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.