HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes_ARTAB_08.25.2009Minutes of the Meeting of the Arts and Culture Board
Subcommittee on the Budget
August 25, 2009
Members Present: Charles Aguillon, Steve Proesel, Mandy Solin
Staff Present: Eric Lashley, Library Director, Judy Fabry, Library Administrative Assistant
Charles Aguillon called the meeting to order at 5:15 p.m. He proposed opening the meeting with
each committee member expressing his or her thoughts about whether to allocate the Board's
entire appropriation or whether to hold some back.
Mandy: Suggested that since Council is now forwarding all requests for arts -related support to the
Board for funding, the directive from Council is clear The Board's current budget is allocated to
carry over though this year only Spending the entire allocated budget, with the majority being for
grants, would provide tangible and direct support to art and culture in Georgetown. Grantees would
report back to the board (and Council) on the good that grants did and would create solid evidence
that a future appropriation is necessary.
Steve: Prefers to not put an upper limit on grants in the proposed budget. He would rather wait
and see what organizations apply for. He believes buying art with this appropriation can only
create more criticism from Council and he wants to avoid any more conflict in that regard.
Facilitating arts organizations should be the Board's focus this year and for the next few years.
Charles: He believes that establishing some upper limit on grants would provide a way to deny
unreasonably large requests In addition to grants, Charles said he would like to see some of the
appropriation being used to help groups advertise arts events. He suggestedprinting calendars of
arts events in programs of the Palace and the Symphony Society.
Discussion followed with the decision made to divide the allocation into two categories: (1) grants
to arts nonprofits through a formal application process, and (2) discretionary support for public
arts in the community. The secondcategory would allow the Board to do such things as purchase
advertisements as support for events, provide an ' Arts Tent" at City events where all arts
nonprofits could present information about their organizations to the public, publish a brochure
about the sculpture project in the park, or purchase benches for the sculpture project.
On the following page is a summary of how the 08-09 allocation has been used as of 8/26/09 and
proposed allocations for the coming fiscal year.
The committee discussed spending upwards of $10,000 during October 2009 for promoting Art
Month. This expense would be considered part of supporting public art in the community.
The meeting adjourned at 6:15 p.m.