HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes_ARTAB_05.21.2008Minutes of the Meeting of the
Arts and Culture Board
City of Georgetown, Texas
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Members Present: Charles Aguillon, Addie Busfield, Jane Paden, Penny Plueckhahn, Ruth
Roberts, Mandy Solin
Members Absent: Georgene Richaud
Staff Present: Eric Lashley, Library Director; Judy Fabry, Library Administrative Assistant
Others Present: Bob Coffee, sculptor of Waterin' the Work Mules
A. Call to order - Chair Ruth Roberts called the meeting to order at 2:02 p.m.
B. Announcements from the Chair and Board members
• Ruth apologized for going ahead without involving any other board members in
creation of the ad for the Festival of the Arts program. Due to time constraints, in one
day she and Larry Simpson went to Bob Coffee's home to photograph the maquette of
the sculpture, then created the ad and delivered a disc of it for pubhcation. Larry's
charge was S200, which Judy said has been paid.
® Eric commended the presentation that Ruth gave earlier in the day at the Leadership
Georgetown meeting. She presented her personal history of involvement with the arts
and talked about the work of the Arts and Culture Board.
• Ruth said that one outcome of her appearance at the Leadership meeting today was
learning about the sculpture garden that ROCK will be creating. She believes the
Board may be able to help with the protect and suggested that someone from ROCK
should speak to the Board.
• Ruth also said she had been approached by Fred Bolgen of the Framer's Gallery about
business owners such as himself, Ellie Skross (Annarella), and the Windbergs
(Windberg Gallery) being invited to the proposed Summit of the Arts.
C. Citizens wishing to address the Board -None were present.
D. Consideration and approval of minutes of last meetmg - Charles moved and Ruth
seconded the motion to accept the minutes of the April 16 meeting as distributed. Motion
passed unanimously.
E. Consideration of and possible action on
1. Report about presentation of pubhc art selection to Council - Ruth Roberts. Ruth
reportedthat the Council voted unanimously to accept the sculpture by Bob Coffee,
Waterin' the Work Mules. They did discuss safety issues, which were easily dismissed, and
the orientation of the sculpture relative to the streets, but no motion was made in this
regard. Council left the decision about the orientation of the sculpture to the Board and the
artist. Since that night, the City Manager asked the Board, viaemail to Eric, to inform
Council of their decision about the orientation and the reasoning behind it. Eric added that
the day after the Council meeting Ben Oliver came to speak to him and told him that he
had been lobbied to overthrow the panel's selection, but he felt that request was completely
inappropriate.
Penny suggested that the maquette be displayed at the Festival of the Arts Everyone
agreed that this was a good idea and Charles said he would make a poster of the Board's ad
in the program to complete the display.
2. Festival of the Arts ad and art purchases - Judy Fabry, Ruth Roberts Judy reported that
she had paid for the ad ($500) plus Larry Simpson's charge of $200 to do the photo and
setup work.
A long discussion followed about whether the Board should spend the $5000 that remains
of their budget for purchasing artwork at the Festival of the Arts. Three Board members
will be on the jury to select the Best in Show Artist, so they will be in a position to
recommend purchases to the rest of the Board. Penny said she thought the Board should
only buy a few works. Mandy asked where the pieces would be hung or placed. She
thought any purchase should be for a specific location. Addie suggested that some artwork
could be given to the schools, but Charles said he thought that probably would not work.
Others suggested the Community Center, the Library, and the new Rec Center
Penny moved that the four* Board members on the Festival jury (Addie, Mandy, Jane* and
Ruth) meet at 9:00 a.m. on May 31 to judge the show together and to consider purchasing a
piece or pieces of art not to exceed $3,000. Charles seconded the motion, which passed
unanimously. *corrected 6/18108
Ruth moved that the full Board meet at 1 00 p m. at the Festival of the Arts administration
tent to consider purchase of art for the City Charles seconded the motion, which passed
unanimously. Judy will post the meeting and will send the agenda to Board members.
3. Timeline for master planning process, mcludmg establishing a date(s) for Summit of the
Arts - Charles Aguillon . Charles proposed Tuesday, September 30 and Thursday, October
2, at 7:00 p m as the dates for the Summit of the Arts. Invitees could opt to attend either of
the meetings, which would be mformation-gathering sessions. He chose these dates
because of their proximity to the Artworks Art Hop, which will be the following weekend,
and the Hill Country Book Festival, which willbe the second weekend in October.
Charles said he is still looking for a facilitator and Vic Figurelli's name came up again. Mr.
Figurelli has worked with the Symphony Society in several capacities and served as a
professional facilitator before he retired. Penny passed out the directory of nonprofit arts
organizations in Georgetown that she has been working on. This is the list from which the
invitees to the Summit will be drawn. Each organization would be limited to two
representatives.
A brief discussion followed about inviting business owners who sell artworks, but the
consensus was that their interests were not the same as those of nonprofits and that they
could be brought into the master -planning process at a later date. Someone also added that
the business owners Ruth had mentioned at the beginning of the meeting probably belong
to one or more of the non -profits that will be invited, so they would have the possibility of
attending as representatives of those groups.
Charles moved to have the Summit of the Arts on September 30 and October 2, at 7:00
p.m.*, at a location to be determined, to which two representatives of each arts -related
nonprofit organization would be invited. Mandy seconded the motion, which passed
unanimously. *amended 6/18/08.
4. Hill Country Book Festival — Addie Busfield. Addie gave a brief history of the Book
Festival, which grew out of interest among the members of the San Gabriel Writers League
and is now a separate nonprofit organization. The main purpose of the festival is to sell the
works of local authors. It will take place on October 11 at the library, from 9 a.m. to 4 p m
Any profits from the event will be given to the Williamson County Literacy Council and
the Georgetown Public Library. Addie said that she would bring to the Board next month a
request for a donation to support the event.
5. Proposed information for website registry of artists — Judy Fabry Judy asked the Board
members to look at the sheet of proposed information to mclude in the registry, which was
modeled on Austin's registry. Mandy asked what the purpose of the registry is. She
thought that defining how the Board expects it will be used would help determine what
information would be important. Charles said he thought it would be a resource for people
to use if they wanted to commission a work of art or perhaps find a teacher. Mandy
suggested it could be a. "bragging point" to be able to show how many artists work in
Georgetown. The consensus was to only ask for the artist's name, phone, email address,
website address, and a list of media in which he/she works (to be chosen from a dropdown
menu of media). Each artist could submit five .jpg images of his/her work that comply with
prescribed dimensions and are labeled as to title, year completed, size and medium
Ruth moved to publish the registry as amended by this discussion. Penny seconded the
motion, which passed unanimously.
6. Certificate of Appreciation — Judy Fabry. Jane suggested that the makers of the origami
cranes that hung in the library lobby from January through April should be recognized.
Discussion followed about the Board's requirement that certificates be given to an
organization. The cranes were made primarily by several members of a family The item
was postponed until next month.
Meeting adjourned at 3:30 p.m., after which Bob Coffee signed the contract for his sculpture.
Respectfully s bmitted,
ane Paden, Secretary
Ruth Roberts, Chair