WaterWorks Water Museum

WaterWorks is a state-of-the-art museum and education center under construction at 12121 N. Sam Houston Parkway East and scheduled to open to the public in the fall of 2008.

As one of the only Public Works and Engineering facilities accessible to the general public, WaterWorks is a desirable location for civic art. The museum will fulfill the Department’s educate students and consumers about water protection and conservation. WaterWorks will also serve as a regional clearinghouse and education center for water-related efforts in Texas. Meeting and workshop space are included in the building’s design, and the museum will support teacher training and organizational networking.

The location will serve as headquarters for the City of Houston Water Education Program for school curriculum.

Artist Opportunity
Civic art is important for this site and has the opportunity to be fully integrated into the building due to inclusion of the artist during reconstruction. The site for artworks is at the front window wall and brick entrance with opportunity to extend across the building’s façade.

The City of Houston Department of Public Works and Engineering
The Public Works and Engineering Department provides many of the basic services that affect the daily lives of everyone who lives and works in Houston. Primarily, the department is responsible for the administration, planning, maintenance, construction management and technical engineering of the City's infrastructure. This includes the production and distribution of over 146 billion gallons of water per year and the treatment of over 90 billion gallons per year of wastewater. That is enough to fill the Astrodome four times per day with fresh water and over twice per day with wastewater. It also includes the maintenance of the City's over 16,000 lane miles of streets, over 60,000 storm water manholes, over 100,000 storm water inlets, over 900,000 street name and traffic control signs, over 17,000 freeway and under bridge light fixtures, over 50,000 fire hydrants and traffic signals at over 2,000 intersections.

Additional resource: www.publicworks.houstontx.gov

Prospectus for Commissioning Artworks for the Public Works and Engineering Department of the City of Houston
The City of Houston Department of Public Works and Engineering and the Houston Arts Alliance seek artists to provide artwork(s) at two department facilities: a water pump station and a water museum.

The artwork(s) at the Water Pump Station should: Build a mindful public that is aware of their public water source

The artwork(s) at the water museum should relate to one or more of the following themes: The water cycle; The reason clean water is necessary for life; The importance of protecting one’s water source; Water in use in daily living; The history of Houston’s public water supply; Drinking water treatment and distribution; The importance of water conservation; Facts and figures about water or Water-related careers

The artwork must be durable, low maintenance, and appropriate to the location. Artists should take into consideration the amount of pedestrian traffic and automobile traffic near the site, the light source, and temperature control when designing the artwork.

Works in a variety of media and forms will be considered. Examples of media include but are not limited to: textiles, paint, wood, metal, and photography. Although the City of Houston and HAA do not endorse restrictions on artistic content, the Artist Selection Panel will consider the building’s users in making their selection.

Budget
WaterWorks Water Museum $350,000 all inclusive
The budget covers all costs associated with the project including but not limited to: artist’s design fee, travel, materials, fabrication costs, liability insurance, documentation, transportation and installation of the work.