Seven local artists will present proposals for the second Great Ideas Competition at 5:30 p.m. tonight at the Indianapolis Artsgarden. The event is free and open to the public, and attendees will be encouraged to vote on their favorite proposals.

"We are trying to get artists to think about community engagement and how public art marries community and art," said Mike Knight of the Arts Council of Indianapolis, which developed the competition.

The seven finalists in the competition include the artist team of Artur Silva and Judith G. Levy, Jeff Martin, David Russick, Jesse Allison, Tom Torluemke and Timothy Grey.

Although the public will vote on the proposals tonight, a selection committee comprised of seven local art experts will choose the winners in mid-January. Up to two artists or artist teams will be awarded up to $18,000 each to turn their proposals into public art projects.

"The votes from the public help inform the panelists," Knight said. "It gives them a sense of what people who come and observe think about these things."

This is the second Great Ideas Competition developed by the Arts Council as part of its Public Art Indianapolis program. The inaugural competition, held in 2005, led to the funding of two public art projects: "Speak/Spoken" by Patrick Manning and "Charting Pogue's Run" by Sean Derry.