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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-03-12 Commission on Cultural Development Minutes City of Bangor, Commission on Cultural Development Minutes March 12, 2015 8:30 a.m. City Council Chambers Commissioners Present: Jamie Ballinger (Chair), Kierie Piccininni (Vice Chair), Tom Avila, Judy Boothby, Mary Budd, Emily Burnham, Ulrike Guthrie, Josh Plourde, Elissa Young, and Caitlin Brooke (staff) Unexcused Absence: Kat Johnson, Chris Roberts 1. Welcome and Introductions 2. Approval of Previous Meeting Minutes Kierie requested a change on the second page of the February 12 meeting minutes. The date of the workshop dedicated to partnering with businesses will be in May, not April. With this correction, a motion was made by Uli and seconded by Mary to approve the previous meeting minutes. The motion passed by a unanimous vote. 3. Final Report from Bangor Ballet The Commission reviewed the final report from Bangor Ballet highlighting their holiday performances of The Nutcracker in 2014. They were commended on the success of the event, the amount of attendees, the outreach to underserved communities, and the thoroughness of the final report presented. 4. Committee Updates Advocacy Committee – The second annual Arts and Cultural Forum was held last night (March 11) and 48 people attended. During the April meeting for Bangor Arts, a few Commissioners will be present to receive feedback from the group. Funding Committee – The next grant that the Commission will be recommending to the Council permission to apply for will be from the Maine Arts Commission. The deadline is April 15 so the grant will go before the Business and Economic Development Committee in March for recommendation to full Council in early April. Education Committee – The most recent workshop was hosted at Launchpad’s Central Gallery and focused on publishing. Uli noted that there was a full house (one seat empty!) and the organizers learned a lot about how not to lead a workshop. They felt it went off track a bit with discussions and may/may not have met the needs of the entire group. On a positive note, the attendance was high and folks travelled from all over the state to be part of the discussion. Post-workshop feedback has been positive. Marketing Committee – The Committee has created a one-pager for ARTober which has been distributed at various events, including the publishing workshop in March and last night’s forum. A press release will be sent around next week to ask for organizations and individuals to submit event information to include in the ARTober (October) celebration. Jamie and Caitlin summarized an action that had been taken by Council during the most recent Personnel Committee meeting to eliminate the status of Associate Members on the Commission. This would give two current Associate Members (Elissa Young and Chris Roberts) the opportunity to become full-fledged voting members of the Commission. The quorum of 4 would remain. Judy moved to support this recommendation by Council, Emily seconded the motion. The motion passed by a unanimous vote. 5. Review Proposed Grant Eligibility, Review, and Scoring Changes Jamie presented a revised draft of the suggested grant eligibility, review and scoring guidelines for the Commission that was originally put forth in 2013. The scoring sheet has been updated to reflect the City of Bangor’s ordinance which directs Commissioners to look for certain criteria when reviewing a grant application. Commissioners discussed the process of evaluating applications based on the drafted document and looked at the potential vagueness in some of the questions. They also thought explicit quality metrics for the scoring section would be essential to eliminating emotional responses about projects and considering a consistent scale of measurement across all Commissioners. 6. Discuss Public Art and Monuments Policy Jamie summarized that part of the Commission’s direction from the Code of Ordinance is to create a Public Art and Monuments Policy. There is currently nothing in that fashion which exists for the City of Bangor. Elissa did some preliminary research and found a great example of a policy that exists in another city. Jamie urged Commissioners to look at examples of other cities that have good policies and that one of the committees should take on the task of delving more into the drafting of the policy. It was noted that George Kinghorn (UMMA Director and previous Commission Chair) should be consulted as he has had experience developing and implementing such a policy. The energy and activeness of the Committees seems to warrant the need for another public meeting to discuss Commission initiatives, outside of the regular monthly meeting. Caitlin will send around a Doodle to see when a second working group could meet. 7. Vote on FY2016 Budget Request to the City of Bangor Each year the Commission makes a request from the City Council to continue its mission of supporting the arts in Bangor by graciously providing a budget. Last year the budget was $10,000. Jamie suggested that because of the extent of the Commission’s work, the Commission request a budget of $15,000 for fiscal year 2016. Staff noted that flat funding was a reality and recommended a continuation of last year’s budget of $10,000. Tom made a motion to request $15,000 from the City of Bangor’s Council for the fiscal year 2016 budget for the Commission on Cultural Development, Judy seconded. The motion passed by a unanimous vote. Being no other business, the meeting was adjourned. To watch a full version of the Commission on Cultural Development’s March 12 meeting, please visit: http://bangormaine.pegcentral.com/.