Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes_ARTAB_03.25.2009Minutes of the Meeting of the Arts and Culture Board City of Georgetown, Texas Wednesday, March 25, 2009 Members Present: Charles Aguillon, Melanie Dunham, Jane Paden, Penny Plueckhahn, Steve Proesel, Georgene Richaud, Mandy Solin Staff Present Eric Lashley, Library Director; Judy Fabry, Library Administrative Assistant A. Chair Charles Aguillon called the meeting to order at 2:02 p.m. B. Introduction of new members, Melanie Dunham and Steve Proesel. Melanie has lived in Georgetown for four years, has a home in Old Town, and wants to become involved in the community. She applied to the Arts and Culture Board as a way to give something to Georgetown. Steve has lived in Georgetown for two years, coming here from Florida. He had been involved with an arts organization there and has become involved with the Arts Festival in Georgetown. Saw the Arts and Culture Board as a way to give to the community. C. Announcements regarding upcoming events. • Performing Arts Alliance gala that will be held on April 18. The event will honor Ellsworth Peterson and Brian Dawson. ® April 10, 10 a.m. to noon, City -sponsored event to paint poppies on windows of shops on the Square. Karen Frost is contact person. • April 11, Carol Watson, art teacher is promoting a Sketch Crawl on the Square, 10 a.m. — 2 p.m. D. Citizens wishing to address the Board. None were present. E. Consideration and approval of minutes of last meeting. Jane moved to accept the minutes as distributed, seconded by Georgene. Motion passed unanimously. F. Consideration of and possible action on 1. Election of vice chair and secretary — Charles Aguillon. Georgene nominated Penny to be vice chair, seconded by Steve. Penny accepted the nomination and the motion passed unanimously. Penny nominated Georgene to be secretary, seconded by Mandy. Georgene accepted the nomination and the motion passed unanimously. 2. Proposed sponsorship of the Hill Country Book Festival — Phylhs Moses. Ms. Moses spoke briefly about the Book Festival's organization purposes, andthe success of their first event, which was held last October and which the Board sponsored. She requested sponsorship for this year s Children s Book Festival, which will be held in. November, and for the adult Book Festival, which will be held in April 2010. She also requested several hundred dollars to help defray advertising expenses. After Ms. Moses left, the Board discussed the requests Penny said she thought they should provide sponsorship but no money. Georgene moved to sponsor both events, seconded by Penny. The motion passed unanimously. Sponsorship means that the Book Festival will not have to pay to use the Library's community rooms. Judy said she would notify Ms. Moses of the decision. 3. Larry McCormick's report on community development - Judy Fabry. Judy said that Mr. McCormick did not expect a response to his report but the item was on the agenda in case anyone wished to discuss it. The report was distributed to those who attended the March 18 meeting and had been mailed to those who were absent. Steve said he thought Larry's idea about creating a master plan is good —having a game plan is important. Eric said he agreed with the last section, which suggested that the three stakeholders that need to cooperate to promote community development are the Arts and Culture Board, the Main Street Advisory Board, and the Convention and Vistors Bureau. Eric said he had already proposed to the chairs of the three groups that they get together to discuss how cooperation might help all of them with the work they hope to accomplish. 4. Board calendar of meetings for the coming year, meeting day and time - Charles Aguillon. Charles proposed that the members look over the calendar that had been included in the agenda packet and at the next meeting they could discuss whether any meeting dates need to be changed. Everyone seemed to agree that there were no potential conflicts and that it was not necessary to wait until the April meeting. However, changing the meeting time was desirable. Georgene moved that the calendar be accepted as it stands, but with the possibility of making a change later if necessary, and that the official meeting time be changed to 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Mandy seconded the motion, which passed unanimously. 5. Texas Society of Sculptors' (TSOS) 2009 show at the library and possible outdoor show elsewhere in the City - Judy Fabry and Eric Lashley Judy announced that the TSOS summer show would again be at the library, June 8 through August 28. The Society would like to have members of the Arts and Culture Board judge the show, sometime during the week of June 15 and before the opening reception on June 20 First, second, third, and four honorable mentions will be awarded. Also, Dar Richardson, with whom Judy and Richard Groves, the library's public services librarian, had met asked whether the Board would consider sponsoring a purchase prize. He believes it will make the show more attractive to exhibitors. The discussion seemed to indicate interest among the Board members in doing a purchase prize, but no decision was made. Volunteers to judge were Jane, Georgene, Charles, and Mandy. Eric then talked about an outdoor show with TSOS. The organization initially suggested that they do a show on the Square, but Eric and Shelly Hargrove have agreed that there are no good locations for sculpture on the Square that would not interfere either with lines of sight for traffic or impede pedestrian traffic. Eric would like to propose to the TSOS that the outdoor show be in San Gabriel Park. He has already asked Randy Morrow, Director of Community Services, and Kimberly Garrett, Director of Parks, for their permission to make the proposal to the TSOS and they were enthusiastic. Randy said that the City would provide the labor to build concrete pads for sculpture if the Arts and Culture Board would pay for the materials. Discussion followed, withthe consensus being that the Board is definitely interested m such a project. They asked Eric to talk with Dar Richardson about what type of pads would be required and also with someone from another community that does this kmd of rotating show to find out what problems might not be apparent Steve asked staff to find out who pays for msurance for this kmd of art show. Some members wanted the pads to be more than concrete squares and asked staff to find out how much Bob Coffee's pedestal for the mules sculpture cost. 6. Recreation center artwork project and current art selection panel - Mandy Solin. Mandy reported that her meeting with the Parks Board (in February) had been very positive, but she is concerned that perhaps the Board may not want to spend the $40,000 they had budgeted for the Recreation Center artwork at this time She worries that Council may not appropriate any funds for 09-10 and that the Board needs to be conservative about the way it spends what they have. Eric said he thought the Council's interest in talking about the Board's funding seemed to have waned and, that as far as he has been able to determine, Micki Rundell and Paul Brandenburg have made no proposals for alternative funding plans to Council. He also had talked with Bill Mateja, one of the Parks Board members who volunteered to be on the selection panel, and Mr. Mateja said he and Bill Sattler had already talked about ideas they had for the project. Georgene said she thinks the high visibility of the Rec Center would be important in winning community support for the work of the Board. Charles suggested moving on to discuss items further down on the agenda that relate to this topic. Mandy asked that a vote be taken by the end of the meeting regarding budget and whether the Board preferred mdoor or outdoor art. 7. Ideas from the chair regarding the work of the Board m 2009-10 - Charles Aguillon. As incoming chair, Charles wanted to talk about what his goals are for the Board. He believes the Board has missed out on opportunities to let the community know it exists. • Branding, for lack of a better word, is important, and the Board needs to get a logo and have its name associated with many different arts and cultural events. He wants to see a better balance between purchasing tangible art works and putting money into organizations and events. He suggested the Board should look at a calendar of arts/cultural events in Georgetown and choose which they will support. ® Charles would like to produce a calendar of arts and cultural events that would go out quarterly or semi-annually with the utility bills, like the City Reporter. Judy said she would talk with Keith Hutchinson about the cost of utility bill mailings ® He also would like to see the Board members appearing at local arts events, wearing their name badges Charles is going to meet personally with the Mayor and all of the Council members to establish relationships with them and to find out what they think the Board should be domg. With that infoiination the Board will be better able to make decisions that will make the Council look good. In the future, Charles would like to ask Council for specific appropriations for large art purchases, then the appropriated annual budget would be used to support local arts organization. He hopes to have visited with at least some of the Council members before the April Board meeting • Charles wants the Arts and Culture Board to be the leader for the arts in Georgetown. The Board meetings should be so informative —and beneficial to local organizations —that citizens will WANT to attend them. A unified calendar is the first thing the Board should do for the local arts organizations Charles and Judy will solicit all of the Summit organizations to get their calendars for the coming year. ® Charles also believes that if organizations get money from the Board (or sponsorship), then they should agree to go to Council to say thanks. He hopes that someone will appear before Council at least once a month to talk about their good relationship with the Arts and Culture Board. ® Charles would like to establish a subcommittee on publicity. Discussion followed with Penny suggesting that she prefers to have organizations comply with some kind of criteria/structure before they are given grants. She doesn't believe money should be givento just anyone who comes along. Georgene agreed and said that the criteria could be simple, but strong enough to eliminate undesirable applicants. Georgene and Penny agreed to work on guidelines to present at the next meeting. Penny asked whether "partners" needed to be nonprofits the consensus was that they should have legal status as a nonprofit. Charles suggested that recipients of sponsorships/grants should be required to attend at least one Board meeting per year. The discussion returned to the selection of artwork for the Recreation Center, as Mandy had requested. Melanie suggested using $60,000 of the budget for grants and continuing with the selection process, but with a $20,000 budget for artwork. If the piece that the panel chooses costs more than $20,000 then the Board should go to Council and ask for the additional money necessary for the purchase Steve said he thought that giving money to the community may be wiser at this time than purchasing artwork. Georgene moved to temporarily suspend the process of selecting art for the Recreation Center. Steve seconded the motion, which passed unanimously. Returning to Charles' proposals, Georgene said she hoped the Board would not stop working on the Master Plan —that work could be done in bits and pieces. Then, when the relationship with Council is right, the pieces could be assembled into a plan and presented. Charles added that one of the first things the Board could do would be to decide where future public art would be located. Georgene suggested forming a 'Promotion" committee. Charles said he thinks the Board needs to invite some leaders in the arts community to be on an "advisory board" to the Arts and Culture Board. 8. Items for April agenda ® Round Rock Arts Foundation (Charles) • Permanent pads for rotating sculpture exhibits (Eric) ® Guidelines for support/sponsorships (Penny and Georgene) • Calendar and Promotion (Charles and Judy) ® Master Plan ® Art Projects Georgene moved to adjourn the meeting at 4:05 p.m. Respectfully submitted, ichaud, Secreta y Charles Aguillon, Chair