PAWTUCKET — New York has its Statue of Liberty. Paris has its Eiffel Tower. Chicago has the towering steel sculpture by Picasso in Daley Plaza, downtown.

But Pawtucket has nothing to mark it as the home of Slater Mill, birthplace of the American industrial revolution, or as the gateway to the Blackstone River Valley, or as a city with an arts and entertainment district.

Although Conocular, an abstract sculpture by the artist William Martin, stands on the sidewalk outside the Benjamin E. Chester building, nothing says Blackstone Valley Visitors Center, home to a couple of art galleries and a theater, is inside.

That may change. The city has organized a design competition that officials hope will result in the creation of a signature sculpture to go outside the visitors center at 175 Main St.

The city’s Planning Department is asking interested engineers, artists and designers to submit their qualifications for the sculpture project. The statements of qualifications, due by Dec. 12, will be reviewed by a committee of architects, architecture professors and the sculptor Howard Ben Tre.

The committee will select three artists to submit designs.

The goal is to have a winning design by June, and final design plans by September. Planning Department Director Michael D. Cassidy said the city will then undertake construction of the sculpture, using the winning design to raise money for the project. The budget for fabrication and installation of the sculpture will be capped at $50,000.

The design competition is being financed with a $10,000 grant from the John H. Chafee Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor Commission. Cassidy said that the idea for a signature sculpture outside the Chester building came from a “vision statement” that the design firm of Gates Leighton and Associates prepared for the corridor commission. He said the Chester building is just one of the spots in the Blackstone River Valley Corridor where such a project was proposed.

A call yesterday to Jan Reitsma, executive director of the corridor commission, wasn’t returned.

Besides Tre, the design review committee consists of the architecture professors Roseann Evans, of Roger Williams University, and James Barnes, of the Rhode Island School of Design, and the architects Martha Werenfels, of the firm Durkee, Brown, Viveiros, Werenfels, and Luke Mandle, of Two Ton Inc.

Entry forms are available from the Department of Planning and Redevelopment, 175 Main St. The three finalists, to be selected by Jan. 15, will each receive $1,500 for their design proposals. The winner of the competition will receive a total of $6,000, including the first payment of $1,500.

jcastell@projo.com