Hey, everyone. I'm gonna go ahead and call this meeting to order. Thank you all for being here. I am
very excited to introduce you all to Lynn Hooker, one of our new commissioners. What I would like for
folks to do here is first I would like Lynn to, if you could introduce yourself, give your name,
what you do, and your background connection to the arts, and then we'll introduce ourselves to you.
Hi, so my name is Lynn Hooker. I was on the IU faculty for a number of years. I think that Rob Shakespeare
actually sang at my wedding. We knew each other from choir at the Episcopal Church.
I'm a musicologist. I went away to that other large public institution in the state for a decade, and
now I'm returning to the IU faculty in the School of Music this time. I was in the Department of Central
Iteration Studies before. My connection to the arts is chiefly through music.
I was trained as a singer and a viola player, and I'm a music researcher. My chief research interest
is in Hungary. I work on the role of Romani musicians in Hungary. But I'm interested in all kinds of
music. I've taught about all kinds of music, and I'm very interested in the role of music in community building.
Fantastic. Thank you, Lynn. So I'm wondering if we could go around here. And everyone, same sort of
information. Give your name, what you do, your connection to the arts, but then also the subcommittee
that you're on, if you could. OK. Hi, Lynn. And I'm Nadeb Delrahim. I'm an assistant librarian at Indiana
University Libraries. I work mainly in our creator commons, which is our maker space and creative space
for students, faculty, and staff.
I'm on the grant subcommittee. Is that it, Jared? Okay. Oh yes, my connection to the arts. I have personal
interest in bookbinding, artist books, and that's also something that I do in my work. And so, yeah,
that's my connection. And other things, but fine. Christina Hagelin, so I do public art consulting with
the city of Bloomington. My connection to the arts went through public art and then music.
visual arts background. So yeah, so I am the Public Arts and Community Chair for now, so yeah.
Rob Shakespeare. Hi. I'm a lighting designer. I work both in architectural, a little lot of art, and
a lot of museums, and some very large scale public art installations recently. And I'm on the public
art subcommittee.
Hi, I'm Paul Anderson. Welcome. I am retired and my connection to the arts has been most intensely working
in Cincinnati with artists with disabilities, helping to establish a studio there for them and finding
a place for them in the community. And I am on both the subcommittees.
Hi Lynn, I'm Betsy Stewart, I'm the former director of the Grunwald at IU, Grunwald Gallery at IU, and
I'm an artist in Bloomington now, and I am on the grant subcommittee.
earlier, but I'm Chaz Moddinger. I am one of the staff liaisons along with Holly Warren, the Director
for the Arts. I'm Special Projects Manager in the Economic and Sustainable Development Department, and
I'm a photographer as well, but yeah, I help to our arts initiatives and programs. Yeah. And then, yeah,
Lynn, I know we've met over email. I'm Gerard. I'm the current chair of the Bloomington Arts Commission, and then
During the day, I work with the IU Arts and Humanities Council and do a lot of arts programming there.
And yeah, as chair, I also kind of sit on both subcommittees. So yeah, so Lynn is one of our
new commissioners, and then not here virtually as well, also traveling for work. But Brandy McDonald
has filled in the other open slot that we had.
I'll let Brandy give a more detailed introduction of herself, but she is currently the executive director
of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. And yeah, so we have two fantastic additions to the commission
here. Okay, moving on to agenda item number two.
BAC minutes and financials. Really sorry about not sending the folder about linking just the agenda
and not the folder, but hopefully you had a minute to quickly look through it. So the minutes have been
distributed and read. Are there any noted corrections to the minutes? All right, Betsy, great. Yeah,
I know that was.
Another tough meeting to record, but yeah, right. Yeah, we're going to keep it nice and easy today.
So I'm going to go ahead and motion to approve the minutes. Can I get a second, please? Second. Fantastic.
All in favor of approving the minutes, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. Fantastic. The minutes are approved.
Ches, are you going to give a financial update? Okay, excellent. So a financial update. Nothing has
changed from last month. We're hoping that the artistic advancement grants will go out soon. So nothing's
changed since you last saw this. Any questions can be directed to Holly. Yeah, so pretty simple, easy,
no changes.
Okay, and then what's next? Well, our next agenda item will be updates from the city. I think before
I introduce our presenter, Chaz, do you have any updates? Okay, great. Yes, just a couple. All right,
so the 2026 budget is on the council agenda to be approved later this month.
We don't anticipate any changes to the arts budget at this point, which is good. If you remember, we
didn't get cut on our funding, so knock on wood, it should be good, but it'll get approved later this
month. And then the second thing is the artist studios are coming together. For a reminder, the feasibility
study said that we
We need some more community spaces and art studios. And so we're doing our first kind of test run with
this empty warehouse that is turning into six studios for some artists. You'll be invited to that. There's
a lot more coming up with that. But we're starting to get it together and move the artists in later
this month. So it's really exciting. That's a big project that we're doing. So just your FYI. Any other
questions? Anything? Good? Great. That's all we have, Jared.
Who's getting the studios? Because it's just a super test run, we don't have the official program in
or anything, and it's literally just a raw space. We picked some artists that we knew were looking for
a studio, and we had worked with before or knew. So it was just kind of our test run with them. So they're
already picked and are already going to move in.
We will eventually have an official program that people can apply for and that will be open to all to
apply and have more studios hopefully. We're just waiting on a few grants and a few other things.
But yeah, this will be an official program that will be open to folks hopefully in two years or less.
So we'll see. OK. OK, great. I think I see someone in the waiting room.
Oh. Hi, Brandy. Can you hear us? Hi, I can't hear you. Thank you. Wonderful. Thanks for being here.
So, yeah, not to... Well, I guess to put you on the spot a little bit, would you mind introducing yourself
to the commission?
Donald, what would you like me to share? Your name, what you do currently, and then your connection
or interests in the arts. Sure, and so I am currently the executive director at the IU Museum of Archaeology
and Anthropology. I'm so grateful to be a part of this group. I think
are the heartbeat of a community, that it's deeply connected to cultural community values, it's connected
to the health of a community, that art tells a variety of different stories and practices. And so I'm
just really eager and excited to be a part of this group that supports arts in Bloomington and finds
ways to continue to help grow and help artists thrive and tell the stories of the community. Thanks, Brandy.
We have another new commissioner here as well. Lynn is also joining us remotely. And then we already
did a round of introductions. So if it's all right, I'll just have everyone just say their name. And
then I'm sure we'll get a chance at the next meeting to have some conversation and some more details
there. So can everyone go around again and say their name for Brandy? Nia. Hi. I'm Neda. I'm Dorothy.
I'm Christina.
Bob Shakespeare. Paul Neverson. Betsy Stewart. Chaz Monninger and staff liaison with Holly Warren, not
on the commission. And you know me, I'm Gerard. Yeah, so yeah, again, thank you both for joining us
remotely today, and I look forward to having you in person. OK, so well,
Just introduced to new commissioners, about to introduce a former commissioner, Nick Blanford is here
and he is going to give a presentation about the work currently being done with the Community Collaboration
Grant, also known as the CCC Grant, and some of the programming work associated with that. So, Nick,
thanks so much for being here. Thanks for having me. Welcome home. Do you want to click through or do
you want me to?
Click the projector screen. It'll make it both there, I think. I'm just making sure they can still see
it. Yeah, OK. That's all right. I'll see what I need to see. OK. Hey, everybody. As mentioned, my name
is Nick Blanford. I was previously on the Arts Commission for six years, two terms.
spent some of that time as the chair of the Public Art Committee since April. I have been working for
the city as a project manager for the College and Community Collaboration Grant. My counterpart with
IU, Patricia Frank, is sitting here in the back of the room. And so we both wanna be available just
in general, but I'm gonna run through a little bit of background about the grant.
Some of what we're trying to accomplish with it, but also talk specifically about the arts elements,
make sure everyone understands the process and has a chance to answer or ask any questions.
There we go. So if you're not familiar with the trades district, it is directly north of us here, contains the mill,
co-working and incubator space, which was renovated in 2018. Adjacent to that is a building called the
Kiln, which was renovated by the Kiln Collective and features four key business partners located there.
And then also the Forge, which is Bloomington's latest tech center, which was completed earlier this year.
I think this is an area that a lot of commissioners will be familiar with, as it contains the OT987
sculpture installation by Stefan Reiss, which we dedicated earlier this year. And there are a couple
open plots that are going to be developed in the future through part of this project. So I think just
overall, I want to give a little bit of background on the grant itself. This is part of a Lilly Endowment
initiative.
The grant which IU and its partners received is one of 13 handed out to college and educational institutes
within the state. There's a previous cycle. There's six other academic entities which received funding.
Overall, the grant awarded about $16 million.
The core partners with this are Indiana University, the city, and the mill. Included in the proposal
for that were additional leveraged funds. This includes things like previous federal and city funding,
private development funds, including those from the Kiln Collective I mentioned previously, Indiana
University, and the city. So talking a little bit about goals.
Really, this is about accelerating the growth and transformation of the trades district. This is something
that well aligns with one of the mayor's major priorities, which is economic development. So a few of
the goals here are to further build the trades district as an innovation neighborhood. Part of that
is developing business resources, workforce
workforce housing. Workforce housing is one of the targets for development with one of the open plots
in the trades. Another major piece is accessible infrastructure and art. I'll talk about that a little
bit more. Gateway and wayfinding initiatives. I think we recognize that while we want this to be a unique
and brandable, identifiable district, we also wanted to feel part of the community. We wanted to be
a space that community members
whether they live or work in the district or not, feel welcome in, can get a coffee, sit down, enjoy
the sunshine. That's actually part of our broader community fabric. And then a lot of practical upgrades
to things like lighting, sidewalks, connectivity, that goes again to welcoming people into the space, but also
Making sure it just doesn't feel isolated and so I think we're going to be looking at both street and
pedestrian entries. The inner action with the beeline as it enters the district. But I want to focus
on talking about art selection and sort of the development as a project.
Prior to my starting, Holly Warren has been connected to the project. And since I've come on, we are
both working with staff from IU and an arts planning committee. One thing I do want to acknowledge up
front, this is operating differently from the BAC's traditional 1% for the Arts program. So referencing
your master plan's own set of definitions, we would consider this a private project.
As I mentioned, everything is funded by the endowment. IU specifically is taking lead on curating the
arts and leading conversations with artists. Right now, a lot of the artist conversations have been
engaged with IU faculty, people who have experience with major public arts,
The goal, even though this is privately funded, is to still make this art fully accessible. That is
one value that fits with the commission's mission that we want to try to honor as much as possible.
The city's primary responsibility with this, since IU is really taking the lead on the creative, is
I'm looking a lot at site feasibility, working pieces of art go, working to be accessible,
Where is it physically realistic to place it within the district? And then in addition to a couple major
public art elements, we're also going to be looking for opportunities to incorporate other artistic
elements in the environment into things like the wayfinding gateways that I discussed. So it's not just
straight signage. There's artistic consideration throughout the district.
So the kickoff for this in a public sense is we are hosting a trades district block party,
November 7th, which neatly aligns with Gallery Walk and the Mills Innovation Week. And I'll just mention,
too, that while there's going to be a staggered approach to installing these pieces, we are hoping that
installations of the major pieces will begin at some point in 2026.
So, going back to the block party for a second, we are starting to send out invitations for this now.
The IU staff tabled at first Thursday on campus last week. I personally, and perhaps some folks from
the Milan IU,
We'll be tabling the farmers market on October 18th. Starting to send out invites to people, starting
to put flyers around. But just wanted to sort of highlight this for everyone. We're gonna have bands,
we're gonna have some artist performances, including one by Windfall Dancers. There'll be some tech
and maker demos, lots of food trucks.
Upland, Cardinal, Oliver Winery, serving drinks. It's all free. It's open to the public. And so this
is really the first opportunity we want to invite people into the space. While there are not final designs
or final concepts for some of the major public art pieces, we are going to have a couple artists there
on site to talk about the concepts they're trying to develop. And so I think there will be an opportunity
to not just
hear from them about their vision, but I think for folks to give their feedback and shift this from
purely a curatorial conversation to one that listens to more folks in the community. So those are sort
of the headlines. I didn't want to spend too much talking just myself, but wanted to open up opportunities
for questions, feedback, anything. Exciting to see a private investment of this scale.
I understand using the funds to create initial installations. As you said, sidewalks, lighting, blah,
blah, blah. Who's responsible for maintaining it, and is there a budget for it? Yeah, so I think these
conversations are ongoing, but we have shared the city's template for art calls.
And so part of that discussion has been making sure that funds are built in for maintenance. I think
that the specifics of that plan will depend a little bit on where the pieces are located. If they are
on certain private properties, ultimately, responsibility for maintaining that will go to property owners,
as you see with a lot of public art pieces.
But yes, maintenance plan is very much part of the discussion. Part of the budget. Yeah. So could you
be more specific about the role that we might play? Yeah. I mean, I think the honest answer is in terms
of selecting the art,
there is not a formal role. And this is where I wanted to make sort of the direct line comparison to
other private art projects in the community. I think that the way we look at this is whether it's the
mural on the side of the Graduate Hotel or some others, we want to start from a point of sharing with
you what we're doing. It was very important to me when I talked with Holly
that we have this conversation before the block party. So a public event wasn't the very first moment
that you were hearing some of this. And so I think we look at it similar to some of those other private
projects where we want to put it in the public space. We want the community to engage with it. And what
we hope, just like everyone else, we'd love if you're available to come to the block party.
We'd love for you to be able to interact and hear more from the artists themselves. And ultimately,
in the same way that we want this to be a community space, and we know that the commission has a long
history of supporting any form of art, broadcasting that support, no matter what its funding source.
I think we'd love for you all to be advocates, knowing that any time a piece of art goes up in town,
I think the average person's natural questions are
Who decided to make that? Who paid for it? Why is it there, right? And so I think it's kind of giving
you all enough background so that while you are not ultimately responsible for it, you can say, we as
the commission did not select the piece. We did not have a formal role in that process that you're at
least able to articulate the basics of how it worked and then also be in a position to direct questions
to myself and Patricia. And so I think it was important that we shared our contact information here,
it's available to the public. I think that I just encourage anyone who has follow-ups, including members
of the public who may be viewing this or reviewing minutes later to know they can reach out to us.
And yeah, I think the commission's serving as a connector and advocate in a lot of ways. So one of our
goals has been
to involve the public in decision making and in development as the pieces were developed. And so I'm
wondering what role does the public have in development? Yeah. I mean, I think that there's a few different
pieces to this. I think first, just like some other private
Commitments to art, you know, there's not necessarily going to be a an extensive committee review process
that sort of thing But I do think we want to give an opportunity again not to take a community vote
But to give an opportunity for people to interact with the artists at the block party To to recognize
those faces to recognize that, you know, they're going to be people who have been active in the community
for a while and not just
you know, coming in suddenly from outside of the city and IU community. But I think that the other component
I'll mention is that early on in this process we did bring a few consultants to town to tour the districts,
doing a public art tour around town, not just
around trades, you know, we drove them around campus, took them down to Switchard Park to really try
to give them a wide scope of some of the cultural elements in town. And they provided some feedback
to us, but part of that too were some stakeholder sessions. I think at that really early stage, knowing
that we didn't have specific art concepts, we didn't necessarily have individual artists on board yet,
those stakeholder meetings were focused particularly on people working in and around the trades district,
whether they were mill members, whether involved with the kiln collective, some people working in businesses
sort of in near neighborhoods and adjacent to the trades district. So it's been sort of a tiered thing,
but I think with this block party, that's where we're hoping to open it up.
to the public more thoroughly. Will there be a named committee? It's dangerous otherwise. Yeah, I mean,
again, I think that this is the important distinction between private investment and sort of the really
thorough but important process that the commission has.
Again, just using the Graduate Hotel as an example, there wasn't a broad committee or commission for
that. I think that the way it's gonna be working within the project is there's currently an arts planning
committee, which includes myself, Holly, as I mentioned, and a couple folks from IU. The idea is that
After we have this block party and there's a little bit of an opportunity for the community to interact
with the artists, we're going to ask artists to submit a final proposal that comes into us later this
year so we can give some feedback on it based on the experience of the people in that initial planning
committee. And then there will be a broader discussion
with a larger placemaking committee that's involved in the grant. That will include some more stakeholders
from the mill and the university. And that's going to be a group of people who are going to advise at
multiple stages of the grant, not just art elements. Considering that it involves the city, it involves
groups. It's not like this hotel who just
happens to drop a building in the middle of Birkwood and have their walls adorn the way that they choose
it to be. And we're dealing with more public space here and more involved. I suggest at some future
point that that committee be named. Who from the School of Architecture, there's some very good placemakers
there, who represents the fine art world.
So that you're getting voices and it's not just, I'm not saying that you shouldn't just hire your favorite,
but find some way to make it a little more robust. Yeah. No, I think that's totally valid. And again,
I think to avoid too much of that insular group think, that was part of the logic in bringing down a
few consultants. And we're not just talking.
landscape architect consultants or design consultants, people with a broad sort of cultural background.
Were they involved in the selection of artists, for instance? Not specifically, but they did get a lot
of feedback in terms of what they thought were sites that might work well for art and I think public
access to them, I think identifying
spaces that were natural entry points, spaces that as further development goes in, whether it's the
hotel and the workforce housing, understanding how people's interaction with the space is going to change
and evolve. And again, I think identifying what would potentially work well in this space. And I think
that part of this, too, is we don't just want a series of objects that
again, are sort of dropped in out of nowhere, right? You know, I think that we've had a lot of conversations
about, you know, the themes of innovation with the district, how those ultimately tie back to the history
of the district with the Showers Furniture Company, and just sort of that long path of the work that's
been done around there. So these are urban planning people. The consultants. Like Van Der Waal, a bunch
of them. More broad than that, I think that, you know,
In some cases, you know, we're talking about people who've done very deliberate placemaking and like
cultural planning work, you know, and also, you know, consulting on things like communities developing
public art tours and public art inventories and, you know, activating spaces in temporary ways, even
when there's not permanent physical infrastructure like an auditorium or a band shell or something like that.
If I understand correctly, the title of the grant is College and Community Collaboration. Yes. And so
I would urge that you look for more opportunities right along after the block party for interaction
of the community. It seems, as you presented things, I understand this at the beginning of the project.
It sounds like you're coming on the block party for being a very key element.
the project's gonna go on, it's fast. That's true. And there must be ways to help publicize it and let
the community become engaged, which would be a benefit to everybody. Yeah, no, I fully take that on
board. And, you know, I think, again, while I've talked a lot about the Block Party, a lot of that is
considering that this is sort of a big moment to really engage the public, invite them into the space,
and talk about some of those for the first time. You know, really aside from,
the announcement of the grant being awarded last year. It's been a case of assembling the team and hiring
folks like myself and Patricia who are really working on managing and administering it and kind of getting
us all on the same level. So we were working well practically together while also serving the purpose
of the grant. And so I think now that we've done some of that level setting, yeah, this is the opportunity to really
kick that conversation off in an earnest way, starting to talk about some specifics. Yeah. Yeah,
I was like, in terms of area that we're going to be looking at installing stuff, is that that whole
field that hasn't been developed yet? It could be anywhere in there? Or are we talking about just the
plaza that's already been built? Or the road that's been built? Because it's hard for me to imagine.
I know I should just come to the blog party. I don't know if I would be able to, because I have a thing
and I have another first Friday thing. I'll try to step by though. So I can actually like look at it,
but I'm just like, yeah. I mean, get a good coffee shop, you know, get a good, get some nice, get a
nice garden in there, you know? Yeah. I mean, I, some that like almost like think about like, uh,
like the, um, what's it called? The, uh, the wonder lab garden on a bigger scale, more, more, not just
like geared towards like kids or something. Yeah. No, I think, I think that,
actually fits well with a lot of the feedback that we receive from consultants and other people in the
stakeholder meetings. I think that right now, yeah, I think just to be honest is there's kind of two
sorts of spaces in the district right now, those that are sort of more fully developed and you can look
at and say, here's a space here and here's a space here and here's a space here. And then these larger
open plots. And so I think with those open plots, part of how we're looking at it is you need to get
a developer on board and then
you know, have some conversations with them, you know, are there concepts that could be integrated into
what they're doing, you know? And so that conversation, you know, we've already had that sort of thing
with the hotel. That doesn't necessarily mean something is or is not going to be on the hotel grounds,
but, you know, once that sort of partner is in place, you can have that sort of conversation in a way
that's not, you know, purely theoretical. But yeah, I hear you 100%.
I just think it's such a big area, like a lot of potential there. So it's kind of exciting, actually.
Yeah, it's cool. So a lot of these larger scale things are out of the 64 million. So I mean, 60 million
ultimately doesn't go that far when you're talking about development. Yeah, so I think just to expand
on that figure, yeah, the grant award is the 16. The leverage funds, some of this,
federal and city funding. Part of that includes like an EDA grant from a few years ago that helped fund
the completion of the forge. Some of this private development funds, you know, that's the work the Kiln
Collective has already done to redevelop their space. But also, you know, the commitment of the hotel.
There is not yet a development plan for the workforce housing.
that is very much the target for that other open tract, specifically on the southwest corner of 11th
and Rogers. So yeah, I think, again, I wanna sort of be realistic about what is a firm concept versus
what are future conversations once we know the people we can have them with, if that makes sense.
Any more comments or questions for Nick or for the group? I appreciate it. And again, I work here. I'm
around the hall all the time. We know where to find you. Hi, thanks. I want to preface this question
with I've been away for a while.
But how does this whole district integrate with the Fairview neighborhood? Yeah, I mean, that's a good
question. I think that one thing that we've spoken with the artists and consultants about a bit is some
of the historical background, not just of the district itself, but also the adjacent neighborhoods.
Fairview in particular, also the Near West Side neighborhood, which not only being a historically
African-American neighborhood with a couple churches located there, but also those sort of neighborhood
dynamics with the history of the workforce of the Showers Furniture Company back in the day. And so
one thing in particular that we're looking at with programming for the Block Party
not just this year, but in the future, is how to engage students, whether through performance, whether
through working with MCCSEs, STEM, MakerBus, things like that. Not all of these ideas are gonna happen
in year one. We're gonna have some other events in the future, and we wanna save some of those for down
the line, but yes, I think,
whether it's adjacent buildings or businesses rather, or organizations or just residents in
these neighborhoods, those are people we're gonna wanna continue to engage as we move down the line.
I just wanna mention one person and unfortunately, I have not been in touch with her for quite some
time and I think that she's, the last time
I was kind of in touch with her was a zoom conference during the pandemic so that just to give you a
sense of the time but Melanie Burnham who's a retired faculty member in ethnomusicology has also
done some work as a music director. I want to say it's at the Baptist Church right around there, but
I don't remember and I don't remember its name. It would be nice to talk to figure out who's working
with that church choir and maybe if they could get involved in not this event because it's coming too
close, but another time. I think that's fantastic. As much as we are trying to consider all the angles on this,
Again, it's part of why the contact information's up there. It's part of why we really invite as many
people into this block party as we can. We want our team to be accessible. We know we're not going to
think of everything. And so whether it's, what about this organization? They do this. They've worked
with these sort of events before. They've done these sort of collaborations before. Or whether it's
individual introductions. I think anyone like you're mentioning,
Feel free to give them my email address. Feel free to introduce us one to one. Even if you don't quite
know what the angle is, but you just think they're a good person to talk to, or it's good for them to
know what's going on with this, I'm open to ending all of those conversations. Thank you. Cool. Thanks
for having me. Appreciate it. Thank you, Nick.
Moving on in the agenda, agenda item number four, an update from the public art chair, Christina. Yes,
I don't have a lot of updates today. Just a reminder that we will have our subcommittee meeting on Friday
at 12, 15 here. And then also the strategic goals task force, we will have a meeting at 1pm in this
room too. And then I also wanted to talk about the convention center.
There was a public feedback input like run last month. And so we got a lot of great feedback. And so
now we're kind of synthesizing all of that for the call. So I just want to kind of give a status on
that. So that turned out really well. Yeah, I'll quickly note for our new commissioners that we, in
addition to this,
Monthly meeting, we have monthly subcommittee meetings. This Friday is the public art subcommittee meetings.
I don't think either of you have been explicitly placed on a subcommittee yet. If you are interested
in the public arts subcommittee and would like to attend that meeting, you're welcome to join us here
at City Hall, or I believe there is also a remote option for that meeting. Again, that's 12-15 on Friday.
And then a quick note about the Convention Center project. So one of the big initiatives of the Arts
Commission is the 1% for the arts, which is, I mean, in very simplistic terms, basically, when there
are big projects, big capital projects around town, 1% of that budget is sort of- Public. Public, sorry.
Yes, public projects, yeah. 1% of that budget is- To be changed.
Yeah, I know. Yeah, there are definitely some nuances and whatnot to pick out in there. But 1% of that
budget is set aside for the arts. And usually that presents itself as a public art piece, but it can
be used in a lot of different ways. And with the Convention Center expansion, I think, if I'm not mistaken,
this is the
Biggest yeah, the largest 1% for the arts sort of opportunity that we have I believe if it's a half
million dollars. Okay. Yeah, so yeah a five hundred thousand dollar project here. So Christina is obviously
involved in that both as the public art subcommittee chair, but also as sort of a consultant for the
for the city and so has been leading some public feedback sessions and
about the use of those 1% funds. Cool. Any questions or comments or notes about that? Okay. Similarly,
I will be doing the update for the grant subcommittee. Normally, this would be done by Layla. Layla is not
Was not able to attend this meeting today. She is in her on her way back from New York City so our operations
grant cycle, which is the third and final cycle in our For our annual our annual grants program that
recently closed and we had 20 submissions 20 applications which is
Yeah, around what we normally get, it's three more than last year. And Leila wanted me to tell
the subcommittee that she will be sending out information about those applications shortly and about
a review session. Lynn or Brandy, if you have any questions,
If either of you are interested in being a reader or a reviewer for the operations grant cycle, please
feel free to shoot me an email and let me know. Or if you would just be interested in observing those,
let me know as well. And that's all I have from the grants committee. No meeting coming up yet?
the Layla is going to send out information about the review sessions. But yeah, but there's no, like
that will be our- Just waiting for that. Yeah, that will be our target together. And then I think after,
probably after those, before the end of the year, before Layla leaves, we will have a, I think a final
meeting to sort of like talk about next year plans and kind of review this past year as a whole.
There's some things in the chat. I think you have to check for that. It doesn't come up. That's just
Holly spamming us. It is. I think we just had a question about dates. I think that she asked what the
dates are again. Yes. Oh, for the, OK.
Great question. Those dates have not been set yet. So what Layla will do is typically for those review
sessions, we do them over one or two sessions over a weekend or sometimes like a Friday. But we usually
have to kind of like find everyone's availability, see what works, because we're organizing. It's usually
somewhere between four
eight people to review the grants. So those dates haven't been set yet, but will likely be end of October,
one of those weekends, maybe early November for a review session.
Okay, perfect. Okay, back to me for notes from your chair. Okay, so last meeting we talked a little
bit about some concerns we had over just conflict of interest with serving on the commission and also
issues with
folks who live in the county, but work and do a lot of engagement in the city. I have not heard any
updates from either the city or the council on how those conversations are going. I didn't receive any
questions or notes from any of the commissioners. I will continue to follow and track
Those conversations, if you all have any sort of thoughts or concerns that you would like me to specifically
present beyond what we've already discussed, please feel free to send those to me. So they are ongoing
conversations? Or are they just part of it? We think.
Yeah, is she possibly going to be back on the commission again? No, that is not the conversations that
we're having. The conversations are, there was a conversation at the council meeting about whether or
not it was a good idea to have one or two seats on the commission that could possibly be filled by someone
who lived in the county
but had sort of, you know, substantial meaningful connections. Yeah, so that is a thing that the council
is considering, not just for us, but for boards and commissions sort of across the city. Well, yeah,
I just want to also remind, there's also a way for someone who lives in the county who has this level
of expertise to be like an advisory commissioner so that they wouldn't be able to vote, but they'd still
be able to like kind of
They would be in an advisory role on it. So that's kind of what it's called an advisory role. They just
can't vote, but everything else would be. Because also just to be clear, just to say the facts, why
we have to be within the city of Bloomington limits is because of taxation.
those who do not live, do not pay city taxes, and that's why we need to be for the people who pay the
taxes, and that's why county exists in the state. So just wanna say those facts. Thank you. Okay,
but yeah, those conversations are ongoing to my knowledge. Yeah, and so, yeah, if you have any notes
or updates or questions,
Please send those to me and I will continue to add those to those conversations as they evolve. And
then the last note that I have is just a reminder that in a few short months, we will no longer have
a grant subcommittee chair and presumably we'll also not have a chair.
I have served three years on the commission. Layla will no longer be allowed to serve on the commission
as she has served two terms, six years. So we'll be stepping down. And so I would like to strongly encourage
everyone to consider stepping up into a leadership role. This would be starting in February. So, yeah,
if you have any interest or questions or concerns, also, yeah, you can
email me, check in with me, and I'd be happy to tell you all about the joys of commission leadership.
All right, moving on to agenda item number seven, upcoming events and important dates. Jazz, would you
mind pulling up that document for us? We've got a couple things on here.
Would anyone like to make a note or add anything or put anything on the commission's radar for important
or interesting art events that are going on? I'm doing a gallery talk on Sunday at the Waldron for the
forest exhibit. That's the 12th. And where is that again?
at 4 p.m. You said artist talk? Yes. I can never remember. Is that right? You could put forest talk.
Oh, okay. That might be easier. Forest talk. Forest talk. Perfect. Okay, excellent. Thank you.
Brandy. Sorry, I don't know if I should jump in or just raise my hand, because I don't know if anyone's
talking or not. If we're just events in general, I'm very new. Please forgive me. Is that going on?
Yeah. Well, as long as it's like- We'll give you an event at the museum. That's fall festivals. That's
tomorrow night that we're working with a variety of different community partners, both on campus and
off. But it is Thursday, tomorrow from 5.30 until 7.
And it's at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. And that's the Night at the Museum? Yeah, it's
Night at the Museum, and this month's theme is fall festivals. So it features Dia de los Muertos, Diwali,
Halloween, and a couple of other different festivals throughout different cultural communities.
Yes, that's a perfect plug. Thanks, Brandy. Any other notable events or? I just wanted to mention the
Ghost Walk is on Friday. Fantastic. Can you give a little bit more info about the Ghost Walk? This is
Faculty, staff, and students from the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology telling spooky stories
unique to IU Bloomington's campus on this walking tour. That's the, I just put it through it into the,
it's 7 p.m. starting on the, at the 803rd Street classroom and office building. It is not free though,
it is three dollars.
All right, yeah, perfect. They always come and promote that at First Thursdays, but I've never had the
chance to go. It seems like a really cool event. One more thing is that it's Indigenous Peoples Day
on October 13th, so I think First Nations
Cultural Center is doing some things at the IMU, and they're working specifically with the tutor room
to have native community-specific dishes in honor of Indigenous People's Day featured at the tutor room.
They may have artists and performers, I'm not entirely sure, but I do know they're partnering with the
folks. Also, City Hall will be closed, just so you all know, in observance of Indigenous Day.
Fantastic. Perfect. Great. Oh, there is also, I do want to add one, sorry. Let's do it. Just real quick,
the Orbit Room, which is, you know, it's a bar, restaurant, but it's also a music venue and just venue
for arts in general. It's going to be celebrating its seven years.
next week, and so they're going to have a bunch of special events. I can put it. I've actually already
got it on there. Well, you do? Yeah. Wow. OK. Let's knock it on there. Sorry. No, all good. All good.
But yeah, I would highly recommend people going, because I think they're going through a little bit
of a rough time right now. And also, these smaller venues like that are really important to the community.
So we should support them. So I just want to shout that out. Are they not getting enough business? I
think they just can have some rough times
everything goes up every year yeah and like if you're on the square you're just there's or anywhere
downtown really but like you know like yeah that's that's what it is it's just the it's like yeah we
making up this year but next year they raise the rent and it's like it's not enough his exact thing
I just know I think sometimes
business can be slow or like if they have events sometimes people don't buy things there so they'll
have a packed place and people don't buy anything and like they'll only get so many from the ticket
most of the ticket goes to like the artist or you know so I think that's kind of a problem too but I'm
sure that's part of it as well yeah so I guess just a reminder in general to support the smaller locally
owned places as well
Because we're lucky we have them, and I think sometimes we take them for granted, just speaking. I've
also experienced, so. OK. Well, moving on to, I will also quickly note for our new commissioners that
in the agenda that upcoming events doc that I had, it is, I think,
if I've done it right, it should be shareable and editable by anyone on the commission. And so if something
pops up, you're more than welcome to add that information to the doc as well. Okay, agenda item number
eight, commissioner announcements. Yeah, anything sort of in addition to the events that we just mentioned,
anything that folks wanna mention, announce?
recently opened this like museum or like their shop and they're like featuring artists like local artists
so I think they had their opening in the most recent first Friday gallery walk. Do we have an end of
the year celebration with our awardee? We don't know dates yet. I know the Waldron is looking for artists for their
Christmas market. So if anybody knows anybody who does that, if they could send them their way.
Linda Brandy, any commission announcements? All right, agenda item number nine, public comment.
Any comment from the public? Hey, as the only member of the public, I think. I'm sure I'll make a comment.
Yeah, and just say your name, please. I'm sorry. Joe Meyers. Christina, I was in attendance of the convention
center kind of public discussion period. And I just want to give you kudos. You and your team did a
great job. Very well attended and very spirited discussion. So thank you. Thank you for coming.
Yeah, and thank you. Thanks for being here today. You bet. Yeah, thank you. I just want to say thank
you for coming, because none of us could do what we do without the members of the public coming in and
supporting. So thank you for being here. You're welcome. Tell your friends to come. OK, and I don't
think anyone's online. That is the public, so. Yeah. OK, great. Well, on that note.
I will go ahead and motion to adjourn the meeting. Can I get a second? Second. Second. All right. Meeting
is adjourned. Thanks, Brandon. Thanks for having me.