Public Art Commission

Salem Public Art Commission 98 Washington Street Salem, Massachusetts 01970 (978) 619-5685 KIMBERLEY DRISCOLL MAYOR Public Art Commission January 18, 2022, 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 6:34pm. • Roll Call PAC: Norene Gachignard, John Andrews, Kurt Ankeny Beauchamp, Carly Dwyer-Naik, Janine Liberty, & Catherine Bertrand in attendance. Absent: Emily Larsen. • Meeting Minute Approvals - December 16th meeting minutes- Carly’s last name spelled incorrectly, and “El Punto”’s name spelled incorrectly. With those corrections, Norene entertained a motion to approve the minutes. Motion made by Janine, seconded by John. Voting was unanimous. Motion approved. ● New Members and Terms - Welcome to the Commission Catherine! Catherine is known to the Salem Arts scene as she ran the Salem Theatre Company for a number of years, and Graduated from SSU with a Theater Arts degree. - Norene and Emily’s terms were renewed at the last council meeting. However, Emily Larsen is not going to renew her term with the commission, and will be stepping down from the Public Arts Commission, leaving a seat available for someone new. Julie would like to diversify the call for a new member, and is calling upon the commission to spread the word. - Carly and Janine’s terms will need to be renewed in September and November of this year. ● 2022 Public Art Plan Discussion - PAC receives $35,000.00, each fiscal year (July-June). $10,000.00 is earmarked for conservation and $25,000 for public art. - Currently we have $12,984 available for public art which we can use until June 30th. - We have been commissioned for flower boxes, the mural on artists row needs to be cleaned and sealed, and Scharf Mural on the museum place garage needs to be cleaned and maintained. $8,00-$12,000 will go towards the mural clean-up, with a stress on the higher end of that budget. - With the projected budget after the Mural Slam and the Sculpture Garden, we should have around $7,000 to play with. - Julie just got accepted into a cohort called “Making it public” in partnership with the MAPC and NEFA. PAC should be receiving a $10,000 grant to either combine with our projected $7,000, or use in a separate project. The grant needs to be used by the end of 2022. - Conservation for the parking garage/ Scharf mural: Could the garage help with the cost of cleaning? The city allocated certain money to go towards certain aspects of conservation and funding might be hard to move around, but it is worth an ask. May the city be able to lend the conservationist an electrician's bucket truck for this project? Possibly. if the city is willing to. Julie will ask. - The biggest question revisited was “How do we get more money for more projects?” - John brought up that in order to get our message out there, people outside of the commission need to get involved with these meetings, instead of just attending when something pertains to them. It would benefit the community to see how much this commission does and the good that it does as these projects aren’t all about murals and sculptures. It's our responsibility to get this message out, and focus on our marketing for the cause. Since the arts department is just Julie and her part time assistant, it's nearly impossible to get marketing accomplished, and other ways of spreading this message is necessary. - Julie mentioned putting out a call for public art, offering $7,000 to those who submit ideas. Pairing that with the money from the $10,000 grant is acceptable as well. The purpose of this conversation is knowing what we want to do with the money that we have now, and the best way to use it. ● Other Business- Current projects Charlotte Forten Park: We are looking to bring the project idea to the mayor to ask to match the funding to the grant if received. If the grant is not awarded, then there is a good possibility that the project will not be able to move forward this year. Old Town Hall: Currently in the design phase for the build out. Julie will be spending more than 50% of her time working on this. Building is anticipated to begin in November 2022, lasting until around July 2023. Master Plan: Norene suggested that as the master plan is now almost 10 years old as it was written in 2013, it might be a chance for the body to revisit it. As this commission is only a portion of Julie’s job, she suggests that she will not be able to facilitate a rewrite of the MP at this time. If this is something that the commission is truly interested in doing, these individuals will need to articulate the needs, wants, and asks to vocalize, and then bring it to Julie. John asked if we should be able to discuss the masterplan offline and what the priority is; what has been accomplished, and what our next project is. That is okay, as long as it's not deciding anything. Julie wants to respect the wishes of the members of this commission, and encourages them to discuss amongst each other what they would wish to do. Artist Row advisory group: Is anyone in this commission interested in reviewing the Artists Row  applications before a pool of finalists are recommended to the PAC. Kurt and Carly expressed their interest. John would like to be able to advise the group, not particularly to make decisions, but to give knowledge and insight with his many years of working closely with Artists Row. ● Public Comment- - No further discussion & no public comment. ● Norene motioned to adjourn and table the conversation until the next meeting when the commission will have a better understanding of what this commission is looking to ask for, or change, on the master plan . Moved by John, seconded by Carly. Meeting Adjourned at 8:09pm. 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.