Cultural Council

June 2, 2020 Amesbury Cultural Council 14 Cedar Street Members present:​ Shannon Carroll (SC)-co chair, Louisa Wilson (LW)-co chair, LauraKozlowski (LK)- Secretary, Susan Wagner(SW) Treasurer, Cheryl Desjardins(CD) Bonnie Brady(BB) Non Voting attendees:​Caitlin Thayer, 1. (6:35)Call to order​(SC)open meeting law read by SC. 2. Approval of March and May Minutes:(6:41) ​motion to approve April minutes: BB,:second LW, unanimous. Motion to approve May minutes. CD, BB second, unanimous. 3. Treasurer’s Report:​Susan not here yet. LW trying to help her clear up the spread sheet confusion. Need to reach out to SW to adjust this. We have not reimbursed grants so no money out this past month. BB wants to know if she can send in her form for electronic reimbursement to ACC email? She will do this for the Family Day graphics/ Amesbury Carriage Museum(ACM) SC to SW says we will figure out the discrepancy maybe a mini meeting to discuss this further. 4. Grants Program: SC ​we have had Nappy’s Puppets reschedule for next year and looking to see if she can hold funds for the following year 2021? We will need to vote on that​. ​It's ok with MCC we (ACC)need to approve. CD: Can someone apply for another grant next year so you could have two in one year now. AC:Yes. No impact for applying for 2021. We need to make sure the accounting record is clear and clean. ​(SC) Motion to approve:LW, second LBK unanimous 5. Art at City Hall Report: ​SC: BB have we reached out to artists? BB:Yes,did that today, sent an email and explained the situation. Thurs July 9 or Friday July 10 is when the new show will be hung. We will arrange to return anything earlier or keep it up until those dates. Mon. July 13​ Aperture on Amesbury​ show. SC thinks we are in good shape for keeping up all art til then. Any issues for getting into City hall before to hang ? This Monday doors will remain locked but you will need an appointment(CT) BB has been meeting with Courntey Jordan who said her and her husband will hang the show together as a family unit. We will still need to arrange the pickups from people but we can socially distance this really easily and do it all very carefully. And during July 13 week she will coordinate with each  of the exhibitors. ACM will be having a show of the same works and will try to get lots of exposure for it online. ACTV will be putting slides of things in between their shows. Different ways to help promote artists during this time.ACM really wants to help promote and support ACC and the artists. SC: we usually do our own press release should we share with the ACM? CD: yes and she will update the new graphic which we will share on social media like usual. Lots of cross posting will be great during this time. Pick ups are usually Thursday after city hall is closed. The show will be up for 3 months. What is scheduled after? BB says we haven’t gotten that far. We will talk about this in June/July. We will also touch base with Sparhawk for the winter show. Lots of time for them even during this time if school is still virtual. We will all adapt to things that are constantly changing. 6. Monthly Newsletter: ​CD says there are great things coming together with the design of the online newsletter. She shows it on our screen. Going to double check the photo she is using in the letter if we have permission for usage. She will send a test email out to ACC using the Mailchimp. It will be our first newsletter! BB says it's nice that it's short and easy to read and doesn’t take too much commitment to read it. Distribution list added all people from last year's studio tour which added 40 new names so we now have 450 people on the list. SC wants to know if we can extract it in excel format. We can also add names just send new contacts to BB. SC wants to see the names on the list anyway. Wants to know if we should put some quick links on the letter that will bring people to the grant process explanation on our website. For example, are you an artist or performer interested in applying for a grant? That is one of the biggest things we do so it should be on there all the time. BB: maybe post this above on the bottom and keep it consistent for each letter. Poet Laureate etc so people can get there quicker and it's a good reminder. Resources list or something like more information and have a standard list of items. SC: Looks easy to add more boxes and paragraphs. Things we are currently working on should be on this. SC: painting picnic tables . restaurants are going to use more outdoor seating. CT says maybe they will be changed to plastic tables. Picnic tables are on hold because DPW got plastic ones for easier cleaning. So can’t paint on these. Governor said restaurants can do outdoor dining only. Looking to see liquor license expansion . Going to also put barriers up so maybe ACC can help with making these look better. The city would love to have them painted to make them look more aesthetically pleasing. City will decide within the next week. The city will probably shut down some streets for outdoor seating as well and these barriers will be an important part of this. The Building inspector and Police dept deciding on all of these details.  Electric boxes will be a go! 8 boxes in town. CT is sharing her screen to show us the measurements and location on each box. Also what we can’t paint. Rob from DPW says some may have that anti graffiti paint on them so we may need to maybe do a test patch first. SC wondering what that means to see what it takes to take off the previous coat maybe a thinner? Or light acid? CT says Rob will help us figure that out. BB says maybe it would be a good idea if DPW to prime the paintable areas? So as an artist it would be great if it was white, and ready to go so it would show and be helpful to work on. CT:Rob would prefer that they don’t have to do that since they are super busy. They will store all the material, extra paint etc. BB: wants to know if we should prime them for the artists? SC:We should do at the very least a test patch, scrape off stickers etc. BB: Maybe we supply a can of primer to the artist? It would be a bummer if stuff peels off etc. SC: says she will help do this. Would have to go back after each person and put the anti graffiti coating on it. She has been talking to the owner of the anti graffiti paint co out there . 1 coat would be good for 5 yrs, 2 coats would be good for 10 yrs. It is 250.00 for 1 (5 gallon bucket.). Thinking we do another call for artists in 5 years to change it up. CT says the Secure Dropbox could be painted too. It's in front of City Hall. Need to make sure barcode and sign are on the box. Governor doesn’t want any more carriage or rivers or Amesbury themed murals. She wants modern, interesting and wants final design approval before they get painted. SC: any questions for CT? CD will we come up with as a group as a particular theme? SC says a theme would help artists narrow down ideas. Hope /Community? BB says if we pick a theme that is relative to a theme that we are going through right now. Maybe an abstract interpretation of a crazy covid isolated country falling apart theme? Let’s focus on things that are what are in our hearts right now. CD: a time capsule . We would like to have a sketch of their idea before it's committed. SC: we should put the boxes in the newsletter to the artists because this may drive our decision making process about the artists piece. A good example maybe the Governor likes the box with the mouth openin for the dropbox.... So like someone may have a really good idea for dropbox which won’t work for other boxes. BB: We need them to say in the proposal this is for: Drop box or Electrical. Then we assign the boxes. SC : Is the city on board with the city seal and the ACC logo on all boxes. How big shall this be? 5x5inches?CT: yes. CD says we can use the place unprimed where we are going to put these stencils/logos. SC says we can figure these details out later . BB can artists sign their work? Yes, we all agree. BB: what kind of paint will work? SC: acrylic or spray paint. BB: we need to be pretty specific but we will need to test? SC they all should work. BB can we use outdoor house paint? She wants to see if we can use something industrial and more durable and inexpensive. SC: acrylic, outdoor, and spray paint.DR: rustoleum? SC yes its latex. BB should we reserve one box as a test box? SC we need to test them all. BB would it be fun to do an ACC one? SC agrees and torn because there are only 9 boxes and as artists through ACC we always have ample time to show our art at city hall. If for some weird reason we don’t get enough responses then we can paint a box, but does anyone disagree? CD agrees that this is a great idea. It would be good to put all our branding on it, fun color, poet laureate, art at city hall, studio tour, one per side. (DR) SC does it fit in with the theme or does this matter? BB: says it does fit its community. Just an idea. SC what should be the call out due date be ? When does the city want this done by? CT: don’t have a deadline, it's something we talked about a month ago to change mindset from Covid. It is nice that now people are out around time, no rush but it's a good thing to get people to smile and enjoy art as they get out around the city. SC: how long do we all think? BB: july 1? And in our meeting we can review and make our decision and assign the boxes -give them 2-3 week turn around for each box. SC: CT we can give them a due date in July? And do you think one weekend? Or does it matter if it's split up? CD says it should be a 2 weeks BB agrees because the weather and want to make sure things dry. SC: We need to make sure we seal as soon as possible so we have to look at our schedules to make sure this is done and someone has time to do it. BB: We need a timeline together and put this in the call to artists. SC says lets do this now. Call out should be out next week. SC: CD/ BB do you feel that letter is in good enough shape to put it out by next Frii? BB says yes the PDF and website needs to be updated. CD we can do this quickly. SC LW says we already did a call for art just edit and update the website with a link. Should we come up with a graphic for this call for art?BB says a graphic is great for FB and a separate mailchimp for this. Then once the newsletter is out,1 week later put this out in another mailchimp. Make sure it's on FB with the graphic and CT will be put on the city page. And under ACC on the city website. SC says we have agreed on this on June 12 to get call for art out, it gives people 2 weeks to submit by July 1. BB says we need 3 weeks to get out for June 9. Releasing a newsletter this week and ​call for artists ​next week. Website needs link to have the call for art on that too.Sc says good we will keep the 9th and gives us July 1 and we will make a decision on July 7 and they will be notified July 8 and then they have until July 31 to complete design and they need to let us know when it's done so we can seal them. SC thinks we won’t have many adjustments on what people are submitting. SC says we can put FAQ in the newsletter. SC how long do we keep the art up? CD suggest we keep it open 2-5 years. Cd they are going to have to sign permission that the city can use their art work. Of course they can use the boxes in their social media and we can SC:. maybe we put this in the ​call to artists ​form so it has to be signed in their submission .BB: a liability form, maybe if a vandal destroys art or if they fall and hurt etc. at their own risk. No liability to city. Keep this all in one doc when they sign on. (LW) CT do you want to look at the chief of staff/lawyers to look at this  first? We will need to know when the artists are out there so they don’t get police calls. They would like dates for this so that doesn’t happen. CD: can we make a quick poster on these sandwich boards so artists can put this up so people know what is going on ? A sign this is what is happening now and going on .We don’t want people to be running around doing this on their own. BB says we have 6? But they are wood and heavy. Maybe DPW have plastic ones? SC says lets just order some lawn signs, foot the bill, post with the logos and get them printed from NE digital. When artists are ready to paint, they can pick one up and keep it with them while the project is going on. CD will design the signs. 18x24 size. SC: what is the theme: sentence, sentiment? CD hope and community? BB let's stick to the Art of Community! ACC loves that! SC: Do we have two different logos on the newsletter ? Color is different. The newsletter should have a full logo with the tag line: Art of Community.. CD will check that later. BB agrees. CD will add it back in. We all agree with ART OF COMMUNITY for the theme. BB CT do you want her to send the liability statement waiver that use for art of city hall can we just have both reviewed by city lawyer.CT Yes, Same lawyer but will double check. SC any volunteers to test the boxes with her? SW/LBK will help too. CT: Open Air Market update: More over the summer but that has been tabled until brick and mortars are off the ground. On hold for the moment. SC says we would want to discuss as a group that any involvement so it won’t interfere with what we do with the studio tour. Angie thought it was during the summer so in place of the studio tour.. Some confusion. CT says that the idea is for bringing a farmers market to Amesbury on like Sat mornings with live music, some art, maybe food trucks…. But it has been tabled until brick and mortars are off the ground. SC next july 7 meeting will be how are we moving forward with studio tour so want to make sure that communication with city is clear. CT open air market if it happens would like ACC to be a part of it and put in our newsletter. 7. 8pm Poet Laureate:​Lainie couldn’t attend so LW read the notes: On May 25, Ellie O leary was interviewed by Doug Holder, publisher of the poetry journal ​Ibbetson St.​ on his blog (poetpoetwritertowriter.blogspot.com). Doug’s interviews are well known and are archived in several places including the Harvard University LIbrary. In April Ellie;s collection of poetry ​Breathe Here​ was released and she received congratulations from theNew England Poetry Club and positive reviews. Her Amesbry book launch of this collection was planned for April’s Celebration of National Poetry Month, but of course did not occur Hopefully we can do something in the future to celebrate her new collection Ellie has posted poetry news and events on the Amesbury poet laureate facebook page . Her plan is to zoom poetry readings and teach in the fall if we can’t meet in person. Chris Bryant, President of the Whittier Home has received entries from High School students for the whittier home contest, Gathering of Verses. The contest usually happens during April but the entries were delayed because of the pandemic. The poetry is currently being judged The winners will receive cash prices and will be invited to read in August at the annual poetry reading at the whittier hHome. The Amesbury Poet Laureate Committee is not meeting at this time but will resume in the future. ​Adjourn 8:05 LW motioned to end meeting, CD seconded, unanimous.