Alki Wet Weather Treatment Station: Standby Generator Project
An artist or artist-led team from King County, WA, will work with 4Culture and King County Wastewater Treatment Division (WTD) to create innovative, new work that creates an emotional connection to our place in the water cycle, intertidal habitat, and the marine ecosystem of the Salish Sea.
Steps to Apply
1
About the Project
1
About the Project
Budget
$40,000 ($8,000 fee, up to $32,000 for implementation)
Budgets are inclusive of artist fee and implementation. Washington State Sales/Use Tax may apply, depending on the artist’s work.
Opportunity
4Culture and King County’s Wastewater Treatment Division (WTD) will commission an artist or artist-led team to foster an emotional connection to wastewater management—and its effects on water quality and the Puget Sound marine ecosystem—by stimulating curiosity and increasing appreciation for critical hidden infrastructure. This exciting opportunity is connected to the Alki Standby Generator project, which will make critical improvements to the existing WTD Alki Wet Weather Treatment Station (WWTS) and 63rd Ave Pump Station located in West Seattle.
Considering the Alki site, the selected artist or artist-led team will be asked to explore our relationship with the built environment and our regional bodies of water. More specifically, they will be asked to find inspiration in the shoreline habitat and marine ecosystem adjacent to the site as well as in the wastewater infrastructure that protects water quality in the Puget Sound, especially the Alki Wet Weather Treatment Station and 63rd Ave Pump Station. Using place-based ecological knowledge as a foundation for creative inquiry, the selected artist or artist-led team will be expected to engage in research of the intertidal shoreline habitat, marine ecosystem, and our place in the water cycle to inspire and inform their short-term duration artwork.
The artistic outcome may include a site-specific temporary installation, art activity, 2D artwork, performance, publication, film or video, event, or artist-initiated action such as an artist-led experience or workshop inspired by the Alki Wet Weather Treatment Station Standby Generator project and its shoreline location. The outcome will likely happen in the surrounding communities and in connection with community partners. The commissioned works can be experiential, visual, web-based, film, music, performance, and/or literary.
The selected artist or artist-led team will be paid to develop conceptual proposals that will be reviewed and approved by 4Culture’s Public Art Advisory Committee and WTD. 4Culture expects that the commissioned artwork will be exhibited and experienced in a variety of ways, depending upon the medium chosen by the artist or artist-led team as well as their artistic inspiration and place-based research. We encourage collaboration with communities in the area throughout the project duration. Over the course of the project, the selected artist will be in close dialogue with 4Culture and WTD staff.
Project Location
The extent of the Alki Standby Generator project, which enhances the Alki Wet Weather Treatment Station and 63rd Avenue Pump Station with more reliable power, is located on Beach Drive SW, between Benton Pl SW and 63rd Ave SW in West Seattle. The site is located in the Alki neighborhood, which is adjacent to Puget Sound and zoned mainly for single-family residential with some low-rise multifamily residential. Nearby points of public shoreline access along Beach Drive are located at Charles Richey Sr. Viewpoint and Constellation Park, Cormorant Cove Park, and SW Carroll Street End (known as Weather Watch Park).
This area is popular for beach access and an expansive view of Puget Sound. Intertidal flora and fauna bring visitors at low tide, including the Seattle Aquarium Beach Naturalist program. At high tide, a SCUBA dive site can be accessed by the beach at 63rd Ave SW, an area divers call “The Pipeline” due to the outfall pipe there that provides a home for marine animals.
Many intertidal and aquatic species are found near the project site, including sunflower and bat sea stars, nudibranchs, mussels, sea anemones, Dungeness crabs, spider crabs, hermit crabs, red rock crabs, harbor porpoises, kelp, eelgrass, harbor seals, migrating Stellar sea lions, Pacific octopus, skates, rockfish, sculpins, limpets, barnacles, sand dabs, perch, greenling, orca, great blue heron, river otter, and migrating salmon. The area is on the traditional land of the Muckleshoot, Suquamish, Snoqualmie, Tulalip, and Stillaguamish Tribes, and the Duwamish Tribal Services Organization.
Background
In the 1950s, more than 20 billion gallons of untreated or poorly treated wastewater flowed from combined sewers into major Seattle lakes, the Duwamish River, and Puget Sound. The Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Program began in the 1970s to address this problem.
King County is committed to limiting CSOs to one per year at each outfall by 2030 through its adopted policies and control plan, per an agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency, the Washington Department of Ecology, and the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Alki Wet Weather Treatment Station (WWTS) is a CSO treatment facility that treats a combination of stormwater and wastewater so it doesn’t discharge directly into our water bodies. Power outages disrupt operations of the facilities that can result in overflows. The Alki Standby Generator project will provide permanent and reliable electrical power to both the Alki WWTS and the 63rd Ave Pump Station, helping to prevent stormwater and wastewater from overflowing into nearby neighborhoods and Puget Sound.
King County’s CSO control plan in Seattle is a complex network of facilities, treatment, and conveyance. Most of King County uses a system of pipes that carries wastewater directly to treatment plants for cleaning. But in older parts of the system—like some neighborhoods in Seattle—stormwater and wastewater flow through the same pipes. During heavy rain, these pipes can fill up quickly, and when they do, CSOs release a mix of stormwater and sewage into nearby waterways. These overflow points were originally designed decades ago to prevent sewage backups into homes and businesses during storms. Today, King County is working to reduce the number of these overflows by investing in modern solutions that better protect our local waters and improve water quality.
King County CSO facilities are built to directly serve the area where they are located. Unlike West Point Treatment Plant, which operates year-round, these facilities operate only during heavy rainfall. In addition to West Point Treatment Plant, King County has five local CSO treatment facilities, including Alki WWTS as well as a roadside rain garden in West Seattle to control CSOs. The CSO facilities provide primary treatment (physical settling of solids), disinfection (usually chlorination), and dechlorination of CSOs that would otherwise discharge directly to our water bodies.
Understanding and caring about wastewater systems and their impact on water quality and public health is important. Since the beginning of public art programs in this area, artists and their artworks and ideas have been incorporated into the planning and design of regional water infrastructure systems to help engage the public and to express these systems as a unique part of civic life. Incorporating public art into WTD projects like this one enhances awareness and understanding of the water system, leading to an increased sense of ownership in and connection to the wastewater system for the public at large.
Project Resources
Alki Standby Generator Project
King County Wastewater Treatment Division
History of the WTD Mission
Protecting Our Waters (CSO control)
CSO Status Map
Additional Resources
4Culture King County Public Art Collection
CSO Art Plan
Wastewater Services Education Programs
Seattle Aquarium Guide to Exploring Local Beaches – Constellation Park
Waterlines Project Map
Southwest Seattle Historical Society Alki Neighborhood Self-Guided Tour
The Whale Trail
2
Timeline
2
Timeline
Selection Timeline*
Artist Info Session (online) | Tuesday, August 12, 2025, from 12–1 p.m. |
Application Deadline | Thursday, September 11, 2025, at 4 p.m. |
Selection Panel Meetings | Week of September 22, 2025 |
Finalist Orientation** | Week of September 29, 2025 |
Finalist Interviews** | Week of October 6, 2025 |
Selected Artist Onboarding | Fall 2025 |
3
Are You Eligible?
3
Are You Eligible?
This project is open to artists or artist-led teams working in a range of disciplines who reside in King County, WA.
The artistic outcome may include a site-specific temporary installation, art activity, 2D artwork, performance, publication, film or video, event, or artist-initiated action such as an artist-led experience or workshop.
4Culture staff, board and Public Art Advisory Committee members, selection panel members, King County staff and Alki Standby Generator project personnel, and immediate family members of all of the above are not eligible to apply for this public art opportunity.
Selection Criteria
Finalists will be selected based on the following criteria:
- Quality and strength of past work as demonstrated in submitted application materials
- Ability to realize innovative, artist-initiated, community-based artwork that engages the public
- Specificity of Statement of Interest which should include the applicants desire to explore topics related to place-based knowledge, marine ecology, and/or infrastructural systems connected to the site
- Interest in creating work that addresses the project duration; defined as short term, as it relates to the applicant’s body of work
- Expressed interest in engaging in issues of social, economic and/or environmental relevance
- The desire to work with 4Culture and WTD on the commissioned project
Selection Process
A selection panel consisting of WTD staff, community members, and arts representatives will meet for 1-2 panel sessions to review the applications and select finalists.
Finalists will participate in an orientation of the Seattle-area CSO system and Alki Standby Generator project to prepare for the remote interview. Following the interviews one artist or artist-led team will be selected for the commission.
4
How to Apply
4
How to Apply
Interested artists must submit an online application. The 4Culture application system is being used for this process. You may be required to create a new account. Please don’t hesitate to contact us with questions. We encourage applicants to start their application early.
DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION (Required)
Your profile in our portal must provide demographic information for the current year. We use this information to help us understand how well we are doing in our efforts to reach all communities in King County.
PROFILE
Contact information for yourself or all members of your team if applying as a team.
STATEMENT OF INTEREST
Write a statement (500 words or less) explaining why you are interested in working on this project within the context of the King County CSO system, the Alki Wet Weather Treatment Station site, project duration (short term) and how you would approach this commission opportunity considering your past work and current artistic practice. If there are multiple artists or collaborators as part of your team, please explain how you work together. Consider the selection criteria as it relates to this opportunity. Applicants are NOT asked to submit a proposal as part of the application.
RÉSUMÉ
Two-page (maximum) current professional résumé. Keep the formatting as simple as possible. PDF is preferred; text (.txt) files will also be accepted. Artist-led teams should upload one document with two-page résumés for each team member.
Some suggested items to include in your artist résumé include:
- Contact information – At the top of each page, include your name, address, phone number, email address and web URL.
- Education – List all academic degrees earned. Also include periods of study at schools or universities attended without completing a degree.
- Exhibitions – List the title of the exhibition, the exhibition venue, and the city/state where the exhibition was presented. Please indicate if it was a solo, two-person, or group exhibition.
- Professional experience – You may also consider listing experience that is relevant to your art practice such as teaching, lectures and artist residencies.
- Honors and awards – List awards, grants, fellowships or other recognitions of merit.
- Bibliography – List books, magazines, newspapers, and catalogues that reference your work.
REFERENCES
You do not need to submit references with your application, but please be aware that finalists will be asked to provide up to three references who can speak about your professional history and community involvement.
WORK SAMPLES
Applicants must submit a total of 8 work samples to be eligible. If your work is best experienced through time-based media, work samples 7–8 may include URLs that link to audio/video on online platforms (see below for specifications), with a cumulative run time of up to 3 minutes. If you are planning to submit writing samples, see below for more information.
You are encouraged to submit samples of past work that best illustrate your qualifications for this opportunity. If applying as a team, the team may submit no more than 8 work samples as described above. Each work sample requires a brief description (75 words or less) that includes the following information, if applicable: project location, commissioning agency, budget, project partners, photo credit, copyright owner, summary of the project scope, intention, and outcome.
Digital Images – Upload JPG files only; 1920 pixels on the longest side (suggested), at least 72 dpi, and less than 2 MB in size.
Audio/Video Files – You may include links to up to 2 audio/video files if this media relates to your art practice (i.e. sound or media-based art, etc.). Audio samples must be submitted via Soundcloud, with the specific URL (e.g., soundcloud.com/29523) noted in the URL field. Video samples must be submitted via Vimeo and/or YouTube with the specific URL (e.g. vimeo.com/2992575) noted in the URL field. All submissions must be publicly accessible (password protected files will not be accepted).
Timed excerpts are preferred, but longer samples may be submitted with notation in the description field of specific start and stop time for a cumulative run time of up to 3 minutes. Please include the start and stop times for excerpted audio or video samples at the beginning of the descriptive text. Audio and video samples in excess of 3 cumulative minutes will not be reviewed.
Writers/Literary Artists – All writers/literary artists should contact either Fiona Dang or Jordan Monez (information below in Step 5) before starting your application so we can clarify details about submission requirements.
You must submit 2 written work samples. Prose samples should each be 500–1,000 words, and poetry samples can be of any length, not to exceed 1,000 words. (Complete pieces and excerpts are permitted.) Written work samples must be submitted with the specific URL noted in the URL field. Please ensure that visibility settings are set so that anyone with the link can view and share.
DEADLINE
Applications must be received no later than 4:00pm PDT on Thursday, September 11, 2025. Please allow ample time to complete and upload your application; submissions will not be accepted after the deadline.
5
Helping You Succeed
5
Helping You Succeed
Virtual Info Session
Applicants are strongly encouraged to attend an optional online workshop on Tuesday, August 12, 2025, from noon–1:00 PM PDT.
Please be sure you have a Zoom account and register in advance for this workshop. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
We will be recording the session, so if you are unable to attend and would like to view the recording, please contact Fiona Dang, .
Contact Us
If you have technical questions about the application, please contact:
If you have conceptual questions related to the opportunity, please contact:
Русский (Russian)
Руководство, подробная инструкция и форма заявки на английском языке. Если вам сложно разобраться в процедуре получения грантов или подачи заявок из-за ограниченных навыков письменного английского языка либо нарушений зрения, а также если вы бы хотели обратиться за помощью при составлении заявки, отправьте письмо на адрес электронной почты или позвоните по номеру (206) 296-7580 или 711 (телетайп), и мы позаботимся о том, чтобы вы получили необходимую помощь.
Soomaali (Somali)
Tilmaamaha, sharaxaadda faahfaahsan ee ku saabsan sida loo codsado, iyo waraaqda codsiga waxa ay dhammaan ku qoran yihiin Af-Ingiriisi. Haddii ay arrintani tahay caqabad kaa hor istaageysa fahamka deeqda ama codsashada oo ay sabab u tahay awoodda qorista Af-Ingiriisiga oo xadidan, araggaaga oo liita, ama aad jeclaan lahayd inaad codsato in lagaa caawiyo in aad codsi sameyso, fadlan la xiriir ama wac (206) 296-7580 ama TTY 711, waxaana xaqiijin doonnaa inaad hesho taageerada aad u baahan tahay.
Español (Spanish)
Las pautas, la explicación detallada de cómo enviar la solicitud y la solicitud están en inglés. Si esto le impide comprender la información relacionada con la beca o enviar una solicitud debido a una limitación en la capacidad para escribir en inglés, si tiene una discapacidad visual o si desea recibir asistencia para crear una solicitud, escriba a o llame al (206) 296-7580 o TTY 711, y nos aseguraremos de que obtenga la ayuda que necesita.
Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
Hướng dẫn, giải thích chi tiết về cách nộp đơn va tài liệu áp dụng tất cả đều bằng Tiếng Anh. Nếu đây là rào cản khiến quý vị không hiểu được khoản trợ cấp hoặc cách nộp đơn do khả năng viết tiếng Anh hạn chế, do quý vị bị suy giảm thị lực hoặc muốn yêu cầu hỗ trợ để tạo đơn đăng ký, làm ơn liên hệ hoặc gọi (206) 296-7580 hay TTY 711 và chúng tôi sẽ hỗ trợ những gì quý vị cần.