Approval for the MIMA Prequalified List does not guarantee an exhibition. City staff will reach out to an approved applicant with an exhibition time and contract when it is available.
The MIMA Prequalified List was established by the Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission as a resource for the City to curate the Moving Image Media Art Program. The intent of the list is to identify eligible artists, curators, and non-profit arts organizations, with a wide range of styles and career levels who demonstrate unique perspectives in moving image art on a diverse variety of themes.
Applicants must demonstrate a professional portfolio of moving image media art. Artists, curators, and/or nonprofit arts organizations on the Prequalified List are invited by the City to exhibit in the Moving Image Media Art Program by licensing an existing artwork.
Curators, artist representatives, and/or commercial galleries are eligible for this opportunity. Artists exhibited by a curator, artist representative, and/ or commercial gallery must also submit a separate and individual application for the Prequalified List.
Nonprofit arts organizations, with federally recognized nonprofit status, who represent moving image media artists are eligible to apply. Artists associated with the exhibitions by non-profit organizations are not required to submit a separate application.
Submissions are evaluated using the Art on the Outside Review and Evaluation Criteria taking quality, potential visual enjoyment, innovation/risk in the artwork, and prospective social interaction of the artist’s work into consideration. Only those applications that provide complete information before the deadline will be considered for evaluation. City of West Hollywood Arts Division staff will review submissions and recommend a list of applicants for the Art on the Outside Subcommittee of the Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission for final approval.
ARTWORK REQUIREMENTS:
Selected applicants from the Prequalified List will be invited to exhibit their work in the MIMA Program by licensing an existing artwork. Artworks should be 10-minutes in total length. This can be expressed in one of three ways: a full 10-minute feature; two 5-minute segments; or three 3-minute segments.
Every billboard as unique specifications and technical requirements that will be provided by the City. Selected artworks must be formatted to the billboard’s specified codec, dimension, framerate, and format.
Currently the billboards do not allow for audio. Artworks should be silent.
Artwork links provided in the application must be publicly accessible for the Portfolio Review for a minimum of 60 days post the application deadline.
ABOUT MIMA (Moving Image Media Art Program):
MIMA is a digital art program presenting moving image artworks works on multiple digital billboards at various locations along Sunset Boulevard. The program primarliy features licensed, moving image digital artworks created by an inclusive roster of emerging, mid-career, and world-famous artists, filmmakers, and digital visionaries.
The exhibition series offers artists the opportunity, and the funding, to present remarkable and ambitious works of art that engage with the unique visual landscape of the world-famous Sunset Strip.
The Moving Image Media Art Program is presented as part of the Sunset Arts & Advertising Program (weho.org/sunsetdigital). Additional details about the Moving Image Media Art Program and this Request for Qualifications can be found on the city’s website: https://go.weho.org/mima.
BUDGET
Funding for the Moving Image Media Art Program is exclusively from the revenue collected from the billboards. A percentage of the revenue collected is dedicated to support the presentation of art on the boards. Artist fees are negotiable and will be commensurate with experience, production costs, and/or if the artwork has already been licensed by a major institution.
DEADLINE
Applications must be submitted by 5:00 PM PT on November 1, 2024. The City of West Hollywood, as a municipality, must abide to this application deadline in the interest of fairness in public processes. For this reason, the City will be unable to make any exceptions to the deadline for late and/or incomplete submissions. Subsequent reviews will happen bi-annually in May and November.