- Hi, everyone. The meeting will now come to order. If we can just pull up the agenda. Perfect. So first,
- roll call, I guess, is this new? Should we ask everyone to? Oh, yes. That was something that was brought
- up a lot. I think, Adrienne, you mentioned this. And maybe Nick did. But to start the meeting, we have
- to do a verbal roll call. OK. Start with me, or? Sure. All right. So I'm Neda. I'm the chair.
- Gerard Panathok, president.
- here. I'm Becca Pio. I'm present in here. And this is your first meeting? And this is my very first
- meeting. You're welcome. I'm Rebecca. I'm Rob. Hi. I'm Rob Shakespeare, who's present. I'm here, Betsy
- Stewart. Paul Anderson. Christina Elam-Hugh. Staff. Staff. To change. And Jane Coopersmith, staff. OK.
- Do we have to do that with just folks that are in person or? You do it for everyone. Do you have anyone
- online? OK, just want to double check. No, I think it's just us. All right, great. So that's our first
- thing on the agenda. Second is approval of the minutes.
- The minutes were distributed. Are there any corrections that anyone has here? No. Okay. There are no
- corrections. I move to approve the minutes as distributed. Can I get a second? Second. Thank you. All
- in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay. Okay. The minutes are approved. Thank you. Betsy as usual.
- All right. Next, we will go over
- the BAC financial report. I think that's our folks at the city. Yeah, and there's no activity to report
- this month. We did pay out a 2024 grant that for some reason hadn't been paid out and we had to iron
- out some contractual challenges. So I guess technically there's 1,500 that had to come out of the 2026
- grant allotment, but
- It should be fine. I don't think that will be a problem. Sorry, it's not notated here. But otherwise,
- the other arts activity was all outside of the BAC budget, but we have been moving money along. Hi.
- Hello. Hi. So yeah, so that's it for financial. Okay, bye. Great. All right, so I guess back to the city.
- If you guys have any updates? Do you have any other updates? I wanted to give a hiring update and just
- say that we have an accepted offer and potentially a start date of 526 but HR doesn't want us to announce
- until it's official so we'll wait but we're really excited and looking forward to onboarding that person
- and introducing them to you all.
- Yeah, I think it'll be good. And then I think Christina had an item that she was going to share. Um,
- yeah. Do we, do they need to say the roll call? Yeah. Well, we can just say for the record that Gretchen
- and Nal and Austin. What? Yeah. No, I just was double checking. Did this start at 515 or 530? 515.
- Yeah so the item that I had was just the boards and commissions in general so Jennifer Crossley she's
- the dedicated person on city staff that does all things boards and commissions and so what she's doing
- is doing a training for not only the city liaisons but also she'll be doing a training for all members
- and it'll be
- you go through this annually, like an annual thing. And then there's a lot of things that are going
- to change as far as rules and how we meet and all this stuff, just like technicalities. But I did want
- to say that there's also going to be changes towards requirements around attendance, quorum,
- things like that. So the member trainings will start in June.
- you know, be mindful of that and they'll reach out so you can kind of schedule a time to come in and
- go through all of that. So, okay. Do you know what the duration of those sessions are? The session I
- went through was like an hour and a half. Okay. Yeah. And the three of us were off in December. Should
- we still do that? Betsy, Rob, and I, our turn is up, isn't it?
- I would say yes, just because you're still a standing member now. We've got Rob through, oh, 131.27.
- Yeah, same for Betsy, same for Gretchen. Oh, no, no. 27. January 31st, 27. Yeah. So coming up. And honestly,
- I think there's a rule that if there's not a replacement appointment, I think you can come after that date.
- We can look into that since three of you are going off at the same time. Yeah. I think I'm overhearing
- something. I think it's like 30 days or something like that. What would we do? So we don't,
- I don't know, but I'll find out. Okay. Yeah. So that's my update. Great. Thank you. All right. So I guess,
- Next is public art subcommittee chair, but currently vacant. So I guess, would you be able to give an
- update, Christina? Sure. So public art, the only thing that came up so far was just the convention center.
- So we did the public feedback. We were able to go to the farmers market, as well as Blooming Foods.
- And then we had the online portion.
- The meeting with the CIB for them to vote on who they want to choose would be tomorrow, and that's where
- they will discuss the results from public feedback, so I'm not really aware of the results from that.
- But from the in-person, got a lot of interest, and people were engaging. It felt like the Benjamin Ball,
- the snake, got a lot of popularity. Forsteria. Forsteria, sorry. Forsteria. Snake. I'm sorry.
- It gives me like a reptilian vibe. But yeah, Wisteria and the How to Sosa got a lot of popularity. That's
- the one with the bridge and with flowers and had two spots in which it manifested in the Convention
- Center. So that was from Public Feedback and then the
- Public art subcommittee met yesterday and we kind of deliberate and give our recommendation to the CIB.
- And we, it seemed like, not me, but seemed like it was unanimous around the same, the Benjamin Ball
- wisteria installation. So, yeah. Can I say, we also took our sandwich boards on the road to the convention
- center during a big economic development conference and then to first Friday at the Waldron.
- So it was really fun to get it out in the community. And we had a date for Kroger, but it didn't work
- out with the timing of the CIB, so. Yeah, well done. Yeah, but next time. I mean, it's great to know
- that Kroger will let us do public engagement there as long as we're not selling stuff, so. Yeah.
- And Rob, you were able to go to all the interviews with the artists? I did. Yeah.
- And it was very insightful. And they all went back into their history and showed lots of very successful
- projects and then put the presentation of their project in context for Bloomington, their site visits,
- and what they responded to. So each one of them gave excellent presentations
- Did all of them come? All of them did come, right? Well, there was one disqualified submission. Oh,
- there was? So we had four instead of five. Okay. It had to do with engineering, so. Yeah. Oh, I see.
- Okay. And I don't think they did all do site visits, but. Yeah. I thought all of them won. Well, besides,
- I don't know. I thought maybe the groundhog didn't come.
- I think that's right. Right, and you got disqualified, or they got disqualified. So, yeah, so that's
- kind of the update on Convincing. Okay, great. Thank you. Also, I realized that I have my agenda mixed
- up. I guess the chair agenda item is before the subcommittee, so I'll just go back to that. So for me,
- One, I want to say welcome to our new commissioners, Becca and Austin. I know Austin, you were here
- in the last meeting, but since I wasn't there, welcome anyway. So first, welcome. And then we also have
- subcommittee assignments. So both of you express which subcommittee you're interested in. And Becca,
- you are interested in public art. Austin, you're interested in the grant subcommittee, which is perfect for us.
- So first, I guess we need to vote to approve the new assignments. And also, Becca volunteered and is
- interested in being subcommittee chair for public art, which we love as well. But I wanted to give Becca
- a chance to just kind of share why she's interested in the position, and then we could probably move
- to get them in there. All right, go ahead. Yeah. So hi, everyone.
- So I, excuse me, I have an art administration background, so I'm working on getting my art degree. I
- also have a studio art background in photography, so I love art, love being around public art, so I
- would love to just kind of be more around public art and just kind of steering the committee, if you
- would let me. So that would be my first time doing it, and yeah,
- would just love the opportunity to kind of get my feet wet on that in front of it. So what do you currently
- do? Oh yeah, I work at IU. Right now, I'm an assistant director of on-campus recruitment for the O'Neill
- School, which is SPIA. And I'm working on hopefully getting a job
- either at the museum or I just recently applied to the Eskenazi school, which is where I graduated from
- with my undergrad. So we'll see if I get a call back for an interview next week. So hopefully trying
- to get my way back there. So SPIA runs the Arts Administration? Yeah, they run the Arts Administration
- program and I graduate next spring, so any year. So yeah.
- In arts administration. In arts administration, yeah. So I'm currently on a student advisory board for
- the Eskenazi Museum and I'm going to be an inaugural leader of that board come fall because it's very
- unorganized and not structured and there's no governance of that board. So I sort of volunteered myself
- to run that. I'm getting a nonprofit management certificate on top of my degree.
- So I really love community engagement and advocacy. So that's really kind of like why I'm also here
- as well. So, cool. Perfect. Yeah, exactly. I think you're a perfect fit. So, OK, this is my first time
- doing this. So how does the process work? Do we just? Can you just ask the board if anyone would like
- to make a motion? I move to accept her as head of public policy. Approve. OK, we'll start with Becca
- then. OK, thank you. I guess we need a second.
- Okay, those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against say nay. All right, perfect. Becca, you are officially
- the subcommittee chair for public art. Thank you so much for volunteering. We really appreciate it and
- I think you're gonna do amazing. Okay, and then now Austin's turn. So Austin is going to join the grant
- subcommittee. So can I just make a motion? Can somebody make a motion? Yep, okay. Can I get a second?
- I second. OK. So many seconds. OK. Are you a musician? Yes. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Those opposed,
- say nay. OK, great. Austin, you're in the subcommittee. Thank you so much. Thank you. And the work is
- about to begin. I know. Just in time. Yes. OK, great. So I think that's all I had.
- on my end, so let's move to the next agenda item, which is from Gerard and Paul for grant subcommittee
- co-chairs. Can I just say something? Yes. I'm on the committee, and I want to thank these two gentlemen
- for their fantastic organization of all of this stuff. For real. Because it is so well done. And I mean,
- because just adjudicating all those grants,
- You guys did a great job.
- Gerard did all the work. Thanks, Gerard. Thanks, Gerard. I did all the organizing, but Paul did a lot
- of the mental work. Well, the mental work is important, too. Very important. Yeah. I think also Jane
- and Paige and Christina, as well, I think helped us get all that stuff organized on the back and on
- the staff end. So yeah, it was definitely good. I think there is. Paige, Paige. OK. Sure. Well,
- it's great. OK. Thank you, Betsy. Appreciate that.
- Well, yeah, Paul, I have a couple things to share and then we didn't collaborate on our report. So I'll
- just I'll say my stuff and if you have anything to add Okay, so yes the Arts project grants I think
- I think this was included in the in the midpoint email, but we got a lot of them I I think maybe more
- than ever I know I know last year we had like
- I think before that we were somewhere in the 60s, but yeah, we have like 78, I think, grants,
- which is a lot. And so thanks to everyone here for hopping on board to help us review those. It kind
- of makes a more manageable load for everyone. So yeah, this is just a reminder that those reviews are
- gonna take place next, I messed up the dates, next Monday and Tuesday.
- And so yeah, make sure you're starting to go through those. Make sure that you're doing the first and
- second readers that you're assigned to. I think everyone on the committee, so me, Betsy, and Paul,
- and Austin, you weren't on the committee previously, but you are now. And when the four of us have grants
- that we're viewing on both days,
- I think Gretchen, you are just on Monday, and Rob and Austin, you are on Tuesday. So you can check there
- for your assignments. A thing I want to emphasize as well, and this is gonna be really hard to do, I'll
- qualify it there, but we're gonna need to move pretty quickly through these. In order to accomplish
- all this in four hours across two days, we're gonna have to keep each review to about three minutes,
- which means first reviewer kind of gives a very succinct kind of report on their scores and the sort of
- general project description, second reader adds some context, and then there's maybe a little bit of
- time for feedback and discussion there. And yeah, we'll rip through and do our best to stay on time.
- So yeah, so all that's to say is make sure that you've sort of like prepared those, not like form, like
- just have a sense of what you're gonna say at this meeting.
- Those meetings are going to take place here in McCloskey, I believe. Well, I just noticed that we were
- kicked out of McCloskey for Monday. So how many people are there? There will be five, six.
- Kelly is available. It's small, but we can have it. Or it's also, I'm sending an updated
- Thank you all. It's also possible to reserve a room at the mill as long as we advertise it. So if you
- want me to look into that, if that feels like it would be more pleasant. Kelly is fine. It does get
- a little hot, so. Where is it? It's next door to ESD's suite. It just has one little conference table
- in it. Okay. Where do you park there? Same. Here? Yes.
- after five? Well, no, I mean, the Kelly Conference Room's in City Hall. No, I mean for the mill.
- For the mill, you would park on the street. Or up here. You could park here and walk up there. OK.
- Just sorry, not to make it out of complication. Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it can get kind of stuffy,
- and we'll be moving kind of quickly. I think if there is an option to have a nice room, that'd be good.
- I'll see what I can do. But if not, we can make do. Would you be using video?
- Yeah, so that was actually a second question I had here is, will we have any tech support? Because I
- know these meetings have to be public. To my knowledge, no one is joining on Zoom. Everyone on both
- days is coming in person. So I don't know what our obligation is in terms of making it available via
- Zoom. But it can certainly be open to the public. And kind of like what Christina was alluding to earlier
- is that we're having more stringent
- requirements with accessibility in a meeting so we'll on the item of just making sure you guys have
- what you need okay and you'll have a staff member there okay and we obviously won't participate okay
- and I think it will get denied but I'm asking for permission to purchase food but I'm pretty sure
- If you get denied, just know I'm trying. Sure, that's fine. I mean, yeah. That will definitely get denied.
- That sounds great. Just some stuff to keep the blood sugar, like popcorn and something like that. Yeah,
- something. I mean, Cheez-Its was kind of our tradition, but yeah. Just something simple, yeah, if possible.
- OK, yeah, so that'll be Monday and Tuesday. The plan is to kick off right at 530. And hopefully, wrapped
- by 730, we have a little bit
- on those reservations, I think we have rooms held or soon to be held from five to eight, but. And I
- just want to say, what Paige said about this process is that you were super valuable in getting things
- organized and working on that, the eligibility guidelines and stuff, so. Oh, yeah, Paul and I.
- You and Paul. Yes. Yeah, so. I just wanted to bounce that back your way. Yeah, thanks. Teamwork. Yeah.
- And that, well, that,
- is a great setup for the next item on the board, is that the artistic advancement grants are on the
- horizon. And I think we have some similar work to do in terms of, I think, adjusting the rubric and
- some of the things there. I know, I think we were initially set to open those up in end of May. We might
- need to push that back a week or two just because of, like,
- scheduling conflicts and getting folks on board and things like that. But just just to note that that's
- that's just around the corner. So yeah I know I know Paul and I were in a little bit of I think a crunch
- to get the project grant sort of like up and running and out the door when we did. I think if possible
- it'd be great to get the committee more on board for the artistic advancement grant.
- So, yeah, we'll have an update on that timeline and kind of the needs there shortly. Paul,
- anything else? Thank you. All right. Well, yeah, I'll simply reiterate, thanks again, everyone, for
- answering the call to help us out with these, because, yeah. Can I say something? Those grants, if you
- haven't started, they took me hours to read.
- Oh, no. I mean, I'm just saying maybe don't wait till like that morning to try to do it. Yeah, yeah.
- They're pretty wordy. OK. Yeah. Is there a way we can limit the amount of words in these applications?
- Is there just laborious? OK, yeah. And they're repeating themselves a lot. And maybe it should be like
- 200 words. Yeah. Sure. You can say that too. Any question can be answered in that. And every question
- seems like they're repeating themselves.
- There are a couple questions where I think we we do have have Suggested word limits on them, but yeah,
- it's true. We don't have it. We don't have them for all of them and Yeah, maybe have a character A character
- or word count on this. Okay. I also think coming from a grants background myself sometimes and knowing
- that I've been on a review board for the NEA NEA reviewers tend to say
- just sometimes it's helpful to know that they provide guidelines to be consistent throughout grants.
- So they always say to be something that I've known just from being on the back end of like an NEA grant
- and then also arts commission grant that they say to be consistent throughout grants. So when I've helped
- like people, I've helped people submit grants before, not for these grants, but like,
- they say to be consistent throughout. So there'll be people repeating themselves throughout all of the
- grants, just FYI. Oh, okay. That's advice that's given to applicants, okay. Yeah, so. Okay, but yeah,
- thanks for that, Rachel. Thank you. And thanks for that.
- other thing come to mind but it was no it was it was not important and I think okay sure okay so next
- we have upcoming events and important dates okay so
- I guess we don't have anything from May. Anybody have anything coming up they want to share? This is
- not the document. I feel like this feels wrong. It is not the document, right? Yeah. Huh. I feel like
- there was other stuff on it. We had trouble finding it, and that's what turned up under that name. But
- let me look for it. OK. Let me look again just to see. If you go to the midpoint email, I think it should
- link to the direct, yeah, that link.
- Or it's also linked in the agenda. That's the one that I clicked. Oh, the agenda. OK. Oh, it is? Because
- I was like, I saw first Thursdays for a second, and I panicked. I was like, what? It's like,
- surely not. Oh, Deja Vu. Yeah. Didn't we do that? Yeah. It's in the agenda. That last first Thursday
- that was. Well, you say it's linked in the agenda. Yeah. Yeah. That last first Thursday that was up
- there. That makes sense.
- Yes, it was awesome. You guys did such a good job. It was a big success. 620 is the Grand Balloon Waxahachie
- Kathleen Edwards concert at Switchyard. So I'll say it for the room, but IU and the City Parks Department
- are investing in some pretty awesome concerts this summer to try to make Bloomington really a destination
- for our region. And so it's Waxahachie Kathleen Edwards on June 20th, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings
- on July 18th. And then I think you should say it.
- Yeah, well then the August 29th overlaps with the Secretly 30th Anniversary. At Switchard Park, Duran
- Jones is, I know it was the headliner, Duran Jones and the indications are the headliner. I'm blanking
- on who the supporting acts are that evening. But yeah, that's part of that whole sort of like Secretly
- 30th. Oh, it's the Magnolia boys? Yeah. And I can't remember who else. Yeah, but Duran Jones is headlining
- at Switchard Park, and that'll kind of like wrap this Grand Full Moon music series.
- I'll have to get some dates too. There's some family friendly art summer camps at the Eskenazi Museum
- too that I'm helping out with that I could probably give too. I have another thing I can contribute.
- The city is sponsoring some different Kirkwood activations and so there's buskets, dusk is being revived.
- We can get these added. I'll just state them for the good of the order. Third Wednesday of each month,
- downtown shop night, Busket Dusk, 4 to 7 p.m. So that's fun. We can put some of these other events down
- there. What is it, Jane?
- Activations for downtown and Kirkwood, and then the busket desk where buskers are invited to post up
- at different spots so there will be music in the streets. I don't know who's playing. Did you say Family
- Night Out already? Family Night Out is the second Wednesday, 5 to 8.30, in partnership with the Monroe
- County Public Library, invites families to spend an evening downtown with family-friendly games and
- activities, entertainment, and opportunities to visit businesses and restaurants along Kirkwood.
- Will they be closing a street down for those days? It says the street will be lined with tables and
- chairs for community style dining. Is there still cars running along it? So that language is kind of
- ambiguous. I don't know if we're shutting it down or not. Sorry. I would imagine that they probably
- have, they'll probably shut down parts of where they have the table. They may just shut the library
- block down. Yeah. Yeah. So that's actually going on now.
- Today's the first day we can head out. Oh, you mean till 8.30? Mm-hmm. But we can share that information
- over email and get that spreadsheet populated. Mm-hmm. I think you should have access now, Christina.
- OK. Yeah. Maybe try refreshing. It was shared with me?
- Okay, so are you logged into your BAC email? Yeah, I think I saw true and true. Okay. Yeah. Okay, I'll
- kill that other one. I don't know what that is. Okay, anything else in terms of events or? If not,
- I mean, yes. So you guys have access to the document. So please continue to add things, even if it's
- just like in between sessions and you're like, oh, there's this event I want to add and I don't want
- to forget, just add it.
- when you have a chance. All right. So next, let's move on to commissioner announcements. Any announcements
- from commissioners? Okay, great. Perfect timing, George. Okay, so thinking about our project grants
- and the timeline, so yeah, we're reviewing next week, and then the week after that at our
- I think normally scheduled meeting, which is scheduled for May 27th. That's when we'll present a funding
- package and vote on that. And then I don't think they'll, hopefully in the next week or so after that,
- funding notifications will go out. Money won't have been moved by then, but at least we'll have a sense
- of our budget. We'll have some financial information to report. So yeah, just to give a sense of that time.
- I guess I should have said this earlier. I was unable or I wasn't present at the public art subcommittee
- meeting last night. I unanimously support the reverse choice. I just wanted to get that out. Okay. If
- no other comments, let's move for comments from the public. If there's anyone, there's no one here.
- Anybody online? I don't think so, right? Yeah, okay, so no public present today. So we will move on.
- So I think actually that's it. If we have nothing else to say, if there's no further business, I move
- to adjourn the meeting. Can I get a second? Thanks. All right, all in favor say aye.
- Opposed say no. Okay great meeting adjourned.