Over the next few years, Phoenix is hosting major city-wide events, including fan activities for NFL 2023 Super Bowl LVII, the 2024 NCAA Men’s Final Four and the 2026 NCAA Women's Final Four. Project partners want to celebrate Phoenix's culture and are incorporating a large-scale mural on the side of the Regency Garage on Adams Street to welcome residents and visitors downtown. This 190' x 10' wall is prominently positioned near the entrance of the Phoenix Convention Center, and completion prior to the Super Bowl in February 2023.

This request for qualifications is for Phoenix-based artists, artist teams*, or creative individuals to submit from their portfolio that are representative of their ability to compose, design, and execute large scale murals. If selected, the artist (or team) will be commissioned to produce an original Phoenix-themed mural prominently positioned on Adams St. in downtown Phoenix, steps away from the entrance to the Phoenix Convention Center.

This call is for Phoenix based artists of all practices, presented by City of Phoenix in partnership with Downtown Phoenix Inc. and with support provided by Artlink Inc. The deadline to submit is Thursday, August 4, 2022 (local Arizona time). 

The Office of Arts and Culture welcomes Carrie Brown as our new Deputy Director!

Carrie has over 20 years of experience working in public art and with municipal arts agencies. She started her public art career at Valley Metro and worked with other local city programs, including Glendale and Mesa. Carrie left Arizona in 2007 when she went to work for the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture as a civic arts project manager and then went to the City of Austin arts in public places program. Carrie currently manages the day-to-day operations of the San Antonio River Authority's public art program, including identifying public art opportunities, facilitating artist selection processes, all aspects of public art project management, presentations to elected officials/Boards and Commissions, staffing, event planning, budget management (project and program), and managing public relations. She is a member and founding chair of the Texas Public Art Administrators.

As Deputy Director, Carrie will be responsible for the design, development, and implementation of the agency's public art program, oversee long‐range planning for the agency, and assist in the management and day‐to‐day operations of the department in the Director's absence. Carrie will begin her tenure with the agency of Monday, August 15, 2022.

Over $1.2 million in Community Arts Support Grants will be distributed to 98 arts and cultural organizations. Employing an equity strategy, the Office of Arts and Culture drew in applicants from all disciplines, budget sizes, and underrepresented populations, as well as from all eight city council districts. The agency received 110 applications, an 11% increase from last year. These applications were reviewed by grant panels comprised of community members, artists, administrators, and educators.

An exciting change this year was the introduction of comprehensive outreach to Spanish-speaking applicants. Not only were the grant guidelines and rubric, applications, and entire grants portal automatically available in Spanish, but the department hosted an ad-hoc Spanish panel. This panel was made up of panelists fluent in Spanish. They not only read the applications in Spanish, but the panel was in Spanish, and the applicants could observe the meeting without translation.

"We are thrilled that since employing our equity strategy, 25% of our grantees are BIPOC and LQBTQIA+ organizations, and the department will continue its outreach to increase that number," said Mitch Menchaca, the Executive Director of the Office of Arts and Culture. "However, the agency understands that geographic equity of our city needs to be addressed." Later in FY23, the Office of Arts and Culture will launch a second project grant cycle to artists and arts and culture organizations to present programming at city-run facilities to ensure greater equitable geographic distribution of grant funding throughout the city.

The Office of Arts and Culture and Arizona State University's Urban Climate Research Center partnered to created as part of a campaign to promote awareness about heat and sun safety.

sunBLOCK includes the production of an educational booklet, Let's Talk Heat, which references a wide variety of online resources, including heat safety tips, weather observations and forecasts, and opportunities for public engagement

Also included in the project is the Walk in the Sun Umbrella Artwork Design Contest that commissioned fourteen Arizona artists to design the fabric canopies for personal shade umbrellas. This project is partially supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. ​​​​