Urban Design Roster 2026-2028

This program builds on the existing creative responses to civic planning and design in Nanaimo, and is intended to create new links between artists and civic service areas that would like to integrate creative work into City infrastructure needs. Many areas of the City maintain necessary infrastructure that may be enhanced by artistic contributions and urban design. Recognizing that there is no one way to take on the challenge of designing vibrant and welcoming community spaces, this program seeks to involve a diverse group of artists and designers who might be interested in responding to different sites, contexts, and opportunities.

This program evolves the longstanding commitment of the City of Nanaimo to integrate artwork into public spaces.

Past projects and recent efforts can be explored by year on the Urban Design Roster webpage. 

The Urban Design Roster is open to all artists, working individually or in collaboration, and especially encourages applications from those who experience barriers of accessibility due to gender identity/expression, racial identity, or perception of disability. For the purposes of this call, the definition of an artist is a professional who:

• has completed basic training in art or an apprenticeship with an accomplished practitioner in the field, or 
• maintains an artistic practice and has publicly shared an independent body of their work for at least two years, or
• is recognized as a professional by peers within their community.

You do not have to be a resident of Nanaimo, but you must have a good understanding of, and relationship to this place. This understanding/ relationship should be clearly demonstrated in your application.

Artists wishing to propose their own project ideas may apply to future calls to artists such as the TEMPORARY PUBLIC ART PROGRAM.  Applications to the Urban Design Roster and the Temporary Public Art program can be submitted together but must include all necessary materials for BOTH calls.

Timeline

SUBMITTING YOUR PORTFOLIO

Submissions must be received no later than 11:59pm Pacific Time, October 12, 2025.

There are two ways to submit:

1.  Submit your application and required documents online using the form provided below; or

Culture and Events

Each new opportunity offered to an artist on the Urban Design Roster will have its own project parameters, which are presented to the artist or designer at the time of project initiation. A project brief will include location, project type, and a fee. Fees are determined on a per-project basis. Minimum fees for artistic services are based on CARFAC (Canadian Artists Representation / le front des artistes Canadiens) standard rates, and scaled in accordance with the nature of the project.

Selection to participate in the roster will not guarantee that you will be contacted to undertake a project. Projects with physical labour, onsite work, or fabrication will require the artist to carry commercial general liability insurance, which must be demonstrated at the time of contracting.