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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes_ARTAB_12.20.2006Minutes of the Meeting of the Arts and Culture Board City of Georgetown, Texas Wednesday, December 20, 2006 Arts and Culture Board Members present. Charles Aguillon, Richard Bartko, Natalie Davis Dowling, Penny Plueckhahn, Georgene Richaud Ruth Roberts Absent. Paul Gaffney (excused) Jane Paden (excused), Addie Busfield (excused) Staff Attending: Eric Lashley, Library Director (left at 3:00 p m ), Judy Fabry, Library Administrative Assistant Regular Session Call to Order at 2:08 PM A. Call to order and announcements from the Chair Vice chair Ruth Roberts called the meeting to order and had no announcements to make. B. Consideration and approval of minutes of last meeting Georgene Richaud moved and Natalie Dowling seconded the motion to accept the minutes as distributed. Passed unanimously. C. Consideration and approval of the minutes of the Public Art Panel meetings on October 25, 2006 and November 14, 2006 (only panelists may vote) Natahe Dowling made a motion, which Rich. Bartko seconded, to accept the minutes of both meetings as distributed. Passed unanimously. D. Comments of citizens wishing to address Board None. E. Consideration of and possible action on 1. Georgetown Area Community Foundation workshop on stewardship - Ruth Roberts Ruth summarized the meeting with the following points: (1) Stewardship involves building and. retaining relations with the organizations donors In the case of the Arts and Culture Board, this most often will be City Council. (2) You must communicate to the donors what the organization is doing. The communications should be infrequent enoughto get the donors' attention. (3) Current technology should be involved in communications. Georgene commented that useful communications with donors should offer levels of giving, not ask for one specific amount. Penny added that experience shows that people who begin donating at a low level are very likely to increase their gifts as they become stakeholders in the organization. 2. Nomination for Certificate of Excellence -- Judy Fabry No one had a nomination. 3. Report of progress of mural project - Eric Lashley Eric yielded the floor to Judy, who has been handling communications with. Tony Sansevero. Tony has submitted three sketches by email, which Judy forwarded to the panelists. He is planning to begin work in the children's room on Thursday, December 21. He will be working at night, when the projected images will best show up on the walls. Board members indicated that they would like to visit at a time when he is working Judy said she would try to arrange that. Eric said that he had received an inquiry from In Your Space about how the panel chose Tony Sansevero. He was able to state specifically the inadequacies in the proposal In Your Space submitted. He also entailed them a copy of the scoring spreadsheet. 4. Suggestion by City staff that the Georgetown Municipal Complex have rotating displays of art - Judy Fabry Judy said she had been approached. by City staff members Karen Frost and Keith Hutchison about the Arts and Culture Board taking the lead in getting rotating displays of art hung at the Georgetown Municipal Center (GMC). Staff realizes that some modifications will need to be made to the lobby of the GMC before it could be used as a gallery, specifically, improved lighting and some kind of hanging system. Discussion started with Rich suggesting that the whole idea be turned over to the Williamson County Art Guild, which has a newly elected Exhibit Chair Georgene asked whether the Arts and Culture Board would jury the works that would be displayed. Ruth said that she didn't think the Board should be involved if the Art Guild was in charge. Penny suggestedthat the Sun City Visual Arts Club could be an alternative organization to manage the displays Then Natalie said that she thought that facilitating displays of art in City buildings was part of the Board's mandate and that this responsibility should not be given to the suggested organizations. General discussion followed about the amount of time that would be involved in jurying and staging displays. Charles said that the Healing Arts Gallery at the hospital should be used as a model. They don't jury the shows, just invite a rotating list of artists to submit works according to guidelines that have been established. Penny suggested that the City has several places where exhibits could be hung and perhaps the same group of paintmgs could rotate among those different locations. The board members decided that if they are going to pursue this idea, they need to create written guidelines for artists/organizations to follow as they choose what to exhibit. Charles volunteered to do some research about what other cities may do in this regard Ruth said she would contact the gallery in Temple where Snellrecently had a show to find out about their hanging system. She will also see what she can learn about Austin's selection method for the art that is displayed in their City Hall. Also, the group agreed that someone knowledgeable about exhibit spaces should visit the following City buildings to determine whether they are appropriate for rotating displays of art: GMC, City Hall, Council Chambers, the airport terminal, the new library, the recreation center, the Community Center, the Parks Administration Building, and the animal shelter. When recommendations about policies and procedures and the cost of changes that will be necessary to create gallery spaces in the selected sites are compiled, the Board can present the proposal to Council. 5. Cancellation of January board meeting — Judy Fabry Judy asked that the January board meeting be cancelled due to her and Eric's involvement in moving the library. Ruth made the motion, seconded. by Natalie to cancel the meeting. Passed unanimously. 6. Creation and maintenance of a City-wide arts calendar — Penny Plueckhahn In conjunction with her work on the Festival of the Arts Penny has received several requests for the Board to establish a Calendar for the Arts for Georgetown. The calendar would help prevent organizations that appeal to the same audience from scheduling events on the same date. It also would be a means of communicating with the public about scheduled events. Charles responded that Shelly Hargrove, director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB), maintains a calendar to which events may be submitted. Other board members said that they had found this calendar to be less than useful and that not all events are listed. Penny believes the information needs to be on the City's website, not CVB's. Other board members suggested that the City's calendars are not easy to use and that they would like a. separate place for information about the Arts and Culture Board.. Judy suggested that it may be possible for the Arts and Culture Board to have a separate page on the library s site, although that is not a very high profile location. Members were willing to consider that if it was linked to calendars in other locations on the City site. Georgene agreed to draft a proposal for a calendar to take to the CVB Board. If that board chooses to cooperate, the Arts and Culture Board will work with them to create a calendar that satisfies the needs of both groups. If not, the Arts and Culture Board will proceed on its own in discussions with the City webmaster about possible alternatives. Rich said he would like to be involved in those discussions Penny will look at calendars from other cities to see how they work and whether there is a model that the board could follow. Natalie suggested that San Antonio's arts calendar is especially good. 7. Operation of future public art panels — Ruth Roberts Ruth said that since not all of the Board members were present, she would like to limit the discussion to the way in which the panel scored the proposals for the muralist. She suggested the following revisions: (1) Instead of receiving a score for appropriateness of design, the panelist's response would be limited to 'yes" or "no " In the event that the response was "no," the proposal would not be considered any further. (2) The budget must provide a breakdown of costs, not just be a sum If the budget exceeds the limit in the RFP, or if the budget is suspiciously low, the proposal will not be considered. (3) "Permanence ' should be changed to "appropriate durability, ' which will depend on. the type of project. (4) "Feasibility" is redundant and should be eliminated. (5) Evidence of ability to complete the job needs to be reworked. (6) Add a category for "artistic merit." Other recommendations are to specify in the RFP that the artist must submit multiple copies of the proposal to eliminate the need to reproduce them when they are received. Also, samples of past work should include the sketches that preceded the finished product and samples of past work should be limited to a specific number. Charles suggested a penalty clause, for not adhering to the project timeline should be added to the contract. He uses a contract that deducts a specified amount from the final payment for each day the project is late. Ruth said she would write up her recommendations and put them in scorecard format for the next meeting. Ruth suggested an informal vote of appreciation for the work Natalie has done. Natalie is leaving the Board to move with her family to Singapore for two years. Georgene moved to adjourn at 4:10 p.m. Seconded by Rich. Respectfully submitted, Charles Aguil on, Secretary Ruth Roberts, Vice Chair