Artist and submitted along with the artworks for the submittal to be accepted)

 

Update (2019-6-23)

Persuant to the Artist Agreement, MCMA will set 2 forthcoming day and time windows such that artists who submitted their original, physical artworks can retrieve them. Most likely these two dates will be on Satudays from 10:00 AM to noon. Artists will need to provide a driver’s license or other proof of identity in order to collect their artworks and they will need to sign their entry form to certify receipt of artwork.