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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes_ARTAB_04.19.2016Minutes of the meeting of the Arts and Culture Board City of Georgetown, Texas April 19, 2016 The Arts and Culture Board met on Tuesday, April 19, 2016 at 4:30 p.m. in the Small Conference Room of Georgetown Public Library, 402 W. 8t" Street MEMBERS PRESENT: Gary Anderson, Tim Fleming, Jeff Hillery, Betty Ann Sensabaugh, Laura Sewell, Carol Watson, and Linda Wilde. STAFF PRESENT: Eric Lashley- Library Director, Dana Hendrix- Fine Arts Librarian, Lawren Weiss - Administrative Assistant, David Morgan- City Manager Chair Sensabaugh called the meeting to order at 4:30 p.m. Regular Session A. Citizens wishing to address the board. — None were present. B. Announcements of upcoming arts and culture events. — On Broadway tickets are still on sale. This event brings "On Broadway" stars to Georgetown to teach GISD students of all ages about vocal health, character voices, and audition tips. The On Broadway performances take place May 6-8 at the Kieft Performing Arts Center. The master classes will be held May 2-4 at the East View Theatre. The City of Georgetown Sculpture tour is refreshing the tour by removing and adding a few pieces, as well as rotating others to a new location. The Georgetown Airport is no longer a Sculpture Tour location due to on-going construction. The Red Poppy Festival will take place this weekend, April 22-24. Arts and Culture student intern, Kaleigh Kelley will start on May 23. Georgetown Festival of the Arts' Fire and /ce events will take place June 1-5. Dana Hendrix passed out a flyer advertising art and music in the library during May (attached to these minutes). Dr. Seuss Wants You! Exhibit will be on display in the library from April 29- May 26. C. Review of correspondence to the Arts & Culture Board. —Eric Lashley. Board members reviewed a thank you letter from Georgetown Heritage Society and a grant report from the Williamson County Symphony Orchestra. The report fulfilled a grant requirement by the board for those who were awarded this year. D. Consideration and approval of the -minutes -of the March 15;-2016 Arts & Culture Board meeting. Betty Ann Sensabaugh. Linda Wilde moved to approve the March 2016 minutes as distributed. Gary Anderson seconded the motion, which passed unanimously. E. Introduction of City Manager, David Morgan_— Betty Ann Sensabaugh. David Morgan and board members introduced themselves. Morgan answered questions from the board. F. Introduction of new board members, Laura Sewell and Jeff Hillery. —Betty Ann Sensabaugh New members, Laura Sewell and Jeff Hillery introduced themselves to the board, explained their backgrounds and interest in arts and culture. G. Election of Vice- Chair. —Betty Ann Sensabaugh. Wilde moved to elect Gary Anderson as Vice- Chair. Laura Sewell seconded the motion which passed unanimously. H. Election of Secretary.--- Betty Ann Sensabaugh. Hillery moved to elect Carol Watson as Secretary. Wilde seconded the motion which passed unanimously. 1. Re wort regarding the operation of Georgetown Art Center. —Eric Lashley. Lashley explained that Georgetown Art Works was not able to provide a report this month because President Amanda Still (who compiles the report) was out of town for a family emergency. Lashley reported, that 3,414 people visited the Art Center and many sales were made during the Botanicals exhibit. Stereotypes is the current exhibit. The second floor of the Art Center is now managed by Georgetown Art Works and almost all of the available spaces have been rented to artists. The revenue generated from second floor rentals will allow Georgetown Art Works to hire an office manager in the future. Dr. Edward Burger, President of Southwestern University will be the guest speaker at the Art Center on April 28 at 7 p.m. for A Conversation About Stereotypes event. J. Report on Red Poppy art exhibit. —Eric Lashley. Lashley showed a video created by the City to commemorate the Red Poppy public art display that's located on the courthouse lawn. Board members received a copy of The Blood of Heroes Never Dies brochure which advertises the project and explains the history behind it, (attached to these minutes). Lashley reported that 88 poppies were sold in just the first day of the display. Georgetown Art Center will host Richland College's Clive Siegel & Jeri Rose on May 1 at 2 p.m. for a discussion about their The Blood of Heroes Never Dies project. Laura Sewell offered to send information about the exhibit to the Dallas Morning News. Board members discussed sending a letter of recognition to Williamson County for allowing use of the courthouse lawn for the exhibit. Anderson made a motion for Lashley to draft a thank you letter to Williamson County and Richland College for their efforts in bringing the Blood of Heroes Never Dies exhibit to Georgetown. Hillery seconded the motion which passed unanimously. K. Report on the Americans for the Arts Conference in Boston, Massachusetts during June. —Eric Lashley. Lashley reported that he will attend the Americans for the Arts conference in Boston during June. He plans to connect with the National Endowments for the Art group and attend workshops on public art. Lashley will give a report during July's meeting about the conference. L. Report on 2016-2017 Arts & Culture Guide. —Dana Hendrix. Hendrix passed out statistics from the 2015-2016 Arts & Culture Guide (attached to these minutes). Hendrix explained her plans for the next guide, which includes reducing the cost and creating a smoother process for gathering information from the featured organizations. M. Report on second round of Texas Commission on the Arts grant. — Eric Lashley. Lashley reported that the TCA application is due in early June for the second round of grant. The matching grants could be a source of funding for the 2016-2017 Arts & Culture Guide. The Palace Theatre will also be applying for a TCA grant. Lashley reminded the board that any organization applying for these TCA grants must have a letter of support from the Arts & Culture Board. N. Consideration of future board meeting dates. —Eric Lashley. The next Arts and Culture Board meeting will be on May 17, 2016 at 4:30 PM. Chair Sensabaugh adjourned the meeting at 5:48 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Carol Watson, Secretary Betty Ann Sensabaugh, Chair Art MUSLc at GPL Georgetown Public Library * May 2016 p i� 1-16 , .ng Reception ._ r 5:30-7:30 p j'' _ MINNIE %' ELLAi JORDAN Swing, hot jazz, & standards from the '20s & '30s 2 pm Sunday, May 15 This concert is free and open to the public, a gift of the Friends of the Georgetown Public Library Library.georgetown.org/finearts/music Puppies Behind Bars Yott can own apiece of INeve�^D ' ies Individual poppies will be avaibtble for purchase for $10 apiece at the Visitors Center, 103 W Seventh Street on the Square. Proceeds will benefit Puppies Behind Bars, a nonprofit organization that provides service dogs for combat veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan who have suffered a physical injury including traumatic brain injury or port -traumatic stress disorder. For more information, please visit puppiesbehindbars.com OKRA COMPTON Henry Purl Compton (nicknamed Okra) helped Georgetown to become the Red Poppy Capital of Texas when his service as a corporal in the Army during World War I ended and in 1919 poppy seeds he collected in northern France were planted in the yard of his mother's home on Seventh Street in Georgetown. On April 25, 1990, Georgetown was certified by local residents and the Texas Legislature as the "Red Poppy Capital of Texas". Red poppies have been a part of Georgetown's landscape for over seventy years. SPONSORED BY W WI6l.lAMSON GEORGETOWN COUNTY mg TEXAS rH¢YnEWMSON MUSEUM LT. COL. JOHN McCRAE MD. The origin of the poppy as a'memorial symbol for veterans dates from one of the most famous poems to come out of that most infamous of modern conflicts, the First World War. From the commencement of the war in August 1914, the employment of sophisticated weaponry on an industrial scale - a produced staggering casualty rates. In May 1915 the appalling ql casualties and ferocity of the conflict, coupled with the recent combat death of a young fellow officer, moved a Canadian physician; Lc Col. John McCrae, to pen the war's most famous poem, "In Flanders Fields." The poem was originally titled "We Shall Not Sleep," but over time after the author's death it has come to. be known worldwide by its current title. Poppies figured prominently in the poem because they are a common native flower of Flanders that thrives in disturbed soil—something that the millions of battlefield shell craters and burial mounds covering the Flanders landscape provided in abundance. IN FLANDERS FIELDS In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, d That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw n The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields. tart u morn o {he�7�u Nr! McCrae did not survive the war. In January 1918 he joined in death those whose graves, "row on row," were decorated with Flanders poppies. By then, however, his poem had developed a life of its own. After McCrae wrote the poem, it was submitted to the popular British magazine Punch, where it first appeared in the. December 1915 issue. Its popularity soon spread, as did public knowledge 'of who its author was, and in 1918 it appeared in the November issue of the American magazine Ladies'Home journal. It was there that it inspired American YMCA volunteer Moina Belle Michael to pledge to "keep the faith" with those who died in the war, and would set in motion her successful campaign to immortalize the poppy as a universal symbol of remembrance for veterans' sacrifices. MOINA MICHAEL On November 9, 1918, three days before the armistice that ended the First World War, a young soldier handed a copy of the latest Ladies Home journal magazine to YMCA volunteer Moina Belle Michael. The young soldier who gave her the magazine had marked apage, and Michael opened it to find Lt. Col. John McCrae's poem. Although she had read the poem before, she was so moved that site resolved to make it her mission to "keep the faith" with those who died in the war, and she quickly wrote her pledge inthe 'form of a poem. Richland College has chosen a line from that poem as the theme for our "The Blood of Heroes Never Dies" memorial poppy project: nl_._ �v 7r �"udb Fla Yaoca k&=t RasEJ�+ly14f _ G 6 tmN S 8 _ �qpe"aWor Ca 8111 }'P to LS¢ah - WE SHALL KEEP THE FAITH Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields, Sleep sweet- to rise anew! We caught the torch you threw And holding high, we keep the Faith With All who died. We cherish, too, the poppy red That grows on fields where valor led; It seems to signal to the skies That blood of heroes never dies, But lends a lustre to the red Of the flower that blooms above the dead' In Flanders Fields. And now the Torch and Poppy Red We wear in honor of our dead. Fear not that have died for naught; We'll teach the lesson that ye wrought In Flanders Fields. The day she wrote the poem, she hit upon the idea of emphasizing the strong symbolic link between poppies and the remembrance of the war's dead by purchasing twenty-five artificial poppies on her lunch break and distributing them to herYMCA colleagues to wear on their lapels. She subsequently worked tirelesslyto promote the idea of the poppy as a remembrance symbol of the war, and it was due to her efforts that it was first adopted as such by the American Legion at their 1920 convention, and by the Veterans of Foreign Wars in 1922. w The poppy as a remembrance symbol spread to Europe, and by 1921 Britain, Canada; Australia, and New Zealand veterans' groups had adopted it well. Virtually all of these organizations w continue to this day to utilize die sale of cloth or paper poppies to fund relief programs for needy and disabled veterans. Almost exclusively, these same veterans have been employed to make the poppies, which from the 1920s until today are t made by the millions each year. IN p1q,, 3 Summary: Georgetown Arts & Culture Guide 2015-2016 Purpose of the Arts & Culture Guide This inaugural Guide project was created to communicate the depth and breadth of arts & culture activity in the City for residents and visitors, and to increase awareness of the number and variety of art, music, theatre, and cultural opportunities that the City's Cultural District anchor organizations offer. In addition, the Guide was designed to attract visitors to the City's arts & culture website and social media. The Guide offered a detailed calendar of arts & culture events spanning October 2015 through September 2016; an attractive design coordinated with the City's new website and featuring vibrant photos; prominent reminders to visit the website; a map; and text written from a single point of view and perspective describing the wide range of offerings in the Cultural District. Intended audience The intended audience for the publication was current and potential attendees at arts & culture events in Georgetown, specifically at events sponsored by the Georgetown Cultural District's anchor organizations: Georgetown Art Center, Georgetown Palace Theatre, The Williamson Museum, The Georgetown Public Library, the Grace Heritage Center, the Georgetown Symphony Society, the Georgetown Festival of the Arts, and the Sarofim School of Fine Arts at Southwestern University. Participants The City of Georgetown has no dedicated Arts & Culture staff; City grants to arts nonprofits, public art projects, the oversight of the Cultural District, the arts & culture website and social media presence, and more are managed by the advisory Arts & Culture Board and the Director of the Georgetown Public Library, who has part-time support from two additional library staff members. The inaugural Georgetown Arts & Culture Guide was a collaboration between the Georgetown Public Library, the Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the Arts & Culture Board. Members of all Cultural District anchor organizations played a crucial role in submitting images, calendar entries, and text. Cost of the Project The project cost about $40,000 for the 5,000 copy overrun printing and delivery, the online flip book creation and hosting, and broad distribution of 38,000 copies in the Austin metro area. Ads brought in $2,700 in revenue; costs were shared by the City of Georgetown Convention and Visitors Bureau, nonprofit Georgetown Art Works, and the City of Georgetown Arts & Culture budget. Unpaid professional services: Two volunteers, an Arts & Culture Board member and the President of Georgetown Art Works (the nonprofit that runs the Georgetown Art Center) played key roles in conceiving and realizing the publication, working over 125 volunteer hours on a proposal, facilitating meetings between key players, raising awareness of the Guide, selling ads, and project management. Paid professional services: The City's Fine Arts Librarian was the primary writer and editor for the project as part of a salaried position. A designer contracted for this project created the page proofs, coordinating design with the City's arts & culture website at arts.georgetown.org; that designer and another who created the map were paid about $3,000. Distribution of the Guide 5,000 copies were distributed free to visitors and residents at Georgetown Public Library, Georgetown Art Center, the Palace Theatre, The Williamson Museum, the Georgetown Visitors Center, and Southwestern University. The project was mounted online in a flip book for 6 months (October -March). The flip book was featured on the City's arts & culture website during that time. The printed Guide was also tip -sheeted inside Austin Monthly and distributed to subscribers, newsstands, and hotels. The total distribution of Austin Monthly is 38,000 with a readership of 118,000. Below is a list of hotels where Austin Monthly is distributed in -room. Aloft Austin at the Domain AT&T Executive Education & Conference Center Courtyard Marriott Downtown Driskill Hotel Embassy Suites Arboretum Four Seasons Hotel Hampton Inn & Suites Austin at the University Hampton Inn & Suites Downtown Heywood Hotel Hilton Austin Airport Hilton Garden Inn Downtown Hotel Ella Hotel San lose Outcomes Hyatt Regency InterContinental Stephen F. Austin JW Marriott Kimber Modern Lakeway Resort & Spa Lone Star Court at the Domain Omni Austin Hotel at Southpark Omni Austin Hotel Downtown Omni Barton Creek Resort & Spa Sheraton Austin Hotel at the Capitol W Austin Hotel Westin at the Domain The Guide raised awareness of the City's arts & culture presence online: from Oct. 2015 -March 2016, user sessions on the Arts & Culture website at arts.georgetown.org were up 58 percent over the previous six-month period, and users of the site were up 67 percent. In addition, during the first four months the Guide was available to the public, page views for the City of Georgetown's Arts & Culture Calendar increased by 84 percent over the previous four-month period. Arts & Culture in Georgetown, Texas on Facebook increased its "likes" by 46 percent in the same time period. Impressions the flip book version of the Guide received online in the first six months: October 37,496 impressions January 35,800 impressions November 27,300 impressions February/March 37,566 impressions December 36,030 impressions Residents and visitors reported attending events in Georgetown because they saw them in the Guide. Library Director Eric Lashley received calls and comments from residents and guests remarking on the quality and content of the Guide. Diane Gaume, the owner of the Artisans Connect gallery, tracked visitors, and in the first 2 % months she had 150 people state that they came to Georgetown because of receiving the Guide. Amanda Still, 2016 President of Georgetown Art Works, said, "There was a spike in visitors to the Georgetown Art Center in October 2015 who said they travelled to Georgetown from Austin because of the Guide." The Guide exceeded expectations in terms of anecdotal and quantitative measures. City staff hope to issue a second, updated Guide in September 2016.