Do you think nothing could get your creative juices more than the vision of flowing water and the calm tranquility of life on a bridge? If so, Seattle may have the opportunity you’re looking for.
The city's Office of Arts & Culture, in partnership with the Seattle Department of Transportation, is looking for an artistic hermit to take up a residency in the Fremont Bridge and write about the experience.
The city will pay the writer $10,000 -- half for the residency and half for the project, its presentation and documentation.
From June through August, the writer will take up a 13-foot by 8-foot studio in the bridge’s northwest tower and “undertake an in-depth exploration of the historic bridge’s role and meaning for the city of Seattle,” according to the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture.
The studio has 10-foot ceilings, a desk, a chair, overhead lights, an air conditioning unit and windows which provide a 360-degree view of the surrounding area.
Artists can’t live in the tower full-time – it doesn’t have running water – but can use the space “as a studio, a platform for observing the bridge and its surroundings, or as a base from which to interact with the community,” the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture said.
The opportunity is open to “practicing, published poet(s), fiction or creative non-fiction writer(s),” who live within 100 miles of the city, the office said.
The deadline for applications is 11 p.m. Feb. 16.
The Fremont Bridge connects Seattle’s Fremont and Queen Anne neighborhoods over the Fremont Cut. It first opened in 1917 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
It’s not the first time Seattle has looked for an artist to occupy the bridge. In 2009, Kristen Ramirez was chosen as the first artist-in-residence at the bridge, according to the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture.
