Memorandum

City of Lawrence

City Manager’s Office

TO:	David L. Corliss, City Manager
FROM:	Christina McClelland, Director of Arts and Culture
CC:	Diane Stoddard, Assistant City Manager
DATE:	November 17, 2014
RE:	ArtPlace Grant submitted by the Lawrence Art Center for the 9^th Street Corridor Project

The City and the Arts Center are providing a copy of the grant proposal that was submitted to ArtPlace America for the 9^th Street Corridor project. The proposal (with redactions) is attached. City staff worked with Susan Tate, CEO of the Lawrence Arts Center, to redact information such as dollar amounts from private donors who did not want their information to become public and salaries of Art Center staff. Information about the potential design team and artists were listed as placeholders (i.e. possible vendors who would demonstrate the quality of possible work), a common practice in writing grant proposals. The Arts Center utilized many advisors on the initial grant application.

Answers to questions 1-7 from the ArtPlace application comprise the entire project description and were made available to the City and the public in July. They were included in the RFQ that was released to identify a design team to work on the project. The additional information includes timelines, proposed project leaders, and funding. In the extremely competitive process of applying for private grants, it is somewhat unorthodox to release this information publically, as grant proposals are considered intellectual property of the organization creating them for the specific opportunity.

Selection of the consultants has been conducted as a competitive public process—el dorado inc. competed against five other submitting firms reviewed by the selection committee. Of the three firms the committee chose to interview, el dorado inc. were recommended with a consensus from the committee. The timeline as it appears in the grant application was an estimation of timing and procedure one year ago.