When Haier America opens its Evansville technology center next year, it will be the appliance-maker’s first such facility anywhere in the U.S.
In honor of this fact, Haier is commissioning an outdoor sculpture it can display at the Pennsylvania Street facility. The site is just off West Indiana Street, a block west of Willard Library.
Haier is working with the Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana, which is helping it solicit artist proposals for the project.
Haier is looking for a metal sculpture to be displayed on the east side of its new facility. The sculpture can be installed on the ground or mounted on the wall, but it must be visible from the nearby Lloyd Expressway.
“We think it’s a really cool idea to have public art that’s visible from the Expressway,” said Andrea Adams, the Arts Council’s gallery director.
Following the Dec. 1 submission deadline, a committee will review the proposals and select up to three semifinalists. Each semifinalist will receive $350 to develop a concept proposal that will be used to select the winner.
Haier will award a $25,000 commission to the winner, who is expected to be chosen in February.
China-based Haier was established in 1984 as a refrigerator manufacturer. It has grown since then into the world’s largest appliance company, with worldwide sales of $29.5 billion in 2013. Haier has had a U.S. presence since 1999, when it opened a manufacturing facility in South Carolina.
In September, Haier announced its plans to open a product technology center in Evansville. Up to 50 engineers, designers and others will work at the facility designing products for the U.S. market.
In its request for proposals, Haier says it is looking for art that creatively reflects its business and mission, and “that will make a visual statement to the public that innovative products are being developed in this technology center.”