Arts and Humanities Council of Falls Church

Arts and Humanities Council of Falls Church Meeting April 20, 2017 Dogwood Room City Hall Minutes / Notes Members Present: Barb Cram, Ellen Gross, Sally Cole, Corey Jannicelli, Laura Hull, Marybeth Connelly, Letty Hardi, Midge Wang Also Present: Washington Sinfonetta representatives The meeting was called to order by Chair Barb Cram at 9:35 am. TLCCF Report: Keith was not present to provide report but Corey Jannicelli offered a reminder that Grant Documentation for FY17 is due May 15. If you are unable to meet this deadline, you should reach out to Keith and Corey asap. Action Plan Review: Fundraising  To be discussed later in the meeting Marketing  Marybeth had hoped that Ingrid could be helpful moving forward with this but Ingrid has decided to not to return from maternity leave as planned so this is currently on hold. Website  The website will need a new server as the virtual visitor center data is too much for the current server. Space  No new updates from Laura  Barb shared how happy she is with Falls Church Arts new space and what a great partner the Kensington has been. Planning and Development  No new updates to report Visioning 2040  Barb Cram expressed her concerns that Arts and not mentioned in the first two paragraphs of the Vision Statement.  Marybeth explained that the 1st two paragraphs do not use the word Arts but they are implied in the context of the statement.  Laura encouraged everyone to look at what Herndon is doing. Their vision for the arts is in the city’s vision statement. 1 Announcements:  Council meetings are taped if you want to review the videos after the meetings. Agendas with documentation are also available.  FCCTV will train community organizations to use their equipment. Videos taken can be used for marketing on your website, etc. Fundraising Brainstorm:  Laura kicked off the brainstorming conversation explaining that we need to know what we want to fund before we can apply for funding.  What would be beneficial to all organizations?  One idea is a video to highlight all the City’s Arts organizations  Barb suggested Rolling Road should become a park with an art component o Potential NEA Grant o Recommendation on trying to focus on using Tinner Hill Park more  Laura suggests having a unified arts festival o Marybeth shared that Smithfield VA has a bacon event that pulls in people from all over.  Laura mentioned the Columbia Pike Revitalization Project sharing actors did the social media for the Columbia Blues Festival o Suggesting we may need to hire someone to do social media for Falls Church  Top Priorities Identifies o Video and Social Media /brainstorming o Festival and space for festivals and events  Ellen expressed an interest in seeing more pop-up events like mardi gras parade  Laura asked the group what the best time of year would be for a parade o Marybeth suggested tagging onto farm day or the weekend after or the first weekend in September  Letty suggested promoting the new logo and website o It was suggested to have Melissa Robison invited to the next meeting. She has experience with grant writing, film, etc and is also a great thinker with board experience.  Barb asked everyone to bring all these ideas back to their members for additional feedback.  Next Steps- Looking into corporate grants understanding they will want their logo on things. Submitted: By Corey Jannicelli 2