Interviews with each of the three finalists will take place at the end of March. The three were chosen from an initial pool of 77 applicants, Cabarrus County Regional Manager Kyle Bilafer told commissioners during a meeting on the March 7 agenda.

The Request for Qualifications (RFQ) project calls for “an artist or team of artists who can understand and express, in a suspended, permanently installed, large-scale piece, the role of the courthouse in delivering justice healthy and fair”. The lobby has “high windows (to) provide views of the artwork from outside the building on three sides…”

The art should be “…iconic, while demonstrating an acute sensitivity to the varied contexts of experience in which those who encounter it might be immersed,” the RFQ said.

Bilafer told the commissioners he hoped the committee would name the winner shortly after the interviews.

Construction of the courthouse continues, and crews recently installed heating and air components, connected the water system to the old building, and prepared for temporary use of elevators, Bilafer said. Over the next 30 days, cooling and dehumidification will be added, allowing work on the interior facades. Also, the building’s yellowish tint (that’s the insulation, Bilafer said) will soon be covered.