January 29, 2025 — Boulder Arts Commission Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:01] Progress. Okay, we are recording. It is Wednesday. January 29, th 2025, and welcome to the Boulder Arts Commission. I will call roll. Cheryl Cardoso is right linked. Maria Cole. Jeffrey Cash will join us online with a little bit later still about you. Schmidt is not here yet. I will now hand the meeting over to the chair to call the flyer friends to be. We are called to order, and 1st like to approve the agenda for today's January 29, th 2025 meeting.

[1:00] I'm not too appropriate than that. Okay, and always bigger, wonderful. And just to reiterate it went out in an email from Lauren that if you ever do have Commission business on a specific topic that you'd like to bring up, just make sure that that's emailed in ahead of time, so we can find space on the agenda. Great We have 2 sets of minutes to approve both the retreat minutes and the November 2024 meeting, and then we didn't have a meeting in December. so we'll open the floor for promotion. On that I'll motion to approve the minutes and the retrieve minutes both. Yes, okay. Great one, like 2 seconds. Awesome. Okay, all in favor. It's unanimous great.

[2:01] Thank you. Public participation. One. You have guidelines in the list. The public participation guidelines are as follows. the city has to engage 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 process, you can visit the website saw on the screen. The following are examples of rules of decorum found in the Border, revised code and other guidelines that support this vision. These will be upheld during the meetings.

[3:02] 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 or prohibitive participants are required to sign up, to speak in advance and use the name they are commonly known by individuals, must display their whole name before being allowed to speak online in person. Participants are asked to refrain from expressing support or disagreement, or with applause. Traditionally support, is shown silently through American sign language on Fox Window that those are the guidelines. Alright, and I'll just note that Georgia Schmidt is pulling this up, and

[4:02] I skipped over doing the backtrack a little bit and do that. The city of Boulder acknowledges the city is on the ancestral homelands and unceded territory of indigenous peoples who have traversed lived in and stewarded lands in the Boulder Valley since time Immemorial those indigenous nations include the Apache, Arapahoe, Cheyenne, Comanche, Pawani, Shoshone, Sioux, 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. And with that do we have anybody signed up for public? We do we have June lantern with the naacing great if you'd like to join we just wanna make sure we can capture you so maybe by the post.

[5:03] and then, if you'll project your voice for that greetings, my name is June Lanswin. Thank you for having me. I'm here, of course, to just inform you about the organization, what we do, and of course, for your support and what we do for the city. I'm a performing artist myself and choreographer, and actually a former Arts Commissioner. Tonight I am here as the primary grant writer and vice President of Naac Boulder County. an all volunteer organization and a local branch of the National Naacp. We have a mission to eliminate racial discrimination and promote the equal rights of all persons established in 19 0, 9, the Naacp is, and always has been, a diverse organization.

[6:07] I have my own case study in my own family of race and boulder. We need the Naacp here to protect and educate and fight for equality and double Acp. Boulder County's Freedom Fund is a free gift for the community to inclusively share experiences of black excellence through the arts. Our yearly Freedom Fund, on the 3rd Sunday of February has turned into the premier black history event in the area. We've had profound performances filling Mackey auditorium with some of the most diverse audiences on record. Here Naacp's Freedom Fund brings vitality and vibrancy to the city's cultural programming at a cost to us.

[7:01] and it's worth it to promote culture. Excellence. Non stereotypical examples of possibilities for our black youth here and for all youth here, and for all adults here. you've brought many wonderful artists here. I don't know what my time is. I have 30 seconds. Yeah, we're at 2 min. Okay, go ahead. I will say, if you are curious and want to know more, please feel free to contact me. June plans has my contact information. I love to talk about the arts. I'd love to talk about the organization and our work. Thank you. Thank you. I have a question. The freedom fund at the event that you mentioned is that open to the public? Yes, it's a free event open to the public. It's this year we're presenting clear Parker Robinson dance for free. It's always accessible handicap wise, and also

[8:02] so to anyone at free of cost, because we did not want has to be an issue to anyone. It's going to be February 16th away. And what time? 3 o'clock? Great, thank you. Do you want to? Just tell them the last 2 years last year we had author, Anthony Ray Hampton. who wrote he was exonerated, incarcerated for 30 years on death row. And how does that look. Yes. he was. So now I'm gonna walk through history. He wrote the best selling book. I'm forgetting the name. but I'm telling you back the auditorium. One man on stage. Everyone was

[9:01] rapt attention. So Anthony Ray hinted before that was, yeah. Yes, we brought 55 black musicians from Nashville, the Nashville African American wind ensemble. They had done an original composition, and some others that were. It was quite an experience before that we've had the Macintosh County shouters Well, keepers of the Guliki culture, we've had Fisk Jubilee singers who were grammy Award winning. We've had and we had a collaboration with the dairy that was pretty phenomenal of a photographic exhibit of the Civil Rights era for 6 weeks in dairy, which was also filled with black faces and black events for black history. Thank you for letting us know about it. Thank you. Anything else

[10:03] don't have any more than online. Great, thank you. I I don't see anything. Under commission business. Okay, so matters from commissioners, we'll start with our liaison updates. Anybody has anything they'd like to share. Sure. Just put it out there. I know that they messaged all of us for creativity alive. Their exhibits. Scene B ends on ends at the end of January. So on Friday, which is taking place at the Boulder Public Library on Canyon, sounds extremely powerful. So I'm gonna try to check it out. I also got a message from lemon sponge cake they're requesting. So they they've received an artist hiring Grant. They're canceling the event that they got the grant for, and they're requesting to

[11:10] to transfer those funds to a different project. So I don't know how that process looks, but they've submitted something to Ellie, and I guess it's maybe it will be for us to dig into that a little bit further. I also met with Marie from new local. I'm not their liaison. But she and I were commerizing around the vagueness of Ccrs funds and distributions. Love. Their space hadn't been there before, so cool, such great art there and then in the process of transitioning from one exhibit to the next. And this is really cool stuff that's going to be there. yeah, I guess that other organization that I liaison for social club wrapping up our operating grant. So there will be a whole bunch of stuff. I think that everybody will have access to, including our annual report from last year, so I don't need to talk too much about that. But excited to get that proposal in.

[12:12] Thank you. Yeah, I have a few San Suchi festival of dance cinema. Their call for entry is open. January 31, st like 2 days from now it's open to artists around the world, and they also offer submission, fee, assistance for those in need. They also have a black history month virtual screening throughout the entire month. It's free on their website. Spark theater is producing Eurydice, which starts February 14.th And there are Cinderella in the screen. Boulder chorale has a few things in the works. They have 2 youth performances at the end of April. one at Mackey, one in Longmont the adult choir is performing Beethoven with Boulder, Philip May and their chamber choir is performing back with the Longmont Symphony in April, and then the catamounts is currently playing their show ghost quartet at the dairy through February 8, th

[13:10] update on be voca. They had an opening last week. It was spectacular, and I were there. It's called the Dazzle of Darkness. It was really well attended. I think it's 31 artists represented. So it was just a bustling event, really great event. And they are in their final stages of collecting an architect for the North Boulder campus, and should be ready to make a public announcement. Next 6 to 8 weeks. I went to an opening black futures in art. It's called at the dairy put on by attery, awesome to but flex a group of different black artists, and puts all of their work together in one space, and she does it all over town. She's at the dairy now. She's done it at some churches. She goes around, and the opening was amazing. It was incredibly vibrant. There was a wall where someone had done all black female rappers. And so she was playing the music.

[14:24] Yeah, I think it's in Banta, February, so I don't know what's that great I'm excited going to the catamouse tomorrow, so I'll let you know how that is. I also went to a photography opening for Tad Klein, where I also met with Marie from new local. We had a really great conversation about the space on the Mall and the upper spaces, and and how want to be wonderful if some of that could be opened up for more artists space. So

[15:03] we're connected, at least on that topic. I don't know if we can make any headway. But it was a great conversation. I also went to the opening of the firehouse at 30th and Belmont, where that piece that was commissioned last year is in, and I love it. And I spoke to the fire Chief, and he just had so much praise for it. He he felt like it was very moving piece, and was very grateful that they had in front of there. They're in home. T. 2. Dance is in the middle of the. They had a lot going on in January, so they were doing the color wheel project, which is that one with the the kids. And then also versatility. Dance fest. So I'm sure we'll have a conversation in the next couple of weeks about how that all went. and then the only new thing on my radar is the Kgm. You. I know that some of our people went on a tour for us.

[16:06] and Lauren and I wasn't able to join you, so I was wondering if you could give us some highlights. It's certainly given the option to culture and work that you all been doing for some time to support that project. and then Canadian vitalities have also funded an affordable commercial pilot project brand for making space available at lower cost for folks to utilize media spaces for production, so it was really cool to see it in progress. It was definitely a hard half tour. There were ladders involved. There were shaky ladders involved. We got to go on their their plan rooftop. They really innovated and working around the city's design standards so that they were able to have. They're going to have a really cool, outdoor rooftop that I was going to stay.

[17:10] So it was really nice to see it in progress. And finally, we're looking forward to resiliment. Great. Thank you. And is the their small venues. So yeah, with like a moving like a collapsible seating, they can do. It's not. It's not about our capacity. Let me really close, guys. Thank you. When is that? They said they were looking to get their occupancy in October, sometime in the fall, September, October. Yeah. Don't have the list. Okay of the Commission. Yeah. And I will actually pull it up. I saw our presentation last time. But I didn't. If you don't mind, I address your question. Oh, yeah, I meant to grant program. So if somebody has a change to a grant project. That is

[18:16] I'm sorry. I guess I could talk about it. Okay, I think this might be the 1st time if somebody has a change that they want to request. That is a change in substance, nature of the grant. So not a change in the date, maybe not a change in the title, but really like the intent of the grant. We talk it through with them, and then we would bring it to the Commission, and Sarah would bring it present about it, and and talk about really, if it's still making the same progress and hitting the same goals of what you had agreed to in your original report, great work on that. In the background there's a process government. There's a lot of, did I get everything that right? Yeah, I've been emailing back and forth.

[19:02] great cool. Thank you. Great. Can I ask a question? I have a question about finance next. Yes. Well, actually. And if we want to talk about it later, too. Yeah, would it be better doing the grant? No? Well, let me ask it. So I think that we made the change that commissioners are not scoring grants, that we're hiring someone. Yes, is that one person? It's 5 people at the whole camp. Okay? And so like right now, any organization can contact us commissioners like in the well before. Oh, they could. if like not in the granting season, like one of the people can like. I know Golden Valley contacts everyone here and has coffee with them, one on one. Will they still be able to do that with these 5 people. The panel will still be sequestered whenever they are reviewing grants the same way that the Commission right?

[20:02] No, except for that one mission, that so there will be one commission with each panel review, which is something that says and actually ask for volunteers, commands volunteers. So that one whomever is assigned to that cycle would also be sequestered as part of it. But in the time when they're not semester, are are they still able to organizations still able to contact. They can certainly contact the Arts Commissioners like. Now, if they're interested, right? Not the Commissioners. No, the panel will be semester, and they could. I mean, they can contact them before they start reviewing. Yeah, that that was so right now they could reach out to the grant that fit like it. Yeah, I just think that some organizations have the time and the staff to do that. And I understood not. Yeah, it doesn't seem like it. That's organizations are cultivating relationships with panelists. And then those people are voting on the various

[21:06] yeah, it's and it's it's a perpetually tough part of the idea of having the panel is to remove everybody. Step a little bit away from all of your intimate knowledge of our local organizations. Right? But I do think that inevitably the Anna will still well, 2 things. One is that they'll still have access and knowledge of some organizations and some they'll have no access and no knowledge of them at all great. But also we are working on a an agreement with our legal team that is very specific about what they are expected to, and what they can and cannot do. That will put them through a written standard right? We're paying them so they'll have an agreement that says certain like certain standards about their right? So yeah, we don't see that you wanna add anything to that. Yeah, I guess I could just make the point that since the Commission is funding or not, that maybe the previous policy about that should.

[22:09] Yeah, can you say that again, since the Commission will ultimately be awarding the funding or not. I think that if there was a policy. take a moment attending, he needs to support that might I just think it would be important to make sure that the Panelists are not friends with organizations that's written in their their contract. And there's very donated information about the same sort of actual conflict of interest very similar to what all we signed to. But it's very delineated out, that's purposely alright. So moving on to 5 B, which is commission work items.

[23:06] and at the Retreat we came up with a list of things that we wanted to work on. We have a very long list, and then we sort of narrowed it down. And the idea that we have been talking about is that since this is a transition year, that we'd like to focus on one or 2 of these to start with because our bandwidth is probably going to be limited. And so I'd like to open up a discussion about what and how we want to focus our energy on. To begin with this year. And if we get things done, we can add more later, and if this is most likely being done through committee work or you know, we don't want to spend a lot of time at this meeting hashing out details and policy, so most likely through committee work.

[24:06] And I do not have a set formula for how we're going to decide this other than just to listen to what people are interested in what's rising to the top of the people, and where the energy of this discussion. That's I. Personally, I think the the legislative liaison and coaching sessions might be hard to get at feels for me. Maybe it's not the low hanging fruit. Do we want to start with low hanging fruit, or we want to do the really hard. Well, maybe I'll just continued work on rebuilding trust in the community. I think this maybe goes to just stronger transparency and communication. And I think this, the new Grant folder is a

[25:08] a prime opportunity to do that. And I think making that process very clear, very transparent. making sure that you're capturing all of the organizations to do get that feedback. So I think that could be really dovetailed into work that's already going on. But I think it needs to be focused effort and making those connections. So I feel like that could be done. The current agrees or disagrees, and I think also all of us staying up to date. On what are the talking points. What are the schedule has been? Take that to our basement. So is there a way that you would envision that the Commission get involved in? That? Is it? I think it's also having Lauren. And I've been going to, you know. I went to one meeting so, but I think Lauren, giving us. Here is the schedule that you could share with the community. Here's what's going on. Here's the desired outcomes, I think. Give us really clear talking points that we are all messaging the same

[26:24] in the same way, and again with a lot of transparency. and then suggest, I think I sent you an email to that. I think over communication is because, you know, our organizations are busy. They may miss a email or 2. Here's what's going on. Okay, here's what's going on again. You know I take that over communications. I think that's how we could address that. Does that look like addressing it at every meeting? Then, like giving some designated time soon. Yeah, because it's only 4 more meetings, because the blueprint will be done in thing.

[27:00] You have phase one through June, but then we still have phase 2. So it's actually for the whole year. But and you all received an email that I hope that you and they can send it to the Commission, too, with upcoming dates and current information and things, too. So that's exactly. I think that's great. And then, yeah, I think just showing the slide every meeting. Oh, sure, hopefully, everyone's bored by seeing the slide, which I think is a good thing. Oh, the timeline! Yes. think that would be helpful. So that's my suggestion, Caroline, on that. So is that your top priority? It's a huge priority. Yes. but I but I also feel like, it's very cheap. We're already doing work in the community. So so it's focused on. Sure, we're engaging everyone we can in that blueprint process.

[28:03] How is everybody else feeling about these items. And what's the priority for the Commission as a whole? Well, I think rebuilding trust is is a major issue. But I think that can be implemented in whatever we're going to see on overall like that can be a part of the process or anything. So I don't know if it needs to necessarily be its own focus. If it's integrated into anything anyways. Because I feel like the public is going to react to the actions that we're doing and how we communicate them regardless of what it is. So yeah. if I, if I think about it from the perspective of a grantee or applicant, the connecting other funders with grantees in our community, or the coaching sessions feel the most valuable to me. I can see how perhaps the connecting other funders. What looks like doing one layer of work as a team that then can get distributed as opposed to like potentially, you know, micro burst for all of our organizations. So yeah, we might just be able to tackle more that

[29:13] oh. I excuse me. Well, I have my bias, which I acknowledge, which is young people. Excuse me. So I'm always gonna think that should be a priority and continue with our opportunities. They're the art makers and partakers of the future. I think rebuilding trust is also a top priority. But I agree with you at the I think if we're transparent, I think that's really like saying, we want to rebuild trust. Yeah, And then having the work with the tribal nations, I think it's important. But then I started thinking, I don't know. Like, is there a need to be connected for legislative stuff?

[30:08] The world? No, that makes sense? Yeah, I think we all think these are important. There's a reason they're all up there. There's a reason we could. We could whittle it down further than this. So let me let me give you guys, another thought exercise. And maybe we can talk about this is if we can, if we all kind of go with the premise that whatever work that we do, and the specifics will translate into hopefully with greater communication, rebuilding some trust. If you were to pick one issue to join a committee or work with a fellow commissioner. what would that be? And and if we all pick different items, 2 people have bandwidth to join up with somebody else's, so that there are at least 2 people working on nutrition.

[31:08] What truly is your bandwidth? And and what what could you see? Foresee in the next couple of weeks getting together and pulling together some action items and session. You know, Georgia really initiated the work of the tribal nations. I think that's important, and I think think we could go to that in the next few months. Well, we're just still efficient. No, I think that would be a valuable one. If you were interested in. think the second one I'd be interested in these opportunities could take on maybe 2. I think she can. Yeah, I definitely would love to work with the tribulations. And I'm curious about

[32:05] rebuilding trust in the community, I think, since I've missed a few meetings, I don't know what your perspective is on that I only know my perspective. And the other artists that I've spoken to, and I'm and be interested in working on that just because I'm not. I'm curious how you do that when you've broken someone's trust that you rebuilt it. So I'm hearing you say that that from your perspective. It does deserve. We do analysis and discussion outside of the meeting. So I'm hearing that's what she wants to. Do, you know, like

[33:05] we? I think so. Yeah. if we, because if we want part of the level of arts going on in our community, continue to rise and flourish, we'll have to rebuild the trust. But oh. sorry! Let's see. So you're thinking more of you're calling for more of a loop that the interpretation what you're saying like getting some people together and and kind of thinking about, well, how do we? Actually, she's back coaching sessions on fundraising assets, building collaboration and marketing

[34:15] your microphone in your video now, if you'd like, might be there driving. Okay? I think I would be very interested in doing that. But. Jeffrey, would you be willing to get together with people and do a coaching on coaching and sort of download. How you oh, I adore that. Okay, so I'd be willing to to work on that. What is everybody else called to do right now?

[35:01] I am willing to put some effort towards the funding possibilities. Feel like with the threatened Federal freeze. I just want to make sure that our arts organizations feel as supported by local government as possible. And I I wish I had connections to all of the foundations, but I can definitely pull together resources that I do have there anybody who who would want to work with Georgia on getting a little bit more of a roadmap dinner. Yeah, I was gonna say, if we were doing that and something I would be interested in that also the opportunities as well. No. So the connections is that the jealous Marathon? Is that what you mean by opportunities? The youth opportunities? Oh, youth opportunities. Okay.

[36:02] So you and Maria could do you, yeah, there we go. Okay. And anybody interested in working with Jill on connections. I will. Okay, great. So I'm hesitating because I only see my initials down once, but I guess my term exhausted. So that's okay. So I've got Maria in Georgia on Tribal Cheryl and Yaleen will work on these initiatives. Jeffrey and I will get together on the coaching Georgia and Yali. They'll spearhead building, rebuilding Trust and Jill in Georgia

[37:06] connections with other grantees. So that's a lot. But if we we work efficiently outside in our small term teams and come back with some recommendations, maybe we can make some things really cool, cause we all got came at the same time. It's yeah. I think I'm in 2026, though. Oh, okay, for some reason I have a longer feel like someone else's issue. You you were. I came in a year after. And I have a 4 year. Okay? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Books. One is is the last meeting, and then April is ready to decide. And am I done it? But that are going through. You're welcome. Yeah.

[38:07] thanks. Alert. Sure. Right? Everybody today I have Rachel Kane here with us from more ceiling, and we're gonna go through a few slides talking about our audit project and the potential adoption of 4 pieces from the Transportation Department into the permanent Public art collection. So I'm gonna let Rachel kind of lead the way here.

[39:06] Alright, so we have, or artworks that have been identified through the audit process from the transportation department that we hope to adopt into arts and culture where next. So this is just a reminder about the adoption criteria sort of the metrics that we looked at to decide whether or not an artwork should, could or we may want to adopt and we've talked about this before. So this is not new information. But we can go over for anybody has any questions about any of this at the end. But this is all. This is all information you've seen before, just as a reminder. and I won't read it because I didn't read it. So these are the 4 artworks current by Karen Yank. Has anybody heard of this or seen it or is familiar at all.

[40:01] We have images. I saw an image, but I can't remember which one was which. Yeah, okay, 40th parallel prisons power by Christian Mueller. Anyone familiar? Yes. it's it's not a trick question. I'm just trying to gauge. Yeah. Great hex totems. Yeah. That one, I think, is the hardest one to know, because it is in a kind of a weird location, anyway. And lighthouse by great, that's exciting. Okay, next, now, you can look at images of the artwork. This is current by Karen Yank. The image on the left side is actually of the artwork, and the image on the right gives you a sense of where it is in city. Yeah. So chances are you've seen it, and you just didn't maybe know the name of it. There are 10 objects as part of this series called current. And so thanks, Jeffrey.

[41:05] so yeah. Current by Karen Yang at the junk Place Bridge, the 40th parallel prison Tower, by Christian Miller, is at Baseline and just east of Broadway. This is hex totems by Christian Mueller, and the reason I think it's harder to know is that it actually lives in immediate. And so you're probably whizzing by at 40 miles an hour when you see it. This is by the diagonal. It's diagonal. And okay. I completed 2 foothills and diagonal and then lighthouse by Ken Bernstein. which is at 28th and diagonal sort of at the opposite end of the other end of the same road. And so we're hoping to

[42:01] have you all vote. I hope somebody makes a motion to adopt these 4 artworks, and then I will update the documentation in the various places and bits and pieces to reflect these changes. And then it will be official that these artworks will be part of the public art, the official, real, actual public art collection for community vitality, and just a just a reminder, too. We did go through. We worked with members of the transportation department, including the executive director, to review, based on our criteria. These are the 4 artworks that they also agreed fit the criteria for public guard. So we do have a memo signed by director transportation to that effect. So everybody's on board very exciting. See how they need maintenance right away, or have they been maintained? Nothing needs maintenance right now, like major maintenance right now. But the plan is to do a full maintenance assessment of the entire collection this fall and these will be

[43:05] yeah. Which is why you have to decide what's in the collection and what's not in the collection. So then, when you do a condition reporting, then you know what you're like with the scope, but you've looked at them, and they're not in disrepair. Correct, or else I wouldn't have recommended yeah. Condition. condition was something that I would consider as well there, there the Public art collection, and some of it is urban design, so it gets a little bit complicated and money. But the collection of the transportation department is pretty extensive. And so we really Cherry picked the best of the best that we thought that you all would want to own and and does the budget for maintenance change at all? When we bring artwork in, or we have to maintain, we have a budget for this year, and we have to request an allocation for maintenance every year. So, as the collection starts to grow as we start to work with Parks and Rec. And other departments to adopt certain projects, the collection will grow, which will mean we would likely have to ask more.

[44:17] Does that come from the 2? A. It won't come from 2 a funds. Then it comes from a different also have to reallocate something else onto a inside that budget to go to maintenance. There was funding allocated this year towards maintenance. But the maintenance budget rose. Yeah. then something else. I've been bad. I I'm in favor of consolidating our art, and into one sensation as much as possible. We've been able to negotiate, and

[45:01] the maintenance is the cost of doing that. I'm tired. Therefore the maintenance budget of transportation go slightly down because they don't have the maintenance is, I mean, transportation would still be maintaining the other works in their collection. That are, we would consider, more urban design projects. I mean, I think part of part of taking care of artwork is allocating the funds to take care of the art, whether it's transportation, or whether it's arts, culture or community vitality. So I think part of I mean part of the 2 way funds are to support the arts, which is part of the reason why we're doing this audit to say, Hey. there's artworks that might not be

[46:01] cared for in the best way, in terms of best practices for public art. So through our audit, we'll using that criteria to figure out, okay. And one of those things to Maria's point is, Hey, is this? Is this maintainable, or are we gonna have to deaccession it right? So. And I would say to one of the criteria, and we can go back to the slide if you wanted to get into the details about it is is the like special circumstance or special value of a piece, too, like. 2 of these pieces are really sort of integrated in a lot of other urban design elements. And so, instead of adopting the whole project, all of those pieces that are concrete and retainables. And all these things that aren't really sort of art. We really, Cherry picked out like the prism tower as one object that we can maintain that is not part of urban design that's not part of infrastructure, and that we can consider its own systems as a piece of art separate from that whole thing. So there's

[47:08] and and like Brendan was saying, when you, when you grow a public art collection, the maintenance needs also grow. And so that's it's a wise question. And that's that's the other half of the pride and the see assets that you fund by commissioning public art is that there's, you know, there's always going to be a trade off. But we chose pieces specifically because they're not a liability, and they have value, as I think my last point, too, would be that we, the pieces that we are considering adopting having them in our collection, means that when it does come time for conservation and maintenance that best practices are followed for that work. View some comments. I'm I'm also chatting with Matt Shazansky. Hi, Matt! If he's able to come on and talk about

[48:06] other extenuating circumstances, and if not, I can bring it back to everybody. I think we can. Also we'll bring it back to everybody and talk about it as it comes up to where it's like. This is not happening in a vacuum. And it happens every budget cycle. So Notch's landscape. Sorry. Thank you. I just wanted to add to the statements that there's still opportunities to make requests for major maintenance of public art through the capital improvement process for the city capital maintenance is part of that. And so while everything's correct that we're talking about a regular funding process through the arts, culture and heritage tax. Sometimes capital projects get requested a different way, and we don't want to close that door. That is a possibility for the future. Matt, can I just clarify to some of your messaging that you're talking in terms of large scale, like a hundred $1,000? Very serious fixes right like these. That would be like.

[49:08] which is also, I don't want to put it. Yeah, I wouldn't want to put a number to it necessarily. But yeah, that that would be an option. We'd reserve for something significant and unusual. Like a wholesale replacement potential. Although we do have a process to do. Exception works if it's becomes you don't thank you. Question. I have a question. Oh, wait! It's not about this, but it is about public art. Sure. I was on panel for art and parking garages. It's coming along. We've hit a lot of snags. Just because the site itself not really ready for art. But we're getting there. So the goal is to have that piece installed before the end of this year

[50:02] is the design still the same? It is the same. Yeah, you won't. There's been some minor changes in terms of engineering and fabrication and attachment to the garage. But the look is essentially the same. You won't even notice any other questions. Alright, so I'll open the floor for this proposed motion. Thank merchant. nobody wants art. I move that we adopt 4 artworks from the Department of Transportation Mobility into the Public Art Collection Management, hosted by the Office of arts and culture in the community vitality department. Struggle is that we're taking on more artwork. I understand all your points about it. We better maintain, but it feels like the city should then just give some funds back to the arts to maintain this. That's my struggle is so I think that it's coming from the same bucket, unless it's a major catastrophic type of renovation. It's kind of the same bucket of money. Something else in that is

[51:15] okay understood, you know, except that also that same bucket is for our transfer. And so yes, my struggle. We have to acknowledge that there are strong concerns around how to refund is where we can spend. So that's my hesitancy. So I don't know if there's a way to amend the motion with a caveat about pursuing it. Take a vote on this motion, and then we can. If it doesn't carry, then we can events. So All in favor of this notion. We haven't had a second on the motion. Oh, wonderful! Okay, thank you. Sorry. I did not hear that. So all in favor. I would be in favor 2, 3, 4 for Jeffrey, all the post.

[52:10] And is there any? So that does pass. Is there anything you want to put on the record in terms of a request? I think it's if so I think it's great to grow the collection. Not against that. I just think that we also need to grow the budget for maintenance, something outside of the that. That's why I there's a way, continue to pursue them. And I have a comment as well. Go ahead, Jenny! Okay. When when Brendan, it's probably about a year ago, when he gave us that really amazing inventory of just the number of what we have. And you know what's owned by transportation and the other organizations. We had that discussion as, what percentage are we setting aside when we were commissioning new stuff. What are we setting aside as a reserve fund for ongoing maintenance? And as they were able to put that inventory together, we're able to better understand what that's going to look like. I just had a really simple question for Brendan.

[53:21] which, because he's familiar with all these as well as his colleague. Who's there? Whose name I've I've I've forgotten since then. Just okay. You've seen the pieces you've been around them. are you? Are you? Are you giving us a thumbs up. Then you feel pretty secure that they're in. They're in great condition. I know the pieces, and I know where they are, and they appear to be. But just tell us that, hey? We're not buying a lemon. We have not. We have not done a conservation report with a conservator, but these are all recent projects. 2017, I think the oldest one is 2014. So these are pretty recent in our city collection, so we feel confident that they're maintainable. And

[54:05] but, like, I said, we'll do an assessment this fall. Okay. Great. Thank you. Yeah. Brendan's confident, that's all he needed to hear. Great. All right. Studies. Next pro presentation. Can you remind me really quickly? Current by Karen? Yay, X totems. Where is that? Okay? Where's current? It says, Junction Junction place bridge. Okay? Like, sort of by the new Rtd stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Hex totems is on diagonal footnotes. It's really the entrance to the city. Yeah. I was so thrilled when they redid that a couple years back, and that they included art in that, because that's really the entrance from from Longmont and Naiwot, and such into the city.

[55:08] Yeah, that's fine on the other side. I guess, Maria, to your point. I don't. I mean, I don't have the power to say where the maintenance funds are coming from. That's a much higher level decision. Whether it's 2 a or whether it's general fund, I think, to match Zanski's point. If it's something, if it's a major capital infrastructure improvement project, and I think we can ask for general fund dollars. But I think the intent of just kind of ongoing day to day. Maintenance of works is supposed to come from 2 way. I could be wrong, but I think all I'm saying is that I don't have the power to decide where I just know I leave them in the future. I think if we could just continue the conversation with the maintenance stuff. Phones start

[56:01] needs become greater. We can continue this conversation and figure out how we can. Yeah, as a commission advocate. you know, for capital dollars, or whoever that would. Oh, great question. So all right. Ready for the next. Yes, okay. So I'm going to present the Public Art Action item to approve the process and selection of our finalists for the Western City campus. We have 3 project sites and budgets. The Western City Campus Plaza, which is a $300,000. Budget, the pavilion lobby and garage atrium. Those are 2 projects with a combined budget of $450,000, and then the garage, stairwell and Elevator Bay, which is a $100,000 project. I'm going to add that these are not 2, a funds. These are 1% funds from the Capital Improvement Project budgets to renovate this campus.

[57:01] So here's a just to kind of orient you. This is on the right side of that map is Broadway, and then looking up Alpine between the pavilion and the parking garage and Brenton. So the the pink diamonds are the sites for art. So this is the plaza area. This is the pavilion lobby. This is the garage atrium location, and this is the stairwell and elevator bed. So the process to date in March of last year we had an orientation meeting, where we drafted a request for qualifications. In August of last year we had a finalist selection meeting where the panel selected finalists for each of the 3 projects. We selected 3 finalists to create proposals for the pavilion and atrium we've selected 3 for the plaza, and we selected 4 artists for the garage stairwell and elevator bay. Oh, that's a yeah. I shouldn't. I should include that we had almost 500 applications total for this project. So

[58:11] the panel members had to review all 500 applications just to get it down to our top 3 or 4 per priority and then, just in December, we got our final proposal presentations. And that's where the final selections were made our voting members. Our artist was Helen Maska, Kenny Masongo, business owner and photographer, Leah Runner Flack, from Novo Art district and streetwise arts. Professional. Maria Cole obviously is our arts. Commissioner Liz Campos was our community member on the project, and then Ian Swallow, with Boulder housing partners and some other community. Our Technical Review Committee. These are our non voting members. These included members of our facilities department, the project manager, Adam Goldstone, Michelle Crane, who's deputy for facilities, Leanna Evanson facilities, custodian and facilities maintenance, Erica and Jason, and then, of course, some of our design team members who were working on the design for the project.

[59:14] our criteria for our selections included inherent artistic qualities, the context of the art to the site, ability to maintain and install the work, time, horizon, and schedule diversity in terms of artists and the collection, and then the uniqueness of each of those. So this is the location for our plaza. The again, the popping triangle is the location that was designated for our finalists. To respond to. This is in the rear plaza kind of behind the building. And it's sort of like a perfect spot for something to go, to draw people into this back entrance to the building. This will be the future pavilion building at the Western City campus. So this will be the future site of

[60:01] city council offices. I think planning will be there. I think the city is still deciding exactly which departments will be in this building. But it's going to be a very public building, and it has a lot of city functions. Yeah. so our from our Rfq. The panel was looking for artworks that are playful, welcoming kid friendly, provide a cultural connection to the campus. The works could also be interactive and have a community engagement component. The work should be bright, colorful, and imaginative, and create a sense of belongings, works to demonstrate the connection between human activity. Natural environment tell the story of the place, geologically, socially, and ecologically, are encouraged. And again, this was a $300,000 budget and a national call for artists. So here's our 1st proposal that the panel reviewed. This is by Scott Trimble from Seattle, Washington. I put a little image at the bottom of kind of what he was inspired by in terms of the flat irons and the geology of the area Mountains rivers. So this piece is a pervilinear powder, coated steel forms that have colored cast glass in between each layer of metal.

[61:09] So, as you can see, that's the spot where we're locating the art and a rendering of the project. Each artist was also responsible for providing a narrative and a budget, so how they would actually use that $300,000 to pay for this artwork. and I'm gonna if, Maria, if you have anything to add to this conversation, please do so because you were there. And then thank you to Jake for taking notes at the meeting. These are this is pretty much verbatim notes from the meeting. So pros the panel like the fluidity and the shape and the curve. In contrast to the sharp lines of the building. They like the colorfulness it appealed to be. It was fun and bright, and kids friendly. But also spoke to the boulder geography. It invited people to experience to touch and play, which is also from the call.

[62:00] but some of the cons were that it was, there was seem to be too many issues, especially with safety. Powder. Coated metal is not necessarily the best material for public art. Lots of technical issues in terms of, you know, handmade glass. It didn't necessarily. So it didn't really feel that unique didn't feel that special. Also, the narrative of geology wasn't that easy to understand from the outside it might require more explanation or signage to explain sort of where that inspiration came from. Oh, and, by the way, no issues from the Technical Review Committee. So all of these proposals were reviewed by the Technical Review Committee. They're non voting. But they offered feedback feasibility, technical issues, you know anything that they thought of. But this this proposal had no issues from trc. This project is from Mark Forness, from Brooklyn, New York. It's untitled. Again they were inspired by the kind of geologic forms around Boulder

[63:01] it's a curvilinear painted aluminum form bolted to the ground kind of a gathering space shade structure. as you can see, they move the location of the art from the designated location into the actual plaza behind the building. and that became an issue for our technical review committee. They could not accommodate the new proposed location. So we had a long discussion about this. The panel loved the thoughtfulness they liked, that it was interactive and engaging. They loved, how the piece would cast shadows on the plaza. The team seemed really sophisticated and capable of doing this project. They like the size and the scale of it, and how much. It took up space in the Plaza but they were also kind of underwhelmed by the proposal versus the previous work that we had seen by this artist didn't seem. That's kind of wow factor when you compare it to the past work. if we we discussed like, could we move this piece to the designated area, they'd have to shrink it. It wouldn't have the same like the intent was kind of a gathering place for people. The shadows on the ground. It didn't have the same effect if we had to shrink it and move it to the designated location and it felt underwhelming if it wasn't in the plaza, so we

[64:22] we agreed that we would, you know. reach out to this team and say, Hey, please apply for future projects. Maybe there's a bigger project, you know, a bigger plaza or a bigger park project that this project might fit, or something similar to apply again. This piece is called Cohabitat, by Matthew Mazata from Canton, New York. So this is a fiberglass with stainless steel armature. and the artist wants to work with the design team to, you know, help select the plants, the evergreen plants that will surround this sculpture. and you can see there in the top. It was the the inspiration was the fox, which is, yeah.

[65:01] So it's a local fauna here in Boulder again, this piece had no issues from the Technical Review committee. The panel loved that it was fun gets people smiling brings joy, would draw people from the street and the sidewalk. It really stands out as unique and surprising, seemed really playful and fun and thoughtful, and a nice contrast with the building. But they had some concerns worried. Maybe the vegetation would not be consistently hiding the fox's face. Could the city, could we maintain that those planting so that had that sense of surprise and partially hidden, partially visible? Somebody said, is it timeless enough? It might not seem. It might seem cool now, but maybe in the future it wouldn't seem that cool. And then also some concerns about the fiberglass material for public art. Is that gonna be the full box, or is it just the pieces it's supposed to be hidden? It's supposed to be hidden. So you're not supposed to see the entire fox. It's supposed to be sort of like a surprise like you can see the tail and the ears. But I'll get. I'll talk a little bit more about that.

[66:10] It's not. It's yeah. Well, this next slide will kind of explain that a little bit so the selection panel was a unanimous vote for cohabitat, which was the fox sculpture. Luckily all 5 members agreed. And the feedback for the artist is to work with city staff and designers and public art staff to ensure the foliage is selected correctly, and it covers adequately and is maintained properly. To get a sample of the painted fiberglass to talk about the durability. I will say fiberglass has been used in lots of different public art projects, and I think the material is actually getting better and better over time. So I think generally that's it's actually more durable and more maintainable than, for instance, Powerpoints. And then to your point, Georgia the fox, the the artist, didn't the fox, the artist kind of just

[67:01] wanted to sculpt like maybe half of the face like just the ears, and maybe like the forehead. But we think that we want him to try to do have a full face just in case the foliage starts to go away. So it doesn't feel strange if you can see that it's not so. I don't think so. We're not asking that he actually sculpt an entire fox animal sculpture. But we want him to just be really sensitive to this, to your point about making sure that it feels like it's if the foliage, for some reason, isn't fully covered yet, then it doesn't seem strange if it's like half a face. right? It would seem I'm trying to think of an appropriate term disappointing. Yeah. Well, just like when someone doesn't do something 100 right? And because children, you know, are going to become. But his intent really is that the face is hidden. So that and that is the intent, and that's the vision. And you want to respect that too.

[68:07] So but we will have. We will talk to him about creating a full face. or maybe somehow, like in the ground, like that thing, so that it didn't, so that the face would be like in the ground. Yes. luckily, in our in every public art contract. 1st payment is we're signing the contract. The second payment is taking this concept and really refining it, based on the feedback from the panel, from our designers, from public art staff. So that we really can like, drill down and get exactly what we are paying for. So there is that there is that point in the contract where we do have. There is a moment where we can say, Hey, we want this to happen, this to happen, this to happen. So I'm confident this guy

[69:00] so the next steps is that you all hopefully approve that this process and selection followed our policy. It will then advance to City Manager's office for approval, and then we'll initiate contracting, and then, of course, follow up with the artists. about the concerns from the panel. Make sure the design meets our expectations. Great questions. This was a lot of artwork to look at, things kind of a big panel, complicated panel, and he ran a great tight shift, and he gave us lots of guidelines and how to work together, and that was a great process. Awesome. Thank you. Anybody like to make a motion move that we approve. This process was properly conducted, and recommend the proposal by artist Matthew Mazotta advanced to the city manager for final approval.

[70:02] Second, hold on, there you go unanimous, unanimous. Thank you. That's fine. All right. Yeah, hey? I think everyone agreed it was. It was kind of met them. Alright, yeah. Moving on the Western city, campus, pavilion, lobby and garage atrium, public art location. So this again, this is looking from Broadway up Alpine on the right is the Pavilion Building, and that's where the lobby will be. On the left is the parking garage, and this is an atrium which is, these are both visible from this sidewalk visible from outside, but they will be both indoor pieces. The panel is looking to commission 2 suspended indoor artworks that will serve as a dynamic gateway into the campus. The panel is looking for artworks that create a distinct connection to the natural world and have a strong daytime and nighttime presence works that demonstrate a connection between human activity and the natural environment. Tell the story of the place.

[71:07] Again, the artworks will be visible from the street, and should enhance the experience or experience for those that will work or live on the campus. There's also going to be lots of housing built behind oops. Sorry this was actually an international call. And the budget for both of those suspended artworks is 450,000. So our 1st proposal is from Benjamin Ball from Los Angeles. This is an untitled project. This is using colored, stainless steel beads that are hung like netting. So on the left hand side is the pavilion lobby. Which is going to be a lot more public. And then on the right side is the it's kind of a smaller, tighter space. That's the atrium and parking garage. And that little square is kind of some examples of those little tiny, stainless steel beads. well, those are the renderings for those.

[72:00] no issues from the Technical Review Committee. The panel like that. It was striking in general. They like the patterns as you moved around, integrated thoughtfully into the building structure. The overall effect would be mesmerizing. they didn't like the overall shapes. They didn't. You guys didn't really respond to the overall mass of the of the works. It didn't feel unique or different from the past work from the artists that we saw, and it didn't seem meaningful or site specific enough. Next project was from Isabel, who does called pliable heritage. This artist is from Paris, France. She was inspired by local heritage. Specifically, like Tp structures. There would be an audio component with voices and nature sounds. Materials would include stainless steel wire and recycled clay and biotextiles. So again, on the left is the pavilion lobby, and on the right is a rendering of the

[73:01] parking garage atrium. So feedback, no issues from the Technical Review Committee. The panel appreciated the inclusion of the cultural piece. They felt the project was really ambitious. They liked that. It involved local community. She really wanted to work local community to report those sounds. They like the ephemerality and the use of these kind of new materials, these play, and all right kind of new materials that we hadn't really heard of but they were concerned with all the moving pieces. It almost seemed too ambitious. Not convinced of her ability to to deliver on her plans, some of the audio might get lost or create noise in the lobby. They needed more information about the materials. worried that it wouldn't make much of a visual impact. It felt kind of too delicate, or it might get lost in the space a little bit. Worried that the colors won't contrast again. Too many moving pieces. Someone was really most excited by the sound

[74:05] aspect of it. And then also, there was some concern about the designs, especially like the Tp image, and just kind of thinking that through from a cultural standpoint. We have. And then the final proposal was from Sue Sunny Park. Alter topography, flat iron abstraction and split together boulder Creek. So these are handcrafted panels made from stainless steel wire and dichroic and tinted plexiglass pieces. So on the left side is the kind of a rendering of our work in the lobby, and then on the right side, is the atrium and kind of a drawing of what the atrium would look like. Again. Inspired by flatirons and Mountains Creek nature but her work is definitely more abstract. But also sunny. I think again, no issues from the Technical Review committee. The panel loved the color, the lighting. They thought it would.

[75:07] It kind of creates light without necessarily having a lighting component. So there are there already is going to be ambient light in that lobby and in the atrium. And this work kind of glow just with the lighting that's already in that space it has the potential to really wow. People seemed very thoughtful. They like the rectilinear shapes she seemed confident, capable. They were confident in her ability to consider, likes to focus on liminal spaces, and thinks it fits well with boulder references to Rivers and the flat irons and likes that she's the primary fabricator of her materials. They felt like maybe the work seemed a little small, especially in the lobby, and concern, that there might be some glare potentially with sun hitting these pieces there on the sidewalk. So again, it was a unanimous vote for Siou, Sunny Park, and the feedback was to work with the designers and public art staff to ensure that the piece fills the lobby adequately and then create more distinction in the color stories between the 2 pieces. So maybe the one where lobby is slightly more blue and green, and the one in the atrium is kind of more pink and red.

[76:20] Next steps would be for you all to approve this project again, advance to the city manager for approval and contracting, and then follow up with the artist with the concerns from the panel. Maybe just a comment on the unanimous folks agreed that we had a lot of discussion and really vetted all these pieces in detail through that process something happen. If it's not unanimous. If it wasn't, if it was, if you didn't find consensus, we would hold about it so and I will say, like each of these proposals, was like the shortest one was 30 slides. The longest one was like 60 slides. So I'm just giving you a snippet just to give you a taste of what it looks like. But of course the budget was included. There's narrative included there. It is

[77:08] instruction, methods, and images of past work and rendering more renderings of each of these pieces. Yeah. And right, an interview, basically think it's really interesting that all 3 were kind of a similar style kind of working. Yeah, we definitely asked for something hanging from the ceiling. So it's yeah. But yeah, you're right. Any other questions. I mean just out of curiosity, because I mean, I you know, there's not gonna be more glare than just the glass on the building. To be honest, especially for the one in the lobby. It's actually kind of tucked under a little bit. So I mean, yeah, I mean, we're actually not that worried. We'll work the design team. I actually don't think that's going to be

[78:12] any more questions about the process. Brendan. These are all wildly exciting. And I I'm I'm I'm just really impressed by the process and the amount of of thought that went into them by a huge number of people. Am I remembering correctly that the parking structure that is currently there adjacent to the Brenton Building is actually being completely raised and replaced with a new one, that this artwork. So no, it's gonna it's it's being renovated. It's not gonna be torn down. It's gonna be yeah, short up and new new skin on the outside and new elevators. New stairwell it's I mean, it's it'll be like a new building. But we're not tearing it down. That makes that makes much more sense, because that one actually even has, like underground sections, like 2 2 floors of underground section 2. Correct. Okay, great. Thank you for that.

[79:00] Yep, to move forward for more changes. I believe that we approve this process properly conducted, and recommended the proposal by Artist Sue, Sunny Park and Vince, the city manager for filing period. Second, no discussion all bigger. Jeffrey online. Yes, out she has missed the butt. Alright. So finally, we have the Western City campus garage. Stairwell is also where the elevator bays will be. This is on Alpine kind of on the left side of the image is Broadway. So it's kind of tucked a little bit. That's where the atrium is. And then this side of the parking garage is where this stairwell elevator bay will be, and behind that is the parking garage. This parking garage will be used not only by city staff and the public visiting this public Pavilion building, but also the folks that will be living in the housing that's being built

[80:05] behind the pavilion building. So that's the rendering of the sterval elevator base. The artist, the artist. the artist actually had the option to also include. There's also another fire escape stairwell at the opposite corner of the garage. So the corner of Broadway, you know, basically Kitty Corner to this stairwell. So this was not required that they activate that stairwell. But it was an option. It's a much smaller stairwell. It's more of a fire escape, and there's no elevators. So just take note. The panel is looking for two-dimensional indoor artwork that serves as an inclusive gateway to the campus via the parking garage works that offer a cultural connection are welcoming and create a sense of belonging. While telling the story of place are encouraged, artworks will be visible from the street, and should enhance the experience of those that will work or live on the campus

[81:01] again. This is a hundred $1,000 project for 2D work, such as murals. And this was our local call. So for local. That means Colorado. So this was limited to Colorado artists. So we had one international call, one national call and one Colorado call this project this is our 1st proposal. This is from Katie Michelle. She's from Denver hand painted murals inspired by local avian life. So these are all kind of local birds from around Boulder. and, as you can see on the left side is there's 1 wall that's essentially 4 stories tall, that's just open in that atrium on the the middle slide. The middle image here is on the opposite wall, from that large wall is the the stairwell. So there's kind of 4 separate stairwell. Murals? So that's combined. That's the neural. That's the mural proposal. No issues from the Trc. The panel thought it was super thoughtful, very planned out lots of detail like the scale, very bright and airy. Very thought out and intelligent, well researched again. Everybody was really impressed by her sense of detail, her research. Super approachable great for everyone in the community.

[82:23] but they the panel really kind of agreed that they wanted to see more of a human element. They wanted to see some people or some faces. Somebody said it. Maybe it felt a little boring like it felt more governmental or museumy rather than kind of urban, exciting kind of gateway, maybe a little too simplistic and maybe too safe. So does that sound? Right? Yeah, I think we also, when it came. This was the last selection came to this one. We started talking about kind of a campus of artwork. So how are the 3? I think that was also part of it. You know, they're already an animal that we animal piece that we were looking at so certainly thinking about how the 3 would interact. And these were all separate meetings on separate days.

[83:05] Yeah, each meeting was at least 3 or 4 h. But we we did it and and you're right. I think it was smart that the panel thought had already made the other selection. So this was like, Okay, we're curating a whole space. Let's think about what we've already selected, and make sure that the this final selection feels like we're hitting all the buttons. So our next proposal was from Eddie Capacha, from Denver, Colorado, she was gonna use her photography and digital design to create a printed wallpaper and she was going to partner with Drylands Acro, ecology research center. So these were. These were not the actual images she was gonna use for the space. These were examples of what you might be installing in the space. So some of the feedback again. No issues from the Trc. They, like the excited by the possibilities of all her photography appreciated. There were some. There were some kind of human elements in their imagery. The scale using the wallpaper idea felt like very striking like the photographic style. Universal

[84:14] but really we we didn't. We weren't able to look at what she was actually proposing with her photographs, so they had concerns about what we would actually be getting without having something to actually look at. Some people were a little confused by her narrative, and a little underwhelmed, and again struggled to know what the piece would actually look like. And wouldn't have confidence choosing her over some of the other proposals. Then we had a team called coco colab from Denver. These are hand painted murals using digital collage as inspiration. Inspired by ecology and biophilic design. So again, on the on the left side, you can see that kind of 4 story wall, and that would be the image that they would hand paint, and then on the opposite side is the stairwell. So you can kind of see how that mural would

[85:09] to the opposing wall from the the one on the left. No issues from the Trc. liked the growing from the ground up and connection to nature. They like the diversity they like to focus on mental or health. There was a human element. They like the narrative love, the composition liked. How the second mural is kind of a little more relaxed than the first, st but they also felt like it, felt too somber and kind of like a Surrealist dystopia. Somebody said it felt a little too serious, and it might. They wanted something kind of more cheery for people who were like living and working at this site. It just felt a little too heavy. So beamer again, we have 4 proposals for the mural, only 3 for the other 2. But Beamer Torres. This is called infinite flow. He's from Arvada, Colorado hand painted mural, based on local culture, flora and fauna. And he's the only one that did include that optional southeast corner fire escape stairwell. So again, on the left you can see the

[86:18] kind of 4 story wall, and it kind of will trail those images. The colors will kind of trail across the parking garage elevator base. and then the 4 images on the right. The top is like flowers and butterflies. The The next one is kind of like referencing cultural people here in Colorado. Next one is images of birds, and then the bottom one is 2 folks hiking in boulder. and then the final image on the far right. That's the kind of some of the imagery that they'll be painting on that optional external again, no issues from the Trc.

[87:00] They really liked that it was really thought through. It contained a lot of detail, incorporated all the concepts they asked for the Rfq. And they really had confidence in his artistic abilities. Somebody said it was really beautiful. They loved the narrative and the cultural symbols. Beautiful colors loved the human forms, not just nature or animal. It's felt authentic, and would add more to a sense of place. Liked. How? He woke together many concepts and they like the option. For the second location. it felt like it had a motion and vibrancy of color. There were some concerns, maybe, that the faces felt like the images of the faces felt like stereotyping a little bit. So just to make sure that he maybe does some research in the community. Someone said. It may be too ambitious. And it felt like it was maybe missing some of the educational aspects that some of the other ones had, and that the 2 women pictured at the bottom. The 2 hiking women pictured at the bottom of the backpacks felt too generic for both.

[88:05] Okay, so this again, this is a unanimous vote for infinite flow by Beamer Torres. So feedback for him was to just make sure to really research, indigenous faces and clothing, and potentially consult with creative nations if needed, rethink the 2 women hiking at the bottom, maybe replaced with 2 bear cubs potentially. So that was an idea that was thrown out, and then also make the background colors kind of less colorful, less swirly. It felt a little too heavy, so maybe lighten up some of that background, swirl again. Next, steps are to bring it to the you all will approve hopefully in the process of the final selection. We'll go to city manager for approval and contracting, and then follow up with the artist in terms of design and set expectations. Any questions.

[89:00] you know, I'll just say that we are fantastic and in indigenous spaces is what it does like. That's like all of us. So I've worked with him before, and I trust I trust him. Religious need to make a motion on the last one. Is it coming up green portion? And yeah, I move until we approve. This process is probably conducted and recommended the proposal by artist viewer. Torres advanced to the city manager for final approval. One second, oh, or any dispatching person all in favor. Jeffrey's hand is up on mine, so it's unanimous, yay. great, all right. Any final thoughts on the projects, process or success suggestions for success. I mean, I just, I just want to thank the panel. It's a lot of work for representing us. There, that's a lot. Thank you. It's a great group you put together a really good panel. It was. It was a good group, very thoughtful.

[90:02] Yeah, yeah. Great work. A lot of work. Great. I think the next thing on the agenda is just just. This is just a reminder. This was a really big project, because we had such a huge budget. So we did divide that budget into these 3 projects. We are holding back some contingency for these projects. If we don't spend that contingency, I'll pull this panel back together, and we'll if we have the funds, we'll do a call for maybe some more. 2 dimensional works that will be hung in the lobby or in hallways of the new building. But we're not. Gonna we're gonna do that once the building is open. which is one of them, they say, like, end of 2027. So we've got some time. It's they're not gonna see these works for a while, but eventually they'll get there. But I will say we do have a a handful of projects coming up this year. A couple. One of them has a total budget of about 400,000, which is probably the biggest one. The smallest one is more like 20,000. So again, for those smaller budgets, we'll just do kind of one call for one artwork. It won't be this extensive process. But in the policy we always need at least one Arts Commissioner to serve on these panels.

[91:20] And so it's sort of your part of your role and responsibility as a Commissioner is to you know, as we, these projects pop up, we need your help to fill these panels to be voting members. We will bring those these panels back to you for approval. So as we build these panels and dial in with the project managers in each of those departments. We'll come back to you to approve the panel and kind of approve the direction of the project. But just I know that, Jill. I think you've said yes to a project this year. You land your Uni Hill with Jake, which we'll talk about that there might be some changes happening at that point. But we'll talk about it. Cheryl, I think you're on a list, and Maria's already volunteered for for a project. So I just want to just remind you all that like this is.

[92:05] we really appreciate your time and energy, and it's like super important for our process to have representation from the Commission on this selection. It was fun, it was fun, it should be. I hope it. Yeah, that's my goal. You'll be able to walk up the boat any other questions. Alright, thank you. Yeah. thank you, Rachel. You're welcome there. People telling me, yeah, why get that? Well, I'm gonna replace you here.

[93:00] So we just have one report for your consideration through. This is an ice education, grant, boulder office, social and flowers. Next step, please. Your options, as you might be familiar, are to approve the report, approve the report while submitting comments, postpone approval to the report pending the answers to specific comments or not approve the report and cancel the final 20% like motion to move. I move that we approve the Grant report for the boulder. Second, that. Okay, any discussion? I love the project, but you know I love the like with their outreach in, and it was bilingual. I like the introduction of opera and mixing of the making of the flowers. They make the flowers. They also read the book and do the opera. It's like multimedia. And I thought their outreach is great, that they reach 1,500 students. Just that cultural piece, I think.

[94:14] Super great. Alright. Anybody else. No, I'm just waiting. Okay, all in favor of the conveying. And Jeffrey online is, yes, also. So we need to do that. So we have, as you know, a grants panel, and we have 5. We have some panel meetings coming up in which one Commissioner will serve as the liaison. We also have a financial documents training for February for both Commissioners and the panel. That involvement will be the training. I'm still finalizing a date with her, but if you can't make whatever date is occurring, we will be recording it. So watch her later, and I'm sure that you can submit questions to her after the fact as well.

[95:07] So again Tbd. On the financial documents training. But I do need a Commissioner to volunteer for panel meetings. These are scheduled the same day as commission meetings. So the panel meeting will be 3 to 5. Then the Commission meeting would be 6 to 8, and next Commission meeting in February. The new panel is going to be arriving early to do anything. Oh, great! And can you remind the Commission what the role of the Commission will be at the meetings? Is it a voting role. Oh, yes, thank you. It's a non-voting role. Yeah. So you would take notes and pass on what you witnessed to the Commission when the decisions were final with the board. and we don't have to go to. Yes, according to the document that this commission approved, it would make one this week right then.

[96:04] Just wanted to finish the holiday. Oh, it it could be a different question. Okay, that's fine, because I can't do all the dates. But I will volunteer for. And would the Commissioner be expected to be giving input? And having read all the applications, or just merely an observer? The idea was to be an observer for the panel meeting, because then there's further deliberation in the process before their final recommendations. You are Georgia due to March 26.th Yeah, it was just. you know, opt them to do that. Now she will do that. Yeah.

[97:02] thank you. March. Oh, got to play. I mean, you can also side of everything. Yeah, I am sorry I have to make sure that I'm still on a school calendar. So so, Sarah, if she can't do it. There are like a volunteer for the project ranch for individuals, just to avoid any potential conflict. make sure June and July can be revisited. Did someone already get assigned? April? Yes, you know. So we're we have July open right now, Jeffrey.

[98:01] Hmm! It's not. I'm I'm I'm happy taking that one who who signed up for April. Then it doesn't bother. Oh, wonderful! And I can be your backup to any of those. Thank you. Excellent! And Lauren, yes. Oh, good. Okay, and thank you. Everybody. As we work our way through our 1st year of the Grant panel. As we figure that out, we will appreciate your input for that coming years. So Maria have reached out and asked that I give this blueprint update, which I'm glad not to add to every there was a little summary in your packet, but I did want to talk through a little, or just talk it through briefly. Make sure that you have everything you need to talk to the community, and then I will share the a piece of the

[99:02] presentation that they shared at their December meeting with the phasing. But I wanted to just sort of talk it through first.st So you're not just like staring at that. So the team was here in December. It is puma from from Denver, and they are working mostly on the engagement piece. And then Psp, which is public sphere projects who are based kind of all over the place, working on the bigger vision sort of guiding principles. Piece of it. But they all have experience and lots and lots of different ways. We can talk about that. If you're interested. They're giving us a report. That is a follow up in their December visit. That will come pretty shortly, so we'll have like an initial report from them. But they're giving us sort of reports along the way. So we get updates, and then that's what they will then bring back to the Advisory Committee to talk through and say, this is what we understood. This is what we heard. You think this is right, and like, what kind of new directions do we need to go in right?

[100:01] As part of that? They're coming back in early March. And so we're meeting with a few different focus groups that will organize them. Now we'll meet again with the Advisory Committee. Do some more public engagement pieces, which I'll talk about in a second and they. And this is like, based on the feedback that they got from the 1st one. So like, Hey, we really want to talk to some hippies and burners and contemplative kind of people that are just like base of boulder that we keep hearing about. How do we focus on that, because we feel like we didn't touch into that the 1st time. Right? So they're doing this like thoughtful feedback loop of who they spoke to. And then the who they'll speak to next time. That being said, too, we have a ton of engagement going on right now with public, so we will be opening a questionnaire, which is, I think, one of the that will be a really really big push, both out to the general public and to our arts organizations right? Like at this point, to be giving us feedback. It's through one of these focus groups or through like a simple question that we have online. But an open questionnaire that has data points that we can map qualitative questions that's going to be really, really helpful to help us get in a much more broad public.

[101:13] Thought right together with that we have been very lucky to collaborate with the comprehensive plan. So the Boulder Valley comprehensive plan is also doing engagement right now. And this was a big part of the timing of our project is overlapping exactly with the plan and leadership, and we wanted to like align with it, but also take advantage of all of their engagement. Right? So for example, modis theater has been doing some public events for the Comp plan. And we have been both using that input. But also we have tables at those events to get additional information for the blueprint design right? So I sent an email out to everybody, and I have a lot of content in it, and I can send it again happily. But there are some upcoming events where we'll have a boulder Earth blueprint engagement table at those events.

[102:03] But it's overlapping with the comp team stuff. So it's comp team comp conference and planning team events. And we're like just tagging on to all of them. We'll have that questionnaire soon. We're getting input already to different questions and things in person puma is at is at the tables like listening to what people are interested in getting feedback. Right? There's one more modus event. We're gonna have a table outside here, a winter bike to work day like have food. And as people are like biking into work, so this audience of people that are like, really into biking in the winter. I'm very curious. I'm gonna be at that table because I'm very curious about the people. I'm like. The important and interesting thing about working with the content is that they are plugging into a whole bunch of audiences that are way outside of our right, like when the 2 8 vote passed right, it passed with 75%. Who it was that wasn't just the arts community. That is the general public right like, what did all those people mean when when they agreed to that? Like, what is, what does the community want? Right? Very broadly. So it's been wonderful to like, overlap and work with them on this engagement pieces and also get them to talk about the arts more and be arts things not gonna lie. We've been like sneaking in in there.

[103:17] Finally, we have a chat with council, which is you do have to Rsvp and sign up to join it, but that'll be in March in Novo. I have a table there at Novo 1st Fridays for a couple of them, but the chat with council is specifically about arts and culture. It's a. It's a different kind of program that this city council wanted. Where a couple of City Council members will have some questions. Members of the community can sign up and then talk specifically about arts and culture topics with council, and then our staff. Thank you, Brendan, and thank you. All of our staff are going to be there sort of helping with taking notes and facilitating the questions and things. But it is another way for us to plug into people that might not be

[104:00] plugging into us already, right? Like we feel like we're gonna hear from the arts community, and I'm looking forward to it. But we also want to hear from a lot of other community members. So I'm going to share this. Oh, yeah, sure. Let me share this, and then I'll talk about the experiments in public art process, or you can't, too. Don't you like that'd be awesome. This is just what Maria had referenced earlier about a timeline. So this is the timeline that I'm calling them the cats. If you hear me calling this because it's Psp and Puma and Psp to me sounds like I'm calling them the cats. That's our consultant, and they've agreed to it. They're making me a shirt. Okay, this is the cats timeline as we've established it. Okay, but I have to point out that this is phase one. The blueprints is rolling out in 2 phases, in part because of our overlap with the comprehensive plan, and in part because of some of our budget deadlines with

[105:05] the Grant program and June of this year, like the citywide timing budget. Right? So by this roadmap is very specifically and heavily oriented towards getting a big vision right like, what do you really want? What do you want? Our arts programming? You don't have to tell us details. It's big vision. like big ideas of what we want to see in the future. What did you envision when you said yes to today? Right? And or what did you know that it's there? And that's the extent of this. We do have a phase 2 which will go through December. The Comp plan also goes through actually like really 27. But so we're going to continue to overlap with them. But this is the 1st phase. The second phase will have more detail, more pro programmatic, more public art. Sorry, Brenda, but the 1st part is very heavy. This is very big vision and grants heavy because of our budget timing like they have to be realistic as part of this, too. Right?

[106:10] before I leave the blueprint. If anybody has questions about the blueprint stuff specifically please let me know. And then we can talk briefly about the school project. That is also a big overlap between the content and blueprints. Research, big vision. T-shirt, yeah, it's good. It's been really excellent. And this group is really fantastic. And I'm just hoping that we can like plug everybody and make sure that they feel like they're being heard. I think the other piece that I can update you on is a series that is called Experience public art. Do you want to talk about it very briefly. Can you come into the primary? So

[107:05] The Boulder Valley comprehensive plan has a portion of things where experiments in public art is sort of dovetailing with their community engagement efforts. And so I've been contracted to help get artists plugged into the planning process using. It's super exciting. I'm really thrilled to be doing this work because I feel like it's really innovative. And it's going to have a really big impact. And so I've planned 4 different sort of projects for this effort. There's an illustrator who's helping us make visual. The existing conditions are sort of where we are right now. and he's probably going to animate it as well. We can see if we can put that in which is exciting. The 2 middle projects will be somewhat of like a social engagement kind of a thing. We're still working out exactly what that looks like. Dovetailing with the community

[108:02] assemblies, and then the other one that dovetails in terms of timing with the big ideas and trade-off conversations as part of that comprehensive plan. And then the last project, I hope to be a mural on a city building outside somewhere. So we'll have a memorial and a reminder and a visual relic of the whole process that will remind the community about what they were interested in saying, and what they said was important to them as part of the print. I use it a lot. So it kind of depends where I was referencing it. I think, in terms of timing right like the Bbcp. Has, like all these different phases, you know. And so there's parts of those phases that are more accessible or more relevant to community engagement, and so

[109:04] in their in their process. If we can plug public art into like in parts of the process that they already have. Then that's what I mean by integrating or like the like working in parallel. Yeah, good thing I was here. So that's an exciting piece, that I think a lot of it is about also making sure that the arts are helping translate these like very complex ideas and concepts that come up in the comprehensive plan, translating them, making sure they're more accessible, making sure that they're interesting when you're talking about them sorry planners, if you're listening to this publicly recorded meeting. And so it's also just like we're we're getting our fingers into other things. And they're already thinking about, how do we do art in this other piece? They're like the existing conditions which went live today. If you want to look at. It talks a lot more about arts and culture than we did 10 years ago in our comprehensive planning process, which I'm very proud to say is part of this.

[110:19] They're thinking of us because they're seeing how it works in different ways. Right? Thanks for learning stuff about that. It's good stuff. We'll have more updates on it, too, as it comes around. Oh, and then just a question to managers. Now of your massive before we hit that, we skipped over something, so I administratively approved a couple kinds of grants, and I was going through the reports. And there's a lot of cute quotes that I'm very sad. The Commissioners don't get to see. So I created this little summary of the 2024 book Highlights, and I figured we could also use this in spreading the word about the grants, or in further materials for different purposes. So

[111:13] thank you for joining all right. Now, I need questions, so many questions I do. Wanna point out one thing that was in there which was the invitation to have Vegan food. So I don't. I I wanted to just highlight that again. And let anybody make any comments you have about that. Any concerns, any allergies and any excitement for it. Yeah, our colleagues in the Environmental Sustainability Commission. So your commission with the climate office, I believe has requested that all of the commissions move to plant based foods for for dinners. Right, and that's focusing less on.

[112:10] I mean, it includes dairy meat, cheeses, that sort of thing, and moving more towards plant-based. And I think we just wanted to be sure that you're aware of that when you start seeing that food come up. But also, if you have dietary restrictions, if you really want to have a protein of some kind. Just please let us know, but we want to move towards that. I didn't get very confident. So you're saying that not eating meat is better than one. So I went to a fundraiser last night of a beef rancher who? So it was the a wolf like save the wolves fundraiser thing. And there was a rancher there from Idaho, and he's come up with a way that

[113:04] I'll condense this. They're raising the cattle in a way that's actually rebuilding the land and putting more nature changes into the soil. So yeah, there are sustainable ways to do it, for sure. Well, thanks for providing us dinner all the time. Wonderful! But let us know, too, or if you have dietary restrictions. but thank you. awesome. So, having reached the end of our agenda and 6 min to fare. I'll declare the meeting agenda. Thank you. I just had a couple of liaison updates that I'm gonna reopen the meeting, reopen the meeting personally very quickly.

[114:10] so Betsy is on their 5th of 6 main stage shows this season. With lots of extra program. They have a kid and family improv series. They have stage reading in February, at the dairy for Valentine's Week. They also have a stage reading series in March with floor plans. They're also planning a theater trip to New York City for a week in May. That looks really fun fundraising. As well. We had a nice meeting there waiting to see what opportunities might be on them. As we are. Yeah. Boulder ballet they have from February 10, th 14.th They have their wellness week. They are offering a free class each day that week, so check that out.

[115:03] And my other people. Thank you, Jeffrey. I'll invite you if you have any players and updates. Mine are mine are pretty expensive, expensive, expansive. Sorry. The damn braces and so I'll just save them for next next month, and just add them into that. But You know I continue to have meetings with just about all of them every month. Alright, now we're adjourned! Oh, I'd love that. Yeah, yeah, I can basically just go through. Yeah. What I do 3, 4 times a week with nonprofits. Call me for an ask. That's why. Okay.