Sacramento City’s Office of Arts + Culture is seeking professional artists and teams to help bring an art trail to life on the Del Rio Trail, creating a beautiful and engaging pedestrian corridor for Sacramentans to enjoy.
About the Del Rio Art Trail
The Del Rio Trail is a multi-use inner-city trail that runs for approximately 5 miles along an abandoned railway corridor, running west of Freeport Blvd from Sutterville Road to the north and Pocket Road to the south, with access to William Land Park (home of the Sacramento Zoo, William Land Golf Course, and other attractions), schools, parks, restaurants, and retail centers.
The trail is part of the City’s Bikeway Master Plan to encourage more active transportation modes to provide a climate-friendly travel option for people to bike to work rather than drive on crowded freeways and boulevards.
Creating a pedestrian corridor that encourages more active transportation in itself is an achievement any community would be proud of. But the City of Sacramento is pushing this project even further, integrating a public art project into the trail to facilitate community engagement and beautification.
Artists and their teams are encouraged to engage in this project, which has been broken up into two distinct phases:
Phase 1 of the project calls for the City to hire artists as soon as possible to begin creating smaller works and community engagement around the project and is open to artists of all disciplines who reside in Sacramento County. Twenty Phase 1 artists will be selected to receive a portion of the $2.5M budget to complete their work.
Phase 2 of the project will create permanent sculptures along the Del Rio Trail and is open to artists nationally. Twenty-five Phase 2 artists will be selected to receive a portion of the $2.5M budget to complete their work.
Learn more about the artist guidelines and submission dates here.
Del Rio Art Trail Will Become Region’s 2nd Public Art Trail
Sacramento has a good model for a successful public art trail just a short drive (or bike ride) away. The Folsom Cash Art Trail, more commonly known as the Johnny Cash Trail, just celebrated its 5th anniversary.
Folsom’s public art trail connects the Historic Folsom District with Folsom Lake, by way of Folsom Prison. The project pays homage to the legacy of Johnny Cash and Folsom Prison, where Cash recorded a live album in front of prison inmates and guards in 1968. (Cash’s impact on the region was similarly celebrated by artist Shepard Fairey during the 2018 season of Wide Open Walls; Fairey painted the 15-story high mural of Cash on the east-facing wall of the Residence Inn in Downtown Sacramento.)
From a similar nationwide search for artists, Folsom selected local Sacramento artist Adan Romo to create the larger-than-life sculptures that will adorn the Folsom Cash Art Trail. The first art piece is currently being fabricated and will soon be installed.
A year after the trail’s debut, a trail counter was installed. According to the City of Folsom, 821,000 people have traversed the 2.5-mile trail within the last four years—a number that’s expected to increase once the art installations have been completed.
The success of Folsom’s Cash-themed art trail has demonstrated that the combination of multi-use trail and public artwork is a draw for locals and visitors alike.
Learn more about the Johnny Cash Trail project.
Del Rio Trail Call to Artists Open Until Nov. 21, 2022
The first phase of the Del Rio Trail, which is open to artists of all disciplines who reside in Sacramento County, is open until November 21, 2022. Applicants must be 18 years of age or older.
The City of Sacramento, Office of Arts + Culture, a division of the City of Sacramento Convention and Cultural Services Department, has invited professional Artists and teams to submit their qualifications for two phases of creative placemaking and public art installations along the Del Rio Trail. Artists may apply separately for both phases or only one phase of the project.
Artists may apply for the Del Rio Trial Phase 1 and Phase 2 projects by filling out the online application and submitting it with the required supporting materials. City staff will review the applications for eligibility and advance eligible applications to a diverse panel of community members, artists, art administrators, and curators who will review all submissions that meet the application guidelines.
Read the guidelines and submit your application to be a part of the Del Rio Art Trail.
Photo of Sacramento-area trail courtesy of Coruscating Images.