Cultural Council

By City Clerk at 4:30 pm, Feb 17, 2026 March 4, 2025 6:30pm-8:30pm ​ ​ ​ Usually Meets 1st Tuesday of Every Month WELCOME 6:33 pm Ann welcomes everyone at 14 Cedar Street.Call to order. AJ does the ROLL CALL: Members Present: Sally Nutt(SN) Ann Johnson(AJ), Amy Vander Els, (AV), Laura Kozlowski DeVincent (LD), Margaret Leahy(ML)Aimie Westphal, Bailey Campbell (BC) Joanne Barnes(JB)Rachel Wallace (RW) Kristen Costa(KC)Bryan Riley(BR) Absent:Madison Barnes(MB)Ellie O’leary (EO) Approval of January with amended to change“applying for the 6000 grant for operating use” and not “festivals” Motion by AJ , Second ML Unanimous Motion to approve February minutes, SN, Seconds BC, unanimous PUBLIC COMMENT: Woon Chul, Bonnie Brady, Jennifer, Lisa: Poet Laureate TREASURER REPORT(JB): 7670.00 in our city account. Grants paid 7500. 6 grantees have not submitted anything yet. Gifts account didn’t change much 16380.00 •Woon Chul Fisher working on Juneteenth day in Amesbury. Coordinating with community members and municipalities and is requesting some help with resources to receive grants and to distribute. He is looking for us to be a financial agent for the festival. Anticipating expenses to be 3,000 range. In Kind donation for video, photographers, location….Working with Amesbury Public schools for lesson plans up to high school. Grade appropriate materials so they are aware of the holiday and why it is an important holiday. Claire at the library has picked some books to introduce into the classrooms. Looking for people to read stories to the elementary students. Middle and HS(Tina Costello) is working with middle school to work on Juneteenth as the civil engagement day. For adult members, looking to have a race justice equity and inclusion discussion to have a more comprehensive view to include all community members to engage. Hope to have this to be part of a larger plan for the future. The initial event will be at Zach Fields, The Space. Working with Juneteenth committee members in Lawrence as well. Speakers will address the importance of the holiday June 14 11-2pm (Saturday). Goal is to make this a fun event and not just a lecture. Woon is here asking to ask for our financial support /our sponsorship so he can apply on his own for this grant. Looking for us to be the stewards of the funds. How does this work? Looking for 8 people that would need to be paid through us. If he doesn’t get the grant, he will fundraise. He is here to come to collaborate with us as ACC. Motion to Sponsor the first annual Junteenth celebration in the City of Amesbury, AJ, seconds RW,Unanimous. MARKETING: ML has some flyers for the upcoming mixer on Friday March 21st. More Rack cards have been printed and some business cards with general ACC information on it. a.​ Social media (Bailey Campbell) 75 new followers on instagram, looking to see if we should do individual posts about who we are and what we are doing. She would love to get some content with photos etc anyone may have moving forward to each event b.​ Website ( Rachel Wells) upcoming grant events on our calendar have been posted. Looking to have a form on the website where people can bring events to us, questions, come to us with the information. How can we build this? A portal for submissions outside of grant proposals. Rachel and Bailey will work on it with a proposed procedure and we will all vote on it at a later date. OPEN STUDIOS 2025: ART AT CITY HALL: Creative Chaos is the next art exhibit…picking art tomorrow, 28 people submitted. Hanging March 11/12 Monday taking down Mayor Gray exhibit and Chain Bridge will run through the end of June. City Hall will be moving after that. PUBLIC ART: Tile Making at the Artist mixer POET LAUREATE: Lisa is putting together her schedule for 2025. Looking for her honorarium but not sure where it is coming from. We need an invoice before funds can be released. ACC cut check to Whittier home and then they would cut check to Poet Laureate. Moving forward submit us the invoice (1300 for readers) +Honorarium which would include the first annual poetry festival. We will also research to see if can give the PL more funding. Aimee has an updated version of the guidelines for PL Her biggest update is that we have 2 ACC liaisons and one is the chair, to also have a library rep, and an education rep and community members can be on it. That would be the largest edit we will make to present it with a joint meeting with Whittier home in April to vote to approve the new guidelines moving forward. To make sure everyone is supported equally by all the groups. GRANTS a.​ Updates on 2025 recipients: all recipients have been notified. Plant paint on Saturday, Community of Makers 19th, April 10 Sally, are attending April 12 Earth Day b.​ Updates on grant fundraising - Jennifer Welter: operation grants 6000 and creative experience will include old festivals is 1 year and 2500, Operating grants are renewable. Update on ACC draft Organizational Chart and Job Description: Bailey: Aimee sent some stuff from the library which may be a little smoother than what we have been looking for, it showcases the officers and their roles, but for sub committees it articulates ad bit more what each committee does and who is on it. She would like to know if we should do more description for her chart to change the visual. UPDATE ON CULTURAL CENTER: Moving along, no date yet, we do retain our storage room. OTHER BUSINESS: Dates on the Calendar : March 19 6-8 5-6:30 art at City Hall mixer ​ March 21 6-8pm Artist mixer and tile Workshop at Barewolf ​ Our next meeting is April 1, 6:30pm ​ April 12 Earth Day Celebration ​ April 24 6:30-8:30pm Amesbury Poetry Fest Barewolf ​ June 14 11-2pm Juneteenth Celebration Zach Fields New Business and Matters not Anticipated Randy Herman’s wife died Feb. 10. Memorial hasn’t been chosen yet. Maybe we can go as a group to the Memorial. Motion to adjourn ML, AJ seconds…Unanimous. Laura b. Kozlowski