Arts and Culture Commission Meeting

January 12, 2016 MINUTES OF A REGULAR MEETING URBANA PUBLIC ARTS COMMISSION APPROVED DATE: January 12, 2016 TIME: 4:30 p.m. PLACE: City Council Chambers, Urbana City Building, 400 South Vine Street, Urbana, Illinois MEMBERS PRESENT: Barbara Hedlund, Eric Jakobsson, John Morrison, Jason Patterson, Pat Sammann, Ginny Waaler MEMBERS ABSENT: Ilona Matkovszki STAFF PRESENT: Pauline Tannos, Public Arts Coordinator; Sukiya J. Reid, Recording Secretary OTHERS PRESENT: Elizabeth Goldsmith-Conley, Emily Knox 1. CALL TO ORDER, ROLL CALL AND DECLARATION OF QUORUM The Urbana Public Arts Commission was called to order at 4:30 p.m. by Ms. Sammann. Ms. Reid took roll and a quorum was declared present. 2. CHANGES TO AGENDA Ms. Tannos introduced new Public Arts Intern, Morgan White to the Commission. Mr. White gave a brief background on himself. . 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING The minutes of the November 10, 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  January 12, 2016 5. COMMUNICATIONS • Presentation by 2015 Urbana Arts Grant Recipient: Emily Knox from Makerspace Ms. Sammann introduced Emily Knox, of Makerspace Urbana. Ms. Knox gave a slide-show presentation on their 2nd annual, family-friendly event called the Heartland Maker Fest, formerly known as the Mini-Maker Faire that took place on October 3rd at Lincoln Square. This event featured almost 30 makers from all over Central Illinois, and encouraged a do-it- yourself spirit in the community. It included a variety of projects such as building rockets, creating dolls, making glass beads, designing board games, and constructing a quad-copter course. Ms. Knox stated that at least 2200 people attended the event. She stated that the next maker fest would be scheduled for the second week of October 2016. Ms. Knox thanked the Commission for the grant received. At the conclusion of the report, questions and comments from the Commission were heard. • Presentation by 2015 Urbana Arts Grant Recipient: Elizabeth Goldsmith-Conley Ms. Sammann introduced puppeteer, Elizabeth Goldsmith-Conley. Ms. Goldsmith-Conley gave a presentation on her project, The Rumpelstiltskin Project. In this three-stage project, students from Thomas Paine, Wiley, King and Leal compared two storybook versions of Rumpelstiltskin, watched a puppet rendition, and engaged in small group question and answer sessions. Ms. Goldsmith-Conley worked with the librarians at each school to prepare the students for the project. There were 2 performances at each school. One for K-2nd, and the other for grades 3-5. A total of 1,200 students and 100 staff members were present for these performances. She thanked the Commission for the grant received. At the conclusion of the report, questions and comments from the Commission were heard. • Presentation by 2015 Urbana Arts Grant Recipient: Kelly White from 40 North Ms. Tannos reported that she just received word that Kelly White would be unable to make it to the meeting. She stated that Ms. White’s presentation would be rescheduled for possibly the next meeting. • Presentation by Staff: Monthly Progress Report Ms. Tannos presented a new visually enhanced version of 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 Urbana Arts Grants Programs, Ms. Tannos reported that the Grants Program is now accepting applications until February 12, 2016 at 5:00 pm CST. Staff held a grant workshop to introduce the initiative to the community on Monday, December 21 at the Urbana Champaign Independent Media Center. The next grant workshop will be on January 22nd at the School of Art and Design at the University. 2  January 12, 2016 • With regard to Arts in the Schools, Ms. Tannos reported that the 2016 Arts in the Schools grant had been awarded to King School and Wiley School. Each received $1,500. Wiley’s project was titled, Shakespeare Alive for Elementary Students!, and King’s project is Seasonal Art Mural with Artist Glen Davies. • With regard to Artist of the Corridor, Ms. Tannos reported that Ellie Pinzarrone’s exhibition ended in November. Travis Hocutt is the current Artist of the Corridor, and his work is on display at the City Building and the Urbana Free Library until February 29th. An opening reception was held in the City Building lobby on December 18th. The next exhibition will feature student, Peggy Flavin. • With regard to Art in the Park, Ms. Tannos reported that a marble table and chairs set had been installed at Art in the Park, north of the City Building. This addition is part of John David Mooney’s design for the park. • With regard to Boneyard Park, Ms. Tannos reported that three plaques had been installed under the Race Street Bridge, explaining the public art component of the park. The City is planning another event there in April, similar to Urbana Celebrates the Boneyard! last year. Staff will again invite teachers from the local school district to submit artworks by their students, which will then be printed as banners and installed on the street pole banners around Race and Griggs Streets. • With regard to Art at the Market, Ms. Tannos reported that Staff will begin accepting applications for the 2016 market season in mid-January. This season will run from May to October. Application deadline is February 15, 2016. Six performers and six arts instructors will be selected in March. • With regard to Marketing, Ms. Tannos reported that City staff had been regularly updating the Public Arts Program’s Facebook page, which as of this meeting had 1,053 fans. She also stated that the Urbana Public Arts Twitter account, which could be followed @urbanapublicart, as of this meeting had 1,616 followers. She stated that the Program’s Instagram account, which was created last month with the username @urbanapublicarts, has 78 followers. Staff also manages a monthly e-newsletter, which currently has about 658 subscribers, and posts about upcoming events on community webpages and online calendars, such as chambanamoms.com and news-gazette.com. • With regard to Art Now!, Ms. Tannos reported that the November and December episodes featured Maria Lux and Christina Nordholm. In January, the featured artist is Jon Bryan, whose unique creations using old doorknobs tell stories of American history. Episodes can be seen at: http://www.urbanaillinois.us/artnow • For upcoming events, Ms. Tannos stated that the date for the next Public Arts Commission meeting was set for Tuesday, February 9, 2016 at 4:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers. • Discussion: Urbana Arts Grants Program 2016 Ms. Sammann introduced this agenda item. Ms. Tannos reported that Staff needed a couple of Commission members to volunteer to be judges. She stated that maybe Commission members who hadn’t served on a jury panel in the last year or so could be considered first. Ms. Tannos also stated that she would be sending out an email to see who would be interested. She then asked if anyone had any comments, or if they had heard any criticism about the Grants Program. Ms. Tannos stated that she made two changes for this cycle: the deadline is a bit later in 3  January 12, 2016 February instead of January, and she asked that applicants who may have a small fee associated with their performances include a letter to explain why the event would still be considered “free and open to the public” as the rules state, to eliminate any chance of disqualification. A brief discussion of the matter by members of the Staff and Commission ensued. • Discussion: Art Now! Ms. Sammann introduced this agenda item. Ms. Tannos reported that Art Now! is approaching 5 years and she thanked the Commission members who have been involved with the show for their hard work. She then asked Commission members to share what they do to make an episode happen. Ms. Sammann, Ms. Waaler, and Mr. Morrison shared some of their experiences while working on the show. They also offered suggestions for the show moving forward. One significant suggestion was if the show should remain at 30 minutes, or be shortened to 15 minutes. A brief discussion of the matter by members of the Staff and Commission ensued. Mr. Jason Liggett of UPTV joined the discussion to answer questions and comments regarding aspects of the show. The topic of keeping the show in the interview style like it currently is, or changing it to more of a documentary style was also discussed. Following the discussion, Ms. Tannos stated that she would send out an email to the Commission summarizing the discussion and to receive feedback on what direction to take moving forward. • Discussion: Stranger Reduction Zone Ms. Sammann introduced this agenda item. Ms. Tannos reported that the sculpture in front of the library, which the City is currently renting from the artist through the Public Art League, expires in fall 2016. She stated that the artist contacted her to see if the City would be interested in purchasing the sculpture for $2000 additional, after already renting it for $2000 for the past 2 years. Ms. Tannos asked the Commission for input regarding the criteria for a sculpture to become a part of the permanent collection. 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 Ms. Tannos announced that there would be a MLK commemoration event that Friday, January 15, 2016 in the U building at Parkland College at 4pm. She stated there would be other MLK events taking place until January 23rd. She also announced that Common Ground Gallery was accepting applications for artwork and asked that the Commission spread the word to any artists who may be interested. There is an opening reception at Art at the Y, for an art exhibition titled, Unforgotten, which is artwork revolving around gun violence. It takes place from January 28th through February. 4  January 12, 2016 40 North has their Boneyard Signature Image call which has been extended. She stated that next month would be the annual planning meeting. She also suggested that the Commission take a group picture at the February meeting. Ms. Tannos stated that she was passing around two thank you cards for former Commission members, Kevin Hamilton and Robin Douglas to thank them for their time served on the Commission. She asked that everyone sign them. Ms. Waaler announced an event called, Shaken, Not Stirred, hosted by the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Guild that would take place on February 6th from 6-8pm in downtown Champaign. 9. ADJOURNMENT Mr. Jakobsson made a motion that the meeting be adjourned. Mr. Morrison seconded the motion. With no further business, Ms. Sammann declared the meeting adjourned at 5:55 p.m. Submitted, Sukiya J. Reid, Recording Secretary 5