FILE: A home lies in ruins in the Coffey Park neighborhood of Santa Rosa, one of the areas hardest hit during the 2017 Tubbs Fire. (Photo by Benjamin Cosse/California National Guard)

Sonoma County is soliciting applications from artists to create a memorial for the victims of the 2017 wildfires.

The artist or team of artists will be awarded up to $320,000 to design, create and install the memorial.

That grant amount will also cover materials and community engagement activities, according to county officials.

“Central to creating the Fire Memorial is a collaborative design process led by the selected artist in close partnership with the community,” county officials said in a news release Thursday. “Through workshops and public meetings, the artist will gather insights and stories from residents, ensuring the final design reflects the community’s spirit and the personal experience of the event.”

The final project will be installed at Nagasawa Community Park in Santa Rosa. 

Submissions are due electronically by July 19 and more information about the process can be found here. 

In October 2017, the Nuns, Tubbs and Pocket fires combined to burn for nearly three weeks, engulfed more than 110,000 acres, killed 24 people and destroyed roughly 5,300 homes in Sonoma County, many of them in Santa Rosa. 

Kiley Russell writes primarily for Local News Matters on issues related to equity and the environment. A Bay Area native, he has lived most of his life in Oakland. He studied journalism at San Francisco State University, worked for the Associated Press and the former Contra Costa Times, among other outlets. He has covered everything from state legislatures, local governments, federal and state courts, crime, growth and development, political campaigns of various stripes, wildfires and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.