Vikings give artists a sporting chance to enhance new stadium

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It won't just be athletic prowess on display at the new Vikings stadium when it opens in 2016. Minnesota artists will get a chance to show their stuff just about everywhere except the playing field.

The Vikings plan to purchase as many as 100 works of original art for the new stadium. Team officials say the art-buying spree will amount to a multimillion dollar upgrade to the $1 billion stadium's amenities.

Minnesota-made works will be the focus, said Tanya Dreesen, who's leading the art project for the team.

"You're going to see different treatments, from wall graphics to original commissioned pieces to photographs," she said. "And you're going to see them throughout the concourses."

Dreesen said the art will be in elevator banks, next to escalators and in stairwells. That's in addition to premium suite areas and in the suites themselves.

The initiative is being funded by the Wilf family, controlling owners of the team. It's above and beyond nearly $50 million they've added to the $477 million the state required them to pay for the new facility.

The program is modeled on similar efforts at Levi's Stadium in San Francisco. Sports and the Arts, a California-basedconsulting firm, has done similar projects at Marlins Park and Amway Center in Florida, the new Yankee Stadium, and the Prudential Center in New Jersey.

Some of the art will be sports related, and some will be meant to simply reflect local culture, said Tracie Speca-Ventura, founder of Sports and the Arts. Her company installs art photography and and giant wall graphics for stadiums, and supplements the display with original art.

"You have these huge walls, you really have to play off that," Speca-Ventura said. "And a lot of the artists, when I commission them, they're not used to painting as large as I need because they're selling artwork for above a sofa."

This spring, Sports and the Arts will winnow the submissions to a short list, and some of the selectees will be asked to create specific works for the new stadium.

"We want to see what comes forward," says Michele Kelm-Helgen, chairwoman of the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority. "The stadium itself, obviously the design and architecture has a very strong Minnesota flavor, sort of the whole idea of 'born of the elements...' and I think that could be incorporated into this art."

Beginning Feb. 1, artists may email examples of their work and a short biography to art@newminnesotastadium.com. Files have to be 5MB or smaller and can feature up to eight different images of previous works.

The deadline for submissions is March 31. Selections will be announced this summer.