Hi, everyone. The meeting will now come to order. Let's do a roll call. So I'm Neda Dharahim, chair
of the commission, present. I'm Becca Keough, chair of the public art subcommittee, present. Paige Sharpe,
city staff. Also my commissioner. Gretchen Well, commissioner. Betsy Sterritt, commissioner. Christina
Elam, staff. Okay, great. So the secretary's draft of the minutes of
September's meeting was sent to everyone, and a copy is in your meeting packet. Are there any corrections
to the minutes as distributed? No. Okay, great. If there are no corrections, I move to approve the minutes
as distributed. Can I get a second? Second. Great. All in favor say yes. Yes. Those opposed say no.
Okay. Minutes are approved. And city staff for the financials, please. Okay. So there's just a minor change
from last time, and that's the reduction of the grants for the artistic advancement grant program. And
then we'll have fully expended the professional development dollars for the professional development
series, which kicks off on Monday. So we are in good shape for the grant's budget. Soon it will be fully
expended because we'll have operation support.
Those are currently being reviewed by folks. And that'll be determined here this month. Cool. All right.
And can I just add two things to that report? Just housekeeping things. One of them is just the headshots.
Please send in your headshots. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. Yeah. If you haven't already, I've already
received a few of you guys.
There's that. And then for the Uptown mural with DBI, there is going to be a reception. And so you all
are invited to that reception. And you'll get an email with further details on the specific date. It's
going to be next week. 26th? Yeah, the 26th. So just kind of putting that heads out that the BAC is
invited to the reception for that mural installation. Are you talking Monday?
And then Nick's asked me to share that Amplify Bloomington is having—I don't know what they call it,
so we'll just call it a summit or something. And that's going to be October 28th.
I think it kicks off around two o'clock, but the fun part is they have a focus on creative economy,
which I think if you can go, it'd be really cool. The CEO and founder of Sweetwater Sound will be the
keynote speaker, and that'll be at four o'clock at BuzzKurt Chumley. Polina Oshirov from Pattern, she'll
be talking about the creative economy, which I think is really compelling.
to learn about as well, but I think seeing Sweetwater would be pretty neat. They're amazing. So just
sharing that along and we can send you a follow-up with the link. It's free and open to the public.
Might be kind of cool to check out.
What is it, Christina? It's christina.elam at bloomington.in.gov. If you look back at the midpoint emails,
Christina's emails should be CC'd or on it, so I think that's probably easier. I just wanted to double
check, thanks. Okay, so that's it for the city.
So now, from me, so from your chair, I actually have a couple things today, and not from me, but I had
some suggestions for things we should talk about. So the first thing, we're kind of just posing this
to commissioners to discuss. I'm probably gonna cap the discussion to 10 minutes so we don't go over.
But the question is, should we, when considering
public art applications in the future and using the rubric that I think the city is developing. Should
there be an extra point for Bloomington residents or organizations? So I'll just kind of open it up
to folks to kind of have a chat about that. I think it's a good idea. It doesn't mean you'll select
them, but having that as a sort of emphasized
I think would go a long way for a lot of artists in this town to understand that they have a, I mean,
not necessarily a preference, but that they have a way in. They're being recognized. Yeah. I think that
was the smart, I mean, and also, you know, it depends on the project too. Some projects are not really
appropriate for what we have available to us in this town, but I think just making them realize that
they can apply
that they will be considered. So why not? I agree. You don't think it would preference them in terms
of the scoring process by being a Bloomington-based artist? I don't think so, because I think it depends
on who the committee is and what the charge is, I think, for that project. Because for instance,
people from, if it's a very technical
project that requires even more organized or, you know, something above an individual artist. I think
that even if somebody could apply, that doesn't mean that they can actually fulfill the responsibilities
of that. I guess what I mean is... To be acknowledged on the rubric, I think is... Good. So you mean
more of a public facing than if the rubric is
published that by seeing that there's preference given to Bloomington artists, that that would be a
good thing. Do they see the rubrics? I don't think they do. I'm just asking the question because that's
the way I interpreted what you were saying, so that's why I'm asking for clarification. Okay, here's
what I'm wondering about. Are all the rubrics that we use to select public art the same? No. Right.
So it seems to me that
you wouldn't have to put it on every rubric. Correct. Yeah, I'm just trying to understand. I guess you're
just trying to understand what exactly you're imagining. Because when I look at rubrics and I look at
scoring, scoring is a big deal. And so if you have a weighted towards a Bloomington artist, then the
person could potentially score higher. But there's other
there's other scoring factors as well. Well, maybe it wouldn't even be something that would affect the
scoring. Maybe there would be just a line in the rubric, or in, sorry, in the applications process that
would explain that if you were a local artist or arts group, then the committee would be taking that
into account, or something. It could be super general, but I think that would go a long way for people.
I really do. Because a lot of local people feel like they can't apply or they don't have a shot in anything.
They can't compete. And some of them don't. Is that what the perception is? I hear that a lot from people.
Do you? Yeah. OK. So they don't bother applying as a result? No, they apply, but they know they're not
going to get it. Or they don't prepare their application in a way that should be, I think, professional.
You know, like the rubrics, it's usually like one to five for a lot of the categories. So maybe the
category in the rubric that deals with where you're from, maybe it doesn't have to go up to five. Maybe
it'll be two points.
We put it in the RFQ for Miller Showers and it was a maybe, maybe a factor. I think that's good. And
it wasn't just that they're from Bloomington, it was that they had a relationship from Bloomington.
I think Bloomington in particular for this one, right, because it's a gateway entrance and so logically
it really made sense
perception wise, at the very least, that if they were selected, I mean, to hell, they could be from
Illinois, but they could have gone to school at IU. So that made sense in that case. The one thing I
do wonder about is there's frequently this concern about a diversity in the collection.
We have a lot of the same artists in the collection. And so that's where I start to get a little nervous.
Like I understand the folks that maybe are not represented. So maybe there's kind of a balance point
with that as well. Like how to negotiate those two so they don't work to preference somebody yet more
when they already have work in the collection. Yeah. And it's like yes to that. And we also want to
make sure not to punish
people's success. Totally. Yeah. That's a very common, I hear that a lot more than I don't have a chance,
but I haven't heard. I hear that too. Yeah. Oh, I already got that. Can I hear from some of the other
questions? Yeah, please. No, just us. I just want to make sure everyone feels like they can speak.
Of course. I'm just thinking for the moment. All right.
I was enjoying the hashing out, I was like, mm, mm. Yeah, because I think, I do think including in some
rubrics, like some, you know, an extra point maybe. I don't know if it would need to be like that much
more significant. I think it depends on the intent and the piece. And I understand where everyone's
kind of coming from in terms of like, it is nice to sometimes
favor or have like a certain call be meant for or we are really trying to get Bloomington artists.
But I also, yeah, I am worried like if someone who has the expertise and has the lines on their resume,
they're going to be favored more than newer people because of that potentially. And I guess there's
not really much we can do, I guess, if that's going to happen because of this person's applying and
then say other people happen to apply outside of Bloomington and
they're not as good, you know, this person ends up doing the art again. So I think that's, I wonder,
instead of like being a Bloomington artist, like, do we also think about sometimes with our pieces,
it's like new artists, like people we don't have artwork from, and we see like a potential from that,
like, I don't think every single, like,
So it could be rubric specific. Yeah, I mean, I think I think it should be because each call in each
situation is different. You know, it's not like you can have one that just fits every single thing that
we want. Right. It depends on the space, the budget, how big this item is supposed to be, like the all
these different things. I think if we can, if we have a smaller potentially like something that is meant
to be smaller or more local or whatever, like maybe we do
consider, oh, like new artists, we want to see you. Like people from Bloomington, that's what we prefer.
So yeah, I think it's something we should definitely consider. It seems so case by case, you're like
subjective. A specific scenario that I don't know necessarily having a specific point structure on everything
really makes sense. But I mean, I think we all would obviously love to see more local artists infused
into that as much as possible. Or at least I kind of agree with you, Betsy, with like the
on the application having a location section, like where you're from included. I mean, I think it already
is, but like, I don't know necessarily about like the point, or an extra point, I don't know. It seems
like it is case by case, something, I don't know. But. Avoid point thing. Maybe, yeah. But that's how
we score them, isn't it? I mean, the rubric comes down to like the scores. Like a test. Getting an automatic
point just for the location is a little like. I don't think that's good because
I mean, we have to trust our committees, I think, to pick. I mean, because you would be reviewing their
entire application. You would look to see, is that person local? And you would say, OK, well,
they're local. Then you could give them an extra point in one of their categories if you think a local
person should get it. Yeah, that would be like localized bias to a certain extent. But yeah, giving
an extra point to someone just because they're local, even if they have
really, you know, no business or just not, you know, the catchphrase to it. How many points are there
usually, Paige? Like 50? No. Six? 40? 30? Like 10. It depends on how many criteria there are and you
can weight things, you know, like you can make
Aren't there many questions and each is weighted like 1 to 5 usually? With the last round of games we
had like 1 to 10 or something like that and there were a lot of applications that were teetering on
6 and 7 which is where like and if you already have that extra point that's the difference between getting
the grant and not so. Yeah that's the thing. A point's pretty, I mean it's 10% so. Right.
I just don't know if you tweeted enough really to make that big of a difference out of it. And I think
you would already get enough localized bias out of it anyways that, you know, I'm not sure. I was just
going to say, I think in some ways can just be a qualitative point because you tend to only talk about
the top applicants anyway. Yeah. And so during that discussion is where you also bring up the point,
oh, and they're local, you know. Exactly. So I think it's more of like a qualitative
than quantitative, because I don't know. Part of me is it does feel weird, because somebody who's been
here a year, they get a point. But somebody who probably lived here for 15 years, but then they moved
away, it's like, I don't know. I don't know. But it's just like, it's kind of fuzzy. But I think it's
a qualitative thing that should be discussed. But I don't know if it should be a point added to it.
That's a good point. I like what Paige was saying about the relationship. Maybe they don't just like,
What the relationship is to the call and where it's going and what's happening and Because like for
traffic boxes it makes sense for that to be just Bloomington artists or maybe Monroe County and Emerging
artists because the biggest thing for public artists that are just starting out they need a demonstration
project or they a hundred percent don't have a chance right in being able to get any call whether it's
in Bloomington or Illinois
That's the that's the biggest struggling factor that I know of her public garden. Yeah. Great. Great.
So we're at 10 minutes. Great question. Yeah. As to talk about it. So thank you Gretchen for asking
us to talk about this.
And I think we, I think it was a really good discussion. I think, I think we are, I don't know if we've
solved anything. I think it's still a question, but I think we have some clear, you know, I feel like,
yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Good. All right. And then one more thing. So this I feel like is a little less
relevant and like out of our purviews commission, but someone still wants to talk about this. So it's about,
just kind of people's thoughts on the city of Bloomington using a consultant to, I guess, make decisions
on behalf of the city. I know some people feel like maybe this is something they don't like or they
feel like we shouldn't be doing, but also at the same time, I want to just reiterate that we can chat
about this, but really is not gonna do much in terms of like, we don't influence the city in any way,
right? We have a specific purview, which is the grants and the public art.
that we, you know, technically not all public art is something that we even have purview over. So, but
I did want to bring it up. So if people have thoughts or like just want to chat about it. Can I read
something really fast? Sure. So Ruth, my daughter, she, we've been talking about this because she's
getting her MBA from Kelly and they're talking a lot about data. Obviously, like she had to do it all
summer for
you know, a company, whatever. So in one of her classes last week, a professor, they were talking about
different kinds of consultants and different kinds of pools of data. And she just emailed me,
and I was like, that is so interesting. I just want to read it. It's super short. So she said, I wanted
to share one thought on the idea of surveying Bloomington residents to determine what type of
Public art or art should be installed at any given place, whatever. If the public does get comment,
but then we also want to get comments from a consultant. So she said we recently discussed some of the
limitations of surveys in one of my marketing classes, and I think they apply really well here. One
of the biggest issues is that
People don't always know exactly what they want, especially when it comes to decisions they don't make
very often. Most residents, and she's talking about surveying people. Like, what kind of art do you
want to see? Or where do you want to see it? Or those kinds of questions that we ask all the time of
the public. But most residents probably don't have
that much knowledge about the specific attributes they value in public R or know all of the different
possibilities available. It can also be difficult for someone to evaluate a new or unfamiliar concept.
So that's the consultant part. And then they talked about something I'd never heard of. You guys may
have. Public R also involves a lot of soft attributes.
how something makes a space feel, whether it feels unique to Bloomington or whether people feel connected
to it. And this can be very difficult to capture through a traditional survey. So I just wanted to talk
about that. Like if we're trying to survey people about art or anything to do with the Arts Commission,
we think about soft attributes. So I thought it was pretty fascinating.
specifically on like the consultant thing, I guess. I mean, we don't have to talk about it if we feel
like we don't have opinions or that's just something else. I think there's times when it's appropriate.
But it shouldn't be something that we rely on all the time. I mean, there has to be a balance,
I would think. So I don't really. A balance on consultants or surveys. Of using consent.
surveys i mean it's what consultants use right that's i mean that's the data i mean both consultants
like have expertise and like you know there are consultants in bloomington right so if this is like
a bloomington bloomington issue or bloomington like question right i mean i think there are people here
who also are have an expertise in like finding answers or trying to understand what the
right decision is so I think I agree with Betsy like yeah it is appropriate sometimes yeah but there's
there's so much data from that brand audit that was done for the bee symbol when I was looking at this
there is bot loads of data pertaining to the arts already that we have so I would just be
Like, I wouldn't, yeah, there's place, identity, marketing, there's so much that I don't see how gathering
any more data when it comes to the arts would be. We don't, I mean, how we tend to use, how
we use consultants is to extend the capacity of the,
of the staff because we just don't have enough capacity. Next year, we plan to use a consultant to help
develop the policies and procedures for public art. Largely, the consultant is going to get input from
the BAC, from other departments at the city in order for us to map those because we just don't have
the capacity. There probably won't be any surveying.
as a part of that, because we don't need a survey to be a part of that. A lot of surveys being done
by the city itself bereft of whether a consultant's involved or not. I know that we've gotten a used
survey to get a pulse on what people care about when it comes to Bloomington, like what's unique or,
and that tends to be kind of what effervesces to the top that then shared with the artist to get some
sort of context to what kind of art piece the community is interested in.
totally understand the self, and that people don't always interpret things equally. It is amazing how
different people interpret things. That's why it's really important with surveys to get an understanding
of how many people responded. Or who, and who didn't respond. The number of responses, yeah, exactly.
It depends on the survey. Not every survey is a lot, or the same.
They're very different gradations and levels of complexity and target audiences and things like that.
But in terms of its efficacy, it also depends on the number of individuals that have responded. There's
like a whole rubric on that alone and the accuracy of responses and things like that. So it's credible
data. There's a big difference between data and credible data. Well, like this last audit that was done for me,
age group from like 22 to 30 was almost not represented. Right. I mean, this is literally has nothing
to do with the city arts or the commission though. And this is when we use consultants, we're using
them for a very specific purpose. And we really need to get policies and procedures for public art.
And that's it. We're not asking for them to do surveys. We're asking them to do a specific deliverable
so that we can do our work more easily.
I appreciate the conversation. I think it's good to have more context so that as we make decisions on
our stuff, we can be more confident in that. But yeah, I appreciate that. I feel like, especially thinking
about my work and the things that I do in my professional life, we could use way more people. I think
everyone's just feeling the lack of availability of resources and people as resources. But yeah.
Any other thoughts? I would just add, a consultant can also be really helpful in terms of a third party
objective. I was just about to say that. And I think that's a really important role for that individual
to play, so that they're listening to the feedback. Right. And they're documenting rather than, like,
we're just feeling everything that we want. That's not what we want with the consultant. We want them
to really be an objective party. Excuse me. Get your flu shot. That's all I'm saying.
All right, well, if there's something else on that. So that's all I have on my agenda. So let's move
forward with the public art condition issue. So we have the Parade public art installation that's off
of the B line near Roger Street. And so Parade was a piece that was commissioned over 10 years ago
with the Boys and Girls Club, and it was basically a picture parade connecting both locations. So that's
what it's about. And so we took a condition report in August, and then there was a you report submitted
to Parks about basically the damage that's been done to this piece. Outside of it, you know, kind of
falling over. Essentially, because it's so,
you know, over 10 years old, like it's fading, has some graffiti on it, there's no signage. And so,
you know, we're wanting to move to just remove it. We did contact the artist, Sam Bartlett, and they
also are okay with this removal and they also would want some of the panels for just repurposing it.
And so we kind of wanted to bring this to you guys to just vote on
the removal and your approval to remove the piece. Is that on the beeline just past the showers building
going west? Is that where that is? I don't know. I'll be completely honest with you. Would you give
us an opportunity to go look at it before we vote? I think we should remove it if the artist is willing.
So what's behind it?
Like is that, are those wood panels or what is that painted on? So what is behind that? Like what will
it look, will it look better? Like what is behind there that we're going to see once it is removed?
Green space. What is it? Green space just like. Is it fell iron? Like what's behind that? I can't visualize
where it is. Is it fell iron?
Is it that recycling place? What did you say? What cross street was this on the Beeline? This is on
Beeline near Rogers Street intersection. Near Rogers. Yeah. So that's from Parks property? Yes, on Parks
property. So it would be up to Parks to beautify it? Yeah. Also the, sorry you go. I mean the alternative
would be that it would look like this.
You know what I mean? So like... That can't be repaired at all? No. That piece that's coming off, is
it rotten? Yeah, and it's kind of, it's reached its life span too. So... The whole thing has to come
down? Yeah. I would say that the artist is in agreement. Yeah. I'm never aware of it. That you've got
to fix it up. Hmm? Yeah, and the arts is gonna... Yeah. And the arts will clean up the area, yeah.
I mean, this isn't, yeah, this isn't what we want.
to have, you know, so if the only way we can make it better is by removing it and yeah, the artist feels
okay with that, then I think we should. Yeah. Ten years was getting rough. Yeah, I think so. And then,
you know, like, who knows, maybe in the future it frees up space for more art or like, you know,
it's like, imagine if we have to fix it, that's resources going into a piece that's like old and like,
does anyone really enjoy it, right? We could keep that money for something. Yeah, all that greenery
needed to be
kept off of it. And that's what rotted the wood is all the moisture that all those bushes are holding
into it. Yeah, exactly. I mean, that's what's going to happen to that kind of material. So I think it's
like we can't really like go backwards. We can only make a decision with what we've got now. Right.
So I would feel comfortable voting today. And is this the commission voting or is this
public art subcommittee or? I wanted the whole commission to have a conversation just because we have
a fairly few number of individuals and if there's serious consternation I think it should be in front
of the entire BAC to make that decision. I just want to see it before I vote. I see the one panel coming
down but really I want to see what's behind it because if it looks
There's nothing wrong with art having a lifespan. Right. Yeah. You know? In fact, I think almost all
public art should have a lifespan. It's not permanent for the rest of the life. Eternity. Everyone.
Yeah. Eternity. Which they asked you? Yeah, I was going to say otherwise it's just going to get worse
and then it'd be like, we should really tear this down. So. That's right.
Yeah, I feel comfortable voting. All right. So let's put it to a vote. So I guess all in favor of voting
to take down the public art, say yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I'm going to abstain. OK. No. Nobody abstaining.
All right. So I believe the motion has passed.
to take down the art. I guess I should ask for a second for the motion maybe, but I'm not sure. I think
we're fine. It's really, when we get the said policies and procedures document, we will have a whole,
we'll have like a process for these things because it's such a state and it's figured it's best to just
discuss this without policy. So thank you. Okay. Yeah. Thank you for bringing us up. All right. So next
on the agenda is,
Strategic Goals and the Public Art Master Plan. Great. I wanted to bring these two documents to everybody's
attention. One, just because these are the documents that we've been working under. And I thought it's
kind of important to revisit these things. Also, looking at the strategic priorities, these were adopted
earlier this year.
And before we head into next year's work, I just wanted to take a step back and look at it together,
especially with the council asking all departments to really show our impact, telling it impact-based
budgeting. I think it's kind of important to just remember that our budget is never guaranteed, and
in lieu of SEA 1,
communities across the entire state have been financially hit pretty hard to make some difficult financial
choices to reduce their overall budget. So I think one of the things to continue to remember is like
what is the impact that the VAT is making and how we can really start to deepen the thinking around
that. So for example, if a council person want to ask you
what we achieved last year, what would you say? What would you say? I would definitely point to the
grants that we awarded, the money that we, you know. Yeah, artistic development grants. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
That's three grant cycles. Three. Cyclic art or the convention center.
This year? So you're talking 2025? Emerging artists grants and several parties that brought a lot of
the different parts of the community together. These are things that I would say.
What's your response to that? I would probably bring up conversations where we came to a conclusion
about how to handle public art and grants. I think also we did a lot of work, certainly I did not, but
folks here did a lot of work on the guidelines for grants. I think that was a really big accomplishment
that we did this year. I think just handling a lot of
I would even say, look at all the sort of changes we've had to deal with on the commission over this
past year and like how we've handled that and been able to still like meet consistently and kind of
move forward with these decisions. I would want to highlight that maybe. The building and trades or
the tech park that was before any of us were on the commission, but there was a huge opening party for that.
I mean, I just think all of those arts-related parties really foster a sense of community, especially
when it brings people that work for the city, people that own local businesses, people that work and
live downtown, and artists together is good for
a huge economic portion of Bloomington. Bringing all of those different parts of the community together
and all of the events that we had last year. And there were a lot of them. People showcased their art,
the sculpture opening parties. I mean, there was a ton of people there. It was important. You know?
Yeah. Yep.
Yeah, I think it would be really great for us to lean into the economic impact or the specific impact.
So for example, when I think about artistic advancement, it's really an investment in creative careers
for Bloomington-based artists, and that has a very specific resonant effect. That's where data could
be really helpful.
If there was like a couple of things that you guys really wanted to focus in next year out of sort of
the barrage of strategic priorities that we do have, is there something that you would like to lean
in on? We were talking about it a couple of months ago about BAC visibility, just trying to let people
know that we exist as opposed to, you know, just being like a shadow
bank in the background that just funds things and you don't know where it came from or how to actually
access it. So putting more visibility on we do exist. And then, you know, we've been restructuring how
we do things, which is what you were talking about. It's like a lot of that is a lot of all the shenanigans
that did happen is that we've restructured and now we have things like we have a much tighter
Much tighter. I don't know the word for it. Yeah, it's like so it was a lot of just like yeah retightening
things up and Yeah, and then here's the new commission. Yeah Of the community like we all have like
Like we all want to see the community flourish and that's why we are part of this commission and we
certainly don't get anything out of being on the commission other than Contributing to our community
and I think I feel like sometimes there might be this disconnect I think Austin has a really good point
if we don't really share a little bit about us or like what we do or that like Actually, we're all just
like you were part of Bloomington and we care about it. I think that would go a long way Yeah, and our
job is to represent the community Not the city
It's the community. Not that those things have to be in conflict. They don't, but it is. We're right.
We're just the liaison. Yeah, between. Yeah, exactly. Like the community and the city that we all live
in. So it's like, I'm just like you. I need art stuff, you know, so just kind of.
make that a lot easier and more accessible for folks that don't know how to talk to the city.
Maybe also, too, some tangible data on the public art side. The Public Arts Committee, how many applications
for next year or things of public art that we've actually approved on, if there's data on that, too?
Because I think that's sort of important for the community to know, too. These are the public art things
that we're doing.
Yeah, like I think that. No, no, right. Like the number of applications we get. The. The amount of grant
money that's gone out and what what it's for is in the arts. Talking about like when when the public
art is pulled into like I know it might be few and far between, but like what you know public art. We're
approving, I guess maybe.
Yeah, just the tangible data that we could see what the public art is that we're doing, and people want
to know that. I mean, grants, yes, but there's also the secondary side of the BAC in general, just the
public art side. I wonder if, because I know that's an issue maybe that some people believe we are
responsible for approving certain public art that actually we have no say in. And I wonder if like,
yeah, but I wonder how that would, because there is a press release, I'm assuming every time there is
like a piece of public art that the city itself, right? And that the commission itself has like had
a hand in like approving or whatever. But it's like people choose not to read those things. I guess
that's true. Yeah, but I understand what you're trying to say, because it's like, it's kind of like,
yeah, I sort of
knocking on everyone's door and be like, yes, look at all the stuff we did this year. I wonder, I think
people tend to be more vocal or involved when they dislike something sometimes, unfortunately. So I
think that's usually the people we hear from more, but I think a lot of times we don't hear from anyone.
They probably maybe are enjoying it or don't even notice it or whatever, right? It's like between the
whole gamut.
I also wanna be conscious of the work that we're putting on ourselves, obviously, and also our city
staff too. You guys have a lot going on and while a lot of this is important, especially letting people
know that we exist and we're here for them, I also wanna be conscious of the fact that this is a volunteer
position and that we all have other things we have to be concerned about. And so balancing how much
work will we put on ourselves and the city
and what kind of impact that could have. So I mean, I still think we should make the commission known
to the public in some capacity, and I think the headshots might help. But yeah, I don't want to also
feel responsible for dragging people to be interested in the work that we're doing, if that makes sense.
I think you made a great point about
usually it's like something negative when people will get involved. And I think that's another way to
think about it, where it's like a whole year of out of all the stuff we've did, we've only had,
you know, eight complaints. And I was like, that's actually pretty good. Like when I'm walking down
the street and I see like an electric box painted or whatever, I'm like, nice. And then I just go about
my day. But then if it's like really terrible, I'm like, I'm gonna email somebody. And like, so it has to be
particularly awful or striking for people to get involved, but otherwise, the lack of complaints is
telling us that it's good. So, yeah. Or the lack of involvement, maybe saying that is doing it.
But anyway, I think if we focused on one thing next year, like one thing only, I think, yeah, maybe
somehow getting
just like familiarizing the community however that looks like with us. In a way that's like, you know,
isn't too much work for everyone. I think that's very pragmatic and valuable. I think that in looking
at the gamut of what City Arts does, what the BAC does, it's a lot. And you can't do a lot of things
and do them all well. Really focusing on key things
and doing them well is really, really valuable. I would throw out that just statistically, we did 104
grants this past year, 2025 specifically. Just to give context, what is the population of Bloomington?
Anybody want to take a wild guess? With or without students? Right. Students are like 50,000 and Bloomington's
Seventy or eighty thousand. So at the state, the Indiana Arts Commission granted around six hundred.
That's seven million people for the state of Indiana. We're doing a hundred grant for Bloomington. So that's
all of the applications that you guys had to review and score, and then that's all the forms and all
the contracts. So that's an example of something that I think that we could really evaluate, and how
can we really make a stronger impact that we can tell the council, like, as a result of this,
we did this. I would love to challenge ourselves
to really make a resonant impact, like what that could look like. Something that you could put the flag
in the sand for. I was on the commission and we did this. And that way we were focused really intentionally.
And I'll give a little example, because I was talking with Christina about this a little bit yesterday.
Thinking about public art, we want to think about emerging artists. And I'm just spit balling. This
is not a recommendation. This is simply pages going, like this, we could do this. Let's say that we have
variety of places where the art is really degrading and it's always going to be an issue like the traffic
calming murals because it's been going to always be an issue because cars are always going to drive
over it and so rather than having somebody like fix it what already exists maybe that's an opportunity
to bring an emerging artist and they've put in new murals knowing that we're going to be doing this
every other year, or even every year. And what about if it's being here, but also this place and this
place, and it all happens at the same time, so it becomes an event. It becomes a city event. So then
we're focusing on something that becomes a little bit more tangible, funifying, and becomes economic
development because it can be a tourism mechanism. That's what I mean about being more strategic and
intentional.
So I would love, and we don't have to do that like tonight, tomorrow night, or next week, or next month,
but it's something that we can start aspiring towards. Because Osari said something, you know, in the
city council when they were talking about potentially eliminating the entire department. Who's that?
Who's that? Councilman Osari. What's his name? Isaac Osari. Isaac Osari, okay. And he's just like, rather
doing a lot of little things, why don't you do something big?
And I was like, it's got a fair point, right? The amount of investment that we put in the arts in Bloomington
is incredible, and it's very impressive. But I feel like it should be saying something more than it
does. And that brings us to, totally. Yeah, I agree too. Yeah. I mean, let's bat it home. Let's make
some magic. And I think that'd be really cool. And we can, over this next several months, start to think
about what that looks like. I'd like to then sort of move into the public art master plan.
I feel like this is a bit of a misnomer in that a master plan to me is like you have a very specific
vision that you're going towards and you have these goals, right? Because you get it, right? I get it.
It's like a strategic plan and like this is the roadmap that we're going to do. This is more like, these
are more like guidelines. So like the BAC's role with Percent for Art, that has the biggest role.
When it comes to public art, if it's a private individual with private dollars, we have nothing to do
with that. And that is totally protected by free speech. So no matter what it looks like, even if we
can't stand it, there's nothing anybody can do in this community. Like that Dr. Pepper ad that just
went up downtown? Right. Well, they do have an ordinance issue with that, because it's signage.
a letter has gone out to them. And they'll have to litigate it, right? Because they'll be like, yeah,
but I have free speech, right? And that's a good thing. It's good to have free speech. I think,
you know, it is what it is. I would like to, you know, like I said, over the next year, we are going
to reboot the Public Art Master Plan. But because they're mostly like, if this, then that, those are
policies and procedures.
And so we're working over that with a consultant over the next year, who, by the way, is Bloomington
based, if that makes anybody feel any better, and has done this for the city of Madison. So we have
a good experience about that. But for the time being, this is kind of the roadmap that we've been operating
on. I just wanted to make sure that you guys were aware that it exists. But I also wonder, when it comes
to public art, maybe we should have a strategic plan.
beyond policies and procedures, what is the vision that we're going for? What do we want to achieve?
Is that something you guys would be interested in? And is that making sense when I mean like a strategic
plan for public art, like goals and strategies and things like that? I think so. We don't seem to have
kind of a cohesive vibe or theme happening with our public art.
Yeah, I was gonna say something kind of cool where you mentioned the traffic circular themagings if
there's like an annual or even biannual like say we Introduced this idea of like hey Bloomington. What
should the theme of next year be or whatever? Just like something where I don't know what I've like
Yeah, like say the the the cicadas come, you know every however many years but the next year the cicadas
are coming up so we want to do a
all of Bloomington and like a theme like that. And so we have several artists that are going to do these
traffic cones and, you know, yeah, but then everyone's doing it at the same time. And it's like a big
event where, you know, it's the annual, whatever we're doing, the public art festival. And then like,
that's kind of it for the year. And then other little grants and stuff like that. But like one big thing
and cohesive stuff that, you know, it's a strawberry
shortcake year, you know, we're all doing that. But like, yeah, just something that everybody's everyone's
on the same page is like, what are you going to do for this year of the restaurants are having specials
dedicated towards the art thing that we're all in on? Yeah. Yeah. For public art, I've always thought
we have so many famous
people from Bloomington or that attended IU that we're not recognizing. You know, like Louisville has
like all the famous rappers from Louisville or whatever on the size of buildings and like Jennifer Lawrence
and they really are proud of that those, no Louisville, but they're, you know, they're, they're proud
of, you know, this is, this is us too, you know.
Like Ryan Murphy who wrote Glee went to IU, you know, or, you know, Meg Cabot who wrote Princess Diaries.
She's hugely famous and we don't have anything. Yeah. You know, there's famous opera singers and like
musicians and labels and, you know, there's athletics is represented enough, but it would be, I think
so cool for us to like embrace
how cool we are as a community through people that have been kind of birthed from Bloomington. It's
a good selling point too for economics. Are there specific areas that we could have like, let's say
a visual arts or interactive arts exhibit that maybe runs for like, let's say like a year where we have
a local artist who comes and, you know, they submit to the Bloomington Arts Commission. We kind of look at,
the ones and it's like, yeah, all right, cool. You get this spot. There's going to be a mural that is
like dedicated in a spot that will be seen by, you know, local people or visitors, you know, in the
downtown area that people are kind of aware, like, oh, that's that mural that's here for this year,
however long. And then, you know, a new artist gets to come and like do something with it. I mean, I
feel like stuff like that would be maybe we do a lot of great stuff like, you know, the boxes are painted
and things, but there's not anything that you walk by and go,
Oh, like, what is that? Like, you know, where's the story there? And then it's like there for a year
and then it changes the next year or something like that, whether, again, that's a visual art space,
or is that like an interactive art space? I don't know what that looks like, or is there separate spaces
to do something like that with? But I feel like that would kind of give us that visibility thing that
we were talking about. And then people
You know then understand oh that is through the Blooming Arts Commission those are local artists that's
specifically what that's there for and it changes every year. So it's not the same thing you're looking
at every 10 years like on the beeline trail that now we're looking at so it's up kept, it's promoting
new artists so you get a new artist every year to kind of do that or whatever that timeline looks like.
I mean, I think something like that would help a lot with visibility and with new upcoming local artists
and all the things that we're trying to accomplish as well. And you could call it a BAC public
art initiative. So it could be driven by the BAC. Yeah, I mean, there's plenty of areas. If we're looking
at the downtown square or areas around there, I think it needs to be something that's high visibility.
Like I said, I know we do a lot of little projects that we were talking about. But again, like the little
roundabout things that get driven on all the time. Well, if we have a bigger space that people are seeing,
so many people are really going down
six or seven street or whatever on a daily basis. You know, I think if we had a bigger purview downtown
and people notice that, oh, that is changing every six months annually, whatever. And you still had
a festival like around that unveiling. Yeah. Did you see the... I'd rather do that than all the little
tiny grants. Seriously. Yeah. Did you see the block houses like projecting on the block house? Yeah,
that's amazing. That's awesome. Something like that. Yeah. And I didn't know what was happening. I was
just like,
Whoa. They did for Lotus, right? They were projecting on Chase Bank as well. And so, I mean, granted
that I would imagine that's cheaper and easier than someone actually painting something. So I don't
want to just like project on everything, which would be cool. But like, yeah, just stuff like that.
It was, no one saw it coming and there it was. And you're like, they're so rad. Yeah, it was like, they
really are. I visited their studio. It's phenomenal. And they're really to host like a,
an artist training about working in digital arts, which I thought was very, very kind of them. I've
thought about that, too, because you've got the Blink Festival in Cincinnati, and if you've ever been,
it's just mind-blowing. It's projection, it's not at the level that Blockhouse has, but it's all over
the city, artist interventions. I looked that up after we talked about it, and you're right, it is.
Cool. Massive. It's like a hundred thousand people coming in. So the economic development is massive.
Yeah. And so I've been, I would love for us to start it. We don't have to, like I said, we don't have
to figure this all out tonight. Know that this could be a really exciting strategic direction for the
BAC to be intentional, focused, impactful, meaningful, and then it can
Increase the visibility and so I could get we can start working in that direction policies and procedures
We absolutely have to do it because it's gonna drive me insane if we don't have that organized because
we need to be able to figure out Lifespan and stuff like that. So I have to have the rehabs conversation
But if you're given that I can get you know a consultant to come in and also help guide us towards how
we can be more strategic long term and we can help we can get percent for art to support that effort and
The shop for art does not have to be tied to the actual construction project. It doesn't. It can go
into a kitty and we can decide what we want to do with it. I've already talked about this with the city
because $20,000 for maintenance isn't going to get it. Something happens to one of those parking garage
murals, it's significant. That'll got it like partially, like that's 20,000 like that.
And we have all these other pieces. So we've got a lot of money that's got to go toward fixing what
we have, getting rid of what doesn't need to be around, and focusing on really impactful work that can
resonate with the community. But I would love to get your input on that so we have a strategic direction
that's cohesive that everybody feels good about.
So I can get the ball. But thank you for your input, because I don't want to get the ball rolling on
these things without people like, yeah, that sounds good. Because they'd be like, Paige, that's insane.
And I'm like, OK, I'll just have to think of something else to entertain everybody. So, well, great.
I think it sounds good, more impactful art. Yeah, let's do it. We said that the whole state gives out
two, three hundred and we're doing a hundred? That's insane. Which is not tenable. Did I notice the
artistic advancement that we actually gave less than we did last year? I mean less number of grants?
Yes, less number of grants because we decided to fully fund them. That's a great move. It was. I was
delighted with that because
You know, $800 grants, you know, so that was fantastic. That's a good move in the right direction. And
what about the one that's out now? Is there operation support operations? Yeah, we got what 2628 applications.
we can hone that program more intentionally. And we can have a study group evaluate how to
do that effectively. Because I think those are going to be really hard strategic conversations. It needs
to be maybe even people beyond who we have at the BAC. Like Eric, I think at the Arts Commission would
be great to contribute to that conversation. Somebody from a community foundation, what are the things
that we really need to think about to be strategic,
impactful without totally perturbing the system that we have. We've got a little bit of a balance point.
We may have a year where we kind of need to dial it back, and then we dial it way back, because you
can get a pretty dramatic response. We'll have to think of change management. I've done that, but it's
been a while. Lynn, you were going to say something? I was just, first of all,
just going to share an experience that a friend actually, many of you know, Suzanne Ryan, who was on
the commission before I came on the commission. And one of the things that when she was working as the
leader of the Bloomington Early Music that she helped put into place there was to change their
programming to be more thematically organized and she felt like that overall made the organization.
Having a more coherent program for them seemed to work really well than just, well, who's around this
year? And I think that there's something really to be said about that direction that we've been talking
about. The other thing that I guess was
came to mind is I think that in Bloomington they had the fish paintings and I was in Chicago finishing
grad school and they had the cows and the bison in Lafayette and everybody had their different fiberglass
animal done by the local artists and I was just sort of there's I mean I don't know if that's really
In some ways, it's been done, but it's also been two decades, I think, since it was in its head. There's
still some around, though. People love that stuff. If we wanted to do that again, what would it look
like that would make it different? Or is that absolutely not what we're talking about, and how do we
distinguish it from that?
multi-part question. I think it needs to be driven by multiple voices at the table. I think what I constantly
hear from y'all is distinctively Bloomington. What would be distinctively, like doing a blink here,
we don't want to do a blink here because blink is blink. It's Cincinnati. But what's distinctively
Bloomington? And maybe Blockhouse is a variation, right? Because Blockhouse brings a totally different
dimension of a light intervention festival, right?
To me that's not distinctive because that's just something that's been done over and over again. The
other thing is it's a campus. We've got IU. The last time Lafayette, West Lafayette did
think dogs, the students were like jacking those dogs like crazy. I mean, I can't tell you how many
dogs got stolen by students and became like gay bot. So I'm kind of sensitive to the, not that the students
here would do anything like that, but something to consider. Anyway, we're at time. I will be quiet.
You guys continue. Thank you for all your feedback.
So now we'll go to Rebecca for public bar. Yeah, just a few updates. The traffic boxes, well, these
are DBI updates. So traffic boxes are wrapping up. Three are completed. One is near completion. And
the last will start at the end of the month. So for the last box, the city put out the RFQ. I believe
you assisted in the applications for that. It was super fun. So there was three finalists out of 30, and then
chose Taryn Marks to paint the last box. Installation is scheduled to begin at the end of the month.
Cool. Basically, just with Uptown Plaza mural, you said that there would be the week of installation
is scheduled to begin the week of October 19th. And then again, as a heads up, there will be the open
house. That'll be, emails will be sent out next week for the 26th, right? Yeah.
World Food Mural, the design completed and the design is completed and installation will begin this
week or next depending on scheduling. So the mural, this mural will also be done by the end of whenever
they actually get started. So it only takes like a week. And that's another downtown Bloomington. Yeah,
that's part of the downtown, yeah, DBI.
So then the Bicentennial Gateway Project update. So after gathering feedback from us, the Public Art
Subcommittee and the BAC, City staff created the RFQ for the Gateway Project public artwork. This is
set to go live in the coming days. The call will be open until December 4th. The Public Art Subcommittee
will meet to discuss the rubric in November. Once applications are in, City staff will prepare materials
and the selection committee will begin review in January.
Cool. That is all of the updates I have. Thank you. Next on our agenda is to go to Gerard, who's the
subcommittee chair of France, but he's absent. He didn't share anything with me that he wanted me to
share, but does anyone at the city have anything that he asked? Just at the subcommittee when they meet
next, we'll make the determination for awards for operations support. So that'll be coming around a
bit. And I believe he shared an email to folks
who will be evaluating grants. Yeah, so you guys should have that info. All right, great. And then moving
on, next is upcoming events and important dates. As always, any events that you think would be relevant
for us to be aware of, please feel free to go on to the document and add. Right now I'm seeing only
one thing coming up.
the creativity as infrastructure. Is this the one that you mentioned? Yeah, I mentioned that earlier.
It was an inappropriate time to do it. Apparently, it was the event section of the agenda. My apologies,
everybody. But please attack. I feel like since we're already past the end of the meeting, I won't belabor
this too much. But please continue to add things on to this.
Google Sheet if you know of events or want us to be aware of events happening in Bloomington. Okay.
Next is commissioner comments and announcements. Any comments from commissioners or announcements they
would want to share with the commission? Okay. Great. Wonderful. We've exhausted them all already. Good.
Yes. Well, yeah, we've had definitely good discussions today.
Finally, do we have anyone from the public online? I think so, yeah. Okay, no public is present, so
we'll move from public comment. And then, okay, so there being no further business, I move to adjourn
the meeting. Can I get a second? Second. Okay, all in favor say yes. Yes. Okay, meeting adjourned.
Thank you. Thank you, everyone.