Regular Meeting

City of Elko Arts and Culture Advisory Board Regular Meeting 4:30 PM, Wednesday, May 7, 2025 Elko City Hall, Council Chambers 1751 College Avenue, Elko, NV 89801 I. CALL TO ORDER II. ROLL CALL Present: Sharon Owen, ACAB Vice Chairperson Casey Bennett, ACAB Secretary Amy Drost, ACAB Member Marissa Lostra, Councilwoman Absent: Mica Johnson, ACAB Chairperson City Staff Present: Scott Wilkinson, Assistant City Manager Annette Robinson, City Clerk Nichole Stephens, City Clerk Technician II Cathy Laughlin, City Planner III. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE IV. COMMENTS BY THE GENERAL PUBLIC The meeting was called to order at 4:32 pm. Vice Chair Sharon Owen welcomed the newest member, Amy Drost and invited her to introduce herself. Member Amy Drost said she has lived in Elko about 11 years and has been the art teacher at Elko High School for the past three years. She added she wanted to join the board because she loved the addition of the art around town and the cultural events, and was interested in being involved in that. V. PRESENTATION VI. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. Approval of Minutes for the April 2, 2025, Regular Session ** A motion was made by Secretary Bennett, seconded by Councilmember Lostra to approve the minutes from the April 2nd, 2025 local Arts and Culture Advisory Board meeting. The motion Passed. (3-0) Member Amy Drost abstained from voting. May 7, 2025 Arts and Culture | Minutes Page 1 of 6 VII. UNFINISHED BUSINESS A. Review, discussion, and possible action concerning the 2026 Semiquincentenial Art Project, and matters related thereto. FOR POSSIBLE ACTION Secretary Casey Bennett noted they had changed the project name from Sestercentennial to Semiquincentennial as it is the name recognized by the governor. Scott Wilkinson, Assistant City Manager, reported the Call for Proposals was advertised May 1st. There was a copy of the document and contract included in the agenda packet. Places advertised included the Elko Free Daily Press, the City of Elko website, DemandStar and the Nevada Arts Council. Ms. Owen asked if the city had been able to support the call with any type of social media push. Mr. Wilkinson responded they would contact the person who handles the social media and work on that. Cathy Laughlin, City Planner, suggested they could send out a PSA to the local radio and send to an email list of local artists, organizations or foundations to get the word out as well. Mr. Bennett noted the date on Section 3.2 was left blank. He asked if they were able to fill it in with June 1st for the installation date deadline. Mr. Wilkinson stated they could issue clarification on it. He added there was another one on 6.3.1 they would clarify as well. Ms. Owen noted 6.3.2 was blank as well. Ms. Laughlin stated the reason 6.3.1 and 6.3.2 were left blank in case the potential artist’s proposal is less than the $10,000; the blanks would be filled in when the city sends the artist the agreement for signature. Ms. Owen thanked Ms. Laughlin, stating the only correction needed would be the date for install on page 3. Mr. Bennett asked for more clarification on the Notice of Acceptance and if that would occur after they install the piece. Ms. Laughlin confirmed it would. It was included in the agreement that the city would have a certain amount of time to inspect the artwork and make sure that it meets all the standards for safety. If the artwork passed inspection, the Notice of Acceptance would be issued along with final payment. If it did not pass inspection, they would issue the Notice of Rejection. ** A motion was made by Vice Chair Owen, seconded by Secretary Bennett to direct city staff to create a supporting graphic, a psa for radio promotion, and to provide distribution to the Nevada Art Foundation for further promotion. The motion passed unanimously. (4-0) May 7, 2025 Arts and Culture | Minutes Page 2 of 6 Mr. Bennett asked if there was an update regarding the reader boards. Ms. Laughlin responded they had received one proposal for the Sacred Sagebrush, but they were unable to find any invoices from the Centennial Tower yet, but they were still searching. The proposal for the reader board for the sagebrush was less than a thousand dollars and the $4,000 allocated to spend before the end of the year could potentially be used for a different project. B. Review, discussion, and possible action on the Power/Signal Box Project, and matters related thereto. FOR POSSIBLE ACTION Councilmember Marissa Lostra reported she had spoken with Billy Crapo, the CEO of the Elko Area Chamber and said Ms. Crapo would like to sit down with the Arts and Council Board to get more details; she added Ms. Crapo did not want to take it to the full board until she had further specific details. Ms. Crapo did not need the whole committee to meet with her, but would like the entire committee there for the presentation if it was taken to the board. Ms. Owen asked if she could report her updates from Nevada Energy to help inform the conversation. She reported they were favorable to the four high traffic locations that Mr. Bennett had identified at the previous meeting. Approval of location is their form of review, and the four they were moving forward with but had not yet approved were 12th and Idaho, 5th and Silver, Lamoille and 12th, and Idaho and Mountain City Highway. She was provided with a list of other locations the board could consider as well. Mr. Bennett asked if the boxes were owned by NV Energy. Ms. Owen confirmed they were. She added Carson City had just put out a call for artists for their effort and named it Out of the Box; they were also providing $1,000 for artists. She thought Power Canvases could be a fun play on the things they had discussed before. Mr. Bennett added he was in Salt Lake City a few days ago and saw a power signal box with the vinyl wrapping. Instead of one big art project, they had an elementary school create little canvases and they put all of the students’ artwork on the vinyl. He thought this could be a great way to highlight an entire school. The board discussed names for the project. Suggestions included Power Canvases, Powered by Art, and Art is my Superpower. They determined that Ms. Owen and Mr. Bennett would meet with Ms. Crapo at noon on Tuesday, May 13th. ** A motion was made by Secretary Bennett, seconded by Councilmember Lostra to name the signal box project "Powered by Art" and ask the Elko Area Chamber of Commerce for $4,000 in sponsorship funding for the project, and select 12th and Idaho, 5th and Silver, Lamoille and 12th, and Idaho and Mountain City Highway as locations for the project. The motion passed unanimously. (4-0) May 7, 2025 Arts and Culture | Minutes Page 3 of 6 ** A motion was made by Councilmember Lostra, seconded by Secretary Bennett to amend Secretary Bennett's motion to include selecting Ms. Owen and Mr. Bennett as the representatives to meet with the Chamber CEO to discuss potential funding opportunities. The motion passed unanimously. (4-0) VIII. NEW BUSINESS A. Review, discussion, and possible action on the Fairgrounds wall mural and matters related thereto. FOR POSSIBLE ACTION Justin Reeves, Caretaker at the Fairgrounds, said he was excited to find out the city was looking into the mural. Since he took over in January 2024, it had been a project he had been trying to get addressed. He said he was there to offer his support and would be willing to get all the prep taken care of for a new piece of art. Mr. Wilkinson asked Mr. Reeves if he knew of an agreement between the Fair Board and the artist. Mr. Reeves responded he was not aware of one. Ms. Laughlin noted it had been organized by Tammy Keener and that would be a question for her. Mr. Wilkinson said the city would look into possibly drafting a release and research any agreement that may exist between the city and the fair board regarding the infrastructure. He believed the artist to still be local and easy to track down if needed. Mr. Bennet asked Ms. Drost if she was in charge of the Elko High Art Club. Ms. Drost confirmed she was. Ms. Lostra asked Ms. Drost if she thought her students might be interested in participating in the project. Ms. Drost responded the club was quite small this year and two of her main kids were graduating. Mr. Bennett suggested a possible collaboration with Spring Creek High School. Ms. Drost said she could reach out to the art club advisor at Spring Creek High and see if it’s something they would be interested in helping with. She asked if the design would be up to the club. Mr. Wilkinson responded design would be a discussion for the board. Ms. Lostra asked Mr. Reeves if the board at the fairgrounds had specific ideas or interests for the wall. Mr. Reeves responded he believed they were hoping for something supporting Elko’s heritage. May 7, 2025 Arts and Culture | Minutes Page 4 of 6 Mr. Wilkinson added he thought a lot of what was currently on the wall did a good job of that; they could do something similar that really speaks to the community as a whole. He suggested getting a mock-up done of what it might look like. He thought if they could find the commitment from the groups, they could at least get it prepped by the end of the fiscal year. Ms. Owen said when the public library had worked on their wall, they had the artist lead the concept but they had opened it to community members to help paint. She thought this could be an option to get more people involved in getting it completed if it wasn’t a liability issue. She felt the wall may need some attention structurally to have it ready to go. Mr. Wilkinson responded there was no funding in anyone’s budget to do any improvements to the wall. Ms. Robinson added her son had helped paint the original with his Boy Scout troop and they had put it out to the community to help paint certain sections. Ms. Owen felt the simple approach may be to explore Ms. Drost’s contacts and the feasibility. With the support from Mr. Reeves and his crew, that would potentially give them a few weeks to see what the options are and make a final decision in June. Mr. Reeves said it would just be a matter of scheduling with one of his contacts to get the wall prepped; they should be able to knock it out quickly. ** A motion was made by Secretary Bennett, seconded by Councilmember Lostra to direct city staff to look into a release of agreement with Brent Johnson if one exists, elect Ms. Drost to get in contact with the Elko County School District art teachers and faculty regarding this project, and commit $2,000 from the Arts and Culture Advisory Board for this project. The motion passed unanimously. (4-0) IX. REPORTS Mr. Bennett reported the Elko High School Theatre Department would be performing The Addams Family musical the 8th, 9th, and 10th. The annual Jazz festival would be held at the Elko Performing Arts building on May 13th. The Elko Community Orchestra spring concert would be held on May 31st. Ms. Owen did not have a report, but had a request for Ms. Robinson. She asked if she could share the details of the Mayor’s Art Award, the recipients, and potentially some photos on the Arts and Culture website. X. SCHEDULE THE NEXT MEETING ** A motion was made by Vice Chair Owen, seconded by Secretary Bennett to schedule the next Arts and Culture Board meeting for June 11th at 4:30 pm. The motion passed unanimously. (4-0) May 7, 2025 Arts and Culture | Minutes Page 5 of 6  XI. COMMENTS BY THE GENERAL PUBLIC Mr. Wilkinson complimented the board for their active engagement and giving themselves assignments outside of the meetings; it made the board function a lot better. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 5:37 pm. Mica Johnson, Chairperson Casey Bennett, Secretary May 7, 2025 Arts and Culture | Minutes Page 6 of 6