- Hi, everyone. The meeting will now come to order. So first, let's do roll call. I'll start and then
- we'll go to Gerard. So I'm Neda Delrahim, Chair of the Bloomington Arts Commission, and I'm present.
- Gerard Ponacook, Co-Chair of the Grant Subcommittee, present. Rebecca Keough, Chair of the Public Arts
- Subcommittee, present. Colin Dugger, I'm present. Austin White, present.
- Paige Sharp, city staff. Crutch and Null, present. Betsy Stewart, present. Paul Anderson, present. Christina
- Elam, city staff. OK, thank you, everyone. So next on the agenda is approval of minutes. So the secretary's
- draft of the minutes of the July meeting was sent to you all, and a copy is in your meeting packet.
- Are there any corrections to the minutes as distributed? OK, great.
- If there are no corrections, I move to approve the minutes as distributed. Can I get a second? Second.
- Thank you. All in favor say yes. Yes. All right. Those opposed say no. Great. Minutes are approved.
- Next, we will go over to the city staff for updates. This has been the same budget that we have shared
- at the last several meetings and that nothing has changed at this point.
- It's like, one of the only times you'll have Paige be very succinct. You're like, thank god. Let's keep
- it that way, Paige, and we'll give it a shot. Yeah, so any questions about the static budget? All right,
- cool. All right. Do you want to just roll into it? I'll just roll into it. Yes, yes.
- I just wanted to let you guys know about it, and maybe you were on the email string and I wasn't a presence
- of mind to notice, but we did receive an email from Jan and Alexandra, who is a 2025 artistic advancement
- grant recipient. You received that? Did everybody receive that? No.
- So it's just one of those great testimonials of how valuable this program really is, because she learned
- that her book of poems come from had been shortlisted for the 2026 Indiana Authors Award in Poetry.
- And the finalists, the selected awardees will be determined August, I think, 19.
- bookmarked it on my calendar so I would know but it was a book that she was able to publish as a result
- of this funding so this would not have happened without the funding that this grant provided and so
- I wanted to share that as part of our journey towards storytelling and also you know that the work that
- you're doing is truly truly valuable when we grant out dollars even though it's
- 800 or a thousand, it's still really impactful. I've always told people artists are amazing. They could
- use like a stick of gum and a pencil and a glue stick and they can make incredible things happen and
- because they're creative and they're amazing people. So fingers crossed that Shannon will be able to
- cross that finish line. I had a wonderful conversation about her book. She was one of the participants
- in the Gallery Walk exhibition program that opened up last Friday.
- this we will click on that and then also wanted to introduce Colin Dugger our new member. Thanks for
- having me. Why don't you just share a little bit about yourself. Okay yeah so I'm from Bloomington originally
- moved around a few times. We were talking about it earlier we're gonna dental office by day. I do a
- lot of DJ gigs around the town on the weekends. I've actually known Austin for
- quite a while. I have a bachelor's degree in music. So it's kind of like music-oriented. It's more of
- my artistic stuff, I guess, I have to offer. But I have a lot of friends in the community that are artists
- in all different sorts of facets. And yeah, just seemed like a good opportunity to kind of get involved
- in the community and, yeah, learn a little bit more about it. So glad to be here. Great. Awesome.
- Thank you, Colin. And hey.
- He is going to serve on the grants subcommittee, which I'm really excited about. I'm really excited
- about Colin. As a creative entrepreneur, we're really deepening our focus in the arts division around
- creative entrepreneurship, which leads to my third and final topic for the staff report, and that is
- the REDI grant, which is an acronym for Regional Economic Accelerated Development Initiative, really mouthful.
- And the state has put in, at this point, a billion dollars into economic development through this program.
- What came alongside was funding from Lilly for arts and cultural grants. So when I was consulting for
- the city, I partnered with Indiana University's research division to put in an application with eight
- other partners requesting 3.5 million. Hey, Rob. And that application was funded.
- So the good news is we'll be building artist studios in the admin showers building. And then what other
- key elements? There is funding that will go towards Switchard Park, infrastructure needs, regional,
- website for an artist directory and also connecting artists across the 11 county region, which will
- be really great, and many other things. So we're excited to participate in that funded application.
- And we're already getting started on developing those studios. Any questions on that? All right, cool.
- And that is it for me. Yes. I'm just going to interject and say, can we have our two commissioners that
- just joined us just
- say their names so we know that they're present. Bob Shakespeare, present. Lynn Hooker, present. OK,
- thank you. And then just, I think you guys just missed it, but Paige introduced Colin, who's our newest
- commissioner. Hi, Colin. I'm Bob. Nice to meet you. Great. Going to be joining a grant subcommittee
- as well. OK. All right. So next, we will go to updates from grants.
- I guess, yes. We have two grants on the agenda today. So first to grants. Great. Well, a busy agenda
- for grants, busy report here today. The grants committee is hijacking this meeting a little bit to also
- kind of have our own meeting. We're going to be voting on a couple of things because it's just been
- difficult to get the group together. And this sort of matched the timeline for a couple of things that
- we have coming up here soon.
- First thing is we're going to vote on last meeting's minutes. This is just for the members of the grants
- committee. And, Colin, I believe this includes you, but you're welcome to abstain since. Yeah. Yeah.
- Yes. So the minutes from the last grant subcommittee meeting were distributed. Are there any
- noted corrections from the grant? This is just, again, grants subcommittee members. Any noted corrections
- to those minutes?
- Great. I'm going to motion to vote on those minutes. Can I get a second? Second. Thank you, Paul. All
- in favor of the grant subcommittee meeting, say yes. Yes. Any opposed, say no. Okay, great. The grants
- meeting minutes are approved. Thank you all. We have one more vote, but that will come a little bit
- later. Okay.
- Next quick report is on the artistic advancement grants. So that window closed earlier this week on
- Monday, and I believe we received 82 applications. Yeah, which is a lot. Yeah, and so the plan is, and
- I think Paige and I are gonna huddle a little about this
- to discuss after this meeting, but in short, the plan is to put together the sort of like review committee
- for that, which I hope will involve as many people here as possible, and most likely some outside guests
- as well, just because of the size of the pool that we're looking at. We will distribute those applications
- in the next week or two, and are hoping to review those in mid-September. And I will send out a doodle
- poll shortly to kind of like
- confirm dates and times for folks to meet. We'll likely do it in two windows again and we'll try to,
- I think, we'll likely have the committee members at both of those meetings and then try to use up folks
- to maybe either come to one of those meetings and kind of like how we did for the project grants. But
- all in all, I mean, I think that's a really successful window to have that many applications.
- and I look forward to reviewing them with you all. So the next thing, moving on, because Art doesn't
- sleep, grants don't sleep, operations grants. That window is going to open up next week. Yes, Monday.
- And with that were a couple of changes that we made to the application, Paul.
- and Paige I think both lended their expertise into adjusting the guidelines and the application for
- the operations grants. Just a quick review for folks that grant is for just for 501c3 nonprofit organizations
- working in operating in Bloomington can apply for funds up to I believe it's $5,000.
- And yeah, that one ends up being a much smaller pool, but the applications are a little bit longer and
- more detailed because we're just reviewing more information. So yes, so those guidelines and the application
- were included in the materials for today. And I am wondering if there were any, before we moved to vote
- to approve those, if there are any comments or concerns or questions about the materials that were provided.
- asking all of us or just the grants committee? Since they were included in the packet for everyone,
- I'm open to hear comments from the group. I honestly cannot remember how different it was from the previous
- years. Was there a lot of changes made or is it just the highlighted stuff?
- I think there were a good amount of changes. There were a lot of changes. We streamlined it and removed
- some of the redundant questions and aligned it with the criteria as effectively as possible because
- it's only $5,000. And so try not to ask as much information except for more necessary information to
- make a funding decision. And any of the things that were highlighted on the application were just optional
- as opposed to being required. So that was for Jeremy, who puts the application in the online system.
- That's what those are about. And in terms of the guidelines, there were really very few changes other
- than the evaluation criteria and I think removal of the 5% of the budget because that was just too much
- of a layer of complexity. And so we were just going to fund by the request amount and budget bands.
- And so we asked what their annual operating income and expenses were so we can help identify those bands.
- I thought it looked really good.
- I'd like to just add that there's been a big change in our approach to grants reviewing. Just less than
- three years ago when I started on the committee, some of those grant programs, the reviewers would rate
- each application a high, a medium, or a low without any specific criteria. Just kind of generally, this
- is what seemed right.
- And now there are, I think, excellent criteria for each of them. Oh, yeah. That's huge, what you guys
- did. Paul did a lot of that mental work. So yeah, thank you, Paul, for helping. Are you patting yourself
- on the back right now? Yeah. No. Sorry. Good job. Great. OK.
- If there are no other comments, and I would like to, again, looking at just the grant subcommittee,
- vote on the approval of those guidelines and applications with, what's the word? Minor changes. With
- minor changes. So yeah, yes. So, well, first of all, can I get a second to, motion to vote on the materials.
- Can I get a second? Second. From a committee member.
- Okay so all in favor of the operations grant guidelines and application with changes say yes. This is
- grants committee. Any opposed say no. Okay great the materials are ready to go those will be
- Yeah, Paige and Christina, I think. Thank you for your diligent work on getting those. Well, then, yeah,
- here we go. OK, so I have one quick thing. This is the worst thing on my list. I'm really, really sad
- to be delivering this news, but Paula's going to be leaving the commission. She's going to be moving
- to Washington. And so we're going to Washington. Yeah. Yeah. Oh.
- Yeah, and so yeah, we'll obviously no longer be serving on the Grants Committee or the Arts Commission.
- And yeah, I mean, I think that's certainly a major loss for the commission. But really, thank you for
- everything that you've done on your time here and the thoughtfulness and care that you've put into both
- public art and Grants Committee work, so. Thank you.
- Those are all my items, Paul, did you? No, I think it, Gerard has always minimized his own role. He's
- clearly the leader of these efforts. And I just kind of tag along as best I can. But thank you all.
- It's been great working with you. One of the things that's interesting to me is that if we look around
- the table here, I haven't, in January I would end my first three year term.
- And right now, more than half the people around this table were not here when I started less than three
- years ago. So it's been a tremendous turnover and also a wonderful transfer of the baton, because such
- great people have come in to take places of other people who were also great. So it's a great commission.
- And we have a little thing for you from the commission.
- Thank you so much for everything you've done for us. We appreciate your work. So thank you so much.
- We're really sly about it. That concludes the Grants Committee Report. I see there's two grants.
- related stuff on the agenda, do you need the second one, Gerard, or is that all you needed to do? I
- don't know why there was two, but. I think that was just an error on our part, perhaps, so let's just
- skip it. All right, so we'll skip that.
- Oh, yeah, that's done for now. I can be done talking today, so. Can I give you the second thing? No,
- I'll go ahead, yeah. Check back. All right. Well, thank you so much for the updates and the grants committee
- for voting on a couple of things today. We will now go to me, I guess. And I don't have any updates
- or anything to share. So then we'll now go to Rebecca for public art. OK.
- Yesterday we met as a public art subcommittee, so I'll just try to move through just some updates that
- we shared at our meeting yesterday. So a couple of, a few things from the DBI initiative, the Downtown
- Bloomington, Inc. initiative. So there's the Uptown mural.
- The one that's called Christina? Yeah. The Uptown Mural, there's a call out for RFP. So it's open until
- the 21st of August. So that's open now. The traffic boxes, the first one of five is completed. So that's
- by the Constellation stage and screen. The next one is set to start on the 10th, so actually just this
- week. Earlier this week, that's at the corner of College and Six, so by Social Pantinia.
- So that one will be heading getting underway. And then the third one of five by in front of the bus
- station to be complete to start by the 17th or the 17th. So I made a typo on the agenda before that'll
- be in front of the bus station. So third and walnut. Right. Yeah.
- And then World Foods Market, they're installing a mural on their building, so they've selected an artist,
- and so they're gonna be in the design phase of that. So those are all the DBI initiative updates. And
- then we had Drew Collins, the Cox Scholar intern, give a little mini presentation yesterday to the public
- art committee. He's back for his senior year, I think, right? Yeah, working for the city.
- And he's made significant progress on the GIS public art map. It's up on the website. I'll have some
- minutes that I can share for the public art committee for next month about all of that. But he's making
- significant progress. So I don't know if Christina or Paige, you want to share a little bit more about
- that, what he shared yesterday? Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. I was spacing out a little bit. The public art
- inventory is so important to us because
- documentation so that if anybody leaves, we actually know what the inventory of public art is, but also
- including the values of the pieces so that we can get them insured, which is super helpful. And so he's
- done so much recon. Drew's just done a great job. And the condition assessment that he's put together
- is based upon
- you know, models around the country. And so he's, and we just had a blast working on this. You'd think
- like collecting data, wow, that's really fun. But it's great to know that we have this available to
- us. And he's almost, I think he's only got like maybe 20 more pieces to go and then we'll have it completed
- so that we can understand what kind of maintenance needs that we have so we can start fixing the collection
- that we have.
- I'm really excited about that work because next up we're all working towards policies because he calls
- pages policies because I'm policy obsessed because I like to have policies so we know what the guidelines
- are and from which we're going to operate. So this is a great strategic direction for that. So super,
- super appreciative of all his efforts. And so yeah, that concluded our meeting yesterday and we did
- adjourned. So that's all the updates I have. Oh, I did want to add how much I appreciate Rob and all
- of his help.
- with OT 987, which I just feel like is a great name for a little robot that's going to get up and like
- leap. But it's that sculpture in the trades district. It's really colorful. I love these like sticks,
- I guess, for lack of a better word. But it's supposed to be lighted, and it's supposed to do these really
- cool things. And Ram has just really gotten out of his way to help me
- and the city identified what the issue is and finding somebody to help us get it fixed. So thank you
- for all your help. It's not working. No, it's really not. I didn't know. No. I'm surprised. I've heard
- from so many people it's not working. So we really want to get it to work. It's so disappointing, because
- it's pretty new. It's really good for a short time, and then it's not applying to work anymore. And
- so then we fixed it for a lot of money, and then so we are again.
- We'll find a solution. Thank god we have Rob, because he's super smart. We went on the hottest day of
- the year with a big black box in the sun drenched. I sent Henley to go get an umbrella. So while he's
- tinkering in there talking to his friend in Colorado to try to diagnose the equipment, it was really,
- talk about above and beyond. It was a mess. But he was able to do it.
- So we're getting so close, you guys. It's very exciting. That piece is awesome. But man, is it just
- like the piece that just keeps giving. It was such an effort to get there in the ground. And then I'm
- like, whew, man. It makes you think about how you select things. That's what it does. All of it has
- to be considered from the beginning.
- Including wait for it maintenance. Oh, and I guess our other final update is that Betsy is new. She's
- transferred from the grants to the Public Art Committee. So yeah, she's joining us to the Public Art
- Committee. So we're looking forward to helping. Yeah, looking forward to helping her on there. So that's
- it for Public Art. Thank you, Rebecca. And then Grant's jarred has
- told us everything that we need to know. We're from Grant, so let's get the agenda item number seven.
- Next on the agenda is upcoming events and important dates. I just looked at it, and it's pretty sparse.
- Yeah. So I don't know if it's just nothing's happening, or we've all kind of just slacked a little on
- putting in some of the events. But does anyone know of any events? Please.
- Feel free to put them in. You can give us some of them now, and then we can put them in later. I know
- on our side, through Arts in a Minute, things will start up in September, like October and stuff. But
- I think right now, the first Thursday's festival will start up. Or is that what you're putting in right
- now? Yeah. Just because we both work at IU.
- Things will start up again in September, but I think right now it's pretty dead just around town. It
- is like we're technically on summer vacation. Yeah.
- Yeah. I don't think much is happening. Things will start up when students come back here in a few weeks.
- But if anyone thinks of anything or has any. Is there a date for the Forest Creek Festival yet? Oh,
- that's a good question. And that's such a repeating thing. Is that happening? There was talk.
- I think it is. But there was talk about it not happening for a while. But I'm pretty sure it's happening.
- I believe it's happening. And I think it's typically on Labor Day weekend. So that would be my guess.
- So immediately following the first Thursday. September 5th and 6th. Maybe September 5th and 6th.
- And this is a little further out, but Lotus is October 1st through 4th. Yeah, that's right. Well,
- as you know, you hear of or anything comes up, just make note of an event. And you can either email
- us if it's kind of hard for you to get it on the sheet or on the Google Sheet, or you can put it in
- yourself if you want. But it's always good to see what's going on in town.
- There's Duran Jones and the indications, the grand saloon concert series at Switchard Park, and that's
- August 29th. Yeah. Is that the only thing that's up there? Yeah. That's awesome. Way to go, Paige. August
- 24th, there's a Lotus Blossoms concert in the Lotus Fire Bay with David Greeley and Amelia Buren. Is
- that thunder or lightning? I'm not sure. I hope so. I hope so, too. Gosh, I hope somebody didn't just like it.
- Bloomington has been found. Uh-oh. That would be so great. I've been waiting for it to happen. Clearly.
- That could be trash. Maybe it's a trash can. Oh, I don't know. Oh, yeah, like a loud trash can going
- on. OK. We won't spend too much time on this, but yes. Next thing on the agenda is
- Any commissioner comments or announcements? Anyone want to share anything, make us aware of anything
- going on? I actually have a quick question for Christina and Paige. I think it could be an announcement,
- but I'm wondering how the gallery and event went related to the artistic advancement grant show at the
- Waldron. So first Thursday on the 7th,
- Walden put a gallery show of the 2025 Artistic Advancement Grant recipients. I think it was like 56
- recipients total. We emailed everybody. Around like 18 were able to participate, and it was across different
- mediums. So they had the Miller Gallery, which is that main gallery, and then downstairs was full of
- art. And then we had three performances. It was a dance and performance.
- Two people were singing like folk music and then they performed in that sitting area that's in the Waldron
- and then we had another musical performance at the very beginning. It was very well attended. It was,
- it was good and it was nice. I got to just even like get a good shot of the dancer.
- First of all, the dancer was dancing everywhere. She just kind of went to different rooms. But also,
- she got a really good shot of them right in front of all the recipients' names. So we're going to share
- all our pictures on social media. But yeah, so that's kind of where I went. So is it still in the gallery?
- Yeah, so it'll be there until the 28th of this month. So definitely go check that out. Thanks, Lucy.
- I have one other announcement. So I know that the Indiana Arts Commission, their fall fiscal year 27
- arts project support grant is currently open. And that, I think, is open for another couple of weeks
- or so. And that's a $4,000 grant that can be used toward, that's awarded to arts organizations,
- not individuals, but arts organizations. Is it arts or non-arts? It's organizations in general. Yeah.
- Yeah, I think it's organizations in general. So it's five on T3. Five on T3. Two organizations for an
- arts project. And yeah, so feel free to share the word. If you are part of an organization or know an
- organization who's looking for support for an arts project, that's
- one way to get it, and Nat Almanza, former commissioner, is the sort of region eight, which is the region
- that Boomington's in, the representative, or what's called the regional arts partner, a sort of like
- liaison between the IAC and a region, and so for questions or things like that, they can email her. No.
- So the IAC like contracts people who are in like different regions and so we're like we're... Nat still
- holds her position at the Arts and Humanities Council but our office has been contracted to do Region
- 8 and Region 12 and so I'm the Region 12 rep which is in southeastern Indiana and that is the... I didn't
- want to do both like Bloomington grants and like Region 8 grants. I was like I'll take the other region.
- Yeah, it's true. I had one other thing. So just a reminder about commissioner training. I know I keep
- saying that. I'm still looking for mine. Yeah, I emailed her. She'll reach out to you guys. So basically,
- she's saying that for people who haven't been able to do their training, there's going to be another
- date coming up soon. So be on the lookout for that.
- They are keeping track of this, so they're going to hound you until you do it. But yeah, it's something
- that you do once a year, and it's required by all commissioners. So even if you're cycling off at the
- end of the year, you still are required to do it. So just be able to look out for the next training dates.
- So next on the agenda is public comment. I don't see anyone here. Is there anyone on Zoom? I don't think
- so, but we can check. No. OK, so no public is present. So that means there being no further business,
- I move to adjourn the meeting. Can I get a second? Second. All in favor say yes. Yes. Those opposed
- say no. OK, meeting adjourned. Thank you, everyone.