Open Forum

As a former head of the city of St. Petersburg, FL's Public Arts Commission, I'd recommend going to your local arts council for names of artists.  Failing that, your state should have an artist registry or site for posting your call to artists.  Failing that, there's a national forum on which you can publish your criteria.  Size, schedule, media, budget, realistic image or interpretive, indoor/outdoor installation should all be spelled out.  Ask for images of other commissioned works by the artists; be open to other media (bronze is very expensive).  

There are a quite a few excellent representational sculptors many of whom do fine portrait busts.  You might want to contact the Sculpture Guild in NYC or the International Sculpture Center in Hamilton, NJ.  The latter publishes Sculpture magazine.

Good luck.

Steve

Given that your organization is located in NYC, you are surrounded by thousands of artists. Perhaps the member of your Board who has taught at SVA, etc. could obtain referrals from current or former colleagues. Otherwise, you could (I would) contact the sculpture departments/faculty at Yale, Rutgers, Pratt, SVA, Parsons, Cooper Union, etc. for referrals.

there are also commercial sculpture firms in the city, such as Studio EIS.

cheers,

Liz,

I am the Art-in-Architecture Manager for the state of Illinois construction program. I would be happy to walk you through our process and share my RFQ and contracts.  Please contact me at CDB.ArtinArchitecture@Illinois.gov.  Best,  --L

We could do it. Of course, we are not local, but we do work nation wide. We have another project in NY currently, for example.

Here's an example and there are many others on our website: Village of Orland Park -

We will soon be making on of Harriet Tubman.

I can recommend an excellent New Jersey bronze sculptor, James Adkins http://jamesadkinsart.com/sculpture.htm   (jamesadkinsart@gmail.com ) who has an MFA from the New York Academy of Art. If he is not the right one for you, the New York Academy of Art or the Pennsylvania Academy of Art would both have excellent professors and graduates who may be the right fit for your project.

Virginia Fabbri Butera, PhD

Director/Curator of the Therese A. Maloney Art Gallery

College of Saint Elizabeth

Morristown, NJ

vbutera@cse.edu

Hi,

This isn't exactly advice per se, but if you're considering artists nationwide, I must mention Koh-Varilla Guild who are down the street from me in Chicago - I've seen them do some wonderful busts in both bronze and terra cotta. My understanding is that they are sometimes contacted directly by clients who happen to like their previous works, and other times they'll see a posting or competition in the forums and if the project interests them, they'll respond and submit a preliminary design as part of the selection process.

Hope you find the right fit for your needs!