Culture, Arts & Pride Commission

CULTURE, ARTS & PRIDE COMMISSION Wednesday, March 14, 2018 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, Ann McGahey, Bren Romano Monteiro, Charles Williams, Rebecca Gosnell (via telephone) Members Absent: Stephanie Meadows Staff Present: Nicole Harvey Ms. Sweet called the meeting to order at 12:02 p.m. 1. Approval of Minutes from the February 14, 2018 meeting Mr. Williams made a motion to approve the minutes of the February 14, 2018 meeting. Mr. Duncan seconded the motion. All were in favor. 2. Public Comments None 3. Election of Chair & Vice-Chair Ms. Sweet said it was time to elect a new Chair and Vice-Chair. She said her term for Commissioner remains for one more year but the bylaws do not allow her to serve another term as Chair. She said her proposed slate of officers is Ms. Gosnell as Chair and Ms. Monteiro as Vice-Chair. She asked if there were any other suggestions. Ms. McGahey made a motion to nominate Ms. Monteiro to be Vice-Chair and Ms. Gosnell to be Chair. Mr. Williams seconded the motion. All were in favor. Telephone (843) 884-8517 - Fax (843) 856-2180 www.tompsc.com 4. Report from Subcommittees a. Artist Cultivation Ms. Sweet connected with the Mount Pleasant Artist Guild publisher and he is going to feature in the current newsletter about Culture, Arts & Pride (CAP) programs and inform their members that the Mayor’s Office Art program now accepts ongoing submissions throughout the year. Ms. Gosnell called in to teleconference during the meeting. b. Green Mount P Mr. Duncan said they were going to attend a Tree Ordinance Meeting on April 2 with the Planning Commission and Mr. Eddie Bernard. He said they are going to try to get a meeting with the Mayor to discuss his new tree initiatives. Ms. Harvey said they had an inquiry this week from a Homeowners Association (HOA) about applying for the Tree Bank Grant. She said Ms. Meadows had some information to share on the bees, but she was not able to be present. Ms. Sweet said Ms. Meadows had a meeting with the organizer of the local Bee Expo. She said CAP is going to work with them to explore the possibility of Mount Pleasant becoming a bee city. c. Town Hall Art Ms. Harvey said she has been working to secure permission to expand the Mayor’s Office Art program and Mr. Gergick, Recreation Director, has it in given it to the Town Administrator for review. She said in previous years the Mount Pleasant Artist Guild had hung art in various recreation facilities such as the Jones Center and the Park West Recreation Complex. She said lately there had been a smaller amount of art hanging on the walls and Mr. Gergick has asked if the the program could be extended to other Town facilities as well. She said she thought if they do expand it to have it not just open to the Artist Guild because there are quite a few other artistic groups in Town now also. She said her understanding was that we would accept submissions from other artists and allow them to have a contact card at the bottom of their art. She said CAP would not be involved in the sale of any art. Telephone (843) 884-8517 - Fax (843) 856-2180 www.tompsc.com  Ms. McGahey said she had a client that was constructing an urgent care center in north Mount Pleasant who was wondering if there was a way to get artists’ work hung in their building that people could purchase if they wanted to. Ms. Harvey said to connect him with the people from the Artist Guild or the Artist Collective. She said because it was a private business she did not think they should facilitate but can suggest a connection. Mr. Williams said Carolina Eyecare consistently has art in their offices from Tri-County area artists with artists’ contact information on it. Ms. Harvey said some restaurants in Town do the same. d. Sculpture Ms. McGahey said she gave the latest information and thoughts on fee and installation costs to Mr. Jarod Charzewski and Mr. Herb Parker at the College of Charleston and had not heard back. Ms. Monteiro said she thought he was out of town as she had been emailing about the latest stencils. Ms. McGahey said they had received one signed contract and are waiting on the two others. Ms. Harvey said they may or may not end up having to alter it due to some internal changes. Ms. Sweet asked if they had a date that they were targeting for the installation. Ms. Harvey said they usually install them in May or early June. Ms. Sweet asked if they had contacted the other two that are currently there to see if they want to donate those. Ms. Harvey said that one of those is still a current student and the other will have to be located as she no longer lives here but she does not imagine she would come back to get it. She said there was concern about whether her sculpture has weathered well and it may not be viable to relocate it anyhow. Ms. Harvey asked Ms. McGahey to remind Mr. Charzewski that he was going to inspect the green glass sculpture to see if it would hold up long term or be moveable. Telephone (843) 884-8517 - Fax (843) 856-2180 www.tompsc.com Ms. Sweet said she looks forward to having the new sculptures in place at the pocket park and finding a good public space for the extra one. Ms. Harvey said they need to determine which roundabout they want to have it in and whether in the center or outside, so we can reach out to South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) to secure an encroachment permit as they do for the traffic boxes. Ms. Sweet said one reason they picked the “chain” sculpture is because they thought it would be great for inside a roundabout because you could see through it. She said if they could get a list of the potential roundabouts, they could look at them to see which would be best. Ms. Harvey said there are several on Mathis Ferry Road and Rifle Range Road. She said some have more landscaping than others and one has a water feature. She asked everyone to pay attention as they drive these roads and make note because there are a lot of spaces that could work. Mr. Williams asked if there could be sculptures in the Farmers Market. He said it would be ideal if they could commission one for Mr. John G. Thornhill who just passed away. Ms. Harvey said they need to look at where they would install, and it is a large open space most of the time but 26 Tuesdays a year it is full of tents and vendors. She said they have to determine a location that would not impact the Farmers Market set up. She said she was concerned about vandalism which is why they did not put a crab there. She said they have had repeated problems with damage to tables and pillars on the property. Ms. Tracy Richter suggested that when they wrap the Simmons Street traffic box, perhaps they could look at including something in the art for John G. and other vendors. Ms. Harvey said that Fritz and other farmers/vendors have passed away as well. Ms. Sweet said they could do a memorial traffic wrap for some of the iconic figures from the Farmers Market. Telephone (843) 884-8517 - Fax (843) 856-2180 www.tompsc.com  Mr. Williams said that would be ideal and stand out to get them a lot of positive publicity. e. Emerging Arts Ms. Harvey said everyone probably remembers from the last meeting that Council Member G. M. Whitley is excited about bringing Palmettos on Parade which is a newer version of the crabs. She said with the crab project, while beautiful and wonderful, they were not able to do them out of fiberglass due to budget constraints and instead they did wooden crabs. She said there have been a lot of maintenance and vandalism issues. Ms. Harvey said Ms. Whitley worked with Ms. Amy Livingston to develop this new idea and they submitted an Accommodation Tax Advisory Committee (ATAC) application for a prototype of this project. She said she wants to work with the Commission and it would be facilitated through CAP. Her intent is to try to get businesses on board to share the cost, which the prototype will help accomplish. She said they are going to make one prototype fiberglass palmetto or some other figure representative of the Lowcountry and Mount Pleasant. She said the project will be all over Town, not constrained to Coleman Blvd. She said ATAC did approve $15,000 for the project, which will go to Council in April for final review and approval. If approved, it will become a CAP-managed item in the budget. Ms. Sweet said that will be another CAP program and they probably will have another subcommittee to lead facilitation. She said a Charleston nonprofit, Enough Pie, calls for ideas from the public for possible new art programs. She said that may be something they could do at some point either in the Take Pride newsletter or in some other form to ask the public for ideas. f. Traffic Box Art Ms. Harvey said all five of the traffic boxes are installed. She said today’s Take Pride e-blast included pictures of all 16 traffic box wraps. She said there are only two intersections left to be wrapped on Hwy. 17. She said there is a traffic box by the Holiday Inn at McGrath Darby but when one is driving towards the bridge it is blocked by telephone poles, but one would see it coming off the bridge at the light and if you were staying at the hotel. She asked Telephone (843) 884-8517 - Fax (843) 856-2180 www.tompsc.com  them to give it some thought to see if they want to wrap it. She said next year they will look at where they want to do the boxes outside of the Hwy. 17 corridor. Ms. Harvey shared pictures of the old and new bridges merged together at Belk Drive, the egret at Dragoon, the swirly palm at Stuart Engels, the palm tree at Hamlin, and the shrimp boat at the Bowman Road underpass. She said Ms. Martine Wolfe-Miller asked for a picture of the shrimp boat and submitted this program for a prestigious award. She said the City of Charleston reached out for information about our program as they would like to start something similar. Ms. Sweet said they are getting a lot of recognition from this program. g. Paint the Town Ms. Harvey said last month they submitted an ATAC application to help fund CAP art programs. She said it will primarily serve to get this program off the ground. She said ATAC did approve $24,000 but, like the palmetto project, it still must go to Council through the budget process. She said this program will not be inexpensive, but it will be high impact and they are excited to hopefully have that funding. h. It’s Raining Art! Ms. Harvey said they had ArtFest on Saturday. She said Ms. Monteiro, Ms. Sweet, and herself met at Towne Centre on Thursday and painted the first two poems. She made signs telling people what the program was, and they wet the poems with a garden sprayer at the top of every hour. She shared pictures and said that people loved it. She said that Towne Centre loves the program and said we could do as many as we want in various areas of the shopping center. Ms. Monteiro said she received two follow up emails saying the same and they loved it. Ms. Harvey said one was in front of the theater and the other is in on the corner near Barnes & Noble. She said Jarod did the stencils on the laser cutter. Mr. Williams asked if there was any credit saying the Town of Mount Pleasant. Telephone (843) 884-8517 - Fax (843) 856-2180 www.tompsc.com  Ms. Harvey said she, Ms. Monteiro, and Ms. Sweet had discussed having the college make one stencil strip that says Town of Mount Pleasant Culture, Arts & Pride Commission. She said that could be sprayed at the bottom of every poem. Mr. Monteiro said they also discussed whether CAP should have its own logo at some point and maybe make a contest out of that. Ms. Harvey said people stopped, asked about the poems, and were excited. She said she told the school-aged children that we would be coming to their schools in the future. Ms. Gosnell asked if they could discuss what the intern would be doing for Paint the Town. Ms. Harvey introduced the intern, Ms. McKenzie Provost, who is an art management student at the College of Charleston. She has put together a summary document, updated the submission request form, and the artist agreement form. She said the summary document will be used to show Town Council, businesses and others what CAP is doing and how we want to move forward along with some potential locations identified for the program to get started. Ms. Sweet asked Ms. Harvey to send it to the Commission members as well. Ms. Gosnell said her goal this month is to have timeline to work toward to keep the project on track. Ms. Harvey said the funds if approved by Town Council will be available July 1. Ms. Gosnell said she wanted to mention the comments from Council Member Tom O’Rourke and our support to move to a more defined process for public art but there may be a better time on the agenda for that. i. Marketing Ms. McGahey said she took pictures and forwarded to Ms. Harvey. Ms. Harvey said she sends the photos to the social media team and they get them out. She said the Take Pride newsletter is growing every month and the open rate has increased. She said it has gone Telephone (843) 884-8517 - Fax (843) 856-2180 www.tompsc.com from an 18 to 20 percent open rate to 52 to 54 percent since they targeted only people who signed up for it. Ms. McGahey said she had told Ms. Meadows that she would help proofread but did not this month. Ms. Harvey said she received it a little late, so she just made necessary revisions and got it sent out. Mr. Williams said he could also edit. Ms. Harvey said that Marketing is going well and CAP is getting more recognition throughout the community. Ms. McGahey asked which platforms were used to post about the sculptures. Ms. Harvey said she sent it to administrators for the Mount Pleasant Rec Instagram, the Town Facebook and Twitter, and the Experience Mount Pleasant Instagram. Ms. McGahey said she did not see it on that one. She asked if the Town’s Facebook page was the same as Experience Mount Pleasant. Ms. Harvey said there was several different ones. She said the Town Facebook page is the largest. She said it has 80 or 90,000 followers. Ms. Gosnell asked if it was possible to send CAP’s newsletter to the 80,000 with an opt out request again. Ms. Harvey said those followers on are on the Town’s Facebook page, but the MPRD email list has a total of 14 to 15,000. Ms. Gosnell asked if they could send the CAP newsletter to the Mount Pleasant Recreation database once every year or six months to ask them to sign up. Ms. Harvey said she had been having the MPRD marketing coordinator include a sign-up link in the eblast that goes to all Recreation users at the beginning of each month. She said her concern with sending a CAP eblast to the whole list is that for the three months they did they got some spam flags and that can also result in people unsubscribing. Ms. Sweet said the Historic Commission sends to all of Mount Pleasant and asked if there was a reason why CAP’s had to go just to Telephone (843) 884-8517 - Fax (843) 856-2180 www.tompsc.com  Recreation emails or can they send to all of Mount Pleasant as the Historic Commission does. Ms. Harvey said the Historic Commission newsletter is done by the Communications Office through a different Constant Contact account. She said Recreation has its own Constant Contact account and the Town of Mount Pleasant has its own. She said the lists cannot be merged. She said they asked them to stop sending general government emails to the Farmers Market list because a lot of people said they unsubscribed as they were getting too much other mail that they did not sign up for. Ms. McGahey said the last she saw on the Town’s Facebook page was a post about the Mayor’s Art Program. Ms. Gosnell asked if they are getting a link on the Recreation newsletter to go to CAP could they ask the Historical Society if they would do a CAP link and CAP could reciprocate. Ms. Harvey answered in the affirmative. 5. New Business Ms. Gosnell said she had been in meetings with the Recreation Committee, ATAC, and CAP. She said what is becoming clear to Council Members Mr. Tom O’Rourke and Ms. G. M. Whitley is that the momentum that they are gaining around public art calls for them to reassess how the Town’s infrastructure is going to support this process. She said Mr. O’Rourke has volunteered to put a meeting process together to evaluate how other town’s structures approach public art and see if there are any changes that might support what CAP wants to do in the future. She wanted everyone to know that as they are getting the funds behind the ideas it will probably take more staff support in a slightly different structure. Ms. Sweet said Ashville does a good job with their public art program and she will try to meet with them and get some ideas. She has been in contact with the City of North Charleston Public Arts Coordinator and they will meet in April to see how they structure their program and work together on ideas. Ms. Gosnell said she was excited to see the funding behind the energy of the Committee and excited about where they are heading. Telephone (843) 884-8517 - Fax (843) 856-2180 www.tompsc.com  Ms. Sweet said they did get approval from the Town Administrator to go to Council for approval to increase CAP’s budget from $10,000 to $20,000. Mr. Gergick said it does have to go to Council for final approval. Ms. Harvey said they had The Charleston Creative Community set up at ArtFest. She said they host a variety of artistic workshops at Seacoast Church such as leather work, phone photography, etc. She said Ms. Cori Torza was the contact. Ms. Gosnell said she wanted to thank Ms. Sweet for her leadership in being a great Chair and knows she will continue to be actively involved in CAP. 6. Adjourn There being no other business, the meeting adjourned at 12:43 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Karen Bedenbaugh, 3/14/18 Title VI Notice: The Town of Mount Pleasant fully complies with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and related statutes and regulations in all programs and activities. Town meetings are conducted in accessible locations, materials can be provided in accessible formats, and provided in languages other than English. The next regularly Telephone (843) 884-8517 - Fax (843) 856-2180 www.tompsc.com scheduled meeting of the Culture, Arts & Pride Commission is scheduled for February 14, 2018 at Town Hall, 100 Ann Edwards Lane. If you would like accessibility or language accommodation, please contact the Title VI Coordinator, one week in advance, at the Town of Mount Pleasant at 843-884-8517. Telephone (843) 884-8517 - Fax (843) 856-2180 www.tompsc.com