- Hi, everyone. Hi. The meeting will now come to order. So our first order of business is to approve the
- minutes. So the secretary's draft of the minutes for the May meeting was sent to everyone in their email,
- and there's also a copy in the meeting packet. Are there any corrections to the minutes as distributed?
- Okay, great. If there are no corrections, I move to approve the minutes as distributed.
- Can I get a second? Second. Awesome. All in favor say yes. Yes. Those opposed say no. Okay, great.
- Thank you. Minutes are approved. Next, we will go over to the staff or staff report from the city. Well,
- I guess that would be me and you. Yeah. I can go. Go for it, girl.
- So far, so soft. We're fully staffed. Yay. So page started on the 27th, 26th of May. And so, yeah, I
- don't know if you want to say more. Hence the comment about more training would be super helpful. I
- want to share a little bit about myself, though, and I will be brief, because I didn't really like talking
- about myself. My background, I grew up in Indiana.
- pretty university kid, I'll admit it, but we were always an eyeing fan in the family, certainly basketball.
- And I've actually, fun fact, when I moved to Bloomington, I have lived in six different Indiana communities,
- so that's weird, but I acknowledge that. I went to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago,
- I loved art, and when I graduated I actually went into non-profit, both my parents were non-profit people,
- So I'd been volunteering since seven and apparently I was just indoctrinated. So I went into the museum
- field and ultimately continued on that pathway. I ended up with the Indiana Arts Commission, which is
- our state's arts agency and was there for about 11 years running all the programs for the state. So
- very familiar with the public.
- landscape and I'm excited to be here. I wanted to go back to the ground level, being with artists and
- being with the artwork and I was excited to go to the Ryan White Public Art unveiling today with Melanie's
- bronze sculpture and so that was a great inauguration. It was very heart-rending and a really beautiful
- experience. I'm excited to be here and I'm excited to work with you guys because you're a miraculous
- team and we couldn't offer the opportunities that we do
- without you, quite honestly. I may have only been here two weeks, but I can tell you I know that for
- sure. So, thank you. You've been here two weeks? Yeah. I know, I give off the vibe that I've been here
- forever. I know. It's just that absolute confidence that I have. It's there. Happy to have you. Yeah,
- we're really happy to have you. Thank you. Cool. The other thing was training, so we kind of talked
- a little bit about it. It was just a reminder that the boarding commissioner's training
- on June 11th. So if you haven't signed up, Jennifer Crossley sent an email. So hopefully you can get
- that together. That is required as just being a commissioner on the board. So even if you are cycling
- off, you still have to take that training. And then the other thing is just for a reminder for the officers,
- because of like the ODL law and like requirements for
- Just to be in compliance, there are certain things that I have to post in advance to the meeting to
- make sure that we can have a meeting. So I send out an email of things that need to be sent to me in
- advance. Now we are changing it to where minutes and agenda are required for every single meeting. So
- not just the general body, but also the subcommittee meetings. So need the minutes a week before, and
- then agenda three business days before.
- not including holidays or weekends. So just wanted to put that reminder out. And the minutes is from
- the previous month? Yeah, the previous month, yeah. Yeah, so those are only two things that I had as
- a reminder. Any updates, I guess, financials for? I guess we haven't really done anything, so. Yeah.
- There are no changes to the financials. There may be in the next months, but as I slew through it, there
- are no changes at this time. Okay, great. Awesome, thank you. All right, I think next we have a presentation
- from the Trades District Placemaking Task Force. I think from Nick, right? So you're next. Hello, everybody.
- So just to give a little bit of context for the benefit of the public and a few commissioners who have
- joined since I last presented last year, the College and Community Collaboration Grant was awarded by
- Lilly Endowment to IU Bloomington in partnership with the city and amplify. And the whole purpose of
- the grant is to transform the trades district and establish an innovation neighborhood. And so part
- of that is through
- business resources, workforce housing development, infrastructure, public art installation, gateways
- and wayfinding initiatives, and generally giving the district an identifiable look and feel. So what
- step we're going to take now is reinstituting a group that's identified in the grant that's going to
- work on the Trades Arts Pathway Initiative.
- Placemaking Task Force. It's very much a collaborative thing, extending beyond the paid grant team.
- So it's going to include arts administrators, faculty, students. We'll get to this in a second. Hopefully
- a member of the Bloomington Arts Commission, staff from the Eskenazi School, Gil Karch Cook Center,
- Amplify, and then the city. So from the city side, that will include Paige and myself. And here's essentially
- what we're asking for.
- Because we're widening this to include community members, recognize the Arts Commission is a very important
- stakeholder. And while we've had moments to engage in the past, I think most recently Gretchen joined
- a temporary group to review mural proposals for the retaining wall outside of Soma, which is now on
- 11th Street. This is an extended opportunity. And so joining all those people, the expectation is,
- We'd have either monthly or ad hoc meetings. I think after the first meeting or two, we'll have a better
- sense of what sort of rhythm we'll establish. Those would be primarily virtual. We'll have some options
- to attend in person if that's beneficial. And this group will operate through the end term of the grant,
- which is the end of 2028. And so general goals for this group
- is looking at vision strategies, you know, sort of looking at the thematic designs that are part of
- individual public art elements, other elements that we're integrating into the built environment in
- the district, and providing feedback at sort of key moments as that plan develops. And then when appropriate,
- artist selection and procurement, while
- Indian University is curating some of the pieces. There may be opportunities for broader public art
- review. And so if that were to happen, I think we'd want a commissioner to participate with this group
- in the selection process. And then there's a community engagement element. So there may be opportunities
- for public forums. Some of that may be in response to
- public art concepts, design concepts, and so I think being able to participate in meetings and workshops
- as those plans develop. And then I believe one thing we talked about last time was we have an annual
- trades district block party, which is very much intended as a community engagement element and sort
- of demonstrating to people how the space can be activated. And that is sort of our key moment to provide
- very broad sort of catch up
- updates to the community. So that's the general scope of the group. This is very much led by our IU
- partners. My counterpart, Patricia Frank, IU's project manager, and then Ed Komentali, who's leading
- up the arts initiatives on the IU side. So that's the general shape of it. So this is really a conversation
- starter for the commission. I want to be able to answer any questions,
- It's an invitation. I wanted to give some sense of what sort of participation would be required. The
- hope is that there's steady participation with the BAC through the end of that 2028 term. We realize
- that individual commissioner terms may not perfectly line up with that. So I think in the short term,
- we're hoping for a one-year commitment for participation in this, and then
- If a commissioner's term extends, perhaps there's an opportunity for them to participate through the
- term of the grant. If a commissioner hits the end of their term, doesn't renew, or they age out, having
- hit their term limits, I think we can figure out a succession plan. But that's the general shape of
- it. Questions can I answer for folks? So are there already some
- themes or themes that people are working with as this large project gets underway? What kind of holds
- it together? Yeah, I mean, I think that it starts from a conceptual place. You know, there's sort of
- two tracks here. I think there's the idea of giving the district a real look and feel, right? It kind
- of being identifiable as a campus that sits within the community. But when you sort of step inside it,
- you recognize that you're in a place with sort of
- established purpose and ecosystem. I think the other part of that is this concept of an arts pathway.
- And so there will be some standalone public art pieces. There are early concepts. A couple of them artists
- shared at last year's block party. But there's nothing truly set in stone at this point. It's still
- a process we're working through. I think, as everyone knows, through public art commissions with the
- city, these things take a lot of time.
- So I think thematically, in an artistic sense, every point of engagement we've had with artists, and
- I think any discussions with this task force will be rooted in sort of acknowledging what is sort of
- the goal and purpose of the district. It's innovation, it's business development, how that contributes
- to the local economy. A big part of this initiative is helping to attract and retain
- talent in that 25 to 45 age demographic, that right now Bloomington is losing that population. And so
- it's sort of connecting to some of the amenities that are going to be in place in the district, like
- the Trades District Hotel that's going to go in soon. And I think as far as other sort of aesthetic
- themes, I think being aware of, yes, the history of the district, but sort of tying into that theme
- of innovation. What that means, I think, is up for this group
- to sort of work together and interpret and figure out how they want to apply that to individual elements.
- OK. So I'm going to just kind of follow up. I'm kind of thinking the focus is on the trade district.
- Yes. But a lot of the things that would make that successful will happen outside the trades district.
- Sure. Just a simple thing, housing. Yes.
- wondering to what extent these other concerns of the issues are being taken up, either within the group
- that you're describing now or some other group. Yeah, so I think zooming out to the full intent of the
- grant and sort of all the goals that we're looking to achieve, yes, actual development of workforce
- housing is part of that. There is developable land.
- in that district. And so that is one of the main goals. That is one of our obligations to the grant.
- With these multiple grant partners, the city and Amplify and IU, we all have different responsibilities
- within that. And so I think within the scope of this task force, this sort of placemaking focus, it
- really is digging more into the public art and other elements that are
- sort of contribute to that look and feel. So this group will not be tasked with any specific work tied
- to housing, but it is a grant goal. Right now, the public art that's been decided upon has been, are
- you driven, right, in terms of things that have already been commissioned or whatever, right?
- There have been discussions with artists. There is nothing that is fully commissioned at this point.
- Oh, really? Yeah. So I think that without getting too deep into the weeds on that, when this group forms,
- it's not a matter of starting from scratch. It will be a case of joining some conversations that have
- been ongoing, but there's still a lot of work in front of us. And so I think, particularly now that,
- All of the grant partners have had a lot of time to really orient around these goals and make some progress
- towards, I think, what will serve, identifying sort of what will serve the needs of the grant and the
- goals of the grant. This feels like a really good moment to bring in, you know, some troop community
- engagement and make sure that we have sort of a broader group of stakeholders involved. Yeah. I mean,
- I think one thing about public art is that it tends to,
- age and if we're talking about being innovative I think that's something we all have to kind of consider
- when we're commissioning things like that because it ages pretty quickly actually and there's always
- been there's been talk in the public art world about making things that have a lifespan and then they
- go away you know eventually and I'm not saying that that's what your plan is but
- I've been thinking about that a lot. Once you get these things, you get them. And then they either age
- well or they don't. So anyway, it's just a comment more than anything. Absolutely. And I will just say,
- I think that is absolutely part of the active discussion at this point. Great. That's good. Yeah. I
- have a question. So this task force, is it just sort of like a recommendation task force?
- making the decision, like, kind of what role does it play and actually what comes out of, you know,
- the tangible items that come out of this? Yeah, it's, I think it serves two primary roles. It's input,
- you know, and really driving a good discussion, bringing in additional perspectives. And then secondly,
- I think providing recommendations when there are decision points.
- It's not going to function exactly like a BAC public art call. Ultimately, if we reference the commission's
- public art master plan, we would consider this a private project. It is funded by endowment dollars
- rather than city funds. So ultimate call will fall with grant staff, but I think
- we recognize that there's room to have more people at the table. And that's really the motivating factor.
- I would add that so it's an IU's grant. And in that application, they put in this placemaking task force.
- And it's really important to have as a part of community engagement. And so they're wanting a member
- from BAC to be a part of that larger team to provide that advisory capacity. But it's also somebody
- that's connected and has a network.
- to help co-host meetings or workshops, so extends that community engagement further beyond the place
- making task force, and also be a part of the block party planning, which is to provide updates, I think,
- to the broader community. So it's providing an artistic input, but also your connectivity as well. And
- to what you're talking about with public art in general and aging out,
- That's definitely a conversation that I would love the Public Art Committee to have, because I radically
- agree with that. And I think we need to deepen that conversation within that group. This would be something
- to talk about, I think, a little bit more of a minor role, other than the BAC really informing the intention
- moving forward with regard to public art and developing a best practice and thinking in those terms,
- which I think would be really important. So really looking for somebody
- to be a part of the, from the BAC to participate and that's what we're hoping we can get you all to
- talk about and maybe volunteer. Yeah. I definitely like, I think this is a great gesture from the planning
- group. I like, I support that and I definitely support having a member of the BAC on it. I think presumably
- someone from public art. I think one thing that I would just, I would want
- the commission to be aware of and to maybe have clarified to a certain sense, and thinking back on some
- of our other partnerships with the Gateway Project and things like that. Making sure that when these
- decisions are made and when there are, I don't know, press releases or things like that, that it is
- like, hey, this person from the BAC serves in a recommendation role, and that's not like, oh yeah,
- the Bloomington Arts Commission signed off on this particular thing and then we... Right, so I think
- we would just need... I want the commission to be making sure that we're keeping close conversations
- on how things are progressing and being aware in terms of how our name is being represented in relation
- to the decisions that are being made. Excellent point.
- contact with you if they're not sure about it yet? Yeah, I mean, Paige, do we have like a hard date
- I'm trying to remember? I'm not sure about when to start time. They did not identify when they would
- actually start. They were talking about monthly meetings one time per month, and I think they probably
- want to get started sooner or later, but who knows what that means, right? So I guess maybe
- In the ideal world, if they could kick that off in six weeks, that would be pretty great. If they can
- identify somebody from here, and yeah, a follow-up conversation as needed, that totally makes sense
- to me. Then they already identified a pretty clear list of individuals to be on that placemaking task
- force, so it's just merely finding a time for everybody to meet. And I know it's an important component
- they need to put together within the time of where we're at, where they are at or we are at within this process.
- So I'm just spitballing six weeks. That could be ideal. But it's definitely imminent and more closer
- in the near term. And I would say, as far as any specific follow-up questions, just email both Paige
- and I. We're both holding hands as we walk through this together. So we're going to be in all these
- threads and conversations. And again, this is an IU-led initiative within the dynamics of the grant.
- And so there may be some things.
- like start time that we do not have immediate answers for. But we'll consult our IE partners and make
- sure we can get solid answers. If anyone's interested, obviously, I think reach out to Paige and Nick.
- And if you don't have their email, let me know. But yeah, great. Thanks for sharing all that. Sounds
- like an interesting project. I'd like to add that if we don't hear back from anybody, say, within the next
- seven days, or what day is this, like a Wednesday. So we don't hear back from anybody by next Wednesday.
- We'll reach out again to the full group and bring it back up, because we do definitely want to get somebody
- from the BASA on there. I think that's really important. Now that we're missing in from the number of
- folks from the... We're missing two people from the public art group right now. That's not here today.
- They're out of town. I think it's helpful, too.
- I understand so much information can be gleaned from minutes, right? And so if it would be helpful to
- get sort of a written summary, I think we can work with our IU partners to share something. And they
- have that. We'll just update it with when to get started. Very astute. Well, I feel like not necessarily
- because we need a start date, but I know maybe people are thinking about it or just sort of like how
- long do people have
- think about it, things like that. So also I feel like, yeah, if someone on the grant subcommittee is
- interested, I wouldn't say, don't show your interest, because I know a lot of people are busy, a lot
- of things going on, and so if you have an interest and you have time and you want to kind of contribute,
- yeah, feel free, don't feel kind of limited by public art versus grants, right? We have those conversations
- communally anyway, so.
- Great, thanks so much. Anything else to share about that? I don't want to take your time away. OK, great.
- Thank you. Thank you. All right, so next. OK, I don't know what just happened. Next will be updates
- for me. And I just put updates because I couldn't think of any updates. And I don't have any actual
- updates for you all. Just wanted to mention, though, thank you to everyone who's been filling out the
- attendance sheet. It is extremely helpful to see all those letters and know if we should have a meeting
- or not so we don't all drive here for no reason. So thank you. The city staff did some organizing and
- I helped do a little bit of rearranging as well. I've been trying to keep up with it. So it's really
- visually great. It's visually amazing. It really is nice. And then I think also too, this is
- technically the city stuff, but there was the conflict of interest form. If you had filled it out, but
- you haven't updated it on the attendance sheet, please do so. There's like a little drop down that says
- yes or no. If you don't know where that is, let us know. We can help you with that. And I don't know,
- Christina, do you know if there's folks that still like, do we have like a deadline with that or do
- we need to like kind of get on somebody's
- Backs a little bit about anything. Yeah, that needs to be done as soon as possible. OK. I think there's
- a couple people who still have no. So they may have done it. They just didn't update it. But there's
- a couple people who still need to be taken care of. Is there a way we can find out if someone hasn't
- submitted the form? So you can just send them an email and be like, hey, don't forget. That's a great
- question. Maybe you can let me know. I'll have to check on that. OK.
- Yeah, I just want to make sure you guys have the info. Yeah. And I think, yeah, that's all I have. So
- we'll move on now to Rebecca, Public Arts subcommittee chair. Any updates? We had a few that we were
- going to share. We didn't have quorum yesterday, so we had to cancel our meeting just due to a couple
- of absences. But yeah, so just reiterating that the
- the city had deliberated and they chose that Benjamin Ball's connection piece for the convention center.
- So just continually noting that. And then there are several, there are going to be several upcoming
- projects and the public art subcommittee that are coming down the pipeline that I think Christina and
- Paige can talk to as I sort of like, if anybody has questions as I'm like,
- talking them out, they can dive deeper into it. So there's gonna be a Hopewell project with John Resick.
- And I don't really have more details on that, I just know it'll be happening at some point in the near
- future. Another project will be with the Miller Showers. So Parks has received a substantial amount
- in funding and so that will be a project.
- And then there's a DBI initiative, which involves traffic box murals. So there's still a couple, I think,
- that need to be done. One of them will have a call for proposals with a very strict turnaround time.
- But these are all, again, just kind of further on down the road. I don't really have much more specifics
- on a lot of that. I can speak a little bit on that. Yeah. So DBI has some funds to put public art downtown
- And so we're going to be doing that this summer throughout the end of the year. Some of us are going
- to go to traffic boxes and some of us are going to go to like two murals. One of the murals will be
- more of a larger call. We're going to do two calls. But for, we'll also be wanting to do kind of like
- a selection committee for the calls to be able to pick the artist. And then we'll also kind of tap into
- the BAC for that.
- So I just kinda wanna put that out there, that's coming up. And that'll drop the middle of July.
- But yeah, so we'll just do those two murals and then plan on having those installed by end of October.
- So quick turnaround, we're gonna do it and we're excited about it, so yeah. Have you connected with WFHB
- Yes. OK, great. Oh yeah, sorry. Sorry about that. Excellent, great. Perfect. Yeah, so I'm talking with
- Brooke, so they're all good there. Love it. We are, too. And you mentioned the selection committee.
- Is that then separate, I'm assuming, like it's its own selection committee, apart from the commission,
- right? Yes, yeah.
- You may ask somebody from the public RFPAC team to be a part of that review process, but it's got to
- have also like the owner and some other key individuals, but would the BAC in some, in that fashion
- would be really fantastic. And I would like to punctuate that this RFP is an aggressive timeline. It's
- still going to be open six weeks because it's an RFP and it needs to be at minimum open six weeks. But
- if we don't,
- If it doesn't happen, then the funds are gone. And that's where we're at. So that's kind of a key thing.
- So helping get out the word would be fabulous. So if you know some mural artists, you want to get them.
- Where are these murals going to be? So the JL Waters Alley. So it's going to be on the side of the peach
- cobbler factory. And we also want to do some canopy lighting in that alley as well. And then the other
- one is World Foods Market. They want to do a mural on their building.
- Do you have a start time for the opening for the call? We want to launch it on the 13th of July. Oh.
- That's the target. Yeah. Sorry. I'm always trying to be optimistic to have a maybe even better timeline
- with that to be. Yeah. And then the really interesting last thing is we're still mindful of the GIS
- public art map slash database once, I think, when you kind of get
- your head wrapped around sort of what all that entails and what we need to do to update that, I think,
- or to have that going. So I don't really have much more. I'll update on that, Rebecca, if you'd like.
- Oh, OK, great. Hot off the press. And that is we have an intern returning. He's already amassed a bunch
- of information for GIS. So he's going to be back to help continue to make that effort happen. So a better idea of,
- where the launch point might be when he comes back to start working on it again. So it's nice that we
- have a human that actually has experience, unlike the both of us, exactly. So I'm really excited to
- get that going. I'm curious if there's an intention or future hope that there will be some sort of submission
- process that people can submit on the city website, like public art that they're aware of, or I don't
- know if that's potentially an amount of time where it's
- kind of a call for public art that's in your community, like let us know, and like kind of have like
- a thing they can fill out. I mean, it's probably not necessary, but I wonder if like we could try to
- crowdsource the work. We can bring that up to Drew, the intern, and you know, because God knows where
- he got what he has already, maybe he already did that, I have no idea. And it would also be nice to
- identify like,
- down the road, which are city pieces and which are not city pieces, right? And thinking about maintenance,
- you know, down the road we want to think about who's priority. Right. You know, thinking about that
- too. Yeah. Great idea. Yeah, I think that's kind of rooted in some previous conversations. My understanding
- of this project is that like a version of it existed and then like an intern started reviving it and
- then I think Drew
- was sort of like the latest version of that's been kind of like building it and building it. And then,
- yeah, the goal was to have something that was like acceptable, you know, to kind of like relaunch.
- But yeah, there would be this element of like a public input that would maybe be like, what do they
- call it? Like there's like a mock, like the staff services to like moderate it.
- Yeah, yeah. Fadden inside. Yeah, yeah. Of all the forms coming in. Yes, yeah, yeah. You're like, you
- can adapt that, boy. Yeah, yeah. So that's just a little bit of that. Good point. Thank you. That's
- my understanding of how that's worked. That's super helpful. I was kind of like, one of the things that
- you left off on was just that, like, tasking the public arts subcommittee on how do we want to populate
- this, maintain this, just an easy way and practical way of making that efficient.
- Any other things? I don't know if you were done or not. Yeah, that was the last thing. So no, I'm good.
- Those were our updates. Great. Thank you. Excited to hear more about these projects as they get kind
- of closer. All right. Next, we have grants with Gerard and Paul. Take it away. I'll talk a little bit
- about the arts project grants. Paul, do you mind talking a little bit about artistic advancement?
- Um, great. Um, okay. So the art project grants, we, um, the committee, um, decided on a funding package.
- I believe those letters have gone out. Um, yeah. So, yeah, it was a, it was a lot of work on every,
- on, on, on the whole, the whole commission, the staff, yeah, everyone. It's been, it's been incredible
- to like think, think about how we've gone through this year and that we were able to, um,
- reviews 78, like promote collectivity applications, review them, and then we're funding, I think, just
- shy of $70,000, which is 27% of the total ask. So I mean, that's like a lot of funds going toward public
- art projects, but again, still like that just shows the demand for this. With 43 of,
- I have 77, because I think one of the 78 was ineligible. 43 of the 77 applicants received some version
- of funding, so 56% of applicants received some funds from the Arts Commission, which I think is really
- great, awards between $1,000 and $3,000. So yeah, congrats to everyone. And yeah, I've heard a little
- bit from folks I know who
- applied for it and received some funding, and they're super grateful and excited to get to work on stuff.
- Once we start to think about our next project, which is the artistic advancement grant cycle, one of
- the things that comes home right away is how distinct the three grant projects are. If you really start
- to say, well, what do you really need, and what are really the criteria that are appropriate here,
- They're quite different. And so by the end of this week, I expect I'll have some draft material to share
- with a partner from the committee here. And I'm hoping that by next week, the end of next week, we might
- have something ready to share with, in whatever way is appropriate, to share with the overall grants
- committee.
- things are going well. It's gonna be exciting. We're a little behind the schedule that we had originally
- hoped for, but we've got a lot done with the first grant project, so yeah. Yeah, great. I will,
- so this is, I'm sorry I didn't submit to put this on the agenda. It's related to artistic advancement
- though, but also kind of, I think we'll drift into
- a broader discussion about, I think, response to events that pop up. So I don't know if folks on the
- commission know Katie Young. She is a local artist, I think worked for WFIU, WTIU, was sort of like
- a, I don't know exactly how to describe her artwork, but she was like a mix of writing and kind of comics.
- She recently passed away.
- And speaking with a couple folks, I think folks were asking like, oh, was the BAC gonna say anything
- or acknowledge it in some way? And I don't know that it's necessarily our responsibility to do so. And
- I know it's tough to kind of, as a commission, sort of decide on something to say.
- when we have to do everything through open door policies and whatnot. And so, yeah, I did, though,
- I think, want to take this moment to, I think, ask two questions, and that was sort of, you know, do
- we want to find some sort of way to just acknowledge Katie's passing and just sort of say, like,
- you know, and, you know, she was a valued artist in our community who was, you know, really, yeah, committed
- to her practice. And then I think maybe a second question is, you know, is this,
- Hopefully this isn't something we run into a lot more frequently, but generally thinking about process.
- When something like this happens, do we want to maybe vote on allowing the chair or the grants chair
- or someone that sort of like ability to draft a thoughtful message and get it out in some way, or do
- we want to wait until we can congregate in some form, decide on something and then, because I think
- at this point, I think it's been about two weeks, I think,
- since she passed. So yeah, those are, I think, just the two questions I wanted to pose here to the group.
- Well, I think first, I think I would say, yeah, I would feel comfortable and happy to put out a statement
- as the BAC, because this is a person who's received funding from us. And I think it's important
- to acknowledge the individuals that have
- that we recognize as contributing to the art community here in Bloomington. So I think definitely let's
- write something or put out a statement or whatever, just acknowledging that. Yeah. Yeah, I'm happy to
- write something. And then I can run it by you if the commission's OK with that. It'll just be, I think,
- something short and sweet, just acknowledging that. So I really appreciate it.
- description you use the word community because we get out so much of focus on our individual projects
- that we forget that really our job I think is to nurture and support and glorify the arts community
- here. The other projects are little things that contribute to that but the broader thing is the community
- and we don't want to ignore that.
- I think for better or for worse, Bloomington's a smaller city. And I think that affords us the ability
- to see repeat names in our applications, know people personally who are getting these grants and doing
- this work. So I think that's what makes Bloomington a unique place as well, that we can have that sort
- of personal attachment to the folks here making this work. So I think, yeah, it would be.
- I think it would show a lot about how much we care about the community as much as hopefully they care
- about the work that we do by saying something. I agree. Can I volunteer one thing regarding process,
- just like future process? Because I think you asked about that, Gerard. Anything drafted through the
- commission, there's obviously a level of formality to that. Totally defer to the commission when that's
- appropriate, but just thinking about
- When things are time-bound and sort of how responsive, how quickly the BAC may want to respond to certain
- things, there is another path of consulting with staff and allowing city staff to, whether it's incorporating
- something into a city newsletter or other city communications. And so if timeliness and wanting to work
- around the rigidity of drafting and improving language, there is that alternate path.
- that you could discuss with staff particulars. Okay, great. And it would be in terms of like from the
- BAC through the city or like the city in general is putting out, you know, I guess, what does that mean?
- In a newsletter, right? Nick, and then you can tell me where I screwed up. I think it's really an interesting
- situation that we're in right now, right? So the newsletter comes
- really ostensibly from the city. It's created by a staff member at Arts and Humanities. But it states
- it's from the Bloomington Arts Commission. So that's an interesting labyrinth, but let's just focus
- on the fact that it comes from, perceptively, the Bloomington Arts Commission. So I don't know when
- she gets it out, but I think it's pretty soon.
- Theory, if you pull together a statement, we might be able to put it in the bigger we. Might be able
- to put it in the newsletter. And I think it might be kind of heartwarming to have it at the special
- announcement or special statement from the BAC. And I think that would mean a lot, because at the top
- of the newsletter. So you can ask Bethany if that's OK with you, because I'm actually going to be out
- of the office. How perfect is that? I'm here two weeks and I'm already out of the office like Thursday
- and Friday.
- And then you could loop with her on that if you don't mind taking that. I really appreciate it. That
- would be the most immediate opportunity. Otherwise, it would have to be a separate statement that would
- go out, I think, to whatever list of humans there are in what is probably constant contact. That is
- an alternative, I believe. I was imagining maybe even something on Instagram. I don't know that the
- BAC even has a really emailing list that we
- Other than? Other than the newsletter. Right, right. Yeah, I mean. It sounds like you're good. So yeah,
- I'll... And the Instagram, Bethany does the Instagram for us too, so. Perfect. Yeah. I mean, the use
- of the Arts Commission brand, I guess, so to speak, is definitely, I think it may be a conversation
- for another day. And one that's, yeah, I've been similarly kind of like, hmm, yeah. That's a bit strange.
- So like... I kind of did, I didn't know that. Yeah. I did, yeah. Is that, are they consulting? Sounds
- weird to me.
- Like, how are they getting the information to put in the newsletter? What's in this newsletter? How
- come I don't get the newsletter? You don't get the newsletter? I'm not getting the newsletter. I just
- started getting the newsletter. I don't get it. Did you get the one, like, that Chaz used to send? I
- used to get the one that Chaz would send. Yeah. And that's another thing. It was two separate newsletters
- that would go out. And some people were on one, and some people were on the other. So we're also trying
- to, like, in the process of just, yeah, just making sure everybody gets the information. That's great. Yeah.
- That's why we're slightly late to this meeting because we were talking about that and trying to untangle
- it and create a system. And obviously I think that needs to be an agenda item for future BAC meeting
- to sort of deep dive in and then maybe having a few side bars to think about where that could go because
- I definitely have some thoughts on that and how to create a more accountable system and a process. I
- love process, what can I say? Just because it just makes life easier.
- I support that, yeah. I'm going to just say something that people might not like, but when you talk
- about remembering people who've passed, which I think is fantastic that we're doing that in this case,
- there's going to be other people, artists in the community who might not have gotten funded, who might
- pass. Sure.
- I think we need to have some sort of sense of understanding. How do we do this? And is somebody worthy
- of it and now there's somebody else isn't? I mean, it sounds petty, maybe, in a way, but I just think
- that it's something we should consider. Yeah, I mean, to Paul's point, we are talking about a broader
- community here. That's a really good point. I don't know if I have an answer to that. I don't know what
- the answer is. I really don't. It's really tricky. I don't know.
- Yeah, I think maybe my short-term answer is maybe we, at least when it comes to Katie, de-emphasize
- the grant recipient, but just sort of say as a known member of our arts community, something like that.
- And I think in the case of Katie specifically, it was someone who I think was well-known, was involved,
- Yeah, and so... Yeah, that's... So, I don't know. I don't think there's an answer to it really, honestly.
- I just think we should just do it and move on. Thanks for raising that, Betsy. One way to approach it
- might be to have an article that's not from the Commission, but talking generally about contribution.
- And then there could be a quote in there from anybody here saying so-and-so, who's the chair of the
- arts commission, said so-and-so. So the commission gets brought in, but not as if this is all just the
- commission's statement. Because I think you've got to be very sensitive to hurt feelings by people who
- feel that they're relative, they're friends, they're partners.
- I've just noticed this in other newsletters that I read about the arts. They'll be obituaries of certain
- people. And then other artists who, you know, it's like, how do you navigate this? I don't know. I mean,
- I don't know. I think probably a lot of it has to do with who's running the newsletter, who's on the
- group, and like, oh, maybe they don't even know somebody passed, right? I don't know. Exactly.
- So it's like, also, yeah, we heard about this person, obviously,
- like in the community and like someone's been here a while, right? Someone we funded, but imagine like
- none of us had that connection or like knew her that well or whatever. Maybe it wouldn't feel like something
- we wanted to do, which, you know, is an interesting thing. But I mean, I think like for me, knowing
- that we have this newsletter, I think probably what we should do is write like not even like a statement
- from BAC, but just like acknowledging her passing.
- Yeah, saying like the work that she's done in the community with art. And then it's kind of now tied
- to the BAC because it's on this BAC newsletter. So I don't think we need to necessarily say like the
- BAC's statement, et cetera. Yeah, that's how I think. Yeah, maybe just an acknowledgement. Yeah. I think
- that makes sense. OK, great. Thanks for doing that, Gerard. Yeah, thanks. That's the end of the grants
- up, please. Awesome.
- Thank you. So next on the agenda is just upcoming events and important dates. So Christina will pull
- that up for us. It's bare bones right now. But if anyone has any upcoming events that they know of or
- they're working on or want to highlight, you can tell us right now. You can add it. Or everyone has
- a link to this spreadsheet.
- and the emails we send, so you can always go in on your own and populate it. No, that's OK. I mean,
- we usually, I feel like we always would just sit and like populate it here. Yes, but yeah, anything
- come to mind for folks here? I don't get the newsletter, so I don't know what's going on. Yeah, of course.
- There's this really incredible exhibit at the Eskenazi Museum Indonesian textile artists Mulyana or
- sorry, yeah And I believe it closes on the 28th, but there's like a reception event on Sunday the 21st
- from 2 to 4 So if you haven't checked it out, it's really incredible like sort of Yeah fiber art ocean immersive
- It's hard to describe, but it's pretty incredible. So there's a closing reception, you said? Yeah, I
- think the actual closing's the 28th, but the reception's on the 21st. Is summer usually this quiet compared
- to the rest of the year? OK, because I'm still kind of a newbie here.
- Thanks. That's kind of sparse, I would think, with Lovington and few more stuff. Yeah. I mean, yeah.
- I mean, they're on there. But those grand balloon concerts. So the concert itself is ticketed. We have
- some really great artists, performing artists coming in. And I think those will be really great concerts.
- But if a ticketed event isn't your thing,
- Earlier in the day, like between three and six, we'll have some like partner booths and arts activities
- and folks like that. There's stuff like that taking place at the pavilion. Girls Rock Bloomington is
- doing like a community stage kind of out there on the pavilion lawn. And that's all free and open to
- the public. And so that like switch yard just, you know, in general will be I think a cool place to
- be that day. And I know that comes, that's that June 20th is also the day after the, like this,
- The city, which I think works closely with the Neal Marshall Center, their Juneteenth celebration, which
- will have bands and food trucks and artists out there at Switchyard. So that weekend, yes, Switchyard
- is going to be the place to be. I just posted the link right next to it. Next to my own. It's quite
- a link. It is. I don't know why it's so long. Maybe I should cut it and have it, you know?
- Can you just do the half part? I don't know. Is that right? I don't know either. It's quite the link.
- There should be a trick to do, like a shorter link. You could also, what I typically do is, you could
- do like a tab, and then it usually changes it to a shorter link. There you go. Great. It just links
- directly to the museum.
- OK, well, if you think of anything else that you want folks in the BAC to be aware of, please feel free
- to add any events whenever you think of something. I'm always the person who's like, I need to add this
- right now or I will forget. So I try to do that. Great. I have something. So next week on the 16th,
- Soul Talk is happening again at the Black House. That starts at 9. It's a very fun event.
- I won't be singing this time, but it's still good, you should go. Yeah, on the 16th at nine, Soltank.
- And then, just like Gerard said, on the 19th, the Juneteenth celebration at Switch Art Park. I'll just
- make a space for back here. I'll just make a second to Soltank. The one I went to was one of the most
- joyful arts events I've been to. It was just fantastic, so I definitely recommend
- Yeah, it's in it's in the block house is this one about a block house 830 ish Tuesday night small short
- small cover Okay, so now moving on to Commissioner comments and announcements does anyone on the Commission
- have anything to share and
- The World Cup is starting tomorrow, Thursday. It's here in the U.S. You might think, well, what does
- that have to do with art?
- I mean, just in of its own right, the World Cup is awesome and exciting. I'm really pumped for it. I'm
- actually gonna get to go to Dallas to see a World Cup game. And speaking of Dallas, there is actually
- this interesting intersection of art and the World Cup. So FIFA, which is the organization that programs
- the World Cup, I don't still know exactly how this happened, but there was this big oceanic mural on
- the side of a Dallas building. Have you all heard about this? Yeah, a big mural.
- FIFA just like came in and like painted over it. Yeah, right. Yes. Right. Yeah. And the artist is suing
- FIFA because I think I mean his understanding and I hope it gets proven right is that you know there
- is artists who do art at that scale do you have like some legal protection for their work and they at
- least need to be sort of like notified or consulted if
- these changes are gonna happen. But it's, I mean this isn't, this wasn't like a small mirror, like this
- was sort of like a, it was like, this is like. Huge. Yeah, it was like, so that like, yeah, went all
- the way around the side of this building and so they, yeah, they left like the sliver of it that they
- like. Wow. Yeah. They just covered. Yeah, and I don't know, they're gonna, like the Coke logo or something
- on there, I don't know. So yeah, so some really interesting, like I don't know, it's an interesting
- intersection of like,
- sports, law, and public art in an unfortunate way. So, but yeah, I'll be, I'll still be following for
- the US and the Netherlands. But I just got a tarp or something, like. Yeah, well, FIFA is, FIFA's terrible.
- Yes. Put that in the notes. It's been terrible, brother. Yeah, not in trust with them. Boo. Yeah, yes,
- yeah, yeah, exactly.
- Wait, so, and they're not gonna... Where is it happening? The... So, well, it's happening actually across
- Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. Oh, so there's multiple... Yeah, so unlike, Olympics are typically held
- in the city, World Cups are held within a country, or in some cases, like a group of countries, and
- so this is, yeah, so there's gonna be games all over. It's very cool. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah.
- And is that just the finals, just blue?
- Presumably they're gonna put something over I'm guessing that yet like and but they've I guess it's
- just been like stopped or whatever Yeah, well all this and I'm guessing it's gone. Like I don't think
- you can like Yeah, I mean no, yeah, how do you uncover?
- Yeah. The mural that was underneath it, yeah. I mean, if you just Google, like, Dallas mural, like,
- it'll, it'll, it'll, and there's a whole bunch of articles, you know, like, from, like, The Guardian
- and AP and New York Times about it, so. Oh my God. Was this, like, do you know if the mural was, like,
- a public art mural? Mm-hmm. Oh, okay, it was funded by the city. Mm-hmm, yeah. I mean, like, like, over,
- like, three decades, like, it's been there for, like, three, like, so it's also this, like, iconic,
- like, landmark, too. Like, it was, like, yeah, right, I know.
- Just insane that that happens. Are you going to go to that building and take a picture of it? Well,
- I'm not going to be in Dallas for that. I'm really just flying in next day, going to the Netherlands-Japan
- game, and then flying back. So maybe. I can't believe they just painted it. I'll just go and shake my
- fist at it. I feel like I need to do more with my life. And nobody said anything. So we should note
- that this is also the week of NBA finals.
- are exciting in New York City. And as near as I can tell, no public art has been desecrated for this
- event. Let's hope no more does. I think this is quite awful. OK. Well, thanks for that cultural context.
- Okay, so yes, if no one else has any updates or announcements, we can move on to public comment if there's
- anyone at the public, which I don't know. I don't know if there's anyone on Zoom, Christina.
- I don't think so, but we can double check. Yeah, nobody. Okay, so that's it for today. So there being
- no further business, I move to adjourn the meeting. Can I get a second? Second. All right, all in favor
- say yes. Yes. Those opposed say no.
- Okay, great. We can leave. Meeting adjourned. Thanks, everyone.