Public Art Commission

1 Blue Springs Public Art Commission Minutes of the Meeting Fieldhouse Conference Room Thursday, July 13, 2017 3:30 to 5:00PM Attending: Ramon Magee, Lawrence Randall, Barbara Landes, Kathe White, Greta Hoener, Eleanor Frasier, Kim Nakahodo, Jerry Kaylor. Guest: Jeff Carpenter Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 3:30 Approve Minutes of June Meeting: The minutes of June 8 meeting were approved as emailed. “Capricious” 1. Call to Artist. Eleanor reported that the Call to Artists has not yet been posted due to several delays in getting approvals and for payment to CAFÉ. Steve Willman did a masterful job in getting everything completed but we need to now revise the timetable as it is out of date. Ramon and Eleanor provided suggested revisions in the Call. After discussion, it was agreed to changes and Eleanor will arrange with Carol Reed to place the revised Call on CAFÉ (Note: The Call was posted on CAFÉ on July 17). Of importance are the following dates: Sept. 18: Applications Due to CAFÉ Sept. 19: Jury process begins Sept. 25: Jury process ends Sept. 27: Selection Panel meets Oct. 5: Phone Interview with artists (note: this would be our PAC meeting for Oct) Nov. 20: Contracts signed by artists and returned to City 2. Jurors and Selection Panel. The jurors will have one week, including one weekend to review the artist applications. Their review of submissions will be due to CAFÉ by September 25. Arrangements will be made so that interested PAC members can review the applications during this same period. We will have the Selection Panel meeting in the Fieldhouse Conference Room on Wednesday, September 27. Jurors and PAC members will be invited to attend the meeting. Jurors will select the finalists following review of the top six artists calculated by CAFÉ and after discussion by all attendees. Note: Larry had been scheduled to be the PAC Juror but he will be out of town on that date so Eleanor will ask Ramon to be the PAC Juror. Information/Updates 1. Plaque for “Breath”. Eleanor asked Kim to send her a revision of the “Breath” plaque which indicates the donor as Walmart (not Wal-Mart). Eleanor will ask MVP to create an 8’ x 12” plaque. Steve had previously told Eleanor that it might be best to place the plaque on top of the base, just under the artwork, and angled so that someone could easily read the plaque information. 2.”Moving the Stars”. Steve had previously reported that we might want to move “Moving the Stars” as a new business has purchased the building site where it is currently placed. This would require a new contract to keep it there. Eleanor asked Steve to present ideas for where we might place this on public land  2 (so we don’t have to contract with a private client). We reviewed the various sites and recommended that we move it to the greenspace of the parking lot directly across the street. This would keep it in the downtown area, in a space we think is more likely to be safe than a park, would be more accessible to the public for viewing and photos, and could be more easily maintained. We discussed the need for immediate maintenance as it is fading and may need some repair. Larry suggested that first steps would be cleaning and then waxing and that we should do that after it is moved. Eleanor will follow up on next steps to move the art. 3. Meeting with Megalabs. We had previously discussed the offer from Megalabs to meet with us to review what was done with the restoration of “BlueSprings.Net” so that we have details of what they did and what to expect in the future. Ramon will ask Meg Zahner if they can meet on Thursday, September 14 (our regular meeting date) to discuss this issue. Ramon thought they would want to meet at the artwork site. At this meeting we will ask Megalabs about their offer to work with us on a public art maintenance plan. 4. Grants Status. Hallmark Foundation. The $400 grant from Hallmark Foundation has been received State Farm Foundation. The $500 grant from State Farm Foundation is expected in July. MACAA. Grant. a. Eleanor reported that we have received the $1000 grant from MACAA which was from Kim’s presentation at the BSAL Spring Event Luncheon. MACAA wants us to do a news release which describes the grant information. Eleanor will ask Kim to follow up on this so that if we want a future grant from MACAA, we are in compliance with their request. Kim said she would send a link to Eleanor that she could send on the MACAA showing what she presented as part of the thank you to them. b. Kathe, Barbara and Greta reported that they had met Jeff Carpenter at the Chief Westermann retirement event and he had expressed interest in having the presentation at a Blue Springs Rotary meeting. In subsequent discussion, it was determined that Kim and Jeff would discuss this opportunity and arrange a date for presentation. We were very encouraging for community presentations about our public art. “The Ultimate Truth” 1. Kim presented a proposed flyer for fundraising for this artwork. Members suggested several changes to the flyer and Kim will update. We would like to do mailings for fundraising in August. As soon as the flyer is available, a letter and the flyer will be sent to past donors and any new suggested persons. 2. Eleanor reported that we will need to raise a total of $5000. We have paid the artist so the funds will replenish our account. Community Involvement in Fundraising and Publicity. 1. Greta reported several ideas for fundraising and getting students involved in learning more about public art. We will continue to plan to achieve this goal. Maintenance of Public Art Documents 1. Eleanor arranged to meet Kathe on Wednesday, July 19, and subsequent Wednesdays, to begin the process of organizing public art documents in our filing system which she has planned.  3 “Public Art in Blue Springs 1. Kim shared plans for publication of the updated listing of public art and what has been completed and what is left to do, including taking new photos of artworks that have moved or been purchased since the last issue, updating the map, and other such details. She believes the publication will be 90 pages when completed (very impressive!) Dedications of Art. “Life Force” and “Dandeblome”. Kim reported that Downtown Alive is considering having some kind of dedication event and placing plaques in late Fall. “Breath” After we place the new plaque, we will then ask Mid-Continent Library to help arrange a dedication. “BlueSprings.Net” . We will need to make a decision of “If” and “When” to have a re-dedication of this artwork. It would probably need to be next Spring. Westaf Symposium on Public Art 1. We reviewed an announcement from Westaf of a major symposium on public art to be held from November 5-7 in Honolulu, HI. Eleanor wondered if Kim could arrange for attendance at this event as a symposium observer. PAC would pay for the observer workshop fee of $185 but the costs of transportation and housing would need to be provided by another entity. Hawaii has been a long-time supporter of public art with over 450 permanently sited artworks and 5500 relocateable sculptures. The symposium would bring together the many players involved in public art and the development of social media, all to enable an increase in knowledge of and access to public art nationwide. The symposium would be a major step of gaining knowledge of what is going on in the public art arena and we encouraged Kim to research the possibility of attending on behalf of the City of Blue Springs (and Downtown Alive). 2. Westaf manages the Public Art Archive which contains records of some 12,000 works of public art. The Archive is in the midst of a public expansion of collecting public art and we need to investigate how to place our public artworks on the Archive. After the “Public Art in Blue Springs” is completed, we need to forward this information to the Archive. Next Meeting: Thursday, August 10 at Fieldhouse Conference Room, 3:30 to 5:00PM