Arts Commission

Arts Commission Minutes City of Bellingham, Washington Tuesday 6:00 PM June 6, 2023 Mayor's Boardroom & Zoom https://meetings.cob.org - Call to Order The Arts Commission meeting was called to order by the Chair at 6:00 PM. Agenda Items Public Meeting 1. Sculpture location ideas Shannon Taysi asked the Commission if they had taken time to identify potential locations for the pending sculpture donation discussed at the May meeting. There was a brief conversation regarding various sites. Tami Landis said if this was going to be an ongoing donation with multiple sculptures that identifying a trail to place artwork along would be a good start. The Commission agreed this was a good idea. Shannon Taysi said she would talk to Parks and see if they had interest in this concept. 2. Downtown Bellingham Partnership (DBP) Art Plan Lindsey Payne Johnstone introduced a plan to improve the Commercial Street Parking Garage. She said they will be continuing to develop a larger plan but today she is seeking approval to move forward on a small mural project. She showed the Commission the mural proposed (floral). Amy Chaloupka moved and Paul George seconded the approval to move forward with the mural design as proposed. All in favor. Lindsey Payne Johnstone said she will be in touch with the Commission as the larger art plan evolves. 3. Sculpture Maintenance Exploration and Vetting Shannon Taysi said she is suggesting the following sculptures for maintenance and would like to know if the Commission agrees with these priorities. The sculptures identified were:  Confluence  Goatcart  Resorgimento  Ingress   Conference Table She said she, Amy Chaloupka and Jody Bento met to discuss these priorities utilizing the information provided by the sculpture assessment. If the Commission agrees, she will begin exploring the cost to get these maintained. She added that Conference Table currently needs the wood redone again and the artist had suggested at one point they would recommend replacing the wood with steel. At that time there weren’t funds to replace with steel. She thinks it may be worth investing in steel at this point. The Commission agreed and suggested she reach out to Parks to see if they could help offset some of the cost. Shannon Taysi said she will reach out to see who would be able to do some of this maintenance. She thinks one person could do the maintenance on the two painted pieces and one person could perform maintenance on the bronze pieces. It might take time to find people willing and able to perform the work. Other Business 1. Public Comment Period Jon Oesting commented that adding sculpture to the collection does require planning for maintenance. Staff agreed. 2. For the Good of the Order and Announcements Minutes prepared by: Shannon Taysi, Program Specialist