Public Art Committee

Durham Cultural Advisory Board’s PUBLIC ART COMMITTEE Meeting, Sept. 21, 2016 8:30 a.m. at Durham Arts Council Members Present: Jennie Barbour X Kathy Bartlett Margaret DeMott Dan Ellison X Chris Ogden (Chair) X Nola Paterni X Charlene Reiss Julie Rhodes X Katie Seiz X Sarah Serventi Gail Williams General Services: Stacey Poston, Jessica Kemp Guests: Matt Gladdek, DDI; Kim Lan Grout, Accessible Icon Project Durham The meeting was called to order by Chris Ogden at 8:35 a.m. The minutes from the August meeting were reviewed and some minor changes were made. Kathy Bartlett moved that the minutes be accepted as revised and Sarah Serventi seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. Stacey Poston reported that the Carry Forward recommendations for the $160K in FY15-16 Neighborhood Revitalization Funds had been sent to the City Manager. Residents and businesses around the Parrish Street/Black Wall Street open space areas met with city staff and are putting together a list of their requests, some of which could inform us around the City Hall, parking deck, and greenspace public art projects. The group agreed it would be great to walk those spaces. As such, the next meeting of the PAC will be at City Hall. Stacey will reserve a conference room. A portion of the meeting will be a walk along the North-South corridor with an eye toward possible public art enhancements. Chris and Charlene will send information about accessing the Public Arts Network to those who had not yet received it. Membership gives access to their excellent public art listserve which is full of examples of RFQ’s, public art programs, relevant questions, best practices, and the like. Matt Gladdek of DDI gave an update on the downtown lighting program. There is a $100,000 contract for this work. DDI will be seeking a contract timeline extension. Matt reported that the cost of running conduit under the sidewalks had come in higher than expected. Durham’s forestry representative had also outlined some concerns September 21, 2016 Durham Public Art Committee Minutes page 1 of 3 about lighting negatively impacted the trees. DDI will create an RFP shortly and pass it by the Committee for comments before distribution. Stacey reported that the city is looking at updating its standard RFP templates with the hopes that it could be used for many other projects. Chris requested that such a stock template also be developed for RFQs as this is often preferred when dealing with artists. Matt Gladdek of DDI indicated a new director of DDI will be announced shortly. The Downtown Master Plan is also nearly done. Matt indicated that its focus was on a livable downtown that could serve as everyone’s living room. Matt also asked for ideas and support for ideas that could transform underpasses in the downtown area. It was suggested that he also work with Brian Poole in the city’s transportation department as Brian has an active project underway to identify difficult connection areas for walkers and bikers. Liberty Warehouse has offered to give the city $25,000 for an art feature on the warehouse project to the right of the foundry, facing outward to Durham Central Park. It is a brick wall about 25 feet high. This is an opportunity for the City, Durham Central Park and the Public Arts Committee to work together. Charlene indicated that Durham Central Park already had a charrette planned as well as an on-line survey. Committee members were encouraged to participate in those activities. There was also discussion about the fact that this might be a place where changeable lighting art might be appropriate. Stacey led discussion of the new Police HQ project. She shared that, as per our requests, they changed the interior structure to trusses in lobby to include hanging hardware to support hang art in the bid docs that went out Friday. She is pursuing using lapsed salary funds to hire an intern for about 20hrs/week for 3-4months to help, among other things, apply for grants to help match our $90K art budget. Stacey indicated that she worked with Charlene, Chris, and Brian to identify 15+ locations for public art in the new police headquarters. She is procuring cost breakdowns to allow us to prioritize them. She hopes to have details for our next task force meeting about the project’s other pots of money that could be a springboard for artistic items with existing construction funds (eg, public seating, lighting, garbage cans, bike racks, fences, planters/bollards, surface coatings, etc.). As part of this list, she will check into potential ground plane art options with existing construction funds (eg, color/water changing concrete, dayglow concrete, etc.). She reported that our idea of using construction funds for artistic installation instead of the brick on the parking deck façade unfortunately will not work, because it turns out that construction is going to be using poured concrete. She also said a midblock crosswalk and the Go Triangle shelter also might be art opportunities. Committee members encouraged her to look at extending any street or pavement striping east to Golden Belt and Alston Ave. to enhance the entrance to the September 21, 2016 Durham Public Art Committee Minutes page 2 of 3 police station from East Durham. Chris showed a Kickstarter with some cost effective programmable LED light bulbs/panels to plant some creative seeds. Charlene and Chris would like to meet with the PBA (Police Benevolent Association) to explore police memorial and recognition ideas (both tangible and digital), including on brick paver around flag poles. Kim Lan Grout encouraged everyone to look at the You Tube video on the Durham Accessible Icon project. Durham is part of a national project. Stacey shared she has garnered internal support to create a public art web site which will include public art news, an updated inventory, etc. The committee was enthusiastic and discussed their past efforts in this area as a springboard to a better presence. Chris highlighted October’s Click! Photography Festival activities. Charlene gave some history of the 2006 George Rousse grassroots art project and encouraged members of the committee to be supportive of the upcoming activities in October planned for the 10th anniversary and a return visit by Rousse. The meeting was adjourned at 10:10 a.m. Respectfully submitted by Kathy Bartlett September 21, 2016 Durham Public Art Committee Minutes page 3 of 3