Artists, step right up and get pieces of Bay Bridge steel

As the old east span of the Bay Bridge is being dismantled, pieces are being set aside for distribution to artists, individuals or organizations who will use them in civic and public arts projects. As the old east span of the Bay Bridge is being dismantled, pieces are being set aside for distribution to artists, individuals or organizations who will use them in civic and public arts projects. Photo: Scott Burbank Photo: Scott Burbank Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Artists, step right up and get pieces of Bay Bridge steel 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

If you’ve ever wanted to call a piece of the Bay Bridge your own — and give it an artistic twist — here’s your chance.

Just don’t plan to put it in your backyard. Or count on someone else footing the bill.

The opportunity is being provided by the Oakland Museum of California, which is in charge of distributing 450 tons of steel that formed part of the eastern span of the bridge between Oakland and San Francisco. This includes beams of varying size, “knuckles” where several pieces of steel come together and 1,000 rivets.

“We want to give artists the chance to reconnect people to the old structure but also bring its meaning forward,” said Leslie Pritchett, an art consultant working with the museum. “Pieces were specifically collected that we think will be useful, or are interesting from an architectural design perspective.”

As much as anything, the offering is a response to lobbying by artists in West Oakland and elsewhere, who argued that not all the steel from the bridge should be shipped to China for recycling, the standard practice nowadays. The idea instead was that portions of the old structure could have a creative second life, rising in parks and other civic spaces as a reminder of what existed before the new eastern span opened in 2013.

The deadline for the first round of applications is Oct. 1, and decisions on who gets what will be made by a selection committee with an unusual set of marching orders: It won’t judge aesthetics so much as the ability of the competitor to find a publicly accessible location for display, plus the money or resources to pull off the move.

Theoretically, a developer could select an artist like Richard Serra to do a piece for a public plaza. A museum could find donors to snatch up a few pieces as inspiration for a future exhibition. An artist could come in with a city or park district seeking to memorialize a literal piece of how the region came to be.

“Usually, there’s a commission that has money with it. In this case, we’re rewarding the ability to make something happen,” said Lori Fogarty, director of the museum. “It’ll be really interesting to see who comes forward.”

The competition is being done in collaboration with three government agencies, including Caltrans and the Bay Area Toll Authority. More information will be available Wednesday morning at http://museumca.org/bay-bridge-steel.

The amount of steel that will be distributed is the equivalent of 30 semi truckloads of metal — or one-tenth of 1 percent of the trussed east span, which still is in the process of being dismantled.

John King is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: jking@sfchronicle.com