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HomeMy WebLinkAbout~Master - PAC Meeting Minutes 06/07/22PUBLIC ART COMMISSION, CITY OF AMES MEETING MINUTES – June 7th, 2022 AMES CITY HALL, ROOM 135 Present: Erica Briest (Chair), Armaan Gupta (Vice-Chair), Kyle Hauswirth (Secretary), Oakley Cadogan (Treasurer), Elias Simpson, Taylor Carlson, Sahar Kaissi, Joe Merchant •Call to Order (Erica Briest) @ 5:30 PM •Consent Agenda- o Motion to approve- Kyle Hauswirth o Second- Armaan Gupta Approval of May 3, 2022 Minutes (Kyle Hauswirth) Treasurer’s Report (Oakley Cadogan) Commission Committees Reports and Comments •Outreach (Erica Briest- Chair; Oakley Cadogan, Joe Merchant, Elias Simpson) o Neighborhood Art -- Pieces awaiting installation (Erica, Aspen, Claire) o AAOSE – New sculptures are installed! Go check them out if you haven’t already! •Public Relations (no Chair; Erica Briest) o Digital frames for festival and events (Elias Simpson) - document from Elias with research (No action needed immediately, for future discussion) •Collection Management (Angie DeWaard, Aspen Pflanz Co-Chairs; Kyle Hauswirth, Claire Kruesel,) o Glowforge Laser Cutter (Candace Zwank) (let’s take some action on this) o Unanimous Consent •Public Forum/ Guests o None •Chair Report- o Disappointed that there was no help at Art Walk, setting up or tearing down. So it was difficult to have a PAC booth at the Art Walk, but there was one. o It was a beautiful day, near a great band. o Art walk has never had bad weather, so it’s always a beautiful day and the art is tremendous and it’s enjoyable. o Some people didn’t sign up for subcommittees, so some people will be placed on them based on which ones need help. As some need help, and some that have a lot of people. o Thank Taylor for volunteering to do the AAOSE brochure, there was a flyer done by the Graphics department, but Taylor will put together the more professional brochure for PAC. •City Manager’s Liaison o Installation of Transformer wraps have been done, they look good. All the critical stickers are back on them, and they blend in very well. City social media will feature transformers once a week. Bill was paid today, so that will show up on next month’s financial report. o Removal of light pillars downtown has started, and public works is contracting to have that all done. Money from downtown improvement funds has been utilized to take them down. 2 at Clark and Main 2 at main and Kellogg 2 at main and Burnett 2 at main and Douglass One set is already down. o Question was asked if the wraps have gotten any recognition, and the 9 year old who did one brought his entire family to watch it go on. o Question was asked about storm drain installation- in place later on the agenda. •Housekeeping- o Assignments to sub committees Sahar Kaissi- Collections management Guppy- Public Relations Angie DeWaard- Collections management Taylor Carlson- Public Relations Candace Zwank- Outreach •Status Updates- o Storm Drain Intake- Most if not all has been painted. Submission for storm drain art that was overlooked, if PAC wants to award the submission and have it painted, or close the project. •Motion to Award the submission to Erin Quinn- Taylor Carlson o Second- Oakely Cadogan o A couple resignations from the committee have happened and one of them was the person that was leading Art in the Parks. o PAC needs a new person to take over Art in the Parks- Under purview of the Outreach Committee Question was asked if it could be given to the committee as a whole instead of a new personal lead. Question was asked about if this meant for the question about redefining what a park is. Claire was meeting with Keith about doing something big every 5 years, and doing Art in the Parks that way. Question was asked asking for an example. •“Arches in Bandshell” •Individual sculptures for permanent placement in parks. •Temporary art installation with sticks and a huge interactive structure at Ada Hayden. The project stayed there for a year, and was taken down, as it was designed to be temporary. •Sculptures in Brookside park. •Many sculptures in parks were done by Art in the Parks. •Currently working on Tahira & Labh Hira Park •How does this program work going forward. •When is the next “5 year” period for Art in the Parks? o Unknown, as the timeline is generally approximate. •Recommended that Art in the Parks should be a full PAC engagement, vs a committee buildout. •Art in the Parks will have to be put in the outreach committee, then build out in the committee after a framework has been built out. •Keith had been working with Claire, and people will work out her notes. •Reiterate on need to be sensitive to the donors, but also move forward with PACs vision for the park. •Discuss this as a committee in Outreach and get the notes from Claire. o “What to do with Public Arts” Taylor Carlson volunteered to do some of the graphics, Kyle Hauswirth offered to help with some of the vernacular. Taylor was trying to think where this was posted. When the plinth was up, and QR codes could be used to point them to the correct resources, and a landing page that can go to PAC. A way for the public to reach out to PAC in general through QR Codes. Do we have a person that handles the public comment for PAC. There is a general PAC email that goes to Carly and she can forward that as well. o Ice Arena Mural Request- No current updates Some members of the committee believed that the Ice Arena is a park, and should be maybe included in Art in the Parks. Question was raised if there was a slippery slope by designating the Ice Arena a park. •Ice Arena management came to PAC with the request for this as a starting point. Ice Arena is closed in May- which would probably be the best time to do this. Since it is run jointly with ISU, do we need to do anything wi th the College? •No, it’s a unique arrangement, it’s on ISU Property, but it’s run by the City, all of the revenue’s expenses, and programming is run by the City. Something will be done with this next month. o Flo-Esque Sculpture at Gilman Courtyard We don’t know who owns it, we know literally nothing about it. Move to do nothing with this statue-Kyle Hauswirth •Second- Guppy Unanimously Consented •New and Continuing Business- Action Needed o Glowforge Laser Cutter History- •Idea came up, that we buy all of the little plaques that go on the sculptures, we buy the plaques from a local vendor, and that costs plaque money every time we get a new sculpture. •Glowforge laser cutter was an idea to make our own plaques, and we could make our own QR codes as part of the sign, laser cut in instead of printed. •Upkeep, storage, and purchase were raised as concerns about the laser cutter. •Erica will email Candice about her views on a report on the Glowforge laser cutter before the next meeting, so her voice can be heard on the laser cutter. •Something will be done with it next month. •Brian has talked with Parks and Rec and the Print shop, neither of them have ever used something like it before, but there is some potential uses. •Somebody would have to be trained on it, and it would have to live in a city facility. •No way to test it either, so if it doesn’t do the quality we want we would be out of luck. •Octagon is doing their third floor renovation as a space for artists to use, and maybe we could go in with an organization. •Question was asked sometimes when something is purchased like this the company will provide training. •Commission will wait for Candice’s report. •Also look at contributing to Octagon’s space and asked if there was precedent to contributing to something like that. •Should Candice be asked to take the next step on potentially talking to the Octagon, or should this be assigned to someone else. •Decision was made to wait for Candice to return. o Priscilla Sage Pieces in City Auditorium- Requests were going to be sent out to outside parties on repair for the pieces. Sahar saw the item, and said if we repair the item, we will just need to repair it again. She said she would be willing to fix it, but in a year or two it will be damaged again. From her opinion as an artist- it’s not worth the money to repair them. Question was made if the art was discussed to be moved somewhere else, or put in a case. More research would need to be done if that was something that PAC wanted to do. From the front, it looks dirty and old, from behind it just looks correct, but the paper surrounding it is the weak point, and if you replace it, it will deform the shape. Priscilla was met with, and she was adamant that it could be repaired, when PAC initially sent out a notice to the donors saying that it would be deaccessioned, there were a lot of emails and phone calls, and there were some who were upset it would be deaccessioned, and some that wanted it if it was removed. What was the reason it was purchased in the first place, maybe the people who donated didn’t realize how fragile they are. These pieces were in a spot that wind blows them around, and people move them. They were repaired incorrectly at one point, and it’s fair to say these pieces have been abused. It was stated as an opinion that we should make an effort to repair them, and then if they deteriorate again we have at least made an effort in good faith to fix the issue. What was the reason donors would be mad? Ames Town & Gown in 2005 made the effort to get the pieces installed, several donors worked to get these pieces made and put in place. They bought 2 of the pieces and Priscilla donated one of the others. The donors have expressed concern about the desire to deaccession them. There are other community members There was an idea to move them to a safer place, and just keep them in a new spot, and should we work to fix them or keep them as they are? If we want to rehang it, two things to suggest- •Replace the mounting rod because the connections are weak •If we put it back up on the wall, we need to secure it in a way where it won’t be taken down. The Spiral one would need to be repaired. Should this be kicked back to Collections Management These donations were to celebrate the 50th year of Town & Gown. If PAC hasn’t upheld their commitment to Town & Gown we should work to help repair those community issues. o Decommissioned Fire Hydrants- Memo as part of packets, Angie has talked with Keith and Dale about them, and They want to put the fire hydrants where they will not be confused with Active fire hydrants. 4 locations within dog park, they would be good locations, and there are Hydrants available. The Question is If there is a desire to allocate some funds for artists to paint these fire hydrants, and if we want to reimburse artists to paint these hydrants. Logistics of painting them at dog park is tricky, it will be in the air lock fence. If we want to add more hydrants we can in the future. Design will be whatever artists want to paint it, a contest will be done to submit options and PAC can pick 4. Recommendation was made to maybe focus on kids. Focus the contest on school kids. Quality was raised as a concern about the potential risks of involving kids. Angie seemed willing to spearhead this, and the question is what we want to do with the funding. $100 honorarium was decided on for the Fire Hydrant projects. Logistics shouldn’t be worried about, right now we should just focus on honorarium or reimbursement. Angie is heading up this program, and if anyone wants to help they can contact her. Can we reimburse for supplies up to $50 and then an honorarium for $100 This was decided as the best path forward. Motion- Taylor Carlson •Second- Joseph Merchant Motion Carried o Discussion on Next Project- Ideas for next project- •Aspen was supposed to handle this, but she resigned. •A few ideas where floating, like adopting an intersection, sort of like library did with the crosswalk, but putting art there instead. •Decals for AAOSE- footprints leading you to the sculptures •Mural Contest for Ames Parks •Sahar has some ideas she will be discussing with Collections management that has to do with Solar Lighting, among others. •Possible Modern Art Festival for tattoo festival tie-ins •Different art around, something that can be for families, walk around and see art around, get face painted potentially. •Non-Traditional art was brought up, as something that can be utilized. •Make a day out of art, walk in early morning, to an open mic night, center it around the parks potentially, tie in to Art in the Parks. •For the Good of the Order o Oakley- Welcome to Ames signs that are kind of short, can those be changed or improved. Those are not in the arts inventory, no idea where the origins of that are, but if it’s something that PAC wants to explore, PAC should approach the city council for their direction to explore something different. Two “Welcome to Ames Signs” On University, and one on 13 th, at North River Valley Potential future project. o June is PTSD awareness month. •Motion to Adjourn- Joseph Merchant: 7:13 o Second- Kyle Hauswirth