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.