May 28, 2025 — Boulder Arts Commission Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:00] You can text. That's all right. We are recording. Well, it is Wednesday, May 28, th 2025. Welcome to the Boulder Arts Commission meeting I will call Roll Cheryl. Cardoso is not here. Maria Cole here. Jeffrey Cash is not here. Jill Katzenberger is not here. Caroline Kirk. Yeah. I see her online. Are you able to turn on your video and audio? I see that online, too. I'm not seeing a response from yellow right now. But but they did message the chat and say, Hello! I will give her a minute to connect.

[1:03] They're all connected of just the video and audio is off. So I'm not. I don't. I can't turn it on. I'm not going to. We. We're not going to be able to have a vote on the agenda that if we can't see it with 3, we don't have quorum with 3 chat. Oh, that's fine. It's something, thank you.

[2:03] Okay. It'd be, too. It'll be great. Yeah. Yeah. Will you say you're here? Here. Now hand the meeting over to the chair for procedural items. Excellent! Welcome everybody to the May 28, th 9, th 2025 Boulder Arts Commission meeting. We are called to order, and I will read the Atlantic Council first.st The City of Order 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 immemorials. These indigenous nations include the Apache Arapahoe, Cheyenne. Comanche on E 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.

[3:11] And with that we'll move to approving the agenda. If anybody would like to make a motion. Second, I can set all in favor. and we will approve the April 2025 meeting minutes, which were in your packet. Make a motion for that improve those 2 great, all in favor that is approved great. And we will move to public participation. First, st do we have anybody online? we did have 2 people sign up in person. I just wanted to. If anyone online would like to participate in public comment, you can raise your hand now.

[4:02] great. And then you can. And I don't share your opening slides. I don't see anyone online, not quite frankly, okay. And so yeah, so we did have 2 people sign up, so I will read the public participation guidelines. The city has engaged with community members to co-create a vision for productive, meaningful, and inclusive civic conversations. This vision supports the physical and emotional safety for community members, staff and council, as well as democracy, for people of all ages, identities, lived experiences and political perspectives. For more information about this vision. You can go to our website, colorado.gov slash services, slash productive dash atmospheres. You can reach out to me, Ellie Kennedy, if you would like that online. The following are examples of rules of decorum found in the boulder revised Code and other guidelines that support this vision. They these will be held up during the meeting.

[5:09] 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 the meeting are prohibited. participants are required to sign up, to speak in advance and use the name they are commonly known by individuals must display their whole name before being allowed to speak online in person. Participants are asked to refrain from expressing support or disagreement verbally or with applause. Traditionally, support is shown silently through American sign language applause. all right. And our 1st public comment comes from Jan Burton. We'll have about 3 min for you and come over here. So the camera picks you up and the mics are toward the wall.

[6:17] I'm an art supporter attender, and I was an organizer of 2 a. The Arts Funding initiative cast by 75% of the voters in 2023. I'm speaking for myself tonight and for many of my friends. I house musicians, actors, playwrights, composers, singers, all the time in my basement. I understand their world and the world of the organizations that are hiring them. I house these artists because the organizations hiring them can't afford to put them up in boulder. We're talking Cmf. Local theater, Betsy Cu called Music Mallorfest just to name a few. I also host a lot of fundraisers for many organizations. We have an amazing array of nonprofits in Boulder. The intent of 2 A was to support these organizations, not to create an overhead fund for the city of Boulder, which can be used with the general fund.

[7:17] My position is very clear boulder's general fund should support the city of Boulder art staff, and overhead the dedicated fund should support the activities spelled out in the ballot measure. Should I read it? Or do you guys remember it? I remember it, too. Okay, but it's direct. And grant funding for arts and cultural nonprofits, professional artists, arts, education venues and workspaces, public art and multicultural program. That's what the voters voted on. The community voted for that. And they weighed in also for their highest priority in the recent blueprint. Let's say 93%. That's where they want their money to go. That's what they want to support. So I urge you, our Arts Commission members to be our biggest advocates in the city of Boulder, to evangelize the benefits of the arts, to advocate for fair and representative tax dollars to support our nonprofits. To provide the programming.

[8:14] Again, the City of Boulder needs to pay for the Arts Office of Arts and Culture, which I value greatly out of the general fund which we helped pass for them, as well to a dedicated dollars, should go to our community to achieve better outcomes your advocacy to help our art organizations, residents, and our community will be deeply thank you. Great. Thank you for all your work on 2 a. If you want to say I have. I do have a question just curious beyond us going to city council in our individual capacity, because we can't speak for commission at the Council meetings. And as we're out in the community, is there anything else that you found is a worthwhile advocacy road?

[9:07] You know you can always write a letter to the editor. I think even your advocacy in here, because the city the city is a big, hungry bear. It has lots of needs per month. and their narrative is quite strong that they don't have enough budget to pay for the arts. That's why they moved the city of boulder resources into the dedicated arts. Just I would encourage you to push back on that. That's not the way Matt wants it. It's not the way Lauren wants it, but continue to just preach that message in a kind way. and then, I think also, you know, visit a lot of the arts organizations. Hear them out. Listen to them, you know. Let's remember that they did fund this campaign. Many people don't know that that the nonprofits actually each put in money to fund the campaign. So it's very. It's disappointing to them. So and just keep it in mind when you also vote for your policies.

[10:05] Excellent. Yeah, thank you. All right. Our second speaker is Marie Judith Bird. Thank you. Sorry. Sorry if go for it. Okay, I'm already Julia Bird. I am the founder of the new local nonprofit. Speak up a little. Alright. We've been cultivating creative community on West Pearl Street for about 2 and a half years. and I'm very grateful for the support from the city and we recently received a commercial vitality grant for our annex space, our education, space, and we are opening that space up to other local arts, nonprofits who need space for rehearsals for intimate performance venues or small cultural events. So we just wanted to make that publicly clear.

[11:14] And I wanted to invite everyone to our Sundays on West Pearl this Sunday. Every Sunday all summer long. We provide free art program for the entire community, and Betsy is going to become our resident theater company in the Annex, and they'll also be providing free programming for the community. But I'm here today to talk to you about. Why, arts is important downtown are other venue? Is our gallery space a couple of doors up, and we are one of the last remaining venues control that represents local artists. And in the 2 and a half years that we've been downtown. We've represented over 250 local artists. And we, I think it's really important that artists be downtown because.

[12:02] 1st of all artists need to be in the slipstream of visitors, so that they have an opportunity to get eyes on work and have an opportunity to grow an audience and earn a livelihood. It's also important for the city to have that visibility, that front facing public representation of our very rich and talented creative community. So we've been kind of holding that up on the west and in our gallery space. And I don't think we're going to be able to continue doing that because it's just terrible business model. I've talked to Matt about this a little bit, and everybody knows about the affordable, the affordability issues of downtown. And we can't compete with the corporate chains. It's just it's not possible. So without a ban, a moratorium or some kind of limitation on corporate chains downtown, we need another kind of solution of how artists can be downtown, and everyone's very excited about sundance. And it's great. And people keep telling me this is going to be great for local artists, because you're going to be in front of people who can, you know, buy work. But it's not going to be possible if we actually are not going to be able to be in front of those people.

[13:08] So briefly, the reason that representing artists downtown is really challenging. It's not only about the affordable, the affordability affordability issues. It's also an echo chamber in terms of artists all competing against these local galleries. You have artists who are selling online or doing open studios fire flag popping up all over the place, and that in combination with really high overhead is not sustainable. So my proposal is that there would be an additional grant, in the same way that there is a grant for performing arts, venues for lackey, and E-town for performing arts, venues to be able to apply for that grant that there be a commercial subsidy for public facing venues for the visual arts. This would help with that 30% vacancy rate downtown

[14:02] artists could be able to, you know, some money to the landlords, but the new local cannot continue to provide the showcase space for local artists who are all selling all over time. It's like a sieve. So we're going to have to pivot to regional representation, which is a big, fat drive, because I feel like it's really filled a niche within the community. But I'm just here tonight because we really need more support from the city and from the community in order to be able to offer that really valuable showcase space for visual artists, artists, designers, makers downtown, who otherwise have no access to that downtown, which is really still the commercial vein of our city. So thank you very much for your time. Thank you so much. And I know that creative boulder has been doing a lot of work and speaking out and speaking smart commercial spaces and trying different ways to address this issue. So yeah, and I would say, ultimately, we need more capital investment downtown, because even with Grant, with subsidies of paying landlords, ultimately, you're just giving that money to the landlords.

[15:12] and we have no control over it. So I'm really advocating for dedicated space downtown. That would be collective gallery space for local local creative economy. So there we go. Thank you. How can this feedback be rolled into the totally I was just thinking that we? We did hear that from in the blueprint research, like we heard that they substantially about the challenges of being downtown, the empty spaces, a lot of that work. So I think it has been integrated. I mean, I'm welcome to like. Take your comments and send it to the consultants, too. But I think it's pretty loud and clear, like the challenges that artists and New York and creative organizations and for profits are facing in the creative. Yeah, there are only a couple of art galleries left downtown. Most of them won't represent local artists because of this dynamic that the local artists are all selling direct now, and it's like the proliferation of ways to buy and sell things. It. You know, it's not stoppable. It's a monster. So it really needs city support, because no.

[16:22] you know, no gallery owner within their right mind would represent local artists just like it's not a good business model, but it does have value to the community and to artists. Yeah, I could just say, I stopped by Tuesday, and there was just a plethora of kids rolling around on the yard and having a fantastic time. Yeah. And the work in the gallery is is very sophisticated. And that's just a great cross section. For, thank you. I? I really appreciate that and it's such a cool model where people come in. They discover a local artists that they're inspired by, and then can take a class from that person. So it's like, really an ecosystem. But it's just too expensive.

[17:03] I mean, the rent in combination with that complicated dynamic representing requires it. Just it requires more city support in order. Yeah. But thank you for stopping by, and I hope everyone come by every Sunday all summer can see kids on the lawn doing our Betsy and the Amex, and by music and spruce. It's a pretty cool community down community, creative community down there. I hope to cultivate. Yeah, thanks. Thank you. And I just want the record to show that Joe cats and Burgers here. Now. Okay, and I don't see that we have any commission business. So we'll we'll move on to the matters for commissioners. With our liaison updates. Anybody has an update. as many of you know, customers in town. I heard from that ticket. Sales are going well. I attended both the hike and one of the concerts really well attended, and I think what struck me is people really come to Boulder for the festival? They're they're following Mueller, and they're following our director

[18:17] as a destination. So this is like the highest quality of execution, mentions. Some of the artists stay in her in her basement, so she's very entrance to come, is continuing their plan for expansion. They finished the programming effort, which is, you know, the square footage of the building. They closed at the summer closing of the dazzle of darkness, which is a spectacular show. I think you went there. That was a great trip. And they have the opening of their spring show, and then they just have a whole okay. number of events this spring. So the camps for kids and all kinds of fantastic things. So recommend you stop by the book.

[19:01] Thank you. I have a few. I'm still waiting to hear back from some people. Can you all hear me? 1st of all? Okay, great. I know the spark has some things in the works, an in concert version of Beauty and the Beast, and a production of the Lightning Thief, which is one of my favorite musicals. So once I have dates for those, I'll send those along, and I know that the catamounts is working on something, but I don't have the details and dates yet, so when I do, I'll let you all know as well. Thank you. I can go. I went to watch the the local lab, the lab production play by the local theater at the Nomad, which was, people fun to see when they just do this reading. They're not in costume or anything. It was. It was a really sweet play about this stuff

[20:01] person caring for her elderly mom and sort of the mom being scammed continuously. And it was was really sweet. And then we had just based on some of the grants that grant proposals and things. So I went to support the Jcc. They had a movie showing at the dairy called right for the living, which was really great, and that was that was super fun to see. It was by a local local documentary filmmaker played Matt Todd at East Window. and I met his name, and then And then I had a nice walk and met a few other galleries and walked around. We went to The-, the new one top head supply downtown. And then we just had a meeting with these 3 people to see. Okay, well, they want to try to sell somewhere like, what is the city doing? You know discussion about this.

[21:00] which is great? They had the big fundraiser, which was a really fun one, and it was nice, because that was just the 2 days after we we voted the ground for me, which was great for the for the for the fundraiser, and it was great to see them and chat with them. There was a super fun 1st of its time, and Api month, putting an art show of the dairy combo west, that we had a vip opening for that, and then we also had. like a just general opening, and it was super well attended. There were several Asian artists from Colorado. there was a couple of the nice movies there that we're showing, and then

[22:00] I wanted to go to the Kenyan Theater because I actually had never been there. And then when I went there, I realized I've been there many times, but there was a really great speaker there, and it was cool, and it was interesting for me to learn that Canyon Theatre is available for free to organizations and nonprofits and things. So I've emailed a few people about that. This is a great opportunity for you to do it seats 108 people. So it's a great opportunity. So that's it. Thank you. Fundraiser. Yes, we had a great fundraiser, and I for those of you who don't know I'm on the board. I no longer on the executive committee, and I'm just on the board and we raise at the at the actual event. Maybe about. I wanna say, like $40,000 or so, something in that range, but overall leading up to it, with tickets and sponsorships and things like that close to 200,000, and it was. It's a big fundraiser, and we had so many-, so many local businesses that supported the dairy this year, and it was really amazing to see.

[23:15] Yeah, I went to the fundraiser. It was amazing. It was such a fun event. It was incredible. Thank you. Thanks. I can go. Frequent flyer productions has their pride. Cabaret coming up on the 21, st which reminded me to share a couple of pride related events coming up at the junkyard parenting the rainbow is doing a fundraiser on the 12.th So that's a family friendly event. And then Rocky Mountain equality is doing their queer circus event on the 6. So that's their big annual fundraiser. I attended Bruce's Film Commission Sundance party at the border theater. Lots of people. He was really excited about the attendance that they had.

[24:08] 6 or 700 people show up for it. It's good to hear a couple of members of Sedance get up and talk about their commitment to integrating into folder and excitement around that and then also need to see that there was a follow up form that got sent out so that folks could directly communicate and share their interest in whether it was volunteering or jobs or partnering. So just yeah. But like, there was some thoughtful effort there. And then, speaking, Bruce partnering with him and the Commission on doing some cult film outdoor movie nights this summer. So the second Sunday. So we've got our 1st one coming up on the 8, th which was his head. Great, thank you. I was also gonna talk about Bruce's event. It was really fun and just the amount that that event has grown

[25:10] is incredible. He's doing really great work with that commission. And then the only real updates I have from my liaisons are ecoarts, is just still trying to grapple with what's going on with the Nea? And are they supposed to spend all their money by the end of July? Or really kind of what? Trying to figure it out over there and then t 2 dance. They're kind of in a low right now. They don't have rehearsals in June, but they're gonna start gearing up after that work with a boulder based artist, Peter Davison, and they're creating a physical theater slash. Temporary dance work mirrored at the very in October. So we'll look forward to that at least, of course, cool. So

[26:05] I wanna move on to our working groups. And any updates that people have from those I'll just start since I'm talking. Jeffrey and I are working on how to implement better coaching for our groups on things like marketing and governance and fundraising and things like that financial financial independence. And he's been gone. But we have now a draft of a 1 pager that he's gonna review when he gets back, and then hopefully, by next meeting, we'll have something that you guys can work with as you're talking, speaking to your liaisons, and we might be able to poke some more people in on certain topic from other than a while.

[27:00] Anybody else who has I I can add something. So for the Grants and Fundraising Committee, I've added. I continue to add things to a working document. There's no more opportunities in there. George and I were working on this last thing we talked about potentially adding somebody else, I guess more than anything I was feeling like you and I could check in and just make a plan. For if we're just adding more resources to the website rather than like spinning our wheels on it further, because there just could be like, all right, let's just have a goal of the ones that feel older, local, like Worth worth somebody's time, because there's also a pile of them that I started kind of like earmarking, as like highly competitive versus, you know, like, you know. worth worth the effort. If you're a small organization. So yeah. And then I had meant to send this to all of the Commissioners.

[28:05] I'm wondering if it's okay for me to just add them to the documents, or rather than sending an email and potentially creating like the online meeting thing from happening. If it's if it is okay for me to have a drive, or if I need to have you have a drive or continued discussion about a topic that would be relevant. So yeah, and I, I think we can also talk about which we had before. But reviewing our website, and maybe adding some sections to it that would make it more helpful and easier for people to figure out what to apply for. So yeah, yes. I'll make a note. Great. Did you have any update? Anything you're working on.

[29:00] No updates at the moment, but when I have them you'll know. No problem. Yeah, exactly. Excellent. I am going to turn it over to Sarah then. Oh, she's right there. Hi! And grant program. Thank you. With the chair's permission. Could I turn things over to Jill to talk about our meeting today? Alright. So all I got to attend the individual community project meeting to debrief scores and responses. Yeah, I I prefer with everybody that has participated with the panel so far that it's great to see. okay, that's like the the level of of detail and thought that that group is putting into scoring. A few things arose from that. So in the individual category there could be a little bit more clarity on what.

[30:00] 1st of all, constitutes a project? So questions around, does a project need to have in a start and an ending. Can it be ongoing? Does that start to look more like a operating? There's still a project. But like, Yeah, there's so it's like, so as a reviewing different types of applications, there were some that were clearly like, this is gonna start. This is gonna end. This grant would support the funding of this versus ones that perhaps had been ongoing so questions around that, in addition to even the nuances of individual, so it was interpreted by the committee that if it was a solo person that was executing the project and the application they fit into it. they would fit the individual category. In some cases there were individuals that we're still like overseeing their own

[31:01] Llc. Not a nonprofit. And then we're also bringing in other participants into it. So some questions around, you know whether or not somebody would be considered whether it was considered an individual project. recognizing so kind of coming back to this like broader question on project. There isn't a Grant opportunity for someone that has like. If if an ongoing project were to be considered more general operating. There isn't a grant category that would fit that type of need. let's see. And then anyone get disqualified. There was based on that conversation or those conversations. There was one application that was disqualified. There were a couple that still qualify, but the committee had remaining questions. So I can't clarify that. Yeah. There was, there was an organization that applied in the individuals category that wasn't eligible, so they were removed before the committee. Before the panel reviewed it. The panel wouldn't be able to just. They can't disqualify. Anybody would have to go to Parts commission. So the the disqualification, the ineligibility was actually before it got to the panel, and I think the panel was having this discussion with the ones that were eligible by our

[32:23] records. By our standards. Right? Yeah, yeah, no, thank you. Okay. There. We also recognize that in the individual category. the clarity around the projects goals and how to measure that came up multiple times. So there could be an opportunity here to help individual grant applications. Better understand applicants. Better understand how to communicate their project in terms of goals. The questions don't directly ask for goals. From my perspective. The summary is a place in which it makes sense to identify so like

[33:06] clarify. You know what is the purpose of this project? But I don't know that that's necessarily spelled out so there could be a plus an opportunity there for us to create a little bit more clarity there and then, maybe even some type of a resource or link to a past application, or something like that, that helps an individual artist know how to communicate their project. Kind of in this, like Grant, language fits. The committee might be looking for. Okay. thank you so much, Jill. Yes, and I know there's a lot of uncertainty about the Grant program next year, but regardless, I think, as definitely are dedicated to holding some sort of workshop or summit. That would give advice to people about how to articulate and measure goals. And that kind of technical advice. Why is the uncertainty?

[34:00] Because in the strategic planning kind of thank you. I can also say that the funded by Boulder art office of Arts and culture tag is live on the Boulder County Arts Alliance website. And with that we pull up the interpret. So the action on the table is a vote on Community Project grants for organizations. And since you were in that panel meeting, is there anything that you would like to say about that. I kind of just want to my notes. Kind of just mirror. It's really just amazing to view this discussion from the outside, not being like directly in it. And I just think it's really impactful for them. This is their sole focus. And they're all of their energy. And time is just on this one thing which is doing the grants. And it's it's really cool to see, because I think they do. It allows them to have, like such nuanced conversations, and almost like philosophical conversations about the best way to go about it. Whereas, like.

[35:11] whenever we were doing it, it's like, Okay, we do it, we approve, we don't approve. We have to move on to the next thing. You know. It's very like dun dun dun. We have to follow the schedule. And them having just like this little pod of time and focus to like, really get into like these nuanced and detailed perspectives. It's just really great to see. It's awesome, and that like gives me a lot of confidence in in their scores. So yeah. Can I ask you a question. Yeah. You think the difference, too, though, is, you know, we're in a public forum. Yes. So. I think that our conversations are probably more abbreviated versus they're not in a public forum. That's. Yeah, definitely, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

[36:02] Thank you for attending. Yeah, yeah, no, it was great. It was great to see and witness. Yeah, the process. So in terms of the community project grant applications. The Commission may approve all grants per the panel's recommendation, approve individual grants, approve individual grants while submitting specific questions or postpone approval of individual grants pending the answers to specific questions. Save these, this is the breakdown of the scores. That is how craft is spelled. Any questions about this? No, I'm just noticing how close those previous clips are. and then how close the next category is. Yeah. those 3 that are scored. 35.2 are listed here in order of their community priority score. Okay?

[37:09] Any other questions. Thank you. And we've split the actions into 2 separate actions. Great. We just need a motion on this, and we oh, sorry I apologize. We have somebody who's going to recuse themselves. and then we'll take a vote based on the discussion and see if there's another motion. Yep. so I'll need a motion. I'll move that we approve the following organization 2025 community project grants for organizations, social.

[38:04] I'll set okay, and we'll open that up to discussion. I wrote it down because I was having a discussion with Laura, and we're trying to humor her a little bit. So my. I'm not saying this because I it's not that I want to go through. It's just more of questions about about this particular application. So on this grant proposal, Jill is the applicant. Jill is also the the primary owner of jumpyard social she assigned the application. She leads the organization. and I am just trying to understand how that is not a conflict of interest, even if she does recuse herself from this, she can still see the recording she can still see people who vote for against. She's very much involved in the panel and the scoring she can see sort of who scores what. So you know, I think I know that there have been other commissioners who've had nonprofits and have applied and received funding. I know that many of us here are on various boards, and

[39:13] and so there's, you know, like the dairy is coming up, and I I'm happy to recuse myself. Right? So I'm just trying to understand how this is not a conflict of interest. Well, the city has conflict of interest rules, and I'll turn it over to Lauren if you wanna speak to that, or sure I mean, so you all sign on, when do you? But you know like, but you will say not to follow with the good intent of following the city's conflict of interest. Rules and those conflicts are the very bare minimum which the Commission usually actually holds. But the bare minimum is that you, as an individual, are not getting money from that. And in this case, and she's associated with this organization. She's recusing herself, and the Commission over time has always continued to allow commissioners to buy because the Arts Commission

[40:05] are. You're members of the Arts community, you know, and you could certainly discuss it with the Grant program going forward. But I would actually very much consider who would be coming onto the Arts Commission, if anything that they're associated with would not if they, if that would immediately pull them out of being able to get funding for it. Right? So that's where we have a conflict of interest. But that signed and like legal conflict of interest. If there are challenges with it, we can take it to like to like hire in the city. Also, there is like a legal department in the city that we can talk to if we think that there is some kind of real breaking of that interest, you know, breaking of that, the best intent for it, right? Like you're involved in arts community. Yes, I mean here, I don't think it's a matter of. I think in this particular case Jill is obviously an amazing asset to the arts community. The program is great, like it's not. There's nothing in it that is malicious of that, like it should get voted right like, whether it's not because it's it's an interesting program. And it's including a lot of children you have. You know whether you're divergent and all the families and sort of representation of things that we all want, so that aside.

[41:20] you know. But but Jill is is Jill, and then there might be somebody else who shows up, who's not, and and then you know, what do we do? Because we have. So that's that's my concern, you know. I think that I do think we should consider it. I think that because something has been happening one way. you know, it doesn't mean that it can't happen. We have to have something, not everybody's going to be a joke, not everybody's gonna be Xyz is the concern that this other person who's not Jone will not recuse themselves or not. Well, I disclose I think my concern is not about recusing, because I think recusing is just.

[42:01] It's like a rubber stake right like this. These meetings are recorded like she can go back. Anybody who recuses themselves can still go back and see who voted for against. I think any other persons coming in may do this, or commercial interest, or like personal interest. You know, I think it's very hard. It might become very hard to be able to delineate that something right and I have a nonprofit. It pays my bills. I want to get this stuff going, and I need the money for this one. This financing. I need this funding, and you know, maybe my intentions are not as pure right, like, just as an example of somebody else like. So I just think that it's it's to me. It seems like if if the Arts Commissioner is on that. and and signing off in it and submitting the client and requesting for something to the nonprofit.

[43:01] I just think we need to have a little bit more sort of checks and balances. That's all like, maybe it's something we talk about, something to think about. Maybe we bring it up. Maybe there's nothing there. and I and I'm just sort of learning, and I'm bringing this up, and that could be it, but I just wanted to bring it up with that being said, I think it's a great project, and I actually agree with you. And I just, but I think we've already have the precedent under this Grant cycle to allow for commissioners to submit progress. But I agree that it's a complicated interest, and I think it should be tightened up in the future. I just I don't. I don't think you should be applying for city funds and then sitting on that commission. I I think I am. I'm aligned with you and sitting on the commission, but also sitting on like getting in depth insight into the panels that are like voting and support. I think that to me is the same. It just said I would never apply to if I was a nonprofit if I was financially responsible for a nonprofit and getting paid and paying my bills

[44:02] to apply, I would. I wouldn't do it, because. you know, obviously, I'm not gonna be right. And I can swear it's a way right like there's always bias. We think we're not biased. There is bias all over the place every single day, every single thing. And you know, I just think we really have to think about it. We have to tighten it out for the next website, or maybe not this. We sort of have this thing in place. But the next one i i really think we need to get done. So just to clarify the yeah, just to clarify. So you think that in general, anyone on the board, during their time on the board should not apply for a grant. And actually, I'm gonna actually pause this conversation because I I don't think that this is something that is necessary for her to be recused from. I think that we should actually close this conversation and open it up after we get through through this vote. Have room for it, because I don't think there's any reason for her to be out of the room. Okay, great. So hold your thoughts. I have something to add. Let's go back to any further discussion on the grant itself.

[45:21] If anybody has any other comments. I mean, I I thought there was an interesting ground. I liked it. I think it's it's a cool project. I think it's the homeschool community, you know. We were part of the homeschool community for a couple of years, and there's a lot of things that you have to dig around and find for the homeschool community, which is, which is harder. And and it's nice to see something creative. That's there. And I thought that was really, I thought it was a fun fun project for them. All right, we're ready for a vote. Remind ourselves what we're going on

[46:06] all right. All in favor. Okay? Passes unanimously. Do we have Netflix in there. and we'll wait for her to come back before picking up that conversation, and just briefly to wrap it up and then move on with the rest of the reports for the rest of the group. But we're stupid points. Thank you. Thank you. Great. We started a conversation that we decided actually did not need to be recused from, so that I was taking a little, and I'm just gonna summarize. And if I misstated all the a question or an opportunity for continued conversation on the Commission as to whether our conflict of interest. Rules are still making sense for the next

[47:02] for the next grant round. We're we're already into this and the the impact of having somebody who sits on the Commission buying for grants. So that's kind of what the conversation has been around. She was gonna share some of her initial thoughts where we obviously are not, gonna get into deep dive on it. But since we opened it, we're gonna close out just brief thoughts, and then we can add it to an agenda or the treat later. Go ahead. Yeah, I was just asking the clarifying question, if that's what kind of the summary of the concern was that anyone on the board while they're on the board. Not applying for a grant like, if that was, that's like the solution or the ideal being brought forth. Basically. But my thing is not being on the board. I think if you're on a board of an organization, we are not getting financial compensation or getting paid. you know. I think that's very different. But if you are the organization and you're running the organization, and your name is on the ground, and you're signing up on the ground, and you're on the Arts Commission. I think it creates a lot of conflict of interest applying for a grant from the Arts Commission, and I don't think commissioners who are getting paid to like full time salaries and things like that, and running these nonprofits should be applying on behalf of the nonprofits.

[48:28] The I had some thoughts. think this is a great conversation. We'll love to continue it. My initial thoughts going into it are from my perspective I see 3 different things that are really acting as safeguards right now in our program. aside from the recusal we we have the rubric, and any any of the non recuse commissioners are required to be able to defend their score, and so, if there is any sort of concern that there's been undue influence because there's a relationship there, or something like that that comes out in the score. Secondly, we're not allowed to have meetings other than one to one. So I think that that

[49:17] also cuts back on the opportunity for people to have undue influence on the Commissioners commissioners. And then the 3rd thing that I would say is that we now have this committee, who, you know we are. All the Commission is voting on is whether they follow the process. We are not getting into the meat of grants anymore. And we're not. You know, we're we're not having an impact in that way on whether somebody is getting money from the city. We are overseeing the process, and other people are voting on that. But that doesn't. That doesn't nullify the question as to who's on that committee? I mean, it just drops down. Go ahead! Go ahead! Yelled.

[50:00] Oh, I didn't have a I didn't have anything. I was just nodding. You're good. And I no, that was you said it even better than I. When I accepted the position. It was a question that I had as well, because I would not have become an Arts Commissioner if that would prohibited me from being able to represents my organization, then, you know, requires local funding to be able to survive, and has. I'm so grateful for the projects that the Commission has funded in the past. And when I joined Bruce and Georgia also were representatives of their organization. So it was not. I was not, you know, the only ones that was going to be applying for grants. you know, but just I mean, I just want to bring it up as something to discuss for the future, not for this one cycle. Thank you, for you know, sort of agreeing with me on this. I think that

[51:00] it's something to consider. I I don't think we should. We should be like, oh, it's always been this way, or we did it before we should do it again. There's always opportunity to change and grow and to move forward and new do new things. So you know, this is this is just something we should look at. I think it's unusual. I know that it's a small community. It's small arts community. There's limited funding. I I just think it's unusual. And so, you know, I I think we should just look at. We all agree on that and show you notes. Oh, totally. So. I will say that we go through a very thorough grant process program review of all of the input that we've been getting for all of this from like how grants are structured all the way to which we'll have even more blueprint changes for next year. Generally in October we take all of this feedback, I putting it, Sarah, because she has, like a massive 5 page document already of ideas and suggestions and updates. And we get together and talk to all of them, to be sure that we're actually it's a several step process that we do at commission meetings, to be sure that all of our adjustments are like agreed. This is less about the process. There's like no concerns. The process is amazing. It's not about the process. It's just that.

[52:11] If we are doing this we've got we've got notes. We'll carry it forward. We'll discuss it further another time, Sarah. We've got some more to go through just the second. Yes, second. and we'll need our motion, please. myself on the area, of course. unless you are making money from the dairies, you know, $0. Actually, if you don't mind, do you mind recusing yourself because it's more, you're like fiscally responsible for the organization. So I would appreciate that. Thank you. I'm sorry to like. Skip my mind on there. Why don't we? Let's just do have have you recuse yourself, and we'll do the vote for just the dairy and then invite you back into the

[53:12] make the motion. I move to the approve the following organization for the theory center. or you know their heart center. Thank you. Oh, second, which 1, 25 community project grants. Okay? And I heard a second from you, lady, any discussion on this that discussion all in favor. Okay, thank you. Okay, okay. thank you. All right, we'll need a motion on this. I can do that.

[54:05] Approve the following organizations for the 2025 community project grants, organizations, festival and renewal. Second, any discussion, all in favor. It's unanimous. and I just had some general feedback. Aside from a discussion of the can you put the list back up? I guess. Or sorry I'm ahead of myself. I got one ahead of myself. We're good. No great alright. Now we have 3 arts. Education reports, commissioners have the option to approve all reports to prove, approve individual reports while submitting specific questions, postponed approval of individual reports, specific questions or not.

[55:19] These are the reports next slide. I move that we approve the Grant reports for boulder, International Film Festival Boulder, Philharmonic Orchestra and open studios seconds. Thank you. Any discussion on any of these. I just wanna say I loved the Booth report. It was really great to see just how thorough it was, and you know how many kids participated and how well received. And they made it seem really professional for these kids, and the backdrop was great, and I just thought there was so much effort that went into it that was was really nice and helpful to me.

[56:03] I my comments were actually for this slide, so I'll just hop in. I was really impressed. They had a hundred 15 short films made by kids like, what a program really cool. The open studios. I I was just reminded of how difficult it can be for some programs in coordinating with the school system, and I saw that they ran into some issues. And so I was really glad that they were able to find someplace else, even though the program didn't look like they originally intended that they even had a broader impact on 3 school classrooms. So that was great. And then the Boulder Bill kind of just reminded me. We've been having these discussions recently about what's the impact of the grants, and like how many people and for how much money. And it just really reminded me that even a small impact for that community of

[57:08] people like massive human impact. So I really appreciated reading that any other comments ready to vote all in favor unanimous. Thank you. Thank you, Sarah. One more. Oh, gosh! Just a clarifying comment that this is now dissolved. So unlike the other 2022 operating support reports, where it was a recertification for additional funding. This is merely an approval of the report in a procedural fashion. Great. great! Anybody like to make a question

[58:01] and move that we approve the Grant report from provinci account save discussion. All favor. Do some favor through your career section. Thank you. Thank you. Alright. Rachel and Brendan are up there, if you don't mind, are you able to come to the side. So it's oh, they're moving that camera peak. Hi, everyone nice to see you all again. I do have a Powerpoint that I. Okay.

[59:12] okay, so I have an action item for you at the end of the presentation. But prioritizing conversations is part of the Boulder Valley comprehensive plan, and we have an artist to recommend to you for approval this evening. Next slide. I'll give you an overview. I'll talk about the 6 finalists, and then I'll offer you the recommendation to the panel. So the artists we're going to recommend is working within the Bbcp under the prioritizing conversations. And this graphic I made up is for like trying to help you understand what the planning process is like. It's very planner you speak so it can be really, really abstract. But essentially, what's happened over the last 6 months? The city has collected tons of input from the community. Like.

[60:02] really, big ideas, big concepts, a lot of different places, and then they've consolidated it and organized it into 5 or 6 big ideas that's in quotes, because that's what they call it. That's the planner seat for that. And then now where we are is a moment of prioritizing the big ideas. So you might have conflicting priorities. And so the community needs to understand. They're trying to help the community understand that you can't have everything necessarily that you want, because things might be in conflict, or you have to figure out what's more important, and what's a little bit less important. So we identified an artist to help with the public art process within the prioritizing conversations. Part of the planning. Does that make sense? Yeah, I'm happy to answer any questions, but this is like, simple as I can make it so for this public art process within prioritizing conversations. There's an in person set of events that the city's community engagement office is going to host, and we also wanted the artist to do some kind of online engagement for several reasons.

[61:12] So each of the project proposals has both the online engagement and in person part. So these are the goals of the call. I'm not gonna read them. I'll let you read them. So it's a really interesting way of using public art to engage the community around the planning process. And so it's part art, part planning, which is exciting and also very tricky. Here's the selection panel members. 3 of the 4 were the same as the call previous. Kate Stanik was new for this call. And then the standard standing public art selection panels, the same people. The timeline is June through October, and you'll notice that June starts next week. So it's a really happening, really, really quickly project. And so things are starting to sort of overlap with the last project. And this one happening all at the same time.

[62:16] And the budget's $20,000. So here's the review criteria we worked with on the left hand side, the the original Staff Review panel really cared about connections to Boulder. They wanted the artist to have an awareness around what boulder is, what the challenges are. If they don't live here, maybe they work here. Maybe they went to school here. Maybe they raise their kids here, but they want they wanted the artist to be connected and be able to articulate their connections to boulder. and then, of course, the artistically and socially engaged experience. Again, this is an art project and a community engagement project. So they needed to have both skill sets creative and methodological methodological approach. This included submissions that have a clear sense of what they wanted to do online. Again, it's a

[63:09] part planning per art. And it's online and in person. So we wanted to make sure that their approach included both the creative and also technological know how to be able to execute that clarity of the intest intended artistic output is pretty straightforward. And then the impact on using community consciousness around a 20 year plan. That's a little bit more philosophical, but still needs to come across in their application. And then the standard standing selection panel criteria is pretty straightforward as well. So we had 6 finalists. 1st was Adriana. and she suggested a fiber diorama series. She's from Boulder, and her budget was for $20,000.

[64:00] And here's a sample of her work. It's okay. And then next we had Chris Carruth, who was suggesting a project called Between today and tomorrow with a combination of audio text and image pairings. And here's an example of his previous work with immigrant populations. He's in boulder, and his budget was through 13,000 etika. Pacha wanted to create a multimedia collage mural, and her budget was for 20,000 heather. Schulty wanted to create a community coated quilt. So the image here is an example of something similar where each color represents a specific topic. And so if she wanted the community to come together and create a quilt based on the color coding of topics to colors in the quilt. Does that make sense? Yeah, it can get kind of abstract.

[65:04] And then John Bo. Savannah cougar, and Neil Yarnell, the trio to create a pixel mural where the community members would submit images. This is. imagine trying to zoom into this, each of the pixels in this mural would be submitted by one individual, and then the artist would create the collage based on the each individual pixel representing one person. Submission. Yeah. And their budget was 16 for 47, I think. Lastly, we had creativity alive, Marilyn Holmes, and she wanted to create a portrait photo montage for $20,000. And this image is an artist within the creativity alive programs creating a piece of art. And this is his piece. So Merlin isn't actually the artist themselves. She represents the organization that is creativity alive who does cultural programming and does a lot of youth outreach.

[66:11] So it's a little extended in that way that makes sense. and that budget was 20,000. And then there's a slide of all the panelists feedback with lots of words. Lots of pros. I mean, there's 6 finalists for lots of great reasons. Fundamentally, I think the person who won put together a great proposal. The concept was really high quality. They got high marks for artistic artistic quality. And they have experience doing community engagement in boulder online, with college students, with youth, with all kinds of audiences that the the planning team and the community engagement team really wanted to reach. And so the person who

[67:03] they want to recommend is not only has a feasible project as an art project, but has a really strong community engagement background, both online and in person. Do you want to stay on this slide, or are you ready? See the reclamation? So the selection panel recommends. So his project is actually titled photo voice. And so it was me. I'm trying to get that. I'm sorry. He wants to do. he calls it photo voice. And so people will submit images and video clippings and audio clippings both online and during the events that the community engagement office is hosting and producing so that he can create combinations of text and image together that will mostly just live online.

[68:06] I don't think that there's I don't think that we anticipate having a physical exhibition about it. So in terms of experiments in public art. I'm not sure we've had an only digital art project, either. So so that's exciting. It's an experiment. We're doing something new. Okay, I'm really excited about it? Obviously so question discussion, question, and this artist is proposing $13,000. Where does the other 7,000 go to go back? Into what fund does that go back to? Well, so once we identify Chris as the artist. I spoke to him and he spoke to the community engagement and the planning office, and he revised his plan. Now that he actually has more information. And his budget is actually $20,000. Now.

[69:00] it's $800 short of $20,000. Actually. So it's kind of one of those things where this this projects. It's tricky because we're we're working literally in lockstep with the planning department, and when they don't know what's happening, we don't know what's happening. And so we open this call with a lot of hypotheticals and a lot of like. Here's what we think is gonna happen. And I hope you can work with us and the planning department when they know when things are gonna happen and who's going to be in charge, and what that's gonna look like. And so, between the time when the call opened and when we selected Chris they had a lot more information than they did when we opened it. And so once they start creating a plan that's more specific to this project. Get a lot more sense of what he could do with the budget. and he used it, and we have it so I think that's great thanks. Sure. What did you think of the process? I thought it was a really fantastic conversation, actually, and that you captured it very well. 1 1 image that really I like that you didn't have on. The slide of Chris's was of someone that probably bookstore, and they had the kind of the book over their face and reason I like that is, I just think, in a community process

[70:14] I don't think everybody wants is an extrovert, and wants to have all their thoughts in public, and I thought that he was capturing a way to creatively capture those voices, but without. you know, identifying the person then. and I think even the book she was holding was pointy. But it was. I just captured that rep of being able to hear the different voices and represent the garden. Yeah. and he's a professor as well. So he's gonna he has kind of like a teacher mindset, I think. And I think that's going to really lend itself to a really powerful project. So I'm excited about this one. And then there is a motion on the next slide. If there's no more discussion questions

[71:03] I did want to point out that nobody left had to leave at 7 PM. So we have, but we still have 4, so it wasn't motion. I think it's a long one. I knew that the process was properly conducted and selected areas for the experiments in public sites. The BBC Update prioritizing conversations be recommended to the City Group manager for approval. I'll say great any discussion paper hit or miss. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for managing. I don't think you're going to see me next month. We appreciate you working with like giving a very like strange projects and experiments. I appreciate that. Thank you.

[72:13] I only have a couple of slides. Just some quick updates. The request for qualifications for our central average mosaic project is open until Monday, June second, you can find more information on our website. So please share far and wide. Maybe this is for Colorado artists only. Our fire station 2 and 4 Orientation meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, June 17.th So I'm looking forward to that project. Caroline. You're our Commissioner on that one great and our maintenance assessment for our public art collection has begun for the 16 artworks. So I'll just be in touch when we get that report. And then, obviously, if there's any major repairs. We will get started with this. Any questions about any of these updates? Right?

[73:00] Our experiments in Public art Lecture Series kicked off great start. Anna Maria Hernando had 2 amazing lectures at the Canyon Theater, at the Boulder Library. Her lectures were just, I mean, her work is stunning, and she's just so eloquent, and I mean it was really a treasure to have her kick kick this series off. Her sculpture is in the conoid atrium sort of in that main entrance to the library, and that'll be up until June 13.th These are the following 4 programs that we're hosting at the Canyon Theater. So be sure to like jot these dates down. Tell your friends, tell your family bring people we definitely want attendance to go up, as the series continues. The next 3 artists are actually from out of state, so they won't have the same sort of draw that maybe some of our locals will have. But our lectures will be amazing. And, like I said, every lecture will also have a sort of a public art component or community workshop. You can find more information on the website as well. But

[74:03] please help us spread the news. Any questions. Yeah, amazing artists. And they're going to do a lecture and a kind of a workshop in Canyon Theater, and then also an art making workshop at Sunrise Theater under the full moon. Yeah. Yeah. So if you see our post on Instagram share? Yeah. thank you. Excellent. Thank you. Guys. Thanks. Alright, Lauren. we have. Oh, oh, we're already there. So yeah, that's what it is. It was zoom past. So our arts updates, you should have been receiving my bi-weekly emails. I think, really the last. At this point we we are like we isn't. The consultants are digging through the information since the last meeting. We went through. A few behind the scenes. Steps of taking.

[75:06] Okay. Taking some of the initial thoughts and recommendations ideas about the Grant program for next year. That's really the big focus right now, taking them to the Advisory committee right, getting some feedback from the advisory committee and then taking them to through the racial equity tool, which is a tool that we use at the city to like. Look at any kind of potential new project for any unintended consequences, or any like ways that we can move it in the right direction as far as racial equity is our big city goals right? We took it to senior leadership, who seems pretty happy with it. You also gave us some really good feedback and insights. And so now we'll start building out the full like. Proposal. Really for the Grant program. That's really the 1st part of it. A lot of it will be behind the scenes to start, especially the budgeting part, because that goes through a lot of different doors of the city, as you can imagine. But phase one is intended to end at the end of June, so we should be getting like some phase one materials or reports and information from the consultants back to about their like guidance, like kind of a closing my closing statement. We also close the phase 2 Rfp. It hasn't been announced yet, so I don't think I can say but for phase 2, it'll be focusing

[76:20] on narrowing down the grant details so generally every year, and I think is the only one that hasn't reviewed this process. But every year we do. June, July, August. Sorry. July, August, September. We kind of work through the feedback on the Grant program from the previous year. You know, where do we need some help? What adjustments can we make right? And then October every. We haven't finalized enough to vote on it. But we can still talk through some other bigger topics and ideas for this year. I'm hoping it goes sort of. Similarly, except we're essentially proposing a new Grant program. Right? So it'll be like a a new new ideas, new concepts, new budget scale and cycle and ideas that will integrate in all that feedback that we've been getting year round now already. Right

[77:08] simultaneously, the consultants for phase 2 would be working on helping us get ready for sundance, looking at venues, see what we need for infrastructure and that sort of thing. Creative economy. Work. Also looking at venues, also looking at artists and and also looking at our public art. So that was a big, obviously big part of our work that they did not get to focus on because of the timeline with our budget and the Grant cycle. So you have any questions about that. Yeah. So a lot, it's fun. Yeah, it's been really fascinating. I think it's exciting 2 questions. First, st so once the report comes out or the 1st phase comes out, is there any? How is that presented to the community, the artist community? So when you know. is, is there a formal presentation? This discussion? How is it? Just sort of published. How? How does that?

[78:03] You know what the challenge with that? It's kind of the same challenge we've had with the Comp Plan steps is that I we need to see what will be presented as far as recommendations and things, to figure out how formal. We want to make the discussion right? Because I think at this point we haven't built out like the rubric for a New Grant cycle. So if we start sharing out like how formally and how specifically we if share the the report like, if we do town halls or something like that, I don't know. It's it's like still up for discussion. To be totally honest, I don't know. It's something I do want to share, like I want to be as transparent as as possible in this process. But I don't want to frighten people. I don't wanna like, get people worried about things that have not been finalized yet to, you know, because we have a whole phase 2 to to sort out right? So it might be a I don't know. I don't want to say it might be anything. I'm not totally sure yet to be honest. And I we also want to get permissions from like senior leadership of what we are sharing, you know. So let's see, it seems my question is, it seems it would be good to have a town hall or so. It doesn't feel so much like, you know.

[79:17] Here you go. Just digest this and figure it out. It could be more of a dialogue about. Here's where you know the the process, and how you got there. Come away and open up for questions. Sure like that. I love that idea. If senior leadership is gonna go for that, it may be worth asking other folks on them. The committee, you know our committee? That's oh, yeah. You know. How. How do they imagine that would be rolled out? Yeah. And then my second question is, is a little bit of a tangent, but on the sundance who in the city is responsible, or is communicating with the arts organizations about sundance, because I've heard some feedback that they've gotten some emails that we're not received. Well, it's it that way. And it wasn't from

[80:06] wasn't from this agency. It was from a different organization in the city. So it just seems like that. And what seems like, perhaps you all should be the liaison with the arts organizations about sundance for part of that conversation, maybe. Maybe. But visit Boulder, which a lot of times people think is the city. I think it was visit Boulder. Thanks. Yeah, that's what it was. But the all sports culture is part of that's, gonna you know, be interacting most with sundance and have the relationship between them as a new nonprofit and the rest of the community. And we've already started to talk about some of the executives from some dance attending summits, and maybe having more conversational interactions. What I have heard from them is that they're very keen to make clear that they want to be a part of this community and generally supportive.

[81:10] And so they're gonna take every opportunity we get. So I know Lauren a little bit to know that she will not let that go by, and we'll be right up in front of it. So yeah, I think you and staff will be important to to make those relationships. The Cvv is the one who's leading right now. But we're in this moment where there's contract negotiations going on. And It's a it's as far as sundance is concerned, early days. So I think we have a lot of time to sort of express to city leadership and to Cv. And to sundance how to do that best. So I just encourage you to keep that conversation. Think what you says correct. You know how to communicate with the organ arts, organizations best. You know them. You know the things that they're concerned about. So I think it would be good to make sure that you stay ahead of that. So they're not getting information from another agency or or visit folder.

[82:12] Yeah, you know little screen different. Think alright any questions about the manager's memo. and if not, hope it's not. Thank you, everybody, your spots, and let us know when the.