By LEAH WEATHERSBY

The Seattle Public Library is poised to give one lucky Lake City artist a career opportunity. A public art project will be part of the plans to remodel the Lake City branch library and the library will choose a Lake City resident to pair with an experienced public artist to do the project.

Lake City will be the City's first branch library to participate in this new program, known appropriately enough as "Art Partners."

Lisa Richmond, project manager with the Seattle Arts Commission, said that artists need only consider themselves Lake City residents to be eligible. They should be "accomplished," she said, but not have prior public art experience.

"The critical thing is that the artist be experienced at what they do," Richmond explained. "Their ability and willingness to collaborate will be an important factor in their selection."

The artist will be compensated at a level "appropriate to an emerging artist," but may also find that the experience opens a doorway to a new career.

"People who enter the mentorship program with the desire to move into public art find it extremely useful in learning specific relevant skills such as how to work with a design team, how to negotiate the public system, where to locate fabricators and how to envision your aesthetic ideas in permanent media," Richmond said.

Meanwhile, the library has already selected an experienced public artist to work on the Lake City Library project. Linda Haworth, a Portland resident, will partner with the Lake City artist. Her past projects include a transit shelter, bus stop seating wall and glass mosaic panels for a pedestrian underpass in Tempe, Ariz., as well as projects in Portland and Tucson, Ariz.

Applications for the Art Partners program in the Lake City Library will be available in early May. The deadline will likely be May 31.

For more information, contact Lisa Richmond at 684-0998. (