DRAFT

City of Lawrence

Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission (LCAC)

Monthly Meeting, April 15, 2015

City Commission Room, City Hall, 6 E. 6th Street

Members present:  Chair: Katherine Simmons, Christie Dobson, Kate Dinneen, John Hachmeister, Patrick Kelly, Michel Loomis, Mike Maude, Kathy Porsch, Sean Reardon, Richard Renner

Members absent:    Jerry Johnson

Also present:          Brandon McGuire, Interim City Liaison; Margaret Morris, Lawrence Arts Center; Katy Clagett, Intersection Repair; Dave Lowenstein, Lawrence Artist; Nick Carswell, Silly Goose Records; Hannah Down, general interest.

MINUTES

Chair Katherine Simmons called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. in the Lawrence City Council Chambers at Lawrence City Hall, 6 E. 6th Street.

Action Items:

· The March 11, 2015 minutes were accepted as presented.

· Patrick Kelly made the following motion, which was seconded by Richard Renner and approved unanimously by the LCAC members present:

The Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission recommends that the Lawrence City Commission approve the long-term loan and placement of the original mural panels, "Resilience: A Moving Kansas Tribute," from Van Go under a formal agreement between Van Go and the City in alignment with the existing Outdoor Downtown Sculpture Exhibition City/artist agreement procedure, recommends indoor placement at Sports Pavilion Lawrence, or another highly visible indoor location selected by City staff, and further recommends that the placement suggestion be brought back to the LCAC for review prior to final approval by the City Commission.

· John Hachmeister made the following motion, which was seconded by Christy Dobson and approved unanimously by the LCAC members present:

The Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission recommends that the Lawrence City Commission approve a temporary sign permit for the Lawrence Arts Center 's Guerilla Arts program.

· Kathy Porsch made the following motion, which was seconded by Kate Dinneen and approved unanimously by the LCAC members present:

The Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission recommends that the Lawrence City Commission award the 2015 Lawrence Cultural Arts Grants as follows:

Douglas County Housing, Inc.   $2,000 Inwrought Music Management      $500 Lawrence Folk                              $800

Silly Goose Records                   $1,400 Spencer Museum of Art                $800 The Percolator                            $1,500

New Business:

1.   Van Go Mural Request. "Resilience: A Moving Kansas Tribute," four large murals to be placed on long-term loan with the City for indoor placement at Sports Pavilion Lawrence or on other City property with high public usage or visibility.

Patrick asked what precedent would be set if the LCAC recommended the City Commission approve the loan of the murals to the City. "What responsibility does the City then have for maintenance or damage," he asked. "Are we committing to holding and maintaining artworks that are not owned by the City?"

Mike said at any point the City could ask Van Go to take back its artworks and the pieces would go back to Van Go if the City determines at some point it has no place for them. He added that it should be up to Van Go to sort what happens in the event of vandalism. Sports Pavilion Lawrence has a large volume of people there so this would be a good placement for the pieces, he said.

Patrick asked what happens if several people want to make similar loans of artwork? Kathy said the LCAC is the body designated by the City to make such recommendations and can decide on a case-by-case basis whether to recommend acceptance and placement of such artworks, with the City Commissioners making the final decision.

Kathy pointed out that the LCAC has input into where the Outdoor Downtown Sculpture Exhibit items are placed, and there is an artist/city contract model already available through that program, which deals with responsibility in the case of vandalism or theft, that could be used it as a starting point for a letter of agreement with Van Go.

Katherine said the Parks and Recreation staff has expressed concern that the Sports Pavilion Lawrence walls are already slated for sponsor advertising. Kate said it would be useful to know what those agreements are.

Patrick made a motion that the LCAC recommend the City accept on-loan the "Resilience: A Moving Kansas Tribute" artwork for placement at a public indoor City location such as Sports Pavilion Lawrence, with final destination to be determined by the City of Lawrence staff in alignment with outdoor sculpture policy. Patrick said he would like LCAC to have come input into placement and incorporated a recommendation that the City Parks and Recreation staff discuss their ideas about placement with the LCAC into his motion. Richard seconded the motion.

2.   Temporary Signs of Community Interest: The LCAC addressed the question of establishing a formal process for approving non permanent artworks, such as the Lawrence Inside Out portraits and the ephemeral outdoor wall art created as part of the Lawrence Arts Center's Guerilla Art project.

Lawrence Inside Out is not Guerilla Art, Katherine pointed out. It is a project we've already approved, and they did have to apply for the temporary sign permit.

Margaret Morris explained that the Guerilla Art project is part of science art week at the Lawrence Arts Center, a camp for children that is intended to spark their creativity. The goal of the project is to engage children in using humor and whit to communicate a lightness of being so they're putting positive things out there in the world. Students are asked to think about a social message that is important to them

There was a citizen complaint about a Guerilla Art Project that is already up, although Margaret explained that the Arts Center checked with the business owners where the artworks would appear and assure them that the Arts Center would clean up afterwards. Katherine asked if the Arts Center was aware of the City's mural process. Margaret said they didn't know there was a mural process.

Kate said it might be a good idea for any group wanting to do something like this to come to LCAC so that the public knows this is a vetted process. Margaret said where she is from in New York City there is not a permitting process for Guerilla Art.

Patrick said the immediacy of Guerilla Art is attractive. Sean said, "We don't want to choke it down to the point where the spontaneity is eliminated." John agreed, but added that when images are stuck on a wall, that's a different issue than a spontaneous dance or music presentation. We have to know that whatever has been put on the built environment is really temporary and has owner permission, he said. Patrick said at some point artwork on building walls becomes a sign or a mural and asked, "How do we define temporary?" Richard said guerilla art is defined as temporary art. Patrick said some parts of the Arts Center's guerilla art project were true guerilla art, but putting artwork up on a wall is longer term than a performance, even if temporary. John said the difference between a temporary guerilla art piece on the built environment and a mural needs to be made clear.

Katherine said the mural process is under review right now, but currently murals fall under the City's sign ordinance and Richard asked if guidelines for temporary artwork like this could be part of that process. Kate suggested that true Guerilla Art be left out of any informal review. Katherine said the new mural policy could define guerilla art and have a subcategory for temporary art where organizations or individuals wanting to do a temporary art project would be expected to specify the length of time and have the project approved by the LCAC. The current way the City accommodates temporary public art is to blanket it under the temporary signs policy, she said. That means that the Lawrence Arts Center needs to complete the permitting process in that way.

John made a motion, seconded by Christy, that the LCAC recommend that the Lawrence City Commission approve a temporary sign permit for the Lawrence Arts Center 's Guerilla Arts program and the motion passed unanimously.

3.   2016 Budget Request. Katherine said the LCAC is asking the City to consider the idea that the Percent for Art program, which applies 2% for art to all capital projects, be considered to help fund festivals as well as permanent public art installations at any location in the City so that the LCAC is not necessarily recommending that the City pull money from another city fund for the requested budgetary increases.

Christy said she thinks the City ought to support large festivals through its regular budget annually. Katherine said this would be a means to accomplish that and suggesting the means, as well as making the request may meet with better success than have the previous requests for a budget increase. She said the LCAC needs to include a paragraph with its budget proposal spreadsheet explaining the reasoning behind the budget request; what the increase would accomplish in terms of economic advantages to the City as well as the benefits to the artists, arts organizations, and the Lawrence community as a whole that the LCAC serves. Richard said any note needs to acknowledge the increasing importance of arts and culture to Lawrence. Kathy agreed and pointed out that his quantitative data on the impact of the Busker Festival could be used as an example of economic impact, as well as community engagement. Kate said she liked the idea of defining this, providing the justifications quantitatively, such as showing how much revenue the Busker Fest draws into Lawrence.

Mike said this is the first time he has been through the Lawrence Community Arts Grants process and he was struck by how many good grant applications were submitted in comparison to the $7,000 available to grant. "It is pitiful," he said, "I think we should be bold in our budget request." Christy asked if LCAC should limit grants to small organizations. Mike said he didn't think so as the LCAC should encourage all art, including projects by large organizations. Katherine said we do need to think about these numbers and how we present them. After we go through the Lawrence Arts Grants process we can tell them how many we would recommend for awards if we had the funding. John said he agreed, "We should be bold and say 'this is how much we need,' but also suggest to them a place the funds can come from, such as some amount of Percent for Art."

Patrick said he agreed, but it would be important to be very targeted in the approach. He said he talked with former Mayor Amyx during the budgeting process last year about a better process for festival funding and Amyx told him, "There is a process, the budget process." I think we're on to something when we say we want to redirect the Percent for Art funds to also be used for festival funding, he added. We all have to introduce ourselves to these commissioners. Katherine said she touched base with Mayor Farmer about a study session and is continuing to follow up on it.

Kate said she has heard concerns from a number of physical artists about taking some Percent for Art for festivals, since festivals and public events can draw upon the bed tax but physical artists cannot. Katherine said the LCAC would be asking the City Commission to develop a fund, a pool, from whatever sources may be available, including Percent for Art, so that the funds are already budgeted for artwork with a process in place for organizations and individuals to apply, rather than making out-of-budget-cycle requests, as has been the practice in recent years. If the City Commission will apply Percent for Art to the Wastewater Treatment Plant, that would fund so many arts projects of all kinds, she added.

Mike said an important ancillary component of the new Director of Arts and Culture position will be to have an actual budget beyond his salary or he will have difficulty meeting the demands of the position.

Michel said the Phoenix Award budget is fine and need not be increased. Patrick suggested the budget remain static for the Downtown Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition and that the LCAC request $10,000 for grants instead of the current $7,000. Mike said he thought LCAC ought to ask for $50,000. Kate suggested $20,000, Mike countered with $25,000. John agreed that it makes sense to go for $25,000. Mike said he thinks a lot of people are not bothering to apply for Lawrence Arts Grants since the entire pool is $7,000. This is one of the few sources for funding for small organizations, he said. Patrick agreed and said the process is arduous for the small amount of funding available, especially for smaller organizations or individuals who may not be very experienced with grant applications.

Patrick said LCAC could include $30,000 for festivals and state why we need it, especially to encourage new festivals. Kathy said it made sense to direct funding to promote new festivals as the more established ones become self-sustaining and require less City support. Katherine asked if we want to still include the Percent for Art amounts in the budget. Kathy said yes, that is what the policy states, that we include percent for art in our annual budget.

Katherine added that the policy says Percent for Art applies to all capital outlay. Patrick said if just one percent out of every capital project the City does was applied, then we wouldn't be asking the City Commission for a budget request form the general fund every time. This is exactly the way the ordinance reads, Katherine said.  Portland, Denver, Austin and other cities are using percent for art to sustain their arts, she said.

Katherine said she is trying to get a study session to scheduled for the middle to end of May in order to introduce the commissioners to the LCAC and discuss the budget, including the actual amount for the projects the City has on the capital improvements list that would qualify, including to the wastewater treatment plant.

Mike suggested that a paragraph be written and circulated to the LCAC members for any additional suggestions before the budget has to be submitted at the end of April. Katherine said she and Kathy would draft a paragraph and circulate it as soon as possible.

4.   Review Community Arts Grants Applications.

Sixteen applications Lawrence Cultural Arts Grants, together requesting a total of $56,880, were submitted. The budget allowed for only $7,000 in grant funding to be awarded. Two members of the LCAC, Richard Renner, and Christy Dobson, recused themselves from the meeting and left the room due to conflicts of interest. Subsequently, after reviewing and discussing each proposal, the LCAC members voted to recommend grants to the following applicants: Douglas County Housing, Inc., $2,000; Inwrought Music Management, $500; Silly Goose Records, $1,400; The Percolator, $1,500, Lawrence Folk, $800; and Spencer Museum of Art, $800, for awards totaling $7,000. Based on the overall ranking of the applications, the LCAC would have recommended eleven awards for funding, totaling $31,400 in Lawrence Community Arts Grants, had the funding been available.

Old Business:

1    Update on search for Director of Arts and Culture. Katherine reported that that the city has offered Porter Arneill the Director of Arts and Culture position and he will join the city staff in early May. 

2.   Culture Plan. Website: http://www.lawrenceks.org/cmo/cultural-plan

Wednesday, May 4-6, 2015 is the next Town Hall Meeting on Cultural Plan, two public meetings. Location and times will be announced. The consultants will meet with the general public regarding the City’s cultural plan development. Citizens with an interest in the arts, performing arts, history, and culture in Lawrence are invited to attend.

3.   Ninth St. Corridor Project. Monday, April 20th 7 p.m., New York Elementary School, Website: http://www.lawrenceks.org/9th-street-corridor-project

The LCAC meeting adjourned at 9:43 p.m.