HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes_ARTAB_06.16.2015Minutes of the meeting of the
Arts and Culture Board
City of Georgetown, Texas
June 16, 2015
The Arts and Culture Board met on Tuesday, June 16, 2015 at 4:30 p.m. in Classroom 211 of the
Georgetown Public Library, 402 W. 8th Street
MEMBERS PRESENT: Steve Harris, Shana Nichols, Betty Ann Sensabaugh, Liz Stewart, Amanda
Still and Melissa Waggoner
STAFF PRESENT: Eric Lashley, Dana Hendrix, Lawren Weiss
OTHERS PRESENT: John Howell of Cordovan Art School
Chair Sensabaugh called the meeting to order at 4:30 p.m.
Regular Session
A. Citizens who wish to address the board. — John Howell, with Cordovan Art School, was in
attendance to address the board regarding item G: Report and possible action regarding the
expenditure of funds from the Arts & Culture Board budget.
B. Announcements of upcoming events. — Eric Lashley announced that the library will be hosting
an artist reception for Terry Tunes on Sunday, June 21 at 1 p.m. on the second floor bridge
area. Terry allowed 3 of his works, made of recycled small toys, to be displayed at the library
for several months. Lashley also announced that the Texas Society of Sculptors summer show
will begin June 27. Over 60 pieces will be displayed throughout the library.
Dana Hendrix announced that the Sieker Band will provide live music on Sunday, June 21
from 2-4 p.m. in the library's lobby. Hendrix also announced that Jane Estes will host a book
discussion on Art as Therapy at Georgetown Art Center, August 6, from 7-9 p.m.
C. Consideration and approval of the minutes of the May 19, 2015 Arts & Culture Board meeting.
Liz Stewart moved to approve the minutes as distributed. Shana Nichols seconded the
motion, which passed unanimously.
D. Report on mural project on 711 Main Street. — Eric Lashley. Lashley reported that he met with
selected mural artist, Joe Magnano and building owner, Chet Garner to discuss the mural
project. Lashley said he would meet with Joe on Friday, June 19 to have the contract signed
and purchase necessary materials to begin the mural. Lashley is also working with the City to
possibly borrow scaffolding for the project. Joe plans to begin the mural process on Monday,
June 21. A reception will be held sometime after the mural is completed by August 1.
E. Report on the Americans for the Arts Convention. — Dana Hendrix. Hendrix presented the
Board with a report she created regarding the Americans for the Arts Convention she attended
in Chicago (report attached to these minutes). She shared 3 main goals that the Board should
consider, moving forward. 1.) Focus on the City's arts & culture digital presence. 2.) Gather
data about attendance, funding, etc. 3.) Begin a 2 -year process to create a new cultural plan
that will replace the Strategic Plan for Arts & Culture. Hendrix thanked the board for the
opportunity to attend the convention, as she enjoyed the experience.
F. Report from Georgetown Art Works regarding the operation of the Georgetown Art Center
during the month of May. — Eric Lashley. Lashley explained that the batteries had run out for
the door counter at the Art Center, so the visitor total is inaccurate. Lashley will ask if, in the
future, the report will show a month-to-month comparison. Lashley reported that the Women
Painting Women exhibit received a lot of publicity. Lashley explained that this was due in large
part, to one of the artists who hired a PR firm for $1,500 to generate publicity.
G. Report and possible action regarding the expenditure of funds from the Arts & Culture Board
budget. — Lawren Weiss, Eric Lashley. Lawren Weiss reported expenditures from the previous
month: $25.57 to 600 Degrees for a business lunch with mural artist Joe Magnano. There is
currently $3,000 in the budget designated for Georgetown Art Center. Amanda Still asked the
Board to consider using the funds to sponsor children to attend summer camp at the Art
Center. John Howell, of Cordovan Art School, explained to the board that he had reached out
to Georgetown ISD and The Nest. He said there is a great interest in sending children to
summer art camps, who may not be able to afford it otherwise. Howell informed the Board that
if they moved forward with the sponsorship, $3,000 could send 18 kids to summer camp at
Georgetown Art Center. After some discussion, the Board was agreeable to the sponsorship.
Melissa Waggoner moved to fund 18 slots for summer camps at Georgetown Art Center for
$3,000. Steve Harris seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
H. Report on budget for FY 15-16. —Eric Lashley. Lashley reported that he requested from City
Council an extra $10,000 for the Arts & Culture Board's marketing and promotion budget for
next fiscal year. Council wants more data on how the Board would use the extra funds.
Report on cultural district funding through Texas Commission on the Arts. —Eric Lashley.
Lashley reported that $5 million dollars a year could be available to cultural districts, through
the State. Lashley asked to Board to consider ideas that would boost the cultural district as a
whole, and not solely benefit individual organizations.
J. Report on potential Arts & Culture Intern. — Dana Hendrix, Eric Lashley. Hendrix asked to
board to consider funding an Arts & Culture intern from Southwestern University. Students are
available to intern during the fall, spring and summer semesters. The internship would be paid
15 hour per week and could be offered academic credit if a faculty member would support that
intern. The Board was interested in this idea but wanted to know more information about what
the budget would be to fund and intern, as well as logistics for the process.
K. Report on potential Artist- in- Residency program. — Dana Hendrix, Eric Lashley. Lashley
asked the Board to make a decision about a potential artist- in- residency program to be
located on the second floor of Georgetown Art Center. The Board needed to vote on how
they'd like to use the space, so a proposal can be drafted to City Council. After some
discussion, the Board decided they like the idea of the Artist- in— Residency program. Harris
moved to approve Lashley to move forward with the Artist- in- Residency program. Liz
Stewart seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
L. Consideration of future meetings. — Eric Lashley. The next Arts & Culture Board meeting will
be July 21, 2015.
Chair Sensabaugh adjourned the meeting at 5:58 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Liz Stewart, Secretary
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Betty Ann Sensabaugh, Chair
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Report to Arts & Culture Board from Americans for the Arts Convention
Chicago, June 11-14, 2015
The convention was extremely well presented and useful, and I came back with both
information and inspiration in abundance. Here are brief notes from the sessions I
attended.
What We Talk About When We Talk About Transforming Our Field
This initial session with an artist, Norie Sato, and three administrators, was streamed
(though there were some technical difficulties at the beginning) and is available now to
watch. The most interesting elements addressed inequity related to race, gender, and
socioeconomic diversity in the arts sector and related funding structures and employment
concerns. These are themes that were raised repeatedly during the convention—very good
awareness raising reminders, and data illustrating the problems in the system.
Convention Exhibits
There were numerous exhibitors at the convention, all with representatives who were
willing to share their knowledge with me. Especially of interest are sites where we could
post calls for artists and other notices, and those that are focused on data collection.
Websites for some interesting exhibitors that I will be looking more into:
Artcareercafe.com
Springboardexchange.org Ovationtv.com
Culturaldata.org Publicartist.org
Newcomers and New -at -Heart Orientation and Meet -and -Greet
This orientation set the tone for the conference, which included about 1,500 people from all
walks of arts life, from individual artists to the chair of the NEA. This smaller meet -and -
greet illustrated that people in arts management come from diverse educational and
professional backgrounds, yet because everyone has very clear agreement about the basics
of mission, conversations were without exception fruitful and supportive. I met a library
employee from the Oak Park, Illinois Public Library who manages her library's art exhibits,
a staff member from a theater arts program for troubled youth, a Grants and Development
Coordinator from the Harford, Maryland Center for the Arts, who explained to me how
their library foundation is going to work with their cultural arts board, just as three
examples, and went on to have good conversations with people throughout the convention.
Empowering the Voices Inside Communities Through the Arts
This opening plenary and awards luncheon was streamed, and is available now to watch.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel made an appearance, and potter and organizer Theaster
Gates gave a really rousing and thoughtful talk and answered questions. Richard Huff, the
Irving Arts Center executive director, received an award, making me think a field trip to
Irving may be in order.
A Model for a Do -It -Yourself Cultural Plan
This was a fast -paced working session with participants in small groups, going through a
very useful process to illustrate how a community without a cultural planner on staff or
funds to hire consultants can approach creating a citywide cultural plan with existing staff
resources. It was led by Karen Bubb, the City of Boise's Public Arts Manager. She shared the
workshop outline with participants; if we adopt this approach, I think we could use her
process and work together to begin what Ms. Bubb suggests should be a 2 -year planning
process, resulting in a plan that revisits and then builds on the current Arts & Culture
Strategic Plan.
The Nonprofit Treasure Hunt: Local, State, and National Public Money Edition
Representatives from the USDA, Americans for the Arts, a Michigan state organization, and
the Economic Development Administration talked about general and specific funding
sources and concepts. I have specifics to follow up on to see what we or our nonprofits may
be eligible for.
Empowering Equity and Celebrating Innovation Through the Arts
Jane Chu, Chair of the NEA, and Tom Finkelpearl, NYC Commissioner of Cultural Affairs,
spoke and then answered questions. The primary takeaway for me from this session was
the importance of beginning to focus on some basic data collection, and the many ways
(free and fee-based) that arts agencies collect and use data. There are also wider arts
surveys that perhaps we have participated in, such as the Local Arts Agency Census (this
year's deadline is June 30). A book mentioned, Arts & America: Arts, Culture, and the Future
ofAmerica's Communities, was available in the convention bookstore, so 1 picked up a copy
and began reading it over the weekend; there will be online book discussions held around
the text, too. This session was streamed, and is available now to watch.
Getting Arts and Tourism into Creative Balance
This session was useful in sparking thinking about the relationship between tourism and
the arts and all the ways they can cooperate. Cultural and heritage tourism is different than
other tourism. Like mainstream tourists, these travelers come from all demographic groups
and include all income levels. But cultural and heritage travelers spend more per trip than
other travelers. They want historical character; differing cultures and history; experiences
to stimulate their minds and challenge their intellects. They look for educational
experiences when traveling for leisure. They seek a variety of activities, and they bring
back local or regional memorabilia. They want challenge, novelty, and change, and will pay
more for experiences that don't harm the environment. They have a desire to give back;
they volunteer and donate. The session gave me a number of good ideas about working
together with our CVB and Main Street staff, and we need to make sure we are not
duplicating work or expenses, as well.
Felipe Buitrago and Dennis Cheek on the Creative Economy
One of the important elements that arose repeatedly in the conference was the impact of
the arts on local economies. Buitrago is an economist with the Inter -American
Development Bank, and author of The Orange Economy. He was very interesting, and it is
clear that the more data we can gather on Georgetown arts & culture, the better we can
understand and demonstrate the economic impact of arts & culture for us. Buitrago's book,
which was first published in Spanish (he is Colombian) is freely available on a Creative
Commons license. You can look it over here:
http://publications.iadb.org/handle/11319/3659?locale-attribute=en
Telling the Arts' Story in a Digital World
This session convinced me that the City arts & culture digital presence—and the digital
presences of our nonprofit organizations—are even more crucial than I realized. 41
percent of arts ticket buyers find their events and purchase tickets online. 36 percent of
those purchases are made on a mobile device, not a laptop or desktop computer. This
means that arts organizations whose websites are not highly functional and responsive for
mobile devices may well lose out on audience members who make assumptions about the
quality of the arts experience based on the website experience they have. Email
communication is still important, and 44 percent of emails are opened on mobile devices so
they must look and function well and must be tested in different email platforms (and
browsers). In addition, social media really does continue to be crucial, especially Facebook.
71 percent of adults are on Facebook, including 56 percent of those age 65 plus (87 percent
of those age 18-29 are on Facebook). By contract, 28 percent are on Pinterest, 23 percent
Twitter, and 26 percent on Instagram. It seems clear that starting an arts & culture email
newsletter and Facebook presence are crucial; Twitter and other platforms could wait. I
learned a great deal more, too, from this session. The city's new video staff person, who
begins work next week, will work with us on some arts & culture related videos. Many
were shown during this session to demonstrate how data about the arts can lead to crafting
a message that is delivered via websites/social media; here is one that one of the session's
presenters was involved in making for a client, the NYC Ballet, which realized its aging
audiences needed to be supplemented with a younger demographic:
https://youtu.be/aUPfEwFWG-I<
Empowering the Future Through the Arts
This final session was streamed, and I watched it after returning home since I had to leave
for the airport before it ended. It, like some other all -conference sessions, included a
fantastic performance—this one youth poets. The two main speakers, both MacArthur
Fellows, were a Stanford University physics professor/potter, and a choreographer. It was
really interesting; they discussed creativity, risk and process, science and art, shape and
change .... Some beautiful photos of interesting pots, too. There is no point in trying to sum it
up—you'd just have to watch it.
All of this year's streamed events are already up on YouTube, so those I noted above as
having been streamed plus others are here to enjoy:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL58UAdg7rpI-j9vsv3aCMY6THewPYVGHZ
Conclusion
Attending the convention gave me tools to use in improving our digital presence, beginning
to gather and use benchmark data, and planning, and these three focus areas represent the
goals I'd like to propose:
® Continue our focus on developing the City's crucial arts & culture digital presence,
and find ways to help our nonprofits develop theirs as well.
• Begin to regularly gather a set of basic data about arts funding and figures for
Georgetown, our nonprofits, our websites/social media, and our audiences so we
can better understand our strengths and challenges, and use that understanding to
guide our efforts.
o Begin a 2 -year process to update our arts & culture strategic plan with a new
cultural plan that uses data and community input to look farther out into the future.
Having attended this conference, I am more up to speed with what national arts leaders are
focusing on and current best practices; in addition I can now be a better staff liaison
between the board and AFTA, as I understand the organization much better and realize the
level of credibility and long history it has in the context of the arts in the U.S. The website
alone is a remarkable resource, but so are the organization's staff and publications.
I am very grateful for the opportunity the board gave me to represent the City at the
convention. I learned a great deal—much, much more than I have put in this brief report—
and can absolutely conclude that sending a representative again in the future would be a
good use of City funds.
Future Budgeting Considerations
The $2,000 budget was enough to cover my essential expenses for the conference; the hotel
expense took me $183.78 over, which the library budget will cover.
The next meeting will be June 17-19, 2016 in Boston—also an expensive city to visit. If a
representative is to go, I'd recommend that the board consider increasing the budget
enough that one of the substantial pre -conferences could be included in the cost for
whoever attends.
I had a conversation with a colleague who had previously attending one of AFTA's
marketing conferences and she said it was also excellent, so that alternative might be
something else to consider. The 2015 National Arts Marketing Project (NAMP) Conference
will be November 6-9, 2015 in Salt Lake City.
-Dana Hendrix
Fine Arts Librarian
June 16, 2015