OPEN: August 12, 2022
CLOSED: Open Until Filled
PART TIME POSITION: Salary = up to $45,000 / annnum
Current District of Columbia residents will receive priority and advanced preference for screening and interviews.
DOMICILE REQUIREMENT:
District law requires that each new appointee to the Excepted and Executive Service either: (1) be domiciled in the District of Columbia at the time of appointment; or (2) establish District domicile within one hundred eighty (180) days of appointment. The law also requires that Excepted and Executive Service employees maintain District domicile during the period of the appointment. Failure to maintain District domicile during the period of the appointment will result in forfeiture of employment.
BACKGROUND
Around the world, cities are bringing the practice of innovation into government as a way to address pressing urban challenges and improve the quality of life for residents. Recently, Washington, DC was selected by Bloomberg Philanthropies to receive a grant that funds local Innovation Teams (i-teams). This grant represents one of the largest private-sector commitments to civic innovation in our nation’s history. Washington, DC’s innovation team is housed within the Mayor’s Office of Policy and Innovation and is charged with providing ongoing innovation capacity to tackle major challenges in the city, especially when it comes to digital services and digital transformation. The i-team will work with government and community stakeholders to deploy a range of strategies, including data analytics, human-centered design, and digital technology to create bold solutions with speed and agility.
With rapidly advancing technology, increasing resident expectations, and the COVID-19 pandemic, now more than ever, cities need to invest in digital innovation to deliver easily accessible services to residents. Local governments have made progress in enabling residents to carry out basic transactions online, but most cities have a long way to go to deliver the smooth, frictionless, integrated services residents have come to expect from the commercial sector. This i-team will respond to this challenge by helping the District prioritize digital transformations that remove common barriers the District faces when transitioning to digital services. Each i-team city will not only dramatically improve the services they deliver but will also share lessons learned with cities around the world with similar digital ambitions.
The Role
Innovation is built on the intersection of diverse perspectives. To augment the team’s efforts to generate groundbreaking digital solutions, Washington, DC’s i-team will hire an artist in a part-time capacity (~2.5 days/week) to serve on the team for up to two years.
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
As Washington, DC’s Artist-In-Residence, you will apply your artistic practice to complement the i-teams’ work to develop and launch new programs and services that improve the lives of city residents. You will benefit from the following support to complement your practice and maximize your contribution to I-Team projects:
- Peer-to-peer engagement with your fellow Innovation Artists-In-Residence: You will access a program of networking support that connects you with fellow participants in other cities to talk through challenges, share successes, and reflect on how your experience impacts the i-teams and communities you work with as well as your work as an artist.
- Support from established artists: You will connect with established artists – including cultural leaders and world-class artists that have worked on collaborative projects in the civic context. Through a series of online sessions, you’ll meet these artists and explore a range of issues related to artistic practice and digital transformation.
Responsibilities
The main responsibilities of the Innovation Artist-In-Residence are as follows:
- Lead a creative process alongside a team of other innovators
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With your teammates, apply the innovation process to transform public digital services
- Creatively research and understand the experience of residents impacted by the problems that the team is focused on (for example improving healthcare services, engaging residents in urban planning, building sustainable districts, improving access to housing.)
- Co-create bold ideas with city hall staff and community members to positively impact the local community
- Build and test ideas with community members to determine their effectiveness, with an eye towards how these ideas may be better designed or deployed in more creative ways
- Help tell the story of the city’s innovation work creatively to the broader community, building the foundation for effective communication and resident engagement in the years to come
- Help make art and innovation accessible and compelling to the entire community through activities such as exhibits, open houses, performances, readings or other cultural interactions open to the general public
REQUIRED BACKGROUND, EXPERIENCE, AND APPLICATION PROCESS
Applications will be accepted from individual artists from any type of artistic discipline. The ideal candidate will have the following skills and experiences:
- 3 or more years of experience as an artist with a commitment to artistic excellence
- Experience working with a diverse team of people from various backgrounds and integrating your artwork within a larger project
- Commitment to inclusivity, equity and accessibility in your process and outputs
- Experience engaging residents and the local community as part of your artistic practice
- Interest in and ability to generate creative ideas to solve complex problems
- Ability to plan and execute collaborative workshops with residents and other relevant stakeholders
- Interest in working on social and/or public sector projects
- Experience with or passion for using your artistic practice to improve life for citizens
- Experience building rough prototypes of ideas/concepts in multiple formats that others can interact with (such as digital, wood, ceramics, visual imagery such as photography, dance, installations, films, music, poetry and illustrations, etc. – a focus on digital, 2D and 3D format would be an added bonus)
- Experience producing high-quality artistic work products that include an interactive component
- Familiarity with digital innovation efforts, especially in the public sphere, is an added plus
Application Instructions
Interested artists must submit the required attachments, described below.
- Resume or CV. Provide a resume or CV, highlighting any teaching experience,
- Statement of interest (350 words). Provide a statement describing your interest in this opportunity, how you envision working with the i-team – and contextualizing the submitted work samples with an emphasis on the components of the work that engage the community.
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Work sample. Provide 5-10 digital images of recent works. Digital images should be saved in .jpg format. For literary projects, submit samples no longer than 5-10 pages of scripts, poetry, prose or other relevant materials.
- Provide a list of submitted work, including title, date, materials and dimensions, or running times. Include 1-2 sentence descriptions as needed.
- One (1) video, edited to no more than two (2) minutes in length, may also be submitted but is not required.
We encourage artists who identify with communities that have been historically marginalized in artistic professions to apply, including but not limited to people of color, people from low-income, LGBTQ+, immigrant communities, formerly incarcerated people, and others.
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