By Daily Press staff
After more than 10 years of planning and two years of construction, the city of Santa Monica re-opened the completely renovated Virginia Avenue Park in December of 2005. The park features a teen center designed to be a haven for neighborhood high school students. The center aims to use the arts as a tool to develop real life skills in the young people participating in its programming. To that end, City Hall wishes to institute a series of artist residencies to involve local youth, ages 14 to 21, in a variety of artistic disciplines and media. Artists working in visual arts, dance, film/video, digital media, literary arts, music, and theater disciplines are encouraged to apply for the residencies.
Residencies at the teen center are anticipated to operate on a quarterly basis. The initial deadline is Monday, June 12. However, the request for qualifications will remain open indefinitely and new artists will be added periodically. City Hall will utilize the preapproved list as an ongoing resource in order to hire qualified artists for the Virginia Avenue Park Teen Center.
As a new facility, the center is an evolving concept and programs are still changing to respond to community need, requiring great adaptability on the part of staff and artists. On average, residencies will rotate on a quarterly basis, although some may be shorter or longer in duration depending on the nature of the class. Artists will be paid on a pay scale of $50 to $100 per hour depending on qualifications, experience and the specific focus of the residency.
ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS ■ Artists must exhibit previous experience as youth arts educators. ■ In addition, all selected artists will need to be able to comply with all city contracting requirements, including: ■ Be fingerprinted in order to complete registration in the Child Index Survey. The registration is mandated for all individuals prior to working in city’s youth program-ming. ■ Purchase a city of Santa Monica business license.
SELECTION CRITERIA A panel will be periodically convened to review submissions in order to assess the appropriateness of artists for the program. Artists will be selected on the basis of: ■ Artistic excellence as shown in the submitted artistic support material, i.e. slides, video/dvd, cd/cassette tape or writing samples. ■ Demonstrated ability to work with youth in both structured progression workshops and drop-in programs. ■ Experience and/or interest in development of real-life skills through training in the arts. ■ Overall suitability as related to previous experience and interests. All materials must be received by the Santa Monica Cultural Affairs Division by 5 p.m., Monday, June 12.
Materials can be hand delivered or mailed to: Artist in Residence Program City of Santa Monica, Cultural Affairs Division 1685 Main Street, room 106 Santa Monica, CA 90401 For more information, call Carla Fantozzi, community services program supervisor, at (310) 458-8688, ext. 5333 or e-mail to
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 19, 2006. Read the original PDF.