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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-10-22 Commission on Cultural Development Minutes City of Bangor, Commission on Cultural Development - Minutes - October 22, 2008, 8am, Council Chambers Commissioners in Attendance: John Rohman, Commission Chair, Geoffrey Gratwick, Council Representative, Susan Jonason, and Sandra Blake-Leonard Others in Attendance: Sally Bilancia, City of Bangor, Barbara McDade, Bangor Public Library, Andrea Stark, Maine Discovery Museum, David Whitehill, Bangor Symphony, Dana Lippitt, Bangor Museum & Center for History, George Kinghorn, University of Maine Museum of Art, and Scott Levy, Penobscot Theatre Company rd Handouts: Agenda, Minutes from July 23. Next Meeting Date: Tuesday, November 25, 2008 at 8am, City Hall Council Chambers 1. Commission approved minutes of July 23, 2008 meeting with no changes. 2. Bangor Arts Collaborative A group of representatives from the Bangor arts and culture community were invited to present their ideas regarding what the City of Bangor in general and the Cultural Commission specifically can do to help cultural interests. Signage The group is proposing that the City purchase and install signage to define downtown Bangor as an arts and cultural district. The group asked Bangor Neon to provide a proposed design (Attachment A). One “anchor” sign, centrally located, would cost approximately $13,700 with the proposed design. This design includes opportunities for growth by adding panels if new cultural entities become active in the district. Six way-finding signs are proposed for approximately $21,000. These would be directional signs at the major points of entry to the city. Highway signage was discussed as well, defining downtown as an arts and cultural district. Sally will speak to Jim Ring about how this is done. Website The group is very interested in the Cultural Commission’s intent of creating a centralized website for arts and culture in the area. They gave culturepass.net as an example of an excellent site for this purpose. - 1 - A site with similar capabilities would be approximately $5-6,000 to design. The question of who keeps the information current is a difficult one. It should be updated on a very regular basis – weekly, if not daily. Whitehill also mentioned the benefit he is finding to being on the Maine Center for the Arts site, as patrons are purchasing tickets to his events who were originally on the site for another MCA event. Potential for cross promotion is great. Print Photocopies of a brochure entitled “Visit Bangor and Explore the Arts” (Attachment B) were circulated. This brochure was done several years ago by the Bangor Region Arts Council and distributed by the Greater Bangor Convention & Visitors Bureau. This is a great example of what this group would like to see done again. It was estimated that designing and printing 10,000 two-color brochures would cost approximately $2-3,000. Summary All Commissioners present agreed that it is very encouraging to see the arts and cultural entities in Bangor working together to put forth this proposal. The Cultural Commission will be applying to the Maine Arts Commission in the near future for a capacity building grant to help fund the next phase of our strategic plan. Many of these elements should fit in nicely. Members of the Bangor Arts Collaborative will most likely be called upon for letters of support for that grant application, as well as other feedback and assistance necessary to make it happen. It should be noted that after the meeting, Sally confirmed that Bangor already has a defined Art and Cultural District, which has the same boundaries as the Bangor Center Management District (Attachment C). This was apparently taken care of by Sally Bates when the Cultural Commission was first created. 3. Grant Application to the Maine Arts Commission General consensus among Commission members present was that the application to the MAC was very important and could not be postponed another year (or grant cycle). However, due to several sets of circumstances, the baseline information we need to write a strong grant proposal has not been gathered. Rohman, Jonason th and Leonard agreed to meet Oct 28 to discuss the grant application and the information needed to write the draft, which will be reviewed at the next Commission meeting. Respectfully submitted by Sally Bilancia, Business & Economic Development Officer - 2 -