Art in Public Places

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Call to Artists

  1. Sheldon Pool exterior

    Sheldon Pool & Fitness Center - Call to Artists

    The City of Eugene is issuing a Request for Qualifications for Muralists and a Request for Existing Artworks for Sculptors for the Sheldon Pool & Fitness Center Percent for Art Project. Deadline: 11:59 p.m. March 30. Learn more

The Mission of the Public Art Program 

Eugene’s vision for a public art experience is to offer our city as both exhibit and studio. The public is as much the audience to public art as they are potential contributors. Our goal is to support public art that authentically expresses the timeline we live in, inspires wonder and invokes dialogue.


As a nation we are facing the realities and reckoning of systemic inequities and cultural dominance. Eugene’s Public Art program is committed to the pursuit of cultural equity.  This requires continual examination of our own practices and programmatic history. This will take time, work and patience. More to come.


The City of Eugene's Public Art collection can be seen in many places throughout the city.

Percent for Art

The City of Eugene established its commitment to the Visual Arts through the Percent for Art Ordinance of 1981, which states that it is an appropriate function of government to foster arts and the development of artists. Visual arts contribute to and provide experiences which enrich and enhance our social and physical environment.


The percent for art process is triggered when any building, park, mall, or other capital construction project (but not including streets, alleys, bicycle paths, and other public thoroughfares) constructed, remodeled, or purchased by the city which construction, remodeling or purchasing involves the expenditure of more than $50,000.


The City of Eugene Public Art Manager acts as the Visual Art Coordinator to facilitate the selection process as a non-voting member of the percent for art selection committee assigned to each project. The art fund selection committee established to purchase works of art must include:

  • Project architect and/or Landscape Architect
  • Facilities Project Manager
  • Building User
  • Ad hoc Community Member
  • 3 Artists

If you are interested in becoming a percent for art selection committee member for a future project, email Kate Ali with your contact info and you will be notified the next time we seek community members for an artist selection process.


Current Public Art Projects in process:

Art at the Hult Center

The Hult Center for the Performing Arts is the home of many treasures of public art. Art at the Hult includes a permanent collection on display, as well as work that is architecturally integrated throughout the building.


The Hult Center is remarkable for the extent to which visual arts have been architecturally integrated and the variety of the art works themselves. Ranging from hand-painted tiles in the restrooms to the house curtain in the Silva Concert Hall, works by 30 artists and crafts people were planned and executed in concert with the building construction. These collected art treasures help to make the Hult Center a popular visitors’ attraction in Eugene. 


Other places to see public art include the Eugene Public Library, the Eugene Airport, City parks and the City's Public Works Division.