Cultural District Task Force Minutes
September 10, 2013
Present: Mandy Enfield, Mike Logan, Jacki Becker, KT Walsh, Susan Tate, Brenda Nunez
Absent: Commissioner Bob Schumm, Grace Peterson, Cindy Maude
Others: Diane Stoddard, Tommy Bohler, and several members of the public were in attendance.
Ms. Stoddard reported that Commissioner Schumm would be unable to be in attendance due to a sudden conflict. Ms. Peterson and Ms. Maude had also indicated that they were unable to attend.
The next meeting date was discussed. Ms. Tate had a conflict with September 24th. The group suggested the 23rd at 3:30 or the 25th at 3:30. Ms. Stoddard said that she would visit with Commissioner Schumm about these possible dates and also check with Ms. Peterson and Ms. Maude and confirm the next meeting date with everyone.
Ms. Walsh made a motion to approve the minutes from the August 27 meeting. The motion was seconded by Ms. Tate. Motion approved unanimously.
Ms. Becker and Ms. Walsh reported that there wasn’t much discussion from East Lawrence on the draft report as a result of other pressing items. Both thought that there could be more discussion between now and the next meeting with East Lawrence and that they could provide an update at the next meeting. This will be a continuing item for the next meeting.
Ms. Enfield reported on Providence, Rhode Island. She thought that it was important because something was tried and it failed and there was a good lesson in that. They tried a river promenade and it was not successful. She thought it was important to know that events needed to connect with people and keep them engaged. She said they established a Water Fire event that has now been successful and is drawing people to the promenade. The City there has a cultural department and a cultural plan and interviewed 2000 residents when writing the plan. She said that they also integrated art with their transit, which she would like to see in Lawrence. Ms. Walsh asked about where they get their funding. Ms. Enfield said that there was over $1,00,000 in funding with the Water Fire event and this was supported by the city department. Ms. Tate also reported on Providence. She said that they get corporate support, grant support and support from the city. She said that they get funding from Art Space. Ms. Enfield also referred to an excerpt on Strategy 6 from the “Creative Community Builder’s Handbook”. She stated that this provided an example of someone needing to be willing to take a risk to get something to happen.
Mr. Logan reported on Fayetteville. The Visitor’s Bureau there is more active in coordinating their Final Thursdays events and it has been very successful. They do not have a cultural plan, or a cultural planner at the City. There have been discussions there similar to the discussions here. When they wanted to do something, they created this monthly event. He thought that they were similarly situated to Lawrence. In Little Rock, they have a district that was jump-started by an NEA grant. This was designed by two architects who led the project and designed a corridor. The Arkansas Symphony is located there. He didn’t get much other information. He also reported on Bentonville, Arkansas. They have a lot of money in Bentonville and they have a public square downtown and the downtown group leads the charge on everything. There was little connection with the neighborhood. Most of these activities are very core-centric and business-centric.
Ms. Becker reported on Iowa City. It is a college community and they have a Corridor Alliance, which connects Iowa City with Cedar Rapids and Des Moines. It appears that there is state funding that assists with this. Funding has led to a variety of events and various event series that is coordinated with the University. Much is university funded. Many of the events are sponsored by large organizations, such as ACT and banks. She didn’t determine if they had a city employee, but it appears that they have a lot of university resources. Through the Alliance, they support public art and are connected in that way. She wasn’t sure about how funding was divided between the three cities. She also reported on Indianapolis and they have two major arts organizations there, one in a warehouse area and one in a neighborhood area. A lot of funding came as a result of a major sporting event that took place there last year. There is $1 million that is committed and $300,000 from capital funding sources. Ms. Tate added that they have the Indy Cultural trail and it connects art and culture areas with recreation opportunities. It is led by the community foundation, the City, and a non-profit.
Ms. Walsh reported on Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Minneapolis/St. Paul. She reported that Minneapolis is very culturally diverse and the median income is $47,000. They have several major corporations that contribute to the arts. They have ten universities and four technical schools. She stated that there were interesting things going on with the art groups there, including providing health insurance for artists. She said that in speaking with them, they indicated that there needed to be one major financial partner to make things work. They do have a cultural plan and did large professional surveys as part of that. Ms. Walsh stated that Denton, Texas was an example of a failure as they created a district but drove out the low income and homeless. All of these communities have cultural plans. There is a fund of which 80% goes into district and they fund grants that help cultural organizations. They increased the historic tax credit within the district for restoration work. In Albuquerque, they started their public art program in 1983 and it started as an urban enhancement trust fund. There was heavy investment early on and in their cultural plan they emphasized their “hidden” cultural life and their multi-cultural population. In Albuquerque, plans emphasized three main goals, including focusing on arts education and sustainable funding for the arts. There was also an emphasis on multi-generational families. There is one central website for events and there is also a cultural diversity center. Intel is a large corporation there that contributes to the arts. In Santa Fe, the population is 70,000 and median income is $41,000 and they recognized a split in the community between the arts area and the lower income area. A consultant put together a cultural survey and put together a detailed oral history through interviews. This effort identified a need to educate people on how to engage with the arts- write grants, etc. Santa Fe has a three person city department with no advisory board. The State of New Mexico also has a cultural district effort statewide, printing guides and materials. These materials are online and she encouraged the group to review these.
Ms. Tate also added that Minneapolis/St. Paul had an artist in residence program that engages artists in the city at the onset of projects to include art as part of projects from the beginning. They received an Arts Space grant for this. Chattanooga has the Glass House Collective, which is a non-profit working to revitalize a formerly industrial city. This was led privately, with the major leader being an architect and a state-wide revitalization program, along with the city. The area is Historic Glass Street. New sidewalks, new tree-walks and lighting were added by the city first after an architect provided an initial vision. She didn’t locate any examples that didn’t include significant city involvement.
It was asked what the total annual investment in the arts are from the City of Lawrence and Douglas County are now. Ms. Stoddard indicated that she could get those figures and report back to the group.
Ms. Tate reported that Homer, Alaska created Old Town, and received investment from the City for creative placement and pedestrian infrastructure investment.
Ms. Walsh noted that there were some crowd funding initiatives for cities. This group is just for civic projects. There are several examples that Ms. Walsh noted. Neighbor.ly is an example from Kansas City. Ms. Tate stated that she thought that the recommendation should result in which organization would take the lead. She could envision that the Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission could be more empowered, for example, including hiring the Cultural Planner. Ms. Enfield stated that she thought the most important piece was the city-funded position. She also thought that there needed to be connection with the Convention & Visitors Bureau. Ms. Walsh also emphasized that it was important that a cultural planner shouldn’t be a planner. A cultural administrator needed to come from a different mindset and didn’t think that a cultural planner would have this skillset. She also mentioned a city that created a tax for a cultural plan. She also mentioned arts partnering with wildlife and parks to leverage funding- a unique and unexpected partnership. Ms. Enfield stated that support needed to come from the City Commission for any additional support for the Cultural Arts Commission. Ms. Tate said that a theme is that many activities in other communities are led by entrepreneur type individuals. She asked whether someone was trained as a city administrator would be the right individual to run the district. Ms. Enfield mentioned that a job description for a cultural administrator had been created by the Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission and that she would bring this job description to the group. There was interest in finding out who serves as the coordinator in other communities.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:15 pm.