City of Lawrence

Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission (LCAC)

Annual Retreat, January 18, 2015

Lawrence Public Library, Meeting Room A, 707 Vermont Street

Members present:        Chair: Katherine Simmons, Christie Dobson, John Hachmeister, Jerry Johnson, Patrick Kelly, Michel Loomis, Mike Maude, Richard Renner, Kathy Porsch

Members absent:          None

Also present:                Diane Stoddard, Assistant City Manager

MINUTES

Chair Katherine Simmons called the meeting to order at 1:08 p.m. in Meeting Room A of the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vermont St.

Action Items:

· The December 10 and December 29, 2014 minutes were accepted as presented.

· Mike Maude made the following motion, which was seconded by Michel Loomis and approved by acclamation:

The Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission recommends approval of the following officers for 2015: Katherine Simmons, Chair; John Hachmeister, Vice Chair; and Kathy Porsch Secretary.

· Kathy Porsch made the following motion, which was seconded by Richard Renner and approved unanimously:

The Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission recommends that Percent for Art be applied at 2% on the Wastewater Treatment Plant project, funds generated to be used for public art at locations within the community of Lawrence having high public access.

· Mike Maude made the following motion, which was seconded by Michel Loomis and approved unanimously:

The Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission recommends that the City of Lawrence provide financial support for the 2015 Free State Festival.

Tasks:

· Kathy will make suggested changes to Resolution 6773 and submit the draft document for consideration at the February 11, 2015 meeting.

· Kathy will make suggested changes to the LCAC's "Mural Review Criteria" document and submit the draft document for consideration at the February 11, 2015 meeting.

· Diane will present the LCAC's November motion recommending approval of the bid to make repairs to vandalized East Lawrence Recreation Center artworks to the City Commission for its approval and, if it is approved, move forward with contracting for the work.

Discussion:

1.   Election of Officers

Katherine Simmons agreed to serve during the 2015 term as Chair, John Hachmeister agreed to serve as Vice Chair, and Kathy Porsch agreed to serve as Secretary. Mike moved that the officers be approved by acclamation; the move was seconded by Michel and the commissioners agreed unanimously. Katherine, John, and Kathy will comprise the LCAC Executive Committee for 2015. Katherine noted that there are six applicants to serve in the positions left vacant by the resignations of Mandy Enfield and Lois Greene.

2.   Review Resolution 6773

Katherine reminded the commissioners that in an earlier meeting they had discussed removing the requirements for representatives of other advisory bodies and the Mayor to serve as ex officio members of the LCAC in order to bring the resolution into alignment with actual practice. She said it is important for the City staff to communicate across divisions and be involved with issues and decisions related to arts and culture, since arts and culture, broadly defined, crosscuts all divisions. We started by considering cleaning up the language to have it reflect practice, she said, but should we leave this in and push hard to get representation on the LCAC from the Planning Commission and Parks & Rec. to encourage them to be more engaged with the cultural endeavor? I think the intent when this resolution was written was for them to be more involved, Katherine said. Arts and culture, public events, city infrastructure and development, public planning all tie together, she said. The Mayor probably won't attend our meetings, but maybe we could have a workshop with the City Commissioners each year to summarize the issues, concerns, and opportunities. The questions are, she added, should we bring the language into alignment with practice or bring practice into alignment with the language?

Patrick asked Diane if other City advisory committees have members from other advisory committees sit on them. Diane said no, but there are cases where subcommittees involve people from specific committees or where the City asks committees to make recommendations for people to serve on special committees. Patrick said he asked because it seems odd for a member of one advisory committee to be appointed to advise another advisory committee in this way. Related information should filter up to the City Commissioners, he said. They have the responsibility to connect the dots. I think the formalized requirement for advisory board cross service doesn't work as a practical matter, he added.

Diane said it might be more reasonable to appoint someone from the LCAC to liaise with specific committees, such as the Planning Commission and City units like Parks and Recreation than to ask other advisory commissions to assign their members to attend LCAC meetings. You could add a point about the LCAC advising on cultural planning for the community and engaging in the cultural planning process for Lawrence, She said.

Katherine said the LCAC is lucky to have Patrick willing to serve appointments on both the LCAC and the Planning Commission, and LCAC needs to be more proactive about assigning individual commission members to engage with those entities in the future. But that works only as long as the individual members of the LCAC are willing to engage, she said. This is critical, she added. We really need engagement between these advisory commissions, especially the Planning Commission and the LCAC. This is a working commission and it is really up to us to help the City Commissioners tie the pieces together. Having these liaisons can help us do that. I think we want to be clear in our language in the resolution so that we show the LCAC will be more active in engaging with these entities, she said, and we need to be clear about this when recruiting new LCAC members to fill the vacant positions.

Richard suggested this goes under Section II, Responsibilities.

Patrick agreed and said that we have language already there (item 3) that can be expanded to be more specific in regards to liaising with other advisory committees. He said the LCAC needs to place engagement with other City advisory committees on the agenda as a regular monthly item to ensure this is recognized and engagement is ongoing. The LCAC needs to be engaged more broadly in City Planning as well, he added. Horizon 2020 is going through review and revision and members of the LCAC need to be deeply engaged in that, he said.

Mike asked if there is a cultural education plan in place, and when told no, said perhaps it should be something to think about.

Katherine said that in exploring the thoughts and processes and plans, "cultural" begins to have a very broad definition. It begins to be about groups of people, cultural history, environment, sense of place, sustainability, art, education, it all ties together, she said.

The resolution does not specifically address grants, John pointed out. He suggested adding "project or request," to Section I, items 1 and 2. The LCAC members agreed and Kathy said she would add this.

Patrick asked if the LCAC provides input on projects and requests upon the request of the City Commission or upon the request of members of the public that want to partner with the City on grant applications and other projects? Both? Should this be defined? Can we ask the City what it wants?

Katherine said she thinks the LCAC as a body needs to take a stronger stance. We are envisioned to be the advisory committee to this process, she said. If we're going to take it on and do it wisely, we must have a voice and be a place where both the City Commission and members of the public come for guidance.

John asked, if the LCAC is doing all this, then why do we need a City staff member?

Katherine said there is a need for someone who is in the executive role at the City level and is the first point of contact for the public. Every other sector has a full time city staff person, she said. There is enough going on in this sector for a full time city staff member to be completely busy, as Christina was.

Diane added that the LCAC is a voluntary advisory board. The City staff fills that role too, but you are in some ways more free to provide advice, she said. You are the advisory commission not the go-to entity for the city. That should be the city staff person. This has been an active commission, but how active and engaged the commission is depends on the membership. The City staff person provides the continuity.

Mike, said he sees it as a partnership.

Diane said there will be cases where the timeline just doesn't allow for emergency situations that arise in between the monthly meetings of the LCAC and then people go directly to the City Commission.

Katherine said we have a procedure in place where we can have quick turn-around meetings for special situations as we did to consider the Lawrence Arts Center's NEA Our Town grant application. John asked why there couldn't be an email exchange or conference call among the LCAC members to deal with such situations.

Diane said such exchanges would violate the Kansas Open Meetings Act. If you want to have an on-call meeting, the chair can call one, but it cannot be done by email, she said. There has to be a publicized meeting at a place where members of the public can go. We can do conference calls, but the call must take place in an accessible location.

Patrick asked where the line is. City conventions and tourism bureau and bed tax questions have typically gone directly to the City Commission, he said. Now it seems like they are kicking things back to us and asking for input. If we don't provide this input, then we are not carrying out our directives as the City's advisory commission on arts and culture, Patrick said. Diane pointed out that some City Commissions want a filter and others do not as membership shifts. Patrick agreed and said sometimes the City Commissioners really want to go on record about various things.

Patrick said the Planning Commission has two lunchtime retreats each year with the City Commissioners to ask, "what are you expecting out of this committee?" And this helps the City Commissioners better understand the bigger picture and the Planning Commissioners better understand expectations of their role.

Katherine said she had something like that in mind when she when she mentioned the idea of doing an arts and culture workshop with each new City Commission. LCAC members could sit down with the City Commissioners and ask them how they want us to formally advise them so we're better able to treat requests from private entities consistently, she said.

Mike suggested sending a memo along with suggestions or motions presented to the City Commission to give the Commissioners the detailed rationale behind each recommendation.

Diane said she does send the draft minutes and the Commissioners do read them. She added that the Cultural Plan is going to involve a lot of this type of discussion, specifically about how an entity like LCAC interacts with the City staff and the City Commission.

Patrick said he is going to beat the drum hard about full engagement on the parts of all the LCAC members. We all have to be engaged; there should never be a case when we do not have a quorum, he said. When we agree to serve as a volunteer on the commission, we need to take the commitment seriously. This is a time of great change and we need every member to be active.

Katherine asked if the LCAC members agreed that the way forward was to clean up the language to bring it into alignment with practice, add language to encompass the more specific engagement with other advisory committees discussed, and add "an/or requests for partnership. There was general agreement. Kathy said she would make the changes and provide the next draft for consideration at the February meeting.

3.   Public Art

Before beginning the formal discussion, Katherine asked Diane whether the approval for restoration of the East Lawrence Recreation Center artworks had moved forward. Diane said it had not and that she would send the request forward to the City Commission. Kathy said she would send Diane the motion from the November minutes in which the LCAC recommended acceptance of the bid to repair the artwork.

a.         Percent for Art (Resolution 7070)

For the benefit of new members, Diane explained that the process changed last year from one where requests were made at the time that projects were bid and now Staff puts together a report showing what is in the capital improvements budget for the next year. She presented the 2015 approved capital improvements budget in September. LCAC now has from September until it presents its budget for the following year (2016) to incorporate Percent for Art into its budget.

Kathy said the new wastewater treatment plant is an upcoming project to which Percent for Art should apply. Diane said it was not in the capital improvement plan for 2015, which is why it was not included in her report. Kathy said it should be subject to Percent for Art and the funding used for pubic art within the community. She noted that the art could be sited elsewhere in Lawrence where it would have more public traffic and asked how this could be addressed at this point. Diane said, if you-all want to make a recommendation regarding this, you certainly can. Last year, there was a roundabout project that came up quickly. You-all made a recommendation that art be included in that project. [The request was made, but the City Commission did not approve Percent for Art for the Wakarusa Dr. roundabout project.]

Mike noted that there is no language in the resolution saying the art has to be incorporated into the structure itself. Katherine said that was purposeful, so that funds can be used for art unconnected with the structure that qualifies for Percent for Art.

Diane added that Percent for Art has traditionally funded artwork that then would appear on the site of the capital improvements project, but the artwork does not have to be at the same site.

Katherine asked if now is the time to make the request for the Wastewater treatment plant. Diane said yes.

Kathy made the motion that the Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission recommend to the Lawrence City Commission that the full 2% Percent for Art be applied to the Wastewater Treatment Plant project with funds to be used for public art at locations within the community of Lawrence having high public access. Richard Renner seconded, and the motion passed unanimously.

b.  Murals and Sign Code (Article 18. Signs)

Katherine said complaints from the public about lack of clarity regarding what falls under the sign code and what is a mural have been brought before the LCAC. Currently, murals fall under the sign code, she said. The historic resource review process kicks in for signs. If we write a separate mural resolution, how do we ensure that the historic resource review takes place? There have been situations where mural projects come to us for approval while work is already in process, in part due to this confusion. The sign code will come into play with the Portrait Project that LCAC funded under the Community Arts Grants program, she said.

Diane said for the Portraits Project, as long as Rachael Perry, the artist, knows the locations where the portraits will appear, she can file for one permit for a temporary sign/mural.

Patrick said he thinks everything is in the sign code (Article 18) and LCAC's "Mural Review Criteria," but it comes down to enforcement and maybe making certain the LCAC's document is consistent with Article 18. Work of Art needs to be defined, he said. That can be handled by bringing the definition in the sigh code (Definitions, Z) into the "Mural Review Criteria." Article 18 defines a work of art as follows:

Work of Art. The term work of art shall apply to all mural paintings or decorations, inscriptions, mosaic, painted glass, and other similar art forms of a permanent character intended for ornament or commemoration that are applied to, erected, or placed upon the exterior walls of any building. Works of art, whether singular or in aggregate, shall be deemed to exist when its size exceeds sixteen (16) square feet or exceeds the maximum area for a wall sign allowed in the applicable zoning district, whichever is larger. A work of art that in any way relates to the business conducted therein shall be considered as a wall sign.

Sometimes we don't need to go through this process if the artwork does not exceed the size restrictions, Patrick said. Further, I think a $25 fee is entirely reasonable, he added, the filing should not be free. There is an administrative burden for any permitting process on the part of the City.

Jerry said he had thought a lot about this since the discussion surrounding the Pollinators mural. I think we need a process to deal with ownership and maintenance of these items being placed on private buildings, he said. People become passionate about these works of art, but they're on private buildings and the owner has every right to push the building over or paint over the mural. Can this be dealt with by incorporating language about the expected life of the work into the forms they have to fill out? Can people be asked to make an estimate of that so it is on record? Issues come up when one entity paid for artwork to be painted on a building he didn't own.

Patrick said lifetime of the artwork would be hard to estimate. It might work to include in the process a clear statement of ownership of the art, he said. He said this problem can be addressed by changing the application to include a clear statement that this artwork is owned by the property owner of the building, that the owner has the right to transfer ownership of the property at his discretion, and that it not the responsibility of the city to maintain any privately owned artwork or determine ownership of said art.

John said Patrick's suggested solution would address this if the application form could also incorporate language that says once a work of art is painted on the building, it becomes the property of the owner.

Patrick agreed that the ownership of the artwork needs to be made clear at the point where the application is filed.

Diane said the ownership is between the artist and the owner of the building. But the City could incorporate a line where the applicant has to define the ownership of the artwork, she said.

Kathy asked if we can incorporate the sign code definition of work of art into the "Mural Review Criteria" document, and incorporate designation of the ownership of the art into the sign code resolution and the sign permit form. This would make our document consistent with the sign code, and we could include the requirement to specify ownership of the mural in the application into the "Mural Review Criteria," as well. We also should clarify that even temporary murals will fall under the review.

Diane expressed concern that people filing permits for signs rather than murals might find this confusing. By comparison, she said, applications for murals are relatively rare.

Katherine said the sign approval process is handled by Building Safety, and maybe LCAC could recommend to Building Safety that it incorporate the "Mural Review Criteria" document. She suggested that "Mural Review Criteria" could be given as a handout to people applying for a mural permit. Building Safety could simply have this piece in the administrative staff's hands to give out as appropriate, she said.

Diane said how it works now is that when Building Safety receives an application, if there is a mural component, they send it to Diane and if it has an historical component, they send it to the Historical Review Committee, if both, they send the request to both.

Patrick said it is up to Building Safety to determine whether something is a mural and send those applications to LCAC. There is not much we can change to refine the sign application process, but we can refine our own document, he said.

Katherine said revising our document doesn't solve the problem of getting the word out. Kathy said, we could actively publicize it, get the newspaper to write an article on it, maybe in relation to the Portraits project. Michel agreed and said it could go into the Lawrence Journal World's Arts section.

Richard suggested getting it out as a flier to people. Place it in the Maker Space and Percolator and other arts venues around town, he said. Diane said the City's public relations person can help get the word out about things such as information on the mural approval process.

Kathy said it should be specific, that the approval process starts with going to the Building Safety Department in the east end of the River Front Mall in the basement and filling out the sign permit form. She said she would add the work of art definition from Article 18 into "Mural Review Criteria," and incorporate other suggested language and send the draft for review at the February 11th meeting.

4.   Public/Private Partnerships

Katherine asked, "How do we want to approach public and private partnerships?"

Patrick said he thinks right now the City is fine with one-off requests for festivals. The idea that someone brings a grant to us and we accept it because it's the only one that has been proposed and we don't want to turn it down has to be addressed, he said. Such opportunities need to clearly be open to any entity within the City. Once we have the permanent staff member in place it will be easier to post a call with a set date when we will consider proposals to partner with the city on grants, he said.

Kathy agreed and said LCAC can work with the new Director of Arts and Culture to develop a list of likely grants for such partnerships and then publish a notice listing the available grants and indicating that the city may be interested in partnering with a Lawrence art or culture organization, have it on the website, keep it updated, and post it several times annually. Most of these opportunities come around every year with deadlines around the same time, she said. There is no reason partnering interest and work on these proposals cannot be undertaken in a more timely manner. For first-time or one-off opportunities with late notice and quick turn-around deadlines, we have the rapid response procedure in place, but that should not be required with these regularly cycling grants.

Mike said it seems like requests for partnership in arts and culture projects may not always be in the context of a grant.

Richard said this whole thing about the Lawrence Arts Commission coming to the City Commission for $60,000 in guest tax and bed tax -- I didn't even know this was possible. I would rather have funds like this available for ongoing major public arts and culture events like the Busker Fest than tap into the small pot of Community Arts Grants funding.

John asked if Percent for Art funds can be used to support non-permanent art such as Busker Festival and the Free State Festival. Kathy asked if those funds could form a pool over time to help fund such major arts and culture events, somewhat like an arts endowment.

Diane said yes, the resolution is very broad, but any such requests would need to be specific in how the Percent for Art funds were going to be used. She expressed skepticism about whether the City Commission would be open to the idea of a standing pool of Percent for Art funds for festivals.

Richard said there would have to be an application process for such funds.

Patrick said he thinks there may be more situations of this type and the LCAC needs to make certain the process for working with these public/private partnerships is transparent enough that everyone has a chance to weigh in. I think we want to encourage these partnerships, he said. We want to be positive towards the entities that are willing to do these things. What the Arts Center has done is awesome, he added. But, at the same time we have to emphasize to our public partners the need for transparency throughout the process.

Mike said that will be another advantage of having an arts and culture education plan.

Other Business:

Katherine reported that the Lawrence Arts Center made a request that the Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission write a letter to the City Commission recommending that the City provide financial support for the Free State Festival. They are trying to make an effort to go through the process, she said. Mike Maude moved to support the Lawrence Arts Center's request for financial support from the City for the Free State Festival. Michel seconded and the motion was approved unanimously. Diane said she will write the recommendation and submit it to the City Commission.

Katherine noted that the next step in the Ninth St. Corridor project, consideration of the proposed management plan, is on the City Commission agenda for Tuesday, Jan. 20. She encouraged commissioners to attend and be prepared to speak about it as appropriate, and reminded them that the meeting begins at 5:45 p.m. in the City Commission chambers at City Hall.

Diane reported that the search process for the new Lawrence Arts and Culture Director is underway and the search committee is comprised of the same members who served on the previous committee. Mandy Enfield, has stepped down as she has retired from the LCAC, and Katherine said she would be happy to take Mandy's place on the search committee. Patrick said he would be happy to serve again and Kathy said she would be happy to serve again as the alternate. It was a consensus of the commissioners to accept Patrick to serve again and Katherine to take Mandy's place with Kathy as alternate. Meetings to review applications will begin in early February after the deadline passes at the end of January. Mike asked if there were any good candidates from last time who could be recruited. Diane said she had reached out to previous candidates, as well as advertising the position widely.

Patrick brought up the TedX talks planned for March and noted that there is an opportunity for public performances between the lectures. Doing a performance could provide great exposure, he said.

Christine said she is trying to work towards opening a film commission office in Lawrence. She said she has met with Peter Jasso, director of the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission (CAIC). There is a lot of film work going on in Lawrence and we expect this to grow, she said. There is a film festival happening in April at the Library that will feature films about inclusion and marginalization.

Richard reported that he had just confirmed the performers for Busker Fest 2015. He said the date has changed so Busker Fest will be held in partnership with Art to Go and Final Fridays, May 28-31, rather than in the heat of August when many competing festivals of similar type are also underway around the world.

The meeting adjourned at 3:24 p.m.