High School Art Installation Competition
Open to all DFW area High School students. Teams must have at least one faculty advisor, (teacher, parent for home school entrants) who will serve as the primary point of contact. Teams are required to have a minimum of three members, but are encouraged to have more.
INSTALLATIONS: Six rooms will be built at SPARK! to accommodate installations by the six winning teams. Each room will be plywood construction 8’ x 12’ with a plywood floor and two doors that will be plywood to blend with the walls. Rooms will not have ceilings, but will have grids to allow for hanging. Due to fire regulations, the décor may not obstruct water flow across the span of the ceiling in more than a 4’ x 4’ area.
The theme prismatic calls for each room to be a single color. Teams should submit designs in a single color of their choosing. If two designs of the same color come forward as winners, SPARK! will request one or both teams to change colors so that each of the six rooms is a different color. All surfaces, walls, doors, floor and installations must be painted, covered or built to the single color of the room.
Rooms are to be designed to be engaging, magical, fun and semi-interactive (think multiple selfies and instagrammable spots within the room). Because of the anticipated number of visitors, materials and installations must stand-up to heavy traffic. Teams are required to advise as to how installation will be built – materials used, color treatments, etc. so that judges may ascertain that they will stand up to traffic. A SPARK! advisor is available throughout the design and build phases to advise on material durability, etc.
SUBMISSIONS: Teams will submit their designs digitally. We are open to a vast array of formats: sketches, thumbnails, color swatches, vision boards, dioramas, use of design software, etc.
BUDGET: Teams will be required to submit a budget, SPARK! Staff will work with you to purchase items on the approved budget. Large items may be purchased by SPARK! to avoid credit card charges, etc. Receipts must be submitted within the budget of $3,000 for reimbursement. Teams are allowed to spend above the $3,000 if they raise the money themselves. Faculty Advisor stipends will be awarded upon completion of the installation. All materials used in installation become the property of SPARK!
TIMELINE:
Feb & March 2023 – Marketing, submission recruiting, team formation and ideation
March 31, midnight – Entry deadline – concepts & proposed budget
April 7, 5:00PM – Winner announcement
April 8 – May 12 – Teams build components and prepare for installation
May 13 – May 29 – Installations built
June 1 , 7:00PM – Opening night for all student participants, families and faculty advisors
June 2 – August – PRISMATIC opens to the public
JUDGING: Finalists will be selected by a judging panel made up of SPARK! Staff, Board of Directors, The SPARK! Creative Committee and key funders of the project. Decision of the judges is final, no contesting will be entertained.
FAQs
- How high are the ceilings? There are no ceilings to allow the fire sprinklers from the room to activate within the space if necessary. However, the walls are 8’ tall. You may exceed the height of the walls, but remember – Instagram images are the goal.
- Can we hang things from the ceiling and/or walls? Yes, the walls will be braced with 2’x 4’s. A grid will be installed across the ceiling to allow for hanging. We will consider your winning design when constructing the grid.
- What painting is required? You will need to paint the interior walls and floor to your color. You will also paint exterior walls with your color. Items needing to be spray painted must be painted outside of SPARK! and prior to installation. You are allowed to paint (with brushes at SPARK!) No spray paint inside of SPARK!
- How is the room constructed? The floor will be plywood; the walls will be either plywood or drywall.
- Does EVERY SINGLE THING in the room have to be the exact same shade of the exact same color? No, everything should be the same color but may be of varying shades. For example: PURPLE – violet, lavender, eggplant.
- Does rust on a piece of metal count as one color? No, rust is OK
- How do we handle purchasing items for the installation? We will work with you to get items purchased. Some can be purchased directly by SPARK! We will reimburse one member of the team for items purchased directly.
- Can we design a room a bit smaller than 12’ x 8’? We will consider this request when we select finalists. We believe two options could be made available: 8’ x 8’ or 12’ x 8’.
- Will we have electricity in the room? Yes, each room will have one power strip, operating off a single 110 outlet.
- What times will we be able to access SPARK! to do our buildout? We will set a schedule for access that will include evenings after school and weekends. Shifts will likely be 4 – 6 hours and will not go later than 10:00PM. Your installation should be prepped offsite and ready to install. The first work day will be about painting the room itself.