August 27, 2025 — Boulder Arts Commission Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:02] Perfect. We are recording. Welcome to the Boulder Arts Commission meeting. It is August 27th, 2025, and I'm Paul Roll. Charlotte Paldosa? is not online yet. Maria Cole? I see you online, Maria, are you able to…. Yeah, I'm here. I'll be… I'll be there in person in a few minutes. Sorry about that. Yes, Amir. worries. Jeffrey? Yep. Pat? I think it's here. Jill Katzenberger? I am here. Thank you. Caroline Turt is not your gap? Can I have an A? Yeah. Yeah, y'all ran wild. present. I will now hand the, meeting over to Vice Chair Cash for procedural items. Thank you. I'm going to do a call to order, and a quick reminder that we are in this space this month because I and several others who were on the call last month had great difficulty

[1:09] understanding and hearing folks. This room does have microphones, so if you want to project your voice… actually, I ask that you do project your voice, knowing that there are microphones within the ceiling and throughout the room. And Jill, can you hear me well enough over there? You sound fantastic. Aw, well, thank you, darling, you sound pretty great yourself. With that, I'm going to ask for an approval of the agenda. Yale has moved to approve. Do I have a second? I'll second. Can I have seconded that. All in favor? Unanimous from what I see. Wonderful. Minutes, so we have… Where is the… Reading of the… …

[2:02] Land acknowledgement, I don't see that on the list, Juvie. I will read it now. I don't see it on this. The City of Boulder acknowledges the City is on the ancestral homelands and unceded territory of Indigenous peoples who have traversed, lived in, and stewarded lands in the Boulder Valley since time immemorial. Those Indigenous nations include the Apache, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Comanche, Pawnee, Toshone, Sioux, and Ute. City 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. With that, I will ask for an approval of the July 2025 meeting minutes. We have a motion for approval of that. We have you late making a motion. We have a second? I can second. Guy is seconding that. Any discussion on that?

[3:04] Any edits or changes? All in favor? And unanimously absent. And then public participation, where I will pass it back to you. We do have, … Someone signed up for public participation in person. Is there anyone online who would like to raise their hand for public participation? Go ahead and do so now. I'm not seeing any hands, here in the first few moments. Can you go ahead and share that screen, sir? The City has engaged with community members to co-create a vision for productive, meaningful, and inclusive civic conversations. This vision supports physical and emotional safety for community members, staff, and council, as well as democracy for people of all ages, identities, lived experiences, and political perspectives. For more information about this vision and the community engagement processes, please visit the website on screen.

[4:06] Cue. Cheers. The City will enforce the rules of decorum found in the Boulder Revised Code. All remarks and testimony should be limited to matters related to city business. Obscenity, their epithets based on race, gender, or religion, and other speech and behavior that disrupts or otherwise impedes the meeting will not be tolerated. In-person participants are asked to refrain from expressing support or disagreement verbally or with sounds such as applause or snapping, with the exception of declarations. Additionally, support is shown through American Sign Language, of course. So, first we have, Nick. Nick Forrester has signed up. Hey, can you join us at the table over here? Yes. Love to.

[5:02] Can I use your gavel? I'm very protective. This is the first time I'm allowed to do this. Thank you, everybody. … I'm here primarily representing Create Boulder, and many of you know that Create Boulder was the organization that spearheaded the passage and creation of Ballot Amendment 2A. which was passed, overwhelmingly by City of Boulder residents. 75% voted yes, enthusiastically, specifically, to generate more support for the arts in general, particularly through grant making. So, it is my, … first, I want to acknowledge all the work that you do in support of the arts, and Lauren, thank you so much for the progress that has been made. Because we have seen progress over the years. Certainly in the decades that I've been in the arts community in Boulder, it's been dramatic, the increase. We firmly believe that we have a long way to go.

[6:01] In terms of the support that the arts community needs and deserves. Because I think what I'm really hoping for is that there can be a emotional shift at the city, particularly at the City Council level, that would recognize the arts not as the first to cut, the last to restore. But as an economic engine, and something that is directly responsible for the vitality and vibrancy of our city. There is, using the city's own tools on the city website. organizations like ours, E-Town, and also Chautauqua and others can demonstrate, pretty significant ROI. So, for the $55,000 that E-Town received, which represents a relatively small percentage of our annual budget. Roughly $600,000 of economic activity is generated. 75% of our tickets are sold to people outside of the City of Boulder city limits, which means, according to the city's own resource.

[7:02] That at least $50 per person is spent in this city. So my goal is to shift the conversation away from the arts being a handout to a bunch of hippies. and actually an economic engine that is responsible for the vibrancy and the vitality of our community, and therefore is deserving of investment, not a handout, an investment. And the last thing I want to say is, it is frustrating for us that the budget process is laid, not transparent, and not particularly community, not a lot of opportunity for community participation, because the process is so truncated. The budget, as you all know, will be revealed in a couple days. And first reading at Council will follow shortly thereafter, and there's opportunities, but there's usually not much change. So, we hope in the arts community that the budget process could be more transparent. with more opportunity for public input, and much easier to understand, because it's a little bit opaque, there are buckets that I'm not sure where everything goes, and if I can't figure it out.

[8:06] I'm sure many others can't, not because I'm smart, but just because I've been at this a while. So that's all. Thank you for the work you do, thanks for the progress that's been made. Let's shift the consciousness at City Council, let's recognize the arts as an economic engine, and let's make the budget process more transparent, and I hope as Parts Commissioners. You can advocate and be proactive, not passive, waiting for the city to tell you how much money you get each year. Thank you. Thank you, Nick, for being here as a, … as a venue owner and representative, as well as a great advocate for us, to go on to Nick's comments as well. We were all in receipt of an email this afternoon, but because we were all in receipt of it, it will also be part of the public record from Deb Mullen, where she's also talking about the ROI, from the arts within the city on a broader range, even, behind

[9:02] that as well, and they've done a lot of work on the numbers, as that economic action. So, thank you. Thanks very much. Any other folks online that had raised their hand? No one on Hawaii has raised their hand. Okay. At that point, then I will, … any other comments for Nick at all, before we move on? Hey, Commissioner. Matters from Commissioners, then we'll start with the liaison updates. I can go. I had a… I invited all my liaisons, but everybody has things, and they… traveling and all that stuff, but I did invite all my liaisons over for drinks and some food at my house, and we had, … a couple of board members from Kutandra show up, … Local theater, open studios.

[10:06] and Boulder Ballet, was there. Michonne place says they could make it, but they didn't out. And it was a really nice evening. We had… we had some wine, and we also just were talking. I think overall, you know, they just wanted to say how grateful they are for support from the city. They feel very… I'm grateful for all the financial help that they received, and the guidance, and so they just wanted to make that known. The thing that they did bring up, which I hear from nonprofits. all the time in Boulder is just the lack of funding from private donors, that there's only a small pool of private donors, and they keep Having to go back to that over and over again. And, it just sort of makes it really challenging for them, just going back to the same people, and sometimes those people are not accessible. And so they just felt like, oh, maybe this was an idea that they floated, and maybe there's…

[11:03] one of them sort of referenced BBSD's showcase that happens in CU, where all the schools come, and, you know, people can walk around and meet different schools, and they were like, yeah. City, put something like that together, virtually, or whatever else, so nonprofits can present themselves, and donors, like, smaller donors and private donors, can sign up. To learn more, and just meet these people. And I thought it was a great idea. I said I would bring it to everyone here to see if that was something, but on a personal level, of course, I cannot let it be, so on November 2nd, I'm personally hosting small. fundraise at My Home, which is going to be with another friend, and we're going to select the arts organizations and other organizations where they'll do, like, a 4-minute pitch, and we're inviting donors to commit. not… not thousands of dollars, but, like, commit $25, commit $100, and then I'm working with some other friends of mine to… to come up with matches for these donors, and say, like, okay, if you've hit $2,000, like, we'll match another $2,000, or something like that. We're hoping to have 100 people there, and it's all personal relationships, and it's just a way to, like.

[12:15] See if this idea works, and, you know, it's not gonna be… Anything expensive, it's quick, it's an hour and a half, it's gonna be quick, so… Just, I cannot… What? How can we see. How many organizations will be the, like… We were hoping to have 6. That'll be our goal, but November 2nd, I'll email people. People want to come. Yeah. It was a really great meeting, and they were very appreciative, so it was super fun to see everyone. I've had individual liaison organizations, you know, folks from them over to our house, but never as a group. That's a really fantastic idea. You know, the one thing that did come out having this group was, like, Border Ballet said, oh, you know what, I need dance, like, I need space to perform, or, like, to practice.

[13:04] And then Kutandra was like, oh, I might have some space for you, or, like, I might have some connections. So, I did email everybody, and I CC'd everyone else, because I was just blind CC'ing people. I'm hoping that they will connect, and have this opportunity to share resources. Because the other thing they mentioned, too, is just the lack of of space, and, you know, that everybody's sort of buying the same, like. dance studio, the singing, the performance space, and if there's a way to share those resources and debate that, I think a lot of people would come out a bit feeling guilty about it. That reminds me… I recently met with, frequent flyers, and they were putting together, basically, a flyer, kind of one-pager on the… on using their space when they're not using it for a very, very low cost, so let's connect on that. Yeah, thank you. And the other thing that they did say, too, is how sort of disappointed they are that the folder doesn't show up the way that Lafayette or Ewie shows up, or post-writings and things that they do.

[14:06] They feel like they don't have the same culture here, so I said. Sorry, Elite. Oh, sorry, just to say Jill has her hand up. Oh, I was just gonna say, yeah, I love all of this, Gaia, amazing, and I've always just met individually, and … yeah, I love that idea of hosting my liaison organizations, you know, in my space, and it even is getting me thinking, like, is there value to bringing in all of the small orgs? from all of our organizations together, and the specific questions and challenges that they might be having, versus… or even, like, yeah, what is… what are the challenges that are unique to performance companies versus, you know, education-based, or something like that. But yeah, I think that that's something that we could talk about at the retreat. Yep. Thank you. Thank you. I can do my updates, since I'm unmuted.

[15:00] Alright, so…. be…. Creativity Alive, started to focus a bit more on the healing arts, and might be doing a little bit of rebranding around that, so sound baths, sound journeys, authentic movement, circle singing. They're preparing for a photography show titled Transformations that's coming up… Actually I don't have a date, but… around the healing themes, so that's something in the works, I'll find out. Band of Tufts, is going to be putting on their gin and Gothic show at the Junkyard a couple of times in 2026, but yeah, I'm working with Colleen on, … setting days and times for that, but January 15th, 16, and 22nd-23rd, are in our schedule, and then I know she's got some dates held at the Junkyard in June of 2026, too, so there's a few things in the works there. And then they're also exploring a revival of Five Fifths.

[16:01] Which was something that they put on at Boulder Fringe years ago. Eco Arts had an event on the 5th. That looks like the Office of Arts and Culture also participated in that they said was a huge success. And they're awaiting approval on an NEA grant. Sounds like that's kind of, like, their hot stuff right now. Also active in the… the Climate Equity Fund that has some… a grant round going on right now. I think it… I think it's up September 15th, but I'm saying all of this and thinking, like, that one I may look into a little bit more to see if there's other organizations in, In our operating funds that could… that may not know about that, and might have an opportunity to apply for that. And then the new local had their art walk, … God, a couple of weeks ago? And yeah, also sounds like it was a great success. 90 artists, downtown installations, …

[17:04] they have a goal of turning it into a monthly event to support downtown businesses, and then they're also hosting Sundays on West Pearl through September, which sounds super fun, free art, student performances. And yeah, I need to get my kids to that, so I'll go sometime and report back. Matt? I can go. I met with, five organizations, and my agenda with meeting with them was to make sure they knew about the blueprint process, to make sure that they reach out and follow it, and follow your emails, Lauren, and obviously connect you to them if they hadn't been. Alert them to the venue survey, which I think is really important that all the organizations contribute to that. I'll talk to them about this upcoming budget process, and ask them to pay attention to it, and go to City Council if they have or, you know, come to our meetings. And as well, talk to them about the grant process. Got a lot of feedback on the grants, and I can talk through that when we go through the grants.

[18:04] But the organizations, BMOCA had their fundraiser, A Field, which was for education programs last… Friday, if you all haven't been to that, I encourage you to go one year, it's just really fun. They're having a new opening… opening a new show on September 11th. We got a chance to read, some comments on their current show, and it's, rest, and just… really impactful, so if you get a chance to look at the book, what people are writing, and some of the stresses people are feeling, and how arts are helping them express those stresses, I think it's… a really moving show. And then, obviously, the expansion work is ongoing. Colorado Music Fest, sorry, I have to go to… whoops, here, had a nice conversation with them. To the point about economic development, they ran the calculator of economic development in front of me, and they said for every dollar they receive, they're generating $2.5 to $3. revenue, so I think that's an important, thing to remember. Again, that, you know, the arts are a big economic generator. I said their attendance was up 2,500 people this year. They received some national press. I'll forward that email to all of you of the press, so that gets into the X packet.

[19:17] And next year will be their 50th anniversary. They really want to show up for the community, build on the education programs. They, I think, as others, are feeling some stresses in the philanthropic world… yeah, because of, obviously because government funding is shifting, they're seeing, donations going more to Health and Human Services, and sort of arts is starting to slip off the radar of a lot of donating. Organization, so they're starting to prepare for that. on, Modus theater, had a really great conversation, obviously, with some of the topics they're tackling. They're, challenged as well for fundraising, same scenario as the Colorado Music Fest. I went to their event after our conversation to Immigrant America. That was a really powerful event at Canyon theater, a completely packed house, and really gave some really info…

[20:17] you know, both the art and also, you know, helpful information for undocumented in our community, and I think that's all online, if folks haven't had a chance to see that. It's a really great event. Let's see… Boulder fill, … Let me jump over. Boulder Metalsmithing, they have a new director, Claire, and I encourage her to reach out to you, Buller, did you? they don't connect you two. Yeah, totally. She's really excited to be in this position. She's a School of Minds grad, and also in the arts, so, just a smart, energetic lady. They have their fall classes coming up. They're always looking for teachers, if there's any drooling… droidler makers out there. And, they're open first Friday, so if you go to Nobo, hop into their space. It's really… I think that's all you

[21:07] there once, Lauren. It's a really fun space. They're always in there making jewelry. Have you been there before? I'm not. I want to, yeah. It's on the south side of the warehouses, it's really cold. So cold. Yeah, it's called, … Boulder Metalsmithing Association. Yeah, it's really good. And then Boulder Phil had a nice, conversation. They have a space, I think this is to your point, Gaia, they have, office space, and they have some space to share with other nonprofits. So I think some way, how setting up a way for our organizations to collaborate, you know, since office space, obviously they don't have a performing arts venue. And, … Let's see, just a lot of good information on, grants and, how to move forward, and I'll share that when we talk about the grants.

[22:04] Yeah, I'll do mine. I was out of commission for 2 months, but I'm glad to be back. I'm still setting up some meetings with my new liaisons, but, the Tangible Singers are preparing for their November shows. It's the first of their season, the seasonal… the season It's titled Calendar of Hope. It explores themes of environmental stewardship and collective action. Their first show will be November 14th and 16th, but I'll remind y'all when it gets closer to that time. Very exciting, the San Suchi Festival season premiere is this weekend, so Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It's gonna be at the Museum of Boulder, and it's, … They're gonna have, like, Tiaco there, it's gonna be… it's gonna be really, really awesome. Highly recommend. And then I'm meeting with Tim at KG&U to do a walkthrough of the site project, hopefully next week. Yeah. Yeah, I'm excited too.

[23:02] Yeah! Okay, wonderful, thank you for that. Jaipur Literature Festival, friendly reminder that that is our, an annual happening here in Boulder Museum, and that's happening, next month in September. You can look up, those dates for JLF on their website. At the library. That's what I meant. What did I say? I meant the library. I basically got even pointed to it right over here. And they have surprise-winning author. They do, they do. I was here the year that they had the, … the Queen Mother of Bhutan is here as well. So they get, they get really… it's really amazing names on an international scale right here in Boulder, like so many of the things that we have. Our parts T2 and Biff, I am getting together with… Biff nudged me again, yesterday to get together with drinks. I should have just had them all over to my house, all at once, and I could have done this all. Gonna be a new thing. What a cool idea!

[24:00] Feva's got, auditions for their fall show, which is already on sale, over at the dairy. And speaking of the dairy, and it's official news since… Last we got together, the Dairy Arts Center now owns the Dairy Arts Center. They own the building. And this is very important because they were able to, you know, people were like, well, why do they want to buy a building when they were having a $1 lease? The upshoot of that is the fact that they were able to show that they have put nearly $10 million of improvements into that building, but because they didn't own the building, they didn't technically own any assets, they only owned the improvements on a building that they did not own. So now they can leverage this asset for, for capital projects, including a $1 million project for HVAC and roof replacement, which is coming down the pike very, very soon and is needed. So, that's very exciting news that our 44,000 square foot, art center

[25:01] over 200 arts organizations here in Boulder now is, self-sustaining. That's a good question, really. Does that mean we do not have a liaison to the board any longer? Oh! That's a good question. That is a good question. Oh, no, I don't know. We don't have somebody from City Council anymore, because I manage corporate, and she said she's no longer on the board. Right. But I don't know if the liaison… Well… Well, they'd still have a liaison, but they don't necessarily have to be on the board. Correct. Right. Well, we've got our board meeting at 8.30 tomorrow morning, I can find that out, but we… I mean, what are our rules on this side? Hello. Sure, please, yeah. Can you… your voice is always the one that gets… This one's voice. … Hi, I'm Matt Jasanski, Senior Manager with Community Bestelle. For the record, sir, we don't, we don't have a rule.

[26:00] The reason that, there was a, arts commissioner on the board was because of the lease agreement with the dairy. Now that that is going with no, which I think is a good thing. That they should elect to choose… invite an arts commissioner, because it's the best thing for the board, and not because it's a requirement or something. So, that's entirely up to Derek now. We should have a liaison for sure, but… Okay, well, we'll continue with the liaison, but as far as the board member, we can discuss that at our 8.30 morning board meeting tomorrow. Okay. Does that mean that other arts organizations could request or require that their liaison or a liaison serve on their board? They could certainly make that request. I don't know about requiring it, because it would… on our end, we wouldn't have a requirement for something like that, unless we have a specific sort of relationship, like we did. Okay, thank you for that clarification. Can I give it to Nora, please?

[27:01] Sure. September 12th, I'm hosting a fundraiser for Roots Music Festival. my house, so I will, again, if, you know, all of you are invited, you just have to let me know that you're coming. You do not have to donate, at all, but the idea is to get people to donate at very high levels, to become VIPs of the festival. And then, another update to JLF, there's $50,000 in, you know, funds. to close that gap, so I've been shaking the tree. to get a meaningful donation, but, you know, if you come across anybody who wants to support them in any way, shape, or form, there's still opportunity. Talk to me after the meeting, I've got someone in mind. Okay. Yeah, because they kind of had to sweep in last time. Yeah. They're under new leadership, so… and this all happened within the last couple of months, as they're leading up to the festival for this year, so that's proved some challenges, up to and including the GOS,

[28:07] application that they sent at very last minute, because I'm like, are you guys still over there? And they're like, oh, we thought this was done already, so they are. Wonderful, beautiful. That's it. Great. Any other liaison updates from any commissioners? Okay, with that, we're going to move on to Commission work items. I can give an update about the youth opportunities. We all met… last week? Yeah. And so kind of what we're hoping to develop is a page on the website, where people can look And it's gonna be kind of… so there's gonna be filters, so you can kind of filter, is this programming for children, or is it programming that is, like, children? So you can kind of filter out the events and whether it's ongoing as well. So there's gonna be lots of filters on it. What else? What other's other filters?

[29:10] So, like, different ages. Yeah, different age groups, age range, because, yeah, like, 17-year-olds aren't going to want to go to the same events that, like, 5-year-olds are going to, and maybe, I don't know, but… Like, classes versus… Classes versus, like, yeah, whether it's, like, a class that this child is attending, or whether it's a performance that the child's performing in, or if it's a performance directed towards the children, for children, the content. So, yeah, a variety, a variety of factors, that anyone, whether it's a parent or even, like, educators, anyone can go, or teenagers that are looking for workshops for them, it's gonna have a lot of information on there that you can filter through. Which is great, yeah. Exactly, yeah. Yeah, so that's what we're hoping to develop soon, yeah. It's in progress. Yeah, it's in progress, yeah.

[30:00] For the item that Caroline and I were working on and collaborating on for capacity building and coaching on understanding everything from operating budgets to fundraising to collaborations, did anyone have any questions? On… on that that we sent across. And we tried to basically come up with Three different categories with 4 or 5 questions in each one, so that within each of the categories, there'd be one question that you would choose that best fits your Your understanding or call to action to kind of engage best with a liaison or an organization that reaches out to you on… on a… on a coaching session. Any other Commission work items? With that, we will move on.

[31:01] Oh, go ahead. And I was just gonna say that on the, like, support through funding, it sounds like Guy has just taken charge with doing fundraisers for her organization. I don't know how I got to send it all to you. No, I know. I'm gonna start my business. No, it's great. On our end, we're kind of just waiting… is it Emmy in the city that's, like, working on the website updates? And once we've got some website updates on available grant opportunities, we'll be diving in a little bit more on, how to make it user-friendly. Thank you for your patience. With that, questions about the manager's memo, and I'll turn that over to Lauren. Oh, no app. Okay. Let me go through the grants in more detail, right? So that's in your memo, too, right? Yes, yes, I bet. I don't have any questions.

[32:00] Yep. Yeah, we have the last half of the meeting set aside for that specifically. Okay. And, public art program from Brendan. Yup. Hi, everybody. We have a public art action item. It's the process of finalist approval for the Central Avenue Bridge Public Art Project. Here it is, a map, so it's basically Central Ave near 55th. It's a kind of an innovation hub. We have a $40,000 budget, and the panel decided to go with a mosaic artwork. It's a new bridge, replacing an old bridge, with two kind of culvert retaining walls on either side.

[33:01] So the process to date, in May, we had our orientation meeting where we discussed the project parameters, discussed the budget, drafted the request for qualifications, which was approved and posted. The end of June, we had our finalist artist selection meeting, and that's where we selected four finalists for the project to create proposals. We, of course, paid those artists for that work. And just a couple weeks ago, we had our finalist proposal presentations and our final selection meeting. Our Central Avenue Bridge Public Art Selection Panels, these are our voting members. We had Cheryl Cardozo, who's our commissioner, Tammy Golofre is our artist, Molly Dierks from CU Boulder was our arts professional. Jennifer Chavez and Nate Scheindenhelm were our community members on the project. And then our non-voting technical review committee consisted of Roger Kane, who's the City Project Manager for the bridge, Amy Beckel from Kimley Horn, she's one of the designers, and Mark Garcia, of course, from Planning and Design Permitting.

[34:04] Bill Fox from Myers & Sons, who's the construction company hired for the project, John McFarlane from Transportation Planning, and Matt Tolstman filled in once for Bill from Myers & Sons as well. So, our semi-finalist review criteria, … We are always looking at the inherent artistic qualities of the proposals, the context, so how the artwork ties into the location and the site. The ability for us to maintain and install the artwork is important. Also, the time horizon, how long the artwork lasts, how long it will take to install. Also looking at diversity of materials, diversity of artists, backgrounds, and then the uniqueness of the project itself. Is it a unique, site-specific, one-of-a-kind work of art? Here's two renderings of the bridge walls. So it's… they're 20 feet… the space for the art is about 20 feet long, two and a half feet high, with a depth of about half an inch.

[35:06] And this is from the request for qualifications. The Boulder Public Art Program seeks to commission an artist or a team of artists to create original mosaic artworks for the soon-to-be-constructed Central Avenue Bridge, Boulder, Colorado. The Central Avenue Bridge will undergo a replacement located along the north side of Central Avenue, near 57th Street, adjacent to Flatiron Industrial Park in the coming months. This opportunity is for two mosaic artworks to be installed on the concrete bridge walls facing the sidewalk and street. Each side of the bridge contains an inset for mosaic art of approximately 2.5 feet high, 20 feet long, and half an inch deep. This is a Colorado-only call, so only Colorado artists were allowed to apply with a budget of $40,000. Our first proposal was from Marco Garcia from Longmont, Colorado. The title was called Ambiente de Arroyo. Basically, it was kind of fun doodles of Boulder icons and landmarks using, Last mosaic tile.

[36:02] no issues from the TRC mosaic. This application on this type of location is really pretty straightforward, and so we really had no comments from the technical review committee about the work or the installation. The panel really liked the sense of whimsy and fun. It was bright and vibrant, and they liked, these references to Boulder lore, there was one part that referenced Mork and Mindy, so people like that kind of fun, eye-catching. … They also thought it was a little too simple, it seemed a little bit obvious and boxed in, and it didn't seem sophisticated enough for the location here, this innovation. Our second proposal was from Annette Coleman from Lakewood, Colorado, titled Water and Air. Each respective piece was titled Water and Air. Abstract imagery referencing technology, computing, and Nature Using Glass Tile. So they liked that it seemed kid-friendly, there was some research into the history of computing, and that some of the iridescent glass that was proposed to be used seemed cool.

[37:12] They thought the composition was a little distracting, didn't seem cohesive, a couple people didn't like these white lines kind of running through the composition, and the overall effect seemed a little bit messy. Leo Bundakini, from Louisville, Colorado, Echoes of the Plains, Song of the Lark Bunting. This was, realistic bird imagery, the Mark Bunting transforming into pixelated nature designs using handmade ceractic tile. So they loved the imagery, they thought it was beautiful, solid design and plan, it seemed polished. Nice combo of nature and technology themes. … But throughout the conversation, they also thought that maybe it lacked some emotion. They felt like the artwork could be anywhere, not just Boulder, Colorado. It seemed a little too muted or tame, especially when they compared this proposal to images of the artist's past work. There's a lot more energy in this past work.

[38:14] And then there was, definite concern that he has likely never made handmade tile before, or installed a mosaic tile project pass. The final proposal, was from Mario Echeveria. It's untitled at this point. He's from Longmont, Colorado. So his proposal is for 10 portraits, that sort of convey different approaches to innovation, using handmade ceramic tile. … They thought it was inspiring, innovative, thoughtful, and unique. They'd said that they'd never seen imagery like this before, especially in this kind of traditional art form. There was an emphasis on psychology and these kind of meta-themes. And it was obvious that this artist is a master of his craft. Excellent examples of successful past mosaic work.

[39:05] Some of the concerns were that the proposal seemed a little underdeveloped, and there was one comment about the potential for the portraits to look like playing cards. So, something to look out for. But finally, we held a vote, it was 3 to 1, but the consensus was reached for the final decision, so that one vote came along and said, actually, I support the group decision. Which is always our goal. So feedback from Mario would be to work with city staff and designers to ensure that the design is fleshed out before it gets to work. So there's always a couple spots for that in the contract process to really get final preliminary design and final, final design, so… Environment's proposal was the final of the form? The form, yep. So next steps would be that the Arts Commission moves to approve the process, and the finalists, we advance to the City Manager for approval for contracting. Again, follow up with the panel to ensure that the final design meets their expectations, and then install will likely happen this spring and summer of 2026.

[40:11] Any questions about the process, or comments about the work? like, motion. I move that we approve this process was properly conducted, and recommend that the proposal by artist Mario and Cherry Ferrilla advance to the City Manager for final approval. I'll second. All those in favor? Any discussion? I'm Caroline Kerr from the professor, she just joined, and she has her hand raised. Get your mind, pierced. Oh, Caroline. Yeah. Yeah. Caroline, please. It just… well, teachers won't care, and I can't. Hi, I was… Just raising my hand in approval, thank you.

[41:03] Oh, okay. I'd love to see an updated proposal with more details. Yeah, August, probably maybe early next year. Okay, so we have voted in favor of the process. Is that unanimous? That was unanimous. Thank you so much. May I ask why Brendan has the floor to tell us about Experiments in public art, upcoming lecture? Yes, sure, I'd be happy to. So then the upcoming and final Experiments in Public Art lecture happens at the end of September. I'll check my calendar. The final lecture is September 28th, it's a Sunday. We'll have Beemer Torres from Denver, Colorado, a really, wonderful, established, mural artist. He kind of, in his youth, in his teens, he was sort of a graffiti, kind of. some vandalism in his past. He got into trouble, he was definitely, like, tagging things he shouldn't have, but he got… Involved with the Urban Arts Fund, with the City of Denver, and really transformed his life and became a really amazing, accomplished mural artist. So we're partnering with Streetwise for that. The weekend before the lecture.

[42:11] We're gonna host a design workshop with 5 youth that can sign up. I think in the next week or so, we'll have a sign-up sheet. It's kind of first come, first serve, so 5 youth will work with Beamer to come up with a design, and then they will help him prime a door, an exterior door at the library, main library, help him paint the mural, and then finally, he'll have a lecture that Sunday afternoon. So, it'll be great. And I also will be coming up soon probably at the next Arts Commission meeting to present the new iteration of Experiments in Public Art, which will be, Open call for artists to… … get project funding for temporary public art in the city of Boulder. So, less lecture, more actual art. Yeah.

[43:00] Any questions? Yeah. How do you decide which of these proposals is just Colorado artists and which is open to… It's a great question. It's… it's really up to the selection panel. We have a robust conversation about it. There are some… There are pros and cons to both. So, the general rule is that for a budget that's maybe under $50,000, tend to keep it towards more of a local call, and local for us would be a Colorado call. If the budget goes over $50,000, is approaching $75,000 or $100,000, then we tend to lean towards opening it up to a national call, or maybe an international call, if the budget's really Big enough? We don't generally want to make all of our calls just Colorado, although some people think we should… all of our calls should be Colorado. when you think about it, if we start doing that, then what's to stop other states from closing their calls, and then our artists can't apply for calls across the country? But really, this comes down to a budget thing, and sometimes it's like, if the location seems

[44:01] super special or very unique to Boulder, we might want to have it… or to Colorado, we might want to have it just be a Colorado call, because the budget's a little bigger. So it's just kind of… that's kind of… it's a… it's a conversation. Panel is the one that kind of ends up making that final decision. Would Medium also have something to do, whether or not that's locality or not, depending on whether or not you think you've got enough Enough artists of one particular medium within the state. That's true, too. So, again, like, for a mosaic call, we may have gone national for this, even though it was under 50, because Mosaic… I mean, this is a… it's a… it's a pretty… again, it's straightforward. It's tile adhered to the wall, grout, sealant, whereas having an artist from out of state fabricate something, ship the sculpture, get the permits to put the footer to metast… it's a whole other series of events, so it's really, like, what the media might be, and then what the budget is, and how that all logs into place. I guess there's a possibility, if it is a national call, Colorado artists could still apply and get it, so… Definitely. Colorado artists actually do really well. Like, we have great artists in Colorado and great fabrication companies that assist artists, so we, Colorado artists always do well. That's a national call.

[45:15] And it's okay to do a national poll and even say we have a preference for Colorado parties. Any other questions for Brendan before we turn on? Thanks, everybody. With that, I'm going to move on to the budget presentation by Ellie. Thank you very much. We will jump into this. With some grace, maybe? Friendly reminder that there's a microphone above you. Thank you. Alright. Alright. Happening. And this actually isn't the first slide either. Cool.

[46:02] Little bumpy, but we'll get there. So today we're going to talk a little bit about the budget process, more so than the actual budget. So I wanted to go over just kind of some preliminary things. These are the things we're going to cover today. We'll talk a little bit about 2025, right? We're still in the 2025 budget year, although we've been working very hard at developing the 2026 budget. We can't forget that we're still present. I'll talk a little bit about navigating OpenGov, so I kind of want to give you guys, like, an actual process of what it's going to look like once the budget does get released, and then answer any questions. Things will change a little bit this year, but for the most part, it's going to be the same. It is still online, still in OpenGov. We're going to review some of the fiduciary fundamentals and fund financials. I was having fun with that this afternoon. And, kind of what to expect in these next steps.

[47:00] So that's basically all we're covering today. That's me. And, … We won't, unfortunately, be able to get into the 2026 budget quite yet. It has yet to be released to the public. That should be coming out in 2 days, so we're just ahead of that. But then, when we actually do get into the budget process. I'll talk a little bit about the next steps, though. And a friendly reminder for anyone tuning in, as well as we do have a new commissioner this year, When we talk about a budget, we're talking about January 1, December 31? That is correct, yeah. Our fiscal year for the City of Boulder is 1-1 to 12-31. Thank you. All right, so where are we at with 2025? So, you guys have seen lots of numbers, and here's some more. I want to add a couple caveats to this. So, the public art budget and the administration budget that you're seeing up there is from multiple funding sources. So, this is not just from the Arts, Culture, and Heritage 2A tax.

[48:10] And it's actually, in some regards, omitting some from the public art, for instance. So this is really focusing just in 2025. And I say that because Brennan sitting next to me could attest that the $685,000 we have for public art is at least a million dollars short, thinking about the Alpine Balsam project. So, this is really what has been… allocated for 2025 across multiple funding sources. So, some of this is from transportation, some of it's from transportation development, some of it's from CCRS, and some of it is from the Arts, Culture, and Heritage Tax. So, the art budget itself is… … to be… nice. It's very complex. So there is that dedicated 2A fund, which is a big bulk of it, and really that's where the grants budget lives.

[49:08] But from a public art side of things, and from a support roles side of things, it comes from a lot of different funding sources. And really what this graph is doing is it's capturing a majority of the funding that's dedicated to art. So you can see, kind of, where our revised budget is. So this is any changes that we had, for instance, in ATV, the adjustment to base. But also some… any carryovers of encumbrances get incorporated into the revised budget. … And you'll see, kind of, where we've spent to date. So you can see we've actually not been charged for the cost allocations yet. That will happen, I promise. I'll talk a little bit about the definitions of cost allocations, what that's supporting, and those types of things. But this is the literal cash, if you will, that, this staff, the art staff.

[50:01] Has been working with this year, with those small caveats. Things that are not captured in here are any, like, in-kind donations, or any, like, special lease agreements, or any of those, like, non-cash Kind of incentives that we have for the arts community as well. So, speaking of 2025, wanted to throw together some slides celebrating the awesomeness. From this group, and they have been out doing a lot of different projects, and really not just supporting directly the arts community, but also Celebrating arts throughout our city, and some cultural icons, and some awesome opportunities where maybe you wouldn't expect to see art, at least from my perspective. A fire station, for instance, and how we can actually incorporate some really cool artwork in When we're doing large capital investments like that. So, you can see the first one here is, Fire Station 3, and some of that budget you saw for the public art is actually for Fire Station 2,

[51:12] And next year, we're going to be adding more money to that for Fire Station 4, and kind of TBT on… TBD on where that artwork ends up, and what it is, and all those things, but it'll go through that same public art process, which I gotta see behind the curtain this evening, and that is fascinating, so thank you, glad I was here. I don't know… I'm so stuck in the numbers that I don't get to, like. what actually happened, so it is very, I've really appreciated that this evening. So this is another one of those public art processes, that we had installed this year. Sarah can probably attest to a lot of these. There's multiple grants that we had awarded this year. We actually increased our budget through the adjustment to base in May? June. June? June. June. I should know this, I did the budget. And we could actually expand that a little bit further. So, from what we originally adopted at the end of the budget cycle in 2020,

[52:13] For the 2025 budget, we were able to add some more additional funding to recognize even more grant recipients. Which is great. It was an awesome opportunity for us to see there was some cash on the table, and we were, able to work with Council and with the city manager's office to take that cash out of the bank and put it into arts communities. So that was really great. Now the fun part, navigating OpenGov. So bear with me as I do this wonderful transition of a presentation to the actual navigating out of OpenGov, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to pull in What the budget… book should look like. Emphasis on should.

[53:02] It should not really change too much here, but this is basically the same process that commissioners or the public will be going through for navigating the budget once it gets published in 2026. Oh. So, kind of skipping ahead in my presentation, the, intent is for us to email all of our commissions, so we have a total of 5 commissions that Community Vitality gets to work with. We're going to email every commission on Friday the link to the budget book online, kind of some insights into what to expect as well. We'll talk about that in my presentation. And then some other follow-up. references and documentation. So, come Friday, that email should be coming out. I know we don't have it yet, we're all sitting at the edge of our seats, but I promise that we should, that we will have something coming out on Friday that should include the links to our online budget book.

[54:02] So, this is kind of what the budget book is going to look like. I'm sure the picture will look different, and the budget highlights and budget brief will look different. But you will see on this home page kind of some of the overall city budget picture. Gives you a little insight into sources and uses, kind of the changes from budget from year to year, our overall city capital improvement plan. So if you're really interested and you really want to dive into, kind of, like, the whole budget, the homepage is, like, a great place to start. From there, you'll scroll down to the bottom and you'll see Community Vitality. Excuse me. We will continue to have a community vitality budget page dedicated to us. And this is where you can start to see the full community vitality budget. So, we're lucky enough to have arts and culture in our department, which is great because it really does provide that vital influx of

[55:01] to the culture, to the community, to, for, like, helping with philanthropic connections, those types of things, so it's a really great fit for community vitality. And, that's why you'll see Arts and Culture Budget ingrained into our department as well. Just like we did, last year, so again, we're looking at the 2025 budget, and I'm so sorry, this is teeny tiny on the screen up there. The, the summary of enhancements will be on there, so we'll be highlighting any enhancements that are going forward as the City Manager's recommended budget. Of course, all of this does require Council action. So, even though you're going to see it in the budget book, there is a chance that things could change, one direction or the other, based on City Council guidance. So they are the official Approver, that appropriates the money. Talk about fiduciary fundamentals. I can see how many A words I can put in here as well.

[56:00] Alliterations, I guess that would be another one. The, … so that's all… Something that we just need to keep in mind, that this is not a final budget until second reading. But it is a great way for now the community can start to look at what does the city manager recommend the budget going forward, and then they can now start using that as a springboard for conversation with Council. And I'll talk a little bit about How the community can get involved with, the budget development process. You'll see the Budgeting for Resiliency and Equity dashboard. Again, this is kind of our way of, like, are we making an impact in the community across all of our programs? It'll obviously be updated with some actual 2024 data, and some new targets for 2025, so kind of like, what are we trying to achieve with our budget, with our staff, with our time, all of the resources? And then, as you scroll down the page, some things will change a little bit, but for the most part, it's gonna look the same. You'll see our operating budget comparing the adopted budget.

[57:04] It's another A word. Emphasis on adopted. That is the budget that gets passed by Council. Our revised budget is the budget that has any revisions, sometimes some changes from Council, but also those encumbrance carries over. So those obligated contracts that we've said, hey, we're going to pay you, we didn't actually pay them that year because the work wasn't completed. But we still want to make sure we have that money into the next year, so that's that encumbrance carryover. So it's a way of ensuring that any contract that we went into with a supplier, or artist, or whatever it may be, we still have that money left over for the next year, so when the actual work is completed, we can pay that. So that's kind of what goes into revisions. And this report data is still loading on my end as well, so we're just gonna move on. You'll see some expenditures by program, likely to stay the same.

[58:00] You'll see kind of, like, how basically the community vitality budget is split up. And then you'll get into the program overviews, and then a little bit probably different this year is going to be simplifying this budget process. So for this year. If you want to look at program-specific budgets, you have to click on a link that takes you to another page, and then if you want to navigate back, you have to use this back arrow, and if you click on… so we're trying to… I guess, simplify the budget this year. It's going to be likely a little bit easier to navigate, and not so many clicking of things, so everything should show up on one page. … And then you'll also see the staffing stuff. Again, this is department staffing, so this isn't just arts and culture staff, this is all of our department staffing. And then you'll see, Our expenditure is probably by fund. Again, with the five commissions, each commission basically has its own funding mechanism, as they oversee either districts or sales tax.

[59:01] For this mission, it's sales tax, and the other ones, it's all district funded. So you'll be able to get a sense of, kind of, like, where our different funding sources are. Any questions before I jump out of open mode? Yes. With the email that you're going to send us on Friday with the first round, I think you've answered this one already. I've got two questions, but I think you've answered the first one, but I just want to clarify for everyone. There will be comparisons within what is being proposed for 26 And what was actual in 25? Absolutely, that's correct. So we don't have to jump from one to the other to figure it out. Correct. Yeah, so the… the intent is kind of like we have here, you'll see there should be a… a 20… well… Great question, now that I'm thinking about it, because 24 approved would technically be coming out of the general fund. 25 approved would come out of the Arts, Culture Heritage, and then you would see that compared to the 26 proposed budgets. So you can kind of compare apples to apples, between the adopted budget, not the revised, but the adopted budget in 25

[60:11] Versus the proposed budget in 2026. And that is broken down through the line of business of this particular commission, as opposed to Vitality's all as well? … Great question. No, I don't believe it will be, but we can provide that information. That would be very helpful, because that's what's mattering to this person. 100%. Yeah, and I… again, sorry, I'm jumping in my presentation, I should have just… forgot the organization of it. In September, we will be also having another budget conversation, and I will be giving a much more in-depth specific to the Arts, Culture, and Heritage Fund, and it'll talk about 3-year comparisons, and I will pull in the general fund, so we'll have all of that in your September meeting. So that will also be a public meeting. The public is welcome to come to that, but we will also be having that in September. But yes, the email sending out to commissioners will also contain the comparison of 25 versus 26, at the very least. Okay, great. And I have one other question up to this point, and that is.

[61:13] we've kicked off election season for City Council. Is the budget finalized before that election? Because we would like to be aware of which ones we should be lobbying Absolutely. Leading up to the, the finalization of that, of that, 26th budget? All intended purposes, yes. Final reading is October 29th. So that is before elections. Thank you. Chris, did you ask me that? Yes. And come join us, please. Scott Valley, two questions. Will the 2026 fund financials be posted, this Friday as well? That is correct. And can you show folks how to get to the fund financials on the… I will. A paper. Yeah, absolutely. I do have Caroline with her name raised. Yes, thank you.

[62:00] My question has to go maybe with the last, about the… the heritage, tax 2A dollars. Will there be a way to see the line items specifically where those fund dollars are going to? Yeah, so in the budget book, it's not… really that detailed, but I will say in our presentation in September, we will be 100% going over where all that money's going from the arts, Culture, and Heritage tax. broken down kind of by program. So when I say program, in my mind, I'm thinking about the financial programs. So, public art, grants and sponsorships, administration. And then if we had capital, if we had special events, if we had any other program that the arts, Culture, and Heritage tax would be supporting, it would be captured in that presentation. So that's kind of, like, by program. I'll also be talking about personnel versus non-personnel.

[63:05] And then transfers, cost allocations, and reserves. So giving a very in-depth detail of where the Arts, Poultry, and Heritage Fund will be coming, or going to, I should say, will happen in September. And we'll certainly elaborate a lot of that in the email. And that meeting is on September 24th. That is correct. Correct, and you anticipate that to be before the second reading, so that we can activate ourselves and the community leaders if we need to? That is correct. It actually will be before the first reading. Thank you. Yep, so this commission, … Fortunately, unfortunately, is having this… preliminary budget conversation before the budget actually gets produced, but fortunately, we will be… That's fortunate, actually, for us. We like that. But we will also be having an in-depth conversation before first reading, but it will be post- study session. I understand. And I'll talk a little bit about the nuances between regular council meetings and study sessions, later on in my presentation, what that means as commissioners, and also what that means as just the general public.

[64:09] Maria, did you have…? No, I think you just answered it there. Perfect. Yeah. Is this very different from last year? the budgeting process? The budgeting process is pretty much the exact same. The timing is a little bit different. Every year has its own nuances because of the way council meetings line up with the way Commission meetings line up. So sometimes it's before, sometimes it's after, it just depends. Like, last year, we actually were able to do a budget presentation from the proposed budget, I believe in August, because the way the budget was actually released was before the commission meeting. So it just depends on the timing. Like, we're literally two days ahead of when the bubble gets… the budget gets published this year. So that's… I guess then my question just… Thanks to the public comment.

[65:00] Because for that, I took away that it was… Very different. Like, they wouldn't have not enough time for. somehow people to review and comment the way it's rolling out now, but it doesn't seem… Yeah, I think, there's… so the budget gets developed, and I'm gonna make a very broad assumption. But the budget gets developed starting back in May, right? So as staff, we're sitting here and we're trying to figure out, what does our sales tax revenue projections look like? We're working with CU Lead School on helping us, like, understand sales tax projections. We think we're gonna have a stronger economy, weaker economy, do we need to be more aggressive, less aggressive, more reserved, less reserved, those types of things. That all starts internally in May, and those are conversations that are happening throughout all of city management. And it's… it's hard for us because so many things are preliminary. And there's not a lot of, like, well, we have good insight. Like, we're still siphoning through the data, still understanding, like.

[66:00] what are we gonna be running up against, right? And it's not until, really. July that we can start to have a good understanding of the budget. So for the… I think maybe what the public is asking for is, like. being involved in May, but we don't even know where we're going in May yet, so it's a little hard at that point. So that's… The reason why the ordinances are both under public hearings for the budget, is because we want… that's our opportunities to really engage with the public at that point. So the public hearing process, a little bit different than open comment during the council meetings. Public hearings, are really for the public to speak on behalf of that specific ordinance. So that's the ordinance, think, is it's like change of law, right? So, an ordinance is actually changing the law. And the appropriation of budget is a legal document, so that's why it's written via ordinance. So this, that's… and actually, that's for any ordinance, so it doesn't have to just be budget. So any change of ordinance always has a public hearing portion of it. So if the public ever wanted to

[67:12] have any input on any law change that is in front of Council, that's when they would do it. But open comment differs in that it could be anything that the community wants to have a discussion with in front of Council, and be on public record. That's what open comment for. So you can talk about budget during open comment, at any point in the year, but if you really want to hit the budget conversation, it's the public hearing during the first and second readings. So that's how… but that's how it's been every year. And I… you… you might agree with me, because I was going to ask your opinion on this, Maria. I feel, because of the Nick Forsters and Jan Burton's and the Deb Malds of the world, I think there's… there's… there's more awareness of it this year than there was in previous years, even if timeline might fit in the same way. I think that we've got more eyes on it, as well as the process.

[68:06] more transparency this year than we had in previous years. Do you agree with that? Yeah, add to that. I think, you know, the passing of 2A really was, acknowledgement by the community that the arts is vital, and people want to see that 2A tax money go directly to the arts. So I think that's why there's an interest in the community for transparency, making sure, you know, what is the projection for that? Where are those funds going to? And I think the second point the community is saying, that they would like this commission to have more input on the budget as it's coming together, as I understand it, we're… Just in the progress of the public. We have… you know, so we're responding the same way as the rest of the public. Is that… is that… that's my understanding of it. So once it's… because I originally thought we were going to see the budget today, I thought that's what we had talked about. Yeah. Instead, it's for the process. Yeah. So that's the other feedback from the community, is you all on this commission should have

[69:05] The ability to see the budget and have input on that. Yeah, I will say, right now, the… every commission, is kind of in that same boat. The commissions… commissioners, excuse me, are asked to recommend that budget. As a actual motion, so each commission that they don't have the approval authority for appropriation, Being adopted? But they do have, they are asked to at least vote on a recommendation of, say, yes, City Council, we agree with this budget, and we agree that you should adopt it. So that's kind of the process right now for commissioners. Am I true that the only outlier to that is open space? That is a question I don't know if I could answer. I don't know if Open Space Board of Trustees actually has budget… they don't have budget adoption authority. I don't know if that's…

[70:01] My understanding is they've got a little bit longer of a bikeway than things, am I correct? That's what I've heard as well. Yeah. You're probably hearing that from the same… I think we are. To my… to my knowledge, I don't… and I… I'm… I wish I would be an attorney so I could understand the forming ordinances of all of these, but… You see my jackets on the calendar. I am. Thank you. But yeah, I don't know if the Open Space Board of Trustees actually has any approval authority. They probably have a similar recommendation authority. So how is the commission then, this commission going to collect feedback from? the public that are interested in QA conference. Do we have process to collect the feedback and present it as a whole, or are we just… I think the public comment process during the commission meetings is probably the easiest, if you will.

[71:00] this is, like… it's not really… they're not going to do it. 120 rights organizations are not going to show up for public comment, and they shouldn't show up for public comment. Right. So I think working as the liaisons, I think that's a great way to bring those messages in to this commission. Of course, anytime the commissioners get together as three, it technically has to be a public meeting, right? Right. So working with… as… working with the liaisons from these different organizations and bringing in their message, I think, is also another appropriate way To bring that to the rest of the commissioners, so that you all can kind of have a discussion regarding what you've heard in the public. Right. Yeah, 100%. For this year, too, we've been… this budget is based on the blueprint, based on, like, the input that we receive from the Blueprint, which is thousands of people, not just the arts community, which is important, right? We're reflecting, like, the wants and needs and interests of the full community from those The surveys and parking the feedback forms, questionnaires, and all of these focus groups, all of this input.

[72:01] But also what we've been going through with the grant program, like, the grant budget is the… really the biggest part of the budget, so… last meeting, this meeting, next meeting, your advice towards the branch budget is really also the time to hear from the arts community, because ultimately, that's really the biggest part of the budget, too. So it's already been in discussion, all this feedback. Sarah's heard from, like, dozens of community members, but also, like, all of the feedback from the Arts Blueprint, like, that's been integrated into the recommendations this year. Come join us. Yeah. Anyway, just real quick, … Points will take in about… the capacity of public hearings, but we offer wellness, right? So, I'm sure we'll get no short notice to commissioners and to staff, with their recommendations, and so that's all leading to what Ellie was describing about your motion to recommend, or recommend with, both divisions. That will be next month, so between now and then, the emails that come in, once you hear, you know, forms can all form.

[73:08] your holdings. Go ahead. I think the fear from the community is, once this goes into study sessions, it's 90% baked. And that there is really no opportunity for us to thoughtfully integrate. … Yeah, I think… so… That's really today's… my mission today was to equip, you guys as commissioners, but also the general public, ways that they can actually digest this budget, right? The study session is… it's the closed conversation in the sense that there's no public involvement. Public's allowed to attend and listen, but it's not a public engagement process. taking that knowledge from today and the knowledge from the study session, I think, is a great way for conversations to then be formed that they can bring to Council for the public hearing. I can't say it's 90% baked by then, because I don't know what Council's thinking, right?

[74:13] technically, Council could take the budget and say, nope, everything needs to change, right? So we can't… we only come with a recommendation of, given the blueprint analysis, given the work that we know is ahead of us, and all of our programs. This is how we think a budget should be created to make sure that we reach our service levels, and also reach out to the community based on things like the Blueprint, or in other areas, conversations like the Commercial Areas Blueprint, or the DDA, or the Boulder Valley Comp Plan, our SARE framework, right? We're trying to take things that the community has helped us create To help us Fulfill our mission to being providers for this community, and we create a budget based on that. And then that budget then gets proposed to Council.

[75:00] then it's Council's job to understand, did we miss the mark? Did we hit it, right? And hopefully by then, we've at least hit the mark to the point that they're like, yes, this looks good. We believe this also represents the community's requests and desires. And then they get a vote on it. And if they don't think it does, then they can change it, right? So that's really… Council is the approving authority for that budget. Maria, my experience isn't that fast with this process, but in 13 years, post years, I've seen Council, at that first public hearing, make suggestions for changes. So it is… you know, definitely the goal of the finance department is to present a budget that they will approve, but I've rarely seen that that has a good council people in the suggestion. Yeah, and we did… Yeah, and we did actually… we… we had some changes from some of the things that we proposed last year. Council did come back and actually make some changes, so we had to

[76:04] take those changes, and this is caveat, I said October 29th is the second reading. As long as there's not any significant changes and there's not any disagreement, it won't go to third reading, but if it does go to third reading, then it will be post-elections. But before the new council takes… But before new council takes seat, which would be in December. I just want to know where we're setting the pitchforks and the torch. So, our council members will be council members until the end of their term, which is in December. Okay. So regardless of how the elections unfold, it's still going to be the same council members voting on the budget throughout the entire budget process. And will this… link be available in Spanish? Yes, yeah, so it is in… actually available in, like, I want to say, like, 130 different languages. And it's… it's via Google Translate. So, as a native Hungarian speaker, I will tell you, Google Translate, but not Google Translate. I'm guessing it probably does Spanish better than… But it is… it is available in multiple languages. Actually, that's one of the nice things about us doing the online budget book.

[77:09] Is it gives us that… I guess… tool, if you will, to translate to multiple. Yep. Lauren, can we ask you the favor to summarize this for the arts community, rather than having everyone… I know maybe it's a dynamic tool, but, you know, I think Deb mentioned it, and I think that's always been helpful when we see the budget. on one page. So can we request that, rather than sending everyone in the arts community To this portal, and try to figure out how to navigate. Yeah, I mean, we can… we can certainly do that. That's the intent of the email, and then also the intent of this September presentation is to make it more digestible, so there's not so much navigating, so… But yes, certainly. Remember, we're visual people, so… Well, I'm… I'm trying, I'm accounting and finance. Perfect. Well, and that's… that was kind of… kind of my intent with… with this slide, not this one, it's thinking.

[78:11] this slide was to… I wanted to keep things… you can get lost, and I know the commissioners that are here you got the fund financials, we're gonna dive into those a little bit. Looking at that document, if you don't do that on a regular… Sarah's giving me the best look ever. If you don't look at the fund financials on a regular basis, they can be a little daunting, because it's like, well, what's this? What's that? Why is this here? Is this a negative? Is this a positive? How'd this math work? So I want to talk a little bit about the fund financials here in just a minute, but yes, I want to… I do want to synthesize this down to make it more digestible, because… and this isn't just for the Arts Commission, this is for every commission, right? The vast majority of the public is not doing accounting and finance and government, so… We're really good. Elliot, I'm going to make a recommendation, or for a suggestion, I'm going to ask my fellow commissioners the same question.

[79:03] What in the next part of your presentation is… it would be absolutely necessary before we get the information on Friday for the budget, just because we've gone double the time we had allotted for you, and we have to get to the grants program. That is a great question. So let's look… I'm going to say that these next few slides are definitions. Tune of, I am the very model of a modern Major General. I love these! It's so much fun! So this here, I can send this out as a packet follow-up, and I'll send out this entire presentation, so… I've only put these things in here so that you all can understand a little bit about them. We're gonna fly through them. It also means we'll be able to see them. Yeah, that's correct, yes. So I just wanted to put in definitions. We talk a lot about cost allocations, we talk a lot about reserves, we talk a little bit about transfers, we talk about fund financials, so I just kind of put in some, like.

[80:03] definitions, if you will, of what those are, and I'm literally… this isn't, like. Webster or Oxford Dictionary definitions, this is, like, Elliot Mabonte definition. So… Hopefully they're good. Something I do want to talk… so I was going to go over the fund financials. We do not have to do that today. I think what would be important is for you all to know how to navigate to the fund financials in OpenGov. So let me show that real quick. Is this open to the general public? This is open… nope, this is all… This is important for us to at least go over. Correct. So back on the home page, there is this wonderful, Appendix, you'll see here. There is a Fund Definition and Fund Financials link. This is where you will find the fund financial for the arts, Culture, and Heritage tax. What this does is this is going to tell you what was our budget in 2025, how is it in 2026, and then what is the fund health, right? How much money are you all going to have to manage over the next 6 years?

[81:08] Now there's a lot of caveats with the fund financials, and you're going to have more questions than answers. We will work with you on the answers, I promise. But the one that you are going to focus on in this teeny tiny little itty-bitty font that you can't see on the screen is the Arts, Culture, and Heritage Fund. So, just like we talked about, how it was approved in the budgeting process, or sorry, in the ordinance of the forming of the 2A tax, so that's why it's called the Arts, Culture, and Heritage Fund. So this will be the one that'll actually take you to the fund financials, and it'll look like, for those of you who are here, just like the printed document that you got. Everything gets smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller. I promise you, it's not… on my computer screen, it's not that bad. But, you know, you can zoom in, and things look better. So… That is something you definitely want to, … everyone to be able to know how to access this defined financials. Great. Let's see…

[82:05] What to expect? Last couple slides. So, we talked a little bit about this. The, … it is planned for this Friday for it to be published. We will email that same day for more specific info to the Arts Commission and the arts community. The… Change in fund financials, so… you're gonna be like, well, why did the 2025 number change so much? Well, we have a 2025 revised columns because our sales tax projections change, right? We worked with CU and tried to understand, like, what should we expect for actually getting in sales tax money, so that money's changed, so you're going to see some of that. The 2026 recommended budget, obviously going to change. The fund financials you have in front of you right now, and that are on our 25 budget, you'll see a 26 number in there. It's going to be significantly different, because we made some changes to the budget. And then that also impacts the 5-year forecast all the way out to 2031.

[83:01] Also, expect to see a few changes in the OpenGov details, what that looks like. Lastly, timing-wise, again, September 11th at 6pm, City Council Study Session. Open to the public, no public comment, but open to the public. First reading with public hearing will be October 9th. Second reading with public hearing will be October 23rd. So, members of the public are welcome to speak at Arts Commission Publics, so they're always welcome here at these Commission meetings, and they are always welcome to sign up and speak at City Council meetings, either during open comment or at public hearing for either budget meetings. I know I asked this already. Any other questions for Elliot, knowing that we are 25 minutes over on his portion, and we have to get to the grants? It's funny that when I put this together, it's like, this'll be, like, 10 minutes. Yeah. Without any other questions, going once, going twice? Great, we're gonna move on to Sarah. Thank you, Elliot. Thank you so much, I appreciate the time.

[84:02] Okay, we're gonna have to get through this in half the allotted time. Sorry, Sarah! So first we have the leadership pipeline sign decisions. The Art Commission may approve all of the scholarships for the panel's recommendation, approve individual scholarships, approve individual scholarships while submitting specific questions, or postpone approval of individual scholarships pending the answers to specific questions. For the commissioners online, can you see… can you hear Sarah clearly? Yes! Wonderful. You hear her better than we do on the other table, then. I just… Which means the microphones work very well. So these are the scores. I can move. I move that we approve the following awards for the 2025 Leadership Pipeline Fund, Journey LeBeau and Kareem Gill. A second.

[85:00] All those in favor? Discussion? Caroline, I believe you had a quick question on this as well, because I had the same question. Yeah, just to keep it really quick for… and we can add it to another agenda, my question was around why there were so few applicants when we had a growing interest, and now it looks like maybe not as much interest. And, in conversations with Lauren today, that may be just, A conversation for the future about the, what is going to happen with this fund. an observation. Yeah, I mean, I can kind of respond. We had 3 eligible applications. I think typically there were 4 or 5. I think there's some affordability issues, trying to get people to stay in Boulder, which is the purpose of this.

[86:01] I advertised it through all the channels that it was previously advertised through, met some people in person to talk to them about this, … I think that we discussed in a previous commission meeting that maybe this looks like an artist's residency in the future, or something that's more attractive. Did you hear? Oh, absolutely, yeah. It might be helpful next year as a reminder, where somewhere in the process, you leverage us as a little nudge to help… help advertise this out as well, as commissioners. That might be another avenue for you. Any other discussion? And all those in favor? And that is unanimous. Okay, we have one grant report. You can approve the report, approve the report while submitting specific questions, postpone approval of the report pending answers to specific questions, or not approve the report. It's from the Cultural Caravan for the Arts Education Grant.

[87:06] I'll make a motion. To approve? Do we have a second? I'll second. All those in favor? Discussion? wonderful impact for $3,000. 700 kids, I think? 700 students, yeah, that's amazing. This is their first big grant. They also have their first big, … the corporate sponsorship this year, and I'm just really proud of what they're doing. So that's approved unanimously. I think I did that in the back… in backwards, but yeah. All right, now on to the 2026 grant program. Before we start, I would just like to make sure we're all on the same page. I'd like to remind everyone we're doing this at incremental steps for a reason. Purpose of Step 1 was to prepare draft proposals based on broad community feedback. After presenting that, I've received more specific feedback, have tailored basically all of my proposals based on that feedback from both commissioners and arts administrators. Step two, like Step 1, is presented as in progress.

[88:10] We'll repeat the same thing after this meeting, and we'll continue responding to input. Or we have a final draft. Thank you for everyone who provided respectful responses, and I look forward to hearing more from people. Today we're going to talk through the feedback loop that has occurred over the past month, starting with these updated proposals. Because we're short on time, instead of pausing at the end of every slide for feedback, I'm going to just kind of get through these, and then I can pause at the end. All right, a very helpful tool in receiving input has been a survey, or sorry, questionnaire, because it's not statistically significant, sent to previous awarded organizations. We're continuing to receive responses, and while we have What we have so far is by no means a definitive portrait of organizations in Boulder. I think that there are some clear themes and patterns emerging already. Thank you to everyone who submitted your responses thus far, they're extremely thoughtful, and keep us open through September 3rd.

[89:04] Initially proposed a pre-application that would serve as an eligibility check by staff, as well as an opportunity for reviewers to comment on project goals ahead of time. We received positive or neutral feedback to the pre-application. One applicant said this would help them reach past their comfort zone in applying for grants. After some thought and suggestion from the questionnaire, we're now proposing that this serve as an eligibility check only for feasibility purposes. The schedule included as an attachment, therefore has outdated information. Yes. Previously, I suggested that we take the applicant response out of the process. I received mixed feedback from commissioners and grant writers through the questionnaire. Pretty much everyone said that they would appreciate more specificity and less confusion. As such, we are now proposing that the review panel may ask up to two very specific clarifying questions. This would help mitigate the effects of the language barrier, and would require less work from reviewers and applicants. Some respondents to the questionnaire said that 100 words would be too short, and that would cause difficulty. I provided a visual here, so you can see that 100 words is basically half a page, and I would argue that if the questions are truly specific and clarifying.

[90:11] That that should be no problem. Do you like the idea of incorporating more opportunities to provide work samples? These will be optional, but we will note in the application that panelists have requested work samples in the past, and they would be helpful in the review process. We discussed potentially expanding encouragement points to reflect, blue plank values, as I think it was Maria brought up, or Caroline, there was a concern that this would lengthen the application, providing more work for applicants. As such, we're now suggesting that these extra questions only be asked for organizations that would like to be considered bedrock, and we can discuss the draft rubric in a few slides. Almost all the feedback about changes to the artist hiring grant were positive, namely moving away from the lottery system and allowing those who haven't been awarded previously the ability to apply one week early. After receiving feedback from the commissioner that, Maria, thank you, that the arts education grants are a staple, we're also going to

[91:01] Now keep those and pilot to lifelong learning, grants for longer-term programming. We received most feedback this month about general operating support, no surprise. In the interest of funding more organizations, we are now proposing that we initially budget for 5 bedrock organizations instead of 8, we would essentially be able to fund all… if the same organizations got the same scores and applied next year, we'd be able to fund them all. You'll be able to fund more organizations than previous proposals and a higher award amount. Based on feedback emailed directly to our office, we are no longer decreasing the amount of tiers for general operating support. Reworking the numbers has allowed us to reframe the previous question of number of organizations versus deficit funding. Now we don't really have to worry about that part. I was actually surprised at how positive the feedback was concerning the concept of bedrock organizations from the questionnaire. This change was interpreted,

[92:03] to their words, not mine, as, basically rewarding merit. There are certainly some responses expressing concern about the subjectivity of the process, which is why we have a review panel and will have a specified rubric. We included a rough draft bedrock rubric with categories. None of these categories should come out of left field for organizations, as they certainly already are contemplating things like equity, collaboration, support for artists, and outreach. We still need to provide specific scoring directives, as well as corresponding application questions. So for now, we basically have the categories, and we need to Fine-tune the rubric later. We discussed, I just discussed Bedrock Rubric, but I'm gonna pause here if there's any feedback on the Bedrock Rubric Glossary, self-assessment checklists, and, schedule. some, question about the bedrock rubrics. Is that the slide you shared with us, at the last Commission meeting and the bullet points? It is an attachment, in the Commission materials.

[93:06] Okay. I'll catch up. So this supersedes the… Previous slide that you shared at the last meeting. Yeah, that… that was general themes that I was kind of getting a temperature check on, and then this is the next step, which would be creating categories. I think Caroline has her hand up for a question. And Cheryl. I remember seeing in the packet, and I'm sorry I don't have it open in front of me right now, but I remember seeing some percentages of different budget sides, and I don't recall if that was part of the Bedrock program, or if that was part of the small, medium, large, extra large, analysis. Is… so I guess my question is, for Bedrock, is there any, intention of

[94:05] Granting percentages of budgets, or is it a possibility that we'll have organizations that are getting a large chunk of their current budget if they fulfill all the criteria? Through this grant. Yeah, thank you, Caroline. That's a good question. So, to be totally frank, when we were running the numbers, we essentially acted as if the highest scoring applicant in each of these categories would be considered bedrock, extra small, small, medium, large, extra large, which is why in the budget, it's $300,000 instead of $400,000, because if, ostensibly, these smaller organizations are bedrock, there's that 50% budget cap. That's kind of in the weeds, but … We do not, as of yet, have a requirement to, limit head rock to one per category, because I think the whole purpose is to have it

[95:00] see how they're showing impact through the rubric, but I'm certainly open to discussion there. Okay, so I'm hearing 50% cap based on the current budget. Is what we're working with right now. Their correct budget. Okay, great, thank you. in the rubric is… is what is on page 26. Equity. Like, zero to two points for equity collaboration. Yeah. And, for example, we did have a call in San Francisco, and the way that they would measure collaboration is about depth, so they would say, like, describe three collaborations. How long have you been working with them? What has been the result of that collaboration? So that's what I mean by fine-tuning the details of how we would actually score that and ask those types of questions. Cheryl, next. No, no Cheryl. Cheryl, thumbs up. I have a question about the self-assessment. Yes. It says, answering no or not applicable in the following checklist will prohibit your grant funding. It should say not! Okay, not! Okay.

[96:08] That was my question! Okay, yeah. They have to have all of… okay, sorry, this was a Google Doc with a lot of people editing it, so I think that is, probably the problem there, but yes, the answer should be not. This is okay. Just shutting that down real fast. So the application, open for those previously awarded, for those not previously awarded, it's for those who've applied and didn't get it, and moved it to… So it's not… if they applied and didn't get it, they still will be eligible for that early application. I have some questions. So, this is the feedback I heard from liaisons I talked to, the equity piece. They all agree with this, but they feel like in this community that they're continuing to be challenged

[97:01] For having, diverse… access to diverse staff that can live in this community, and, that are living artists, you know, artists living in this community that are diverse. So they're… they're concerned about this, I think, about, you know, they think they're… they're on board, they agree with it, they just think that, to be measured on this for this bedrock, that they may not be successful. Yeah, that makes sense. and this is kind of a menu of things that might be considered, so it's good to get that feedback. That was my primary feedback that I received. And then I have… Maria, did you have any other questions? Oh, gosh, no, absolutely, no, I've got one too. On the collaboration, and you have a semicolon here, so I think these are optional, but… offer venue or gallery space. Their other concern was, well, we don't have a venue for our gallery space, so does this immediately disqualify us? Of being a bedrock. Right, maybe I can explain this better, and I apologize for this not being clear. But so, for example, accessibility. They'll be able to go to this

[98:06] Self-assessment guide, and maybe be asked to speak to this, and this is just something to help them know what they could talk to. or talk about. So, similarly, for collaboration, we would have potentially, like, a self-assessment guide, and they could talk about the, impact of having a venue, or they could talk about something else that's on the self-assessment list. It's more of an example. Yes, the glossary's very helpful, yeah. Yeah, I love the glossary. Okay, and then, … And then they also, … this community outreach and impact. The feedback was the term neighborhood, they felt like Perhaps is not relevant in a community of 100,000 people. So, like, what does the neighborhood mean? Is it the east side, the west side, the south side, the north side? And, this comes from particularly, probably, the performing artists, you know, whether playing at Chautauqua, or…

[99:04] So, they don't really… they're not really… that's really not connecting with them, the notion of neighborhoods in this scale of a city. You know, maybe that's a better San Francisco version, but they didn't really connect with that. Okay, that makes sense. That's good to hear. And then they also said programming with Title I schools… Yeah, they said that Okay, so now you're gonna have 20 organizations all going to the two Title I schools, and, the teachers are overwhelmed, they sometimes are not interested. So they are wondering, you know, is the city going to help be the liaison or a gathering spot for teachers that are interested? Is Title I really the right metric? You know, I feel like arts education… I understand that desire to reach out to Title I schools. Right, but if there's, like I said, 20 organizations all reaching out to the same two schools. They won't have the capacity

[100:00] Or the work with all those organizations, or the interest of time. This is more towards people who are already doing this, instead of people that are going to start doing it, because I feel like the… point of Bedrock is that they're already kind of established in the community, not that they're gonna start doing it now just because this exists. Or am I incorrect? Not sure. I mean, I can't predict, I imagine it would be an incentive for certain… Sure, yeah. But yeah, I do want to emphasize, like. this is really helpful feedback. We just have to put something on paper and hear something about it. And so, yeah, I think communicating better that this is, like, a menu of things that you could speak to, and, like, the reason that we listed it at all is to be helpful. I think what might be helpful is to sort of take a few organizations of different technologies and run them through this. So, just think about a big music festival that's only for, you know, a month, and they're playing the large venue. Does this all work for them, or, you know…

[101:04] I mean, as a reminder, there's also general operating support for everybody, so, I mean, we have 5… we have five budgeted things for Red Rock organizations. I can't guarantee that every month will be eligible, because that's kind of not the point. So the eligibility is… is the screening. like, the first document, is there going to be an eligibility? Is that the three questions, or whatever, that you have in mind? Yeah, they'll be… Is that going to be applicable for by drop? They will fill out the same general operating support, will have six questions. Don't answer these if you don't want to do extra work and don't want to be considered, and by the way, the general operating support amounts for normal, awards is higher, so that's great. If you do want to be considered for Bedrock, you answer these additional questions, and Because I'm sure that we'll have more than 5 people fill that out, that's why we have some kind of rubric for it. Okay, and then in the proposed dates, so this would still be…

[102:00] Wednesday, January 7th, would still be… The pre-application opening up for this potential benchmark. Yes. But, … Under the GOS. Oh, I see what you're saying. Will these questions be front-loaded in the pre-application? I don't know. That's a good thing to contemplate this month. Yes? Something that would alleviate my concerns on the proposed program, as well as several other ARCS leaders, would be seeing case studies. of… organizations of similar sizes within Boulder that we are looking to fund, perhaps in… in cities of similar size as ours that have worked. in this type of program. And then also, what were their challenges? What didn't work? So what are things that we should be looking out for to help alleviate those potential concerns? This is innovative.

[103:02] The people we have talked to that are doing something similar do not ask for grant reports. So there's no way to really measure impact. This is new. This is… scary, perhaps, and difficult than… rather than doing things the same way. This is… based on community feedback that Boulder wants to value these things. So this is the chance that we're taking, and we evaluate it if this is to be implemented. Through our reporting process, which would be rigorous to determine the quote-unquote success of this, if it was to happen. Did we break out the questions or the answers from the questionnaire from folks who are involved in the arts and arts leaders from the general public? I… It's anonymous? Yeah. Okay, because the feedback I'm getting is from… either emerging or established arts leaders when they're looking at restrictions. Or a diversion of findings that

[104:02] That could have gone to… Existing organizations that are doing what they've always done. Which… was the case in the original proposal, I don't think that's so much of a problem now. The feedback I shared with you, I think it's universally, I think people are a little bit nervous, because it's new, and it's fine to be a little bit nervous, like, you know, we can't not change things because it's going to make people nervous. But it seems like you've done a lot of work. I think it's… there's a lot of research that's gone into it. I'm sure you'll learn a lot next year. And the way it's structured right now, as I look at the budget that you have in mind, 56 organizations are still going to get the GOS support. So the 5 organizations that are going to get that $80,000 is also, like, great funding. branding for some, like, you know, to be a bedrock, It gives them…

[105:02] one of them said merit-based, and I think it's a great way to reward those who are really going above and beyond. If we don't have case studies, and this does move forward, we should make us the case study. Yeah. Yeah. And determine what… what are our metrics of success? Correct. What were the challenges? What did work? Yeah. Do you already have that kind of set in mind of, like, what are going to be our metrics of success, or is that something we're still brainstorming? It's in process, but that's something for the September commission materials. Great! Just as a preview. Let's see, next steps, I'm going to provide rubrics, guidelines, applications, reports. Reports would kind of be the questions of what we're looking for to determine success, and then any changes that we've made to the things that we discussed this time or next time. I can pause again here, because I'm sure there might be some discussion. Sorry, I had two more comments on that. Sorry, Maria. To, accessibility and sustainability, and maybe I missed the mark during the blueprint process, but I… I define accessibility, more broadly than, ADA.

[106:13] So maybe we could dig into that a little bit more. You know, I think accessibility is about cost, or… where the venue's located, that's how I define it. That's one of the nice things about the Gloss Nation created. Okay, I did make a definition differentiation between disability accessibility and general accessibility, and I would argue that things like living wage for artists, stuff like that, is reflect… like, general accessibility is reflected throughout the… No, this is wildly helpful. Partly. Sorry, hi Ben. How are you? Okay, thanks. Sarah, it's Caroline. I'm wondering if… there will be an opportunity before the packet to start going through some of your suggested changes on this round. Is that a possibility? I know it's so much work.

[107:07] Certainly, I mean, like. for example, changing Title I schools on the menu to youth programming, like the things that we just discussed in the meeting, basically, like around Yonge Lab. Yeah, and any of the… any major changes that you feel In addition, may be coming through. Yes. Our comments, yeah. I think given the amount of work that it's going to take to put together, like, the reporting, and all that, that might be a little close to crunch time for me, but certainly any other adjustments to, like, budget, or anything that we've already discussed, I can provide more in advance. Okay. I know for myself, it's easier for me to give feedback when I'm looking at what we're going to be discussing, and so the more lead time we have, within the crazy amount of work that you have would be super appreciated, and I appreciate all your work.

[108:07] Thank you. I'll do my best to get it done as soon as possible, while also having less typos. Okay, oh, do we just talk about that slide? Oh yeah, sure. I have a couple things I want to toss out for conversation. So we talked about, the… and maybe it's… we're not going to solve this today, but not giving set amounts to the grants, but having a pool of money and dividing it, amongst the, you know, whatever we decide that measure is above 70%. I… I did… I got mixed reactions from the, my liaisons. Some of them really like that, because, you know, it guarantees they're going to get something. Others, you know, others are like, well, we want to compete, and so… part of that, so I feel like that's an open issue, but I don't know if you all, what you all think, …

[109:04] But, they felt, you know, someone felt like, again, taking the pot of money and splitting it amongst the, you know, highest number of organizations that are performing well is, a collaborative, you know, at its foundation as collaborative. So, I… I don't feel… I don't feel like that's closed in my mind. I've had a mixed bag also, and… Yeah, I mean, the one category of the, what's the one, the programming one, is always so competitive. I mean, we have doubled the amount of awards. It's still not going to be enough, but we have doubled the amount of awards and the award amounts. I'd like to keep it. conversation open. If… if you all agree. to continue to ask, organizations what they think, and get more feedback, and… Something that we could do as a commission is maybe look at the scoring from last time and see was… what… were there a bunch… bunched in the middle, or was there a pretty big chasm between those that were awarded and also weren't? Is that… that…

[110:11] That might help make, you know, that… that idea just kind of… move forward or not. Then the second recommendation, I… I feel like we have too many grants, I… note categories. So, this is just me, so I would just say cultural field trips, do we need those? Can we get rid of those? Looks like you like that one, but I mean… I mean, that was professionally I brought up, actually. Yeah, I… and professional development, I don't think that's been successful. I'd like to suggest, and so, you know. getting rid of some of these smaller grants and maybe rolling them back in. Lauren likes that one. Sorry. The administrative side of it is just going to make so much… so much easier. I just don't think we… we… Get it out well enough, unless you're on the mailing list, and it's lost in the bottom of the email.

[111:01] The professional development grants this year, they were gone in, like. 4 hours or something. They were super popular. I think it was in the July of some of my reasoning behind, changing… like, for example, yes, there are actually less cultural field trip fund ones than previously, because there's less demand for that. There was an insane demand for professional development grants, So I don't know what you mean by, like, not successful. Maybe I'm thinking of the pipeline, leadership pipelines. And we've gotten rid of that. It's like, yep. Perfect. But if anyone, like, talking to the public or anyone watching, or any of the commissioners here have feedback, like, this doesn't need to be the final draft until October, so happy to meet with anyone. Is there a proposed change in increasing the professional development one? This is the increase. Okay, I can't receive that far. So previously, we had 18… oh, no, sorry.

[112:03] Previously, we had 11, and now we're gonna have 18 to 36. Okay. You think I can see that, too. Thank you for that. Yeah, sorry, this is a lot. So, I just have two… actually, one recommendation. This one is that I was speaking with somebody who does this a lot for the nonprofit that she's on the board of. It's the Leadership Fellows at Harvard Business School, and then the Summer Fellowships at… social enterprise at Harvard Business School, and the Leadership Fellows is a one-year program. This summer is just the summer, and Harvard pays for half their salary, and then the government, or the nonprofit, or whatever pays for the other half. She would love to make a connection to see if that's something… so if you talk about doing a case study, or like, you know, exploring success of this program, or whatever else, this could be an interesting venue to bring.

[113:03] student, and it is funded quite early by Harvard, and it's just an extra sort of boost, and… guidance and a nice study. Now we'll share that with the two of you and Janelle. Thank you. Yeah, I think that the goals of the Leadership Pipeline Fund were appreciated, it's just maybe it's… the grant is not the best format for that to be achieved, so having a fellowship or, yeah, an artist in residence program. Thinking about what that could look like, that'd be really helpful to have that as an example. Okay, well, that's right. Yeah. Caroline, did you have your hand up? I did have my hand up, but I've convinced myself that it's a discussion for a different portion of this overall conversation. I'll send you some comments, Sarah, offline, and then we can figure out when… where to fit those into The timeline for yourself.

[114:09] I'll come back to the budget if we have extra time, but I do just want to note that we had a grant writing summit Last Thursday, thank you to everyone who came out and, dared to go to the University Memorial Center on the first day of classes. It really was, like, back to school, you know, when you get ready for your grant writing class, but I think that was really successful, and people took away, worksheets and really practical applications, and Lisa, our grant panelist who ran that, did a phenomenal job, got really positive feedback. And then we have these two summits coming up, so if you could mark your calendars, especially maybe for the funding summit. What is a funding summit? So that is a summit where we present on our 2026 grant opportunities, as well as last year we had 9 or 10 other funders. I was at a Philanthropy Colorado meeting today, where I was trying to convince people who hadn't spoken before to come out and talk, so, hopefully we're gonna get 15, who knows?

[115:07] Then it's public context. That's exciting. But that's all I have, so I'll go back here for the remaining time. Thank you. Do we have any other feedback for Sarah on this particular slide at this time? Just to reiterate, I encourage us to potentially review and reduce the number of grants. I mean, I hope it was clear through this presentation that the feedback was actually incorporated, so, yes, yes, looking forward to more.

[116:09] Okay, thank you. Thanks. Thanks for all the work. Yeah, seriously. Okay, that's our Step 2 for the grants program. Any other… Matters from commissioners or staff for the better good of the community. With that, at… 7.58 PM, I will adjourn our meeting. Do I have a motion to adjourn? Don't need one. But I'll motion anyways! The lady's very excited to do that. Do we have a second? Are we all in favor? Jill has second. We're all in favor. It's unanimous. We are adjourned. Thank you all. Hi, everyone online! I feel like we've got enough time to talk about….