Culture, Arts & Pride Commission

CULTURE, ARTS & PRIDE COMMISSION Wednesday, December 13, 2017 12:00 noon Municipal Complex, Committee Meeting Room (3300) 100 Ann Edwards Lane Mount Pleasant, SC 29464 MINUTES Members Present: Kenda Sweet, Chair; Ian Duncan, Rebecca Gosnell, Ann McGahey, Stephanie Meadows, Charles Williams Members Absent: None Staff Present: Nicole Harvey Ms. Sweet called the meeting to order at 12:07 p.m. 1. Approval of Minutes from the November 15, 2017 meeting Ms. Gosnell made a motion to approve the November 15, 2017 minutes. Mr. Williams seconded the motion. All were in favor. 2. Public Comments None 3. Report from Subcommittees a. Artist Submissions Ms. Sweet said she reached out to the Mount Pleasant Artist Guild and the Charleston Artist Collective to ask them to meet about a way to collaborate on artist submissions in the future. She said they are both actively involved in promoting artists in the area. She said she also thought about speaking with Kathleen at Creative Arts of Mount  Culture, Arts & Pride Commission December 13, 2017 Page 2 of 11 Pleasant to see if she would be interested in helping the Commission get artist submissions also. Ms. McGahey asked who she emailed or spoke with at the Charleston Artist Collective. She said she had a friend who was part of it. Ms. Sweet said it was someone named Allison. She welcomed anyone on the Commission to join the meeting. Ms. McGahey said she would like to attend the meeting. b. Beautification Mr. Duncan said he talked with Mr. Eddie Bernard about working together to come up with ways to simplify the process, and he did not seem confident in their ability to make changes that would affect participation as it has always been relatively low. Mr. Duncan said he feels the biggest hurdle is that applicants must buy the trees one hundred percent and the Town reimburses a percentage. He believes they need to revisit the entire approach. He said he believes the initial outlay of money for trees hinders people’s involvement. Ms. Sweet said she and Ms. Harvey spoke about getting input from Mr. Jody Peele in Public Services on the original intent of the program and to better understand where the funding came from to figure out what the parameters are and what flexibility exists in making changes to make it more appealing to potential applicants. Mr. Duncan said there have been no applicants for the program for quite some time and he thought it was a national arbor project. Ms. Harvey said she thought so too and had emailed Mr. Peele to get information on its history as it originated in the former Pride Commission that was administered by Public Services. Ms. Gosnell asked if they knew where the funds come from annually. Ms. Harvey said that was part of her question for Mr. Peele but thought it was Public Services. Telephone (843) 884-8517 - Fax (843) 856-2180 www.tompsc.com  Culture, Arts & Pride Commission December 13, 2017 Page 3 of 11 Mr. Duncan said he believes it is part of a national program which is why the public must foot the bill initially, but maintenance is potentially up to the municipality depending on the installation location. He said it was a good program to transform a street, but it has to have some incentive other than the one year of free maintenance. Mr. Williams asked if the Commission could help with the cost. Ms. Harvey said it is a reimbursement for half of the cost of the installation with a total cost limit. She said the public has to pay the entire cost up front. Ms. Gosnell asked if we could find out if Mr. Peele is available to come speak with us during the meeting and Ms. Harvey sent him a message then continued the meeting. Ms. Sweet said if the program does go forward, they had talked about a handout at nurseries about the program. She said the Marketing Subcommittee will assist with creating that handout. Ms. Sweet said on Beautification there is also the Take Pride award and she would like to hear ideas for nominees. Mr. Williams said he was on the original Pride Committee before Culture, Arts & Pride was formed. He said they were directed to ride around the Town to see examples of beautification and then they narrowed the ideas down and then they voted on it. Mr. Duncan asked if Town Hall was exempt as it was a project this year. Ms. Sweet said she thought of that also. Ms. Harvey said she would not recommend having the Town give an award to itself. Ms. Sweet asked what the parameters were for this. She said she thought it was exterior and asked if it was beautification over the year or just landscaping. Telephone (843) 884-8517 - Fax (843) 856-2180 www.tompsc.com  Culture, Arts & Pride Commission December 13, 2017 Page 4 of 11 Mr. Williams said it was everything. He said it was the exterior, the landscaping and whomever wins is not eligible the next year. He said East Cooper Hospital had won in the past. Ms. Harvey said I’on won last year and Towne Centre and the Park West neighborhood had won in recent years. Mr. Jody Peele, Public Services Director, joined the meeting. Ms. Sweet said on the way in she saw a few places such as Elizabeth Stuart Design, Vintage Coffee Café/Coastal Crust, and Nico, a new restaurant which did a good job in renovating the space. Ms. Meadows nominated Nico’s. Ms. Gosnell nominated Elizabeth Stuart Designs. Ms. McGahey nominated Vintage Coffee. After discussion, the commission members agreed that Vintage Coffee Café/Coastal Crust should receive the 2017 Take Pride Award. Ms. Harvey asked if they are the same owner or if they are giving it to a pair of owners. She said she will find out who is the owner of the space and if it was a collaboration. Ms. Harvey said to Mr. Peele that over the years they have noticed very little to zero participation in the Tree Bank Grant Program. She said the present Commission came about in 2013 and they have only given out the award once. She said they are trying to find a way to make it more user friendly for the public to increase participation. She said they were trying to find how the program originated and what the parameters were. Mr. Peele said it originated when new developments were approved, the developers paid funds to a tree bank. He said the funds were getting large so the decision was made that they wanted to try to put some of the funding back in to the community. He said they wanted it to have a public benefit so they were willing to try to allow HOAs or any garden group that would want to support this with their finances coupled with Town finances to install trees using Tree Bank Telephone (843) 884-8517 - Fax (843) 856-2180 www.tompsc.com  Culture, Arts & Pride Commission December 13, 2017 Page 5 of 11 funds. He said participation was always very low. He said they would get the same individuals repetively submitting applications. He said they may have issued ten awards to HOAs since inception. He said Belle Hall’s middle medians were part of the Tree Bank Program with the oak trees from 20 years ago. He said there was also Hamlin Square along the buffer line of I-526 and the Long Point subdivision around a pond. Mr. Peele said he did not know how to get the message out and encourage more participation. He said they invited people. He did not know if they lowered the price and say the Town was willing to do a program with a minimum of $500. He said it was a good program that they had but the involvement was not there. Ms. Sweet asked if there was money in the account for them to do the program. Mr. Peele said he could not answer that. Ms. Harvey asked if that account was under the Public Services budget. Mr. Peele answered in the negative. He said there is funding and thought it was approximately $8,000 to support this program. He said since there had been no involvement the funding had not increased to support it. Ms. Sweet asked if new developers were still contributing to the Tree Bank. Mr. Peele said he understood that if you cannot replace the number of trees that are required by the Planning Department, they have to support it through the Tree Bank. Mr. Duncan said that he does a lot of projects and you cannot put enough trees back and they pay the Tree Bank. He said the Tree Bank is probably huge. He suggested if there was $8,000 available they give that out and do a test piece of street to get people involved to show them what is possible. Telephone (843) 884-8517 - Fax (843) 856-2180 www.tompsc.com  Culture, Arts & Pride Commission December 13, 2017 Page 6 of 11 Mr. Peele said that would have to go before a Committee of Council that may have to make that recommendation. He said the Commission would likely come before Public Services or possibly the Recreation Committee, where the commissioners could discuss the current issue and how they could possibly get more involvement by trying something different. Mr. Duncan said when he spoke to a developer, the feedback received was that it was not worth their time to complete the paperwork for $1,000. Ms. Gosnell asked if the current funds in the Tree Bank are being used for the town’s horticultural expenses. Ms. Harvey said she will speak with the Finance Department to figure out where the money is going, how much of it is there and if there is any ability to take it to Committee to request changes to how the program works. Ms. Gosnell said they are not encountering a new problem. She said the funds may need to go back into the Tree Bank. She said if the trees are installed by the Town, that would be the best restructuring of this. Mr. Duncan said he was not sure how the Tree Bank works but his projects had paid substantial amounts into it for tree removal as you cannot fit trees back in where a building is built. Ms. Sweet said it may come back that they need to go to Town Council to ask for a change in how it is currently operated so they can rework the program. c. Sculpture Ms. McGahey said she emailed Herb and Jared with the College of Charleston to find out when they should go look at the students work and is awaiting a reply. d. Traffic Box Art Ms. Sweet asked if there was a timeline update. Telephone (843) 884-8517 - Fax (843) 856-2180 www.tompsc.com  Culture, Arts & Pride Commission December 13, 2017 Page 7 of 11 Ms. Harvey said she had the proofs for installation of the next round. She said it was too cold to be installed right now but this year’s boxes will be installed as weather permits over the next few months. e. Mural Ms. Gosnell said they are in a holding pattern waiting on clarification from staff about funding and staffing options. Ms. Harvey said they will have a subcommittee meeting after today’s meeting as she thought Mr. Gergick had answers from Human Resources regarding the possibility of an intern that was discussed last month. Ms. Gosnell said she sent an email to the Accommodations Tax Advisory Committee (ATAC) staff liaison. She said this is potentially a way for the Commission to find funding for the mural project and possibly having an ATAC-funded intern to help get public art projects in place. Ms. Harvey said they would need to get approval from ATAC and find out if there is any ability to consider a special request. She said Mr. Gergick was fine with proceeding with investigation of the viability. Ms. Gosnell asked if they need to have the subcommittee meet with Mayor Haynie because they knew where the Commission stood with public art with Mayor Page. She said they could find out of they have equal enthusiasm with the new Mayor. Ms. Sweet said she spoke with Mayor Haynie at the parade and he mentioned that after the holidays he did want to meet as arts were very important to him. She said she was contacted by Council Member G.M. Whitley who wanted to meet also. Ms. Sweet said she thought they will have great support with the new Mayor and councilors. f. It’s Raining Art! Telephone (843) 884-8517 - Fax (843) 856-2180 www.tompsc.com  Culture, Arts & Pride Commission December 13, 2017 Page 8 of 11 Ms. Sweet said the College of Charleston student has never responded to her inquiries about the project and we are now looking at a spring rollout. She said she would like to get other schools involved such as Trident Technical College as they had approached the Commission wanting to get involved in something or possibly Wando High School to create the stencils. g. Take Pride Ms. Sweet said that this month’s e-blast was distributed the morning of the meeting. Ms. Meadows thanked everyone for helping with this. Ms. Sweet thanked Ms. Harvey for finalizing that and said she loved the new verbiage in the beginning of the email. She said the heading for the newsletter is, “Greetings, this monthly Culture, Arts & Pride Commission newsletter offers Mount Pleasant residents information on programs, services, projects and lifestyle choices that make us proud to call the Town of Mount Pleasant home.” Ms. Sweet said they are moving the e-mail blast to fall under the Marketing Committee as it does not need to be its own separate subcommittee. She said it will be more cohesive having all their information go out from one source. She said the December issue is about getting involved and volunteering. Ms. Harvey said if any of the commissioners did not get it this morning, they had not signed up for it and they should click the link to do so. Ms. Gosnell asked how many had subscribed. Ms. Harvey said a couple of hundred and they also get posted on social media. She said at the top it says, “please forward to friends who would be interested.” Ms. Gosnell said the pictures were great and she appreciates the amount of time it takes to put these together. Ms. Meadows asked if there were ideas for January. Telephone (843) 884-8517 - Fax (843) 856-2180 www.tompsc.com  Culture, Arts & Pride Commission December 13, 2017 Page 9 of 11 Ms. Sweet said for the future they were going to focus on a Town Department one month and the next month would be focused on a CAP programs or community-minded ideas, and they will continue rotating them. She said for January they talked about spotlighting the Police and February would be Beautification and Tree Grant. h. Marketing Ms. McGahey said they discussed as a new marketing tool to start incorporating more social media aspects to get their word and purpose out. She said she volunteered to start some imagery of their projects around Town and get them edited and sent to Ms. Harvey for the Experience Mount Pleasant and Town Instagram, Facebook and Twitter accounts. She said they will aim for two to three times per month. She said they will have short caption. She said on Instagram it could be imagery that is eye catching on people’s feeds. She said they should be able to capture some interest with their projects around town. Ms. Sweet said it will be great to have a social media presence for CAP. Mr. Harvey said they are due to switch out the Mayor’s Office Art so that has been posted. She said they can also feature sculptures and traffic boxes. Mr. Duncan said if they put a picture of the artist with the Mayor and tag it that would be good. There was discussion of using the turtle box during nesting season and the shrimp box during Blessing of the Fleet. Ms. Meadows suggested taking pictures of when the wrap is being installed. Ms. Harvey said she will find out when an install will be and go by to take pictures. i. Civic Pride Award Telephone (843) 884-8517 - Fax (843) 856-2180 www.tompsc.com  Culture, Arts & Pride Commission December 13, 2017 Page 10 of 11 Ms. Harvey said they should take this out and put under Beautification as they had already selected the recipient. 4. New Business Ms. Sweet asked about any update on Mayor’s Art. Ms. Harvey said the deadline is January 8 and they will select the 2018 artists on January 10. Ms. Sweet said some commissioners discussed the possibility of rotating the art quarterly instead of every two months, so that it would be changed four times per year and the art would be up for three months. Ms. Harvey said she looked back through the Minutes and it was never voted on how the program was going to work so she sees no reason why they cannot simply make that change to the guidelines. Ms. Harvey said a press release is going out and being posted on social media. Ms. Gosnell asked if they could look at the submission process and if they had a lot of great submissions they could possibly look at other areas of Town Hall for artwork displays. Ms. Harvey said that in the Committee Room there is a large wall that pictures could possibly go on and suggested they look into the possibility of expanding that program out into other parts of the Town Hall Building. Ms. Gosnell said they would not be just selecting artwork for the quarter they could look at all the art opportunities. Ms. Harvey said for the Mayor’s Art Program, they should select one per quarter at the January meeting and look at other areas of Town Hall that may be open for other displays. Ms. Gosnell asked who would decide from the building’s maintenance department to approve that. Ms. Harvey said when they meet with the Mayor at the beginning of the year as he suggested they could get direction from him on how he would like to see that happen. Telephone (843) 884-8517 - Fax (843) 856-2180 www.tompsc.com  Culture, Arts & Pride Commission December 13, 2017 Page 11 of 11 Ms. Harvey said the Culture, Arts & Pride Commission has a new Commissioner. She said Bren Romano Monterio was selected by Town Council the previous evening. She said she has been a resident of Coopers Landing for the past ten years. She believes her background will be an asset to the Culture, Arts & Pride Commission. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Language and International Trade from Clemson in 1990. She is a freelance broadcast and print producer. She spent 20 plus years in Miami and moved here ten years ago. In Miami she was in the multicultural creative field of Hispanic advertising specifically working as a broadcast and events producer. She speaks Spanish and has a background in global marketing, has brought creative projects to life, and she is excited to be part of the Commission. Ms. Sweet asked for her e-mail address to welcome her on board. Ms. Sweet said she is going to be working on a proposal and welcomes any input to take to Council to increase funding for the Culture, Arts & Pride Commission. Ms. Gosnell asked if Ms. Sweet knew how she would be breaking the increase down. Ms. Sweet answered in the negative. 5. Adjourn There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 12:43 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Karen Bedenbaugh, 12/13/17 Telephone (843) 884-8517 - Fax (843) 856-2180 www.tompsc.com