Arts and Culture Commission Meeting

October 13, 2015 MINUTES OF A REGULAR MEETING URBANA PUBLIC ARTS COMMISSION APPROVED DATE: October 13, 2015 TIME: 4:30 p.m. PLACE: City Council Chambers, Urbana City Building, 400 South Vine Street, Urbana, Illinois MEMBERS PRESENT: Barbara Hedlund, John Morrison, Jason Patterson, Pat Sammann, Ginny Waaler MEMBERS ABSENT: Eric Jakobsson, Ilona Matkovszki STAFF PRESENT: Brandon Boys, Economic Development Manager; Sukiya J. Reid, Recording Secretary OTHERS PRESENT: None 1. CALL TO ORDER, ROLL CALL AND DECLARATION OF QUORUM The Urbana Public Arts Commission was called to order at 4:34 p.m. by Ms. Sammann. Ms. Reid took roll and a quorum was declared present. 2. CHANGES TO AGENDA None. . 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING The minutes of the September 8, 2015 meeting were reviewed by the Commission. With no changes proposed, Ms. Hedlund made a motion to approve the minutes. Ms. Waaler seconded the motion. All Commission members present were in favor of approval and the minutes were unanimously approved as presented. 4. PUBLIC INPUT There was none. 1  October 13, 2015 5. COMMUNICATIONS • Presentation by 2015 Urbana Arts Grant Recipient: Joe Coyle from Urbana Artists Workshops Ms. Sammann introduced artist, Joe Coyle. Mr. Coyle gave a presentation on his project, Young Urbana Artists Workshop, which was a creative writing and music production workshop that took place at the Champaign County Juvenile Detention Center. He stated that the project consisted of him leading about 52 workshops at 2 hours each, at the Detention Center. The workshops were generally open forum, both small group and some one-on-one. There was some music production, but the majority of the project was focused on writing. The content of the workshops ranged from emotional experiences, police brutality, familial struggles, crime, gang violence, drugs and more. Mr. Coyle stated that he hoped to get some of the copies of the youth’s writing into public libraries, etc. He thanked the Commission for the grant received. At the conclusion of the report, questions and comments from the Commission were heard. • Presentation by Staff: Monthly Progress Report Mr. Boys presented the City staff’s monthly progress report to the Commission, outlining projects in process, recent requests and recommendations from the public, staff activities, and upcoming events. For an update on current projects, she reported the following: • With regard to the Urbana Art Expo, Mr. Boys reported that in the inaugural year, over 380 people, excluding artists and their assistants, attended the Urbana Art Expo at the Urbana Civic Center on Sunday, September 13th, from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. A total of 22 artists showed and sold their work at the juried exhibition, generating around $5300 in sales in one day. The City charged a commission fee of 10% to benefit the Urbana Public Arts Program. The participating artists were Langston Allston, Roberta Bennett, Don Briskin, Allen Creamean, Beth Darling, Fred Delcomyn, Heather Dent, Kathryn Fitzgerald, Caroline Goldsmith, Travis Hocutt, Suzanne Keith Loechl, Sam Logan, Maria Ludeke, Karissa McDermott, Christina Nordholm, Ellie Pinzarrone, Erica Robertson, Carolina Rodriquez, Lynn Hawkinson Smith, Michael Owen Thomas, Jana Uebele, Sendra Uebele, and Nathan Westerman. The Urbana Art Expo was presented by the Urbana Public Arts Program in collaboration with 40 North: Champaign County Arts Council, and was supported by the Urbana Park District and the Champaign Park District. The Expo was free and open to the public. The evening before, a reception was held to welcome artists to the Expo. • With regard to Arts Grants, Mr. Boys reported that the arts education grant, Arts in the Schools received seven proposals for the October 2, 2015 deadline. Up to $3000 will be awarded to projects involving schools in the Urbana School District #116. A jury consisting of Latrelle Bright, Barbara Hedlund, and Traci Pines was held on October 9th to select finalists to move on to the second round of the application process. Notification letters will be sent out within the week. The guidelines and application process for the Urbana Arts Grant will be released next month. 2  October 13, 2015 • With regard to Artist of the Corridor, Mr. Boys reported that Ellie Pinzarrone, local artist, art educator, and founder of Ellie Pinz Studio at [co][lab] is the current Artist of the Corridor. The next Artist of the Corridor is currently being decided on for an installation date in the second week of November. • With regard to Art at the Market, Mr. Boys reported that on September 12th, Art at the Market featured a hula hoop-making workshop with Braswell Magic. Rebecca Rego & the Trainmen were scheduled to perform, but they unfortunately had to cancel due to a family emergency. Though normally Art at the Market only runs from May to September, on October 13, Weiskamp will lead a family-friendly printing workshop as well as a rescheduled performance by Rebecca Rego & the Trainmen. • With regard to Murals on Glass, Mr. Boys reported that a dedication event to honor both Phil Strang and Nathan Westerman, whose artworks were selected for the current cycle of Murals on Glass, was held on September 4th. Both artists, several City Staff, and about 10 guests attended. • With regard to Art Now!, Mr. Boys reported that the October episode of Art Now! featured Peter Bodnar, who is a painter and drawer. Episodes can be seen at: http://www.urbanaillinois.us/artnow • With regard to Marketing, Mr. Boys reported that City staff had been regularly updating the Public Arts Program’s Facebook page, which as of this meeting had 1,009 fans. She also stated that the Urbana Public Arts Twitter account, which could be followed @urbanapublicart, as of this meeting had 1,551 followers. She stated that the Program’s Instagram account, which was created last month with the username @urbanapublicarts, has 66 followers. Staff also manages a monthly e-newsletter, which currently has about 650 subscribers, and posts about upcoming events on community webpages and online calendars, such as chambanamoms.com and news-gazette.com. • With regard to Fundraising, Mr. Boys reported that several staff members in the City’s Community Development Department, including Public Arts staff, have collaborated with staff and board members of the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center (UCIMC) to submit a proposal for the National Endowment of the Art’s Our Town grant program. The application was submitted on October 8th for the project titled, Open Scene: Debuts of Youth’s Views in Downtown Urbana. Grant decisions will be made no sooner than April 2016. The grant project description is below: To support Open Scene: Debuts of Youth’s Views in Downtown Urbana, the Urbana- Champaign Independent Media Center and the City of Urbana will partner together to create a plan for reclaiming the city’s center through arts-based dialogues that directly incorporate the experiences of youth. These creative engagement and planning processes will be anchored at IMC’s emerging cultural facility located in the historic post office building in the heart of downtown. Working with artists from varied disciplines, youth project leaders will interface with stakeholders to explore and express around questions related to key information and cultural needs of Urbana residents including youth, cultural workers and artists, people of color, new Americans, the unemployed, elders, and the disabled. In turn, youth project leaders and stakeholders will co-facilitate community-wide arts-based civic dialogue workshops. Showcases of creative work rendered will be open to the public throughout the process. 3  October 13, 2015 • Mr. Boys reported that Visit Champaign County hosted a Public Art tour of Champaign- Urbana on October 12, 2015 for a team of people from Rockford, IL including the president and CEO of Go Rockford, as well as representatives from their local Public Arts groups, park district, and local arts council. • For upcoming events, Ms. Tannos stated that the date for the next Public Arts Commission meeting was set for Tuesday, November 10, 2015 at 4:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers. • Discussion: Urbana Art Expo Ms. Sammann introduced this agenda item. Mr. Patterson and Ms. Sammann shared comments on the success of the Expo. They stated that it was a great turnout with lots of positive feedback. A brief discussion of the matter by members of the Staff and Commission ensued. • Discussion: Arts in the Schools Ms. Sammann introduced this agenda item. Ms. Hedlund was on the jury and shared comments of her experience with the Commission. She stated that they there was a pretty good turnout of applicants and that they chose 3 of the 7 proposals. Mr. Boys reported that the main grant cycle for next year would need to be discussed soon. A brief discussion of the matter by members of the Staff and Commission ensued. 6. NEW BUSINESS There was none. 7. OLD BUSINESS There was none. 8. ANNOUNCEMENTS Mr. Patterson announced that he would be having a show at Nych Gallery in Chicago, the second Friday in February 2016. He stated that all Commission members are invited. Ms. Hedlund announced that there would be a Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra opening concert on Saturday, October 24th at the Krannert Center. 9. ADJOURNMENT Mr. Morrison made a motion that the meeting be adjourned. Ms. Hedlund seconded the motion. With no further business, Mr. Morrison declared the meeting adjourned at 5:15 p.m. Submitted, Sukiya J. Reid, Recording Secretary 4