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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes_ARTAB_03.21.2007Arts and Culture Board Members present: Charles Aguillon, Richard Bartko, Nancy Blansett, Addie Busfield, Paul Gaffney, Jane Paden, Penny Plueckhahn, Georgene Richaud, Ruth Roberts Staff Attending: Eric Lashley, Library Director, Judy Fabry, Library Administrative Assistant Regular Session Call to Order at 2:05 PM A. Call to order and announcements from the Chair Chair Ruth Roberts called the meeting to order. Judy Fabry introduced Ruth as the newly appointed chair of the board, replacing Paul Gaffney who relinquished the position due to his work schedule often being in conflict with attendance at board meetings. Ruth made two announcements: (1) reminding the board members of the upcoming lectures by Laura Lindenberger on Latin American art, and (2) asking people to create new subject lines when replying to board - related emails rather than retaining and old subject line, which may be irrelevant to the response and may cause the recipient to overlook new mail. B. Citizens wishing to address the Board - none C. Consideration and approval of minutes of last meeting Jane Paden made a motion to accept the minutes as distributed, seconded by Georgene Richaud. The motion passed unanimously. D. Consideration and approval of minutes of subcommittee meeting held 2/28/07 (only members of committee may vote) Charles Aguillon made the motion to accept the minutes as distributed, seconded by Ruth Roberts. The motion was approved by their votes. E. Election of vice chair and secretary Charles nominated Penny Plueckhahn as vice chair, seconded by Georgene. Elected unanimously. Charles agreed to serve as secretary for another term and he was elected by acclamation. F. Consideration of and possible action on 1. Report on maintenance of a City -wide arts calendar - Penny Plueckhahn Penny reported that the Symphony Society and the Arts Festival committee had sent new information to the Convention and Visitors Bureau, including photos of performers who are coming, but none of it has been posted on the City's website. Discussion followed with opinions expressed about the CVB website and consideration given to having City staff who are responsible for the website attend the next Arts and Culture Board meeting. Everyone agreed that a discussion with the decision - maker(s) should be as constructive as possible, mainly offering the Board's help with disseminating information to arts organizations about getting their events posted on the City's events calendar. The intended outcome of the proposed discussion is identifying a procedure that the City finds acceptable for organizations to follow to post information to the CVB website. More discussion followed about the event calendars on the Southwestern University and GISD websites. Rich Bartko suggested he could talk to their webmasters to find out how their databases work. He asked Paul and Charles to give them the phone numbers of the people he should talk with. Ruth said that she uses Rich's services to maintain Snell's website and recommended him highly. Judy Fabry will find out who on the City staff to invite to the April meeting. Board members agreed to familiarize themselves with the City of Portland, Oregon's visitors website, which Penny believes is the one to emulate. 2. Report of progress of mural project — Eric Lashley Eric reported that Tony Sansevero was working on the murals at the moment and that he had said he would finish them today. There has been some difficulty in getting him to finish the painting, but Eric believes the end is near. 3. Rotating art displays in Citv facilities with report of progress on librarv's hanQinQ system— Ruth Roberts, Eric Lashley Ruth deferred to Eric, who said he has ordered a hanging system for the library from Walker Displays. This is the company that the Healing Arts Gallery used for their hanging system and Eric thanked Nancy Blansett for her helpful information. The system that Eric has purchased will allow art work to be hung in the bridge area on the second floor, the Texas History Room, the meeting room wing, and on the first floor near the public computers and the coffee shop. The cost of the parts for this system is about $1300, a cost that might be affordable for other City facilities where rotating art displays may be desired. A survey of City facilities that are appropriate for displays still needs to be done. The Board members asked Nancy to demonstrate how to use the library's new system at the April meeting. 4. Nomination for Certificate of Excellence — Ruth Roberts for Paul Gaffnev Paul Gaffney being present, he nominated the Music Education Program at GISD for a certificate of excellence. For the second year in a row GISD's program has been among the top 100 music education programs in the United States, as identified by surveys by the National Association of Music Merchants Foundation and its American Music Conference division. The board members voted unanimously to accept this nomination and Addie Busfield agreed to have the wording for the certificate at the next meeting. 5. ChaneinQ the date of the April meetinLr of the Board — Ruth Roberts Due to the fact that a lecture at Southwestern University by former Secretary of State James Baker coincides with the next scheduled Arts and Culture Board meeting, Ruth moved to change the date. Addie seconded and the motion passed unanimously. The group agreed to meet on Wednesday, April 25 at 2:00 in the library classroom. Ruth moved and Charles seconded a motion to always meet in the classroom if that space is available. Motion passed unanimously. 6. Report of sub- conunittee on proposal scoring — Charles Aguillon Board members studied the explanation of Olympic scoring that accompanied their agenda packet. Charles said that the main portion to focus on was the first half of the sheet because it isn't really necessary to understand the subsequent information about breaking ties. He believes that Olympic scoring, in which the highest and lowest rankings are thrown out of each competition, would eliminate the need for panelists to recuse themselves because they know the artists who are submitting proposals. He said that the school's spreadsheet for Olympic scoring, which operates in Excel, would be available for the Arts and Culture Board to use as they evaluate future public art proposals. He recommended that the chair of the panel, who is the person who enters the scores into the spreadsheet and doesn't vote in the competition, should be a person from the Arts and Culture Board. To show the board how the spreadsheet works, he will convert the scores for the muralist proposals to the Olympic system. Discussion followed about the importance of objectivity in writing the RFPs and in judging the proposals. If the parameters for a successful proposal are set out clearly enough in the RFP, it will be easy to throw out proposals that don't meet the requirements. Expectations for budgets and timelines should be clearly delineated in the RFP. Judy will send out electronic copies of the guidelines for selection that the board has drafted and members should consider whether and how they might be changed after the experience with the muralist project. Most board members agreed that future proposals should be electronic and Nancy talked about Austin's electronic registry for artists, which is used whenever that city issues an RFP for public art. She suggested the board members look at Austin's AIPP website to see how the process works there. Judy handed out copies of the front page of the AIPP website, which Ruth had obtained prior to the meeting. Announcements by Board Members Dalhart Windberg is offering free studio space with models on Tuesdays. He has a new building on the IH -35 frontage road, just north of the 195 intersection. Ruth will get more information. Penny announced that on Saturday and Sunday, during the Festival of the Arts (5/31 -6/3), there will be numerous one -hour workshops in San Gabriel Park that will highlight the talents or skills of various dramatic, musical, visual, or verbal artists. She asked for suggestions of artists who might be willing to participate. Two suggestions were Dalhart Windberg and Jeff Lanfear, owner of 811, Street Studios. Charles reminded the board members of the upcoming concert at the Performing Arts Center by the Harvard Glee Club. Respectfully submitted, Char es Aguillon, Secretary Ruth l oberts, Chair