Williamsburg Area Arts Commission

AGENDA City of Williamsburg Williamsburg Area Arts Commission Wednesday, January 21, 2026 A meeting of the Williamsburg Area Arts Commission will be held Wednesday, January 21, 2026 in the 401 Lafayette Street, 2nd Floor Large Conference Room commencing at 9:00 AM. The purpose of this meeting is to make final funding recommendations based on the review of all applications from designated non-profit organizations. Commissioners should plan for an all-day meeting. Lunch will be provided. Page I. CALL TO ORDER II. ROLL CALL III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES a. November 12, 2025 2 IV. CHAIR REPORT V. STAFF REPORT a. FY27 Funding Requests - JCC & VCA b. The Artist Garden Grand Slam (Williamsburg Poet Laureate) 3 VI. SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS a. Forum Subcommittee 4-7 VIII. ADJOURN VII. NEW BUSINESS a. FY27 Funding Requests Review & Discussion Page 1 of 7  Williamsburg Area Arts Commission Meeting Minutes - Wednesday, November 12, 2025 Call to Order: Chair Tom Phelps called the meeting to order at 3:11 PM. Attending: Tom Phelps, Susan Corbett, Brandon Gist, Robert Leek, Melody Matheny, Robin Phillips, Sherri Phillips, Barbara Vollmer, Nick Vrettos, and City of Williamsburg Tourism Division Manager Joanna Skrabala. Approval of Minutes: Minutes of the WAAC meeting of September 17th, 2025, were approved as submitted. Chair Report: Tom Phelps • The Commission received a presentation by WHRO. Speakers were heather Mazzoni, Chief Content Officer; and from the WHRO Williamsburg office, Katharine Gillespie, Community Outreach, and Casey Tyler, Donor Relations. WHRO spoke about programs that showcase WAAC-area artists, followed by a Q&A discussion. • The FY27 Funding Request has been submitted to the City of Williamsburg. • Request for Photos: Liaisons are requested to ask their assigned groups if they would be willing to submit photos of some of their programs for the purpose of illustrating the Chair’s reports to the City and for the Community Leadership Service presentation. Staff Report: Joanna Skrabala • Joanna provided a status update for FY27 grant application submissions. The status will be provided weekly though December 1st, the deadline to apply. • Joanna provided a written reference / refresher on the FY27 grant application dates, submissions, and review process. Committee Reports: • FY26 Forum Committee member Robin Phillips reported on progress in planning the Forum for February 5, 2026. Rooms are reserved at the Stryker Center for the Forum. Pre-event survey questions to determine discussion topics are being developed based on past topics of highest interest gleaned from post-forum surveys. The surveys will be part of the registration process; deadline to register will be January 30th. Group assignments and initial rotations will be decided based on number of registrants, and groups attending. Other Business: • Commissioners gave updates on their grantees. Next meetings: • January 21st, 2026, Grant Review Day, in the conference room at the Municipal Center. Adjourn: The meeting was adjourned at 4:50 PM. Robin Phillips, Secretary, Williamsburg Area Arts Commission Page 2 of 7  GRAND SLAM Come and witness the best youth poets in the region compete for cash prizes! FEBRUARY 7, 2026 | 7:00 PM Hosted by Lacroy The Hennage Auditorium “Atlas” Nixon 301 S Nassau St, Free Admission! Williamsburg, VA 23185 Page 3 of 7  Williamsburg Area Arts Commission FY26 Forum Planning - “Arts & Allies: A Speed Networking Workshop” Thursday, February 5th, 2026 | 8:30 AM – 12:00 PM Task for all commissioners (ASAP): If you haven’t already, please send Melody a nice headshot photo of yourself for the poster. Stryker Center Setup Joanna has verified the number and type of tables available at the Stryker Center, so we know what we have to work with. Joanna also can help us to schedule a visit to see the rooms in advance for layout purposes, if needed. Melody will determine number of tables / number of people at each table once we have the registrations well along and have an idea what to expect. • The tables in 128 and 127 are all 6 feet x 2.5 feet. There are 10 that live in 128 (the rolling ones with the flip tops) and 18 that live in 127 (the heavy ones with folding legs). • Setting up: o For Room 128, there's nothing happening the day before, so we can have one or two volunteers set up ahead of time. o For Room 127, it looks like there's an evening event the afternoon before that doesn't end until 5:30; however, if we can send the layout ahead of time, Stryker staff can set up the tables for us after that event. o Any supplies we have, we can bring in and store them in Room 128 the afternoon before, too. Timeline ▪ By Thurs, 15 January: Registrations will open. The forms will include a fill-in-the-blanks question allowing attendees to list several topics of greatest interest / concern to their groups. We want ideally six topics of interest that we will pull from the registrations. (FYI, this is the registration link: https://2026-WAAC-Forum.eventbrite.com) ▪ Friday, 30 January: Registrations will close. ▪ On Monday and Tuesday, 2-3 February, Melody, Robin, and Joanna will work on: - Identifying the top concerns among attendees (minimum, the top 6 topics) - Pre-assigning attendees to groups for three rotations, each rotation lasting about 30 minutes. This would allow for good peer discussion of up to two topics per rotation. - Group memberships will change for each rotation, according to interests. - Create a site diagram and ensure we have enough colored table covers according to the number of tables needed. - Pre-print group assignments, a site diagram, and signs designating Room 1 and Room 2. - We need at least 2 commissioners to volunteer to be "Room Moderators / Timers." These commissioners will remind attendees at the 15-minute mark, then a 5-minute countdown to rotate to the next assigned table. Edited 1/13/26 Page 4 of 7 ▪ Wednesday, 4 February, is for finishing up any details and to pre-arrange furnishings in the classrooms as much as we can. ▪ Thursday, 5 February: Forum Day! ➢ 8:00, commissioners begin setting up tables for registration, refreshments, and finish setting up discussion tables in the two classrooms, following Melody's diagram. Melody will ensure that we have different colored table covers to designate the tables and make them easy to find. Put signs by the doors for Room 1 and Room 2. Melody will ensure that we have an easel and board to display our site plan (room and table arrangements). ➢ 8:30 Check-in for attendees: we need 2 commissioners to volunteer to check in attendees and make sure they receive the pre-printed page with group assignments, a site diagram, and schedule. Name tags will also be provided. Other commissioners can continue setting up the classrooms if more time is needed for that. ➢ 9:00 Opening remarks by Mayor (or other City Council official) and Chair in the Council Chambers, then welcome and orientation to the event by Melody. RUN OF SHOW for the roundtable networking: ▪ We need 2 commissioners as the two Room Moderators / Timers. ▪ All commissioners: o If we have enough commissioners for one at every table, commissioners can take notes on the takeaways of the discussions, and can help to maximize free-flowing discussion among attendees. The intent is for attendees to ask questions, share concerns, and share ideas for solutions among themselves, while we listen and learn. o If there are more tables than commissioners, then commissioners should hover near the tables and be available to assist or to prompt movement to the next topic or the next rotation. We will ask attendees to capture their major takeaways on paper that they leave for the commissioners to collect after each round of discussion. We will consolidate and use this information to produce our white paper for the City after the forum. Note, we may want to use pre-labeled (with table number, rotation number, and topic), oversized butcher paper for their note-taking, as the large sheets are less likely to wander off or be misplaced in the rotations. o Three rotations, 30 minutes per rotation, two topics per rotation (there may be duplication across groups, or not, depending on what people list as their concerns in the registration forms). Tables will be color-coded. Group membership will change from one rotation to the next. ➢ 9:30 Roundtable networking begins. ➢ 9:45, remind groups they are at the halfway point of Rotation #1. Time to move to their second topic. Edited 1/13/26 Page 5 of 7  ➢ 10:00. time to move to Rotation #2. The group membership will change as they move to their new table. At this time, Commissioners collect the notes of takeaways from each table, and put out new note sheets for the incoming group. The note sheets will be pre-labeled with topic discussed, Rotation number, and Table ID (the color of the table). ➢ 10:15, remind groups they are at the halfway point of Rotation #2. Time to move to their second topic. ➢ 10:30, time to move to Rotation #3. At this time, Commissioners collect the notes of takeaways from each table, and put out new note sheets for the incoming group. ➢ 10:45, remind groups they are at the halfway point of Rotation #3. Time to move to their second topic. ➢ 11:00, Roundtable discussion ends. As attendees return to City Council Chambers for Q&A and wrap up, Commissioners collect the takeaway notes from each table. These takeaways can be used to prompt discussion during the Q&A in which we hear what the attendees got out of this roundtable event. After Q&A, the note sheets will be passed to Robin to draft the white paper. ➢ 11:30, Networking mixer in the foyer. ➢ 12:00, event ends, commissioners help with cleanup. Materials  Publicity posters  Site plan/diagram poster  Handouts: pre-printed page with group assignments, a site diagram, and a schedule.  Nametags for attendees  Markers for nametags and pens for the registration table  Registration list for commissioners to check in attendees  Note-taking: pads and pens, OR at least 6 oversized, pre-labeled butcher sheets and markers for each discussion table (one sheet per topic, two topics per rotation, three rotations). These notes must be collected by the commissioners to produce the after- action white paper.  Various colored table covers to designate the tables  Refreshments as usual Edited 1/13/26 Page 6 of 7 Posters/Documents Edited 1/13/26 Page 7 of 7