HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes_ARTAB_09.17.2008Minutes of the Meeting of the
Arts and Culture Board
City of Georgetown, Texas
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Present: Charles Aguillon, Penny Plueckhahn, Georgene Richaud, Ruth Roberts, Mandy Solin
Absent: Addie Busfield Jane Paden
Staff Present: Eric Lashley, Library Director; Judy Fabry, Library Administrative Assistant
A. Call to order by Chair Ruth Roberts at 2:02 p.m.
B. Announcements from the Chair and Board members. Ruth and Don Snell visited The Crossings, a
retreat center and spa cum art gallery near Lake Travis, and learned that Bob Coffee's casting of
"The Mules" that was originally intended for installation in University Park will instead be
installed in Georgetown. It is finished and will be on display at The Crossings for a few weeks
before he installs it on the Square.
C. Citizens wishing to address the Board. None were present
D. Consideration and approval of minutes of last meeting. Georgene made a motion to accept the
minutes as distributed, Penny seconded, and it passed unanimously.
E. Consideration of and possible action on
1. Agenda for Arts Summit — Charles Aguillon, Ruth Roberts Charles passed out a summary
of ideas from arts -related people in Georgetown with whole he had spoken in the past few
days and their ideas for topics for the Summit (made a part of these minutes). It had not been
possible to arrange the meeting that he and Ruth had planned with these people.
The Summit has been moved to October 7 and 9, starting at 6:30 p.m. each night. Charles will
draft an announcement about the meetings and will send it to Judy for distribution. He
envisions a roundtable discussion of topics that representatives of the invited organizations
will submit in advance. In his phone conversations, improved communications among
organizations and a master calendar of the arts for Georgetown seemed to be common
concerns.
2. Grant criteria, Plano revisited — Penny Plueckhahn. Penny distributed a page of notes
(made a part of these minutes) summarizing her conversation with Jim Ware, Creative Arts
Manager for Plano. After her presentation of the information, Mandy asked what Penny
thought Georgetown could learn from Plano. Penny said that it is clear that the Board needs
to create a master plan for the arts and she believes Jim Ware can help them do it.
Georgene said she would like to hear Ware speak and that he seems to be someone who can
help the Board think longer term than they have been doing and also be able to suggest how
to add arts facilities to a master plan.
Penny saidshe also thought Plano's division of arts duties between the Cultural Affairs
Commission, the sole duty of which is to administer grants to arts organizations, and the
Public Art Committee, which is charged with purchasing public art, seemed like a good way
to handle the two tasks that Georgetown's board has been struggling with. Georgene argued
that the same effect could be achieved simply by agreeing to split the budget between those
two areas.
Penny proposed a half -day workshop with Ware to which Randy Morrow and Paul
Brandenburg would be invited. Eric interjected that he thinks more City staff should be
mvolved because getting buy -in from all departments will be an important part of making a
master plan work. He passed out a worksheet (made a part of these minutes) that
summarized common aspects of all of the RFQs for master plans he'd looked at. He noted
that getting widespread buy -in was important inevery one
Discussion followed about how large the group meeting with Ware should be and what its
purpose should be. Penny suggested that it would be better to limit City staff's participation
to only Brandenburg and Morrow until actual work on the master plan begins. She believes
that the City already looks to Plano as an example and that it will be easy to get Georgetown
administrators to buy into Ware's suggestions.
Mandy and Georgene suggested that comparative work needs to be done before master
planning to see what the arts have done for other communities, and to get ideas about the big
goals the Board should establish. Mandy thought the goals could be established and then
research done to support them. She also wanted to look at more cities than just Plano.
Penny will get in touch with Ware to find a date that is mutually agreeable. It may be a
Monday, probably in November.
3. Status of Coffee sculpture — Ruth Roberts, Eric Lashley. Eric brought up the need to inform
Council of the orientation of the sculpture and to reaffirm the Board's intent to locate the
sculpture as originally planned. Discussion followed about wording a letter, which Ruth said
she would draft in the next week.
4. Budget for 08-09 and Council workshop — Eric Lashley. Eric has arranged for a workshop
with Council on November 10 l'he allocation to the Board for FY 08-09 will be $88,718 and
Eric believes it is important to present a budget to the Council at the workshop and ask that it
be officially adopted in the regular Council meeting the following night.
The following discussion indicated the Board's uncertainty about whether they are ready to
commit to doing a master plan in the coming fiscal year. The consensus was that they need to
feel comfortable in articulating a strategic vision before committing to how they will spend
their allocation, and they don't feel able to do that now. Georgene suggested talking about
ideas instead of firm figures. Ruth agreed to prepare a budget proposal to present to the
Board at the October meeting, for discussion and revision.
5. Update on pedestal construction — Jane Paden. When Jane called to say she was not feeling
well and could not attend the meeting; she also reported that Philip would be in town this
weekend and hoped to finish the pedestal at that time. He has already submitted the invoice
for materials and labor, which totaled $1500.
6. Master planning process — Judy Fabry. Further discussion of undertaking a master
planning process will take place after the Arts Summit and the meeting with Jim Ware.
7. Certificate of Appreciation — Judy Fabry. There were no nominations.
Respectfully submitted,
Judy Fabry for Jane Paden Ruth Roberts, Chair