HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes_ARTAB_10.21.2009Minutes of the Meeting of the
Arts and Culture Board
City of Georgetown, Texas
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
The Arts and Culture Board of the City of Georgetown, Texas, met on Wednesday , October 21, 2009.
Board Members Present:
Charles Aguillon, Georgene Richaud, Jane Paden, Mandy Solin, Melanie Dunham, Steve Proesel
Board Members Absent:
Penny Plueckhahn
Staff Present:
Judy Fabry, Administrative Assistant, Georgetown Public Library
Minutes
Regular Meeting
A. Chair Charles Aguillon called the meeting to order at 3:06 p.m.
B. There were no announcements regarding upcoming events.
C. There were no citizens wishing to address the Board
D. Georgene Richaud moved and Steve Proesel seconded to accept the minutes as distributed,
and the motion passed unanimously.
E. Consideration of and possible action on
1. Report about October advertising campaign – Charles Aguillon . Charles showed the
October Arts Month calendar rack card, the Happy Trails map of the banner project, and
the ad that appeared in the Austin Chronicle and the Williamson County Sun . He said
he thought all of the advertising had been useful and that some organizations even
approached him about being represented the next time a calendar (the rack card) is
published. He also mentioned that the large article Rachel Slade wrote in the Sun about
the weekend’s activities was important in raising the community’s awareness of the arts
events going on.
2. Report on San Gabriel Park sculpture display project – Judy Fabry , Georgene Richaud .
Georgene reported that she and Penny had gone to the Espinoza Stone quarry to pick
out rocks for the sculpture pedestals. The chose 10-12 rocks that Matt Espinoza agreed to
put aside for our project. He said he would choose among the rocks to deliver the
greatest number of them without exceeding the Board’s $1000 budget. Judy then
reported that Eric had spoken with Jamie Baren and Eric Nuner at Parks about where
the rocks could be placed. Jamie and Eric Nuner agreed to take over the project as far as
overseeing the delivery and getting the rocks permanently placed in level positions.
They also will handle getting the metal mounting plates attached to the rocks . They
thought they could accept delivery within the next two weeks.
Charles said that Penny had told him that she no longer has time to be involved in
acquiring the borrowed sculptures and neither does Charles, so he asked Steve to help
with this part of the project. Charles said that it’s possible that Art Works may be able to
take over scheduling of the rotating sculptures. He will bring it up at their next board
meeting. Georgene said that she thinks it would be good for Art Works to take on this
part of the project since Arts and Culture Board membership changes frequently,
making it impossible to advertise a permanent contact person.
3. Report on Art in the Square – Charles Aguillon . Charles said that attendance was
greater than it was at last year’s Art in the Park and that the majority of the artists were
very pleased with the business they did. The local restaurants also were very happy
with the large volume of business they had (there were no food vendors at Art in the
Square). Charles heard lots of positive feedback about the banner project. He thinks that
next year Art Works will solicit fewer banners, so that being invited is more of an honor
and there won’t be as much artwork to have to reproduce. In future years, new banners
could be cycled in and others not hung again.
Mandy suggested that the Arts and Culture banners should be hung in more prominent
locations—preferably on the four corners of the Square. This year, only one was on the
Square.
Steve said he had positive feedback about the banners from the merchants on the
Square. Mandy then suggested that it would be useful to do an “exit interview” with the
merchants to get their opinions about what worked and what didn’t. Such a survey
would provide some hard data to share with Council about the benefits of using the
Board’s money in this way. Mandy said she would draft some questions, which
probably should be asked in the very near future. Charles said he would ask Cari Miller,
tourism manager, to conduct the survey.
Charles also was pleased with the tent that provided space for the local arts nonprofits
to distribute information about their programs. Only one organization that asked to have
a table didn’t show up.
Charles is going to write thank you letters to all of the artists who participated in Art in
the Square. Judy will get Arts and Culture Board letterhead for him to use . Charles also
expects to talk with Mark Thomas in the near future about the impact of the arts on
economic development. He hopes to be accompanied by two Council members who are
supporters of the Board.
4. Summit of the Arts – Charles Aguillon . Charles outlined the agenda he plans to follow
at tomorrow evening’s Summit of the Arts . First, he wants to spend some time talking
about the City’s events calendar, on which any organization may post their events. He
will emphasize that all of the information for the October Arts Month rack card came
from that calendar, so if organizations want to be included in the future, they need to
post their events.
Next on the agenda he’ll ask for feedback about what people thought of Art Month’s
events. Finally, he’ll talk about the Event Sponsorship grants.
Georgene said she thinks Charles needs to make clear from the beginning of the grant
discussion that the Guidelines and Application are not up for discussion. They may not
be perfect , but they will stand through this first round of applications and the Board will
decide whether they work or not.
It was suggested that the next Summit needs to be before October 2010—possibly in
August 2010.
5. Revision of sponsorship guidelines and application form – Judy Fabry . The Board
members went through the two documents and made recommendations for changing
due dates and dates of decisions and funding. The due date for applications will be
December 11, 2009; the Board will hold two meetings in January to consider the
applications and will take their decisions to Council on January 26. Awards will be
announced by February 4 and disbursements will be made around February 15.
6. Potential arts projects – Charles Aguillon . Charles spoke briefly about ideas he and
Eric Lashley have been discussing related to using the area between 7th and 8th Streets
and MLK and Rock for some kind of performance venue. Even without any kind of
structure, musical stages could be set up during existing festivals to pull people to this
part of downtown and to begin to raise the community’s awareness of the potential of
this block.
Charles also has been looking at the Texas Commission on the Arts’ Cultural District
program and believes Georgetown should work on an application for the coming year.
He said it will take cooperation from numerous City departments, businesses, and
nonprofits, but he is optimistic that it could be accomplished . He asked that this topic
appear on the November Board agenda.
7. Reminder of cancellation of December 2009 meeting – Judy Fabry
Charles adjourned the meeting at 4:37 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Georgene Richaud, Secretary Charles Aguillon, Chair