- I call this meeting to order. Thank you all for being here. It's good to see you. So moving on to,
- I guess, the second agenda, but the first thing that we're going to discuss are the minutes for the
- August meeting have been distributed in red. Are there any sort of noted corrections to the minutes?
- So yeah, Betsy did a great job of... Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, sorry you had to watch me cry. Yes. Yes, no,
- I... I think it was great. Okay, good. Okay, excellent. I'm gonna go ahead and motion to approve the
- minutes. Can I get a second? Second. Thank you. So all in favor of approving the minutes, say aye. Aye.
- Any opposed, say nay.
- All right, the minutes are approved. Thank you again, Betsy. And now Holly with a quick update on the
- BAC financials. Hello, everyone. No changes since last month. Always the folks.
- changes to our funds since last month. Of our total allocation, we've still just spent a total of $62,983
- from our arts project grant cycle. We ended up awarding 57 artistic advancement grant applicants. We
- voted on that at last month's meeting. Woohoo! All of those applicants have been notified, and we'll
- be getting out the MOUs in the next couple of weeks. And then we will be issuing those payments. And
- once those payments get out,
- we will see another decrease in those funds. I think we allocated between $70,000 and $80,000 for that
- cycle, which was what we had planned on. I'll let Leila talk about how competitive and difficult it
- was during her.
- grant report. So we've still got one more grant cycle to go. That's our operations cycle. That closes
- next Friday. And we have a nice chunk of money that's a mix of City of Bloomington general fund and
- local income tax funds and Bloomington Urban Enterprise Association funds to cover those applications.
- I'm looking forward to another exciting grant review session for those. As you know, in addition to
- our funds we
- for grants every year. We've got a couple different pots of money. We've got $5,000 allocated for a
- couple more public art and artistic advancement development workshops that will happen later this year.
- And we've got right now $16,500 allocated for public art grants. That's a fund that we've let
- The Public Arts Subcommittee kind of have reigned over and we will be talking about spending that money
- in this Friday's Public Arts Subcommittee meeting. I am happy to answer any questions about money at
- this time. Great. Okay. And Holly, back to you for agenda item number three, updates from the city.
- of fun month. The only thing I'm going to report is so the budget hearings for the city of Bloomington
- happens in August. No big surprises over all city departments were asked to make cuts just given what's
- going on with state bill SE1.
- Luckily, there were no cuts proposed to the arts budget, so we're very lucky about that. Yeah, I think
- that's a good sign. Our administration understands the value of the arts. Yay. And so that information
- has been presented to council, and now council still has to vote on the budget. I never want to see
- everything that's going to be
- fine until it's voted and approved and the state said yes, which will happen at the very end of this
- year. But I haven't had any questions from council about any arts lines, and I take that as a good sign.
- So I will just keep you all posted.
- as that approval process moves forward. And so basically, as long as everything is approved, I will
- have the same amount of money for grants as I did this year, and the same amount of money for public
- art projects as I did this year as well. And some budget lines, we give annual allocations to both the
- Buskirk Chalming Theater and Constellation Stage and Screen, who runs our Walden Arts Center, because
- those are city-owned facilities, and we just want to make sure that they can
- operates and also keep up with inflation and other things. That's all I have for city updates right
- now. OK. For our next agenda item, I'm happy to introduce Carol Rhodes and Henry Leck from Pillar Arts,
- the group formerly known as the Arts Alliance of Greater Bloomington. They're going to share a bit about
- of the work that they do. And then there will be some time for any questions or comments from commissioners.
- So I give the floor to you all. Thank you all for learning about us today. I'm going to start out basically
- with a mission, give you some history in where we are today. The mission of Pillar Arts is to strengthen
- and sustain the arts by connecting artists, cultural organizations, and artistic endeavors with patrons
- and the community.
- Next slide. We do have a vision where we envision a safe environment where artists feel empowered and
- supported in an involving and engaged arts community. And Henry will talk about the history next, and
- you'll learn how we do this. So there was a Bloomington Area Arts Council that folded because of financial issues.
- 2010, this Arts Alliance of Greater Bloomington was formed. It's a large group of practicing artists
- and arts advocates. About 2011, they became incorporated. And then in 2012, they actually changed from
- a steering committee to a group representing certain art genres.
- Then in 2014, they received a 501C3 not-for-profit status. Next. So in 2016, then they officially created
- a board of directors and were voted to replace the steering committee that had been there before. So
- there are a lot of activities that went on between 2016 and 2021. But in 2021, a new event occurred
- where we rented a space in the
- College Mall. It was called Art Beat. And that was opened until the COVID closures occurred. Then we
- moved over to another space called the Arts Alliance Center. In 2022, Arts Forward, which is an advocacy
- group merged with the Arts Alliance of Greater Bloomington, created a unified organization to support
- artists and be advocates for performance space and development. And in 2025, which has been a very full year,
- The Byhand Gallery was ready to close. And to prevent it from closing, we took over the management and
- ownership of Byhand Gallery. And then from there, we started looking at rebranding Pillar Arts. Next.
- Yeah, from the outset, from the very beginning, Arts Alliance of Greater Bloomington, now Pillar Arts,
- identified six distinct art groups, and our board has been made up of representatives from those six
- forms of art, visual arts, music, literary arts, dance, theater, and film galleries and venues. We realize
- that arts are changing, however, and we're starting to adapt to
- new technologies and a mixture of these multimedia kinds of things. So we are hopefully adapting to
- the times. And on to Henry. Next. So recently, actually in February, we were evicted from our space
- at the Arts Alliance Center because we were paying low rent and had to make the decision, do we close
- or do we move? And they said, well, we have the Victoria's Secret space.
- which was near demolition condition. It was in horrible shape. It had been a laser tag place painted
- bright blue, yellow, and orange. And there was stuff all over. The pipes were leaking. The thermostats
- weren't working. And so we've invested about $10,000 in remodeling and updating that. And so now we've
- more than doubled our size. This is about 8,900 square feet. That involves about six galleries, an X
- special exhibit space, and a performance workshop space.
- So we're now at right near Target store, but we're kind of at the end of the mall. Less traffic, but
- more space. Next. So this space is all volunteers supported. We do pay a contractor who manages the
- two galleries, but galleries are run by volunteers. And right now it actually is a challenge for us
- to stay open every day because the space is so big. We have to have two volunteers to manage all the space.
- We're working on that. There are currently 48 artists that display their goods in that space. We have
- then monthly exhibits going on. And there is a jury process for artists to be in there. But there's
- also a performance space, which is now 30 foot by 30. And we can seat about double the number of people
- we could seat in the other space. Next. In February of this year, we acquired filler arts by hand.
- They were ready to retire their downtown in Fountain Square. And now Byhand is part of Pillar Arts.
- Byhand Gallery was established in 1974 as an artist-owned collaborative. So it's been in Bloomington
- for over 45 years. And it showcases more than 100 local and regional artists.
- By acquiring Pillar Arts by hand, we now can participate in Gallery Walk on Fridays, which is very good
- for us. And we also have artwork in the Commons area around the fountain. The owners are still involved
- and advising and a good relationship all the way around. So we're very happy to have By Hand Gallery next.
- So the question, oh, there's one more slide for you. Well, actually, that is what I said. So why pillar
- arts? We have a little double thing going on there. We had looked at our logo. It's Arts Alliance of
- Greater Wilmington. It was in script. Younger people don't read script anymore. And it had a heart.
- And it kind of identified us as being an old people Sunday afternoon.
- white hair group, and we wanted to relate more to the ongoing edge of art in our city. So we went back
- to try to redo the logo. And then we decided, Arts Alliance of Greater Bloomington is too many words
- for a logo. So we have on our board Ryan Irwin, who's done a lot of the logo work in town, hot scotch
- and various places like that. And we went through a long process of finding words where we could get a URL.
- space, and would be representative for us, and came up with the word Pillar. So Pillar Arts is now our
- new name. We're still Arts Alliance for Greater Bloomington. We're a DBA of Pillar Arts. And one of
- the things we had to do was rebuild the website. So we now have a Pillar Arts. It used to be
- BloomingtonArts.org, but now it's PillarArts.org website. It was launched in July of 2025. And as you
- can see, it has
- A lot of improvements to it. There's a bi-weekly rotation of member spotlights in it. We've incorporated
- the directory into the site. We've had an interaction home page, which connects viewers of all kinds
- to the resources. Our audience are artists and art organizations, community members, learners, supporters.
- So we've tried to modernize the site. And proud to say, over 3,300 individual pages views have occurred
- since we've launched the site. And 95% of those site visits
- are new or not returning. Next slide, please. We have a number of books. OK. And then we have the arts
- directory. Excuse me. I'm going to lose my voice. Go ahead. We do have an art directory, which has
- consists of artist members, artists who are not members of the organization, organizations. Basically,
- we have individual artists and organizations. And you don't have to be a member of Pillar Arts to belong
- to the directory. So all artists are able to advertise there.
- It is a guide to the people and places, creativity and limited. Yeah, and we have about 53 artists on
- it and non-members are on it. There are about 38 organizational members and about seven non-member
- organizational members. So the directory is growing and building and becoming more effective. Next.
- Okay. We have some online resources. We have a bi-weekly newsletter that has more than 1,300 subscribers.
- And we have a blog that's fairly active. Next. We also have a local and regional events calendar. It
- started as a small endeavor a few years ago, and it's become very, very popular. Anyone can enter any activity.
- about the arts in our events calendar. And according to our executive director, and I don't know exactly
- where he got this data, it is the second most popular calendar in the area. So I advise you look at
- it. It's just chock full of good things to do. Next. So in addition to having galleries, we support projects.
- and different activities, for instance, Paint Bloomington, the youth arts camp we did last summer. We
- support the Bloomington Portrait Group weekly. We were a supporter in Godzilla Weekend. We have a program
- called Pilot Lights Incubator Program, which has been going on with Charles, meeting regularly online
- with various innovators. And we've been actively working with IU Creatives in the IU Innovates Program,
- creating a networking club on campus. Next.
- You can find us on all the usual social media suspects except for X. So we're on Facebook, Slack,
- Blue Sky, and Instagram. Well, Slack is actually for internal communications. So Facebook, Blue Sky,
- and Instagram. You can find us there. Next.
- So we know that we get support from the Bloomington Arts Commission. So I didn't add this in to this
- slide. But we've had support in the past from the Indiana Arts Commission and from the Microsoft 365
- nonprofit grant that we received. So we rely on long-term support from granting organizations, as well
- as income from our members and from the galleries. Next. Next. We have a number of sponsors. These are
- supportive members that we've
- relied upon. Next. Thank you for listening. Open for questions. Yes? This is most impressive, extraordinary,
- what you've done for Bloomington in terms of helping to gather some faltering, not to their own fault,
- but faltering organizations and making something really exciting. That's great.
- I am wondering whether there's an opportunity for you to do some more than you're already doing, some
- exchanges of partnerships of co-advertising or co-projects with Constellation, with the Busker Chivalry,
- or other organizations. It seems like there's lots of ways to get your word out, and you'll be in a
- good spot to help
- Those organizations can do the same. I can respond to that. We have a close relationship with Constellation.
- They actually have a display in our gallery. And they give us half a page free in their playbill. And
- Gabe was a leader in Arts Forward. So we've done three or four panel discussions. And Constellation
- has given us free use of that space. So we've done that three or four times. We have a couple more that
- we're looking forward to doing. With Busker Charley, we just co-sponsored the Godzilla
- weekend with them. So we do work with those organizations pretty regularly. Great. Thank you. Are there
- any sort of like exciting things on the horizon or like, I don't know, either like events or updates
- or other? I mean, it's been an eventful year so far. I'm just wondering what's... Well, we have a lot
- planned, but we've been a little dug under with
- taking out by hand and rebonding that space and opening that up and rebranding it all. But we have a
- very active programming committee. And there are performances happening in the space every weekend,
- practically. And we have workshops planned. There's a regular belly dancing class going on there and
- Tai Chi and various things like that. So it's been very active.
- Big things coming up? Not so much. It's been a big year. Really intense three months. Yeah, we're really
- increasing our performances and we have performances now just about weekly and people are approaching
- us to use the space. The other thing is that we've made a decision philosophically and practically that
- Our space is free to any not-for-profit in the city. And we're not charging rent. For instance, the
- Jewish theater has their board meetings in our space. And if IU students want to come and use the space,
- it's open and free for use in the community. Do you host any ongoing classes or workshops? We have regular
- workshops happening. We have a couple scheduled coming up, oil painting workshops. OK, that's good to
- know, because I've had a couple of people recently ask me for a space for like,
- like ongoing workshops or something that would potentially be on a weekly basis for like a season basically.
- We can count on that. OK, great. Thank you. That's an awesome resource.
- We'll work hard to get our support grant application done this week. Thank you, everybody.
- I should have asked if they had something on their website that talks about the space rental.
- I'm pretty sure they do. Yeah. Well, did you mean the performing space is available for the workshops?
- Mm-hmm. I think it's a multi-use space. I haven't been to the new space yet, but I'm kind of envisioning
- it similar to the way their old available space worked. You could do it for many different types of
- things. Oh, yeah. And it does stay here. It kind of has classes. OK, they do have it on their website.
- Awesome. I just wanted to find the link.
- we've got to hear from them. All right, moving on to agenda item number five, an update from the new
- interim public art chair, Christina. So in light of transitions and just Natalie being, you know, leaving,
- so I'll be stepping in as interim while we do this transition.
- I don't have a lot of announcements for today. I just want to say that on Friday we have our public
- arts subcommittee meeting here. And then also I'll be touching base with the people who are involved
- with the task force. Just look out for that email this week. So that's really all I had. Agenda item
- number six and updates from our grant subcommittee chair, Leila.
- Hey, everyone. Yeah, just to reiterate, since it was brought up, I think we outlaid $68,500 for RSC
- Advancements. It was, yeah, a lot of money, and it was still rather incredibly competitive. We funded
- just over half, $55,000.
- and a half percent of the applicants. And even that, getting to that level of that funding ratio, it
- was pretty tough. We had to outlay additional funds. But all worth it. And it leaves us with still a
- sizable amount of cash for operations. I don't recall the exact number. But ideally, operations tends to be
- A bit more straightforward because the eligibility for it is pretty, the bar is, oh, hello, wow, they're
- here already. They just left. Pillar Arts, welcome back, Pillar Arts. The bar for that is pretty high.
- You have to be a 501c3 non-profit, and we ask for approval of that. Anyway, so that, as Pillar Arts
- mentioned, that application is closing pretty soon, and so,
- look for semi-mails from me about sorting out a time to review those. I don't want to spend as much
- time as we needed last time just because typically we just get less applicants because it is just there's
- a smaller eligibility pool for it. So that will be my last grant cycle as chair and on the actual commission. So yeah.
- That's really it for now, I think. I think given that my time has come to a close, I will try to use
- one or two of those regularly scheduled meetings that I typically cancel to just try to gather some
- feedback and reflections from everyone about the process, possible improvements, things that we can
- do going forward to just, yeah, to improve the grants process.
- Also, if you are a grant reader, we may ask you to talk to some of the folks who wanted feedback on
- their applications. We always offer feedback. Try to do that by Zoom. You know, try to make it pretty
- quick, pretty casual. And we do our best to kind of remind you
- share notes and always notes on what the decision was and why it was made. Typically, people ask for
- feedback when they don't get the grant, almost always. So those things aren't. I mean, they can be somewhat
- awkward, but they're not unto me antagonistic. I don't know. Everyone else seems to have a great time
- with those. I don't enjoy those as much, but that's just because I'm very shy.
- Yeah, so hopefully, you typically will be asked if you're a first reader. And you don't have to take
- them. We can reassign them to someone else if you feel like, for some reason, you just can't do it.
- I think that's everything, right? Yeah. The only thing I would maybe add is that with those meetings
- that you discussed, I think we are currently planning to do one on September 19. Is that still correct?
- Yeah. I'd like to hold that meeting for those of you who can make it.
- It's here in person. Yeah, 12, 15. It's at noon. That's just, yeah. So I'll send out a reminder for
- that and collect some maybe like agenda items. That'll be, you know, it'll be casual, but it'll just
- be sort of a quick discussion and feedback session for all of us. Cool. That's all, I think. Thank you.
- Thank you, Leila.
- Any questions on either public art or grants before we move to comments from the chair? Okay great.
- Okay I got a couple things here and then we are gonna I think likely have some some discussion today
- about some of the vacancies that we have.
- On the lighter side, I'll just give a quick reminder that we have a farewell event for Suzanne this
- Friday, 6 to 8. We're meeting at Food Truck Friday. I think the idea is that it's going to be pretty
- informal. It's going to show up, grab something from one of the trucks. We'll just all hang out at one
- of the tables. And yeah, just hang out and chat. So it's just the at Switch Art Park? At Switch Art
- Park, yep. I pulled it up. I saw an ad for it today.
- Rock-E-Bassoon will be playing, the electric bassoon rock and roll group. Yeah, it's multiple bassoons
- rocking out. And then the Splattertones, which is a pop-pop and instrumental jazz group. So yeah, quite
- a lineup. So and then in general, I will say that both
- both the mayor's office and the city council are currently considering applications for the vacancies
- that we have currently. We have not received any updates on those at the moment, but like we did have
- a number of highly qualified people apply for those. We've made a couple of recommendations. We will
- see what they do, but yes. I know it's approved by them.
- So do you make the, I mean, how do you? So those applications come in, and I believe, I know that Holly
- sees them. OK. But also the mayor's office and the council also see those. And then I think if there
- are folks that we see on there that we know and we think will be a good fit, we will make recommendations
- that, like, hey, we would recommend these folks. And then they do with that what they will.
- I have several people to apply, her and Angie Caldwell. Do you have any sort of thing about IU people?
- I know IU is represented here, but in other words, do you have a limit of the number of IU people?
- Do you try to stick to community people? I don't know that there's a formal policy or even a goal for
- that. I think it's just sort of a general sense that, yeah, there should be a balance. A balance. Yeah.
- And I feel like right now we have a pretty good balance of that. That's definitely something we try
- to be cognizant of, but there's no municipal code.
- That we don't. And then there are informal bylaws that we didn't include in anything like that. How
- many people have been hired so far? We get applications on a rolling basis. But sometimes when people,
- so there's only, if you all remember, there's like one application to be on
- every commission. And so you can check boxes of which commission you want to be on. And so a lot of
- people check like all the boxes. But yeah, yeah. You have to look at all of those for the arts. Yeah,
- yeah. But it's really quick because it becomes pretty apparent pretty quickly, like what people are
- really like looking to do. And so I think it
- It makes it really easy for us to be able to say, OK, this person is a good fit, whereas this person
- might be a better fit for a transportation implant, for example. But I would say that it kind of waxes
- and wanes, I would say, at any given point in time.
- three to five pretty excellent candidates. And some of those are based on conversations we've had with
- community members. And some are just people just kind of out of the blue pop up as someone interested
- in doing it. And I think it's like, unfortunately, this is one of the rare times where we have open
- seats. And we'll have a couple more at the beginning of 2026.
- A lot of times, though, when we're just full up, we're getting all these amazing applicants, and there's
- just nothing we can do about it. So generally, as we're having conversations with those community members,
- we just say, hey, we see you. We think, ultimately, you could be an excellent candidate when seats open
- up. And we'll just kind of reduce the conversation with you when those seats do open. I asked Austin
- White to apply, too. I thought he would be a good fit. Yeah. Yeah. He has applied. Yeah, good. Great.
- Hope it gets to good people. Can I just mention one thing about Natalie leaving? Sure. I was wondering
- why there wasn't a consideration that she could at least work out her term. And because we have vacancies,
- and we need her expertise on that, you know what I mean? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. But the point
- is, I mean, that would be a way
- compromise on this thing. But that was that ever brought up or? I'm going to let you so that actually
- transitions into my next point a little bit. I know that there is an individual commissioner, I believe,
- Rob, Rob sent something to to the mayor's office, kind of proposed like suggesting that. And then so
- I also I wrote to the
- I wrote to the city council subcommittee on processes, and I did so in my capacity as chair, sharing
- a few items that came up at our last meeting. I told them that we had a disruptive incident involving
- the city code, and that we were interested in ways to increase our ability to recruit and retain high-level
- engaged people. I mentioned both this idea
- That you brought about like yeah, if someone moves out of the city but stays in the county if there
- if there could be sort of a a grace period for them to leave I mentioned that I also mentioned
- the possibility of like having one to two seats be sort of like Designated as like could be filled by
- someone who lives outside the city limits but still in the county
- So yeah, yeah, proposed a couple of those ideas. So I don't believe we've... I haven't heard anything
- from the mayor's office. It sounds like that subcommittee is maybe considering these. It won't help
- us in the short term, but I think it's something that, you know, based on what has happened, I think
- they want to consider. And I really, I brought it up as sort of like,
- it really was like a disruption to the work that we're doing. And it's not really about the particular
- person and having them serve. It's just about this idea of, yeah, we're in the middle of a very, very
- busy year. And I was going to get to some of the updates from the subcommittee. But I wanted to, before
- I continue with that, I wanted to confirm that it's OK for me to sort of present these ideas to the
- council as, like,
- as like the chair and sort of like in my capacity chairs like on behalf of the commission. Okay. Can
- we actually do a formal vote on that? Okay. So present the subcommittee that represents the county.
- So basically the things that we are discussing here like the general ideas that we are having that like
- I can present those in my capacity as chair on behalf of the commission to yeah.
- I don't know if I can vote remotely, but absolutely. Please be our voice if you need more voices and
- let us know. Okay. Yeah. Thank you, Rob. Thanks. So, yes. So, okay. Um, uh, yeah. So, um, I will say,
- I guess all in favor of
- acting as a chair and sort of like yeah using that and speaking on behalf of the Commission based on
- what is presented in our discussions, in our public conversations. All in favor of that say aye. Any
- opposed say nay.
- Rob and Nia, would you be willing to unmute yourself and say hi? Yeah, sorry. I was in the chat.
- That's fine. And I was like, yes, please do. And just obviously, I did not know that the annexation
- stuff that was going on, I was not informed on that. And what would have made this all irrelevant, even
- though it just blows my mind that it's a Bloomington address. You know what I mean?
- People don't want to pay any more taxes or whatever. So they're like, we're not actually in Bloomington,
- but hi, we're in Bloomington. You know what I mean? I don't know. Sorry, this is the vote. I vote aye.
- I'm like, it just sucks. You know what I mean? All around. So yeah, so I guess so. Rob needs to say
- aye. I think you have to say it for it to count. Sorry, Rob, can you say aye?
- Bye. Bye. Bye. Thank you. Thank you. OK, so yeah, great. I will continue to do so. And really, again,
- to sort of summarize, what I'm presenting is that this is not about the individual. This is about the
- work that we're doing. And it's about recruiting and retaining the talent that will make us successful
- and that will ultimately, I think, benefit the city here.
- So yeah, so the subcommittee brought up sort of the note that I had sent them and they are considering
- both some of our suggestions and then also some like related suggestions as to like, but as a part of
- sort of like broader changes on how commissions are run. So one thing that they brought up or I would
- say two things
- One thing that they brought up organically is that they, and I think Holly's mentioned this, they are
- trying to create a formalized onboarding process for commissioners and people who serve on boards. I
- saw the drafts of a PowerPoint slide for that when I sat in on their meeting. And so that is in the
- works. And so I can't remember if there was a timeline for that, but that's something that's in the works.
- And then a couple things, I think, specifically related to what we have discussed is, one, just like
- a general clarifying the code as to what residency status is. I think that they had brought up that
- there were, that it is, I mean, I think everyone's acknowledged it is, well, I shouldn't say everyone's
- acknowledged, but we and I think some members of the council have acknowledged it is ambiguous. And
- so I think clarifying that,
- is something that's on their radar. They are considering options for county residents, like a couple
- seats to be open to county residents, not just on ours, but on a number of other boards and commissions.
- And this is actually something that they have already started to do. But it was brought up that I think
- rather than maybe trying to piecemeal these for specific commissions, that they want to maybe just do
- a broad approach and say,
- Maybe with a couple exceptions, commissions will have the opportunity to have a couple of representatives
- from the county. And then yeah, also I think they were open to this idea of this allowance for someone
- who is on a commission or board if they move out of the city.
- that they will, and they're in good standing, will be able to, I think, retain their seat through the
- end of their term. And it sounds like, yeah, they were in favor of those ideas. They were in favor?
- Yeah, or like, or they're generally receptive. They're going to do some more research. I think they've
- asked their staff to sort of like look into maybe how this has been done. And I think, but in general,
- like they're, the way they talked about it was favorably and,
- I think the questions that came up were less about, is this a good idea or is this a bad idea? And it
- was more like, well, how do we make this work? Is it attached to a specific seat? How would we manage
- it? So they were already moving past into, well, how would we do that? So I don't have a sense of timeline
- for these things. I just imagine it's not going to be a quick thing. I also got the sense at the meeting
- This is not something that's going to be supported by the mayor's office. So yeah, it could hit a couple
- bumps. We don't know. Can I say something, too? I was made aware, too, that some boarding commissions
- have advisory roles. So those can be people. I don't know if the BAC's allowed that yet, but I just
- wanted to make you guys aware that there can be advisory
- commissioners who are on the commission, they just can't vote. So I just, they wouldn't be like a full
- commissioner, but because if someone has expertise and they don't live in the city, what other commissions
- have done is they have these advisory roles where that person with expertise can still be on it. And
- so everyone gets to hear their thoughts and opinions. The only thing they can't do is vote. But I'm
- not sure if in our code,
- The BAC is allowed advising positions right now, but I just wanted to make you guys aware that that
- could potentially be another option in the future for that sort of thing. That's interesting. Yeah,
- so I just wanted to tell you. Yeah, I mentioned that to Natalie and Holly immediately, because I looked
- at other boards that do have advisory positions. And because it's non-voting, the city funding versus
- county funding should not be as big of an issue.
- Because the idea is just their expertise is what is needed in the thing if they don't live in the city.
- So that's why they exist in other boards. So I just wanted to definitely make you guys aware of that.
- There's another version of that which we might consider, which so much of what we do in other commissions
- do really rely on people or not on the commissions for information and advice. And it seems to me that,
- in this particular situation of Natalie, we could simply ask her to help out, if she's willing, and
- rely then on the benefit of her expertise. And we've got to remember that we sometimes rely on others.
- For instance, in the grants, reading the grants, we had volunteers as part of the committee.
- And I know that the Monroe County and Bloomington Foundation also will call people in to volunteer to
- do things like create grants and so on. So I don't know if we necessarily need to have anything special
- set up. Just decide that we want to reach out. I'm not saying the others are great ideas. I'd much rather
- see them. Or at least have them part of the mix, but still. Natalie deserves the recognition of having
- the title of being on the commission, though. To me, I'm just like, it's not enough to just have a special
- commissioner or something. I'm just saying, if I was in Azzy's shoes, I would kind of be like, not.
- You know what I mean? But obviously, we're not the same person, so it might be fine. But in my personal
- opinion, I'm just like, why can't we just? You know what I mean? It just seems like it not.
- our fault that it happened, you know what I mean? But they're putting all of the burden of their mistake
- with the appointment on us. We have to pick up her slack or whatever. I mean, not really, but she deserves
- that. I just need that to be said. I mean, we all say it, but whatever.
- So I'm definitely looking to fill our current vacancies. I think that's my top priority. After that,
- it will be to line up leadership for the next year, because our entire leadership team is going to be
- transitioning either out, hopefully out of my third role of chair. And then I think we have someone
- that's on the path to be the public art chair.
- but you know formalizing that so I think maybe I think once once our commission is at like full full
- capacity and set for the next year I would love to explore the sort of like these these ideas for folks
- in advisory roles or and then also I and I will I will continue at least on this this particular issue
- with the council continue to provide updates and continue to speak I do before we
- I do unfortunately have one more item to raise about code and applicants, but before we move on to that,
- do I have any other thoughts or comments on sort of like this particular issue? Okay. Yeah, thanks for
- bringing that up, Etsy, and I'm glad that it's sort of like aligned with
- that I was going to say. And I just, yeah, I really appreciate sort of the trust you all put in me to
- sort of speak on the commission's behalf. I will do my best to do that. Okay, so we had another thing
- come up. I'm going to keep the identity of this person sort of like not, I'm not going to say it, but
- I'm gonna sort of like provide the context of what happened here.
- So we have another issue come up regarding conflict of interest. So I wrote this out because I wanted
- to get the language right. So shortly after the last meeting, we received an application for one of
- the vacancies. That person is a highly qualified and active member of the Bloomington art scene. Holly
- recommended the mayor's office consider this person for a seat. The mayor's office then vetted this
- person and learned that they lead
- a local organization that receives a BAC grant, and that a small portion of that grant supports their
- salary. And it was then deemed that the potential for conflict of interest was too great, and that person
- was told that they would not be appointed to the commission. And this is, they cited Indiana state code
- 35 to 44. I'm not going to read all that. But in particular, part of the Indiana state code.
- Um, so, and, I don't know, this is, I have a lot of feelings about this, um, and I know, I know a little
- bit about this as well, as, as, as Grant's chair, um, because, yeah, this is kind of closely tied into
- how we grant and, and our sort of our relationships within the broader buildings and art scene. Um,
- I mean, the situation is distinct from what happened with the residency, residency requirement,
- but it's, there's a pattern developing here where,
- sort of like code is being narrowly interpreted in a way that is really restrictive in kind of what
- we're trying to do. And I just kind of wanted to get the group's feedback on whether a response or any
- sort of action, I think, is warranted on this. I think we can't supersede state code. And we have to
- be really careful that the trust stays with us to distribute this online personally.
- Not that we have to agree with the code, because we don't, but unless you change the code, you can't
- change what we do. And that's state level. It's not even local, right? Yeah, they were pointing to state
- code. Yeah, they were. Yeah, so the state code, I recently read this code for another reason entirely
- in its thoroughness.
- The city is going above and beyond the state code's definition of conflict of interest. The state's
- definition of a conflict of interest is a spouse or a dependent. So what this is, without getting too
- into the details, the city is concerned about a perceived conflict of interest
- The state code does not say that you cannot have conflicts of interest, just that they need to be disclosed.
- My issue, coming from the grants perspective, and also public arts, I presume it would be similar. But
- in grants, we fund quite a number. We're proud to fund lots of different people in the community,
- organizations, individuals, projects. It is a testament to the effectiveness and the reach of our work
- that we are funding
- deeply and broadly across the cultural sector here in Bloomington. And it's also a testament to our
- expertise as commissioners that we are involved in the local cultural communities. And so to enforce
- an above and beyond state code perception of conflict of interest in the pursuit of some kind of fairness,
- You know, it's misguided because what will happen is that the people who are most engaged in our community's
- arts will be the most qualified to be on this commission and thus will not be able to be on it because
- the better we do our jobs and the more engaged we are, the more we will, by this interpretation, exclude
- ourselves from our ability to serve on this commission.
- It's a self-defeating kind of interpretation. And that's what I expressed to Jard. I happened to be
- around the person who received this application when it was received and when this came out. So I just,
- you know, I had a kind of personal and strong negative reaction to it. Yeah. Yeah. And I think, I mean,
- the issue here is down, I think, to the interpretation of the code. And that's what's, I think, I think
- what we're seeing here is that code is being interpreted in a way.
- I'm not a legal expert by any means. So I'd like to suggest another perspective on this. Because I think
- perceptual conflict of interest is a very serious problem, a potential problem. And that it would be
- best, I think, to avoid that. A person who would like to be on the commission here has many other ways
- to act within the community.
- and use his or her talents that way. And the difficulty comes when somebody says, this person got a
- grant, or this person's organization got a grant, because that person's on the commission. And that
- becomes a public issue. Trust issue. And things like that can become very public. Can I say something?
- cautious in trying to make an exception. I have a question. This is a person who's received a grant.
- They're not on the commission as of now when they applied for the grant, right? So I mean, I think that,
- yeah, this is a flawed reading of the code because they were not on the commission when they got the
- grant. And I think some of us have said that we are trying to, like,
- promote and kind of uplift artists locally here. And I think if they've gotten a grant, that means they're
- probably doing a good job. And that means we want them on our commission. I don't know if, while they're
- on the commission, they can apply for a grant. I think that's a different thing, right? Yeah, I can
- answer that question. So I'm just going to answer this from a very city, the way the code has been
- Describe to me. So when this person was being interviewed by the mayor's office representative, they
- were asked whether or not they would continue to apply for grants and whether or not any of the money
- that would be received from that grant
- could ever, in the future, go towards their own personal salary. So doing work on behalf of the organization
- that they were putting the grant application for, and that person replied yes and said, my preference
- is to stay active within this organization, have the ability to write the grants and be paid some of
- the money from that grant. And so it was kind of, I think they were kind of given, they could have said
- in that instance,
- I prefer to be on the BAC. I will no longer have a budget line from one of our grants that pays me.
- The other weird one is, if you are the person who writes the grants, and I think this is where Suzanne
- did not have a conflict, she wasn't the person actually writing the grants for Bloomington Early Music,
- and she didn't get paid through it. But if you, a BAC commissioner cannot
- also be the primary grant writer. Yeah, I get that. Which makes sense. Right, right. And this person
- also said, I just cannot promise you that going forward, I will not be the person who ends up having
- to write that. It's good if they were honest about it and make their decision honestly. They cannot
- make their own decision. What Holly's saying, to be clear,
- If someone wants to be on the BAC and applies, and their organization will continue to apply for operations
- grants, they can still be on the commission as long as their salary is not paid by the grant and they're
- not the grant writer. So those are the two things. So that was the two issues with this applicant. So
- just to be clear, that if they're not the grant writer and they're not receiving any money for their
- salary from the grant, then they would be
- If everything else was OK, they have a chance to still be on the commission. Right. I have a question.
- So how far does this code go? To what extent? Because it's not just like the, you know, there's three,
- we have three different cycles. So there's a lot of awardees. So how far does this go as far as our
- recipients and them being able to participate as a commissioner? I think that's actually the question
- that I'm getting at is like, I mean, I think, I mean,
- You can certainly interpret the code in the way that it's written, in the way that the city has currently.
- I think what my concern is, is that we are starting to see a pattern of restricting. And I don't know.
- I don't know if someone like Suzanne were to apply today, if that would be seen as a perceived conflict
- of interest. And so I guess what I'm asking the group here is, at what point do we sort of have to say,
- hey, come on now?
- Like, right. OK, so it could be now. We have a whole system for the conflict of interest. Like, we have
- a whole form for that. Like, what is the deal? Like, honestly. Like, I do agree, like, once this grant
- cycle's out, maybe they just apply then if there's still vacancy. But the vacancy's now. So it's kind
- of annoying that they're enforcing it. But yeah, like, especially when it's like they wouldn't even
- start till next year.
- I mean, I guess there's some like overlap with the grant, right? It would be like, they would, I just,
- the condition is so specific. It's, and I think that also if you can afford to like serve on VAC without
- like ever applying for grants doing anything, then like that's cool. But like a lot of people rely on
- those for like survival and stuff. So it's like, I feel like we can't discount people just because they
- got VAC grants. Like it's at all.
- This is just so specific, and I don't know. Where is their priorities? I don't get this. Sorry. Betsy
- was going to say something.
- Well, it just seems like now would be the time to question it, because it's true that, I mean, the only
- way that we can perpetuate arts support in this town is to have really good people on the commission
- that are the people applying for grants. And, you know, it's absurd. I can understand making a stipulation
- that they wouldn't get paid through the grant. But what about arts?
- What about the support grants for artists? I mean, what if an artist applies for a grant and they can't
- ever be on the arts commission? I think currently, no, they can't. They can't. They can't. They can't.
- What about the... It's not ever. It's just while you're getting the grant. Yeah, it's like, so basically
- what you will be asked to...
- Close or agree to if you are like if either the council or the mayor's office is going to appoint you
- as you have to say during my tenure I will not do this or this and then you make the choice like say
- so then you write your three-year term right and then if you change your mind
- halfway through your term, then you would notify us. And then the lawyers would decide. And they would
- most likely, following the code, would say, OK, if you're going to apply for a grant that yourself as
- the grant writer. So this would be anyone who applied for an artistic advancement grant. Or if you're
- going to apply for an operations grant, somebody else on your team is going to write it. But you as
- the director are going to get
- one tenth of that overall grant amount, then you must remove yourself. I want to say one thing just
- about policy. These municipal codes are not new. These municipal codes were in place when I started
- in 21. I think what we're seeing now is a difference in administration and a different approach to enforcing
- them. And so I think what we're having to do here at the city is just
- adapt as we're learning these new things that were never taught to us during the previous administration.
- And we're not the only commission, we are not the only department that is experiencing this kind of
- backlash because of this. And I think that Legal is beginning to acknowledge that and they came and
- did a training for us at our staff meeting a couple of weeks ago where they talked specifically about
- these two stipulations about who's writing the grant and who's actually getting a cut of the grant.
- I think they've also offered to come to individual commission meetings
- and share more information about that. I would ask you all as the commission to decide whether that's
- something you would want and how you would want to handle that presentation. But I think for myself,
- kind of being at the brunt of this every day, I feel like as somebody, one of the members of the public
- said last month, I also think this is a time for education and training
- up, just to make sure. Because I think what I hated most about this person being told by a representative
- of the mayor's office that this was going to happen is that when I asked them if they were comfortable
- with me making the recommendation, I didn't realize that they were going to come back and tell them
- no. And I just hated that they had to like, they had their hopes up, and they had chosen to invest in
- this in spite of what had happened. But they made their decision. Yeah, they did.
- I think as we're talking to new candidates that we want to advance, we're having these conversations
- with them in advance so we're not setting them up to be disappointed. That's good. Good to know for
- me, asking people. You should apply. Yeah. Yeah, it's not just anybody. Right. So there's a conversation
- right now just around whether or not we should have a discussion around people, while they're on the
- commission,
- they're allowed to like if they were to apply for a grant and get a grant and that confidence while
- they're a commissioner not if they did in the past. No I think what I'm asking right now is is is do
- we want to draft a um a collective response to this pattern that we're seeing or or and that could be
- a it could be a statement of um of disapproval it could be a series of questions that we have it could be
- Yeah, right. Maybe we should make a list of questions for them to answer for us. Okay. There's also
- specifics about the money. I mean, if you've got a grant, if you apply for a grant before you became
- a member of the commission and then you get paid as you're entering the commission, can you do that?
- I mean, it's all about money, right? It's nothing else. Yes, the bottom line is financial gain. Totally.
- Leila and then Paul. Yeah, I mean, I think I stand by my original point that however we respond to this,
- that I think it's worth making them aware that this could potentially be erosive to our capacity to
- do our best work as a commission.
- whether or not they enforce it really strictly. First of all, there's nothing in the code that says
- you can't have conflicts of interest or perceived conflicts of interest. They just need to be disclosed.
- That's the actual state code. Trust me, I've read it like 10 times. So all that to say, in the past
- with grants, we've had people who might have a relationship or even a tenuous relationship step out
- of the room, not deliberate on that grant. We have it.
- you know, procedures in place already that disclose those conflicts of interest. So to me, it seems
- it would be better to refine those processes, provide them to the city, the mayor, the council, whomever.
- It sounds like it's mostly the mayor's office here that's pushing back and say, you know, we have a
- process for handling this business. Does it meet your legal scrutiny? I suspect they'll say no.
- But I think we should say that this could be really corrosive to what we do. I think it would be. I've
- been on the grants committee for six years. We've given grants to everyone in this city. It's just really
- hard. Should I go up and be on the Board of Public Works and decide where
- plumbing goes. I don't know. It just seems like we want experts, qualified and rich experts, to do this
- decision making, not people who are at such a distance that they have not a single perceived conflict
- of interest. That is my concern. It's not a big deal. I completely agree with you, Leyla. I think the
- big picture is transparency.
- and the ability to recuse yourself from any decisions of which you could be partial about. I mean, I'm
- recalling when I was sitting on the university's tenure committee. I mean, you know all these people.
- And at some point, if you know somebody closely, you just recuse yourself out of it. I know it's a different
- situation.
- But the point is to be transparent. And I know there are things of appearance, but if you're always
- pressing for transparency, then I think that reduces those who want to sort of look at what you're doing
- in a devious manner. OK. So there are lots of obvious instances to think of is when somebody's put forward
- a grant proposal.
- for instance, and what happens there. But the conflicts of interest can have many different dimensions
- than that. So I was the chair of an executive committee of a large nonprofit in Cincinnati. And my wife
- was an administrator in a county board that provided money to that same organization.
- people found that out, I was disqualified. I couldn't, now I could see why that would be, that someone
- might think, well, she loves her husband, he's not paid or anything, he's doing good stuff, let's, and
- so let's tilt the things just a little bit towards that kind of project. And that's not a grant proposal,
- that's not the individual getting anything, no money at all was involved.
- But it was still a matter of being sure that the county's money, much of which came from the state,
- was used in a way that was without any conflict of interest. So I think if we're going to talk this
- through, we need to think about the fuller dimensions. I think the county made a good decision, honestly,
- in my case. And it was just somewhat different than this.
- and the nonprofit had a good income and so on. So they didn't need me really. But there are lots of
- ways in which you can do things which people can then present to others as indicating an unfair way
- of operating. And so it seems to me if somebody's, if the person had said, hey, I'm just gonna,
- quit doing this particular thing over here, because I want to be on, we'd have no trouble here. It's
- that decision about not to try to separate, try to keep both things going at once, as if there weren't
- at least a perception of some conflict. It's going to be a lot for us to keep track of, especially the
- grant writing committee. So I mean, I think that what Rob
- what everyone's saying about transparency right up front. So lessen the burden for you guys on that
- committee. I think you all have always done an excellent job. I mean, people have gotten up out of that
- room and circumstances. I was like, OK. Yeah, yeah. They're very, they take it very seriously.
- Yeah, for the first time in a minute, we're actually coming up against our meeting time here.
- So I'm going to, if it's OK, I'm going to table this discussion for now. I'm happy to bring it up next
- meeting if we would like to. In the meantime, it sounds like we have a series of questions, things that
- we want to say, maybe processes that we want to articulate. I will say, if you have any questions,
- or particular statements that you would feel comfortable contributing to, I think, a collective document,
- please send those to me. And I will work on putting something together. And I would also, I think Holly,
- I think under this idea of maybe having some sort of, I don't know, education, I'm a little,
- I'm a little hesitant to have someone just come in here and tell us what's what. I think I would be
- interested in having a conversation with someone who is maybe open to having a conversation. And so
- I think if there's a way to, you on your end, if you could start having, maybe seeing who might be open
- to coming and having a conversation with us about some of these things, that would be great.
- Does that sound OK to everyone? Can I just say, The Bloody Lady is playing at 7 o'clock, which I think
- we sponsored. Yes. And with the live score at the Buzzkurt Chummy Theater, if anyone wants to go there,
- that would be a super weird movie. Yeah. So transition next to you. I'll play the events in important
- dates. We've got one coming up in 34 minutes. So yeah, I already mentioned Food Truck Friday with Suzanne,
- the bassoons.
- jazz this this Friday any other events anyone wants to make note of coming up in the next couple weeks
- October 1st Thursdays
- Well, feel free to either if things come up, feel free to either add them to the doc. That doc is always
- hyperlinked in the midterm emails and in the agendas. Or send those to me and I will add those. Moving
- on to agenda item number nine, commissioner announcements.
- Archaeology Anthropology this Friday. They have a free event. Is it tomorrow? Oh, yeah, you're right.
- They usually do them on Thursdays. Those are awesome. Yes. It seems like it'll be fun. I don't know
- what time it's starting. I just remembered it. I saw it today. Yeah. And they have free pizza for the
- first 50 people, a chocolate, yeah, an ice cream bar, other events.
- I think they're going to have food, yeah, but I'm not sure when exactly. Any other announcements? Okay.
- We have no public. Okay, great.
- I will go ahead and motion to adjourn this meeting. Can I get a second? Second. Thank you. All right.
- Thank you all for your sessions today. Thanks.