All right, I call this meeting to order. Thank you everyone for being here. Last meeting of 2025,
what a year. Okay, agenda item number two, moving on to the BAC minutes. The minutes have been distributed
and read. Are there any corrections that need to be made to the minutes?
I'm going to go ahead and motion to approve the minutes. Can I get a second? Second. Thank you. All
in favor of approving the minutes, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. Fantastic. The minutes are approved.
Holly, on the same agenda, point.
Take us through the finances, please. Money. I've got us pretty much reconciled for this year.
So four grants. We spent a total of one
$179,483. Woohoo! Oops, we went over a little. We went over, our budget was $167,537, and we spent an
extra $11,000 in mini change on budgets. And that overage just comes from my general fund. I just pulled
some money out of there. Again, I think we just all agreed that just given the nature of things, especially
for our 501C3s that are really feeling the cuts from the Indiana Arts Commission,
and other federal funders that they deserve that extra funding. Also, thanks to the Bloomington Urban
Enterprise Association, who gave us a little more than their $50,000 allocation this year to cover some
of those funds. So, yay. We will have the same amount of money to spend next year.
167,537, and we'll talk about that more next year. The other funds we had for this year was $5,000 in
workshop expenses. For most of the workshops this year, we actually spent funds that we encumbered last
year. So what we did was we encumbered
$4,000 to go to Andrea Sterling, who does great professional development workshops. So she did a couple
of professional development workshops for the artists who will be going into our artist studio spaces.
Some of them are already there, and the rest will join before the end of the year. And we also encumbered
some money for her to be able to do a few more of those professional development workshops for more
members of our arts community in 2026. With the leftover $1,000, I gave it to Chaz so we can have a fun time.
at the party tonight. Okay, this $16,500 that we allocated for public art and grants, we have not spent
that. And I don't think we're gonna have an opportunity to get that out the door before the end of the
year. And I just wanna acknowledge that the committee that was assigned the task of deciding what to
do with that funds this year,
has been through a lot this year. We had an unexpected change in leadership and some other big public
art projects that kept us from having the time to do this. With your permission, what I would ask is
just allowing me to use that 16,500 to pay for some other arts expenses that I need to cover before
the end of the year. Would that be okay?
with you all. Do you want to ask questions and criticize me happily? No. No. OK. Awesome. Thank you.
And I'm happy to give you a tally of how that is spent in the new year. Before I stop talking, I realized
I shouldn't. What things are you
It will most likely be a couple of public art expenses, so money to pay vendors that helped us with
some of the traffic box art projects and other art projects. I will probably spend some of that money,
too, on grants, both for our BAC grants, but also we give pretty large grants to Constellation Stage
and Screen in the Buzzkirk Chumlee Theater to run our city-owned facilities every year. They can always
use a little kickback. It takes a lot of money.
to operate those facilities. We're very lucky to have them doing that work, so I would most likely give
some of that money to them as well. I realized... Was I gonna say something else about the arts grants?
No, nevermind. Okay, that's it. I'm happy to answer any questions. I do have just a couple looking for
updates. What's happening with Anjulite? And there was gonna be a, we were working with a
I think towards having a piece of art down on the Miller Showers property. What's happening with those?
Yes, great question. Thanks for asking. So the Anjale project, which is over at the Hopewell Commons,
That piece has actually been fabricated. It's just sitting in storage right now. It took a little work
to find a concrete contractor. And by the time that contractor was selected and under contract, the
concrete would have had to sit for 30 days before we could do that installation. And what we realized
was by the time the concrete was set for that piece, it would have been too cold to be able to do the
actual installation. So we agreed with the artist to do that in a spring of
2026. And I've promised the funders of that project that I will keep close tabs on the artist in 26
to make sure that we get a timely install. For Miller Showers, I would like to turn to that in early
2026. I think we'd like to kind of get the work on the convention center selection process done before
we start a new artist selection process. But I am anticipating that we kick
that off pretty early into 26, and we will still have $150,000 for that project. What ever happened
to the fire station? The fire station, we are negotiating the funding for that right now. And I can
say, let me, I'll say, I don't want to get too much in the weeds about this, but I think one thing I've
realized about the One Person for the Arts project is, you know, our ordinance gives a lot of leeway,
you know, and it's kind of like,
The one person for the arts projects right now they're kind of at their discretionary right it says
in the ordinance. It is recommended that you do this right and some people take this very seriously
and other people.
just forget about it. And I think that one thing that I am probably with your support next year could
do a better job of is just tracking all of those projects because all of those projects like these smaller
ones like the fire station just aren't making it onto my radar simply because I think folks at the city
don't know that this policy exists. And we also have an opportunity with this ordinance. It doesn't
have to necessarily be site specific work. So for example, just because a fire station is being renovated
doesn't mean we have to do
an art project.
at the fire station. We also have the opportunity just to create a fund where we take that 1% of the
funds and just let that grow so we could focus somewhere else. So one thing I'd like to spend some time
doing in 26 is just exploring the option to creating that fund and working with you all to decide how
we're prioritizing things. And also, I think folks like the fire station, and I love this about them,
they see that, oh my gosh, there's disordinates. And they reach out to me and they need something
And I think there's also some like misunderstanding of like we can't do that. You know, we can't give
them a good piece of art. Like we need time to like prioritize everything for each year to make sure
something good happens. So I think it's just gonna be kind of a matter of working with colleagues in
other departments to just give ourselves a longer runway to make these things happen. And we're very
lucky we now have somebody in our department whose title is just
capital projects manager. So they're responsible for overseeing things now like the entire development
of Hopewell. And she's offered to help me work on this a little. So having that extra staff capacity
to help me on this will be a big help for next year. So can we, I guess maybe as individuals, can we
as a commission,
help address that ordinance to tighten it up. I would love you to do that, yes. And I do think we should,
because again, the way it's written now, it's like, we actually are supposed to do an annual report
on this, but I don't think this is something that's ever been done. You know, I don't think nobody at
this table has, Lola, I think you've been here the longest. That's specific to Anna, 1%. Yeah, yeah,
we always go brag about ourselves, but we're never like, this is where we're focusing this year for
public art, right?
So, yeah. Well, let's keep that on the radar. Yeah. Yeah, that's definitely on my list of things to
address. Yeah. Great. Moving along to agenda item number three, city updates. I guess we can continue
if there are more questions for the city. Yeah. City updates and questions. We're just winding down.
the year right now, trying to get our last batch of contracts out the door and just trying to wrap the
year. Again, I'm going to do some work at the end of the year just kind of trying to do some planning
for 26. I think one thing we've discussed at these meetings is I think sometimes there's a
lack of transparency of like
what I am working on as the city arts person that you might not be working on as arts commissioner.
So I'm going to spend some time thinking about that at the end of this year and next year. And hopefully
in February 26, I'd like to just report out on how I'm thinking about that now. So yeah, that's what
I'll be working on. But I'm happy to answer any more questions. You haven't seen anything from Lynn yet.
It feels quieter than usual. Agenda item number four, update from public art interim chair. So the exciting
thing is the convention center. So since we last met, we were able to close out the applications. I
think we received 180 for the call through Holly
like doing a first sweep, she was able to get that down to 16, the public arts subcommittee, Betsy,
thank you, looked through these applications. And then we were able to kind of narrow it down even more.
And so today we were able to meet with, I guess, the CIB recommendation board and kind of get it down
to like eight or whatever. So that's pretty exciting. There's a lot of talented artists that was not
And we're still finalizing things, making sure that we're confident about the people that are going
to be moving on to the final round. So that's pretty exciting. Yeah, I think that's pretty much it as
far as the convention center and what the progress is there. We should finish that on Monday. Oh, yeah.
I'm going to meet again on Monday to wrap that up.
And then you'll be extending invitations to the, it's five finalists or no? Yeah, so the way we wanted
to break it down is to have five finalists and then we'll have up to three alternates. So that's kind
of where we're landing there. And I'll reach out to all of them before the end of the year. We're gonna
hit that goal. Can we see who you've got down here? Is there a list somewhere of the eight
Yeah, I will so what I'm gonna do so we kind of like today we looked at the top applicants and it was
actually really cool. I think there was a lot of
alignment between what the recommendation committee was gravitating towards and what the arts commissioners
gravitated towards. So that made it easier. And so what we kind of agreed on, Christina, Rob, and I,
we've seen each other many times today. And what we agreed on was we took that group and we asked the
recommendation committee today to kind of categorize people as A, B, or C. So A being like definite
finalists, Bs being maybes or alternates, and Cs being like we love y'all, but this is not the moment.
I'm going to share that list back with the CIB recommendation committee just so they can have and be
prepared for a discussion on Monday, but I'd happily share that with the public arts subcommittee as
well. That makes sense. There were some names much further down the list that were called up and reviewed
again. It was a very productive meeting and a lot of good synergy there.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Maya was there. Yeah, Maya Michelson is part of that committee. Yeah, so it felt really
good. I think Galen, who's technically the chair of that committee, he's also the owner of Uptown. Galen?
Yeah, he had some really thoughtful feedback, I thought. That's fantastic. Yeah, it was really great.
Great. Yeah. Great. Well, yeah, thank you all for being a part of that and updating us.
It's exciting. It's really exciting. It's exciting. I'm nervous, of course, you know? Because it's like,
we've talked a lot about, OK, we have to make sure we select the best lighting artists who have applied
and the best installation artists have applied. And we have to make sure that we're going to get five
fantastic proposals and no duds. There's a lot of pressure, but I think, yeah. It is tricky. Yeah. But
I just want to say one thing. I was on the committee way back in the day when Maya was
charge of the Daly and Knox piece that ended up at the end. And so I just want to tell you that it's
hard. All of this is hard. And you end up maybe with something you didn't really ask for. So that's
all. That's all I'm going to say. There have definitely been a lot of conversations about, well, someone's
going to be mad. And I think that's also, though,
It's part of public art. If everyone was happy, I think that would be a failure. I just... I just swore
I would never be involved with public art again. That's a great project. Any other comments or questions
for the public art crew?
agenda number five update from grants chair meeting on the 19th is canceled yeah no hundred and eighty
thousand dollars that's crazy it was great it's been fun it's been a good four years thank you everyone
Gerard, you're taking over in some interim capacity, or no? We'll discuss it today, but I think Paul
and I. Oh, cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's awesome. So it's been fun. Thank you all. Thank you. Well,
everything. Yeah. Are you planning to be in January? Technically, we still have one. Yeah, you've got
one more. Yeah, I was wondering about that. Is that, do I, I can, yeah, of course, yeah. And then I'll
be here. I just need to review all the guidelines. OK, I probably actually, it will be helpful to us
to talk about the schedule for next year.
Yeah, it's some sort of transition as a full subcommittee or leadership. So, stay tuned for that. Any
other questions or notes for? Great. Okay, from your chair.
A couple quick things. One, all right, the task force. It's happening. Things are moving along. We met
after the public art subcommittee meeting in November, and we really pushed through some stuff. Paul
and Christina and Gretchen brought some really great feedback, and we've kind of taken what the old
strategic plan was and
diving into it, kind of like maybe taking up parts that were redundant or not necessary or maybe didn't
fully accurately reflect on what we're doing, adding in sort of like new language, but then also kind
of like we've assessed sort of like the private, like done a good job, I think, of identifying realistic
goals for the next three years. And I think we're on track to present something in January to the group.
So stay tuned.
Okay. The next leadership team. I'm so thrilled to announce that I think we have a leadership team that
we need to vote on today to start on February 1st as I announced in the midpoint email. We are going
to sort of go through position by position.
and we have to do sort of a, we have to do a vote on them. And then, and then we'll just feel great.
And go party, pretty much. So, okay, I'll go ahead and start with Cher. I always feel, I always get,
You said it right. I said it right. Okay, fantastic. I second-guess myself. As someone whose name also
gets mispronounced all the time, has volunteered to take on the role of chair, starting on February
1st, taking over for me. Super appreciative of that. Thank you.
So yeah, real quick, I'm gonna ask for a motion to approve Netta as the upcoming chair. Can I get a
second on that? Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. You didn't vote. I don't think
I'm allowed to. Any abstentions?
All right, fantastic. Thank you all, Linda. Thank you so much. Our next chair. Okay, moving on.
Vice chair. Rob has offered to take up the role of vice chair. We'll be taking over for Christina, who's
served on that role for, I believe, two, three years. Oh my gosh, I hope, yeah.
So yeah, thank you so much for that, Rob. Yeah, look forward to it. Looking forward to getting to know
you. Definitely, working hard together. So yeah, can I get a motion to vote on Rob Shakespeare as the
next vice chair? Can I get a verbal second on that? Second? All right. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any
opposed, say nay. All right, fantastic. Thank you.
Betsy is going to stay on as secretary. I don't think we need to vote on that today. Thank you for,
yeah, just keeping on batting 1,000. Okay, moving on to the subcommittee chairs. We didn't scare Christina.
She wants to stay on as the public art subcommittee chair in a non-interim capacity, in full capacity.
Thank you for Christina,
doing great work so far and very much looking forward to see you continuing on in that role. I'm gonna
go ahead and motion to vote that Christina moves into the public art subcommittee chair role. I second.
Fantastic. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. All right, we're doing great. Okay, and last
but certainly not least,
for the grant subcommittee Paul and I are going to I think work as as co-chairs on that committee just
based on the sort of the Yeah, the the consistent volume of work that that that committee has to work
through and also I think upcoming procedural changes with sort of the
The new landscape both in the city and in the state, I think there's just gonna be sort of a lot, a
lot sort of take on in the coming year. And so Paul and I are gonna work together on that along with,
of course, with the subcommittee. So yeah, I'm gonna motion, I guess, yeah, a motion to approve Paul
and I as co-chairs for the grants subcommittee. Second. Second, all right, thank you Betsy.
All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. Okay, we did it. We have, we have, yeah. All right.
And that's, yeah, that's all for agenda item number six. Again, thank you to everyone stepping up.
Thank you, I think, yeah.
Lou is the only one that's like, I guess, formally leaving a leadership business because Christine is
staying on and I'm moving on into another capacity, but yeah, thank you for your work. Agenda item number
seven, upcoming events and important dates. It's the holidays, y'all. Party tonight? Yeah, of course,
party tonight. I hope to see you all there.
The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology is our Commissioner Brandy McDonald's event on the 11th.
There's a holiday market at Orbit Room tomorrow night. Okay. Yeah. There's one everywhere. Yeah. There's
one at the wall. Oh, shoot. Oh, the wall-room one is cool. Has anybody? I saw that Sarah did a great
job. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think is it the one that was open on the Friday gallery walk?
That makes sense. That's cool because instead of just like a pop-up market that happens only for like
three or four hours once, this is an invitation to artists just to have their work for sale all month
long. And it's also going to be open during like the most popular theater show of the year at the Waldron.
This is the first year in many years that Constellation has done their holiday performance at the Waldron
versus the Buskirk Chumley Theater. So they're going to have
Hordes of people coming in and out and so this is a great opportunity to showcase and sell a lot of
work by our local artists It's a great awesome idea. Yeah That's a great question There's a balance
between rental costs and being in-house but then there's the balance between
a cast, and when you have a bigger audience, obviously, they can get paid more easily. So, yeah. It's
a juggle, as I understand it. Yeah, I think in the space of those performances, there are some Christmas
movies, I think, being shown at the VCT.
Looking to see some holiday class. I think they had Gremlins was one of them. Gremlins, Elf. Yeah, some
unconventional Christmas films, but then also some more conventional Christmas films. Okay, yeah, any
other notable events? On a similar note, any announcements? Yeah, things that people are excited about or
to or just want to share with the group. Elliot and I just saw Stefan Rees in Amsterdam. Oh yeah, so
Stefan Rees is the artist who did OT 987, the installation that happened in April in the trades district
and he was accepted to be one of the, I don't know how many artists, 13?
13 artists to have a temporary light installation as part of this year's Amsterdam Light Festival. So
we got to go see him and his piece and some other really cool temporary light installations around the
different canals in Amsterdam. And he's doing really great. And it was fun to catch up with him and
just also see what other types of work folks are doing out there. So, yeah. I just saw John Resick today.
I'm going to be like, yeah. Okay, great. Well, and as far as I can tell, there is no public.
I'm gonna call a timeout here. I'm gonna make everyone here
share a memorable moment from 2025. When you think about this past year and a special arts moment that
you had. Yeah, anything. Does it have to be good? Nope, it could be good. It could be. It have to be
here? Nope. No, just a little bit of reflecting on the year. A special moment in the arts that you had.
I have nothing but bad news I'm getting kicked out of my rental for my gallery so that was a terrible
moment that happened literally the day before my birthday and yeah so but the whole year was great it
was a great year you know so it's just we weren't supposed to do shows
In the space. Well, thanks for all your work. Roses was just such a... It's one of the only all-ages
spaces in Bloomington. I want to try and find something new. It's a loss to the community. I'm working
with one of the primary organizers of events in that space to think through other options. It's not
easy right now, but I'm happy to talk with you about that too. But it sucks and I'm sorry.
Yeah, it's just, no, I mean, it's just the rent-sinking behavior, you know, and then you have to,
you know, adapt to that. And then it's just, you have to please a landlord and, you know, you have to,
that's a whole balance. You know what I mean? It's just like, it's like, if you want to do big events,
you know, there's so much that goes with that. And it's just like, I love that there's so many people
willing to take on that work, but it's just like,
the landlord wasn't willing to see any value in that for some reason. So. It's a Bloomington issue,
you know? Yeah, yeah. The landlords, I don't know. It's just they, you know. Yeah. Maybe landlord. Maybe
seeking the rent. I have one good positive thing. It was the tending night in the house
gallery, an event that happened, and I don't know if anybody went to it. Did you go? No. It was the
one put on by Faye last year. Oh, yes. I was there very late. Really? Okay. Yeah. I was there, and it
was a great event. It was in a house, and it was, luckily, the person who owned the house allowed it
to happen, so we didn't have any problems with landlords or anything, but it was a really positive thing.
It was also a fundraiser for SNAP. So it solved a couple of things, not just art, but it was lovely.
And it was just the kind of thing we need more of in Bloomington. I love what you're talking about.
So how can we do that? I don't know. I don't know how to do it. I have one. My wife and I like to see theater.
And it was good theater this year, but when it stood out particularly was the Jewish theater production
of Arthur Miller's The Price, which was just so well done. Mine is more so just like a concept in general
from this year.
my partner, he's never really been exposed to this whole public art world. So it's just like, what?
What? So just seeing his reaction, because we went to OT 987 and him seeing that, and then we went back
later when it was dark, and he was like. Or when we went to AAAI when they had their puppery. And just
seeing his reaction to things, because he's just never really
You know, he's from construction, so it's just like two different worlds. But just like to just see
that reaction of like, he's like, wow, I didn't know all this kind of existed. And it's just really
cool that you're introducing me to a lot of things, so. Yeah, that's a good feeling. That's so cute.
I've got a selfish one. There was a game I developed for South Bend in 2000.
1415, where there's maybe 160 yards across the river and there's towers on either side. When you wave
your hands this way and it sends a ball of light across the water and if somebody on the other side
catches it, like
they're just sensors that are watching your hands, then the whole place bursts into like rainbows. And
we had a lot of interference with it because of giant bugs that are near the water. And we can't tune
it out. So we developed a new game that opened this last year, actually in September, where there are
a series of towers where it's a color mixing game. So there's three stations.
public can get out there and mix the secondary colors of light. But it's really explosive at times.
So that's been a great success. And we got yet another contract to do it yet another bridge this coming
year. So yeah, there's a lot of light in South Bend. I guess my good thing.
getting involved with the commission honestly it's been I've been able to meet a lot of people and learn
about a lot of the art spaces here so I feel like I it wouldn't have taken me longer to do that without
this commission so happy to think that's my one good 2025 I'm sure there's many more but I just can't remember
That's a lot of art this year. I actually just found out a few weeks ago that I got an Andy Warhol artist
writers grant to write about the censorship of art concerning Palestine in the United States. So it's
a grant to commission an article to write about that. It's exciting.
Yeah, it's cool. That's huge. Yeah, so I'm really excited about that. So project for next year. Yeah,
yeah, there's a lot I could recap from this year. I think that if I'm thinking of 2025 when I two sort
of like selfish thing and then one kind of like, I don't know, like
I mean, the one thing I'll mention is Natalie and sort of like the disruption midpoint in the air that
was like, I think, yeah, that was just a really big blow to the commission and something that's still,
I don't, I mean, I know we've moved on, but I don't think it's like solely been fully sort of like fixed
in a sense. And,
So, but I, you know, it was really heartening to kind of see the way that we all responded as a commission
and also see the way that the public responded as well and then kind of like how we support each other
and stand up for each other. So there was, you know, there was some, a silver lining there. My own personal
sort of like,
artistic experiences this year. I'll think of performing in Buffy Prom. I got to play as part of a Killers
cover band, which is a ton of fun. And then going to Soul Talk. Oh my god, Soul Talk. Just like totally,
like just blew my mind. So yeah, those are I think some of my highlights from there.
Yeah, definitely agree about Natalie. And I think also just the community showing up for her at that
meeting was really impactful. It just shows it goes beyond this room. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I took
up line dancing this year, which is something. As someone who grew up hating country music and everything
affiliated with that culture, the 13-year-old version of myself is very angry at me.
So much fun. And it's just such a cool community. And it's right upstairs from Honky Tonk at the block
house every Tuesday night. So that's been super fun and completely unexpected. And the other thing is
my dad and I got tattoos together this year. So he's always been like super anti-tattoo. But he's also
he's a bug scientist. So this is what reminded me of it, Rob. It's like that. And his favorite.
Bug is the mayfly for reasons that are too subtle for me to understand. And so he decided he wanted
to get a tattoo of a mayfly. So I went and visited him last winter. And I was like, dad, we're going
to do it. And I found an artist that specialized in black and white line designs of nature. And so my
dad and I found this really cool rendering of a mayfly in an old insect book and sent it to him. And
he made this awesome rendering of it.
And we both went and got them when I was there. And it was just like super cool. My dad finally like
opened up to the artist about why he loved Mayflies. And so I finally got to find out like why. And
it was just this whole new experience of my family that I didn't expect. So it was very cool. But your
first thing.
Maybe you'll go to the demolition derby at this state. The whole extension of that. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think we'd also be remiss if we didn't mention OT six. Finally getting in
the ground. I would say the minute, you know, until that first double arc
went into the ground. I was just like, boy, I'm going to get run out of town. And the moment it went
into the ground, I was like, oh. What? Six years. Six years. Did it go away? Oh. Wait. Helen, can you hear us?
Oh, there she is. Hold on. It might just be how I have to do this. There she is. Oh, wait, you're muted.
I'm so sorry I'm late.
It took me a while to figure out where I had put the meeting link. I'm so sorry. We're just wrapping
up. And actually, your timing is perfect. We're just sharing a highlight or two in the arts from the
past year. Is there a particular event you attended or artistic thing that you did or just a special
artistic moment this past year?
Well, I don't know. Well, two things. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Adventures of
Cavalier and Clay at the Met in New York, which was really amazing. And so I'm very, very lucky to be
able to do that.
Aver Bush of the School of Music invited me and my husband, and we were able to go. And I also just
was lucky enough to go with a friend at the movie theater to see Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along.
which was great fun and I still have it in my ear. And I'm looking forward to IU Theater presenting
that, I think, this spring. That'll be great, yeah. Great. Cool, well that, yeah. Cool, well, yeah,
that's, yeah, that's, I think that's the end of the meeting.
No public comment. I'll check in about getting in touch sometime soon. Okay, great. I'm going to put
this link somewhere where I can find it better.
Yeah, we can also make sure it's included in that email. Yeah, sorry about that. But thank you for letting
me join you right here at the tail end. Yeah, of course. It's good to hear from you. Good to see you.
And yeah, I'll just... Yeah, I wish everyone a happy holiday season. Thanks for being here. Thanks for sharing.
your moments from the past year and yeah let's go party.