Public Art Committee

Public Art Committee Meeting Summary Minutes May 9, 2023 5:45 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. Zoom Meeting For more information on how to join, visit: https://durhamnc.gov/453/Public-Art-Committee Committee Members Present Mya Castillo-Marte, Chair Ann King Student Members: Patricia Harris Molly Matlock, Vice-Chair Oliver Hess Doreen Jakob JP Trostle Bren Vienrich-Felling Committee Members Absent Abijah Gattis Laura Ritchie (excused) Jaime Chaves (excused) Shanté Stewart Christina Perkins Myra Weise City, County, and Guests Present Rebecca Brown, City of Durham Stephanie Minor, City of Durham Margaret DeMott, Durham Arts Council I. Call to Order and Guest Introductions a. The meeting was called to order at 5:48 p.m. by Chair Mya Castillo-Marte. II. Approval of April Meeting Minutes a. MOTION: To approve the minutes from April, 2023 meeting. (Harris, Matlock 2nd.) b. ACTION: Approved. (5-0 with 3 abstentions by Trostle, Hess, and Vienrich-Felling.) III. Adjustments to the Agenda a. None IV. Announcements a. Public Art Committee (PAC) Chair and Vice-Chair positions will be voted on during the Durham Cultural Advisory Board’s June meeting. Members should submit their nominations and self-nominations to Stephanie Minor via email by May 19. PAC will vote to recommend a Chair and Vice-Chair during PAC’s June 6 meeting, with the Durham Cultural Advisory Board (DCAB) reviewing and approving during their June 14 meeting. i. PAC follows DCAB Chair/Vice Chair policy: The Durham Cultural Advisory Board (DCAB) shall elect its Chairperson, Vice-chairperson, and additional members to comprise an Executive Committee at its first meeting and at the first meeting of each fiscal year thereafter. Terms of office shall be for one fiscal year, beginning upon election and terminating upon the following election. Officers are eligible  for re-election. The Fiscal Year is designated as beginning on July 1, 2023 and ending twelve months later on June 30, 2024. ii. A member of the PAC is expected to serve as Chair for a minimum of one year, with the potential for re-election for a total of two 1-year terms. PAC members can nominate themselves or other members for the position of Chair. Nominees for Chair should have completed at least one full year on the Committee. Nominations are made by the April meeting each year and final election votes made at the May meeting each year. Officers and new members are then sent to DCAB for review and approval during the June meeting of each year. b. City Council has approved the Cultural Roadmap consultant contract with AMS Planning & Research. The Creative Community Partner, a subcontractor of the consultant, will help launch the Roadmap. The consultant will begin recruiting for the Creative Community Partner and any interested creative worker or creative team should sign up to receive updates via the “Call for Artists” listserv, located on the City website here: Durham Calls for Artists | Durham, NC (durhamnc.gov). V. Old Business a. Public Art Committee (PAC) Member Attendance Compliance with Durham Cultural Advisory Board (DCAB) Policy i. Members are asked to attend at least 50% of meetings in a calendar year. Two PAC members have attendance below the 50% threshold. City staff has followed the process recommended by the City Clerk and reached out several times to both members without a response from either. ii. MOTION: To recommend that the Durham Cultural Advisory Board (DCAB) remove two (2) PAC members, Shanté Stewart and Abijah Gattis, from the Public Art Committee due to attendance policy compliance. (Jakob, Trostle 2nd.) iii. ACTION: Approved. (8-0.) b. PAC Member Appointment and Recommendation i. DCAB Student Member, PAC Student Member, and PAC Member Application deadlines were extended for the second time to April 28, 2023. PAC currently has three vacancies. PAC members reviewed, discussed, and arranged the applicants in ranking order based on each member’s votes. PAC agreed to recommend Britney Nava Munoz as a student member provided they accept the terms of student membership. The PAC’s list of recommended applicants, in ranking order, are: 1. Lee Nisbet 2. David Ojo 3. Michelle Smith 4. Eliza Redman 5. Lana Dennis ii. MOTION: To recommend that the Durham Cultural Advisory Board appoint three (3) members of the PAC’s recommended applicants, provided in ranking order: Lee Nisbet, David Ojo, Michelle Smith, Eliza Redman, Lana Dennis, and Britney Nava Munoz as a student member to the Public Art Committee. (Matlock, Jackob 2nd.) iii. ACTION: Approved. (8-0.) VI. New Business and Presentations a. Discussion on Goal Three Homework i. Goal: The Public Art Committee will develop the skills needed to assess, identify and address where implicit and explicit bias may impact or affect arts and culture in Durham, in order to develop a set of best practices for public art with a focus  on anti-racism, community accountability and equity, and to uplift intergenerational, gender diverse, racially diverse, and LGBTQIA+ artists. ii. Task Force members Patricia Harris and Ann King lead a conversation with PAC members after prompting them to consider this question at the close of their April meeting: Why do you dress like you do? Think about why you don’t wear certain clothes to certain places and what biases you may hold when you see people wearing something different than you; think about family or cultural norms, backgrounds, friends and community. 1. Harris provided an overview of explicit and implicit biases. 2. Jakob shared their experiences while selling art at the Farmer’s Market and how their customers interact based on their clothing choices; they shared that they make most clothing decisions for others. Jakob grew up in Communist East Germany and shared their clothing experiences from their youth, how the government programs shaped how people dressed based on their location, and how clothing became a way to visually group people based on what they wore. 3. Castillo-Marte shared their experience as a fashion student and working in retail. They see clothing as part of their identity and evaluating others based on their clothing helps them to connect with people. 4. Harris shared their experience growing up poor, as the only Black family where they lived, and their classmates were mostly white and wealthy. Harris learned to sew at a young age, and was very conscious, due to explicit bias, of how others perceived them as the only Black woman in the room. 5. Hess is intrigued by this question and shared that they wear a lot of Duke branded clothing to show school pride. 6. King closed the conversation and posed a new question for PAC members to consider: What generational differences have you noticed in the PAC, at your school, work, or community? I.e. how you see your elders, and how your elders see you; have a conversation with someone from a different generation on social norms and bias. b. Review of the Public Art Committee (PAC) Criteria Scoring Rubric i. Following the April PAC meeting and UDO design review, Castillo-Marte and Matlock have been working towards improving the UDO review process. The Task Force supporting Goal Two will temporarily pivot to discuss this at their next meeting. ii. Matlock and Castillo-Marte drafted a letter addressed to Melody Dawkins, the representative from the developer and Taylor White, the artist, sent to PAC for their review, and plans to meet with the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Durham Cultural Advisory Board to review the letter. iii. Castillo-Marte and Matlock are building on review criteria drafted by PAC’s prior Chairperson, Katie Seiz, and are working to improve these guiding questions. The Public Art Committee’s drafted guiding questions and criteria will be shared with the PAC to prepare for discussion and adoption at next meeting. City Staff has been in touch with the City Planning Department to initiate conversation to help incorporate the review criteria in their process. c. Goals and Task Forces Reminder to Meet i. Goal One: Support the Durham Cultural Advisory Board’s planning process for the Cultural Roadmap. Task Force members: Jaime Chaves, Doreen Jakob, Laura Ritchie, Myra Weise. Staff support: Annette Smith. ii. Goal Two: Review and recommend training opportunities based on the results of the Capacity Building Survey and input from the Public Art Committee members. Identify capacity building solutions for local artists. Develop mentor and mentee guidelines/opportunities and other artist resources to address local artists' needs.  Task Force members: Mya Castillo-Marte, JP Trostle, Christina Perkins, Molly Matlock, Myra Weise. iii. Goal Three: The Public Art Committee will develop the skills needed to assess, identify and address where implicit and explicit bias may impact or affect arts and culture in Durham, in order to develop a set of best practices for public art with a focus on anti-racism, community accountability and equity, and to uplift intergenerational, gender diverse, racially diverse, and LGBTQIA+ artists. Task Force members: Patricia Harris, Ann King. VII. Updates a. None. VIII. Public Questions a. No questions were submitted by the public. IX. Adjournment a. Final Thoughts and other reminders by Chair. b. The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 13th from 5:45 p.m. – 7:15 p.m. i. Chair and Vice-Chair Recommendation for DCAB approval ii. Cultural Roadmap iii. Task Force Goal Updates iv. PAC Orientation Review & Feedback 1. PAC members will review prior to the meeting the orientation materials and share their recommendations and feedback for improving the process of on-boarding new members. c. The meeting was adjourned by Castillo-Marte at 7:16 p.m. Durham County Public Art Program: https://www.dconc.gov/county-departments/departments-a-e/engineering-and-environmental- services/durham-county-public-art-program City of Durham Cultural & Public Art Program: https://www.durhamnc.gov/450/Cultural-Public-Art-Development Durham Cultural Advisory Board Agenda Center: https://www.durhamnc.gov/AgendaCenter/Cultural-Advisory-Board-6 Respectively submitted, Stephanie Minor