Request for Art: Visual and Literary Works Sought for 2025-26 Sidewalk Galleries Program
The Indy Arts Council seeks to reproduce existing work by visual and literary artists in a new round of vinyl murals installed on vacant Indy storefronts, starting in spring 2025. Central Indiana artists are invited to suggest existing artworks for this program.
- Application: Apply at http://indyarts.grantplatform.com
- Apply by: 11:59 p.m., Sunday, May 18.
- Compensation: If selected, artists will receive a single $250 participation fee plus a $250 licensing fee for each image used
Project Description
The Sidewalk Galleries storefront mural program began in 2021 as part of SWISH, the arts and culture festival associated with Indianapolis’ hosting of the NCAA basketball championship series. The program continued through 2022 during the National College Football Playoff game and in 2023-2024 before the NBA All-Star Game and other high-profile events. The 2025-26 edition seeks images of existing artwork ahead of the 2025 WNBA All-Star weekend in mid-July, and artwork will continue to be on view as late as 2026.
The Sidewalk Galleries program is supported by the Indy Arts Council, Downtown Indy, the Capital Improvement Board of Managers of Marion County, and other civic partners.
Interested artists may apply to be a part of the pool of potential artworks. Storefront murals will be located in downtown Indianapolis, and possibly in other areas of the city. Artworks will continue to be installed as additional sites become available.
Theme and Content
There is no single conceptual theme for this project. Visual artists should send images of their best work. Literary artists should send texts, preferably poetry, and we may select and compensate graphic designers to partner with literary artists to render their texts as works of visual art.
Artworks will be selected based on subject matter, style, desirability for a certain site or type of site, and ability to showcase the talent and creativity of local artists.
Artwork suggested for this program should be appropriate for public spaces and for audiences of all ages.
This call is for artworks that haven’t already been curated into the program. Images that have already been exhibited as storefront murals will not be re-installed without payment of an additional license fee. Artworks that were selected in previous rounds but were not installed will receive priority for the available spaces.
Eligibility
- Artists must be 18 years or older—we can only contract with artists under 18. Exceptional youth artwork may be considered if a parent or other legal guardian is willing and able to contract with the Arts Council on the youth’s behalf and supervise their participation.
- Artists must reside in one of the following central Indiana counties: Marion, Hendricks, Boone, Hamilton, Morgan, Johnson, Shelby, and Hancock counties.
Timeline
- Wednesday, April 16, 2025: Call released
- Monday, April 28, 6:30 p.m.: Application workshop (virtual) – Register here. A recording of the workshop will be available through the application form.
- Sunday, May 18: 11:59 p.m.: Deadline for applications
- By May 30, 2025: Applicants notified if their work is to be included in the program.
- June 2-27, 2025: As artworks are placed in locations around Indianapolis, artists will be notified, contracted, and compensated.
- If artist does not already have a high-resolution image available, photography will be scheduled at Arts Council expense
- The Arts Council will take care of all mural production and installation expenses. The artist is not responsible for these arrangements or costs!
- July-December 2025: Sidewalk Galleries installed. Display dates may vary according to the specific location. Most work will remain installed through the end of 2025; some may continue into 2026.
Copyrights
Full copyrights to the artwork will be retained by the artist at all times. The artist will be required to license the Arts Council to produce and reproduce images of the artwork for promotional use, and to photograph the installed murals and distribute the photographs as journalistic and archival documentation of the project.
For the Arts Council to legally use this license, U.S. copyright law requires that:
- The applicant artist must have produced the artwork.
- The applicant artist must own the copyright to the images, or have written permission to use any separately-copyrighted images that appear in their artwork
- Any partnerships involved in creating the original artwork that could result in a copyright dispute from a third party must be disclosed at the time of application.
- Any use of generative AI in creating the images must be disclosed at the time of application; artworks created solely using generative AI will be disqualified, as such artworks are considered “authorless” and cannot be copyrighted or licensed. The Arts Council will request a description of the artist’s exact use of generative AI if the artwork is of interest for the program.
- Documentation of any necessary third-party permissions must be in the applicant artists’ hands at the time of application and if selected, the permissions must be provided to the Arts Council prior to production of the mural.
- The applicant artist will sign an agreement giving the Arts Council and its partners limited rights to use the artwork for the purposes stated in this call.
The Arts Council is not responsible for any third-party infringement of the artist’s copyright or for protecting the intellectual property rights of participating artists.
Compensation
If selected, artists will receive a single $250 participation fee plus a $250 licensing fee for each licensed image used.
Promotions
- The Arts Council will actively promote the Sidewalk Galleries program through our website and other online resources.
- We will also promote participating artists’ pages on the IndyArts Artist Directory. If you do not have an Artist Directory page, please create one. The Artist Directory is a FREE service to Indy artists and patrons.
- The Arts Council and our partners will jointly promote the work through both traditional and social media channels.
- Artists are encouraged to promote their own work through their own promotional and social media outlets.
Selection Process
Arts Council staff and representatives of our partner organizations will identify the artworks that will be reproduced and installed on storefronts as murals.
The Arts Council reserves the right to contact applicant artists and negotiate the licensing of artworks that were not originally provided in their application.
Should the Arts Council receive an insufficient number of entries to suit the spaces we are enhancing, we reserve the right to invite non-applicant artists and/or identify specific artworks to participate in the program.
Application Instructions
Apply ONLY through the online application form, available at http://indyarts.grantplatform.com
- You will be able to save an unfinished application and return to it later.
- You will be able to edit a submitted application up until the application deadline.
Poets/Literary Artists
- Suggested poems may be published or unpublished, as long as they are the original work of the applicant, the applicant owns the rights to the poem, and the applicant has the right to allow third parties to publish the poems.
- Applicants may upload one document (DOC, DOCX, or PDF format) containing up to five short poems and/or excerpts from longer poems.
- Suggested literary works may not exceed 20 lines.
- Texts may be written in any language, but must be accompanied by an accurate English translation.
- A graphic designer hired by the project partners will create the visual layout for selected poems. The Arts Council may also choose to engage an illustrator to collaborate with the poet to develop the text for an enhanced visual display.
Visual Artists
- The application form will ask you to upload up to five images of existing visual work.
- Artists may only propose existing, completed artwork for consideration. Do not suggest unfinished artwork, artwork in process, or artwork that you plan to start if selected.
- Accepted file formats include JPEG, JPG, PNG, PDF
- For application purposes, images do not need to be high resolution, but the image quality should be set to “high.”
- Each upload has a maximum of 10MB
- The application form will ask you to identify whether a high-resolution (defined as >300dpi) image file exists for each artwork. You do not need to provide it with your application!
- The suggested orientation of the submitted images is horizontal.
- NOTE: If identified for a mural, images may be cropped by the project team to fit available window shapes/sizes. The artist will be consulted on the suggested cropping.
Tips for submitting images:
- Artwork should be engaging for both pedestrians and drivers alike.
- Please do not put your name, signature, or website address on the image itself. We will take care of that in the printing process and with appropriate labels and signage.
- If you use text within your work, know that larger text will read better; also, bright, bold colors behind the text with great contrast between the background and the text letters will be easier to see.
- Large areas of flat color may attract tagging; please consider suggesting more “busy” images
After Selection
- If your work is identified for the project, you will be asked to provide any existing high-resolution files ready for printing OR deliver the artwork for high-resolution photography within two weeks of being notified of inclusion in the project. Please do not apply unless you have the ability to meet this aggressive timeline!
- High-resolution images ready for printing are either:
- 72dpi at 100% mural scale (assume 12 ft w x 10 ft h on average) OR
- 720+dpi at 1/10th scale (meaning the actual image size is 12 in w x 10 in h on average)
Final Application Information
- If you do not already have an account at http://indyarts.grantplatform.com, you will have the chance to create one as part of the application process. You must have an account to apply. Accounts are free and all you need is an email address.
- There is a required demographic information survey as the final tab on the application form. Answering these questions truthfully will help us serve artists better through our programming; however, each question has a “prefer not to answer” option and you are welcome to choose it.
- Remember to click the blue “Submit Application” button on the final tab to upload your application!
- After successfully submitting your application, you will see an onscreen acknowledgement. This will let you know your application has been received. If you do not see this acknowledgement, review your application for any required information you may have missed.
- You will also receive an email acknowledgement of receipt. If you do not receive this acknowledgement, check your spam folder. Some systems may screen this email and you may never receive it; also, if you have indicated in your account that you don’t want to receive notifications from us, you won’t receive it. If you don’t receive it but you HAVE received an onscreen acknowledgement, we have indeed received your application. You do not need to contact us.
The application deadline is Sunday, May 18, 2025 at 11:59 p.m.
The application form will automatically close at that time.
- Applications still in process at that time will not be reviewed.
- Tip: Click the green “submit application” button as soon as you have completed all the required information. You will be able to go back into the submitted application to change and add up until the deadline—just remember to click the green “submit application” button after each change.
- Allow plenty of time to complete your application before the deadline! There may be power outages and other interruptions beyond your or our control that may change your original application plans.
QUESTIONS? We are here to help! Contact Kate Oberreich, Artist Engagement Manager, at kateo@indyarts.org
- We can take a look at what you are thinking of applying with and let you know how they might work for the locations we know of
- We can review file types and sizes and tell you how they will look during the review process