Boulder Arts Commission Agenda September 16, 2015, 6:00 p.m. Canyon Meeting Room, Boulder Public Library CALL TO ORDER Approval of Agenda REVIEW OF MINUTES August 19, 2015 PUBLIC COMMENT AND COMMISSIONER RESPONSE SEMI-ANNUAL REPORTS Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art The Dairy Center for the Arts GRANT PROGRAM ACTION ITEMS OPEN GRANT FORMAL PROPOSALS Boulder County Arts Alliance (fiscal sponsor), History of Visual Art in Boulder Boulder County Arts Alliance (fiscal sponsor), One Action 2016: Arts + Immigration Project MATTERS FROM COMMISSION MEMBERS FOR DISCUSSION: Proposal for Arts Complex in Civic Area (Ann Moss) MATTERS FROM STAFF FOR DISCUSSION: Manager’s Update FOR DISCUSSION: Civic Area Park Site Plan FOR DISCUSSION: Community Cultural Plan UPCOMING MEETING (Agenda Building) ADJOURNMENT CITY OF BOULDER DRAFT BOULDER ARTS COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Date of Meeting Wednesday, August 19, 2015, at the Main Library Contact Information Preparing Summary Greg Ravenwood, 303---441---4397 Commission Members Present Felicia Furman, Richard Turbiak, Linda Haertling, Tamil Maldonado, Ann Moss Library Staff Present David Farnan, Library & Arts Director Matt Chasansky, Office of Arts and Culture Manager Greg Ravenwood, BAC Cultural Grants Coordinator Public Present Charlotte LaSasso, Lisa Nesmith, Pat Connelly, Diane Fekete, Manuela Sifuentes, Heather Beasley, Julie Marshall, Beth Smith Type of Meeting Regular Call to Order The meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m. Review of Minutes Moss motioned to approve the July 15, 2015, meeting minutes with revisions noted by Turbiak; Haertling seconded and the minutes were approved unanimously. Public Participation None. Guest Presentation Lisa Nesmith distributed literature about and spoke on the designs selected for the Paint the Pavement Project murals in the NoBo Arts District and invited the commissioners to attend the event planned on the evening of September 19 when the murals would be installed. This was an update on the 2015 Major Grant received by NoBo Arts District. There were no questions from the Commission. Grant Program Action Items Open Grant Letters of Intent The Letters of Intent for Open Grants from Boulder County Arts Alliance, fiscal sponsor of History of Visual Arts in Boulder: A Celebration; Boulder County Arts Alliance, One Action 2016: Arts + Immigration Project; Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company, Ideation; Boulder Valley School District, Living Language; Dairy Center for the Arts, Music at the Dairy; and The Joshua School, Brainsong: Arts for Autism were reviewed in advance of the meeting. Each was voted up or down by the commission with discussion following and questions posed to the applicants who were ultimately invited to submit a formal proposal for the September BAC meeting. Furman made a motion to advance Boulder County Arts Alliance, fiscal sponsor of History of Visual Arts in Boulder: A Celebration and Haertling seconded. Maldonado, Furman, Moss, Haertling and Turbiak all voiced support. The commission voted unanimous approval for an invitation to submit a formal proposal. The commissioners offered questions for the applicant to consider in submitting a formal proposal. Maldonado wondered about under-represented groups’ (Latino, Hmong) inclusion in the artist list. Moss was interested in understanding how the artists are being chosen. How are other funds being raised? How many visitors are expected? How will they advertise? How much will it cost for attendees to participate? Provide details on events that would be at cost or free. Turbiak asked: What amount is being requested? Provide details on additional sources of funding. With regard to a marketing plan: how is the community being asked to participate. How will they be engaged? Why this particular project? What will success look like and how is it being evaluated? What will the “day after” look like with regard to long-lasting impact? How to document the project? How will the foundation function? Can there be a tie-in with the CCP strategies? Furman made a motion to advance Boulder County Arts Alliance, One Action 2016: Arts + Immigration Project and Moss seconded. Furman, Moss, Haertling, Turbiak and Maldonado all voiced support for the project. The commission voted unanimous approval to invite the applicant to submit a formal proposal. The commissioners offered questions for the applicant to consider in submitting a formal proposal. Haertling: Provide more specifics on budget and details of the project. Moss asked: where is other funding coming from? What projects are taking place and what is their status? How is quality control of the project being handled? How does it have a long-lasting impact? Furman wondered: Will there be any other local financial support aside from the NEA funds noted? Will the marketing plan include marketing each artist program or project or is it an umbrella type situation for marketing? Maldonado asked: How can the steering group help individual artists achieve with the project? Turbiak: Provide details on the budget. Can all moving pieces be captured in the application? How is the community asked to participate and to be engaged? How will impact be measured? There was no motion to advance the project proposal Ideation from Boulder Ensemble Theater Company. Haertling noted her sentiment that the project did not suggest a big enough impact for an Open Grant, and that the project felt more appropriate to the Major Grant project category. Moss, Maldonado and Furman agreed. Turbiak suggested the project did not meet the broad level of community impact required of an Open Grant. Maldonado motioned to advance Boulder Valley School District: Living Language and Haertling seconded. Moss voiced her concern that the project and its impact was not at the level of an Open Grant. Haertling voiced support for connections to schools and teens in library, noting that a similar project was successful in another locale. Maldonado liked the discussions of diversity and inclusivity through the arts with students. Turbiak felt the proposal didn’t adequately address long-lasting impacts and that it would be a better Major Grant or Arts in Education Grant project as it was basically limited to one production. He also wondered whether BVSD was really the program’s main applicant as the letter from the school system seemed generically written. Furman noted the school district didn’t seem to have much invested as the main applicant and reiterated the feeling that the project would not have a big enough impact city-wide. The motion failed with Maldonado and Haertling for and Moss, Furman and Turbiak against. There was no motion to advance the project proposal Music at the Dairy from the Dairy Center for the Arts. Turbiak noted the project had better potential as a Major Grant, and that it had no broad community impact beyond the Dairy. Haertling agreed. Maldonado suggested that if the Dairy pursued the project as a Major Grant, they should add to their repertoire of artists, searching beyond “American” music to other diverse artists. Maldonado motioned to advance the Joshua School: Brainsong-Arts for Autism, but there was no second. Moss noted that, as the project did not seem likely to engage the whole community, that the proposal seemed a better fit for a Major Grant application. Haertling suggested the Arts in Education category as another option. Maldonado was enthusiastic about the project, but did pose some questions as well: What is the percentage of autism in Boulder’s children and adults? How could the project engage the general community and create awareness of autism issues? Furman echoed Moss’s question about community engagement. Grant Budget Reports Final reports on Jack Collom, FY14 R2 Arts in Education Grant (Writing, For Goodness Sake!); Flatirons Parent Teacher Organization, FY15 R1 Arts in Education Grant (Songs of India 2015); Frequent Flyers Productions, FY14 R2 Arts in Education Grant (Kids Who Fly: Aerial Dance for Youth at Risk); New Horizons Preschool, FY14 R2 Arts in Education Grant (Turning the Wheel Preschool Program), and Miriam Paisner, FY15 R2 Spark Grant (Jump for Jazz) were reviewed. Furman motioned to approve the reports; Moss seconded and the motion passed unanimously. Moss called attention to the reports submitted by Frequent Flyers Productions and Flatirons PTO, noting that their projects were excellent examples of successful Arts in Education grant projects. Matters from Commission Members Moss spoke of her desire to see an arts focus on the east side of the civic area campus, and noted the Santa Fe Railyards as a success story. The commissioners all voiced support for the ideas. Moss agreed to write a letter for the commission to send to City planning. Farnan suggested the possibility of attaching this as a piece of the Community Cultural Plan presentation as it could provide specific ideas that might line up with CCP goals. Turbiak reviewed the draft letter to the Convention & Visitors Bureau regarding Boulder Arts Week and provided his rationale for the content, stating that he felt it was time for the arts to step up their ability to justify expenditures to support arts and cultural projects. Maldonado voiced concern that the Boulder Arts Week event as described in the letter was not acknowledged as a success and that spin on it might lead to loss of future funding, when, by her estimation, the event was very worthwhile. Moss and Furman both noted their take of the letter’s negativity and heavy-handedness. Farnan recommended that Chasansky work on the letter to soften the tone. He opined that the applicants gave unrealistic criteria for measuring success, but that the Commission was complicit in supporting the grant application with funding when the criteria might not have been measurable in the way that the applicant suggested. He also suggested that if consensus could not be reached on the content of the letter, that a dissenting position letter could be presented in addition.