Commission for the Arts

Agenda Royal Oak Commission for the Arts Meeting Monday, August 18, 2025, 7:00 p.m. City Hall, Room 122 203 S. Troy Street Royal Oak, Michigan 48067 Anyone planning to attend the meeting who has need of special assistance under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is asked to contact the city clerk’s office at 248-246-3050 at least two (2) business days prior to the meeting. Pages 1. Call to Order 2. Public Comment 3. Approval of Agenda 4. Approval of Minutes 2 5. New Business a. Mural Application - Hart and Harlow 5 b. Bent Brush 9 c. Community Benefits Ordinance Discussion 10 d. Youth Artist Laureate Program 6. Old Business 7. Subcommittee/Program Reports 8. General Announcements 9. Social Media 10. Adjournment  Minutes Royal Oak Commission for the Arts Meeting July 21, 2025, 7:00 p.m. City Hall, Room 122 203 S. Troy Street Royal Oak, Michigan 48067 Present: Jason Gittinger Melanie Macey Denise Reske Alesha Beistline Laura Bonnell Jodie Ellison Robert Wilson _____________________________________________________________________ 1. Call to Order The meeting was called to order at 7:01 pm. 2. Public Comment Paul Viall - Environmental Advisory Board came to speak to the group on the City's community benefits guidelines. The EAB would like to strengthen the guidelines. Would like to know if the group would like to add input to this process by coming up with a list of asks to be given to developers to ask them to commit to. Is asking the group to think about this or possibly add it to next month's agenda meeting. The EAB is eventually interested in making the guidlines into an ordinance. This could potentially be an avenue to the group creating a percent for art fund, which they've showed interest in in the past. 3. Approval of Agenda Approval of agenda with the addition of mural request as item d. Moved by: Denise Reske Seconded by: Laura Bonnell Motion Adopted 4. Approval of Minutes 1 Page 2 of 10  Moved by: Robert Wilson Seconded by: Alesha Beistline Motion Adopted 5. New Business 5.a Discussion about the Strategic Plan City staff presented a draft of a strategic plan based on the group's prior discussions for the group to move forward with. One suggestion was made for the second objective to include "To build & maintain better relationships with other arts and 'cultural' organizations within Royal Oak & the larger region." Staff will create a final draft that will be sent to the group to get OK'd before next month's meeting, and it will be presented to the City Manager and rest of City Commission. 5.b Update on the Youth Artist Laureate The Civic Foundation will award the $2,000 grant for the proposed Artist Laureate Program. The group is interested in potentially seeing if they can get some more time. where it says "visual piece" change to phsyical piece. For Term - change from "at least 1 year" to something about how the winning of a physical or performance piece will be given a place downtown for public display in a high traffic area. For funding - change to $2,000 prize in partnership with the Civic Foundation Staff will work on getting out the word and call for artists asap. 5.c Artist Laureate Contract Motion to recommend the City Commission approve of the Artist Laureate Contract. One correction to be made in the contract: #12 - Correct the spelling of the word indemnities Moved by: Jodie Ellison Seconded by: Robert Wilson Motion Adopted 5.d Mural Request Loraina Yaldo, who owns Garden Ave Florals at 4051 W. 13 mile road, came in to propose a mural on the side of her building. The group gave 2 Page 3 of 10  their feedback on her ideas for the mural so that she can come back to next month's meeting to present a rendering and get it approved. 6. Old Business 7. Subcommittee/Program Reports 8. General Announcements 9. Social Media Staff will put out the call for artists for the Youth Artist laureate program. 10. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 8:20 pm. Moved by: Jodie Ellison Seconded by: Melanie Macey Motion Adopted 3 Page 4 of 10 Page 5 of 10 Page 6 of 10 Page 7 of 10 Page 8 of 10  Office of the City Manager 203 South Troy Street Royal Oak, MI 48067 www.romi.gov Request to Display Bent Brush by Richard Gage Members of the Commission for the Arts: Richard Gage has reached out to the us to see if we would be interested in displaying the piece Bent Brush. The piece was located in Ferndale previously and the property owner asked for it to be removed so the piece was ultimately returned to the artist. He is inquiring if we would like to display the piece, but he is not interested in selling the piece to us or taking payment through a program like Art Explored. You can get a sense of the scale of this piece https://youtu.be/uMON-KH_l_w?si=RR- O2KvlJYWk6g8D Staff has not investigated what would be needed for installation or looked at potential locations. We have a few spots that could work, but we would need to evaluate options. Richard is also the artist of Rollen Release on 4th Street. This piece is installed and not under an agreement. If we were to pursue an agreement for Bent Brush we would also include this piece as well. If the Commission for the Arts would like to move this forward, staff would like feedback on the following terms.  Length of agreement – how long do we want to set this agreement for. The board has not wanted to have art left with us indefinitely in the past.  Cost of installation – Are you willing to reallocate funds from other programs to cover this cost? Because we would not own the piece staff would recommending taking on as few costs as possible to preserve programs that will fill the intended purpose. Staff is looking to see what you want to recommend for a direction, but no resolution is required. If you move forward, we would provide updates and a chance to review the contract. Page 9 of 10  Office of the City Manager 203 South Troy Street Royal Oak, MI 48067 www.romi.gov Community Benefits Discussion Members of the Commission for the Arts: At your last meeting, Paul Vial from the Environmental Advisory Board came to the meeting and talked about the Community Benefits Guidelines. EAB has been looking at how the guidelines could be improved and whether or not this body would want to have art included in revisions. Typically, the community benefits guidelines come into play during the development process as tool for decision makers to share what they would like to see from a developer who is seeking some type of variance from a regulation. You an find a copy of the current brochure at: https://www.romi.gov/DocumentCenter/View/34106/Community-Benefits-Brochure- At the last meeting you asked staff to add this to the August meeting to discuss and at this point you would be making a recommendation to EAB on what to include for art guidelines. Page 10 of 10