February 26, 2025 — Boulder Arts Commission Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:00] You'll be the rumble we are now reporting. Excellent! It is alright. It is Wednesday, February 26, th 2025. Welcome to the Boulder Arts Commission meeting, and we'll call Roll. Cheryl. Cardnoso is not here yet. Maria Cole is also not here yet. is here online. Yes. Here. Yes, sure. Yes. Do you live, President? I will now hand the meeting over to the chair to call the meeting floor. Great, and we'll bring the meeting of the Boulder Arts Commission, February 26, th 2025. Meeting to order. Our 1st matter of business is the land dedication.

[1:02] the city of Boulder acknowledges the city is on 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, Connie Shoshone, Sue, and you. 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 I'll open the floor for approval of the agenda. With one note, I see that the prints are not what was in the managers, which is the print. This one. Yeah. Okay, great. I'll just bring up the one thing that I said, Okay. so we're good with what is in front of us.

[2:02] Second, one, bigger, unanimous. Thank you. The minutes. We have not only the approval of the January meeting minutes, but I saw the managers member memo that the retreat minutes. Also, was that a type of yeah, okay, that's what I thought. And then I wasn't sure if there, because there's 2 parts of last month. that's great. Yeah, perfect. So we've got the January 2025 meeting minutes up for approval would like to make a motion one second, all in favor. Unanimous. Thank you do. We have anybody signed up for public participation? We do not, and not seeing any public in the room.

[3:02] move forward to commission business. And did we have anything added on the agenda admissions. Okay? Moving right along to number 5 liaison updates. they like to share what's going out. Out in the world. Yeah, you had something I just wanted to bring to everyone's attention. One of my liaison organizations has a national endowment for the arts, grant and the Nea has sent out some new requirements, and I'll just read you a couple bullet points. One is to comply with all executive orders. And then this, the website where to find those applicant will not operate any programs promoting Dei and that violate applicable discrimination law. I'll just give you the highlights. Okay? And then the

[4:04] applicant understands that federal funds shall not be used to promote gender ideology. So I just wanted to bring this to our attention because these are happening. Obviously, these changes are happening at the national level. I think it's confusing to one of the organizations that have federal grants. not really sure how to proceed. I think they're some mixed messages in this, and also this ongoing fly, with whatever executive orders, or just wanted to see if anyone has any thoughts or heard feedback from your organization. Thank you for bringing that. Because I've actually thought of that today. It was like that conflict between Federal and what we've done in our right. That doesn't affect that. But it's affecting organizations, both service organizations, arts, organizations. And so we're going to hear more and more folks that are having

[5:00] programmatic problems and and funding problems. I've heard it through so many folks that we're connected to and and support as well. Yeah, I was just curious about any of our grantees who also get Federal dollars. Whether there's conflicts there. I think that what it sounds like, you know the Federal dollars if, I added, I don't know the ins and outs of the grant. But Federal dollars, I think, are going to a certain program. the programming. But I think it just makes things more probably complicated to how you're running your organization. And when some of the initiatives that we encourage are at the heart of the organizations because we all have liaisons. It'd be interesting for us to to reach out the next round of of reach outs to see if we have anyone even large enough, or has qualified in the past, or was looking to qualify for any a grant, whether it be something the size of something like full refill, or or Colorado festival, or something like that, or even using a folder.

[6:12] I don't know if we you know, if we find that there's a need, if we can at least organize or host a forum, the encourage those folks to talk to each other. I don't know if we can lead that conversation really, but help connect organizations so they can talk to each other. Can we put out a statement? I don't think so just so far that but the city putting out a statement as opposed to we well, we don't get any Federal funding started that, like our like, the Grant program is no longer federally funded like, we're not getting arpa funds anymore. the city itself, like the city manager, would need to put out a statement and the like tone that we've received. As far as like, we're gonna carry on

[7:09] as structured by our framework. The same billing equity resilience framework. Sarah, okay, thank you, Joe. Can you hear us? Well enough? Yeah. Lauren was cutting out a little bit, but other than that, I was hearing everything. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Cheryl. I'm here now, too, and I can hear you. But I'm driving. So I'm gonna mute and be off. Video. Okay. Please. Drive. Safe. I will see you soon. Well, it's just something that reiterates with what we already have like. Oh, you know that just about our community cultural plan, and who our grants what our Grant program is and who it serves, and just kind of like, because that way you don't have to change anyway. And just just like kind of

[8:03] reiterate. This is what we do. And I, yeah, I think that is, and that's something about the work items is the Arts Commission, which is just tough because it's hard to make like a statement. And who knows? Manage it by email. However, you have a statement on cultural empathy already, right and maybe there is something to be said for the Arts Commission getting together, making a statement yourselves. I would have to see from our office and from like the city's perspective about just for communications of that. But that's fine, like that great, the other thing that Maria brought up, which is a cultural summit. We're just getting these organizations together to talk about their concerns and what they're doing, and that sort of thing that is certainly within our scope of like a cultural summit, and Sarah and I talked about it a little bit already for the summer. I think when we know more about what is going to be asked of the organizations. I mean, we have this kind of guidance. But, like, how does that play out of the next couple of months with the Federal budget and that kind of thing.

[9:05] so yes, and I think we go for getting these groups together. Whenever you hear from your liaisons, I would be very interested to hear who is getting so yeah. do you have anything to add? Agree with everything? Hello! My name is Pat, I would also say, encourage organizations to reach out to the State of the Ministries, because, 1st of all, they are highly funded by the Federal Government to navigate that but also I think that there's an overlapping issue with the ice raids on businesses that are already starting to happen in the State, and I think it would be great if the State brought some guidance on all of these things. But the other thing is that we did have a senior, send out a staff, a reaffirmative of our equity practices and policies. And so maybe that's something that we can share with

[10:09] going back to the ice rates. I was just like the state of the state of the Governor couple of weeks ago, and his stance is that they are the law enforcement for Colorado as as well as in Colorado. Municipalities from Colorado State folks are are not permitted to to to to do what the ice folks are doing, but because the ice folks are Federal and citizens. and they- they cannot get involved at this. Yeah. I'm assuming that's great. Jill has raised her hand. Oh, thank you. I was just going to share that. Yeah, not only the national endowment for the arts, but it would be Imls, which is, oh, God Institute of Museum services. Something. But there's a nonprofit grant that would apply to like any educational museum, whether it's arts or sciences, natural history. And then Noi, which the junkyard received last year. It's a two-year grant. But I was

[11:16] reflecting this year that we got the funds in March, and so thinking about the organizations that are receiving or supposed to receive those funds. Now that could be on hold because of this. So yeah, I definitely think that it is weighing heavily on perhaps many organizations with on in our community. And yeah, and that's I don't know kind of all the more reason that it's it's important for us as the city to be able to support their needs right now, when potentially the Federal funding is not as secure.

[12:01] What is the Noi Michelle. It is the nonprofit operating infrastructure, grant, and that one is Federal. But then it gets distributed through regional bodies. And so the I know that we got it, and Rocky Mountain Equality got it last year, and United Way of Colorado was the entity that distributed it, but it was a Federal fund that I imagine would still be controlled by decisions making. Now. So just looking for input. If there's anything missing from our sort of plan of action, we're going to reach out to our liaisons. Let more know what we're hearing. And then we can assess the need and desire for public forum as well as, and that we can also put our head around a more direct statement website.

[13:07] And my list also is, I will send to you what we receive from city manager, because that might have some good. It's inspirational, at least right, and also look into state resources because it or when you speak to your liaison organizations right to not just ask about nea funding, because I think it's quite rare. Actually, it's those are really, really hard grants to get. But if there's funding that they know that's coming from other sources such as not just our organization. Actually, folks that are doing social service as well. Economies project and a lot of the women's clinics and things like that would be great, perfect. Thank you for bringing that up. All right. Liaison updates 3 ports.

[14:05] Alright. Maybe. Yeah, sure. Well, I just wanted to see if we could get an update about that as soon as you saw it was, the selection was published. That was a lot of effort by a lot of people to review almost 65 submissions. Have a lot of discussion interviews and selected my own firm, which is soil from New York City and their team with over here in Boulder. So I think it's gonna be a really strong team. David and Glenn went out toward the 2 shortlisted terms towards the buildings, and really liked the

[15:00] depth of experience of soil cultural projects they've done. You know, campuses have a good handle on that. They sit in their office, for instance, they, you know, had mock-ups of lighting systems, and so they know how to do this type of work and then cover. You know, as probably you guys know, there's a lot of housing in this community, they'll be the support firm. So we need to get things through the regulatory process. So, looking forward to starting design, I think the contracts in negotiations. So looking forward to starting design soon. that's it's a huge milestone. Yeah, congratulations. Yeah. I'm so glad we have your architect brains. Well, it was a committee. So yeah, awesome. Awesome. The only I don't really have anything going on with liaisons right now. I know everybody was working on the reports. The dance organizations are gearing up for April events.

[16:05] and series. And I did get to go the my favorite thing. And then I saw you later there was at the catamounts did go sports. And oh, my goodness obsessed, yeah, it was really cool, really like unique storytelling. It was delightful and very intimate. They say in their report, they talk about really keeping the model of having small audiences, and it really added a lot to it. It's really beautiful. Didn't quite understand why, but I was sobby, I just think about 27 reasons. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it was one of those like very nonlinear stories. Yeah, yeah, I don't know what's going on, but it's I went to a performance for the Boulder Philharmonic back in January their programming for the entire year is is really exciting. They've got a lot of collaboration with bluegrass groups, and they are also collaborating with a lot of different young professional groups for

[17:14] smaller intimate type concerts. Their development Director Jesse actually recently just joined the Board of Border young professionals for which I'm presenting sponsor. So I'm glad that he's he's getting involved because he's new to town as well. Museum of boulder. We'll hear about an update request from them. But I did sit down with their executive director and development director. And they have basically a 3, 4 year plan for their exhibits. And it's really exciting what they have coming up and where it's really going to become a community gathering space and a lot of opportunities to bring folks into that space a meeting with Colorado Music Festival on Monday with their development folks, and they are currently advertising for a director of development to head that up

[18:03] dairy arts center. Their Quarterly meeting is tomorrow but as as a side thing, the Society for Arts Entrepreneurship Educators. I get to go to that conference tomorrow in Kansas City, and I'm presenting a paper on an entrepreneurial approach to corporate and community sponsorships, which is about the classic film series that I curate post over at the dairy. So I get to to brag about that, and it's made some very nice press from Miss West. Recently I met recently with Josh Halpern from cultural caravan on how best to acquire and activate corporate sponsorships. And was able to connect him with with some folks to take things to the next level. Also met with Nick Forster over at E-town. Just kind of catch up with him on everything. And I also him owe him templates and materials of how to set up an endowment fund, which is something I provided for a couple of other organizations as well. So this is a reminder that I need to get that to him because I couldn't find those ones.

[19:10] Thanks everybody else. I was gonna share kind of rel relating to our new goals as a commission in regards to how we can best support other organizations or organizations within our community. I had volunteered to dig into grant support or other funding source supports. And so I'm going through my second year of applying for Scfd funds, which is huge and cumbersome, and you have to have been in operation with your programs for 5 years before you can submit. Then you can get eligibility. Then you go through the process of actually applying for it. So probably many of our organizations that we are liaisons for are going through the Sefd process right now.

[20:02] State funded, not Federal funded. So again, super important right now. But yeah, kind of like doing a little bit deeper. Dive into it for myself to be able to support potentially organizations that are at that 4 year mark and are going to go through the heavy lifting of their 5th year, and and want to make myself available to those as an advisor for going through that process. And then I was going to say, from the junkyard side personal liaison along the Dei lines. I'm really excited that in the next 7 days, 8 days ish, or within an 8 day period of the events that are coming up. We've got the here to pee Comedy Tour, which is funded by Rocky Mountain equality, but a comedy show. But I'm by incredible, Ren, who's just a fantastic comedian. But that's happening. It's sold out, unfortunately, but it's I'm so excited that we're able to hold space for it the next about like

[21:02] I don't know. 6 days later we have the second anniversary of our Salsa event put on by Marcella Lay. But it's daple now I feel like of the Latinx community here in Boulder, and then the night after that, our fresh Mode festival, which is a hip hop, festival that hits on all the elements of hip hop from Mc. Breakdancing mural graffiti and celebrates that culture from 3 Pm. To 11. So all ages, families, kids welcome. So yeah, excited about the things that are kind of coming up that I feel like support these niche communities within boulder that are so important. George, are you also? I went to the another installation of the website galleries, and that was my 1st time there. So it was fun to know where it is.

[22:06] Yep, I had just wanted to bring up that tomorrow, the 27, th from 4 o'clock to 7 o'clock. There's an art walk on West Pearl fitting looks like 4 different galleries put on by the new local. or maybe 5 different galleries. So I suspect that starts at the new level of 4. So that would be something cool going on. And since Cheryl isn't here, I will speak for her for Border International Film festival, and the Biff gals have their 21st International film Festival March 13th through 16.th And they just keep doing all these teaser releases every day. And it's gonna be a really really exciting weekend. Great

[23:01] let's move on to the committees that we put together. I was looking at. I my computer blacked out and can't find the list. and then the memo of whatever oh, perfect cool. Did you have an overview? Oh, thank you. Yes, I have an overview that I wanted to. Yeah, bring this with them just another few weeks. So thank you. Or I can share too. Sarah, let me see. Sure. Okay, to zoom in. Okay. taking it back. Taking. Okay? I know. Okay, so so a bit of framing, because and I feel like we do this every year. But just to kind of a refresher. Right? A few things. One is, first, st the Arts Commission and your role with us as staff. Right is a little strange. But

[24:02] you advise us. You work on the grants, you work on the public art program, you have your liaison positions, and you are ambassadors to the community. Those are your goals right, and you do a wonderful job with all of those, and I want you to keep those in mind while we walk through these work items. also, I wanted to note that I put rebuilding trust in this awful, awful graphic. This is the reason I did not go into graphic design. It's my passion I really liked. And Georgia made this point last time that really working us doing our job really well, and the Commission being investors in the community and us stewarding public funds in a transparent way, and being clear about that is really going to be what helps us rebuild trust. So that is like encompassing all of these when we do a good job. And people see that that's our rebuilding trust. That's what that means in transition and question. Yes.

[25:01] Well, I know we're talking about. This. Is, is there what evidence we have that there was a loss of trust that needs to be rebuilt. Good! Well, I mean, does anybody all of the Commission speak? I don't remember. I'd have to look at my notes where that came from, I mean, I think we talked about it. Well, as they talk about the rest of them, maybe it'll like plug us into how it fits into getting connected with the community like the hiccups between the blueprints with the 2, a fund. I think there's just some kind of like overall like concerns about us being plugged in and transparent, and like doing our work well, which we are. We're doing really well. But I'll start from the top. And I. Another sort of reminder is that

[26:02] we have our work plan set out from last year like Staff has a work plan, right? So we hope that you can advise us, and that you can like advising on, hey? Maybe we should have a summit about these Federal grants. Get people together about that. That's perfect. It fits into what we've already got scheduled and plan and organized. It's really tough for us to take on additional work items that are not city council like bigger senior staff. Right? that's just a background. So I've broke them out. Continued work on how to support the city's work with tribal nations. Georgian Maria. Currently, we have our citywide strategy and consultation that is like ongoing continuously boulder arts, boulder county arts, alliance artist list. They are working on getting their artist list in the background. I asked her for a timeline. She didn't have it yet, but they have like a you know what it's fine. They're a little delayed because of some internal stuff, so that that's all to say, they're working on getting an artist list which will have different ways to filter. So

[27:07] by all kinds of different things, and not just by supporting ways to support indigenous artists. But this is one of the ways right? We work with the Hhs on digital funding indigenous peoples day through sponsorships and the blueprint. And obviously, that is strategically in all of these, because this is a big way that we get community input and then we'll be able to build programs for the next 1020 years based on that input right and just some previous work you did. that we've done together is that presentation by our city's liaisons which I've done excellent, and also your statement on cultural equity ties your work directly into how you want to continue to support tribulations. So I frame this by saying. this is what's happening. This is where we're going with it. If if the 2 of you want. If you want me to organize a meeting for the 3 of us, we have a call or something. We talk about other ideas that you might have in mind, and then I can filter how they would fit into our

[28:05] work plan, or how we fit them into the blueprint. How we give feedback to the consultants. To like this is something that's really interest the Arts Commission, or it could be something that you work on independently as a commission or as individuals. Right? So maybe I'll wait till the end to see how we want to get everybody together. I can just write you 2 afterwards, too. Can you say again, what is Hhs the housing and human services? So we do sponsorships through actually the Human Relations Fund, which is part of Hhs. They they give funding out. And we give a grant or a sponsorship on top of that to support programs happening during indigenous peoples, day programs that have parks included. Just oh, arts and culture arts and coffee. Yeah, thank you. connecting other funders with grantees and arts community. Thank you, Jill, for bringing that up and for any kind of thought. I know that's a really tough one, and we all know about the scfd deadline, so we'll pray for you. But Jill and Georgia, this is a another good one that if we want to get together we can have a zoom call. Talk about other ways to

[29:13] that. You have about where to get new ideas for funders, how we might be able to share them. Like, we say, we have a newsletter. We have our website. We have our Instagram account. We've hosted, we host the annual December Funders summits, right? Which I think, are actually super fun, and we have the blueprint. So how can we feed your ideas like, what's a what's an easy way of gathering this information. Once we have the information we can like, easily share it out right. But, like, what else do you have in mind for those coaching sessions with arts, organizations, on fundraising venues and marketing. I mean, it sounds like you 2 had already talked about this. Or we're going to. Okay. Great. This is independent by Arts Commissioners, but also

[30:00] attending, presenting at summits attending summits. Boulder, county Art. Science has an excellent series that we could pull from plug into right? And then our Grant writing support is a way that we support our organizations. But if there's other things that you think of, we can talk through. If it fits into our work, plan how, how we can make it work, or if it's something that we say, Hey, it's best. If the Commission does this independently, if you do it independently. and just say, Hey, if you get pulled up to speak, or presented something else, let me know if they need that person, because I thought he and I both really really well together coattails, I believe that. And then finally, connecting with connecting youth with Hertz opportunities such as the boulder you have. Obviously we have our arts, education grant our field trip fund. We have citywide partnerships to that work a lot with youth in ways that we don't so like. The pottery lab has a contract from the city. That's very, very solid. Also, we are working very specifically in the blueprint. They're doing a focus group with your lab to be sure that we're like getting input from young advisors on what we should be doing in the future. So I think that is a really key piece of this

[31:23] work. It's not commission work per se. But I mean, we have our ongoing partnership with Boulder Arts Week and those beautiful banners. If you've seen them outside, they're so charming. We're working on a Uni Hill Public art project. And we actually, that was a previous one that we did with students. But. Cheryl, if you're if you can hear us, Cheryl, anyway, if you want me to organize something, I think my my overall statement for this is just to know the scope, and there's even more things right. The scope of what you've done in the past, and you should be very proud of that scope of what the city is doing, like the city's doing some excellent work. and what you can do as commissioners. If you want me to organize something, let me know. I'll focus a little zoom call. We can talk about what you have in mind. We can see what fits with where we can fit it in with our work plan, or where we can say

[32:10] we need the actually, we need the consultants to talk to you up and see what they're interested in doing right. Oh, pardon! The last piece is continued work at the city legislative liaison. This one is tough because it's not our department, so you can certainly, as commissioners, you can work individually on advocacy. You could. you know, write letters, work together hypothetically, in in different ways. to campaign or to speak with Carl, who's still there? Maybe in a couple years we bring him back when it's not the same kind of round of commissioners, but it's a little. It's a little awkward, since it's not our department right, and he is working specifically on Council's legislative agenda. So this is another thing like his connections and his input are from city council and city council, with State, with Federal. So in so far as he can. Right. I don't know if there was anything at this point, but he is listening to city councils and working on City Council's legislative agenda. So this is another thought of. If you want to get to him to work on stuff, it's actually with city Council right? And we can certainly not like guide any of that as you want.

[33:26] I feel like and correct me. If I'm wrong, I'd have to look at my notes from the from the retreat 2 years ago. At this point where he came in and talked, and I felt like kind of the takeaway was that he could provide us with just some context about what was going on and receive. You know, if there was anything that we thought might fit into statewide initiatives that would help the cities or programs that he was available to hear. That is that kind of what you think the the scope of contact with him.

[34:04] you know, if you want, I can ask him specifically how he would prefer to or like what he's interested, or you know how he would best share information. Because also, I I think of the recent the Statewide tax credit for a large film organization that's like in the process at a state level. And that work we find out from Cbca and Elephant really the Advocacy group. So I can ask him about his processes. And what would be an easy way for us to plug in to know what he's working on. If that would be easy. Yeah, that would be under the umbrella of Cdca. There's also the Colorado cultural champions on the county, liaison on that. And anytime I I would think of anything that might come up across the States that would should be reported back to us. Of course I would. Would you be able to send us all a copy of the slide? Sure.

[35:00] And then when I send it? Why don't you respond back? And I'll organize or something, if you wanna if you're interested in talking about like what else we can do where this all fits. That sounds good for everybody. Can I suggest to George's point about the box at the bottom? Can we rename that? We say something like strategic work to further the mission of the Commission. Something like this, yeah, I was saying earlier that I think it would be better called building trust and rebuilding trust from the general. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yes, thank you. And actually, this is my, it's gonna be my plug time, which is for the blueprint. So we have a questionnaire open right now. We have hundreds of responses already, and I encourage you to get more. This is the way that we're going to hear back we're going to build into like the blueprint is really the way this is the way that we're going to be able to hear back. We're going to be able to understand what the community is interested and try to like. All come together and go in one direction from here out. So I really I will send it to you again. But I encourage you to share the questionnaire with all of your liaison organizations. I can reconnect you if you want

[36:20] and you know I'll get the blueprint update later. But I I think that is really a way that we can integrate a lot of this information and starting to hear from people and really saying like, we are hearing you, and we're going to work on that is going to start getting us back to strategic working on that just building trust or expanding trust. And they're back here in March. Yes, they're back next week. Correct. Yes, the monkeys ready. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Anybody else who has an update or all questions comments.

[37:00] Oh, my God! Did we ever get an action item for the land acknowledgement. That would be the. So that'll be this. Well, sorry it'll be with that work. Item. So if we want to talk about that, Maria and I, yeah. And then we're gonna yeah, yeah, totally. Because then it'll be well, we'll be like a formal meeting. We'll talk about what we can do with it, I think, from the follow up from that presentation is the land. Acknowledgement is like. we're past that. We're past that as a city. But like, what are we gonna do? What are some like action items that we can actually work on like as a commission as a staff? Right? Yeah. And because it's in the last line where it says that it's our responsibility. I'll do that. Yeah. Company. Okay, yes, thank you.

[38:00] Cool anybody else. There we go Council. Mandated racial equity training. Yes, just a reminder. You all received an email. And I think quite a few of you have taken this training already. It will be. There's a refresher for new mission members. It'll be in April. So if you're interested in taking it again, it's an excellent course. If you're interested in taking it again. You can sign up just to join in, or we can actually book another time if you're interested. Yeah. And then on the point of recorded workshops. Dev. Malden's workshop was recorded. And that's on the website for the Vimeo for the city. If you wanted to do a refresher, I had another event that evening who who was there and how it got correct? Grab and Zab is fantastic.

[39:00] Yeah, alright, Sarah Grant reports couple grants, agenda items today. The 1st is the Project Change Request, which was initially mislabeled. I apologize as a report approval. So this is from Dairy Art Center and creative nations, and initially the project was for workshops, plan to focus on skill sets at the heart of many native nations, and they still did that. However, they were needing to cancel gallery events that would happen after that, due to staff changes. And so they shifted the timeline, and in the same sacred space they're going to hold additional workshops. So they're asking for an extension essentially correct. And and it was because the managing director.

[40:02] but they were not able to that. And they had availability. Changes with the artist that was going to place their participants. I'll move to approve, second, that any discussion just it's disappointing to. I wonder what type of support they need to keep the managing director, because the 1st page of Creative Nations says that it's all indigenous led, and if they can't keep someone in that position, then it's not oh, interesting. And that's like what they move forward with in applying for the grant that it is for this organization. Is there anything any information to share about? Why we left or no? Do you know? Sorry.

[41:06] Sorry. I don't know if I recall the details the way I remember it was, yeah, it does. Yeah, there's no change here. Do you wanna pull it up and look at it together, Georgia, or which the way I read it was that the managing director, I'm sorry the director was leaving, so it was still going to be all indigenous folks that are part of the program are. continue with work. Yeah, I've got it pulled up. It says, continuing to be organized and facilitated and need guidance in another place.

[42:01] Mary Amber Roshanas. Yeah, she's 1 of the grantees. She was awarded a guarantee for a urban thinking workshop last year. Thank you. People vote all in favor. Unanimous. Great. Thank you. Okay, do we need to do that? We started with somebody making a motion. I second that again, I second my second. Okay, thank you. All. all right. We received, I believe, 40 general operating support Grant reports as a reminder. If you submitted this report you would receive an additional year's funding as we work on the Arts. Food banks.

[43:06] Oh, and one of those organizations was museum of Boulder that requested that the way tiers be determined is based off of expenses instead of revenue and This would set a precedent allowing organizations to request tier changes. The way that tier changes are determined and just in. Do you have more to add to that my understanding, just to sort of frame it a little bit, for everybody is that they asked for inclusion in a higher by Georgia in a higher bracket, because their expenses have reached that level and then the the tension in that request, as I read it is with the the way that we define the the levels is based on revenue, not expenses.

[44:05] So that's kind of the issue, and whether or not we want to allow them to bump up, they are very near the next tier for revenue and they've gone through a lot of changes. They went. They had an interim executive director. Last year they brought in a new executive director who then brought in a new development director. So we've gone through a lot of changes there. Am I correct that the tier change changes then from a $20,000 geos to 50,000 gls. 22 to 55, 22 to 55. My initial thoughts are, does. Do we have other organizations? We set a different precedent of bumping people into tiers that they're very close to do. We have other people that are near that. That's the 1st question. And the second question is, does moving them from one tier to the other. Is that $30,000 difference? Does that take something away from someone else?

[45:00] Or does it leave someone else who wasn't eligible for Gls support last time. Those are my questions out into the ether. I had a question also out to the ether. As I was reading it, and I noted that there was an operating loss that, of course, additional funding would help to cover, and as I thought about it. I wondered if that was kind of bootstrapping the issue all altogether. I don't. It feels backward in some way to me to to think about. Well. we've got so many expenses, we need more money. And that's gonna fix our shortfall point of clarification. Yeah, were the questions you post Jeffrey rhetorical? Or did you actually want to? If we have answers to them, I would enjoy answers to both of those. Sure. So we did have 2 organizations request tier changes that were not included, or kind of denied, because they were close, but did not meet the threshold. So the answer to that is, yes, okay. So why was this one included? Because they're hoping to change their eligibility.

[46:21] But the others were not, didn't pursue it. Yeah. Okay. so there were 2 others that we're also near what didn't ask. Okay? Additionally with, if there are no changes to the eligibility by which tier changes are determined. we are still going to spend $66,000 more on renewals that we had budgeted because of the good news that organizations are doing well. However, that does take away from the new applications that we have received. Okay, oops, there is our answer. Did I? Did? I see it? Oh, I see a raising of a hand. I? Yeah, it'd be too little too late. But my.

[47:03] Initial thoughts on it is that if an organization chooses, chooses to spend more than what it's bringing in in revenue, I feel like. It's its responsibility to bring that in through private donations. Rather than trying to argue for additional. You know necessary city funds that could go to other organizations that are choosing to make different decisions around how they're spending their budgets. Well, would it not change our entire like system and structure if we had, like every organization that decided to do it by expense as opposed to revenue like that would. we'd all be saving more money. Yeah, almost encourage some deficits. Yeah, yeah.

[48:02] I I feel further, because of the tough road that they had, and I feel like they've got the leadership now that can take them to the next level. It's just they had a rough time last year. and it's only gonna be one year. This is not a 3 year decision. So it's a short time from today that they right, exactly, exactly. But I wanted to hear very good thoughts on. and it helps that our language is specific to revenue. I do not believe there's an official action needed at this time. Okay, that's good. Thank you for your insight as well, and giving me the the information I was I was looking for. Yes, that's not all right. So good news is that we have a 10% increase in award amounts for all applications, whether they're changing tiers or not. And these organizations are increasing in tier.

[49:12] So every single one of these has gone up. There's not a lot of gone down on this particular. Okay, great groundworks is extra large. Okay? Great hard parts. Sorry, Megan. Were there any other questions about this slide? I don't know. So now we have the recertification of the general operating support grantees that originally applied in 2022, or 2023. Again, they would receive an additional year of funding. You can either approve all reports, approve individual reports, approve individual reports while submitting specific questions and postpone approval of individual reports pending the answers to specific questions. Then, of course, you can approve any of the reports.

[50:07] these are the ones that have submitted reports, and I was going to turn it over to Caroline. If there's further discussion about it. Great? So what I'd like to propose that we do is anybody who would like to either recuse themselves for one or more organizations. Or have a specific conversation about an organization. Let's find them on the list and pull them out for separate discussion and vote and then we'll be left with a large group that we can approve. I'm running through this as fast as I can. None of us are receiving compensation from any of these organizations. Am I correct? Where? Where is. Don't care what social club is on there. So here we go.

[51:03] Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. But I can go in the other room in my house. Pull it out for a separate slide, anyway. Just just so it's clear. And If she goes away, do we still have a quorum. 1, 2, yes, 4. Okay, I'm just. I had 2 that I had questions about. But I don't know if they're yeah. If you'd like to have discussion about 2 with questions, we should pull them out and talk about them separately. Can you let Sarah know which 2 those are? And he's with east window.

[52:12] There it is. Okay. I'd like to discuss local theater cheryl. Come on so small. 3, rd 3rd bottom, middle, 3rd line bottom. Anybody else have something that you wanna so we can start with. a motion for the long list. Once Sarah's able to get in there, there we go

[53:09] make motion. Let's see. because if no one wants to read it, I think I'll move. Okay, I'll move that we approve the following reports for the 2022 to 25 dos grants. 3rd law dance, theater, arts, parks, creative reuse, center, band of house. boulder, ballet, boulder, corral, boulder ensemble, theater, company, boulder, international film, festival boulder, metal, smithing association, boulder, muse, boulder, museum of contemporary art. boulder, opera, boulder, Philharmonic Cannibal singers, Colorado Tautaco Association, Colorado Molar fest Colorado music, festival and center for musical arts, Colorado, Shakespeare, Festival Creativity alive, dairy Center for Arts, Eco arts, connection, e-town, frequent flyer productions.

[54:01] greater boulder, youth, orchestra, droneworks, art lab kgnu, lemon, sponge cake, contemporary ballet, modus, theater, museum, boulder, Nobel Arts district for longo School of Arts, Sansui. Sorry I said that wrong festival of dance cinema streetwise Arts, T. 2. Dance Company. This work performing arts. We, I say that excellent any discussion on these. And we can, we typically have just general comments. We can hold those to the end. But discussion about whether or not to improve these one report that I just loved, I thought the boulder field did just a fantastic report. I loved how it was organized, how and how it sort of aligned with the older community priorities. I decided it was really easy to read and very thoughtful. but regional.

[55:01] Seeing no discussion. We'll move to a vote all in favor. Unanimous. Thank you. And if anybody has any additional comments just in the general flavor of the reports. And what we're seeing coming back from the community and take those now it was, it was great to learn more about organizations I wasn't familiar with. There's about 2 or 3 in there like, I have no idea who these people are, and I'm like, Oh, that's really cool. Yeah, I was really encouraged. Just a lot of great programs. fewer and fewer references back to Covid, which was super encouraging, super encouraging, and really also heartened by the working capital that most of the organizations have, like people, seem to be in, you know, not as dire a sign.

[56:07] Obviously. So that was a really great event. Right? All right, let's move on. Jill. If you can recuse yourself, we'll talk. Should I? Can somebody text me when I can come back? I could shut off video to make it clear that I'm gone. No, that would just be the camera. I just don't wanna make sure they don't come back too fast, so. Okay, okay, you can just mute the video and audio. Yeah. See you. Yes. Okay, I'm ready. Awesome. Thank you. All right. Anyone want to make a motion. I move that we approve the following report for the 2022, 2025 gos. Grant for junkyard, social Club. Second.

[57:14] any discussion all in favor unanimous. Get her back in the room for working. Is it working. Sure, I'm down the hall. We try. Okay, hold on. I'm just. I'm trying to find what part I believe or saw. Now, do you know which part of the

[58:03] reports that was great. Oh, goodness! I can pull up the oh, wait individual reports. It's I think they were pretty much alphabetical. Yeah, it's in part one on. Oh, near the bottom. I texted her and sent her the video. Perfect environment. Let's we, we need to wait for somebody to come back, because oh, we'll be done by the time she gets here.

[59:12] We're going to We need a majority of those present for New commission to start the meeting, but to pass in motion. We need a majority of those beautiful, nice recall. Very good, thank you. Thank you. Honorable Council. All right boulder. Samba school. maybe we should hear what the discussion requested is before motion. My notes say, and this could be wrong, but it looked like there was an error on their financial sheet. The months of working capital listed as $10 and 15 cents rather than in

[60:04] assume. That was what we should ask, does anybody have $10 over? Didn't go back to see if there was other? Are you proposing that we hold off on voting on this, or you want to vote and get it's a question for all of you. I didn't study the whole financial sheet. well, just a incorrect. One working capital is 38,000. Their current assets are 39, about 1,600 current liabilities. Yeah, they have $3,500 in monthly expenses, and $38,000 in assets, and the difference of that comes to 10.1 5. All right. So if that answers the discussion, if anybody would like to make a motion, please report for the 2022, 2025 gos. Grant. And that's specifically for Boulder Samba school.

[61:18] Okay? All favor. Very clever, all right. Hear me! Hey! Here! It's telling me that I'm unable to start my video. So I don't know if that's the host needs to. So. Okay, I'm back. I panicked. I panicked around. The idea of muting videos like muting audio made sense muting video. I was like, Oh, I'm just gonna shut my computer. So I'm back. Thanks.

[62:07] Okay, give me a moment. I'm gonna see if I can locate the next reports for East Window next year I'll make a table of contents. She's all organized and brings her laptop, too, the entire day in front of mine on video. You beat me to it now, for sure, after staring at that like it's in. Oh. okay, it's in part one interesting. Okay?

[63:04] So I think it's like a 4th one. Duck search bar. Look, okay, got it. Alright. Let's talk about what we wanted to discuss. There was a note on the financials. Oh. yeah, fully understanding. But it sounded like the flow of personal income through the hmm. She flipped through the financials. and I don't know if I fully understood that. And so I just wanted to talk about it. I have noted that also. Is it a is it a fiscal sponsor? They said that. The

[64:03] How was it? What is that? It wasn't that there was some money that wasn't showing up on the balance sheet. but it was showing up on the profit and loss, or vice versa, because owner again putting money into the organization. But he had stopped that and was beginning to work with them so that everything was gonna come through. Okay, that makes more sense than I feel like how it was written. I wrote down like contributions made by the owner on others that have question marks like I don't know what that is. Here. I can. I can read exactly what you said. Our financials show a significant deficit, because I, as the owner of the business have been making contributions which appear on the balance sheet, but not profit and loss. Some of these contributions are personal, but many came from my community directly to me. starting in, which is a weird way to do that. So is starting in 2025. These contributions are going to go through disco sponsor, which is a completely legitimate way to get money, and they will appear on the profit and loss. So is there anything? I think I still have the same question, is there anything that we should be certain about? Well, I mean, I appreciate the transparency. But

[65:25] yeah, they're solvent. I don't. I don't have any concerns specifically. Yeah, that's that would be my concern. They have one month of capital working capital. They operated at a loss. 40,000 you know, the the total assets 1,500. They've got 1,200 of that on credit cards. So there's not a lot of cash assets.

[66:12] 1 0. I don't have a problem for the size organization that they are telling. It's also a weird detail scenario. Right now. Yeah, we'd definitely be interested in just some follow up to that change in the next year, unless unless we want to ask for some clarification for what their plan is for the following year. Now I think we should. I mean, you know, if we decide there's 2 routes where we could approve this hold on approving, pending clarification. Right are we are we able to vote via via email. Once we get an update reply and we deliver it to you.

[67:03] Right? Okay, you can approve with submitting questions. I'm sorry you may approve with submitting with the question you can approve, and then ask the question. I mean, I I think that the point to me is well made that one of our responsibilities is to make sure that the organizations are viable. and they've got a pattern of the owner supporting the organization, so had to do that for the following year, as us as a stipulation of receiving advantage. The other thing that I will know, you know, I pulled out that there is a deficit. But if they do explain that, they say that the the contributions on the balance sheet.

[68:07] so that may actually like, maybe the question is based on the last year how the contributions that are not on the profit and loss would impact that bottom line, and and that is capture that. So the contribution is not on the P. And L effect the deficit. Yeah, yeah. the contributions made by the owner. Yeah, I guess any of the contributions. Do you feel comfortable, approving in the meantime? Or would you rather hold up for them? You know I was originally, and then comment that you know, responsibility. So I think we should hold off and just. And if we can approve via email, we have to wait until the next week.

[69:04] Yeah, I I'm having a hard time pulling up that specific report. But can somebody give me like a rough percentage of what this contribution is in relation to their overall operating budget. I don't know if we have it let because it doesn't show up on the profit and loss. I guess that's my question is that there's a I think it's 60% that in order to maintain good standing as a nonprofit, that a ed cannot contribute past. So I have curiosity around like what they're reporting and how they're reporting it in relation to. Yeah, what a nonprofit! A what's what's going to help maintain their nonprofit status. And if there's any issue there.

[70:02] Oh, do you want to say that? Okay, so they are not a nonprofit at this point. He's he. That was part of that original statement which you might have missed, that he is moving to have a fiscal sponsor which would give him the nonprofit status. Yeah. But I mean, it's there's a reason that rule exists, if that's helpful for all of you to consider it. That's good, whatever we want. I can't find it on it. Alright, everybody happy with that question. That's what I was gonna ask. And we'll you also need to ask about the percentage contribution. Yeah. So we're gonna go back voting on that till the next great. All right, then I need to find the local feeder. There will be at least one other report

[71:03] that they submitted just after the deadline for materials for this meeting. Next, okay. 1, 97. How much? Okay? So what I have noticed is

[72:06] what I had noticed was hold on on their overview sheet. I believe, and I'm just verifying. They had 0 months of working capital and had on there. and they operated at an 80 $87,000 loss. So that was concerned. And as I looked on their expenses trying to figure out well, why was it such a big loss? And it could be, you know, ticket revenue on one side? Then I also noticed that there were on their liabilities.

[73:04] All those are liabilities. That's not actually the expenses. So I'll forego that observation. But I just I'm concerned and would like to know what their plan is for the next year. They have such a large deficit. I don't know what. Yeah. My. I've got a couple of guests that might be for the writing workshop that they're doing, and those type of things right now. So that could that could be. That could be that. So I think it's worth asking. love what they're doing. They're in the middle of. They're in the middle of a sold out run again right now. But yeah. I think it's worth asking the question of it. Any clarification on the question, Sarah. Just their plan to deal with a deficit over the next year.

[74:06] Great anything else on reports. Let's move up. So to clarify that postponing, we both depending on the answers, I think. Yeah. really excited about this. I had an interview with daily camera. There's a lot of interest in this event. This is a traveling Smithsonian exhibition, and only 3 locations in Colorado were asked to show it. And I went through it recently. And it's really amazing. It's very self reflective. There's interactive bits. It's just really interesting. And so the Cultural Organization Summit will be people going through this exhibit at their own pace. Initially, there's going to be a tour, but after going through it I realized that would kind of ruin the point of the self-reflection of this exhibit. So glad I went in advance. Anyway, people will be filtering in and out of that, and then we'll have a facilitated conversation with Betty Hart of the new local afterward, and she has asked

[75:15] folks to fill out the clicking on the name. But it's a Harvard affiliation test about age and ability before they come. So they have homework before committing the discussion. And then as a little preview, because this Commission asked that we focus on steam this year a bit more. I have confirmed that our May 20 second summit will be on esteemed topic, on equity, ecology and education. And I think there's a lot of Federal funding changing requirements in that field as well. So further discussion. So within an arts framework. It'll be equity ecology and education.

[76:00] Yeah. So. circling back to the discussion that was held at the beginning of this meeting, perhaps I can tack on a discussion about changing Federal requirements onto that, because it's very relevant to both of those fields. And then I also remember seeing something from March 7th with the Council. Yes. and then my final slide. I just wanted to note that we have received $374,000 in requests for new general operating support. We have 25 applications. So it's quite a bit. And again, that's organizations that were not previously funded. So yes, and like, I said, it's wonderful that we have organizations growing and that we have new organizations applying to us. But that does mean that we had to shift around the grants that we anticipate being able to award. I tried to maintain a somewhat similar level in terms of the percentage chance of receiving a grant for each tier, but you can see in the 3rd column on the top graph

[77:12] the numbers in parentheses are what we anticipated or estimated, being able to award versus on the left, you know. which is a little different, the difference being, yeah, about $68,000. If there's any questions about this and everything. How many applicants total did we have in the last round? 42, we had 41. 0, applications. Yeah. Applications. Oh, it was about a 75% to 80% award rate. So specifically for general operating. Yeah, so fifties 55, assuming everybody applies or the numbers remain about the same for next year. But that would be something right. 74. It would be more like the 40 plus the 1475. Yeah.

[78:14] Oh, I'm looking at applicants, the 40 that already have funding, I would assume they're going to apply again, plus if we maintain the same level of applicants, it's 75% of those new applicants will receive. Oh, I see. The new applicants on the top. The breakdown is is less this time. So it's about 60%. 60%, 50%. And then 100. We're talking about the total number, the total percentage of applicants to grantees. Is there any different? If how to say this, button the extra large, if there's only one, and we're giving one grant. If the panel determines that that's not worthy of a grant, those funds will trickle down right? So it depends on how they all score. We don't have that baseline rule anymore that we have to get above a certain score, so we would have to be a threshold, so it would have to be something.

[79:19] I would think that it's like brought up to them as an option. Yeah, it's something we can discuss with them, but especially after their 1st round. I think they have to essentially not recommend it to people right think they should be told that as they're that's not a guarantee grant award. whoever the applicant has to earn as well. I have no idea who it is, so I do.

[80:06] That's all I have. Okay, great cool. Thank you. So I don't have anything to show. I just wanted to give a quick update on the blueprint and experiments of art. So blueprint the cats are back. Our consultants are back next week. They'll be probably being more focus groups. They'll be attending the Cultural Organization Summit meeting with the Advisory Committee. Seeing some venues going to No. Go 1st Fridays, and also attending. Some of them will be attending a chat with Council next Friday. There are still spots open for that. So if you're interested, it's a like a casual conversation with Council. There'll be 4 council members there. We'll be taking notes and things, but it's a way for them to like, get out and really talk to people. They feel like they're they get a lot of public participation. But to like have some more real conversations. Right? So it's like a contain. We'll be taking notes right? Because there's 4 of them there.

[81:04] but it's specifically about arts and cultures. I encourage you if you want to sign up, and if you want to attend and talk to city Council members. It's a really good chance to. And then it's right before 1st Friday, so it'd be very. It is on the Internet. I will send you a link to that chat. Okay. send it out to everybody. The blueprint. Thus far as I mentioned the big thing that we need your input and your help with is the questionnaire right now. And if you hear of anybody that's asking about it or having questions, you can also send them to us. I feel like some of this, like. you know, growing trust, or we have a really good brand for that. But the growing trust piece is just knowing that people can reach out to us. Answer them like, ask questions. We'll plug them in where they you know, to focus groups or to with the consultants, or to talk with us about what they really are, hearing what they need.

[82:04] we have done a ton of also tabling at different comp plan events, and we're very plugged in with the Comp plan stuff. The Comp plan to a boulder today, which is just like existing conditions was posted. We have some arts and culture sections in there which is very exciting. Some like very specific arts and culture sections. Question is open. We actually decided to close it. March 21.st I mean, we have like quite a few responses already. But just to continue to get some, input, we'll take that input, we will or not. We, the experts that are the cats will take input and devise a further version of that that will be doing tables that will do arts week. So like, okay, here's a big thing that we saw. What are some like, more specific things start to get into some of those details right? And then just another note. And another thing that we would love, some help with experiments in public art. We had a modus theater series run with the Comp plan, which was excellent and very helpful and very insightful. We had a graphic designer work with the Comp plan. You'll see some of that stuff in their designs and their work. The piece now is that we have a call open as of yesterday, for an artist or team of artists to work on the Community Assembly, so I don't know if any of you were invited to be part of the Community Assembly. This is a new

[83:22] projects that they're introducing to the comprehensive plan. It's like 8 weekends where volunteers like really want that they sent out golden envelopes the community. There's no better way to describe it. Right? They send out golden envelopes to the community for volunteers. Volunteers will come up and talk about 15 min neighborhoods, and it's literally like a random group of people in the city folder. And it gets everybody talking, certainly meeting different people and like focusing around this one topic. And we are going to install an artist to help translate that out as a piece of artwork. I mean, it could be music, it could be dance. It could be visual. It's up, it's completely open. It is open to Colorado artists, but it's a way for us to help like translate that process that is happening in a contained space. Right?

[84:08] Some kind of interpretive dance. Yes, yeah, I will send out. I'll send out the call to so not the call to all of you. And then finally, I just have to plug folder Arts Week. It wasn't on my list. It's coming up in April of you know people that want to participate or that want to be business champions that want to volunteer. They're going to be helping with our blueprint stuff. Anybody that wants to list their events. We are. It is rocking. It's gonna be really amazing. This year we have an Awards program this year that we'll be letting you all know about very soon. Yes. any other. Lawrence, do you have any questions? Is there anything that you're you're plugged in ready to talk about it in the community related. She made it. We signed you up for so many things.

[85:13] It's a new car, so I'm not sad, but I need to understand how it works. Anyway, I am here. My apologies no worries. We're almost done. I know I did. Message. The only thing I will say which is like as your role in as investors. We're building some talking points around like that. We're going to get to city council for that chat with council, and I would like to send them to all of you, too. Just so you have like a nice run of talking points. If you're out with the community, I mean, it's a tons of memorize. But, like, you know, just you have some really good framing of things. If that okay, great. thank you. It's great. And with that does anybody have questions? Cheryl, I can offer you this at least, so you can feel like you did participate. If there's anything on the the general operating support grants that we approved. You know we usually have that time for just general feedback on the on the tone coming back from the community. If there's anything you'd like to add to that.

[86:23] I loved it. It was such good reading. Yeah, I can't. Of course I can't even think of any in particular. But you know I I really got to know my liaises. That would be fun, anyway. but being able to get like the breadth of everybody. I really very much appreciate it, especially I mean, I'm not new, but like I haven't gone through the process. And I finally finally did my board training for downtown. They they've been somewhat.

[87:12] We have to go ahead that downtown boulder partnership. Oh, visit Boulder. Okay? Yeah. And then the the one thing that you may have missed from the beginning of the meeting is that we had a little bit of homework on this question of Federal executive orders and people who are getting Federal grants versus initiatives in boulder granting and potential conflict around issues and the like. So we're all going to check in with our liaison organizations. Find out who's getting Federal funding and report that back to Lauren for further action. Sure, when I send my 1st email to my 1st liaison. I'll copy you on it just so you can see the language I'm saying. Just so. You don't have to go back and try to figure out what we were saying earlier.

[88:08] You know I'm probably gonna steal it. Send it to all of us. We want a consistent message, all right. Any questions on the managers adjourned meeting. I'm sorry thing.