Public Art Committee

Public Art Committee AGENDA Wednesday, February 20, 2019 at 8:30am General Services Department Committee Members Present Simon Betsalel Caitlin Margaret Kelly Katie Seiz*, Chair Mya Castillo-Marte Chris Ogden * Wade Williams Margaret DeMott* Charlene Reiss Chantal Winston Caroline Dwyer Laura Ritchie * Cultural Advisory Board Valerie Gillispie* member  Public Art Committee City of Durham Present Alex Benson, GSD Annette Smith, DPR Others Present Dan Ellison* Rachel Wexler*, DDI Decario Allen I. Call to Order and Guest Introductions 8:33am There will be a new sign-in sheet for guests sitting in on Public Art Committee meetings to write their names on continuing forward. II. Approval of Minutes Approval for the Public Art Committee summary minutes from January 16, 2019 will take place at the March 20, 2019 meeting. III. Adjustments to the Agenda None. IV. Announcements and Presentations i. Exit Interviews, Katie Seiz Calvin Brett has resigned from the Public Art Committee. The Governance Task Force will be looking at models to begin an “exit interview” process for when members reach their term limit or decide to resign. ii. Retreat in March, Katie Seiz The Public Art Committee retreat has been scheduled for the end of March and a draft agenda has been created. The first portion of the morning will be focused on fine-tuning language for the mission statement and core values around Durham, Local Artists, Diversity and Equity, and Transparency. The second portion will focus on the “Nuts & Bolts” of the Public Art Program where members will have a chance to review and ask questions about budgets, financial information, artist selection process, and other general program processes by the City. The third portion will be an interactive exercise  Public Art Committee iii. City of Durham Pre-Qualified Artist Registry, Angel Dozier/Alex Benson The Pre-Qualified Artist Registry has been designed to invite artists and artist teams to submit portfolios and become pre-qualified with the City of Durham. The registry will serve as a resource for the selection of artists and artist teams to create City cultural and public art projects. This registry will make the process for responding to calls more efficient, and will strengthen and streamline the program by maintaining a database of artists in the community with particular skill sets. The original deadline for this project was February 28th but has since been extended to March 11th. These artists will be screened by the Public Art Committee for admittance into the registry. Committee members have voiced their concerns about keeping the Artist Registry open and not having a deadline, allowing for artists to join throughout the year. A member has also suggested that the registry act as more of a central local artist database, rather than a Pre-Qualified Registry. Members have requested information about the process that happens before projects are made public to ensure that they are notified before a call is released. Moving forward, the City will work with the Community Engagement, Communication and Outreach Task Team to help communicate information to the public and potentially begin creating social media press kits to help advertise projects. The Capacity Building for Local Artists Task Team has suggested hosting quarterly training and information sessions for artists to ask questions and gain clarification about CAFÉ, City public art projects, and the registry. This will also drive ongoing conversations about what resources and professional development tools that local artists need the most. The Capacity Building for Local Artists Task Team will also help draft and review the “Welcome Packet” for artists that have been admitted into the registry. V. New Business i. Chair and Vice Chair Nominations, Katie Seiz The Governance Task Force team has drafted documents on the roles and responsibilities of the Chair and the Vice Chair that can be found in the Google Drive folder. These elections happen just before summer begins and members are able to nominate themselves for the Chair or Vice Chair role. Along with nominations, there are upcoming vacancies on the committee. Dan Ellison has been working with an audio description service for people that are vision impaired to help develop an app that alerts people when they are in close proximity to public art pieces in Durham. There are currently nine (9) works of art in downtown Durham and eighteen (18) works of art from the Nasher that are currently in the system. Duke students are currently working on adding another eight (8) works from Durham. These audio description services are anticipated to coincide with public art signage as it is  Public Art Committee installed across Durham. ii. Black Wall Street Gardens Artist Recommendation, Margaret DeMott Out of 127 applicants, the Pre-Jurors were able to narrow down to 17 candidates, and one artist team specifically has been viewed as the leading team for the project. The criteria for this decision was based on: accomplished artistry, project management experience, community engagement, focus on local history, enthusiasm for mentoring, work based in the African American experience, and whether or not they were local. The artist team recommended, Stephen Hayes and David Wilson, fit all of this criteria. Stephen Hayes, a long-time Durham resident that grew up on Black Wall Street, has been identified as the lead artist for the project and his powerful artistic vision will drive the design of the project. It is anticipated that their initial proposal will involve an environmental and interactive design that can be walked through and engaged with. The team is enthusiastic to serve as mentors to an upcoming local artist and is in the works to draft a proposal for the Committee to review. The contractual agreement will include a nominal portion out of the budget for the mentee. Various stakeholders along Parrish Street have expressed their excitement for public art in Black Street Gardens. Because of this, the community engagement aspect of the project will be extremely important. These community engagement events will be outlined and planned moving forward. The Community Engagement, Communication, and Outreach Task Force have offered to provide a series of supporting documents for the artists executing community engagement events. These documents could include suggested guidelines and checklist for community engagement and a suggested contact list to ensure all key stakeholders are involved. There have been conversations about how the public art will interact with notions that are already in place – including a weekly music event and how unhoused residents interact with the space. The Public Art Committee has arrived at a consensus for Stephen Hayes and David Wilson to move forward as the selected artist team for this project. Moving forward, the Governance Committee requests more transparency on processes leading up to City Council recommendations. VI. Updates/Old Business i. Public Art Committee Task Team Highlights a. Advocacy and Project Cultivation: Simon Betsalel, Charlene Reiss, Laura Ritchie, Chris Ogden Members of this Task Force Team have been gathering information around the public art call for Durham County Library and have found that there were issues with communication throughout the Library about the call. The Public Art Committee is  Public Art Committee offering to help jury the call as well as any future public art projects funded by Durham County. A line of communication between the County and the City to help promote calls, provide information on general public art processes, and best practices for community engagement would be ideal. There has also been a City Council meeting around affordable housing work where incorporating green space was mentioned as a priority and it is possible that public art could fit in as well. b. Capacity Building for Local Artists: Margaret DeMott, Kyesha Jennings, Caitlin Margaret Kelly, Mya Castillo Marte, Chris Ogden, Wade Williams While continuing the conversation around figuring out what Durham artists need the most, the Task Team has proposed creating a digital survey to send out to artists across the area. They are currently in the beginning stages of this process, deciding which survey platform to use and what questions to ask. The survey needs to be user-friendly and easy to complete on mobile devices. Typeform is a survey platform that provides analytics for responses, allows for creative design and layout, and could be potentially be used as a continual way to engage the community. By utilizing these surveys, the Committee can understand exactly what artists need when applying to calls and engaging with public art initiatives hosted by the City. This could lead to information sessions/workshops that touch base on concepts like: applying for a public art call, creating an effective portfolio, public art program processes, and how to use the Café platform. These information sessions are suggested to be held outside of City government facilities to increase community participation. Another priority is for mentor/mentee volunteer guidelines to be established and Black Wall Street Gardens is an effective way to kick-start that practice. The DurhamPublicArt Gmail account is currently accessed and managed by City staff. Moving forward, we will work together to find the best way to streamline relevant email correspondence to the Public Art Committee. c. Community Engagement, Communication, and Outreach: Johanna Rose Burwell, Caroline Dwyer, Kyesha Jennings, Darin Johnson, Chantal Winston The Task Team wants to create an email list for “friends” of the Public Art Committee, (i.e. people that aren’t necessarily artists but other community members that support art in public spaces and community-engaged arts initiatives) in order to help promote calls and opportunities from the City. They have also requested a more efficient way to streamline information to the Committee that the City is doing through an internal email that provides updates on art initiatives coming into queue. This will ensure that Calls will not be made public before the Public Art Committee has a chance to see  Public Art Committee them. There are strict protocols around social media and outreach for City-appointed Committees and the Team is researching how other public committees are addressing these issues. There will be conversations between the City and the Public Affairs office to understand exactly how press kits can be developed and what types of marketing materials are approved. In the future, a paid position by the City to specifically work on creating and executing a Communication Strategy for the Public Art Program would be ideal. d. Public Art Committee Governance: Simon Betsalel, Caitlin Margaret Kelly, Stacey Poston, Charlene Reiss, Katie Seiz, Chantal Winston The next Public Art Committee Governance meeting is March 4th at 4:00PM at the General Services Department. VII. Adjournment 10:02am Respectfully submitted, Alexandra Y. Benson