City of Lawrence

Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission (LCAC)

Monthly Meeting, January 8, 2014

Members present: Chair: Grace Peterson, Vice Chair Christie Dobson, Mandy Enfield, Lois Greene, Kathy Porsch, Patrick Kelly, Richard Renner, and Katherine Simmons.

Members absent: Jerry Johnson, John Hachmeister, and Jane Pennington

Also present: Diane Stoddard, City Liaison; Susan Tate, Executive Director, Lawrence Arts Center; Sarah Sahin, KU Film and Media Studies; Bobbi Rahder, Douglas County Heritage Foundation

MINUTES

Chair Grace Peterson called the meeting to order at 7:09 p.m. in the Lawrence City Council Chambers at Lawrence City Hall

Action Items:

· The December 11, 2013 minutes were approved as presented.

· The Commission agreed to hold its annual retreat on Sunday, February 23 from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. at Theatre Lawrence and this will take the place of its regular February meeting.

· Grace Peterson said she will invite Marlo Angell to present the opening talk at the March meeting about the Free State Festival, which is scheduled to take place across Lawrence on June 25.

· Christie Dobson said she will ask a representative of the Americana Music Academy to present the opening talk at the April meeting.

Christie Dobson made the following motion, which was seconded by Lois Greene and approved unanimously by the LCAC members present:

The LCAC endorses the memo from City Manager David Corliss to the City Commission in which he recommends approval of development by the City, in partnership with the Lawrence Arts Center and Callahan Creek, of a grant application to the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission to fund the first year of the Lawrence Director of Arts and Culture position and develop a comprehensive city-wide arts and culture plan.

New Business:

1. Presentation: Bobbi Rahder, Douglas County Heritage Conservation Council Program Manager, made the opening presentation. She said the Council is funded by Douglas County and offers $325,000 per year in grant funds to organizations in Douglas County for heritage conservation projects. The program is divided into Major Grants for projects requesting more than $14,999 and Target Grants for projects requesting up to $14,999. Both types of grants are awarded on a competitive basis and not every application will result in funding. The grant proposal deadline is March 14th. Applicants then make presentations to the Council, which evaluates their proposals and makes recommendations for funding to the Douglas County Commission. Grant recipients have up to 24 months to complete their projects and must provide interim and final reports.

Bobbi said the Council paints preservation and heritage with a broad brush, ranging from natural environment to built environment. Funded projects over the past three years have covered a spectrum from conservation of historic structures to natural habitat restoration/preservation to heritage farms and agricultural soils to Freedom's Frontier themes to arts-related projects like the Lawrence Arts Center's Kansas Nutcracker Suite. Grant awardees have leveraged these grants to the tune of nearly $1M in the three years that the program has been in existence, she said.

The Heritage Council will hold a workshop on Jan. 30 at 7 p.m. at the Carnegie Building, which will be announced through a press release, Bobbi said. Applicants will have an opportunity to talk with the Heritage Council members themselves and learn how the program works and how to prepare a grant application for this competition.

Sarah Sahin, introduced herself as a member of the KU Film and Media Studies Department, and said part of her mission is to broadcast information about KU Film and Media Studies department throughout the community. She said anyone interested in the program should contact her.

Old Business:

As the Chair moved on to regular agenda items, Susan Tate intervened to ask if she could address the LCAC first, since her time was limited. She said she wanted to address the LCAC's recommendation to the City Commission in December that the grant application to the Kansas Creative Industries Commission focus on developing a comprehensive city-wide cultural plan rather than on funding for a Director of Arts and Culture position. Grace indicated she should proceed.

By way of background, the grant proposal guidelines posted online indicate that staff positions are ineligible for funding. LCAC members had expressed concerns at the December meeting that the grant application would not be successful if the position were included and that including a request for salary for the position in a grant by the Lawrence Arts Center and Callahan Creek in partnership with the City could lead to perceptions that the position would be under the Lawrence Arts Center, which would not send a message of inclusion.

Susan said she wanted to emphasize that she has no interest in having the Art and Culture Director position as part of the Lawrence Arts Center and that she agrees that this should definitely be a city employee. The City has to be the fiscal agent for the proposed Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission Grant, she said. Although the grant guidelines say they won't fund positions, Susan said she and Diane Stoddard, Assistant City Manager and LCAC City Liaison, had talked with the program director, Peter Jasso, and he said there is some possibility that the position could receive short-term funding if presented as being for marketing and promotion. Therefore, she said, we do plan to include the position in the grant application, and Diane has written a memo to that effect for presentation to the Lawrence City Commission.

Grace said when the LCAC discussed the proposed application, it appeared from the website that a positions like this would not be considered, but a cultural plan did seem to fit the guidelines. Our recommendation was intended to support an approach that would offer the greatest possibility of winning the funding to benefit the City and arts in Lawrence, based on the information we had.

Susan said the grant proposal this team submitted last year was for a cultural plan and it was unsuccessful.

Katherine said last year there was no cultural district and the LCAC was concerned about asking for something that, according to the grant proposal guidelines, appears less likely to be funded, whereas the cultural plan was more likely to receive funding in terms of what the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission's website said. We recommended that the grant application be focused on the arts and culture plan because we thought asking for the position might cause the application to fail, she said.

Susan said last year there was no city buy-in or cultural district and both are now there. The LCAC seems to say that the cultural plan is more important, she said. I think our best bet is to go in and ask for both and ask for the position to start in July. That way we can get funding to start the position earlier than it could otherwise be started and start working on the cultural plan.

Grace said it is clear that the Cultural District Task Force and the Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission are in complete agreement about the need for the City Director of Arts and Culture; the LCAC has been working towards this for four years. We were not saying the plan is more important than the director, she said, but that the cultural plan would be more likely to be funded, given the agency's instructions.

Diane said when she and Susan talked with Peter Jasso, he did encourage them to go ahead and include the position and said it might be funded if the position is tied closely to the marketing plan. She called attention to the memorandum she had written on behalf of City Manager David Corliss for submission to the Lawrence City Commission. It would be helpful if I could add that the LCAC considered this proposal and endorses it, she said. Then the City Commission can give us the go ahead to write the pre-proposal. The application is due on Feb. 7th.

Kathy said there should be a clear statement that the position would be expected to continue, funded by the City, after the grant ends and that would also strengthen the application.

Diane said she sees this strategy as similar to the sustainability position the City now has with the County, which was funded in the first year by a grant and after the first year the effectiveness of the position was proven. I think this would be similar, she said.

Christie Dobson made a motion that the LCAC endorse, with minor changes to clarify the funding streams and fix a typo, the memo from City Manager David Corliss to the City Commission in which he recommends approval for the City, in partnership with the Lawrence Arts Center and Callahan Creek, to develop a grant application to the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission asking for funding for the first year of the Lawrence Director of Arts and Culture position and for development of a comprehensive city-wide arts and culture plan. Lois Greene seconded the motion and all members present voted in favor.

Susan said she also was concerned about discussion at the LCAC December meeting about the position description for the Director of Arts and Culture. The Task Force took the position description that you developed and simply made a few edits, she said, we agreed on that position description.

Grace said the LCAC did not have a problem with the job description, but rather was concerned about the hiring processes and ensuring that all stakeholders have a voice in the selection process.

Director of Arts and Culture Position: As part of its planned agenda for the evening, the LCAC then went on to discuss how the process of filling the Director of Arts and Culture position will be carried out in the event that the City Commission approves it. Grace asked if the LCAC needs to do anything to prepare for the position.

Diane said if the City is invited to submit a full application to the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission and that is successful, the City would begin the hiring process for the position in July 2014. In our form of City government, all personnel are under the City Manager, she said. For any position, there is a position description posted, which would likely be the one that LCAC has already developed and proposed, as refined by the Cultural District Task Force, but reformatted to the standard city position description format, which includes language about compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and so on. It would be advertised widely, and the LCAC would be asked to help get the word out to potential job candidates. The hiring process itself varies depending on the position, she said. Typically there is a hiring committee, and sometimes more than one, for positions that have a certain external role. For example, in the case of the Chief of Police, the City invited outside advisors to sit on a review panel or meet with candidates and provide an outside recommendation. In one way or another, for those sorts of positions, the various stakeholders will have input into the selection process, Diane said.

Grace asked if the groups represented on the Cultural District Task Force would be among those stakeholders. Diane said that would be a likely group.

Katherine added that there will probably be 10 to 12 actual interviewee candidates for a position of this type.

Diane said City Staff has processes in place to try to narrow the applicant pool down to four or five face-to-face interviews if possible. There are several stages of screening, she said. If a grant is announced in June, it could be as late as September before someone is in place.

Katherine said that a list of where the City plans to send the notices might be helpful to the LCAC so it could then help fill in any gaps.

Diane said all City positions are posted in Career Builder and for an arts and culture type position like this the City would also make use of arts networks and possibly buy targeted job ads.

Annual retreat: The members agreed to schedule the annual LCAC retreat for Sunday, Feb. 23rd from 1:30-4:30 p.m. at Theatre Lawrence as this seems the date when the most members can be present. The retreat will take the place of the regular February meeting. Diane said she will provide the ordinance that launched the LCAC, so the mission of the LCAC can be considered. Kathy asked if Percent for Art is still on the agenda as there are several projects that should be considered, including the new wastewater treatment plant and a new trail project. There was general agreement that Percent for Art remains on the agenda for the retreat.

Committee and Liaison Reports:

City Owned Art Maintenance Committee: Chair Katherine Simmons reported she is working with John Williams in the City's IT department to establish a timeline to get the server set up to go forward with the online database project aimed at recording and tracking information about City-owned art.

Lawrence Community Arts Grants Committee: Chair Kathy Porsch reported that the application form and instructions have been posted online, hard copies are available, and email notices have appeared in the City's regular online posts and via a press release, with more press releases scheduled. She said she is working in collaboration with Grace on the possibility of offering a short grant development workshop in partnership with the Lawrence Art Guild at the Maker Space.

Nominating Committee: Chair, Christie Dobson asked Diane if any further applicants to serve on the LCAC had arrived through the City's volunteers website. She said she had touched bases with one possible volunteer and that Jerry Johnson had talked with another, who subsequently said he had applied. She asked if she should do something further to ensure their applications come before the Mayor. Diane said it just takes time because there is always so much on the agenda. Kathy said when she was chair, she would ask Diane about any applicants and then contact candidates to ask for their resumes, CVs, or artists statements and send an email directly to the Mayor with supporting materials attached calling his attention to the applications and asking for appointments to be made at his earliest convenience. This seemed to expedite the process, she said. Diane agreed that recommendations by the LCAC often helped speed appointments.

Outdoor Downtown Sculpture Exhibit Committee: In Chair John Hachmeister's absence, Diane reported that the cards advertising the competition are circulating and there are already three applications. Lori Norwood has agreed to be juror for the 2014 competition.

Percent for Art: Chair Grace Peterson reported that she has been communicating with the artist and he has sent drawings to Diane and to Grace and they are now posted on the Library's website.

Phoenix Awards Committee: Chair Mandy Enfield said she did not have anything to report.

Lawrence Arts Roundtable Liaison: Kathy Porsch reported on the presentation to the Roundtable at noon on Wednesday, Jan. 8 by Christine Bial, Director of Arts and Humanities Grant Making for the Mid-America Arts Alliance. Ms. Bial encouraged those interested in Mid-America Arts Alliance programs to contact her at christine@maaa.org or to visit the website at www.maaa.org.

Kathy said she was dismayed to learn that after the Kansas Arts Commission was terminated Kansas artists could no longer qualify for the 50% of artist's fees and travel funding available to organizations that might want to book them because only artists on state-wide Artists Rosters are eligible and the Kansas Artists Roster was eliminated at the same time as the KAC.

Richard said he learned just that the Kansas Artists Roster is now reinstated, so Kansas Artists should again have the opportunity to be funded in this way by organizations across the country. The Mid-America Arts Alliance encompasses Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. It is one of six regional arts organizations that provide this type of funding, and all have national programs as well as programs specifically for the states in their regions. For example, Arts Midwest, which covers the upper Midwest, has funded programs in Kansas. Christie agreed that these are programs to make artists and arts organizations aware of and indicated that she currently has funding from Arts Midwest for a film project.

Lawrence Arts Center Liaison: Grace Peterson reported she has not met formally with Susan Tate.

Commissioner Items: Kathy said she wanted to bring the New Cities project to the attention of the LCAC and passed around a booklet by the team, which is headed by Dennis Domer, a KU professor. She said she had heard him present on the initiative and the core mission of the New Cities project is to develop strategies for planned communities that will be better able to support people as they age in place rather than isolating and them into nursing homes or retirement communities. The premise is that people at all ages are healthier if they interact across generations, have access to green-space, are stimulated by life-long learning opportunities, and live in built environments designed to support them across their lifespans. There is an effort underway to establish such a community within Lawrence, and there has been the offer of 60 acres near the Rock Chalk development for this purpose, according to Dr. Domer. Kathy said it appears there is room for artwork and arts programming of various sorts within the proposed structures of the planned intergenerational communities that this group is envisioning so the LCAC should be aware of the movement.

Staff Liaison: No items.

Chair Items: Grace said the Lawrence Arts Center has submitted an Art Place Grant to do an art installation on the Ninth Street Corridor and asked if any permanent installations would then become part of the City-owned art collection. Diane said, as she understands it, this grant application relates to the artists from Canada that the LAC proposed for residency in Lawrence in an Art Place Grant last year. These artists would be involved in a design of the rebuild of the Ninth Street streetscape, sidewalk, and lighting, and whatever aspect of artwork that would be appropriate. She said Ben Ahlvers would be the contact for questions.

The meeting adjourned at 8:46 p.m.