Public Art Commission

Salem Public Art Commission 98 Washington Street Salem, Massachusetts 01970 (978) 619-5685 KIMBERLEY DRISCOLL MAYOR Public Art Commission November 16, 2021, 6:30pm Meeting held via Remote Participation MEETING MINUTES Note: All proposals, presentations, and/or documentation to be reviewed and discussed at this meeting can be viewed online at the following link: https://bit.ly/SalemPACProposals • Meeting called to order at 6:36 pm. • Roll Call PAC: Norene Gachignard, John Andrews, Kurt Ankeny Beauchamp, & Janine Liberty in attendance. Absent Carly Dwyer-Nik, & Emily Larsen. Thu Ngan Han has stepped down from her position as of November 16th, 2021. Roll Call SCC: Allison Fiske, Ziggy Hartfelder, are in attendance. Matt Cornell, Jess Conger-Henry, Samuel Lim, Kendall Trey Walsh, and Melissa Stockbridge are absent. Thu Ngan Han has stepped down from her position as of November 16th, 2021. Council does not meet quorum. ● Meeting Minute Approvals- - October 19th meeting minutes- Norene Entertained motion to approve minutes. Motion made by Kurt, seconded by Janine. Motion approved. ● Important Notice for Salem Cultural Committee: December SCC meeting being held on Monday, December 13, 2021 at 7pm ● Important Noticefor Public Arts Commission: PAC meeting on Dec. 21st, should we move, cancel, or keep the date? Julie will email new dates, in order to accommodate absent members. As of December 2nd 2021, the Commission decided to change the date of the December meeting to Thursday, December 16th 2021 at 6:30pm. ● Salem Housing Road Map Invitation- The Salem Housing Road Map is a project being conducted through the planning department. Its purpose is to help Salem find the best way to meet its housing needs and shape the location, type and design of development. Will consider the best practices to help promote the diverse housing options that are sensitive to the community context and capacity. The mission is to discuss the needs of Salem’s families for Affordable housing. As part of the process, The Planning Department is giving multiple opportunities for Salem Community members to be involved and to help shape the recommendations into plan. The project team has launched a survey, has held multiple focus groups and will hold 4 public forums over the coming months. The first forum will be held virtually on  Tuesday, November 30th, 2021 at 6:30pm. For more information, email Cmoskos@salem.com. No additional questions. ● ARPA Funds Discussion Local Funding- ○ What are ARPA funds? - American Recovery Plan Act it is money that has been allocated from the federal government to states and then redistributed to cities, to cover the impacts of COVID. It is important to note, no decisions have been made for the use of City allocated ARPA funds outside of the funding of a City Staff position to facilitate the process and distribution of funds. ○ How much ARPA is up for grabs? - The City will receive a total of $35 million from this specific program (the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund – SLFRF (which was created by ARPA). The city of Salem will have the first $13 million in hand already with the rest coming next year. - The City does not want the City Council to be making determinations or directives for expenditures. This needs to come from the community as to how they want and need these funds to be spent. ○ How can ARPA be used to help the creative community? - Arts relevant/applicable allowable expense categories for the current funding include: Public Health; capital investments or physical plant changes to public facilities responding to COVID-19. As well as Negative Economic Impacts; cash assistance to unemployed workers, job training assistance, small business economic assistance, aid to non-profit organizations, aid to tourism/travel/hospitality, aid to other impacted industries, & other economic support. ○ What can we do to advocate for this money? - Local bucket, there are no specific earmarks for arts and culture funding. A few action items include drafting memos to represent the collective voice of the community, and experiences of the locals. The more voices that can be represented, the better. Attend the meeting and voice your opinions there. Write to your legislators on state ARPA how to write to your legislators to give a larger allocation to the arts and cultures center. Lastly, Please consider the 2nd and final public forum on ARPA funding. ○ Specific ask ideas can be found in the Sharepoint file attached created by Julie Barry. More specific information linked here: https://cityofsalem1.sharepoint.com/:w:/r/sites/PublicArtCommission/_layouts/15/Doc.aspx?sourcedoc=%7B5E3A8A1E-80 69-4509-B900-EF33DD4CFADB%7D&file=Overview%20of%20ARPA%20in%20Salem%20%26%20What%20We%20Can%20D o.docx&action=default&mobileredirect=true Questions and comments - How can we prove that this money will sufficiently aid the arts and culture community of Salem? - The Commission is worried about the demographics of those who took the survey, skewing the numbers to those who are affluent and not impacted by the pandemic. The arts were not considered to be top priority to those who took the survey. - How can we use this money to tie into infrastructure such as parks? How can the creative community be a part of every department in the city realistically? - Arts are the magnet that drives people to Salem. How can we convince people that Salem is benefiting from artists as they bring people to visit the city? - Can we ask for a percentage of art program? The public art commission could begin to ask the city to think about funding local artists to commission something with big projects, asking for small percentages to go to local artist projects. Asking for a percentage of the cost of a project might be overwhelming for city planners. - Remember that ARPA’s goal is to help the people that were greatly affected by the  pandemic. The arts were and are always the first to be cut when times get hard, as they are often seen as a luxury, i.e. going to see a show, going to festivals, buying art, ect. - How much money should we ask for? John Dobroski suggested 5%. 5% of the ARPA funds would roughly be $1.7million towards Salem Arts. - Julie suggested that artists will not usually ask for the amount they are worth to avoid being blacklisted. It has to be an industry led decision to go forward to ask for higher commissions. Without the collective artistic community rallying together these complaints will only go unheard. ● Other Business- -No other business. ● Public Comment- - John of Salem Cultural Council suggested that maybe funding asks should reflect the number of unemployed artistic community members affected by the Pandemic and in need of funding. - Salem Arts asked the commission not to forget the small businesses in this venture for funding, as they are in dire need of assistance as well. ● No further discussion & no public comment. ● Julie motioned to adjourn. Moved by John Andrews, seconded by Kurt. Meeting Adjourned at 8:20pm. Persons requiring auxiliary aids and services for effective communication such as sign language interpreter, an assistive listening device, or print material in digital format or a reasonable modification in programs, services, policies, or activities, may contact the City of Salem ADA Coordinator, as soon as possible and no less than 2 business days before the meeting, program, or event. Know your rights under the Open Meeting Law M.G.L. c. 30A § 18-25 and City Ordinance § 2-2028 through § 2-2033.