Cultural Arts Advisory Board

Cultural Commission February 12, 2018 STATE OF TEXAS § COUNTY OF TARRANT § CITY OF BEDFORD § The Cultural Commission of the City of Bedford, Texas, met in special session at 6:36 p.m. at the Bedford Public Library, 2424 Forest Ridge Drive, Bedford, TX on the 12th day of February 2018 with the following members present: Barbara Speares Tom Jacobsen Lee Koch Josh Santillan Summer L. Finley Joy Brandon Constituting a quorum Others present included: Wendy Hartnett, Staff Liaison Amy Sabol, Council Liaison Charlenia Walsh Cortney Sims Sergio Santos Kelli Milani Dan Cogan Visitor CALL TO ORDER Chairman Tom Jacobsen called the meeting to order at 6:36 p.m. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: 1. Consider approval of the following Cultural Commission minutes: a. January 8, 2018 regular meeting Motion was made by Ms. Brandon and seconded by Mr. Jacobsen to approve the January 8, 2018 minutes. The motion was unanimously approved. OLD BUSINESS: 2. Discussion and possible action on the potential for wording change for the ordinance of the Cutural Commission. In section 2-237. Creation. Amendment: (a) There is hereby created a Cultural Commission, which shall be composed of nine members, seven of which are residents of the City of Bedford and two of which are active members of active Bedford arts organizations board members. Ms. Brandon made a motion to approve the change. Ms. Speares seconded. The motion passed unanimously. NEW BUSINESS:  Cultural Commission February 12, 2018 3. Discussion and update on PhaseNext bond. Before discussion, the Commission went around and made introductions with visitor, Dan Cogan. Ms. Hartett shared survey work was being planned and the city is getting ready to hire the project manager for the project. Ms. Brandon shared she had seen renderings of the Bedford Boy’s Ranch. Ms. Sabol said that the plans were not finalized and that they needed to wait until after a project manager was hired. 4. Discussion and update on Old Bedford School. Mr. Jacobson asked about the money connected with the OBS and how it fit into moving forward with the PhaseNext and moving forward with the construction at the OBS. Ms. Hartnett shared that the construction on the OBS would move forward and they are anticipating the construction to be completed on the repairs in January of 2019. She said that the City needs a specialty consulting firm for the repairs to the roof. 5. Discussion and update on programming at Arts Council building. There was discussion by the Commission members and Ms. Koch on how the Central Arts of Bedford could assist in filling up currently unused classroom facility time and space for classes that the Central Arts of Bedford needs. Discussion went back and forth on how complicated the language is in the Arts Council subleasing or renting out of space to other groups. It was not easy to understand how much a group would be charged for space rental. It was shared that the Central Arts of Bedford (CAB) had met with the Arts council management in recent weeks, and the costs to rent space that were discussed were unclear, prohibitive and not conducive to promote CAB start up art teachers or classes which would be using currently empty spaces and time slots that were not currently being used or generating revenue to offset operational costs of the building. Ms. Koch shared that she was open to discussing with her board loosening up the rental of the space to art classes and teachers that the CAB is asking for – maybe free or a flat fee of $25 per class. A CAB representative shared that the art classes offered by CAB were gaining a lot of traction and momentum and building student interest in the community. The demand is exceeding their space. It was suggested in the Cultural Commission discussion that the unused Arts Council building classroom/facility spaces and time slots be offered for a very small flat fee or free to CAB until the demand is evaluated and it warrants re-visiting due to volumes. The main issue is that there is open unused space in the Arts Council facility and the CAB has the traffic to bring to the building and expose and bring new awareness of the Arts Council building that is currently rented from the City. The CAB is paying a very high rate to rent a commercial space and running out of facility space to conduct classes and display art shows in their gallery due to the high volume of events and demand for classes. Ms. Koch shared that the agreement in place is designed to offset expenses they incur – utilities, janitorial, insurance, etc. The CAB representatives and the Cultural Commission members expressed high hopes that Ms. Koch can go back and explain and get buy in from her board that time slots with empty space that is otherwise not generating revenue can be offered to CAB and help increase traffic to the Arts council building and expose the community to all that the Arts Council has to offer. This would help CAB, artists in the community and the Arts Council and the City. 6. Discussion, updates and possible action on upcoming Central Arts of Bedford activities and other art/cultural programming including Artsfest, Twilight Concerts, Storefront art exhibits, and Chalk Walk at HEB Reads.  Cultural Commission February 12, 2018 Mr. Santos shared that the storefront in south Bedford is an empty store front – Vintage Freak. It is a brick building located at 508 Bedford Rd. South. He shared that pop ups are scheduled there. The plan is to beef up store fronts and add art work similar to the shopping centers off Central Drive. CAB is very active scheduling shows every two weeks. They hosted a chalk walk and it was very cold – below freezing. They didn’t heavily advertise but they did attract people and had many walking that also expressed interest in painting classes. CAB is hosting a cross promotional event with Wrastlemania. Ms. Walsh shared that the spring is full of events: March 24th ArtsFest: two stages – community stage and mainstage. Five big bands and 12 performances. Big bands 1.5 hours. Seven food trucks. Night Glow Easter egg hunt. The Lion’s Club is hosting a pancake breakfast fundraiser with the Easter bunny. Polynesian food fare will be offered. It was shared that the artists will also have an after party and that will attract more people. Twilight performances will occur every Friday in the park starting on May 4th. Crazy Cowboys is participating. May 11th Twisted Root is participating. May 18th Brave Combo is performing. May 25th E-Flat. The performances will be in the Bedford Boy’s Ranch and will be from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The Chalk Walk scheduled for May 5th from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. was discussed and how tying it to HEB Reads will make it a huge success. It was discussed how to offer spaces, categories of participants, and the layout of the Chalk Walk area. An outline plan was shared with the Commission attendees and Ms. Hartnett asked for Commission members to volunteer to help out with the 100 squares that will be offered. Judging was discussed and different options. Different age groups were discussed. Free books will be given out to the children who attend and In N Out Burgers is donating free burgers to everyone who wants one that attends. It is anticipated over 3,000 people will attend. Set up will start at 7:00 am. Chalk artist demonstrations were discussed to incent and give ideas to attendees. Family block were discussed. ADJOURNMENT Ms. Koch made a motion to adjourn and Mr. Santillan seconded. The motion was approved unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 7:40 p.m. Approved: ________________________________ Cultural Commission February 12, 2018 Tom Jacobsen, Chair