Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes_ARTAB_06.20.2007Minutes of the meeting of the Arts and Culture Board City of Georgetown, Texas Wednesday, June 20, 2007 Arts and Culture Board members present: Charles Aguillon, Richard Bartko, Addie Busfield, Jane Paden, Penny Plueckhahn, Georgene Richaud, Ruth Roberts Members absent: Nancy Blansett (excused), Paul Gaffney (excused) City staff members present: Eric Lashley, Library Director; Judy Fabry, Administrative Assistant; Shelly Hargrove, CVB Director Others present: City Council member Bill Sattler; Doug Smith, representing the Sertoma Club and the Palace Theater; Russell Dutkiewicz, representing the Palace Theater; Sonja Asendorf, representing the Palace Theater Regular Session Call to Order at 2:00 PM A. There were no announcements B. There were no citizens wishing to address the Board C. Consideration and approval of minutes of last meeting. Jane Paden moved and Georgene Richaud seconded the motion to approve the minutes as distributed. r D. Consideration of and possible action on E 1. CVB events calendar and the Arts and Culture Board —Shelly Hargrove Ludy Fabry Shelly reported that the CVB staff gets their arts events input from a few organizations that regular make contributions— Southwestern University, GISD, and the Palace Theater. They sometimes take information from newspaper articles. All events that are posted on their calendar must be open to the public. Shelly passed out copies of the online form that Now Playing Austin uses for calendar submissions. She would be happy to have a similar form available on the CVB website and believes it would not be much different from the form they currently have online for requesting information about Georgetown. At this time it is not possible to attach photos to calendar entries but Shelly would not be opposed to adding this feature. She also was agreeable to making the site searchable if the City webmaster is able to do that. Before leaving, Shelly promised to send the guidelines for submission of calendar entries to Judy Fabry and she will ask the webmaster for a timeline for how long it would take to make the discussed revisions to CVB's existing site. Shelly also passed out copies of a list of places where events may be advertised for free. She suggested that the Board might want to pass along this information when they contact arts organizations about submitting their events information to the CVB calendar. 2. Proposal to donate a bronze statue of Nathan Chapman to the library — Doug Smith for the Sertoma Club; Tudy Fabry Doug explained the origin of the statue that the Sertoma Club wished to donate to the library. Nathan Chapman was the first American killed in the current military action in Afghanistan. Chapman's parents live in Sun City. The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce spearheaded a campaign to raise money for a statue in Chapman's honor and the Sertoma Club provided a significant portion of that cost. In recognition of their contribution the club received a smaller replica of the statue. Since the club doesn't have a permanent location where the statue may be displayed, the members proposed donating it to the library. The chair directed that Doug be given a Donation Waiver Form which needs to be completed before the donation will be formally accepted. He agreed to fill out the form and return it to Eric Lashley. The signed form gives the Arts and Culture Board the discretion to decide where the statue will be displayed. A motion to accept will take place after the waiver is received. 3. Request for information about possible funding for the Palace Theater in FY 2007 -08 — Doug Smith for the Palace Theatre Board of Directors; Tud�Fabry Doug spoke generally about the important role the Palace Theater has assumed in the community and how it has enhanced the Square, which he called "the heart and soul of Georgetown." He listed nearby cities that provide financial support for their community theaters and expressed his hope that the Arts and Culture Board would allocate $10,000 to the Palace Theater in FY 07 -08. The Theater's current debt is $750,000 and they've also purchased a warehouse adjacent to the theater that they want to renovate to be used as dressing rooms, set construction site, and an alternative theater. Most of the theater's current funding comes from individuals in the community. During the past year they received a small grant from the Lola Wright Foundation for restoration of the warehouse. Penny asked Doug whether he would help the Arts and Culture Board try to get their appropriation from the Council increased now that giving grants to local arts organizations seems to have been added to their fiscal responsibilities. Doug suggested getting on a Council agenda to broach the subject. Eric interjected that the budget for FY 07 -08 is in its final stages at this point and that there is little hope that the Board's appropriation would be increased this year. He suggested that the proposed workshop with Council in September would be the place to bring up this request for next fiscal year. Bill Sattler, who was attending the meeting to learn about the function of the Arts and Culture Board, asked whether the Board is in charge of all arts events in Georgetown as well as public art. Board members responded that their role is still being defined and refined. Penny added that it's becoming clear that the Board needs to establish criteria defining an "art event." The Board also should develop application guidelines for non -profit arts organizations to follow and set a cut -off date for applications. She suggested that no organization be given more than 10% of its annual budget. Eric distributed copies of the applications that the City presently uses for social services and children's and youth services grants. He said these could be models for the Arts and Culture Board to work from. While Paul Brandenburg has made it clear to Eric that the Board is expected to give $15,000 to the Festival of the Arts in FY 07 -08, Eric believes that the workshop in September will be an opportunity for the Board to ask Council specific questions about their intentions for the Board. He also thinks that it will be important for organizations receiving the grants from the Arts and Culture Board to give the City recognition for their financial support and provide a follow -up report on how they spent the money. (At this point Bill Sattler left the meeting.) Charles Aguillon, Penny Plueckhahn, and Jane Paden volunteered to be on a subcommittee to draft an application for grants to arts organizations. The committee also may consider recommendations for a draft budget to take to Council at the September workshop. It would be a good tool to use to show the Council the multiple uses for which the Board's appropriation might be used. The subcommittee will meet before the next Board meeting. 4. Proposal to donate Georgetown's 150th Anniversary Ouilt to the library — Eric Lashle Eric reported that he had been approached by Doris Jablonski, who presently is storing the quilt that was created to commemorate Georgetown's 150th anniversary, that the quilt be donated to the library. The group will have it professionally stretched and enclosed in a Plexiglas case and it would be given without stipulations. Georgene moved to accept the donation, Penny seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. A discussion followed about plaques that should be used to identify donations. Charles suggested that the Arts and Culture Board should pay for these plaques since they are the ones accepting the donations. Rich will investigate media and costs before the next meeting. 5. Report on proposal scoring — Charles Aguillon Charles learned that the software he wants the Board to consider for scoring public art proposals is proprietary and that the Board will have to pay a fee to use it. He will bring more information to the next meeting. 6. Budget allocation for public art in FY 2007 -08 and requests for funding from local organizations — Eric Lashley, Ruth Roberts Since this item's subject had been discussed with previous items, the only decision was that a discussion of budget categories should be an item on the July agenda. 7. Scheduling of a workshop on Mondav, September 10 with Citv Council — Eric Lashle Eric has arranged with Sandra Lee for the Arts and Culture Board to have a workshop with Council on Monday, September 10, at 4:00. At this time the Board is the only item on the agenda for that workshop. Eric emphasized that it is very important for the Board to emphasize the multiplicity of needs that they are being expected to cover with their appropriation. 8. Nominations for Certificates of Excellence for Wolf Ranch and Festival of the Arts —Judy Fabry Ruth suggested that consideration of a certificate for Wolf Ranch be extended. She pointed out that there is another mall in Georgetown that also is pleasingly landscaped. Others agreed and suggested that these commercial developments were landscaped as they are to comply with City requests and mandates. They did not go above and beyond what was expected of them, so perhaps their contributions to the aesthetics of Georgetown don't deserve special recognition. There was no discussion about a certificate for the Festival of the Arts. Penny moved and Georgene seconded a motion to adjourn at 4:10 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Charles Aguill'on, Secretary Ruth ober § C;hair