June 26, 2024 — Boulder Arts Commission Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:23] Cool we are recording. It is Wednesday, June 26, th 2024. Welcome to the Boulder X Commission meeting. I will call the whole. Our technology gets better and different every month. Can't hear you yet. Georgia Schmidt here. Caroline Kurt, Jeffrey Cash, Maria Cole not here yet. Jill Katzenberger here. Sorry so I did get. Yes.

[1:08] great we'll call to order the the June 26, th 2024. Meeting and the Arts Commission with it. I'll start with the land acknowledgement, and then we'll turn it back over to you. The city of Boulder acknowledges the city is on the ancestral homelands and unceded territory of indigenous peoples who have traversed lived in and storted lands in the Boulder Valley since time immemorial. Those indigenous nations include the Apache, Arapaho Cheyenne Comanche. Bonnie Shoshone. Sue, and Mute. The city of Boulder recognizes that those now living and working on these ancestral lands have a responsibility to acknowledge and address the past, and must work to build a more just future.

[2:07] Alright, you want to. Yes. so we will be going over the public participation guidelines to have a visual for that. So no. definitely. So I'm just gonna read these as they're written. the city has engaged with community members to co-create a vision for productive, meaningful and inclusive civic conversations. This vision supports the physical and emotional safety for community members, staff and council, as well as democracy, for people of all ages, identities, lived experiences and political perspectives. For more information about this vision and the community engagement processes, you can visit the website listed on the screen. The following are examples of rules of the forum found in the folder revised Code and other guidelines that support this vision.

[3:03] They will be upheld during the meetings. All remarks and testimony shall be limited to matters related to city business. No participant shall make threats or use other forms of intimidation against any person. obscenity, racial epithets and other speech and behavior that disrupts or otherwise impedes the ability to conduct a meeting are prohibited. participants are required to sign up, to speak in advance and use the name they are commonly known by individuals, must display their full name before being allowed to speak online in person. Participants are asked to refrain from expressing support or disagreement verbally or with applause. Traditionally support is shown silently through American sign language, applause, signal which is kicking your hands as such. and then that is it for our public participation guide. Thank you. Alright. Our 1st order business is to approve the agenda, for today we can get a motion.

[4:06] I got the motion to approve. I'll second on paper that carries and approval of the May 24 meeting minutes. I have one question about that. It said that in I may forgive me if I'm reading it incorrectly, it said the people in attendance that didn't seem correct. Where are you looking? I'm here. members present. And then the guests present. Yeah, the public. I didn't see all those people. Were they on the line? Yeah, they're online. Okay. Kristen. I have one edit as well and for the liaison report mine on the boulder field and said that I had reported that the season was over, which sounds rather fat, finite, and what I had actually reported was that the successful

[5:02] season had conducted gritty alright. Any other edits? Okay? With those edits in mind, we get a motion. Oh, I'm a question. Second. hey? All in favor. almost saving facility. Great. Thank you. Public participation. Do we have anybody signed up to see. So 1st we have Colleen Hudson. Yes, you can. Come up and speak. I think it's easiest. Well, Hi! My name is Colleen Hudson. I had a little something. I'm here representing the catamounts, and I am their new education director, which, through the support of the Commission, Amanda Berg Wilson, the artistic director, was able to bring me in to help manage some of the educational programming that we're kind of kicking back into gear.

[6:19] So thank you so much. We are hoping. And we're gonna be serving our educational programming in a couple of schools in Boulder this year again, with the support of the Commission. Both at Heatherwood and Douglas Elementary. We do a 7 week program. Theater Residency, interdisciplinary Arts Residency and so just wanted to share a little bit about that. The support of the Boulder Arts Mission has allowed the catamounts to grow tremendously in the past several years, even throughout the Disruption with the covid-nineteen pandemic. Most recently we offered camp catamounts for the 1st time since the pandemics actually before the pandemic, which is a week long camp in which Pinkertons created their own production. Using theater dance and music

[7:12] and this year we were able to incorporate a cooking component to it, modeling it after the cat amounts feed series. And with your support we've been able to create a uniquely Colorado Company, incorporating space, small business and stories that are unique to Colorado in our work. And if you have any questions about the catamount educational programming, I would be happy to meet with you at any time. Thank you. Yeah. Originally I am from Florida most recently from Omaha, Nebraska, where I worked as a teaching artist for about 7 years, with a large children's theater out there. Excellent! Welcome to Boulder. Great! Alright! So second, we have

[8:06] Alyssa Hoffman, and in line with City Council practice. Melissa Kaufman has reflected to 4 min with brandy, Blizzell and Jennifer Mendelson for a total of 6 min for her public participation. Okay? And just for the record, are those popular right now? Great? And you're agreeing to that. So well, do you want to have any sort of warning 1 min warning, or anything like that. So I'm Melissa Fatman, executive director of the Bury Arts Center. and I'm not here before you to focus on the rubric scoring. An appeal has already been submitted at the request of the Creative Nations Leadership Council. I'm also not here to correct the record with regard to a reckless statement made during the last meeting, implying misappropriation of funds that will be addressed by one of our Board members. Later on. Tonight

[9:11] I stand before you and our entire community today because we are an important juncture in the evolution of boulders arts, community. I'm sharing my story because many of us in positions of power and leadership do recognize that we are working within a system that is inherently unfair and inaccessible to many members of our community. I am here to speak to you from my heart about how, why, and when creative nations was started, and to hopefully inspire others, to continue leaning in and finding ways to continue the work of restoring ballots before it had a name. The concept for creative nations was an idea that came to me over 5 years ago, during a mural dedication ceremony. a mural created to raise awareness for missing and murdered indigenous women

[10:03] during the smudget ceremony, Sarah Ordigan, member of the eastern Shoshone and northern Arapaho, looked up at the flat islands from our parking lot, and said, This is where my family used to live. I instantly felt extreme sadness deep within my heart, and thought, if I could give the land back I would. The more I thought about it I realized I could approximate a land back scenario. Is it a perfect example of land back? No, it is not. The city of Boulder owns the building and the land, so I'm not personally able to get the land back. But what I can do as the executive Director of the Dairy Arts Center, with the support of the dairy board is to make a decision to permanently dedicate a portion of our building to be used by indigenous creatives handing over to them full creative control of their programming. I began by 1st reaching out to today a winder author, singer, songwriter, poet, and enrolled member of the Duck Water Shoshone nation

[11:04] prior to the pandemic. The dairy had already established a partnership with Tenaya and Cu's upward bound program to offer arts, experiences of the dairy to visiting indigenous high school students. After hearing my idea, she introduced me to a book by Edgar Bianueva that formed a lot of my early thinking about the concept. The book is called decolonizing wealth, indigenous wisdom to heal, divides, and restore balance a book I highly recommend you all, read it outlines 7 steps that culminate in using resources of money and access as medicine to heal and repair the past hurts and current, unfair and unbalanced structures. Tenaya then assembled a group of indigenous artists for our 1st conversation in December 2020. Many of them then became the founders of what they later established as creative nations.

[12:02] The dairy then raised over $200,000 to renovate the corner of our building, to establish the creative nation's sacred space. plus promise to allocate $40,000 annually from our general operating fund help pay the program costs. During one of our meetings in the early years there was talk of forming their own 501 C. 3. But it was determined that they needed more time and support to build capacity before they felt prepared to strike out on their own. It has been 3 and a half years full of powerful exhibitions, native comedy showcases, arts, markets, concerts, dance performances, poetry, and play readings. In addition to money and space, we also shared our administrative experience and skills with regard to production, grant writing and finance. This program has recently become a model for other organizations across the country to establish similar types of opportunities for indigenous artists, such as Colorado Springs, Fine Arts Center, the Old Globe Theater in San Diego

[13:06] Center Theater in Los Angeles and the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. But for me the most poignant outcome is what what we gained as people in the process of working so closely together. We listened, learned, and laughed with one another, gaining wisdom and forming deep and lasting friendships. I stand before you to tell you all of this because it was extremely disheartening to all of us to listen to a conversation about our organization and our relationship with the creative nations that clearly indicated a misguided perspective formed from the outside, with no attempt to get to know us and our collective intentions with regard to creative nations. We are living in dangerous times in which the truth does not seem to matter anymore. Let us not get pulled into those urges. Our community is made up of artists and creatives with the capacity to envision and create what others cannot see or imagine yet, and what does not yet exist, we can and will continue to make change.

[14:12] I invite you all to join us in our continuing collective work for becoming a model of mutual respect. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that appreciate you taking the time I'm I'm sorry that personal conversations are having to be had through this medium. Do you have? If in the future. We, as commissioners, have the types of questions you've heard coming up? as long as we're not in a blackout period around. Glance scoring. Is there any particular way that you would encourage us to reach out to the dairy? Or I think I think, for anyone frankly.

[15:05] You know, when when people are talking about an organization, and a question comes up, and they don't really know the answer. And it's sort of well, I think it's this. I think it's that, you know, I maybe the conversation can be closed momentarily until someone finds out the answer. I think that would help, you know, because decisions. I see decisions then getting made without those questions being fully addressed. I don't logistically know that would work, but I think that would help the entire branch of process. Thank you. Thank you. And since I do know that you're talking about me, I'll let you know that I did actually speak with both leaders of creative nations. The man that was there during the murdered and missing indigenous women project, who was employed at the time. I spoke with him on several occasions, and I did speak with the woman, young woman that was there last fall.

[16:03] Excellent up. Next we have awesome and Tabet. okay? And maybe just let me know if there's 15 seconds left 15 seconds, I'll give you a 15 second. Alright. Hello! My name is Osman Parvez. I've been a resident in boulder since 2,005, and I have a business in Boulder, and I've been on the board of the dairy since 2,000 2,021, and I grew up in upstate New York, where I definitely experienced racism of all kinds and things that hurt very deeply in my life, and I could share with you that as a board member of the dairy there is no way at all. I would participate for the last few years if I had ever seen any sort of racist expression or intent of racism within the community that I've been serving at the dairy. So I came here to share that of my own personal lived experience as a board member of the dairy and as a person of color, and someone who has experienced racism very personal, and I know what that feels like, and I know what it looks like, and if I had seen it even once at the dairy I would not be serving.

[17:23] and that's all I wanted to share with this for today. Thank you for sharing more hands the last signed up for tonight is Maria Vinc. Good evening, everyone my name is Gaia Binet, and I stand before you as a board member and as a secretary of the dairy yard center, and I wanted to voice my unwavering support for the dairy. As we know, the dairy has been the cornerstone of creativity and cultural enrichment since its transformation in 1992

[18:06] the dairy provides diverse opportunities to engage in high quality performances, cinematic and visualized experiences. If you haven't been, please come and please enjoy all the wonderful things that the dairy has to offer. Recent claims regarding the exclusion of indigenous voices and farm mismanagement by the dairy art center are completely false. The dairy has always been committed to inclusivity, supporting indigenous voices. and through initiatives like creative nations, which provides a platform for indigenous artists. allegations that the dairy has somehow misused creative nations. Grant money are completely unfounded. The dairy maintains rigorous accounting practices and transparency detailed reporting on grants received, and they very specific uses can be provided. We have records showing active communication and collaboration with creative nations concerning brands.

[19:00] The Dairy Arts Center meets the financial and organizational requirements necessary for being a 501 c. 3. Entity demonstrating competence in managing and dispersing funds appropriately. We've just been for a major audit. If you've been to an audit. You know you don't get a clean certificate without having all your finances in order. So any assertions questioning their credibility are completely basis plans for creative nations to operate independently, have been in progress for some time, supported by the dairy, reflecting our commitment to fostering community growth comments, questioning Marty, who is the managing director of Creative Nations. Any comments questioning his ability to lead creative nations are both insulting and inaccurate. Marty has demonstrated strong leadership and resilience, and if you haven't met him, I believe he was here doing it came and presented, but any chance to meet him personally is welcome. The Dairy art center remain dedicated to transparency, inclusivity, and responsible management of resources, ensuring that every single voice is heard and valued. Thank you so much.

[20:07] Thank you. Thank can't seem to. Why do I never can't holder parts? Are you connected to the Internet? Yes. great. Let me see just a moment. Thank you. To everybody who came from the dairy, and for your service on the board of directors, and I just wanted to open the floor. If anybody had any direct questions about what was specifically what was stated here. I was a little confused about your comments about. There was some allegations of misuse of funds. Don't recall that being part of any conversation.

[21:06] or or that Marty was not capable of leading creative nations. I don't remember you, you can answer, go ahead. Oh, if you would come back up to the front of the room. I am paraphrasing here because I don't have the transcription for me. So that was to address. 2 points. One was in response to the comment that you made again, I'm paraphrasing, which said that the way the way the dairy sort of functions in these grants is that they give a little bit of money to the organization, and the rest is to keep the lights on and I think you said, to keep the lights on which is not accurate. And that's how the Grant process works. I mean right, you know, and I know that you submit for a grant, and every single dollar has to be accounted for. So we're not doing some sort of a 60, 40 split where we're taking money from you and giving it to salary and things like that. There are specific funds for that and the second

[22:11] was, I think, somebody brought up in the last meeting, and I don't remember who's saying that you met with Marty. He came by. You give this very impression speech about the creative nations and And I think once again I'm paraphrasing. And you said, well, it seems like, well, this is the the classic sort of definition of systemic racism where you know. somebody of color comes by and is being used as sort of a puppet to to speak on behalf of an organization, and is somehow being manipulated. And again, I'm paraphrasing, so it may not be accurate. We may have to go back to the Transcript to pull what? Exactly you said. So that's what I'm referring to here. Okay, I would definitely recommend that you go back because well, I have no way. I am no way do that. Yeah, because I don't know Martin well enough to say to decide whether he's capable of doing anything, and I would never say that I'm sure there's a transcript that we can review. So.

[23:10] Carolyn, yeah, I'd like to accept the invitation of Melissa and others to go over and learn more and meet and do we do that as a group, or as individuals? Or what's the right? What's the next step? Well, if it's going to be more than just a couple of us, it would need to be as a scheduled open meeting. So so what's the what's the best way? I mean, no, it's okay. I'm just thinking. When it is an open scheduled meeting, you have to have minutes and things and an agenda that's published. It's a formal process to have a group of you together. So I would recommend maybe groups of 2. I don't know how much time. Sorry. That's kind of like here. Could you take 8 groups. Can I ask where the microphone is this month? More eyes on the last couple of meetings, and I will make sure that everyone's being heard and knowing where and how to speak.

[24:20] Thank you. I'd be interested in going with you if you'd like, and and if other people are interested, maybe we can pair up and reach out. I'm interested as well. I'm interested. Yeah. see? A lot of nods? Yeah, sure great. So I can help connect you to if you need or connect it to each other. You can't email each other about scheduling things just. And if anyone wants Marty cell number, I have that. So you can actually coordinate with him so he could actually give you a personalized tour. I'm happy to do that through Melissa. and second.

[25:00] a rick moving on commission business land acknowledgement updates. I've been speaking with my colleague, Phil, who's 1 of the primary contacts for the Tribal Council, wonderful and excellent, and has a really really thoughtful history about working with tribal council in the City of Boulders. Kind of longer history. so he and I are talking ongoing about what it means to do an update. So thank you. Caroline and Georgia and Maria for like kind of hanging in there. Why, I'm talking to him about everything, because it does seem like it might be a bigger city discussion. It might. It is certainly a bigger discussion with him, and travel, and other members of staff. Not just about the land acknowledgement, but just to help us all learn about the history of indigenous peoples in this area and what that means to be an Arts Commissioner in relation to like this relations that we have. So thank you all for your patience. I'm working on it, but I will give any updates as soon as we have them for timing, for meeting all that excellent thanks.

[26:09] And then I do know that we're working on the interim plan for the cultural plan. Did you have any? Oh, sure. So we hope to. In the next couple of months start building out our year-long cultural planning. But we're going to be calling it a blueprint, the boulder blueprint for the next 1920 years. So I look forward to working with all of you on it very intimately, and everybody in the audience, and everybody listening now or later. As soon as we have any. Thank you for asking as soon as we have any information, and I will be sharing with you, because I expect to have everybody in this room help us out. Thank you. Great. Okay. Any other commission business page? Alright, liaison updates and other topics from the community. Do any of the commissioners have liaison updates or anything fun that you saw going on in the community.

[27:05] we usually have so many. I I was gonna defer to you because you always start the dog. I can't remember if I updated this last time. But Bemoka has a fantastic show. Now, if you all have not seen that go see that? One of their artists did a talk the other night I can't remember which night. Sorry, and I guess there was 126 folks that attended so great attendance and a lot of excitement around that show. The movement towards the North Boulder campus that's still ongoing and considering a lot of there's 60 architects. So a lot of architect submissions. So that's gonna be fantastic. And something I forgot to mention that happened not this month, but the previous month I went to a concert with a youth orchestra. I was a house concert which all of you, if you get a chance to go to a house concert, fantastic. So youth, orchestra, boulder, youth, orchestra, and boulder Phil. And

[28:01] there are some really talented young people in this community in Boulder Field as well, had a visiting artist, and just the synergy between a visiting artist and a young emerging artist was fantastic. I think we're going to see this young artist go places great great things going on principle. I went to an event at the dairy, which is classic films brought to us by a gentleman called Jeff Cats cash, and it is if you don't have a haven't had a chance to go to that series yet it's so fun. It's like, the research and commentary that you add to it just really. and getting to see it on the big screen and getting to have that sort of historical context on the production side is so much fun. So I highly recommend that

[29:07] friendly reminder everyone. The Shakespeare Festival is up and running they have the Scottish play plane right now and then. They have another show opening in July. They are all indoors, as the Marion Rippon Theater is being renovated as part of the renovation to the 1921 building that surrounds it. Both this year and next year, and when we went to get tickets several weeks in advance there were very few left for the performance we were looking. So if you do plan to go. Please get on that list and get those now also Colorado Music Festival. Not sure who their liaison is. I'm I've become very involved with them Colorado Music Festival. I'm trying to remember who their liaison is, I don't think, anyway, they've got their season coming up at Chautauqua. I did not experience it. Please do that. Went to movers and Shakers at the dairy this past week

[30:20] which is one of their new fundraisers, been reintegrated since the pandemic, and they were back to 2017 numbers with the attendance. Great see! So many community leaders and a lot of arts leaders there, as well as a lot of folks from their various committees and board members. Modis theater has a full summer schedule. Unlike a lot of theater companies that aren't summer specific events. Make sure you check out their programming they're doing. During the classic Film series I got to visit the Naacp, which is doing their Gpt event at the dairy also, and got to see some some lovely friends there that are involved with that. So it was

[31:05] a busy few weeks. This is kind of old, because I wasn't here last month, but I went to Betsy's mad librarians improv show. and it was my child's 1st impression. I love info, and I was very happy, but she also loved it, and she's like, Let's go again. Let's go again. and so we will look to see. I'm not sure what the rest of this number schedule is, but I do recommend it for all ages. It was really fun, and Betsy does have their following season already published out there. They've got a really exciting season ahead. I saw Orlando's the Lightning Thief, Jackson. Musical. It was great. It was so good. And then the that was also the dairy. The spark has a summer concert opening this Friday, and I think the last day is July 7.th I think they're doing layman's songs. So yeah.

[32:07] And then John Carroll defer to you. I was, gonna say, I promise I will get out of my own space. Yeah, I mean, there's a ton happening right now with kind of the the heat of the summer. But Saturday we're hosting rock about inequities. Big fundraiser. Queer circus is one of my favorite events of the year. let's say, what else is coming up. We just had the Boulder comedy festival sold out night of the Boulder comedy festival last week. queer comedy festival is coming up at the end of this summer, but already starting to help them review some of their applications for that. Yeah, I'll come with a more prepared list next time. I bet Bruce was Colorado Music Festival

[33:09] that makes sense cool. Anybody else. Okay, moving on to the public art program. Nice thing over here so they can sit down there together. Sorry while you're eating. I like that nice and casual. Sorry everybody's second. That's right there today. Everybody. since we've got an update from public art. So we're excited to share a few fun and interesting things, and then Rachel and I will kind of walk you through progress support for our collection audit project. Brendan picker, Mahoney public art program manager. Hi, I'm Rachel King, with more sky, less ceiling, doing your public art public art. Yay, we had great discussions about that last month, so I'll talk about 3 calls for art that are open right now for the Western City campus. We have a dedication event at the New Novo Library on Saturday morning. Installation planning is happening for the North Broadway Public Art Project, and then we also have some downtown public art tours.

[34:23] So our 3 h rf, queues are open until Friday this Friday, June 28, th at 1159 pm. We have one call for Colorado artists. It's a 2D call for work in the Stairwell and elevator lobby. That's a hundred $1,000 budget. We have an international call for outdoor sculptures for the plaza of the Western City Campus building, and that budget is $300,000, and we have an international call for 2 suspended artworks for the lobby and the atrium. The atrium is in the parking garage, and the lobby is at the western to the campus building, and that budget is $450,000. So those calls again. They clothing

[35:02] 2 days. But I think you all received an email from Lauren. The art selection panel has been shared with them a month ago. So we're really excited. We're getting some good turnout for those calls. And are those listed through cafe. They're also linked from our website. And the monthly emails that are coming from the newsletter hasn't mentioned them. Correct. Yep. And they're on social media. So follow us on Instagram. Alright! So we have a dedication event this Saturday. The artwork is called Nuages by daily to La Jolla at the new noble library. The event starts, the event opens at 10 Am. But the actual dedication ceremony begins at 11 am. So it's a it's a public opening. It's a grand opening for the library and the artwork is an interactive musical work. As you walk up the ramp to the upper entrance to the library. So come, check out this amazing artwork, meet the artists. And see the new library.

[36:04] We are planning for installation for the North Broadway Public Art Project. The artist name is Sharon Dowell. She's working with a local fabricator in Denver. They will also be installing the artwork. We're getting our permits ready, and planning the installation for August. It includes 2 bus shelters in in North Boulder, along North Broadway, and also the railings across the kind of the underpass right near Violet Park, right near the Novo Library, and then also another little kind of gateway project. As you enter the North Broadway art district. And then finally. thanks to all of Jake's help, we have guided public art tours that actually started this past Saturday. There's actually a tour happening right now as we speak, they're probably just getting to the end of Pearl Street Mall, or maybe Pacific area. We have 2 amazing docents leading public art tours. Right now. They're scheduled on Saturdays at 11 and Wednesdays at 5 30 we might

[37:08] alter those top those start times. We might actually split the tour towards getting some feedback. And we're just kind of adjusting as we need to go. So to make sure that it's enjoyable for everybody. But the tour is about an hour and a half long. You'll see part works along Pearl Street, Mall, and in the civic area, and that's the QR code to get to our page. It's about a mile and a half total. I'm sorry I should have looked at the page. But is there access ability for access for visually impaired, or language? If somebody needs if somebody needs like a sign language interpreter. We can. We can request that it's not. It's not on every tour, but as needed. We can try to request that from the city we're also working on a self guided tour. That could be, you know, that could be screen reader, type of Thingova. Our singers have that proposal for kind of a walking self guided tour. Yeah, so they might have

[38:13] the no bar singers personal. The singers. Thank you. Yeah. Sorry. But they might at least have technology or have a contact for technology. They were doing that from the park last summer. Right? Yeah. Talk to him over there. Tim Brody. okay, yeah. And finally, we'll jump into our public. Our collection audit update. Again, we hired Rachel Kane. Let's see, it's been about 6 months since we've been working on this project. So this was this came out of the accessible signage plan. We have some fun set aside to create new signage for all the artworks. But before we could create signage for all the artworks, we had to figure out exactly which artworks we have in the collection, and where they all are and how they got there. So that's what we've been working on. Rachel has been amazing. We also have Rachel Deneki, who's a CEO Boulder grad student assisting with some writing and research. And Jake and I, of course, are always there to help out, too, so

[39:20] I'll let Rachel take it away. And we. If you have questions, we'll just wait till the end of the presentation. I think we'll answer most of your questions along the way. But feel free at the end, to to jump in with any questions about them. The process we're going through. Thanks. Yeah. It's so fun to see new projects. cause I have had my brain in old projects for so long for the last 6 months. And so, seeing what's happening is really very exciting. Okay, next slide, please. So we originally started. I started this work with 340 potential objects. So we thought there was a collection of 340 pieces for the city of Boulder. Excellent! 340 and then we decided to create a criteria for what we were going to include in the audit. So that was basically 3 different things that had to be owned by the city of Boulder.

[40:13] which does not mean that it's privately owned. or it does not mean that it was created by a nonprofit who just left it on city property. So it must be owned by the city of Folder. 1st and foremost, it has to have minimum data points, which means we need to know who created it. We have to have an artist name. If we don't created it, we can't do any research. We can't look for any documentation. We can't find a contract. So minimum data points like hopefully, this thing has also a title which would be great. But really, artist name is 1st and foremost, yeah, I mean minimum. And that's that's why it's minimum, like we can do a lot with a little bit. But we do need something. And then, 3rd is physical presence. There are a lot of pieces that are cataloged, that I was given information about that actually don't exist anymore, or nobody knows where they are, or

[41:06] there's any number of reasons why they don't exist anymore. So physical presence is important also because you can't document a piece if it doesn't exist. Let's see. So then here's the breakdown of what was actually included, or what I've included in the audit. The library actually owns 206 pieces out of the 340. Yeah, that's a big chunk. Yeah, because the Arts Department used to be under the library. Or is it more connected with the physical library? I think there's. And we also might not. Okay. So then from to the left, there, there are 43 pieces not included because they either didn't have the minimum data points. They weren't physically present, or they weren't owned by the city

[42:07] which leads us to the 3rd high. There private. There were 11 pieces that I've got 340 that are actually privately owned. Several of them were on the Pearl Street Mall. You might be familiar with them, which leaves parks with 41 transportation, with 29, and arts and culture with 7 lips. So that's 79 objects owned by the city of Border out of 340. So from there we created criteria for how we're defining public art, because, as you notice, on the previous slide, some of these pieces were commissioned or created, acquired from parks for transportation and various other city departments. So how do we define public guard versus something like urban design, or benches or shade structures. So this is the criteria that we decided to use for defining public art completion. Date has a lot to do with. When the public policy was created in 2,018. So anything before that is automatically not part of the arts and culture process because it didn't exist. Yet

[43:11] really very simple. Provenance has everything to do with. Can can we find evidence about how this thing was created, how it, how it came to be, and how it came to be here in this place, and assumed to be part of the city's assets. 3.rd One intention has everything to do with again, whether the Creator decided to call this piece art, or they decided to call this piece physical enhancement to a playground or something. So what was the intention of the Creator. Is it supposed to be art, or is it supposed to be something else? And then, again, process has a lot to do with the public. Our process, public, are in my. in my definition of the thing. Public art is the process. The art is yes, you have evidence of the physical thing left in the world. But the art is the process by which that thing was created. And so, if there hasn't been a public process by which this thing came to be? It's probably not public art. Does that make sense? Okay.

[44:16] and then documentation. If if we can't find any information about things. It's really hard to decide what to do with it. So we're still teasing that apart contracts with an artist maintenance plans. other prominence information. Yeah. And so it's also the documentation describes how it came to be, and also how the owner intends to maintain it so that it can continue to be an asset for the city, if you can't maintain it, falls into disrepair, becomes untenable, and it becomes unsafe. And it's not no longer an asset to the city. It's a liability. So you need to have the documentation so you can take care of it. And then unique circumstances. Like every once in a while something will happen where there's maybe a piece that's has none of the rest of that, but is incredibly valuable because of who created or it's impossible to move because of where excited, or it's a piece that was

[45:14] created with the intention of not being in existence for more than 10 years. So it doesn't make sense to include it for financial reasons. So unique circumstances are the the one off things that we also need to consider which there are only 2. So the the never ending debate between public art versus urban design. The 2 images on the side are 2 pieces and boulders. Collection that left side. Yes. that are public art. The pieces on the right side are what we consider to be urban design. So Top left, you have pilot navigator. It was created by an artist with the intention of being an art piece in the public place.

[46:01] There was a commissioning process around it, and it's freestanding, and it's maintained where it is perfectly. It's kinetic, and it still moves, which is fantastic. And that one actually. And there's documentation around it, which is how we know right that it was adopted. Yeah. And then, 55 degrees on the bottom left. I assume that everybody understands that process pretty well. Top right is a retaining wall. And then it's great. It's also urban design and not public art. It's it's connected to a utility for the city. It's also it serves a purpose for infrastructure. Not fundamentally as an artist. So you can have artistic elements integrated into city infrastructure. But again, in terms of the artist intention, this is a retaining wall. 1st and foremost, that has an artistic element added to it. It wasn't created to be our first, st and then the bottom right is a

[47:00] bus stop. It's a bus. It's a bus shelter. It's it's interesting as a piece of metal fabrication. But again, the intention was for it to be a bus shelter, not a piece of artwork. So we consider that to be urban design, so just in terms of education around public art and nomenclature, as we move forward with this. Next we'll talk about urban design again. But just so that you have that context. So from the parks and Rec sort of sub collection of 41 pieces. I'm recommending that we adopt 20 sculpture, and then one mosaic etching watercolor and one relief. So that's almost half their collection we're hoping to adopt from them. Are you gonna talk about? Is it appropriate to talk about? Why, what criteria goes into that recommendation? Or, yeah, okay, yeah. So this is, this is a visual example of some of the pieces from parks that we're anticipating adopting. So you can see there's different sculptures. There's mosaic. There's a piece that's suspended from the ceiling, different material, different ages. They may or may not be familiar to you as commissioners, but they're out in the world. So, considering adopting them, what did you say? Yeah. So let me let me. Can we go back one side

[48:16] the city's parks and Rec. Department owns 41 artworks. Therefore their department is responsible for commissioning, creating, purchasing those pieces that exist in Perks. Right? So the Parks department is well suited to maintain parks, and they've been doing the maintenance of art up until now. And now it's time for us, as the Arts and Culture Department, to take those works from them so that we can make sure that they're maintained properly, and we can make sure that they get the signage that you all want them to have, so that people can understand that their public dollars went to go pay for those pieces that are in public spaces. And I'll mention this all. Still a work in progress, so these numbers might change a little bit, and we still have to have conversations with several different city departments to

[49:05] make our offer, but I think it's with to a funding coming. This is part of our our kind of mandate is to really start to care for the art, and in a real way. I think in the past it's always been that other city departments can look to us for some guidance with maintenance. but in terms of like actually caring for these artworks. This is our goal is to say, Hey, this is a formal we're offering to formally adopt these. Make this official make this a real city decision, so that it's clear to everybody who's responsible for what. And I'm assuming we're going to get to a reserve study, so that we know how much to have set aside for future care of existing. That's actually probably part of our blueprint. Yeah, so. But all the artworks you saw on the previous slide. Those are parks, you know, owned by parks and recreation, but they kind of met our criteria for public art. There's an artist name attached to it. There's a title.

[50:02] There's some sort of. There's some data points in terms of like documentation how the piece got to be there. And, as you can see, they're kind of, they are artworks that can live on their own as that works, and not as urban design, or some sort of other enhancement or decorative purpose. Spend a lot of time on that dog. You're doing well with it. Yeah, taking good care. And here's a graphic representation of what we're hoping to adopt from transportation. So 10 sculptures. And then 4 pieces of urban design. And again, as Brendan said, it's a work in progress. This is not like a set in stone definitely going to happen. Kind of thing. But here's 3 examples of where we're headed. Yeah, we're hoping to adopt from transportation.

[51:00] find an artist, we can find a title. We can find some documentation that we think makes it an actual public artwork and which we could maintain the cities. So when we anticipate the makeup of our collection for boulder. When this is all said and done, this is what it might look like. So mostly sculpture. And then we have a couple of other things. different materials, but by and large lots of sculpture, which is great. Yeah. I'll hold my question. Sorry? I'll take note. Yeah. Okay, so next steps, as Brendan said, conversations with parks and Rec. Health and human services and transportation. These are the departments that have, like, I said, commissioned, acquired, or otherwise purchased art that's owned by the city. They may or may not be maintaining these pieces. They may or may not have the budget to do that they may or may not necessarily know specifically how to do that.

[52:05] So there's a lot of conversations around around that whole question. Physical inventory is also part of it, too. As I mentioned, physical presence is a requirement for adoption. So if these pieces can't be found, they can't be adopted, which means physical inventory is an ongoing sort of Ritz and repeat kind of thing. And then after that we'll do updates to the behive database and then import the collection to the public art archive. Those are more database nerdy zone that I love but the beta the hive database is a database that Brendan will use to manage the assets of the city. And all the information that we're collecting will live in at the hive database, and will be accessible to different departments, so that people can understand what works are, in what place and all the information that we're collecting can be available to the people of the city. And then the Public Art Archive is an online national database that public art works from hundreds of collections.

[53:06] But I may or may not have started. Yeah. And I'll just mention that the be have database is actually a citywide asset management tool. So all city departments use it for light posts, parking meters. You name it. It's in that database that we want to make sure that our public art works are in the database and updated, and all the fields are filled. So then, the next steps, you know, after we kind of populate the Beehive and Public Art Archive is to go back to our accessible signage plan, implement that plan. Take the 40 something artworks. Make sure that our signage is consistent. And then back to your point, Jesse, to make a maintenance plan for the collection, and really visit each work and assess what the needs are for those pieces and then start to put people to work to make any repairs. So yeah, now, open for questions.

[54:02] Yeah. So 1st question. help me understand? so parks and recreation, for example, there's a subset that you are recommending that we take over are the remainder that are staying with them. Those are are things that you wouldn't necessarily define as public art. Is that difference? Some good examples of those would be again on Pearl Street, Mall. There's a couple like there's the huge granite rock that's split in half. So Parks and Rec considers that public art we don't. There's no artist name attached to it. There's no title. From what we can tell there's no records. 0 records on that piece. Well, from what we can tell is that Parks went to the quarry. Splitter Rock installed it, and kind of made like a placemaking element along Press Street Mall, which is great, and we think it's fabulous that it's there, and people really enjoy it. But we don't consider that public art, and that's not something that we would want to maintain.

[55:02] and it probably doesn't need maintenance either. Right? So you're going to describe it to people, and there's no need to maintain it. So why go through all of that, George, and probably knows the exact history of it. So those are some examples of works that we would say, Hey, parks? And Rec. These are these are works that you bought or commissioned or placed. and if you need help with some maintenance, if you have maintenance questions, if you need referrals, if you need some guidance on maintenance of other works. We're happy to help with that. But in terms of making of a formal. you know, discrete, public or collection that is maintained by our office. This is, that's this is the path we're we're at now. And can I just add one more thing to, and likewise as an example, from transportation. There are several tile murals around town that were created by school children. 0 documentation, and those pieces were never intended to be permanent. Right? There's not really anything you can do to maintain them, to extend the life of those pieces.

[56:08] They're going to be chipped, the pains going to Peel. There's not really anything you can do about it. So my recommendation is to have transportation. Keep those pieces, maintain them as they are, as part of the infrastructure that they're attached to and not adopt them, because there's not really a way that you can maintain them, and you don't have any idea who created them. So you can't recreate them to actually repair that that I have a question. Is there any anticipation of contentiousness like with going to parks America transportation like do they want? Do they want us to have it? Do they not want us to have preliminary conversations with transportation and parks? Transportation is kind of understands where we're coming from, I think. And I think that they appreciate that we want to really help with maintenance. They also understand that a lot of their their works are are not public art, and that they wouldn't expect us to maintain a lot of the infrastructure that

[57:07] has enhancements on it. Parks and Rec, I think there's much less documentation in parks and rec transportation. At least, there's some documentation that we can look at that will help inform our conversation, whereas Parks and Rec. It's there's a lot missing. So I think the conversation is going to be a little bit more gray in terms of who is best responsible for caring for some of these artworks, but I don't think it's going to be contentious. I think it's we're we're we're making an offer, and if you know sound to be wrong. I don't think so. I think it's about education honestly like when we talk to them about how it's going to benefit their department, to have a different department maintain the works that they're spending hopefully, that they're spending their budget to do. I don't know why they would say no to us, adopting them, I think, as it stands right now, they're they don't know what it means. And so the conversation is really starts from the place of education.

[58:03] Yeah, I was gonna ask, how many of these departments did you go to and say I were taking inventory of art? And this is your art that you are currently maintaining, and how how many of them were surprised going? Oh, really! And then, of course, just kind of as a recap of what we discussed with the the gals who kind of put together kind of a gap year stuff we were talking about, you know, potentially there being one year where we're not commissioning new stuff instead, putting together a a reserve for maintenance. And then, whatever the budget is for public art going forward, putting 20 sub. 20 each year aside, adding to that reserve for an ongoing maintenance for whatever has been commissioned. And and that's part of what's that's part of why, it's important to to understand that the works that are that are adopted into the collection are going to require ongoing maintenance. Right? So it's

[59:10] it's important that the that the city have a view. In in my opinion, it's important that the city have a viewpoint that we're trying to collect pieces that are assets to the community and assets to the city, not. We want to collect everything we can possibly get our hands on. because, as the pieces age, they're going to need more maintenance, and they're going to require a budget to do that, and so not adopting pieces that are going to constantly need repairs is part of the conversation as well. Part of the consideration, I think. The 1st opening statement was talking about 300. Was it 300. 4,340. I remember that number, and I thought, Well, that's going to be daunting. But this seems much more manageable, and the ability to adopt makes more sense. When we're not talking about adding to 340, we're adding to a much smaller number, which is a perfect transition to just I just to clarify my own mind the original pie piece. I don't know if you want to pull it up, but there was like, I think, 7 pieces that were in arts and culture to begin with. So we're talking about adding to that specific okay.

[60:13] which we would be, yeah, those 7 are pieces that were either donated to the collection or commission since 20 or since 2,018, which is when the public art policy was enacted. So those actually went through an official public art process. officially part of the public art collection, where we want to add certain artworks that meet our criteria so that we can call this the City of Boulder public art collection, and we maintain it and promote it. Any other questions. Well, I don't if I also would love to hear what Matt was going to say about the library. Oh, yeah, library. That's fascinating.

[61:06] So, starting in the I believe in the 19 nineties. There's an addition to the Grant Program agreements where, if a grant was given by the Boulder Arts Commission for Visual Arts Project, we that must include the return of a piece of artwork to the library as part of that agreement. And so the library built up a very large 2 dimensional collection that was intended for display in the library as sort of a residual to the grant and in as they stopped doing it after a while, because it was a terrible idea. We removed it officially from the Grant program, 2,015, so that large number is really around the residue of that old Grant practice. They're still with the library leverage. We're being well taken care of by the water district most recently.

[62:01] but there, there are important works in there for library. So we've been in contact with them. Yeah. And I'll add to that, you know, I'm still in conversations with the library, and if they have. there's there's a handful of pieces that Matt and I have looked at that we would say, Hey, if the library wants to donate this to the city public art collection. We would be open to that to, you know, accepting those donations, displaying them publicly. So that that might happen. don't. Lauren? I think you've had a question a couple of just statements 1st of all. Thank you both so much for your hard work. This is a ton, and we all very much appreciate it. Staff and I think the taxpayers, too, like if we zoom out, we want to be sure that the works that we have and see around town are like, well taken care of, like, let's zoom out and make sure that we're taking care of things that have been paid for by text. Right? The other piece I'm really excited about is the access piece, like I really excited to get our signage to look good, to connect, to have, like other languages, accessible with it, all kinds of other fun things.

[63:07] I wanted to ask about. We keep saying adoption, and that's adoption by the Arts Commission. Right? So do. You have a sense of, and you don't have to. But you have a sense of when that might be, or like what that would look like hoping before the end of the year. Yeah, to come back to you all with like a list of the artworks and images that maybe we do just pull the boat to accept this chunk of art into the city public argument, the official city public. Can we have an event. an adoption party puppies, an adoption party? Yes, yes. The last thing is, I just wanted to bring up, because thank you very much for talking about the one year. Bridge short term needs assessment that the consultants did recommend that we continue with this, that we be sure that we have funding for maintenance, and that would be from the culture arts, culture heritage tax funding. But we do still have funds for commissioning from the percent for art funds from the Ccrs tax. If you all know about those taxes, so there are other funds to work.

[64:15] will have funding to do other commissions right? And so this is. This would be specifically me maintaining funds that are from like our office fund. So that's what we're talking about. Add to that. I I don't think we'll stop commissioning our part public art just right. If the capital project is moving forward, we got kinda yeah, yeah. If we're adopting, we'll we'll take care of those ones, and then we'll continue to commission through an official public art process with the 1% policy. And then, once we have the the full inventory, we'll have like a score of one to 5 or a toe. Just kind of score what condition they're in. Currently, you know what? What? Rolling? Yeah, okay, perfect. Probably half the collection one year and half to twice the other.

[65:02] Cool. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having me come back anytime soon. Great alright, Lauren. try and follow that up. No photos. So we have a couple items in the Grants program this evening. The arts, the Arts Education project grants. commissioners have the option to approve the staff recommendation for the highest scoring grants to prove individual grants, or to post approval of individuals attending answers to specific questions. I will show here that we have the top scoring, or in blue darker blue, with the line and then the motion, but the recommended motion language. I pulled out gender social clubs recommendation so you can step away whenever we get there.

[66:08] but I will open it back, or I'll give it back to the chair in case you're gonna have any sort of discussion or anything. Sure. If you, I think what we can do is put the motion language up, and if we'd like to make a motion on the 1st Chunk. and then we can have any discussion that's necessary. Or if anybody feels like they'd like to pull any of those out for discussion. We can do that at this stage I'd like to pull out the dairy art center so like to make a motion for the rest first, st sure with the motion for the rest of the can you have to read it? Oh, please, I recommend, oh, I move that the catamarans, Colorado, Shakespeare Festival, the Cultural Caravan Boulder, International film, festival boulder, Philharmonic orchestra, open studios, boulder, opera and Luna culture, art, science and culture for thriving communities be awarded, grants and arts, education projects.

[67:12] Second, second, okay, does anybody have any discussion in those all in favor? All opposed? Right? So we have a motion that carries without any discussion. Is there anything you want to add to this disagree with pulling the dairy center up. So okay, we'll we'll talk about that next. Okay, so that motion carries, and then we'll have a separate motion for the dairy. somebody. My name is at the Dairy Art Center. Be awarded a grant in the Arts Education Project, friends, Category. second script

[68:01] and discussion. So move. So I just wanted to give Jeffrey the opportunity to refuse your vote. I believe there's a conflict of interest. Jeffrey, when you took on the role for to be on the board at the dairy as an Arts Commissioner, you stated that you said we're all friends. We all know each other. We've worked together before. And I believe, correct me if I'm wrong. You've been on the board at the dairy before, so that would mean that you have a finance. You have vested a financial interest in the dairy last month when Jeffrey I don't know how to pronounce it, Mitch, when Jeffrey Mitch came in and spoke, and he the next day sent an email to all of us which we have, and it's in the

[69:01] packet. Jeffrey Cash took that email and forwarded it to the dairy. Can I interrupt for a moment, and just on a point of order in terms of the conflict of interest, the actual. the actual rules. Because I know that you have recently spoken to the the legal department about it. So I'd like to. If if we have a question about a conflict of interest, make sure that this discussion is within the scope of what that role is the 2 points that I mentioned. One is that as a Commission Arts Commission appointee, it's not a conflict of interest, because we're asking you join a board, and the same for the 2 other board appointments that we have right. The other pieces, if you're financially, fiscally responsible for an organization like sorry example, but as director of an organization you would ask for to recuse

[70:06] that being said, like all of us, have connections throughout. So like throughout the arts community. So it's very. I know it's very tough. And we're all making decisions about organizations that we have friends that are connected with. But for that reason the legal interpretation, as I understand it, is that it's when you have a vested financial interest in the organization. So if you are going to be paid by the funds that the Gary will receive to do this grant specifically. or, if you're like working at the dairy, then you should. And that's for anybody. Right. If you're going to make money somehow from this grant, you shouldn't. So within that context, I just want to make sure that your comments. Yes, I and I knew that from before, because, having been on that board, and I've asked this question before, yeah, anyways, Jeffrey meet. I don't know. Niche

[71:02] sent the email, Jeffrey cash ticket and sent it to the dairy, saying. Please see attached. There were remarks presented at the beginning of last night's Arts Commission meeting by Jeffrey Meach. Please see his remarks below as well. He was the only member of public in person or online to speak on behalf of the blatant retaliation regarding our important vote. that folk vote failed the dairy or the dairy and creative nations. By one vote he happens to be my husband as well. There was a second email that was sent saying, Georgia attempted to expunge my husband's remarks from public record. Lauren click! But the city shut that down. My husband then responded forthwith, enjoy where it says he happens to be my husband as well. There's a smiley face, Wiki Emoji, so this again tells me that there's more than just a board relationship, that you are friends with

[72:00] the people on the board, and the people on the board are financially invested. And when I look at your scores I don't have them here, but you gave 4, 8 to the dairy and high scores on the last 2 like there was a 5 and a 4 so but so, and I just don't see anywhere else in your scoring where you give that many apes or anyone else. So I just I think your scores are weighted because of your friendships with the people on the board. Well, within the context of having to cruise myself. I this doesn't fit any of those categories. So I'm not gonna reach itself bricks any further discussion on that. Not at this time. I'm sorry. That's good. Yup. Any other discussion on the merits of serving this right? So we've had a motion, did we did the motion, and we've had a second.

[73:04] and so all in favor. all opposed recusing your stuff, or oh, no! Go in the post. Oh, let's do it again, all in favor. Okay, that's unique. Okay, thank you. So please. Thank you. She's not just a room. Yes, there's a conferencing background. Thank you. Okay. I move that junk, Garrett social Club be award a grant in the Arts. Education project grants category. Second. any discussion all in favor. madam. Great great.

[74:01] Thank you. Thank you everyone. thank you. Next, we have 2 grant reports. An artification project. Grant, Colorado festival. So And then the community project organizations grant from streetwise arts. These are the options that you have approve, all of them individual ones, individual reports while submitting questions. That's me sending the funds. And then I ask questions after postpone approval of individual reports, pinning any answers to questions or not with them, and cancel the final 20. It's alright open motion language. I move that we approve the Grant reports from Colorado, Shakespeare Festival and street wise arts.

[75:03] One second. any discussion other than that the numbers that they provide are just. It's just. It's wonderful to see the impact. I think the Shakespeare festival is doing really important. I think this is one of the biggest challenges in our society is mental health for young people. So I think this is a great program. I personally continue to be very impressed by streetwise, and their ability to take equity issues from not only the content of what they're working on, but through their staff and their organization to the students that they're working with, and I love the work they do. So. Okay, all in favor. Thank you. I'll be sure to share your comments in the recording. Thank you. Everyone matters from set. Oh, one more. Well, I guess it's matters. It's all the above. So instead of trying to email all of you all at once, I'm doing something out of

[76:05] out of the box here. But please get out your calendars. So I wanted to take like 3 min and thank you for understanding a reminder that our final review not score of the leadership pipeline will be in a couple of weeks. Land acknowledgement committee. We're still working on that it will be publicly noticed on, let all of you know. But the 2 things that we wanted to I wanted to get have you look at your calendars right now, because sending a million emails, is that right? Yes. And then we decided you So we want to do an equity leadership, power, dynamics talk about diversity, equity, inclusion, access, bias, systemic racism, all kinds of stuff with the incredible engagement team that we have from the city of boulder. We're building out like a 2 h workshop on a Friday. And I really wanted to do this before as we're in the reviewing the Grants program for next year. I think it's going to be really important that we have this in our minds as we talk about the Grant program coming up.

[77:10] so if I don't know how to do this, actually. But we can just briefly talk through what dates people have available out of these 3. Or if you want to email me with your dates, or if you I don't know, I didn't think this through, I was just like, Have everybody attention and their calendars. Well, let's see if there's any any of those that are definitely blackout dates for people. Okay, please. And thank you. Just so we get this Wednesday, July. I didn't have it. Thank you. So let's 1st talk about this. Friday, August 23, rd 30.th Do any of those dates work for you. It doesn't matter for me, but just to draw attention. That Friday, August 30, th is the Friday of Labor Day weekend. Oh, no, it's not. I expect you all to be partying. So I'll look at the 23rd or the 6.th What were you saying about 6 is my wedding day? I'll have cake. Yeah, it's more than it.

[78:16] Cause I know, if somebody had. yeah. would we be able to have a recording for people who are working? Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, we'll have to, I mean, in the best way possible. Yeah. I could do August 23, rd but would have to be remote. I I mean preferred in person. But of course, if that's what we have, I think it's important that we're talking about this and thinking about it while we're reviewing the Grant stuff. So thank you. And then let's yeah. And I'll send this out to everybody tomorrow to get on your very, very busy calendars. And then the retreat. So if any of these dates we usually do a 9 to 2. We'll have it at another location. We have piece of breakfast and lunch. We do all kinds of different activities and things.

[79:05] It's the best thing. And I do all year that If anybody has thoughts or concerns about this, just let me know. Otherwise we'll I'll send it out. interpreted. Oh, I didn't get there. Thank you for anybody watching a moment. Sorry out of town. Okay, that's different. Yep. okay, 18. Maybe I'll send you the saw on the retreat, but if you have these, keep them in mind, let me know. We just want to be sure that we have all of you in person, too possible, because it is. It is really interesting. And it's a great way for all of us to get talking about really important topics, right? And we do include a regular meeting as part of it. So it's part of that. We fold it into it. Yes, it's instead of the October meeting, which is like the 21st cool. Thank you. Everybody.

[80:06] Did you? I mean, I can do it, too. But did you happen to cross-reference this with any Jewish home. Oh, I will. or any other holidays, but personally sure, thank you. Thanks for that. I just know they're in October this year. Cool. Thank you. Everybody. okay. Boulder art suite update. Yes, I I we have. Everybody here today must have been this morning. Hello! Oh, hi! I finally remembered to put my name tag on. Thank you. Okay. So Hi, I'm Cindy Spooka. I am the manager of

[81:03] artists and venues, manager for office of arts and culture. And I also manage Boulder Arts week for the city. So I just want to give you a quick review and kind of like what we're looking at for the future for Boulder Arts Week, which celebrated its 11th year in 2,024 on the next slide. You'll see. Just a brief history like I said I just wanted to kind of give you all a sense for where this started, how it started how the city has been involved. So you can read through that. It was something that was brought to the city. The Office of Arts and culture from several of our cultural and other organizations that approach the city and said, Let's do this. Other places do it. We should definitely do it. So office parts and culture, said, Heck, yeah. we will fund that. And the next year Boulder Arts Week, or, as I like to call it bow was held

[82:04] and since the beginning it has been supported and funded by the City Office of Arts and Culture, Between 2013 and 2018 it was managed by an external consultant and in 2018 that switch to the city and our own lawn granite for a couple of years. so that's kind of where we are now, something that the city manages. But it's it's to kind of celebrate and support all of our arts organizations within the city. and and artists, too. So I'm gonna go over what happened this year and bow 2024 and basically what it's been sorry, Fuller. Lauren gives bow a thumbs down. So what we did in 2024 was was a continuation of what's been done in the past. So I ran it this year. It was my 1st year managing it. So we kind of went with

[83:03] what we knew from before was basically kind of like a rinse, and repeat what what previous managers had done with it. So this is just kind of some. Some comparison numbers between 2022 and 2024. Our number of business champions has gone up, which is really exciting. Business champions are are businesses. That kind of get involved, and we have a reciprocal relationship with them where they promote Boulder Arts week, and we promote their business. And if through social media, and by putting posters up and and giving them love in the limited ways that we can. Number of events. And that's events is kind of a misnomer. Those are number of programs because some of those are discrete events that, or like a series of events that happen multiple times during the week. So it's not it. There were actually more actual events. Those years. But those are like the numbers of programs that happens each year. So it's gone up since it started.

[84:07] Number of attendees is back kind of up to pre pandemic numbers. And this is a total estimate based on the data we collect from going out to some of the events, because we can't make it to all of them, obviously. And we have a slew of volunteers who go out and collect information, and then we extrapolate based on the number of events and the types of events and venues and capacity, and all that kind of stuff. So just so you have kind of like, an idea of what what happened. Here's some feedback we got from our participating artists and organizations. 75% of participating artists. Slash organizations believe that Walter Arts Week helps generate awareness of their events, so either said, agree or strongly agree that it helped their event. So that's awesome.

[85:00] nobody strongly disagree. Couple of people slightly disagree, and we'll kind of get into a little bit more detail, I think, on the next slide about that or a couple of slides later. 100 of participating artists agreed, or strongly agreed, that participating in Boulder Arts Week was a positive experience for them. So, even though they may not have thought that we brought them more people, they still appreciated the events and had a good time participating. and most of them 93 28. Plan on doing Boulder Arts week again in 2025. So that's exciting. okay. participating. Our organizations and artists seem generally pleased with the events. over 70% said that they felt like their participation boulder art Week helped generate awareness of their event. But we did receive some feedback from more than one participating artist or organization that

[86:03] they wish that it was more effective in bringing new people to their events. And so I got some feedback that some people said the only people that showed up were people that I already knew, and so like, what's the point of even participating, even though it's fun. You guys are great. one artist did write that as an artist who opened their studio during the week they felt invisible. So anyway, so we're we're gonna be, you know, that's we're going forward with those things in mind. Always wanna be improving so next slide, I believe we start. Oh, yes, just some quotes. So even though I there was that 166 number of of events. Some of them ended up being cancelled. Those were the ones that were that were planned for the week. So.

[87:03] as you all may remember, April 6th had that crazy windstorm and power outages and ever all the craziness. so that was just an issue that couldn't necessarily be helped. I mean, we can try to do as much as we can. But most of the most of the feedback was positive we did do some more signage this year. We had, like yard signs, kind of a la open studios that people were able to put out in front of their events, and I got to roam the streets, hosting them in places as well. And that seems to be a good thing. We also got big feather flags that we kind of like brought her into different events during the week. So attendee feedback over half of the people surveyed live in the city of Boulder, and all but a few live in Boulder County. which is not a bad thing. But if you're trying to reach new people, it's nice to see that we get. It's nice to see more people come coming from out of town

[88:05] and almost half planned on attending only one event during Boulder Arts week, which kind of which kind of goes to the the feedback that we heard that people only saw people that they already knew. So the artist or the organization invited them to their events. And they're like, Oh, yeah, I'm going to go to that event. And then when they filled out our survey or a questionnaire that we brought to them. They're like, Oh, this is like. Boulder, actually, huh? Oh, yeah, I guess that's a thing. But I'm only going with this thing. Question, yeah, do we market it outside of the city building? We do a bit. It's it's very regional. But that's something we're looking into. I mean, like I said. You know, improving each year is is my goal. And so that's something that we're looking into. the possibility of doing that in the future. And that comes soon. But even though people said that they only a lot of people only attended one event, 90, over 90 said, they'll come back. And if the people who said they wouldn't are people that had zip codes that were outside of

[89:10] Boulder or outside of Colorado, actually, and I think those people just happen to be in the city. More attendees surveyed than in previous years were unaware that it was Roller Arts Week. Granted it was only 4, but we did hear that people didn't hear about it. And this these, these ways that you hear about it. They kind of overlap. So word of mouth could have been from anybody. Email blast could have been the Boulder Arts Week email blast, or it could have been from the organization that put on the events directly from artist participants. Some people could have used word of mouth or eblast, or whatever, and social media could be from from different people who are hosting about it. So, but that's just good for us, for marketing purposes, to know where is the most effective way to reach people. I mean, if word of mouth is the best way. But it takes a lot of time and resources. So

[90:06] older arts week of the future. We're looking at some different options. One is like we did this year. Rinse and repeat, continue on the same path, do the all the same things that we've been doing in the past few years. Number 2 is Goldilocks adjustments? A little like incremental increase of of programming slash other good stuff. There has been, some talk about adding an awards component to Boulder Arts week, and it could be an event, or it could just be an awards. or maybe like it starts out as an award ranting of awards, and then grows to an event in the future. And then also adding, a year round. Presence on social media, I think, could really improve just kind of the the reach, so people will be constantly seeing it and and looking for it. So it's not just something that pops up every once in a while, or during a certain time of year. Along with that includes more

[91:09] more marketing kind of farther afield. And then tsunami transformation is just like crazy. Make it like, do it up awards. Event like the Oscars, create some curated program that we help manage like, print out a map. More printed media about all the stuff that's going on. More robust pro partnerships with local businesses, sponsorship, etc. So obviously, each increment or each level above rinse and repeat, involves more money. Because things cost money. So we're just looking. We're kind of in the budget process now, figuring stuff out for next year. So it kind of depends what we do. Going forward kind of depends on funding. Yes. Can you refresh us on what your funding level was for this year? Well, it was kind of weird, because there was a.

[92:06] It's about 40,000 a year, and it's split between the previous and this year, because it does that in like November fee, too, cause that was kind of a weird thing this year, because it was an outside consultant for half of the time. And then, yeah, employee, yeah, that I would have to look at. Yeah. So it's kind of yeah, it was weird. But yeah, around that. yeah. And that was that kind of goes into pairs up with another curiosity I had, which is how much support you had you had, and how much staff, or volunteer or intern support you would need for each of those, each of those. Yeah, I mean, I've I've kind of come up with some plans for what it would take to do each one. But it really depends, you know, like we can make all the plans we want, but if we don't have the money for it, so they're kind of like the beginnings of a plan, and then, when we know what our funding will be, then we'll really build that out and make sure that everything's covered. But

[93:06] yeah, definitely, some more staff or paid paid person time, and volunteers. We were a little down on our volunteers this year, numbers of them over last year. So that's something to look into, because they're they're the ones that get out and do the question anyone else right on. I hope I didn't talk to you fast. Oh, thank you, it's awesome. She's thinking. BA. Patrol, I'm thinking. Anytime that's fun looking forward to

[94:02] getting better every year. So I do have I I fail to mention a different line in our budget. That is, $8,000 that's given out in $500 increments of awards. So 16 awards that are given out for support, for serve better sponsorships for organizations and artists to host events strangled. So they're small amounts, and they are through our sponsorship program, right? But it's something that we should consider as part of such a 2. Because we're big, we're able to support people hosting programs like 16 programs during the next week. I'm very proud of that. Yeah, it's a great super, low barrier to entry. Super easy, right? The application is super easy. And then the other piece is just getting back to our boulder blueprint our cultural planning process. We did not ask the consultants this round to look for 2,025 about what we should do for Older Arts Week, or any of our bigger, longer plans for Boulder Arts Week. But that will be integrated into our longer term plans, because, I think.

[95:13] with some, like the tsunami, the big funding things that are like on bus ads, or like statewide, or whatever it is. Those like big jumps take a lot of money, right? So we want to be sure that the community is telling us, hey? We think it's a good idea for you to expand board pretty substantially before we like are funding it more. But yeah, and all kinds of resources not just funding right? Totally human. Thank you. Good job. Thank you. Great alright questions about the managers. Memo any questions. and if not, we will adjourn going. What? Go ahead. Try. Thank you. That is so cute. It's nice to have a padding on it. It does have a horn on it like a paddle like a cartoon. Okay, you get on that.