MILWAUKEE ARTS BOARD

200 E. Wells Street City of Milwaukee Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202 Meeting Minutes MILWAUKEE ARTS BOARD ALD. NIK KOVAC, CHAIR Polly Morris, Interm Vice-Chair William DeLind, David Flores, Donald Fraker, Marcela Garcia, April Heding, Vedale Hill, Tina Klose, Diane Kosarzycki, Emilia Layden, Sandra McSweeney, Tim Murphy, Paula Phillips, Kantara Souffrant, and Oscar Tovar Staff Assistant, Yadira Melendez-Hagedorn, 286-2775 Fax: 286-3456, Y.Melendez-Hagedorn@milwaukee.gov Legislative Liason: Tea Norfolk, 286-8012, tea.norfolk@milwaukee.gov Staff to Arts Board: Sally Svetic, ssveti@milwaukee.gov Tuesday, March 8, 2022 4:00 PM Virtual Meeting This will be a virtual meeting conducted via GoToMeeting. Should you wish to join this meeting from your phone, tablet, or computer you may go to https://meet.goto.com/301432677. You can also dial in using your phone United States: +1 (571) 317-3112 and Access Code: 301-432-677. Meeting convened at 4:03 p.m. 1. Roll call. Vice-chair Morris chaired the meeting on behalf of chair Kovac. Present 11 - DeLind, Morris, Flores, Murphy, Klose, Layden, Garcia, Souffrant, Heding, Kosarzycki and Tovar Absent 2 - Hill and Phillips Excused 3 - McSweeney, Fraker and Kovac Also present: Sally Svetic, DCD Terri Grote, DCD 2. Review and approval of the previous meeting minutes. The meeting minutes from February 8, 2022 were approved with clerical corrections. There was no objection. 3. Public Art Subcommittee report. Vice-chair Morris said that the subcommittee denied the Conservation Fund application City of Milwaukee Page 1 MILWAUKEE ARTS BOARD Meeting Minutes March 8, 2022 from Charles Allis Villa Terrace Art Museums due to the sculpture piece not meeting eligibility of 24/7 public access, would welcome more conservation project applications, and discussed the PAIR program. Ms. Svetic said that DCD was awaiting on whether it would be awarded Greater Milwaukee Foundation funds (a grant application was made) by May to support a program liaison for the PAIR program, the program liaison would work to set up the program, RFP for artists and assemble a selection committee, a goal was for an artist start date by September, no decisions on the program had been made by the subcommittee, the Arts Board had directed to direct New Work Funds towards the artists in residency program for artist stipends and project expenses, departments had expressed interest to pilot the program as follows: City Clerk's Office (workforce development, Common Council engagement, City Channel format), Fire Department (employee diversity recruitment and retainment), and Department of Public Works (reckless driving). Vice-chair Morris added that marketing pitfalls and marketing designers should be avoided, artists needed to serve and be more productive, and additional funding was needed for the PAIR program. 4. Grants report. Ms. Svetic said that the Sustaining Grants application period closed yesterday, total funds available was $269,000, 52 completed applications were received seeking a total of $285,000, 62 applications were received last year, a panel (chaired by Member Fraker and also representing community members) would meet to review and score applications on April 28th, the panel rankings would be sent to the full arts board to approve at its May meeting, and the assumption was that the State funds were secured. Member Heding inquired about her agency's UPAF contributions to the board. Members questioned the inclusion of non-artists panel members and past grant reporting. Ms. Grote replied that the UPAF contributions went towards the Artist of the Year award and not the Sustaining Grants awards. Ms. Svetic added that the panel last year and this year was diverse, included non-artists, and all past reports were received. 5. New business. a. Awards process reminder Ms. Svetic said that the annual Mildred L. Harpole Artist of the Year and Friends of the Arts award process was coming up, members were reminded to make nominations, nominations would be made at the May meeting, the Artist of the Year awards were for two artists with a $1500 honorarium stemming from the contributions account and members' meeting attendance stipends, the Friends of the Arts award was not monetary, staff gave recommendations last year but would not this year, there was a delay in nominations last year, further instructions would be forthcoming, and the awards celebration should occur in lieu of the board's June 14th meeting at the Marcus City of Milwaukee Page 2 MILWAUKEE ARTS BOARD Meeting Minutes March 8, 2022 Performing Arts Center. Vice-chair Morris said that Artists of the Year recipients must reside in the City, Friends of the Arts recipients could reside anywhere, one Artists of the Year award should be given to an emerging artist while the other given to an established artist, awardees have been visual artists mostly, and there should be consideration of other types of artists. Members discussed wanting to make the awards more meaningful and deliberate with established criteria and processes rather than in an ad hoc manner, that an established process and criteria would improve and stimulate nominations, that there should be both prescriptive and flexible criteria, public input and nominations could be a part of the process, there should be consideration of artists' impact in the community as well as nontraditional artists, and having a few members (Layden and Souffrant) start to put together preliminary criteria. Vice-chair Morris said that the normal procedure would be followed for this year's awards due to the lack of time and that the board should work to establish the processes and criteria for the 2023 awards. 6. Old business. a. Updating the MAB ordinance Led and proposed by member Flores, members discussed options to amend the MAB ordinance regarding a cultural equity statement. Members said that they preferred to use language 1a as opposed to 1b from the American for the Arts Organization, that option 1a was more adaptive in its references to traits and did not make any specificity, that any specificity listed would cause issues when the norms of society would change, that option 1a best captured the boards' work, that other options outside of the ones from the American for the Arts Organization were already very similar to the current code, and that member Flores would work on formulating one final statement iteration to incorporate everything discussed for review and approval by the board at the next meeting. Ms. Svetic said that she would invite the City Clerk to attend the next meeting to address questions regarding changing the MAB ordinance. 7. Announcements. Member Flores encouraged members to attend a pair of Florentine Opera French performances, the Downtown Abbey clothing exhibit, and the Jewish Museum exhibit on Japanese internment camps. Ms. Svetic announced the Milwaukee Ballet Momentum performances were commencing until March 12th. Member Souffrant announced a Milwaukee Art Museum live concert presented by Present Music in partnership with the Jewish Museum Milwaukee on March 10th and a photography exhibit by Vietnamese American artist An-My Lê. City of Milwaukee Page 3 MILWAUKEE ARTS BOARD Meeting Minutes March 8, 2022 Meeting adjourned at 5:01 p.m. Chris Lee, Staff Assistant Council Records Section City Clerk's Office City of Milwaukee Page 4