HomeMy WebLinkAbout110625 Arts Commission Packet
Port Townsend Art Commission Meeting Agenda
November 6, 2025, | 3:00 p.m. | In-person and Remote Meeting
nd
The meeting will be held in Council Chambers on the 2 floor of the Historic City Hall.
The entrance is the first door on Madison Street, which opens to the elevator.
Attend in person or virtually via computer or tablet at
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Submit public comment emails to be included in the meeting record to:
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A. Call to Order
B. Roll Call
C. Approval of Agenda
D. Approval of Minutes: October 2, 2025
E. Public Comment (3 minutes per person)
Committee Business
1. Chair Update (5 mins)
a. New Commission Applicants
2. Treasurer Update (5 mins)
3. Staff Update (10 mins)
a. 1% for the Arts
b. Poet Laureate Program
c. Project updates
d. Creative District Grant
4. Poet Laureate Visit and Discussion 2026 objectives (30 min)
5. Workgroup updates 2026 objectives (60 min)
a. Art Awards
b. Public Art
c. Grants
F. Correspondence
G. Set Agenda for Next Meeting
H. Next Scheduled Meeting December 4, 2025
a. Appreciation event
I. Adjourn
Americans with Disabilities Act
In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, those requiring accommodation for this meeting
should notify the City Office at least 24 hours prior to the meeting at (360) 379-5083.
Minutes of the Port TownsendRegular Session ArtsCommission Meeting ofOctober 2, 2025
LOCATION:In-person at City Council Chambers and Remote
MEMBERS’PRESENT:Alexis Arrabito,Joshua Saunders, Sheena Uritz, andHeidi Tullman. Joe Gillard, Dan Groussman, Simon
Lynge were excused.
STAFFPRESENT:Community Services Director, Melody Sky Weaver, Public Works Director, Steve King, Arts & Culture Coordinator
Katy Goodman, andDeputy City Clerk Lonnie Mickle
Board Liaison: Ben Thomas
Community Members:
TopicMotions/Recommendation/Action
Call to Order Chair Alexis Arrabito called the meeting to order at 3:04pm.
Approval of Agenda Joshua Saunders moved to approve the agenda. Sheena
Uritz seconded. Motion passed unanimously.
Approval of Minutes forSeptember 4, 2025 Alexis Arrabito moved to acceptamended minutes. Joshua
Saunders seconded. Motion passed unanimously.
Public Comment None
Chair Update Chair Alexis ArrabitodiscussedMemorial Field art and the
community public commentsabout the art.
Treasure Update Katy Goodman gave an update on the budget.
Staff Update Katy Goodmangave astaff update. The Arts & Culture
Coordinatormentioned the Port Townsend Creative District,
the Art Walk grants, the artist resource helpdesk at the city
library, the Port Townsend Original Music Society, and
capital grants. She also mentioned items like local studio
space, murals, business support,and the Racoon Lodge
contract. The commissioners spoke about the city’s RCO
grant for a playground, local buildings, murals, and
crenshaw community.
Committee Updates
Katy Goodman gave an updateabout the Poet Laureate.
Public Works DirectorSteve Kinggave an update on the
changes to the 1 percent for the city artcode. The group
discussed how different city projects might increase the
funds. Commissioners discussed the code updates, the
TopicMotions/Recommendation/Action
process to get the 1percent, the city projects that may be
available for the 1% for the arts. Alexis Arrabitomoved to
adopt the updated 1% code and move it to the City Council.
Heidi Tullmanseconded. Motion passed unanimously.
Public Art Katy Goodman gave aquick updateon departmental
organization.
Art Awards Program Alexis Arrabito discussedthe previous awards, the future of
the awards programand the nominations foreach award.
The Commissioners and staff discussed the program.
Joshua Saundersmoved to approve the process discussed
about the Art Awards. Heidi Tullmanseconded. Motion
passed unanimously.Joshua Saundersgave an update on
his work on the program. The Commissioners and staff
discussed various aspectsof what type of awardscould be
given to the winners.
Grants Katy Goodman gave anupdateon the previous art grants
and the video project. The Commissioners discussed
funding for more marketingand the arts award. Heidi
Tullmanmoved to reappropriate $1,260 for two ads in the
local paper for the arts awards. Joshua Saundersseconded.
Motion passed unanimously.
Correspondence None
Set Agenda for Next Meeting Business Meeting.
Next Scheduled Meeting November 6, 2025.
Adjourn This meeting adjourned at 4:58pm
Port Townsend CreativeDistrict Capital Grant Project Proposal, October 2025
Funding Source: ArtsWA
Max Award: $50,000
Match Requirement: 65%
Due Date: 11/20/25
Overview:
This annual grant from ArtsWAis available for small-scale capital projects within designated
Creative District boundariesthat are ready to execute and will be completed by June 2027.
Building on the success of the Outsiders Street Art Projecton the Memorial Field fenceas a visual
representation of the importance of community-driven arts in Port Townsend’s Downtown core,
we propose a two-part project that will activate the streetscape on Monroe Street between
Washington Street and Jefferson Street. This area is important as a nexus for the Creative District,
which is connected from Downtown to Fort Worden and Uptown via Monroe Street. It is also home
to the Seamus Sims Skateparkand borders Memorial Field. Theseare two of the most youth-
focused amenities inthe communityand wouldbe especially exciting to activate with art.
The Idea:
With the goal of creating a vibrant and colorful hub for youth, visitors, and the community at large,
we wish to activatethe 200 block of Monroe Street by adding murals to the Seamus Sims
Skatepark and partnering with the County to add panels foracommunity-driven art wall to the
new Memorial Field fence. For the Skatepark, we would issue an open call for public art in early
2026 using the City’s Art in Public Places Policies and Procedures.For the Fence, we would create
a programfor artists and groups to regularly paint new murals and artwork, beginning with a
launch event in Spring 2027.
Next Steps:
Skatepark Murals
Discuss idea with stakeholders including family of
Seamus Sims, park users, and neighbors
Discuss logistics with Parks Department
Bring projectto PTAC and HPC for initial review
Determine budget and match sources including
private funds, graffiti abatement funding, park
funds, and other sources
Issue Call for Art
Community Art Wall at Memorial Field
Talk with Heather Dudley-Nolette about County’s
interest in partnering on project
Determine Costs and match options
Develop program design and administration
RUFINA C. GARAY, J.D.
Cell: (845) 264-8739
Email: mysaucylife@gmail.com
Inter-disciplinary poet and artist feasting on the beauty of Port Townsend and the Pacific Northwest.
COMMUNITY READINGS AND PUBLIC POETRY PERFORMANCES
SOUNDCHECK
Served as primary contributor and fundraiser for literary arts in a largely music and film-focused
festival. Curator of themed poetry events. Creator of “Shattering Glass,” a collective of emergent and
established poets who highlight social and environmental justice issues in order to amplify
underrepresented voices, including Black, Indigenous, and Women of Color, and diverse established
and emergent, inter-generational poets. Rufina developed and curated the events beginning in 2021 in
support of a Haida tribe youth who was outspoken about racial injustice and bullying within her school
during a community discussion of equity issues. She expressed a desire to become a public speaker and
an opportunity has been created for her annually to share poetry.
2024 “Home, Homeland,” American Legion, featuring emergent Haida and Colville poets and
established poets, Gary Copeland-Lilley and Tess Gallagher. Readings paired with a “Taste of
the Land” culinary journey in which all dishes showcased local foods and were tied to the
subject of poems (breaking of bread ritual with challah and taboon breads for a poem on Gaza),
or were among the favorite foods of featured poets. In a proof of principle on equity, both the
audience and the unsheltered within the American Legion shelter were fed quality, from-scratch
foods made by experienced chefs and skilled volunteers.
2023 “Conjuring Climate Shift,” Key City Theater, an examination of environmental and
social justice issues following the fires in Hawaii, harms to indigenous peoples, and the crisis in
care and legislation to protect children from the onslaught of school massacres.
2022 “Shattering Glass,” public debut of the ever-evolving Shattering Glass poetry collective
at Key City Theater’s outdoor venue.
2021 “Art as Resistance and Resilience,” Finnriver Haybarn, a celebration of BIWOC poets
(Boundless Writers Collective) in an intentionally safe space, post-George Floyd’s murder.
Readings paired with an arts fair.
RAW ART COLLECTIVE
2023 Spoken word performance at inaugural Raw Art Collective parade during ArtWalk on Water St.
GET LIT! SPOKANE LITERARY FESTIVAL, PIE & WHISKEY
2025 Quantum Pie poetry performance by invitation from Kate Lebo and Sam Lignon with an audience
of more than two hundred
2025 Shape of Land on air reading with Spokane’s local NPR radio station.
Centrum Open Mic night, 2023, 2024
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RUFINA C. GARAY, J.D.
Cell: (845) 264-8739
Email: mysaucylife@gmail.com
PUBLISHED AND EMERGENT WORKS
The Shape of Land, NPR satellite radio station, Spokane public radio
Quantum Pie, poem contributed to the 2025 “Pie & Whiskey” chapbook
Chapbooks in progress: Uvalde: The Gift of Sorrow, Ministry of Rage, Meditations on Love, and How I
Love the Earth
RESIDENCIES AND WRITING INTENSIVES
2025 CENTRUM Artist-in-Residency: interdisciplinary arts (visual, literary-poetry, and
culinary) residency with fellow artist on the theme of “Sunsets and the Tao,” including
exploration of the I Ching, Tao de Ching, mark-making, and brushstrokes.
2024 CENTRUM Work Trade: Culinary arts support of Pie & Whiskey Event.
2023 CENTRUM Writers Conference: Generative Workshop on collage approach to writing
with E.J. Cohen
2023 CENTRUM Artist-in-Residency: interdisciplinary arts work focused on original art
derived from original poetry.
2022 CENTRUM Writers-in-Residence: Work-trade culinary arts exchange featuring original
recipes and hors d’oeuvres for emerging artists’ reception banquet provided for the benefit of
Boundless Writers Collective (local BIPOC women writers), week-long, writing retreat).
Food memoir revision intensives with Kim Suhr of Red Oak Writing and Carolyn Kott-
Washbourne, each as editors.
Imprint Poetry Workshop with Gary Copeland-Lilley.
EDUCATION
Amherst College, Amherst, MA B.A.
Russian Language and Literature and English Literature; double major.
Honors: Cum Laude, Russian text for thesis: Nadezhda Mandelstam’s memoirs of witness and
poetic prose (in Russian) entitled Vospomananiia, a chronicle of life with renowned poet, Osip
Mandelstam during his political persecution by Stalin and their mutual exile.
Student Government President: Quelled political and racial tensions post-student-takeover in
response to the Rodney King verdict through creation of speaker’s panel for campuswide
facilitated discussion of diverse political, social, and economic viewpoints and experiences from
students and faculty.
Columbia University School of Law, New York, NY J.D.
Honors: Tony Patino Fellow, awarded $24,000 in tuition for leadership, community service, and
academic achievement.
Mentee of Walter J. Gellhorn, professor emeritus and mentor to Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
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RUFINA C. GARAY, J.D.
Cell: (845) 264-8739
Email: mysaucylife@gmail.com
New England Culinary Institute, Montpelier, VT (2004-2006) A.O.S.
Honors: Graduate with distinction, special interest in pasta-making
Classes: A.M. and P.M. Cafeteria, Catering, Garde Manager, Nutrition, Pastries, Chef’s
Table, The Pub, Ice-carving, Soups, Stocks, and Sauces, Meat Fabrication, La Brioche
baking, Wines.
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
Port Townsend Food Co-op, Port Townsend, WA (2024-Current)
Board President
Oversee policy governance for successful operations of a local, organic and natural grocery store.
Lead monitoring process over controversial activities in highly racialized and publicized conflict to
repair board and community relationships
Oversee and manage board equity and inter-cultural differences education.
Port Townsend High School, BIPOC Student Union Workshops, chef and program manager
“Tracing Cultural Identity through Cuisine,” an interdisciplinary series of asynchronous (due to
COVID) culinary arts and poetry workshops to support BIPOC and LGBTQ youth through celebratory
cake art decorating, maki and sushi making, Filipino food dinner, discussion of battling racial
microaggressions using different varieties of rice as metaphor, and writing of Sartori poems and haikus.
Partnered with Farmers Market and Department of Public Health with funding support from a public
health grant.
2023-2024 First Night Food Vendor for The Production Alliance, post-pandemic support of
community culture and arts production company, pairing food to music of AVE, a Filipino hip-hop, folk
serenade band through a Filipino menu of foods for New Year’s Eve.
Jefferson County Soccer Club, fundraising board member
Fort Worden, former Chief Strategy Officer and pre-pandemic nonprofit partner liaison and host of
Legacy of Leadership Walk in which citywide leaders were invited to walk on the Chetzemoka Trail
and learn stories of Chief Chetzemoka from S’Klallam tribal elder, Celeste Dybeck and Jo Blair of the
Chinook nation.
FOOD ADVOCACY, PROGRAMS, AND SERVICE
Climate Action Committee Food Resilience Work Group: Participant in volunteer working group to
analyze proposed comprehensive plan through a food security and climate aware lens.
Food System Resiliency Task Force: 15-organization, food security task force during pandemic.
Urban Gateway Gardens: Created school garden in urban Atlanta, GA for underprivileged school.
GA Avenue Community Ministries/Urban Recipes: Board member, food sovereignty focus.
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RUFINA C. GARAY, J.D.
Cell: (845) 264-8739
Email: mysaucylife@gmail.com
PUBLIC SPEAKING, LANGUAGES, AND PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
Suffolk University Business School: Initial Public Offerings
Kennesaw State University: Change management
Women’s Leadership Conference: Conflict Management, sponsored by UW-Milwaukee
Client workshops: MBTI® Personality Types and Finding a Public Speaking Comfort Zone
Washington Nonprofits education series: Mindfulness and Accountability
Harvard Kennedy School: Women in Power, fireside chat with Alicia Basuuk
Working knowledge of Russian and French; basic knowledge of Italian.
Current Associations: WA Bar Association, GA Bar Association, Jefferson County Bar Association
Toastmasters, Sheboygan, WI
FoodLove: The Space Between Terroir and the Tao of Food, a podcast and host on a mission to help
people love food more and love more people through food.
CULINARY ADVENTURES
Castello de Real: Worked culinary stage, learned from-scratch Italian cuisine and Slow Food cooking.
Toscana Saporita Cooking School: Attended Tuscan immersion culinary course with Chef Sandra Lotti
Cucina Con Vista: Attended Tuscan cooking school with Chef Elena Mattei and assisted in private class.
Biltmore Estate Restaurants: Biltmore Dining Room Restaurant, Deerpark banquets, Biltmore Bistro,
Stable Cafe.
Whole Foods Marketing Team Member and Demo Chef: Managed demos and vendor contacts,
assisted with advertising copy, farm partnerships, and community classes.
Via Elisa: Interim investor and artisan pasta production staff.
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1. attribute of grace, benevolence, or compassion, especially (in Kabbalism) as one of the
2026 Workplan Port Townsend Arts Commission
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PTAC 2026 Workplan
- Enact next steps to update the1% for Art program and City code, so that this
mechanism can be truly effective in funding public art projects year over year,
establishing PT as a city where public art thrives and can be enjoyed by all.
- Protect and expand -enriching public art now
and into the future. Use the 2025 Public Art plan to support maintenance, enhancement,
and promotion of
- Continue and grow our programs, including but not
limited to, the Poet Laureate initiative, Arts Awards, and Grants, as well as leveraging new
resources and partnerships to make measurable progress towards goals set forth in the
Port Townsend Creative District Arts & Culture Plan.
Some notes from yesterday's meeting. Thanks Joshua and Dan, it was great!
1% Arts Code
Status Update -- discussed updates and how to achieve maximum flexibility.
Action Item: Review and add any notes to updated language by 8/27
1% for the Arts Draft Code Update
Going to Council Oct 6, Katy to invite Joshua, Dan, Alexis
Public Art Plan
Maintenance -- idea to assemble a "maintenance kit" with appropriate supplies and
instructions based on 2025 PAP for the City team to use. Tabled for next meeting
when we can spend time creating supply list and other resources.
Joshua and Dan will compile supply needs and instructions so Katy can acquire supplies to
put in kit
Boundary Marker Re-siting
Action Item: Dan and Joshua to do site visit to Adams Street and recommend
possible sites to Main Street so they can compare to development schematics
(also emailed Main Street about this)
Katy will circle back with Michael and PTMS
Adams Street Park
Art Markers
Re-siting plan
Action Item: bring ideas for new sites to PTAC meeting and solicit feedback
from Commission.
- Point Hudson
- Library
- Golf Park
- PTAC ideas
accession process. They were acquired in a weird way. What does it
in the first place? Is it
basically a donation that should be vetted? More data? Legal? Pages 6-7 Procedures and
Policies
Restoration plan
o Begin consultation with Artist about painting, relocating, etc.
Accessioning
Tabled for after other steps
Street Painting - Katy gave update, trying to get on same page with Public Works to move
this idea forward. Considering a grant to combine basic street painting with wayfinding for
CD and connected streets initiatives. General notion was that PTAC's role was limited to
reviewing actual proposals once submitted.
Murals - discussion around numerous questions:
Lifespan?
Who owns it once done?
Private property issues?
PA examples?
Permission?
Art Wall concept possible locations of interest:
-Skate Park
-Memorial Field
Action Item: Katy (and others if so desired) to research successful programs in
other cities.
Raccoon Lodge
Status Update - trying to connect with Kevin Mason. Dan will also try
Katy has letter and contract and is going send and follow up and Dan might too
Other topics:
Education/Outreach - topics of interest:
Launch moment maybe with new 1% acquisition or other big moment?
o Map
o Public Presentation
-Tabled for next agenda
Collaborating with other public entities
What is the goal?
What are outcomes are PTAC seeking?
1% meeting and Public art update schedule annually (possibly October)
Tabled for lack of time
Applications SubmittedAmount RequestedTotal of 2025 ApplicationsTotal of 2025 $ RequestsAverage2026 Allocation
13 $48,660 40.63%49.31%44.97%$13,000.00
10 $29,150 31.25%29.54%30.39%$10,000.00
9 $17,875 28.13%18.11%23.12%$7,000.00
32$98,685.00$30,000.00
WEBVTT
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Council Chambers: That way, that way people can see it.
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Council Chambers: Hey, y'all! Welcome! Okay, so with much more than a
quorum now, we're going to call our meeting to order at 3.02 p.m,
Thursday, November 6th.
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00:00:19.640 --> 00:00:36.160
Council Chambers: There's no more seats, so no one else… No, there's
seats. There's too many tables! If someone needs to sit here, I can move.
Yeah, no, I think we're good.
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Dan Groussman: Lonnie, just to chime in so the owl's not working for the…
for the meeting…
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Council Chambers: Yeah, if I could show it to you, the owl sitting
exactly where it is, it's all connected, but for some reason, the video's
not coming at.
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Dan Groussman: Okay, alright.
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Council Chambers: It's gonna be audio only, so,
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Council Chambers: as we do get into discussion, I would just ask that,
maybe you preface your statement just saying your name, like, Alexa's
here, chiming in to call the meeting to order. So, we're down video, but
we're gonna have audio for this meeting, so…
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Council Chambers: And if we flicker out into darkness, it's because
there's a storm.
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Council Chambers: So, hello everyone, welcome to November's meeting of
4000 Arts Commission. Let's start with, roll call. So for roll call, just
state your name, and if you're not a member of the Commission, how you
are connected to the Commission. So, I'll start, and we'll go to the
break. Alexis Ceravito, share.
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Council Chambers: Katie Goodman, City Staff Liaison.
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Council Chambers: Heidi Tolman, Commissioner.
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Council Chambers: Simon Lynch, Commissioner? Ben Thomas, City Council
Liaison.
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Council Chambers: Joshua Saunders, Commissioner.
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Council Chambers: Melanie Musinski, new commissioner?
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Council Chambers: Ravina Garai, I was invited as, 2026 and 2020. Yay, so
that's our roll call, so… oh, and…
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Dan Groussman: And I'm Dan Graussman, I'm a commissioner.
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Council Chambers: Huzzah! We're here at full! What a good news! Before I
move into a, approval of the agenda, while we're still on roll, just want
to highlight that Melanie is our newest commissioner. Thank you so much
for joining us, Melanie.
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Council Chambers: It's a little bit drinking from the fire hose in the
first few meetings, so no pressure. I listen and enjoy, you know, get the
hang of things, and hopefully the city's provided you with plenty of
documentation
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Council Chambers: We've got more of that on the way.
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Council Chambers: Okay, we have binders and all kinds of fun things.
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Council Chambers: And, our sad news today is that Joe Gillard has,
submitted his resignation, due to some work commitment, scheduling
conflicts, it sounds like. So we want to give a real round of applause
and thanks to Joe for 5 years of service.
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00:03:08.859 --> 00:03:32.319
Council Chambers: because of that work commitment, Conflo team was able
to join us today for his final meeting, but, 5 years of service, at
least. I feel like it was longer than 5 years, but maybe, he would know.
And, yeah, so, we wish Joe well. There's some healthy, renewed interest
in Arts Commission. We have applicants in the pipeline, so, I'm…
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Council Chambers: optimistic that we'll have our seats fully seated by
the end of this year, or could. And… that'll be a good thing for all of
us. The only gap that… not the only gap.
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Council Chambers: Joe leaves in Joe's side, yeah, but, for the purposes
of this body, he did occupy the role of treasurer, so,
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Council Chambers: Which is a pretty light lift, to be honest. We have a
city staff liaison, clerks, and
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Council Chambers: the entire finance department at the city to help us
keep track of our spending and expenditures, but if you are interested in
filling that role, taking that, on, and reporting back,
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Council Chambers: the monthly treasure report, which is basically just
letting us know what the ledger says. It's a, it's a rule that's
available, so keep that in mind. And then let's move into approving the
agenda.
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Council Chambers: Is there anything we want to add, omit?
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Council Chambers: Age one looks good to everyone.
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Council Chambers: That looks good. Okay, love to hear it. Would anyone
like to make a motion regarding the…
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Council Chambers: Thanks, Joshua. Joshua, motioning to approve the
agenda. Do we have a second?
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Council Chambers: I'll second it. Hi, you told me in the second. All in
favor of approving today's agenda, just raise your hand.
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Council Chambers: Beautiful, unanimous. Thank you, Dan.
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Council Chambers: Cool, so then we can roll into the October minutes. Was
there anything that looked like it needed amendment or editing on the
October minutes?
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Council Chambers: Scroll down to those so you guys can… Part of it, at
least.
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Council Chambers: So long ago, remember when Steve came in there? October
was a long time ago.
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Council Chambers: Anyone like to move… to approve them?
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Council Chambers: Thank you, Joshua. Another second,
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Council Chambers: To approve the minutes for October.
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Council Chambers: You want to second that motion? I'll second it. We're
stuck there for a second. Any, decline to approve the minutes, or not
wanting to, or abstain?
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Council Chambers: Or are you frozen?
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Council Chambers: Dan? He's there. Oh, okay. Did you, did you vote to
approve?
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Dan Groussman: Sorry, yes, I… sorry, I'm trying to wake up. I'll abstain,
because I wasn't there. Thank you.
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Council Chambers: So, all in favor except Dan will abstain.
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Council Chambers: And that passes, so the meds are ensuring forever. Now
we can move into public comment. There does not appear to be anyone in
the pews who would like to make public comments.
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Council Chambers: Anyone online?
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Council Chambers: No, it's online. Beautiful. All right, now we can get
data to committee business! I'm gonna keep my chair update really short
and sweet, just to say that we have applicants in the pipeline who are,
intrigued about us and would like to join, so hopefully they're listening
online or, pulling up this meeting to listen to in their…
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Council Chambers: Their available time,
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Council Chambers: we've invited them all to come to our meetings to see
what we're all about, and, to fill out that online application.
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Council Chambers: And… as our newest commissioner.
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Council Chambers: How many applicants did we have? There were 3 total
people, 3 who are in the… in the exploration phase.
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Council Chambers: Melanie, would you like to give a brief introduction of
Susich? Sure, so my name's Melanie Musinski. I've lived in Port Townsend
for about 11 years now, and
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Council Chambers: I work as a business systems analyst for a marketing
agency.
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Council Chambers: So I work remote off here. But I have a lifelong
passion for art, and I do, like, acrylic and watercolor painting,
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Council Chambers: So, I saw, you know, I get the newsletter every week,
so that's how I heard about it and got mine.
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Council Chambers: come and check it out. It's been a blast. Cool, thank
you. I really appreciate you coming to our, I think it was an October
meeting? Yeah, blast. It's a good way to get a feel for our activities,
so…
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Council Chambers: speaking to the ether, anyone who's listening now or
later, coming to be here in person is a great way to get a feel for the
activities of the Commission and how it functions.
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Council Chambers: how fun and cool we are, so… It's not always exactly
as…
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Council Chambers: what it is that she does, so you don't see it being…
Yeah. And we're more fun and more cool in person, so… Yeah, people can't
even see us. That's right, not today.
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Council Chambers: Okay, well, I think that's kind of it. I'm gonna ask
Katie to step in, maybe as our,
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Council Chambers: We'll talk to Treasurer today? Sure. Treasurer update.
I don't think there's really any major, things to mention, like.
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Council Chambers: Vis-a-vis the budget. We don't have the…
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Council Chambers: The 2026 budget is still going through, like, the
process. It hasn't been approved, yet, which is typical for this time of
year, so we don't 100% know what the PTAC's 2026 budget will look like
yet, but for 2025, all our grants have been expended. We have a little
bit of funding still,
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Council Chambers: like, unallocated for the arts awards, which are gonna
happen in 2026, but we're going to use some of that for promotion and
advertising, like creating the physical awards themselves.
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Council Chambers: what's a new thing that just happened, which we'll get
into a little bit more, I guess, with the 1% for the Arts update, is that
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Council Chambers: my hope and understanding is that if there is some
funding left over from T-Tax budget this year, it will go into the
Municipal Arts Fund instead of going back into the general fund, which
means that, like, that's…
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Council Chambers: that money will be used… to continue to be used to
support the arts in the city, which is great. Again, that's not a
hundred… I don't 100% quote beyond that, but I believe that that is the
idea.
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Council Chambers: That's what I got, sorry. No real numbers. No true
numbers, but that's what I got for the Treasurer's update right now.
Yeah. Cool. And then I can roll right into this update. Okay, I will do
that. First of all, I want to apologize, Melanie, I thought I was going
to have your onboarding package ready, and I just did not have time to
pull it together this week, but I will…
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Council Chambers: have it to you, and I will not make you wait until the
next… I'll get it to you before… a month from now, I will not make you
wait that long for it.
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Council Chambers: But I've just been running around a little bit,
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Council Chambers: For the staff… my staff update, yeah, so the exciting
thing is that we… the 1% for the arts and the new municipal code language
has gone to City Council, it has been approved, it is now new PTMC
language, this new Port Township Municipal Code language.
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Council Chambers: And that has been something that PTAC has been working
on for a long, long time, so I think it's really exciting for this
commission that that made it through that.
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Council Chambers: winding.
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Council Chambers: process. Unanimous vote by Council. Yeah. Oh, love to
hear that. Yeah, unanimous. Yeah, yeah. Really, yeah, people were very
enthusiastic about seeing the city, you know.
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Council Chambers: invest in his commitment to the arts and understanding
the importance of that. I mean, it wasn't the news, we've been talking
about it for, I don't know, 4 years now, basically. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah. So…
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Council Chambers: That's great, and the new language is in this packet. I
think it has definitely gone through PTAC already, so hopefully
everyone's had a chance to look at it in the past, but just the final
thing with the mayor's signature and everything, it's in there, so it's
kind of fun. And, the,
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Council Chambers: The other piece of, excitement from, like, the City
Council perspective was at the Poet Laureate program.
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Council Chambers: is, now also enshrined going forward. It had been just
created as a pilot two-year program, and because it was successful and
the community has really embraced it, the Council chose to make it an
ongoing program, so now we will have a new Poet Laureate every two years.
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Council Chambers: for perpetuity, unless something, you know, changes. So
that's also, I think, an awesome thing for PTAC, because I know that the
commission… some commissioners who are here and some who are not on the
commission anymore have worked really hard to get that program going, and
the fact that it's now sort of testing is pretty cool.
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Council Chambers: And what that looks like, what the City Council
approved is also in this packet, so you can see what that resolution
looks like. And we're really excited to have Ruffina here, to… who has
been selected as the 26… year 2026 and year 2027 Poe Laureate. It's
pretty cool.
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Council Chambers: I just wanted to give… I thought it would make sense to
just give some sort of general project updates that aren't necessarily
100% under the PTAC rubric, but would be good things for people to know
about, because there may be arts things are going on in town.
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Council Chambers: That people might confuse with PTAC's work, or that
might ask you about, and that kind of thing.
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Council Chambers: I think we may have talked about this
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Council Chambers: already last meeting, as I said, it seems like a long
time ago, so forgive me if I'm repeating myself, but, SoundCheck, which
is a Crazy District program, the Creative District is not part of the
city, that's happening at the end of February of 2026.
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Council Chambers: the Arts Commission piece of that is that the Port Town
Arts Awards would kick off that festival, which I think is going to be
really exciting, but just in general, that's happening. I think… I feel
like we're starting… I'm starting to talk to people about it more and
that kind of thing, so it might be something people ask you about or want
to know about. Is that one word or two? Subject is… I've been… I've been
using one word, so…
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Council Chambers: It's, February 27th. It's gonna be March 1st.
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Council Chambers: And the other thing is that, that has kind of come to
my attention that feels like people might have questions about it once
this happens, is, like.
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Council Chambers: I think it might be going up at the end of November,
I'm not exactly sure when, but the PT Main Street has commissioned, like,
a light
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Council Chambers: feature, like a whale feature that's temporarily going
up in Adams Street Park as part of their winter lighting program. I think
it's gonna be pretty cool, and I think it's gonna add a lot to, like, the
atmosphere, like, sort of the winter fun.
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Council Chambers: atmosphere downtown, but in case people are like,
where'd that come from? Who made it? Why? Let's direct them to Main
Street in the heart of their winter lighting program.
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Council Chambers: The other thing I want to see, is that Adams Street
Park or Taylor Street Plaza? Adam Street Park. Oh, interesting, yeah.
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Dan Groussman: Is that a temporary or a permanent structure?
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Council Chambers: Temporary.
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Council Chambers: It's just up during the same window that they keep up
their winter lighting, which I believe might be through February, but it
might be slightly shorter than that. I don't… I don't remember the dates
exactly.
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Council Chambers: But yeah, definitely temporary. Who's doing it?
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Council Chambers: I don't remember.
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Council Chambers: Person who makes… metal.
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Council Chambers: Yes, a local metal worker is, like, creating a… sort
of, like, the bones of it, and then they're covering it in some sort of
translucent material, and it'll glow. Yeah. Yeah. I know, we should have
made Natalie stay. She's actually gonna answer all these questions.
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Council Chambers: Finally, I wanted to, and I'm gonna go ahead and scroll
down for this one… discuss a grant opportunity that the Creative District
has.
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Council Chambers: for a small capital project. This is a grant that's
available only to creative districts, of which there's, like.
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Council Chambers: 20-some-odd in the States.
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Council Chambers: that… yeah, that you can use to, like, do something
within the Creative District's geographical boundary to, like, add a
physical element. Port Townsend had gotten two of these in the past. The
first one was to make the art markers, and the second one was to do the
lighting at Tyler Street Plaza, so that, like, those very light kind of
pole things and stuff.
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Council Chambers: To make that a better event space for music and
performance and stuff like that.
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Council Chambers: I am planning to apply for a grant. This is actually a
little bit of an old idea. I am planning to apply for this grant just for
this skate park mural project. The idea is to
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Council Chambers: great murals on the Seamus Simpsons Skate Park. We're
hoping to also make a community art wall to replace part of Memorial
Field Fence. We haven't been able to get in touch with the county, like,
just the timing isn't gonna work out. And as I've been talking to
artists, it actually turns out that a much… a pretty big chunk of the
budget will be used just to do the murals. Like, if you… it's a lot of
space, and
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Council Chambers: The cost per square foot for, like, mural artists is,
like.
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Council Chambers: $30, which seems very reasonable, but adds up quickly
when you have 1,700 square feet of space to cover. So we're just going to
focus on the skate park, simplifies things a little bit, city-owned, that
kind of stuff. And we'll, you know, we won't know if we get the funding
or not until February.
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Council Chambers: But we will want to go through the public art process
with the Arts Commission to find artists to do that project and that kind
of stuff, so we'll go through the whole…
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Council Chambers: PCCC plan, or whatever, to,
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Council Chambers: No. A triple D, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
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Council Chambers: So I just kind of wanted to give everyone a little bit
of a heads up that that project is in the works, and obviously once we
secure… if we secure the funding, we will talk about the way that it
becomes actually part of, like, the public art plan that is under the
auspices of the Commission.
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Council Chambers: But if anyone has any questions about it right now, we
can definitely talk about it.
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Council Chambers: But it didn't feel like worth going into super big
detail if we don't even get the money, so… but I… if people want. But,
this overview…
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Council Chambers: is in your packet. Again, the art wall part is off for
now, which I think is actually probably good, but I'm really excited. I
think this… I think this mural piece.
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Council Chambers: Could be a really good way to start opening that
conversation about how we bring more of this kind of work into
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Council Chambers: you know, into portions, into our built environment,
so… Love it, yeah.
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Council Chambers: I think… is that all? That was the only update? I think
it is.
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Council Chambers: The application for the Arts Wall grant, has it… have
we turned it? No, it is due on the 20th, and I think my understanding is
actually that has to come before Council, before we apply for it, because
it's…
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Council Chambers: I don't know, city business or whatever, and has a
budgetary component. So, I think that the idea is that we're going to try
to bring it to Council on the 17th.
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Council Chambers: And hopefully they'll say, like, this is great, go for
it, and then we'll press submit. Hopefully, yeah.
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Council Chambers: Yeah, and I've talked to several different
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Council Chambers: people, several different muralists, and gotten, sort
of, feedback and quotes and stuff like that, so I feel pretty good about,
like, the… what we've put together so far.
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Council Chambers: But, you know, as the project actually rolls out,
should we get funding, there'll be a lot more details to work out.
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Council Chambers: But I think this week! What happened? Thankful.
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Council Chambers: Alright, thank you so much. If there's no questions on
the staff updates portion, we will move into our conversation with
Regina.
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Council Chambers: Hello, everyone. Thank you for being here. Thanks,
thanks for inviting me. Yeah, this is, kind of only the second time we've
ever had this kind of conversation, so… It's new for all of us, really.
And the first time we've had this, like, the welcome conversation was two
years ago now, so, yeah. So, welcome news for it. Okay.
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Council Chambers: Right, right, right. As I was riding up the elevator.
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Council Chambers: I actually felt nervous. Because I had no idea what you
were going to ask me,
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Council Chambers: you know, it's just really an honor. I saw Connor's
work. Can you announce her name? Oh, yeah, my name is Tina Garai.
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Council Chambers: And I, have been living in Fort Camden, I've also lived
on the peninsula. I came in 2018, and
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Council Chambers: you know, we fell in love with the place. I came partly
because of the farmer's market. So I have an interdisciplinary background
in culinary arts, and…
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Council Chambers: poetry now, but I started writing poetry on these long
commutes, and it wasn't even yet poetry again, so it was sort of like
spoken word, you know, things were inspiring, along with some love. And
then I started taking,
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Council Chambers: classes, like, at Imprint, and then at Centrum's
Writers' Conferences. So I feel largely, cultivated by our community, so
it really feels like an opportunity to give back, and I think because
I've been…
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Council Chambers: you know, supported so strongly by this community, and
oddly, by being I… I didn't even call myself a poet, and somebody called
me that when I get asked.
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Council Chambers: You know, so… so it feels good, it feels good to step
into this and to try to kind of think about it as, like, passing the
torch in the Olympics, because Connor, he did so much, and really
welcomed in the community to every single event in such a beautiful way.
So, my hope is to kind of
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Council Chambers: work with that kind of integrity, and I do really love,
kind of teaching youth, some simple formats in, poetry, so even with or
without this, because I didn't know this was happening, I had already
talked to the library, and, on the 12th, I'm gonna do,
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Council Chambers: I'm reading my brother's book, his children's book, and
I get illustrated it, but there are many templates in it, and so we're
going to be making nets out of homemade Play-Doh, and, you know, kids are
going to have an opportunity to play with words, right? And have this
experience with poetry that is maybe,
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Council Chambers: less academic, but more, foundational to how you feel
about things, and, you know, having self-expression on a daily basis. So
making it more of a practice than some kind of
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Council Chambers: Not to say that they're like…
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Council Chambers: high art form, because that is not where I come from. I
don't come from… I mean, I do… I have some background in literature, with
an English literature and Russian literature, double major in college,
and…
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Council Chambers: in Russian literature, you don't even get to read the
literature until you study the poetry, because it's so ingrained in
culture that, like, you have to know that, because it's almost like a
rite of passage, like, you have to have memorized, Pushkin, you know, and
then be able to recite it by memory, so…
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Council Chambers: So that's, it's been an interesting journey, and I feel
like the opportunity Poet Lawyers gives me an opportunity to really bring
strong programming. So, found check was something that, Dominic Svornitch
engaged at Farrah.
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Council Chambers: brought to my attention when it first started, and they
said, we'd love to have a literary event because of the, sort of,
framework of the Freedom Arts District. And so the first year.
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Council Chambers: we were in the parking lot of Key City theater, and I
was like, wow, we're actually speaking public, this is fantastic. The
next year, we made it indoors. Like, a big win. And then after that, we
actually had a planned event in the American region, and it was all…
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Council Chambers: Funded by, like, sponsored in the community.
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Council Chambers: And each year, we pick something like social justice
and environmental justice oriented, and I envisioned the collective of
poets, like, rock band, and want to make it, like, it's fun, and people
want to, you know, listen. And so it's always been emerging and
established poets.
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Council Chambers: And so the last one we did, it was called Homeland
Homeland.
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Council Chambers: And so the variety of poems were sort of focused on,
like, really relevant and of-the-moment issues. And so it was great
because, Gary Copeland Lilly came, and Ted Gallagher came, and he read,
with these young, poets, some of whom were Indigenous, and another one
who was, like, a long-standing, multi-generational family from the
peninsula, like a fisherwoman.
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Council Chambers: and healthcare worker, and it just was really fabulous,
and we also did food with it. So, I still plan to do at least one event
with some food component, to really feature things of the land, because
it's really the land and the sea that inspire
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Council Chambers: a lot of the ways in which I think about
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Council Chambers: poetry, like, things I want to share, and share with
people who already have the same, you know, or different ideas. And I
really want to do a pie event, that is about political unity, regardless
of the vision. So, and I've seen ways of doing that in other places. I
did a poem in,
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Council Chambers: Spokane, for the Get Life Festival, and, with Kate
Eagle, and that was really pretty neat. Might not know these folks, but
they're faculty who keep coming to mentor and supporting many of us here,
so, yeah.
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Council Chambers: You want to talk a little bit, Christina, just about
some of, like, specific ideas? I know you have, like, a lot of ideas, or,
like, the specific things that you… Yeah. Like, about this, like, you
know, how can PTAC, like, support you and, like, things you want to
accomplish as… Yeah.
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Council Chambers: I think one of the things is to help with, the
networking, because I don't know… I mean, we have so many poets.
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Council Chambers: And I really would love to provide that sort of broader
support, and include a night where there's maybe an open bike, because we
have had
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Council Chambers: through Connor's work and all these other people is,
you know, there aren't so many people ready to read. And so I think
figuring out how to do something like that and when to do it, and
balancing the calendar so that the pacing of
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Council Chambers: you know, outreach programs like that are balanced with
whatever specific commitments there are. So I think I need help with
figuring those things out. And then distribution lists. I think I can
create, like, the blurb about whatever the thing is that's going to
happen. I think I can do that pretty fast.
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Council Chambers: I think I need to build a page, probably, for the two
years that just focuses on poetry as a practice and community. I have,
from two of the BoudCheck events.
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Council Chambers: two poems, or maybe one full poem that was written in
the collective at one of the events by the audience, and I'd like to put
that in writing somewhere, and maybe start to collect, like, a chapbook
of these poems that have happened, and
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Council Chambers: have, like, a sound checkbook of sorts. And then,
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Council Chambers: And then with, specific events, like, either during
soundcheck, if it fits in with it, or maybe as a prelude before it, just
a couple nights of
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Council Chambers: poetry and visual arts, specifically, that would come
under this umbrella, called Sound and Light, because in the wintertime, I
think that's such a good thing to focus on,
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Council Chambers: But maybe drilling down a little deeper on, like,
sound, because over the last couple of years, my partner has introduced
me to vinyl in a way that I never understood, with, like, the
understanding of, like, the headroom on sound, and I feel like there's
some people with really great sound systems, and to be embraced by sound
and frequency, I think, can be an amazing process. Like, maybe, like,
somewhere like Raven Shadow recording studio?
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Council Chambers: I mean, I… I have to deny her…
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Council Chambers: to have, like, poetry played over a sound system, too,
right? So that people can be immersed in it as well. And, as part of
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Council Chambers: get lit festival, they had, like, a podcast that, was
letting poets come in and, you know, read a poem, and even children, and
then, they picked the ones that they wanted to broadcast. So I would love
to see something like that, and have it go through KPTC, and really make
it happen. I have been in touch with Paul Stevens' team, and he has done
Fantastic Fungi, and really
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Council Chambers: some amazing things. And through my, work with the food
co-op, I went to this thing called the Prevender Conference and met his
marketing person. And he has, a book that came out in June, and that,
that book is about psychedelics,
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Council Chambers: But, you know, with mushrooms, like, thematically, it's
around the collective community and the myriads of ways of communicating
with each other. I have one poem that talks about, mushrooms, like, the
collective, of mushrooms, like, in the undergrowth. And… and so, I would
like to have the literature and the film part go with that. I've talked
to George Marie already.
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Council Chambers: About trying to get the license for that movie.
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Council Chambers: And I also would like to help Rose theater. I think
they've gone through some challenges in the pandemic pivot, and, you
know, they've had equipment sales, communities come around us, but if
Paul is willing to come and sign his book, that that event would be at
the Rose Theater. He might…
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Council Chambers: participate virtually, and I just have to… I can't
believe I forgot that it's being recorded. Nobody talks about this. Well,
and I peached into it, so I know I'm getting further down the pipeline,
because
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Council Chambers: I had the person I met at the conference, and now she's
passed it off to the person who probably will make it happen, make it
happen. And so, my next step is to take all the pictures I've collected,
how beautiful it is, and then have the disclaimer, it's not quite like
this in February. But it is quiet, and it's highly intimidating, and so I
think if I find it in the right place, and if I can find something when
we're up.
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Council Chambers: for a nice night and some food, I think it could be
glorious, because I think he prefers this kind of interaction with the
community that actually is ready to receive him. I think it was 3 years
ago, the film festival tried to get his film here with him in person. So
I know that there are people at the, you know, in the QUF congregation
who do a lot of this kind of environmental type of
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Council Chambers: you know, kind of culture building, that wanting to
come. So I feel like there's enough partnership we can create to have
that happen.
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Council Chambers: Yeah, and then Rena Priest said she would come. She is
one of my instructors. She didn't say she cared when. She said, invite
me, and I'm like, okay, good. So I've got one, and then I just wrote to
Carrie and asked him if that's the film again, too. And then I have a
couple young people that I know I'd like to come back.
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Council Chambers: Organizer reading, and he might have been at an earlier
round of sound check.
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Council Chambers: And then see all the things.
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Council Chambers: What?
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Council Chambers: First of all, you can all see why we're… the panel is
really excited. Yeah. The mutual excitement for what you can do with
poetry. Creative and amazing plot.
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Council Chambers: But I'm curious, like, so one of the things that Connor
did, at least his first year, was to
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Council Chambers: go to occasional city council meetings with Rapo, to
kind of start the meetings off. He's basically doing it once a quarter,
more or less, just to kind of…
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Council Chambers: Yeah, I'd love to do that. Yeah, I would love that,
and, you know, I have to say, I haven't been to that many meetings. I
think they've conflicted with some other things I've had, but I will make
the… if I know… Yeah, I can do that.
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Council Chambers: Yeah, and if you want to throw out themes to me that
you feel would be, like, exciting. You can still have themes that you
like. I just throw out themes, you know, because I think it's funny.
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Council Chambers: Yeah, check in with the mayor might be kind of cool.
Okay, yeah.
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Council Chambers: Yeah.
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Council Chambers: It's good to, yeah, just kind of check in with… because
often there's, like, special proclamations and things like that, like,
for… there was one for, like, Indigenous Peoples Day that was actually
really beautiful, and, like, that was, you know, it'd be cool to, like,
kind of figure out how to dovetail some of those things. Yeah. I don't
know in advance, I just show up at the meeting, and I'm like, oh, cool! I
can know in advance. And I think Shelly would
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Council Chambers: would be willing to be, it would be on the farmers.
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Council Chambers: Yeah, I was just gonna flag that, Katie does have a
soundcheck
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Council Chambers: group, like, so maybe some touch plates there to bridge
some of those soundtrack ideas. Yeah, yeah.
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Council Chambers: Totally some literary, and…
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Council Chambers: And, Lee, Melanie? Yeah. And I think, yes, and you
know, Melanie couldn't be here because she has some other conflicts, but
it's also, worth… it's also, I think, important to mention that from a
program standpoint, the Queensville Library has supported Connor's
programming for the last two years.
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Council Chambers: And those have mostly been the poetry for the time
being events, you know, which have happened at the library, but it's… I
think it can be more… it can be expanded from that in different
directions, if so desired. And,
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Council Chambers: again, we don't know what our 20… our next year's
budget will be yet, but there… we did request some project funding for
the laureate beyond just the second incident with some…
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Council Chambers: You know, because we're like, oh, I want to make these
things happen, and I think sometimes it costs us, so… yeah.
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Council Chambers: So those are, those are resources that we can, you
know, kind of get into the nitty-gritty of our budgeting. Okay.
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Council Chambers: Yeah.
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Council Chambers: And then I don't know that we have, like, an
expectation or hope of, like, the core business feedback, but, like, we
would love to hear from you as you feel…
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Council Chambers: Comfort, or available, or have something to share with
us, or just want to, like, sort of keep the,
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Council Chambers: It keeps us, you know, keep the fact that we have a
poll right now. And not something that we're just, like, doing every two
years. They're happening that we're not connected to, you know? So I just
extend that invitation anytime soon.
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Council Chambers: Or maybe just have our meetings on your calendar,
however, whatever system you want to come up with, so that you might
check in with us how we have it.
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Council Chambers: Or giving you the, you know, the respect and
appreciation that will feel free for the next two years. I appreciate
that.
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Council Chambers: Read some poetry. Read some poetry right now. I would
really love that. About a year ago, I had a goal of bringing, like, and
Lindsay and I have talked about this overturn, of having kind of, like, a
home for meetings to, like, either open or close our meetings.
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Council Chambers: So, keep…
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Council Chambers: some… well, you know, keep the motive in mind, so if
there's… if you're interested in partnering with that, like, sending a
poem, it doesn't have to be your own, or just a thematic. Oh, okay.
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Council Chambers: That would be amazing. Welcome anytime. Tommy can be
our official, reader. Or if you'd like to listen, I can read, so you can
close your eyes. I really like? Is that Joseph Baderik usually reads
whenever he goes anywhere? Do you guys… do you always tell him that he
reads almost everywhere? I want to hear it, though. Just, like, of the
times.
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Council Chambers: And he's one of the poets at Beth Connor's program next
week. Yeah, I think he's amazing.
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Council Chambers: And he travels between candidates.
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Council Chambers: Oh, is that…
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Council Chambers: In this poem.
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Council Chambers: I actually read this home to 12 kids with more I talk
and haiku, and I read it during the pandemic, and I don't know if you, or
some of you have been dealing with this, but it's not really anxious in
the pandemic.
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Council Chambers: And that's why I gave them this poem, because it was a
poem they could carry in their pocket, or they could memorize, and on top
of Qigong, like, a breathing technique.
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Council Chambers: Common in our business dog.
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Council Chambers: And it's called, There is a Light Wee by Anna Spear.
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Council Chambers: Whether in daytime or in nighttime.
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Council Chambers: I always carry inside a light.
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Council Chambers: In the middle of noise and turmoil, I carried silence.
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Council Chambers: Always, I carry light and silence.
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Council Chambers: Yeah, sure. It's good for a rainy day. Yeah, yeah, too.
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Council Chambers: I'm here with you.
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Council Chambers: Anything else?
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Council Chambers: Hey, what other questions? Any remaining thoughts or
questions for Regina?
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Council Chambers: Dan, I'm waving at you. All right, well, well, thank
you. On behalf of all of us, I feel comfortable saying, we're very
excited, and
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Council Chambers: Yeah, it could be how… what you do, and we're here to
support you, so please be in touch. I have seen some of the back and
forth already, so we are in really good hands at the… on the city level
with, Katie and Shelly, and, you know, I make myself available, and these
folks are available, so…
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Council Chambers: We'll see you soon. Thank you so much. I really
appreciate everybody. Thanks. Oh, yeah! You know what? I'm gonna leave
you with this. It can happen for your children if you want me to,
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Council Chambers: This is the book, I can't give you the… but the…
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Council Chambers: My brother wrote it, but I did all the illustrations,
and it might be… is your child under 8? Yeah. Actually, your child reads
at a level of much more in schools, but it's still a little… it's poetry.
Okay, sure.
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Council Chambers: And, yeah, Regina, I'll reach out to get, like, a
meeting on the books where we can just do the, like, you know,
housekeeping needs and stuff, and, oh, she, well, she was… oh, she was a
former chair of the… Oh, oh, she ran a… Yeah. And,
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Council Chambers: There is, I think the… there's the first City Council
meeting of the year, I think it was…
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Council Chambers: There was an idea that that might be a good time, since
that'll be when your tenure actually begins, so that'll be a nice moment.
First Monday? Started on the 6th, or something like that, yeah. Thanks so
much. Thank you.
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Council Chambers: And congratulations! I'm super excited. Oh, wait, math.
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Council Chambers: Take care. Cheers.
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Council Chambers: Great. Well, that's exciting!
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Council Chambers: I know, cool, right? Yeah.
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Council Chambers: You did it. Yeah. Okay, well, we better keep… we better
keep plugging along.
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Council Chambers: Well, lovely! We're gonna segue into, workgroup
updates. I'm gonna scroll down to… while Katie's scrolling, I'm gonna
opine about the Arts Awards, which is the… nominations! Nominations!
Nominations!
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Council Chambers: We want more! Is it appropriate for us to nominate?
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Council Chambers: That's probably a question we should talk about right
now. Because I… there's somebody I wanted to nominate, but then I
thought, hmm, would that be cool as a commissioner. It's a little… You're
not a commissioner. We will be… the plan is for us to…
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Council Chambers: review those nominations as a body. So,
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Council Chambers: in light of that, it may be… because, I mean, I feel
the same. I know people I nominate in a heartbeat. My… how I was planning
to handle that was to,
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Council Chambers: strong-arm other people into nominating them on my
behalf. So, you know, it's likely that a person you have in mind is
someone you'd like to nominate if someone
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Council Chambers: someone in your network would probably nominate, too,
so… Right, right. And, you know, encourage that person, like, hey, while
you're nominating Susie Q, maybe you also throw in another nomination for
another, you know, your own… not your own, but an additional nominee,
because more is more, and
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Council Chambers: My goodness, this community could not be more full of
artists, so, it'd be really cool to see
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Council Chambers: just not an overwhelming response, we don't think we
don't, but a healthy response that's at least representative of the
proportion of artists that we have in this community, who are doing
really good things.
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Dan Groussman: Yeah, so in the past, we've actually kind of come up short
on nominations, so we as a commission had to kick down, and you know, as
citizens, I think as long as the process is really transparent, that we…
I personally would like to be able to see us
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Dan Groussman: nominate people. We were pretty much in the know, so,
anyway, that's… that's my two cents.
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Council Chambers: Yeah.
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Council Chambers: And if you do nominate, which, if you can't find
somebody to nominate that person, please nominate, but what'll happen is,
when that person's up, you can't be part of the decision. Right, you can
recuse yourself. And if we have the… maybe they can anyway, now if I
don't see a nomination, walk out.
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Council Chambers: Yeah, yeah. I will say, I mean, my optimism… I mean,
the funny thing about that is that,
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Council Chambers: If there is a person who's nominated by multiple, you
know, by multiple people.
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Council Chambers: You may shake yourself in the process.
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Council Chambers: In an unnecessary way, because it's not… this is not a
popularity contest, so it's not that, Suzy Q gets 18 nominations and
therefore choose to shoot in, necessarily, but if there's 18 nominations
for Suzy Q, you don't need to be a 19th, because we've got 18, you know
what I'm saying? So, I'm not, at this moment, I'm not concerned that we
won't have nominations. I don't say… we're not giving this
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Council Chambers: because we're so short on nominations. It's more just,
like, please help spread the word and take, please, please feel a sense
of ownership in this arts award, in that you're…
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Council Chambers: effort to help encourage others to nominate is really
important. And, by putting your own face forward, as, like, I am an arts
commissioner,
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Council Chambers: in spreading that message, you're helping connect the
community to the Arts Commission, because they know someone on the Arts
Commission, they will have a sense of who's evaluating these nominees,
because you're on the Arts Commission. So,
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Council Chambers: yeah, we have a… we have a much fuller Arts Commission
panel than we've had in years past. We have funding for advertising this
opportunity, so we're in, like, the best shape we've ever been in for the
Arts Award, in my opinion.
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Council Chambers: So I think… I feel really optimistic about the turnout
we'll get. It's just a more… a matter of, us all using our humanness,
too, and our innate personability to help connect the broader community
to the idea that, like.
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Council Chambers: again, good, cool people are on PTAC, and, and, and,
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Council Chambers: And we want to have a healthy selection of artists in
the community doing good work to discuss and deliberate about and awards.
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Council Chambers: Oh, yeah. So is the conflict of interest just that we
would vote for who we nominated for? Nominated? Potentially. But is that
a real conflict of interest? No. In what world that doesn't make sense as
citizens of the community, etc. Like, I just…
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Council Chambers: I don't understand. I know that… I get that that's,
like, the premise for the conflict of interest, but I just… I got very
conceptually, don't really understand what the real conflict is. It's the
visual, so if you're not a part of… if you don't come to this meeting,
you don't see these meetings, and then all of a sudden.
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Council Chambers: We show it on paper that you nominated this person, and
then we show it on paper you voted for that person. Right. There may be 5
other people.
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Council Chambers: That you didn't vote for. Right. Where that looks…
outside, that looks kind of odd, so the best thing to do is to remove
yourself. So, people from outside don't say, well, you guys nominated
this person, that person nominated, that person's the person that
nominated, and he voted for that person, but he didn't vote for me.
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Council Chambers: Why? Appearance of fairness. Yeah, so appearance of
fairness is what you want to do on the outside, so, you know… Yeah, in
the school of thought around conflict of interest, the appearance of even
a lack of a conflict of interest is a conflict.
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Council Chambers: So, the thought is also that, like, to Dan's great
point, that we are people in the know in the arts community, as much as
we're in the know, we're also in our own community, potentially. So,
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Council Chambers: we… I don't… the spirit of these awards is not for us
to just unilaterally appoint people, otherwise we wouldn't…
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Council Chambers: put out a call for nominations, we would just…
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Council Chambers: unilaterally approachable. So I think that's kind of
the thought there.
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Dan Groussman: Yeah, so I think it's less of a conflict of interest if
there's no money involved.
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Council Chambers: Oh, of course, yeah, there's not… no, but, I guess
that's the idea, is if… what, like, the last point I made would be, if…
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Council Chambers: If we didn't make this a public process where we were
soliciting nominations from the broader community, and we were just all
pulling each other to say,
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Council Chambers: you know, who is the best of our own applicants, grant
applicants this year? Who in your community would you like to know? Like,
we could have kept it an internal process where we were just appointing
the people.
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Council Chambers: the spirit of the community that I hear does not… would
not necessarily receive that favor, because…
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Council Chambers: then it's sort of like a club, you know? That's the…
that's something you hear, like, oh, PTAC just, you know, gave awards to
their friends or something, and we don't want that. You don't want to
penalize your friends.
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Council Chambers: Because although it's not, to Dan's point, although
there's not a financial award, it is, you know, Fort Tublin is very well
known.
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Council Chambers: We're a very well-known and well-regarded arts
community. We're published in literally hundreds of books as being a arts
community. We're well-known in that regard. We're listed with major art…
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Council Chambers: Places in the country, and,
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Council Chambers: you know, titles like Port Townsend Poet Laureate, or
the recipient of a Port Townsend Arts Award, like, these are meaningful
designations that can be on artists' CVs and help them in the future. So,
while there's not, like, a direct financial compensation, like, I would…
I would love to encourage us not to have, like, a
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Council Chambers: any kind of inferior complex about the nature of our
award, because it is a municipal award, which already on its own, no
matter what your community is, is an honor, and then to come from such a
community that is really well known.
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Council Chambers: Nationally, if not internationally, in some spheres, as
a…
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Council Chambers: Cultural and arts community, like, that does have… that
does carry weight, so…
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Council Chambers: Another question. As far as I understood from… I feel
like one of our meetings, when we were talking about, like, the… the way
that we would vote.
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Council Chambers: wasn't… will people be able to see how we voted? Is it
a transparent vote as commissioners? Because I thought I understood that
we were, like.
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Council Chambers: there was, like, we voted with a rubric that was, like,
almost blind. Yeah. So you would not vote for a person, like, a nominee
that you completed, right? You just skipped that person as you were
making your, like… Oh, okay. Like, that would be the way to recuse
yourself. Okay. You know what I mean? And then those scores would get
tabulated, or whatever. I think you were asking if people would see.
Yeah, is it a public…
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Council Chambers: facing both.
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Council Chambers: like, will our… our vote be… If the counter was on,
they would be hearing you talk right now, so if you were voting, they
would… Well, we talked about doing, like, a digital process, like a…
Yeah. Which maybe we need to sit down and talk with the clerk about how
that would work. I'm gonna come to our next group meeting. See if you're
available. I'm gonna come to the next meeting. Yeah, well, I mean, what
we talked about, right, was, like, that the
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Council Chambers: Commissioners would get all of the applications, and
they would get, like, a rubric that they could fill those… fill it out to
show their scores based on people's
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Council Chambers: the information that they had, and then we would put
those all together, and that's how the… but then there'd still be
deliberations, I think, around that material. That material would come to
the PTAC and…
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Council Chambers: disgust. You know, and, like, so exactly how any
person… Without the public meeting.
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Council Chambers: Yeah. Yeah, right, right, to succeed in. Yeah. So,
whether exactly who nominated whom is, like, totally public isn't, like,
necessarily part of the process, but I don't think it would also be,
like, kept totally secret.
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Council Chambers: You know what I mean? Ultimately, and I see, I'll call
you in just one second. Ultimately, the best thing to gird against all of
this would be to have a flurry of nominations outside of this box. So, I
go back to point A, which is, please encourage your community to submit
nominations. And… yeah, go ahead, Dan.
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Dan Groussman: Well, in addition to the recording of the discussion,
wouldn't any notes taken, like a rubric, be, collected and made public as
well?
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Dan Groussman: I've seen that happen in the past. Maybe that was for
something that had to do…
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Council Chambers: Yeah, we can continue discussing the specifics of,
like, the administration of the,
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Council Chambers: of, like, the rubric and that piece in our work group.
I will say that the, again, the concept behind the rubric is to, like,
use as a screener, basically, to account for, like, the criteria being
met, and to, like.
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Council Chambers: I guess, by virtue of establishing whether that
criteria has been met, since it's not just a yes or no, since there's,
like, a weighted value to it, like, there's just gonna be a natural…
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Council Chambers: value assigned that would help us, sort of, help guide
that conversation, so it's not that we're going to, like.
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Council Chambers: it's not like right-choice voting, where, like, no
matter the outcome, like, that's what we go with. It's more like it would
be used as an instructive guide to guide the conversation. And to make
sure that we are accounting for our biases, and we're creating a more
transparent process. So part of the workgroup conversation could be that
if there is a,
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Council Chambers: if we need to acknowledge that you had also submitted a
nomination for that person. Because one thing we've talked about
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Council Chambers: Because it's already happened, that we've received
multiple nominations for one person,
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Council Chambers: Like, if we get 12 combinations for one person, are we
going to…
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Council Chambers: read all 12, and… I mean, it's just…
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Council Chambers: Well, there's some, like, things… there's always going
to be some little things to work out as we actually get into the way that
it works, you know what I mean? You can design it, but then the practice
always changes a little bit. I do think that Lonnie's right, that if the
entire commission votes on this, then it's, like, basically, like, a
serial meeting or whatever, so… so those notes would have to go into,
like, a packet and be in the public record, as opposed to the Poe
Laureate, which would not have quorum.
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Council Chambers: of PTAC, so that way, like, that whole process kind of
happened with a separate group, and then it was brought to PTAC for
ratification. This would be somewhat different, because it's, like, a
commission. So… Does the LTEM rubric get put in the packet?
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Council Chambers: The commissioners? Do they fill it out? They don't,
they don't do that. Oh, the staff, like, the staff…
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Council Chambers: does that screening, and then they look at the… they
look at the applications and the staff assessment of those… Okay, so it's
possible we do adopt some of that kind of, like, policy in the… in the
final,
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Council Chambers: negotiations of how we work out the actual process,
right? But there could be a smaller group that does the initial
screening, and then it goes to the whole… like, there's different ways
that we could… but if it was, like, the entire… it was a quorum of the
commission who was making these decisions, then it would happen to be…
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Council Chambers: Like…
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Council Chambers: done as a public meeting. I'm not trying to discourage
anyone from submitting nominations. Again, I just would love to see
nominations from the community, because that's ultimately how we move the
arts awards beyond
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Council Chambers: this table. That's how we move all of our programs
beyond this table, is by making sure that the community's aware of it,
that the community's excited about it, that the community's participating
in it.
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Council Chambers: And so, that's also partly why I jokingly say, you
know, say I strong-arm a friend into submitting it, because that also
gives them exposure to what we're doing.
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Council Chambers: Where they may not.
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Council Chambers: otherwise submit a nomination, or even be aware that
we're doing it, so… Is this a flyer been posted? Yeah, but we could use
help putting more flyers up and around. Yes, please, yeah, yeah, and I
emailed it out yesterday to everyone, so you should have it in your
email. The only thing is that the Fall 2025 flyer, which I think is the
only one that would be on Instagram with all the info, is a PDF.
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Council Chambers: So if you go back, so I don't think… I'm not sure that…
I mean, I can send it as a JPEG, but, like, I think my idea was that you
send it out with a link, or whatever, you know? Gotcha. Because that's a
lot of information. The link to the website. Yeah. Yeah, that was…
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Council Chambers: like, that was my… I was thinking social media-wise,
right? So, yeah. And, yeah, just to add on to this conversation, like, I
think maybe the spirit of what you're saying is, like, it is so… it's
still so, kind of, in its infancy that our energy can be best
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Council Chambers: Use by bolstering immunity engagement, rather than,
like.
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Council Chambers: I mean, not… it doesn't have to be either or, but,
like, that's what we're really being called to do right now, right? Is,
like, help spread the word. Yeah. That it even exists. Yeah. Right.
Because a lot of people probably don't even know how. Right.
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Council Chambers: It is, it's nice, Northwind to put it in their, good
newsletter yesterday, and, you know, as Shelly put it in the city
newsletter, and stuff like that, so hopefully…
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Council Chambers: you know, if there's… who knows? Hopefully people are,
like, starting to see it and think about it, or whatever.
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Council Chambers: And us moving beyond our table is, like, what is now
possible, because we have this, creative district as part of the city,
and have a staff liaison. Like, we have been… like, over the last few
years, we have been moving beyond this table. And, and we're finally
outside the door, I would say. But, you know, your help getting us
uptown, and up to the outskirts of town.
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Council Chambers: And, like, just raising the awareness in general in the
community, because the Arts Awards are also a conduit by which
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Council Chambers: We establish ourselves
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Council Chambers: You know, as a greater identity of, like, people who
celebrate and champion the arts, and sort of…
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Council Chambers: Yeah, that's a better brand identity for us than some
others could be. Sure. Yeah. So, yeah.
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Council Chambers: What else? Well… Arts Awards. Arts Awards, I don't know
if we have any other, updates.
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Council Chambers: I think one thing to mention, obviously, is to save the
date for this… these events on February 27th. It's gonna be at the
fairgrounds.
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Council Chambers: And I… we've talked about having it, like, 5 to 6.30
with the first half an hour just being, like, music and mingling and
people showing up, and then the awards… the ceremony itself from, like,
5.30 to 6.30.
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Council Chambers: And that's the kickoff for the sound… for soundcheck.
It's been a VBR's awards, which I think could be really, really fun,
especially for celebrating some really beloved Port Townsend folks, that
hopefully we can get a lot of people out for that.
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Council Chambers: The fairgrounds keeps asking me how many people do I
think will show up for this event, and I, like, if anyone can tell me
that number, I'd be really happy. Okay. That's a good place to start.
Okay. We can get it. Did they say that the…
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Council Chambers: Yeah, it'll be in the Erickson building. And then the
idea is to clear out all those chairs and start and have the dance party
in there as well. Have a dance party following it.
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Council Chambers: And then do a big community potluck meal.
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Council Chambers: As well. So, I think that should be a cool night, and
hopefully with all those things, we can get more than 50 people this
night, but that's… yeah, at least 50, but like…
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Council Chambers: That, is the plan, and then also,
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Council Chambers: we're working with a local artist to have actual awards
made. I don't know if you've followed that yet. That's cool, yeah. Okay,
cool. It's not a secret. No, it's not a secret at all. Her name's Tori,
and she runs, Fort Townsend…
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Council Chambers: Ceramics Guild, I think it's not even Parker's Guild,
right? Potter's Guild. She's totally on board, she's gonna make 5 awards
for us. We kind of started with,
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Council Chambers: the idea that we were gonna use the, like, Galatea as a
jumping-off point, that she… she wasn't anti that, but she kind of, like,
would prefer to go her own way, which felt really appropriate, seeing her
work. It's, like, very inspired by, like, you know, the landscape of Fort
Townsend.
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Council Chambers: And it seemed like in our group, that everyone, like,
responded to the image of her work that I brought to our group. And she
just seems like a really great person. Like, she's honored to do it,
she's excited to do it,
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Council Chambers: She'll do it for the amount of money that we have
available. It's like everything is pretty good. Her name's Tori. Tori?
Tori. Tori Powers. Tori Powers.
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Council Chambers: It's really cool.
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Council Chambers: Yeah.
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Council Chambers: And, yeah, so I… and I sort of briefed her on the
logistics, as far as I understand, in terms of, like, we need to sort of,
like, have something physically
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Council Chambers: Before we invoice her, and she's comfortable with that.
She's pretty much comfortable, very flexible, comfortable, stoked to do
it. Makes a great choice.
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Dan Groussman: That's a tall order to reproduce the Galatea, I think,
for.
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Council Chambers: Life is long. You don't know what'll happen next year.
All things are made possible, yeah.
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Council Chambers: Cool, cool, yeah. Yeah, is there anything else, like,
on the Arts Awards front that people have questions about, results about?
I don't really answered all of the commissioners, like, exact, like,
who's nominated or don't nominate, but…
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Council Chambers: Maybe just food for thought. Yeah.
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Council Chambers: My question wasn't because I don't understand how to,
like, get the word out there, it's just more of a conceptual, like,
trying to understand, like, what conflict of interest really is. I guess
it will matter a lot less the more nominations we have. Yeah, that makes
total sense. I guess that's the final takeaway is, like,
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Council Chambers: So…
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Council Chambers: again, in that spirit, please encourage your community,
and your networks to submit a nominee, because there's… and, I guess, to
take that one step further, I would really love to see, personally, like,
creative nominations. Like, of course there's, like, very fine art that
happens for our community, but there's also so many creative expressions
of art and creation that people
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Council Chambers: community. There's incredible talent that goes in every
year to creating floats for roadie parade, or,
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Council Chambers: You know, booth design at the farmer's market. Like, it
doesn't have to be…
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Council Chambers: super black and white, like, this is a… we're a
creative community, this is a creative sector, so,
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Council Chambers: you know, encourage your people to think outside the
box, too, and, as far as who they're thinking about. Yeah.
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Council Chambers: And to that point, like, it encompasses all forms of
performing, art, events, like, you know what I mean? Culinary, like, all
the different areas that are covered by the Creative District, all those…
every single discipline, makeup, industry, like, what are…
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Council Chambers: If there's somebody that you see doing some really
outstanding stuff, or…
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Council Chambers: You know, your community has, like, please encourage
them to think creatively about how… who and how they're nominating.
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Council Chambers: Cool. Is that Tori Powers? Yeah. Power, no. Oh, no.
Tory Powers, no.
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Council Chambers: And to some degree, even, like, Patreon.
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Council Chambers: Yes. Yes, yes. We don't have… we don't have… We don't
have any designated awards, because we're being responsive this year to
the nature of the award, the nominations we're receiving, so…
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Council Chambers: You know, if there's, like, a youth entertainer, or a,
you know, an educator, an arts educator, like, there's all kinds of
different ways. We're gonna kind of tailor our three to five awardees to
the…
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Council Chambers: Through the nature of their nominations, so…
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Council Chambers: spirit or hope, so it can be very creative. Cool. Yeah,
but definitely, like, a support… like, someone who volunteers for, like,
a ton of arts events would certainly count, you know what I mean? Like,
it doesn't have to be, like, it can be someone who makes the arts happen,
as opposed to someone who's making art. Stage marketing. Yes, Dan?
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Dan Groussman: In the past, we've also had some awards awarded
posthumously, so I imagine with your broad, thrown net there that that
could be considered.
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Council Chambers: Yep, yep, absolutely. Yeah, I'd love us to think… I'd
love us all as a community to be thinking creatively about Laura's work.
And that, again, will help, you know, this is like a Rolling Stone, we
want to keep rolling, so, this is our first year, so let's make a real
splash so that it needs splash.
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Council Chambers: And that's all on the arts boards, we can move into
talking public art.
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Council Chambers: Would Stockton Kitty?
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Council Chambers: Anybody, I don't know, do you guys want me to take it,
or y'all want to…
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Council Chambers: I'll make you tell me? We can… I mean, it seems like
the number one thing that has been on our docket recently is the…
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Council Chambers: Material usage that we're trying to,
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Council Chambers: choose to help the parks, the Parks Department, like,
protect the,
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01:05:31.400 --> 01:05:46.129
Council Chambers: boundary marker that has moved from its original
location, and that's now in the process of being moved to its new
location. Yeah. And it seems like we're doing fine with that, we just
kind of need to, like, specify. Like, I feel like every…
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Council Chambers: one of the materials that we've submitted is probably
suitable, so I think it's just…
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Council Chambers: Yeah, we just kind of need to, like…
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Council Chambers: say. Right, exactly, that's right, yeah, yeah. Which
chemical company gets our money. Yeah, exactly.
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Council Chambers: Right. So, yeah, there are the recommendations to put a
sealant on the boundary marker before reciting it, because it'll be a
little more public, and if someone, like, graffitied it, or also just,
like, exposed the elements. And so, Dan and Joshua have been doing some
research to find
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Council Chambers: the right material to use, because the Parks Department
was like, we do not want to choose that, like, because what if we choose
wrong? And so they've…
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Council Chambers: come up with a few different ones, and then we're just
waiting. I'm waiting. I was like, you guys are the experts, please tell
me which one to use, so I'm hoping y'all can confer, and just let me know
what direction to go, and then we can…
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Council Chambers: That project finished? You drove them right to Jonas?
No, this is, Sarah Maljahani's, like, kind of… sort of like the clamshell
shape… Oh, by the concrete one, yeah, it's no longer by the dumpster.
Yeah. I know. Yeah, the city manager actually, like, sent an email, was
like, where is it? I was like, no, no, it's supposed to… so, yeah, so
they put it, they've put it…
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Council Chambers: For, like, storage or safekeeping in the water barn.
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Council Chambers: Which is that crazy building by the high school that I
never knew what it was. I still don't quite understand, but it's city-
owned, and it's called the Water Bar, and it's like a concrete… you know
what I'm talking about? It's like… it's like this kind of, like, concrete
bunker-ish thing across… Yeah, that's where… that's where the… that's
where the boundary marker now is, is in there. Cool.
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Council Chambers: And, does the artist have an idea of how…
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Council Chambers: No, I, like, she did not give me a specific
recommendation. She was like, you should probably seal it, you know, and
like, and now she's left town, and yeah, so…
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Council Chambers: I guess we could ask Dan, yeah.
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Council Chambers: do you have, like, is… were your recommendations from
experience that you feel pretty, like, solid about? Or… because my
research was just basically, like, you know, what I found reading…
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Council Chambers: documents online, and I've sealed, like, floors and
other, like, non-art services, but, you know, if you're… if you feel like
you have, like, a level of experience that's higher, I would defer to
your selections gladly.
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Dan Groussman: well, I've worked with leather and wood, so I don't have a
sealed concrete before, but, you know, my first stop is always asking the
artist, and in the records where she discussed her maintenance plan, she
recommended a sealant, but just left it vague like that.
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Council Chambers: So, in my research, my interest is just not having it
change the surface structure, so not, like, a super high gloss, a matte
finish, so it's…
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Dan Groussman: like, been visible, basically, so I feel pretty good about
going ahead. She's really given us
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Dan Groussman: you know, the go-ahead to do whatever we want with her
works, patch them, repair them. I think she's, yeah, moved town, she'd
love to see them last, and she'd left us some pretty good maintenance
records, so I think we're on the right track.
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Council Chambers: Yeah, I think that Dan, you may have put, like, 3
different options in your recommendation. Like, if… I don't know if
there's a way to settle on one of those, that would be fine. That would
be fine.
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Dan Groussman: I love the comment, which chemical company is gonna get
our money?
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Council Chambers: Yeah, exactly. Just tell us which chemical company is
gonna get the money, it'd be helpful.
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Council Chambers: So, yeah, that'd be great. I can also try to think, or
if other people know
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Council Chambers: artists that work in that field. What about asking
other metal artists what they would see on their screen? Right, that's
what I'm saying. What's concrete? Oh… Yeah, yeah. So if anyone knows… Any
other concrete in our arts collection is also artists. Right, exactly,
exactly.
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Council Chambers: You may want to talk to a curator in the museum.
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Council Chambers: Because you're taking concrete, and you're going to put
it back outside, so it needs to be selling…
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Council Chambers: they might know, depending on what they do, what their
specialty is at the museum. Yeah. If we want to be, like, go super proud.
Yes, yes, great.
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Council Chambers: they might just tell you to just put this on. Sure.
And, like, yeah, sometimes when I make…
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Council Chambers: work, and people are like, how do I protect it? And I'm
like, I don't know, for you to figure out. I can understand how this
artist might just be like, I don't know, but also maybe a nut, a follow-
up nudge, be like, just wondering, do you have any specific materials
that you would recommend? Because if she has that information, that would
be ideal, right? Right, yeah, but especially very specific.
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Council Chambers: The whole idea is, like, to change nothing
aesthetically about it and protect it. Like, no sheet change, or no, you
know, don't alter the sculpture in any way. So there is, there's just,
like, there's… there is an ocean of products that are available to do
that, you know?
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Council Chambers: Yeah. So…
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Council Chambers: Yeah, it kind of seems like she doesn't really want to…
Like, if she said, I don't care, do whatever you want, but if she has a
product… Yeah, it'd be great. I will expert from the museum environment,
they're gonna be even better. Maybe not even the same level of good. And,
like, as we move forward with more public art, we're going to be
preserving more
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Council Chambers: It would be nice to have a roster of people that we
consult for this sort of thing, rather than just, like, trying to figure
it out. Yeah, totally. The chemical companies being like, we're great for
this. We've kind of talked about, like, I feel like that's sort of an
open-ended thing that we're working on in our group, which is just…
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Council Chambers: updating and maintaining, maintenance guides. There's
already some really good ones for some of the public works, but I just…
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Council Chambers: I think that's a really, like, good, like, bullet point
to just, as we go forward, if we get new work or whatever, I just think
that those things are really helpful for the longevity of public schools.
Yeah, and they're supposed to, I mean, a mania's plan is supposed to be
submitted with public art, that's, like, part of the process, but many of
them have just, like, been locked for the ages, more or less, at this
point. And so, like, that was one of the ideas behind the public art
plan, which is one of the reasons we're kind of having this update of
this meeting.
406
01:12:15.210 --> 01:12:23.430
Council Chambers: besides just the fact that it's committee, is that
we're supposed to update the public art plan annually, because the new
plan was adopted in
407
01:12:23.430 --> 01:12:30.830
Council Chambers: June, and now we're working through these steps. I
don't think that there needs to be, like, a real plan update at a certain
moment.
408
01:12:31.120 --> 01:12:38.820
Council Chambers: But the idea behind putting together that whole
maintenance plan that was based on recommendations from, like, certain
409
01:12:39.050 --> 01:12:56.570
Council Chambers: experts in the field was to help make these decisions.
Unfortunately, that doesn't actually address concrete. Right, right.
Yeah, so that's, like, one of the… just one of the sort of holes in it.
Sure, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think the next step beyond this, which
we've also been talking about in committee,
410
01:12:56.620 --> 01:13:13.759
Council Chambers: is to put together, kind of, like, a specific plan for
each piece, so that, like, we can give that to the Parks Department, and
they have that information in order to continue this work. Yeah, so I'm
sort of surprised that someone in the Parks Department doesn't
411
01:13:13.900 --> 01:13:28.829
Council Chambers: have… you know what I mean? Like, they… they work with
concrete objects, I assume, semi-regularly. I think people are just
really concerned about it because it's art, and they don't want to numb
it out. It's kind of like, if you're like, oh no, like, this…
412
01:13:29.100 --> 01:13:37.540
Council Chambers: sidewalk's a different color, or whatever, yeah, like,
it doesn't have the same effect. How old are these pieces? Yeah. Yes,
Dan?
413
01:13:38.120 --> 01:13:45.069
Dan Groussman: Yeah, I don't know if we're at this part in the agenda
yet, it's the next item, but, for the maintenance plan, having it just
414
01:13:45.960 --> 01:14:10.950
Dan Groussman: a box on a shelf with the exact equipment for that work,
with the instructions printed right there. Mostly the concern is somebody
meaning well may go use an abrasive to clean something, and that would be
a big mistake. Pressure washing the F Street works, the Milestones works
would be really bad. It would pull a lot of the little mosaic pieces out
of there. So, you know, I'm really interested in not only having a list
of
415
01:14:10.950 --> 01:14:13.159
Dan Groussman: What to do, but what not to do.
416
01:14:13.160 --> 01:14:28.449
Dan Groussman: And it was way overdue. It's… a lot of those works, like
the Blue Heron Uptown, is a mess. I went and cleaned that personally a
couple years ago, and I think that was the last time it was cleaned.
Pressure washing, I think, is the city's go-to to clean a lot of stuff,
but not all works
417
01:14:28.450 --> 01:14:43.869
Dan Groussman: are welcoming that, metal work that was just brought up.
And, you know, Sarah's work, the, boundary marker, that has a little
metal component on the top, so that probably shouldn't be sealed, and we
should go to reference our maintenance,
418
01:14:43.910 --> 01:14:46.539
Dan Groussman: Instructions for how to care for bronze.
419
01:14:46.610 --> 01:14:53.499
Dan Groussman: And have that equipment right there, so I think we're on
the right track. This is really welcoming steps that we're doing, yeah,
so thank you, Katie.
420
01:14:53.780 --> 01:15:05.180
Council Chambers: Yeah, agreed. And I think, yeah, and I'm… I'm waiting
for you guys to bring that information back to me, and have, like, tell
me what to put in that kit, and, like, what instructions to put, so…
421
01:15:05.180 --> 01:15:10.329
Dan Groussman: Did you get my… I sent in the materials list for the
Sailor Sea Circle.
422
01:15:10.590 --> 01:15:13.600
Council Chambers: Yeah, I got, we got, we got that one. We just got 15.
423
01:15:13.600 --> 01:15:16.129
Dan Groussman: That even involves a propane torch, how cool is that?
424
01:15:16.130 --> 01:15:17.300
Council Chambers: Yeah, yeah.
425
01:15:17.300 --> 01:15:17.800
Dan Groussman: Okay.
426
01:15:19.430 --> 01:15:31.629
Council Chambers: Well, yeah, if you wanna, if you wanna send me the
compact, I will follow up with the, the Bainbridge, Bainbridge… Island
Museum of Art. Museum of Art, cool, yeah.
427
01:15:32.420 --> 01:15:49.900
Council Chambers: The other place that might be worth, reaching out to is
also the, guy who does the public art collection for the state at Artois.
His name is something, and…
428
01:15:50.580 --> 01:15:52.879
Council Chambers: Peter? I can't remember what his name.
429
01:15:53.140 --> 01:15:58.680
Council Chambers: Did you, did you have a question? Just how good those
pieces are. When were they commissioned?
430
01:15:59.280 --> 01:16:15.879
Council Chambers: And how long do pieces stay out in the public? Are they
permanent, or do they retire after a certain amount of time? Like, when
do we… The boundary marker for Puget Sound was the session in 1996. Okay.
And,
431
01:16:16.300 --> 01:16:23.540
Council Chambers: the answers to the questions you're looking for, as in
the art, public places, Policies, and Procedures, the APPPP,
432
01:16:23.750 --> 01:16:26.089
Council Chambers: Which covers,
433
01:16:26.450 --> 01:16:39.509
Council Chambers: how we deaccession artwork, like, it's kind of at the
will of our body as to whether or not we would recommend to City Council
that they remove a piece of art from the permit collection.
434
01:16:39.810 --> 01:16:43.359
Council Chambers: But, there's many reasons why…
435
01:16:43.680 --> 01:16:55.310
Council Chambers: like, not many, but there's several reasons why we
could endeavor to do that, but they're all quite subjective reasons,
largely. So, like, if a piece of public art was, like, just
436
01:16:56.100 --> 01:17:18.159
Council Chambers: universally rejected by the community, we would have
the authority to make a recommendation to City Council that they, and the
City then remove that piece. So, or if it was, like, in extreme
disrepair. But the goal would be for us… well, I mean, that's sort of our
philosophy about what our… What is relevance the factor? Like, that it's,
you know, currently, sort of.
437
01:17:18.270 --> 01:17:31.909
Council Chambers: fresh move. I think that's the especially subjective
part that kind of comes back to this body to decide what our priorities
for public art are, and historically what they have been.
438
01:17:32.550 --> 01:17:40.630
Council Chambers: in my estimation, has been, like, a more is more, let's
preserve what we have, because we didn't have an ongoing or even…
439
01:17:41.540 --> 01:18:00.679
Council Chambers: in any way active commitment on the part of the city to
add more to the collection, so we were feeling especially protective
about what we had. But as more funding opens up, and as we heard from
Steve King at last meeting, it's likely we'll start seeing a lot more
money to invest in additional future public works, I think that
conversation will become especially
440
01:18:00.790 --> 01:18:09.500
Council Chambers: For us to revisit, like, what is our philosophy around
public art, and how are we gonna view pieces in our collection that,
441
01:18:09.750 --> 01:18:17.290
Council Chambers: you know, the KITAC community tiles aren't in any…
they're, you know, they're in terrible shape. Those were a session in
1985.
442
01:18:17.480 --> 01:18:25.190
Council Chambers: And I think that's the oldest piece in our… in our
permit collection, so… Thank you.
443
01:18:25.320 --> 01:18:28.370
Council Chambers: I'll add that as a conversation, like.
444
01:18:28.610 --> 01:18:34.319
Council Chambers: that's happening many, many places, like, this exact
conversation, like, I don't know if anyone has followed, like, the,
445
01:18:35.480 --> 01:18:41.590
Council Chambers: sculpture, or the fountain that they're deaccessioning
in San Francisco. It's like a big deal. Yeah.
446
01:18:41.590 --> 01:18:57.290
Council Chambers: I just… I, like, it was, like, a fixture of my
childhood, so it's, like, caught my attention. But, it's, like, a major
public artwork that's gone into disrepair, and there was, like, a huge,
like, do we save it, do we let it go? And they've decided to go ahead and
disassemble it and turn it into, like, a new public space.
447
01:18:57.440 --> 01:19:12.900
Council Chambers: We had one here down on a better tidy bowl. Right.
Excuse me? Yeah. Where was it? It was…
448
01:19:13.300 --> 01:19:23.070
Council Chambers: In the circular part of Pope Marie Plaza. Yeah. Oh,
right, exactly. Under that.
449
01:19:23.070 --> 01:19:33.150
Dan Groussman: That was an interesting work that was a session because of
the grand idea of its intended function, but it just did not function as
intended.
450
01:19:33.300 --> 01:19:34.080
Council Chambers: Yeah.
451
01:19:35.000 --> 01:19:51.180
Council Chambers: And a deadline, you know, and it's a good proof of
concept that things don't… good things don't happen under that much
pressure. Good things can happen under pressure, but sometimes too much
pressure can… But I would just flag for you, Katie, as you're working
with the
452
01:19:51.630 --> 01:19:53.630
Council Chambers: city, teams.
453
01:19:53.630 --> 01:20:11.679
Council Chambers: that, like, parks, for example, it probably would be
good to get on the books, like, an official deaccessioning of the
community tiles, and then when the city is ready to, rehab the… the
toilets at the… I think they're pretty much done rehabbing the toilets.
Oh, okay. I thought they were gonna, like, demolish multiple buildings.
454
01:20:11.910 --> 01:20:35.890
Council Chambers: I think they're reopened, aren't they? I don't know.
Anyway, I know you just flagged that they're being worked on, but I was
under the impression that the building was maybe going to be leveled. I
could be totally wrong, but, okay, I'm just invented that. Well, if that
is the case, flag it for us to mix the tiles before that happens. Right,
right.
455
01:20:36.080 --> 01:20:39.100
Council Chambers: Well, interestingly, so we did this whole meet… you
know, this, like.
456
01:20:39.210 --> 01:20:54.830
Council Chambers: there was supposed to be the idea that, like, annually
there's an update of the public art plan, right? And that didn't happen
for six… what, like, night, the last one. Yes, whatever. So, this year
there was an update of it that was focused on maintenance. I feel like
that's really helped us, or helped… helped the Commission make some…
457
01:20:55.350 --> 01:21:00.200
Council Chambers: Progress around things that needed to be taken care of,
like the boundary marker,
458
01:21:00.300 --> 01:21:04.190
Council Chambers: And, you know, if sort of by the end of 2025,
459
01:21:04.190 --> 01:21:23.519
Council Chambers: there's the plan, and then there's also the materials
to carry out the plan. Like, that would be a really awesome outcome for
having updated the plan this year, and then maybe, like, the update for
2026 looks like, okay, well, we have this stuff in place, like, what is
our philosophy around the future of this plan, and the future of this
artwork?
460
01:21:23.520 --> 01:21:30.890
Council Chambers: Especially with the idea that we know that there's
maybe options… the opportunity to add to the collection in a way that
hasn't been present for a while.
461
01:21:30.890 --> 01:21:41.180
Council Chambers: So that feels like that could be a really great
discussion for the next year, especially since we've made it to the
finish line with the updating of the code and that sort of stuff, which
had been, I think, part of the…
462
01:21:41.490 --> 01:21:49.330
Council Chambers: You know, part of the reasoning not to move forward yet
in certain ways, so… That helps.
463
01:21:49.510 --> 01:21:50.960
Council Chambers: Yeah, that would be…
464
01:21:51.040 --> 01:22:03.550
Council Chambers: And then add in those, like, rogue pieces that aren't
named as part of the official collection, but are in the public, totally.
They are around. Let's add those into our list.
465
01:22:03.580 --> 01:22:21.329
Council Chambers: And I'll scroll down here a little bit, because there's
some notes. These are just notes from our last Public Art Committee
meeting, which I try to include in the packet so that the whole
Commission has visibility there. But one of the things that also did come
up, which would fit into this larger conversation that I'm proposing the
Commission engage in, is,
466
01:22:21.940 --> 01:22:31.400
Council Chambers: When the Creative District came into the city this
year, the art markers also came into the city in that same transfer of
467
01:22:31.810 --> 01:22:34.769
Council Chambers: assets, thank you. And,
468
01:22:35.280 --> 01:22:53.940
Council Chambers: that means they are now sort of… they're a little bit
in this limbo, like, are they part of the collection now? Are they part
of the creative district? And if they are to come into the city art
collection, what's the process for doing that, and that kind of thing,
and, like, thinking about how that might fit into this larger discussion,
it feels like it would make a lot of sense to me, so…
469
01:22:54.970 --> 01:23:05.949
Council Chambers: that, and Dan brought that up at our last meeting,
which I thought rightly so, again, like, this isn't normal, like, the
normal way that the city acquires art, right? So, like, what do we… what
do we want to do now? So, yeah.
470
01:23:05.950 --> 01:23:30.260
Council Chambers: I think those specific pieces are, like, definitely,
like, a good discussion to keep having, too, because I've, like, I
recently had a friend, like, show me a bunch of images of, like, one of
them specifically being sort of, like, harassed by the public, and it
does seem like there's, like, a general, like, public disdain the format
that they're in right now, which is, I understand, it wasn't even really,
like.
471
01:23:30.850 --> 01:23:48.129
Council Chambers: intended format that the artist, like, created them
under, so it does kind of seem like a confusing situation that we have
with that particular work. Yeah. So I just think it's… I think we should…
it's something we should keep talking about, especially, like, in… in…
472
01:23:48.130 --> 01:24:12.570
Council Chambers: under the idea that, like, the public is responding to
those, and it's not necessarily, like, a positive response. What I've
seen, like, what I saw was, like, an image where someone built, like, a
free box underneath one of them, as if it was, like, garbage that was
being given away or roadsided or something. Yeah. And although that was,
like, funny, it just… I was like, well, I'm on the commission, bro.
473
01:24:12.570 --> 01:24:32.310
Council Chambers: like, mentioned this. Right. Not that everyone probably
didn't see it, or… I didn't see that. That would be, like, a very
elaborate box around the, like, a couple weeks ago, I guess. There's an
interesting discussion around those works in particular, yeah.
474
01:24:32.310 --> 01:24:53.519
Council Chambers: I wonder if the re-siting, like, because it's… I mean,
it's already come into the city's assets, but maybe that could be a good
framing of, like, this now belongs to the city, and therefore, like,
we're going to, like, bundle them up and, like, re-site them. I don't
know if, like…
475
01:24:53.540 --> 01:25:04.979
Council Chambers: I know that Jonah wanted them originally to be wood,
and they were like, no, they have to be painted, so they wanted them to
be white, and that was the whole uproar, and now they're blue, so maybe,
like, getting back in touch with the artist and be like.
476
01:25:05.110 --> 01:25:14.740
Council Chambers: when we recite these, do you want them to be a
different color? Yeah. Yeah, definitely, and that was… that's been part
of the discussion that we've been having in the… in the
477
01:25:14.740 --> 01:25:26.619
Council Chambers: committee meeting is… exactly. Yeah. And he's kind of…
we don't know each other in real life, but we're, like, online friends,
and he's also kind of a fine painter, so I could… I would be happy to
help. Yeah, yeah.
478
01:25:26.740 --> 01:25:48.839
Council Chambers: Cool. That's great. And also, before we… it would also
be interesting, in the context of that conversation, and especially in
the context of the conversation around what's happening with Memorial
Field, and what's forthcoming at the skate park, to also have the
conversation, perhaps, with the artist or for the city to understand
itself.
479
01:25:48.840 --> 01:25:51.080
Council Chambers: With, like, legal, maybe, literally.
480
01:25:52.660 --> 01:26:03.719
Council Chambers: About revisiting the nature of them being interactive
pieces, because that was the inherent conflict here, is that the creative
community identified them as interactive, and
481
01:26:03.720 --> 01:26:28.559
Council Chambers: sort of the powers that be that were overseeing the
pieces, strongly did not want that to be in the games. He did, he liked
it, that people were messing up with it, because he has a background in
graffiti and skateboarding. I think that so much of the negative reaction
from the community, especially from the
482
01:26:28.560 --> 01:26:35.670
Council Chambers: creative community about the pieces was on the kind of
artificial restriction of them, and the constant
483
01:26:36.010 --> 01:26:54.220
Council Chambers: sort of feeling that a power from above was coming down
to say, stop touching those, and the creative community as a… as a not a
unified body, but independently together, all identified them as highly
interactive, and were sort of, like, resentful that they were being told
not to engage with something that…
484
01:26:54.580 --> 01:26:57.889
Council Chambers: Felt like it was inviting engagement.
485
01:26:58.080 --> 01:27:00.699
Council Chambers: Yeah, go ahead.
486
01:27:01.090 --> 01:27:10.590
Dan Groussman: Yeah, so, regarding the art markers, we definitely have
engaged in a long conversation about this, and I understand the current
plan is to recite them.
487
01:27:10.600 --> 01:27:22.600
Dan Groussman: In our meeting, let's see, we missed our last subcommittee
meeting, so this was about a month and a half ago. You know, I really
went over with a fine-tooth comb what possible way we could
488
01:27:23.460 --> 01:27:26.330
Dan Groussman: Place these somewhere in town, now that they've been…
489
01:27:26.490 --> 01:27:41.040
Dan Groussman: inherited, for lack of a better term. Now they're owned by
the city, but we really only have two methods to accession works, either
through our normal accession process or through a gift policy, and this
one probably fits most closely with a gift policy.
490
01:27:41.110 --> 01:27:46.539
Dan Groussman: In our policies and procedures manual, what do you call
it, Alexis, the PPPTP?
491
01:27:46.540 --> 01:27:50.200
Council Chambers: Yeah, A, H plus B. A H plus B.
492
01:27:50.200 --> 01:28:02.689
Dan Groussman: So, using that as a guide, which I do, I'm a by-the-book,
you know, I take my commissioner duties real seriously, and I try to
steward the, at least through my position, what's
493
01:28:03.210 --> 01:28:05.879
Dan Groussman: Intended through code and… and…
494
01:28:06.300 --> 01:28:19.119
Dan Groussman: The gift policy, the first line item on the gift policy is
it says the… all the accession… normal accession requirements need to be
met. So you just kick back to the accession policies, and the first 5
bullet points are…
495
01:28:19.120 --> 01:28:41.789
Dan Groussman: That the artwork shall be of distinctive artistic merit,
aesthetic quality, and enhance the diversity of public art collection.
The next one is that it shall be appropriate for its site, scale,
material, form, and content, both in its immediate and general social and
physical environment. The third is that it shall be reasonable, durable
against theft, vandalism, weather, and excessive maintenance costs.
496
01:28:41.810 --> 01:28:44.899
Dan Groussman: The fourth is that it, that…
497
01:28:45.140 --> 01:28:50.259
Dan Groussman: The incession implies the responsibility to preserve,
protect, and display the artwork.
498
01:28:50.520 --> 01:29:07.550
Dan Groussman: And, the fifth is that, there's an implication of the
work's permanence. I don't think these works tick any of those boxes.
It's not the original intended art. We've obviously seen a long history
of vandalism. The current,
499
01:29:07.550 --> 01:29:14.240
Dan Groussman: Maintenance plant isn't being maintained, the code after
coat after coat of paint is essentially changing the art.
500
01:29:14.450 --> 01:29:17.440
Dan Groussman: They never went through a normal, pro-
501
01:29:17.680 --> 01:29:22.800
Dan Groussman: a formal, accession procedure, and I know that
502
01:29:23.110 --> 01:29:36.109
Dan Groussman: it's a pretty good compromise to have them removed. I'm
quite pleased to see them being removed from the public realm without the
public being a participatory body in the accession of them, so I'm glad
to see them removed, but
503
01:29:36.120 --> 01:29:43.570
Dan Groussman: now that we're tasked with reciting them somewhere in
town, I… I'm gonna encourage my colleagues to reject the reciting.
504
01:29:43.890 --> 01:29:48.480
Dan Groussman: Because of the code requirements not being met.
505
01:29:51.750 --> 01:30:02.100
Council Chambers: So it's like… yeah, it's just like a… I mean, it's a
discussion, right? I mean, part of the accession process is the
Commission making that… the deliberating of that and making that
recommendation. And so…
506
01:30:02.320 --> 01:30:20.960
Council Chambers: like, I think that Dan's perspective is super valid,
but, like, everyone's gonna have their own perspective, and that's, like,
at the body, you guys get to make that decision. I guess my question for
Dan would be, on what level would you… would your, would you be more or
less flexible if the artist
507
01:30:21.050 --> 01:30:33.630
Council Chambers: was reintegrated into the conversation around the
reciting. Before you reply then, what I would just add to that is that
what feels especially tricky about this particular
508
01:30:34.080 --> 01:30:53.480
Council Chambers: asset is that it has changed from, you know, the… what
the project was at the moment where we would have ordinarily come in for
a session, and what the project looks like today. They're different
pieces. Like, fundamentally, they're different pieces. And so, it feels…
509
01:30:54.090 --> 01:31:07.359
Council Chambers: inopportune for us to be commenting on, the current,
you know, the project as it currently stands, given the fact that it is…
it has strayed from the original artist's intent, and it was not…
510
01:31:07.610 --> 01:31:25.010
Council Chambers: I think we need to absolve both ourselves and the city
from any responsibility in that, like, kind of manipulation of the piece
from where it originally started to where it is today. That wasn't the
choice of the city, that wasn't the choice of PTAC, and so that's why
this feels like an especially dynamic conversation, because
511
01:31:25.010 --> 01:31:33.129
Council Chambers: In my view, it really shouldn't be a conversation
about, are we accessioning the pieces as they exist today, but more of a
nuanced conversation around
512
01:31:33.330 --> 01:31:43.649
Council Chambers: How do we re-engage the original artist and the
original intent of those pieces to help get it back closer to what it
would have been initially
513
01:31:43.950 --> 01:31:57.759
Council Chambers: to then have the conversation about accessioning it,
because they're not what they were, or what they… they're not what they
were supposed to be, so it's not really fair to judge their current… you
know what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah. That's just food for thought. Go ahead,
Dan.
514
01:31:58.210 --> 01:32:12.689
Dan Groussman: Well, so say they were even stripped down to their
original form, which was the thing that was approved by the review
committee that approved those works of art, but in no stage in that
process was the public involved.
515
01:32:12.800 --> 01:32:23.909
Dan Groussman: Our, history is that public art, sculpture going in the
public sidewalk, there has to be an opportunity for the, citizen to
review.
516
01:32:23.910 --> 01:32:38.130
Dan Groussman: and make comments. We've done that in the past with an
open house, with small models of things. I mean, to just segue from your
point, they've changed so much that it's essentially
517
01:32:38.320 --> 01:32:56.140
Dan Groussman: starting over, it'd be… it would be accessioning works of
art that have completely changed. The printed materials that are still
out there online from the artist are… are vastly different from the
actual, you know, incarnate sculptures that are now on the street. So.
518
01:32:56.140 --> 01:32:56.530
Council Chambers: Yeah.
519
01:32:56.530 --> 01:33:18.180
Dan Groussman: No, and it is a tricky thing, and it's probably wise to
approach this with a sense of compromise, and that's why initially I was
leaning towards, yeah, let's recite them, that would be good, but
reciting them anywhere on public property would essentially be
accessioning them through a gift policy, and we are duty-bound to make
sure that
520
01:33:19.070 --> 01:33:34.280
Dan Groussman: the maintenance costs alone, we've seen that they require
repainting all the time, there are parts that go missing, and we had to
contact the artist to get parts returned, and now it's such a iconic, I
don't know, problematic
521
01:33:34.650 --> 01:33:45.569
Dan Groussman: work, I can't really see a successful future. Maybe after
a couple generations, it's gonna go down, I think, as the tidal clock,
which Ben referred to as the tidy bowl, you know?
522
01:33:46.010 --> 01:33:55.900
Dan Groussman: And I'm not a big fan of our sculptures being, having
their names changed through… Anyway…
523
01:33:55.900 --> 01:33:56.600
Council Chambers: Yeah.
524
01:33:56.600 --> 01:34:11.029
Dan Groussman: I don't have to worry about a re-election for you, Ben,
that's okay, so… But, yeah, you know, I really tried to scour my mind of
how we could make this work, and I honestly, to have them recited on
private property, and maybe
525
01:34:11.490 --> 01:34:27.630
Dan Groussman: keep them green, that could work, or strip them down to
white and have them put somewhere on private property, but yeah, I just
cannot get behind. And I know when I say I… when I say I'm going to
encourage my fellow commissioners to…
526
01:34:27.630 --> 01:34:37.079
Dan Groussman: think along the same lines. It's because that's how
democracy works. That's why we have these meetings. You try to influence
other people through a fair and transparent method to
527
01:34:37.180 --> 01:34:42.999
Dan Groussman: your perspective, and so I hope that others will share my
perspective.
528
01:34:43.370 --> 01:34:53.960
Council Chambers: Yeah. I would just add that, Jonah was selected, or he
was, it was published in the Peninsula Daily News about Jonah's selection
as the artist for this on February 10th, 2021.
529
01:34:54.570 --> 01:35:06.730
Council Chambers: very different time, very different world. And
including, one of the reasons I mentioned that this is kind of a tricky
and should be a more dynamic conversation around, like, the many layers
of
530
01:35:07.140 --> 01:35:14.349
Council Chambers: What ultimately ended up happening with these pieces,
and the culturally different moment we're currently standing in, is that
531
01:35:15.070 --> 01:35:19.389
Council Chambers: 2021 Fort Townsend and Jefferson County had a very
different
532
01:35:19.610 --> 01:35:23.160
Council Chambers: Public philosophy around engagement with
533
01:35:23.400 --> 01:35:33.490
Council Chambers: public expressions of art. And we're kind of riding a
high right now of this beautiful memorial field project, where it feels
like there's a moment of a lot more…
534
01:35:33.670 --> 01:35:57.949
Council Chambers: People are like, wow, art is cool! Well, and people,
okay, the city, which is the most important part, like, the powers that
be sort of see that, like, there is an ability for this community to
respectfully engage in public, ad hoc, you know, spontaneous expressions
of creativity, and if that is a cultural direction that the Port County
Arts Commission would like to see their community move.
535
01:35:57.950 --> 01:36:18.840
Council Chambers: then that's where there's room for this to be a more
dynamic conversation around, you know, at the time of that accession, the
idea that these pieces would be engaging, it was an honest part. That was
not gonna happen. There was no world where that would be possible. The
world feels different now. It feels like that is a more possible path
forward, than…
536
01:36:18.840 --> 01:36:27.899
Council Chambers: would be… would eliminate some of those concerns that
Dan has around, around the maintenance and the… and the constant cleaning
of them, because
537
01:36:28.510 --> 01:36:41.529
Council Chambers: our own commissioners have had various ideas about how
to creatively engage with those pieces. Members of city staff have had
creative ideas around how they could be creatively engaged with, so,
it's… it's all on the table. Go ahead, Simon.
538
01:36:42.010 --> 01:36:46.329
Council Chambers: Since the public wasn't… involved? Could we involve
them now?
539
01:36:46.590 --> 01:36:54.170
Council Chambers: That's another part of that dynamic conversation
around… That's the part about reciting them before we just…
540
01:36:54.260 --> 01:37:12.810
Council Chambers: Furthermore, I don't think that we can… I wouldn't want
to make any decision or have any process without consulting the artist.
He's 100% available, is a… is a young, sharp mind, and, like, understands
the changing nature of these things, and, like, probably might
541
01:37:13.610 --> 01:37:16.780
Council Chambers: Yeah, I don't know, I just think he should involve
them, yeah.
542
01:37:16.910 --> 01:37:25.719
Council Chambers: That's part of that dynamic process. Yeah, yeah. Sort
of let's look at it from all sides, and think creatively about it as
well, because I think
543
01:37:26.640 --> 01:37:41.149
Council Chambers: the art is actually, art in public places, policies,
and Procedures, so it's AP… AP Cubed. The AP Cubed document, you know,
and not to say that I don't respect that document, but…
544
01:37:41.150 --> 01:37:50.560
Council Chambers: It's also of a particular time, and… and the world
moves, and the world changes, and we're seeing more engaging forms of
art, and more creative kinds of forms of…
545
01:37:50.560 --> 01:37:52.300
Council Chambers: Art comes to the community, so…
546
01:37:52.560 --> 01:38:10.559
Council Chambers: I think the thing is written in stone, so… Yeah. I
think that it's, like, a really… like I said, I think it's part of, like,
a larger discussion about the public art collection, and, like, I think
we're really well set up to have that discussion in 2026, and, for, like,
a bunch of different reasons.
547
01:38:10.560 --> 01:38:15.130
Council Chambers: And… but this should just be one part of it. I think it
would also not serve PTAC to, like.
548
01:38:15.230 --> 01:38:31.159
Council Chambers: have the partners take over another fold, like,
whatever, however much time, you know, 8 months of this commission's time
to make this decision. Like, we should look at it through, like, a
philosophical lens that we can all get behind, and then, like, figure out
the way to move forward. So, yeah.
549
01:38:31.160 --> 01:38:37.589
Dan Groussman: I would be supportive of considering them as a gift, and
then going through the gift accession policy.
550
01:38:37.590 --> 01:38:38.050
Council Chambers: Yeah.
551
01:38:38.050 --> 01:38:40.029
Dan Groussman: Be supportive of that, and involving the public.
552
01:38:40.490 --> 01:38:42.979
Council Chambers: Yeah, I think that that's… I think that's a really…
553
01:38:43.490 --> 01:39:06.480
Council Chambers: good proposal, and we'll have to look at it, like,
closely to figure out if that makes, you know, whatever. I was just gonna
second that, too. I really like the idea of involving the public,
especially the public is involving themselves, because already they want
to be involved. Let's get them involved. I'm like, if there's a way for
us to somehow…
554
01:39:06.480 --> 01:39:08.040
Council Chambers: You know,
555
01:39:08.040 --> 01:39:25.749
Council Chambers: make a discussion, that could generate direction that
includes the artist and the public. I think that's the best case
scenario. Yeah. 100%, yeah. But I don't know what that means. But it's a
good idea.
556
01:39:25.750 --> 01:39:29.250
Dan Groussman: Keep in mind, now that the city owns them, we could also
sell it.
557
01:39:30.770 --> 01:39:32.599
Council Chambers: I like that.
558
01:39:32.600 --> 01:39:33.300
Dan Groussman: Putting that out there.
559
01:39:33.300 --> 01:39:41.800
Council Chambers: It should be on the table. We could sign it. Sounds
great. I think, yeah, I think it was a great discussion, and I think we
should…
560
01:39:42.470 --> 01:39:46.910
Council Chambers: Like, move on, yeah, and come back… well, come back to
it with, like, a, like…
561
01:39:47.420 --> 01:39:54.979
Council Chambers: maybe with a proposal from the Public Art Committee, or
from, you know, like, so that we have something to talk about around.
Cool. Yeah.
562
01:39:55.140 --> 01:39:55.950
Council Chambers: Craig.
563
01:39:56.670 --> 01:40:15.690
Council Chambers: So yeah, and we had some other things that we were
talking about in committee that I think, again, fit into this idea of,
like, a little bit of a larger philosophical bucket, like, we talked
about more education outreach around the public art collection, which
feels like it would also be good to do, you know, in conjunction with
other bigger conversations.
564
01:40:15.760 --> 01:40:26.550
Council Chambers: And also about, like, how to collaborate with other
public entities. But again, that's, like, a lot easier if we know what…
why and how we want to collaborate and what we're trying to achieve.
565
01:40:27.990 --> 01:40:31.290
Council Chambers: Cool, cool. We can talk about grants.
566
01:40:31.610 --> 01:40:50.819
Council Chambers: Kate, would you walk us through your little graph?
Yeah, I made a little graph. It's not the most, like, comprehensive,
because I know this is only for one year's worth of grants, but I feel
like one of the conversations that came up in the meeting that we had
with Simon and Joe… I mean, we talked about a lot of different things,
but one of the things that came up was… was this idea of,
567
01:40:51.650 --> 01:41:15.369
Council Chambers: that the distribution of grants is a little bit tricky,
because you have… since they have to be expended by the end of the year,
like, you have this shorter period at the end for grantees to use their
funding, and a much longer period at the beginning of the year. And so I
just did, like, kind of, like, some rough math around that, and what it
looked like from last year, which was, as you can see in this graph, you
know, we had 13 applications submitted in
568
01:41:15.590 --> 01:41:24.679
Council Chambers: or yeah, I wasn't here then, but at the, you know, in
the first round of the year, which I think was in February, and granted
in March, and then the last only had 9, so,
569
01:41:25.210 --> 01:41:43.719
Council Chambers: And it was a similar breakdown with the amount
requested, like, there's almost $50,000 worth of requests in the first
round, and $17,000 in the last. And when I averaged those things, like,
averaged the number of applicants and the budget amount, it kind of came
out pretty elegantly that it was about
570
01:41:43.990 --> 01:41:51.339
Council Chambers: You know, 30%, or whatever, 20% more at the beginning
of the year than at the end.
571
01:41:51.350 --> 01:42:06.819
Council Chambers: And so I was gonna… I'd like… I was wondering, or I
wanted to propose to the Commission that maybe, like, there's still more
discussion to do about, like, a larger grants overhaul, and, like, many
different ways that we could… that the Commission could consider
572
01:42:06.830 --> 01:42:26.240
Council Chambers: changing the way that grants are distributed, but it's
kind of a big conversation. There's a lot of different ways that that
could happen. There's a lot of different models out there that are
interesting, but I'm already having people asking me about 2025 grants,
or 2026 grants, when they're going to come, what time, you know, when,
and that kind of thing. And I had…
573
01:42:26.980 --> 01:42:33.229
Council Chambers: The thought that perhaps a sort of a small tweak like
this that feels like it aligns better with
574
01:42:33.450 --> 01:42:40.310
Council Chambers: The way that the distribution is actually working could
be something interesting to do for 2020.
575
01:42:40.310 --> 01:42:57.520
Council Chambers: 6, so instead of having three grant rounds of the same
number, have a larger grant round at the beginning of the year, a mid-
sized one in the middle of the year, and a slightly smaller one at the
end of the year, because that is more fairly distributed for the amount
of projects that are out there that qualify for the funding.
576
01:42:58.800 --> 01:43:04.680
Council Chambers: And then I also wanted to ask the Commission if they
wanted to go ahead and
577
01:43:04.680 --> 01:43:25.170
Council Chambers: vote on when to have the meetings in 2026, so that
people know, because I've been getting questions about, like, when's the
round gonna open, like, when do we need to get our applications in? And I
was going to propose that we did the same thing… do the same as was done
in 2025, because I know that was already a change from the year before,
just for consistency.
578
01:43:25.170 --> 01:43:29.189
Council Chambers: I don't… I think that that meant that… I think it was
March…
579
01:43:29.400 --> 01:43:40.279
Council Chambers: June and September when grants were considered in 2025,
so I would… I would propose the Commission to consider keeping that
scheduled to 2026.
580
01:43:41.170 --> 01:43:42.900
Council Chambers: And then…
581
01:43:43.030 --> 01:43:53.089
Council Chambers: the only other thing I wanted to mention was that we
did also talk about a survey, like, surveying grantees and asking them
for feedback.
582
01:43:53.100 --> 01:44:06.409
Council Chambers: And I would be really interested to hear from
commissioners if they have any suggestions of what kind of questions they
want… want… what feedback they'd want to hear from grantees, so that I
could… that would help me develop that survey, if anyone has.
583
01:44:06.500 --> 01:44:08.270
Council Chambers: Some suggestions about that.
584
01:44:08.750 --> 01:44:18.539
Council Chambers: But anyway, so that was what I sort of took away from
the meeting that Simon and Joe and I had, was like, wow, there's so many
things that we could do, and there's so many good ideas, but, like.
585
01:44:18.600 --> 01:44:28.799
Council Chambers: Maybe it's a conversation we need to start in the
beginning of the year, so that we have more time to kind of, like,
develop something more meaningful, and maybe right now we could just make
some
586
01:44:29.180 --> 01:44:44.930
Council Chambers: smaller changes that feel like they would align. Like,
I know a lot of people who applied in this first round who were, like,
very disappointed in the amount of funding versus the amount of need that
was expressed, and I…
587
01:44:44.930 --> 01:44:53.809
Council Chambers: don't… and I, like, at the last round, we actually sort
of ended up… we actually funded everyone in almost completely in full.
588
01:44:53.810 --> 01:45:12.050
Council Chambers: So I don't know. What that tells me is that there may
be some rebalancing that could be done, so… I think… I agree that it
should happen at the same time as last year, because this is… it's kind
of an experiment, right? So we would love to know if this is actually
happening
589
01:45:12.050 --> 01:45:20.190
Council Chambers: Right. Yeah. You have to schedule the same, tweak the
amounts, and then that will inform 2027. Right.
590
01:45:20.200 --> 01:45:35.249
Council Chambers: Again, I would echo that. My question would be, whether
we're… I mean, it's all public record, so it's not, like, hidden from
anybody, but whether the specific dollar amounts would be kind of
advertised alongside the opportunity, like,
591
01:45:35.720 --> 01:45:46.830
Council Chambers: I could see it being argued both ways, like, saying,
oh, we'll be giving $13,000 in this first round and $7,000 in the last
round, or, to your point about it being kind of an experiment if we just…
592
01:45:47.360 --> 01:45:59.300
Council Chambers: you know, PTAC has $30,000 to award for the year, and
then when we get into the meeting, it's like, well, we're looking at
$13,000 this first time. We're, you know, we're giving ourselves that
amount to play with this first time.
593
01:45:59.540 --> 01:46:14.730
Council Chambers: Because then it could carry over. If we only had, you
know, $12,000 worth of really qualified applicants, we could bump and
reserve that $1,000 for the middle or the latter session, right? Like,
that would just be that kind of question. Yeah, that could be a cool…
594
01:46:14.800 --> 01:46:32.580
Council Chambers: inner working opportunities. Yeah, yeah. Open to that.
Yeah, yeah, just for… Yeah, I mean, I think it's legitimate to say, like,
we also, we don't know that there will be $30,000 yet until the budget
process is completed, but I think it would be, you know, legitimate to
say PTAC has X amount of dollars.
595
01:46:32.580 --> 01:46:42.780
Council Chambers: the given grants, and they will be given, you know, and
they're going to be given in three rounds. Right. I don't know that it
has to be specified before the meeting exactly how much will be given
each round.
596
01:46:42.780 --> 01:46:45.280
Council Chambers: So… Yep.
597
01:46:46.430 --> 01:46:48.029
Council Chambers: Go ahead, Dan. Oh, Dan.
598
01:46:49.630 --> 01:47:14.619
Dan Groussman: Yeah, especially if it turns out that if there's any money
left over, because that's our big panic every year is, oh, we don't want
to have any money left over, but if it comes back that we can roll that
into our municipal art fund, then that takes the pressure off. And wow,
these are fascinating numbers. Yeah, I think in the spring, people have
all their projects in mind, and yeah, I'd be supportive of, like, a 45%,
then 30%, 25%,
599
01:47:14.620 --> 01:47:16.310
Dan Groussman: Something close to what you have.
600
01:47:16.310 --> 01:47:23.820
Dan Groussman: And using, using this year as, as, you know, referencing
the logic behind it. So, I think that's a really good idea.
601
01:47:24.140 --> 01:47:30.430
Council Chambers: Awesome. Cool way to work those numbers, Katie.
602
01:47:30.480 --> 01:47:44.500
Council Chambers: I couldn't even count the number of peas in our homes.
Oh, thank goodness for Katie. I just said that, like, completely wrong
letters the first time. I was like, A triple P. It didn't even make any
sense.
603
01:47:44.570 --> 01:47:57.019
Council Chambers: I don't know if this is something that needs to be,
like, voted on at all, or if it's, like, a motion, or if it's just, like,
something that, like, we're discussing right now, but, I guess that would
be my question. You know?
604
01:47:57.100 --> 01:47:59.289
Council Chambers: Yeah. Is there,
605
01:47:59.880 --> 01:48:23.810
Council Chambers: Is there… is there more historical data, like, from
years past? There is. Is that what you're saying? It's in the public
record? No, it's a… it's in my practice. Just wondering if this is, like,
a consistent representation of, like, you know, past years, and I don't
know if that even matters, but I was just kind of, like, trying to think
about, like.
606
01:48:23.810 --> 01:48:36.900
Council Chambers: what the pushback could be, and it's kind of like,
there is, like, a seasonality nature to certain types of, like, events,
and I'm like, well, I'm just imagining myself being like, oh, I'm the
person that
607
01:48:36.900 --> 01:48:43.049
Council Chambers: Works with a, you know, a performative arts group that,
like, only does a winter… Right.
608
01:48:43.110 --> 01:48:50.930
Council Chambers: thing, and then it's like, well, all the spring people
get, like, more, you know what I mean? Like, I was just trying to, like…
I mean, you don't have to… you don't have to wait.
609
01:48:50.930 --> 01:49:15.739
Council Chambers: like, if you know you're having an event in December,
you can apply for it. Oh, okay, that's a good, it's hard to go back.
Right, right. Like, if you're planning ahead, and you're like, I have a
play in September, you can apply in March. Can you apply, in March for,
like, way later? Yeah. I would also add, the year-over-year thing gets
tricky, but if your event is in January, you can apply in September.
610
01:49:15.740 --> 01:49:27.639
Council Chambers: your funds have to be expended in the same fiscal year
that they were awarded, but they probably will be because it's a
reimbursable grant. So if your event is in January or February, you're
probably paying your…
611
01:49:27.720 --> 01:49:41.080
Council Chambers: you know, your advertising liaison, the leader in
December, or, you know, you're buying your supplies in November for your
January-February event. So it's theoretical you could be booking a future
year event in the last round.
612
01:49:41.110 --> 01:50:04.390
Council Chambers: It's just trickier, and that's one of the reasons why
you'll see fewer applicants in that last quarter or trimester, because,
they have to spend the money by the end of the year. So, our meeting's
September 3rd, you're gonna… I mean, money's fast, but it's not
immediate. It takes a while to get your contract and get everything
sorted. You also have to spend the money, and then it's a reimbursable.
So, you really only have
613
01:50:04.760 --> 01:50:10.489
Council Chambers: maybe two, three months, two and a half months, kind
of, to get those funds wet. So…
614
01:50:10.590 --> 01:50:15.320
Council Chambers: The nature of the timing also means that it's a smaller
amount that they're trying to stay.
615
01:50:17.150 --> 01:50:22.510
Council Chambers: But yeah, you can apply up through the end of the year
in any of these rounds, so…
616
01:50:22.820 --> 01:50:41.219
Council Chambers: But it just happens that if you apply at the end of the
year, that you have less competition, because there's not people who are
doing things that long time. But I do highlight that because shoulder
season events, and our grant does tend to favor a vet, that's another
thing I hope that the grant committee
617
01:50:41.260 --> 01:50:54.820
Council Chambers: thinks about and talk about is, like, other creative
ways to award financial assistance to artists. Because we are so events-
based right now, and shoulder season events are more highly favored by
618
01:50:55.000 --> 01:51:11.639
Council Chambers: tourism stakeholders, because there's more inventory in
hotel rooms, there's more of a greater need to keep the economy going in
those shoulder seasons, helping more people connect with the opportunity
of that third trimester and first trimester grand, rather.
619
01:51:11.640 --> 01:51:16.860
Council Chambers: Spread the word. You still can do a January, February
event, there's an opportunity.
620
01:51:17.490 --> 01:51:22.469
Council Chambers: Other thing I was gonna say, Joshua, in terms of
historical data, is kind of…
621
01:51:22.490 --> 01:51:42.719
Council Chambers: it's a little bit hard to parse, because prior to last
year, PTAC just gave away, like, $3,000 every meeting. Every other
meeting. Oh, really? Okay. So it was, like, it was… it was, like, these
very small pots of money that were distributed, sort of, like, in little…
yeah, so it didn't really… the correspondence isn't that clear. Cool,
yeah.
622
01:51:43.000 --> 01:51:51.120
Dan Groussman: Also, because of the small amount, it affected people's
ask. Like, people were just… it was a daunting process, so it really
skewed the request.
623
01:51:51.120 --> 01:51:52.870
Council Chambers: Yeah. Yeah.
624
01:51:54.120 --> 01:52:02.989
Council Chambers: But, so yeah, my question is, like, I don't know if
we're, like, great, this sounds good, or, like, cool, or if we have… if
there's any, like, motion… any specific…
625
01:52:03.460 --> 01:52:23.549
Council Chambers: like, motion that the Commission has to take to, like,
tweak something like this. Yeah, we would want to… we would want to make
a motion that does, you know, what the formal, like, financial commitment
and schedule that we want to adopt, March, June. I guess those are… this
could be two separate motions, that we're gonna affirm that we're gonna
do March, June, and September funding rounds.
626
01:52:23.550 --> 01:52:31.000
Council Chambers: And then that they're going to correspond to these
financial marketers is sort of a separate question. I guess we could take
a quick temperature check.
627
01:52:31.130 --> 01:52:53.410
Council Chambers: Because I hear Katie saying that she's getting requests
from the public to have these numbers in mind as, like, organizations and
independent individuals are thinking about their… Yeah, that's really
good. Yeah, more really the dates. Okay. So, if I can just ask, like, a
temperature check, do you… is there anyone who feels…
628
01:52:54.530 --> 01:53:07.630
Council Chambers: that they would really like more time to think about
this, that this is something we could vote on in December, or does this
feel like these dollar amounts and this proposed schedule is, like.
629
01:53:08.620 --> 01:53:16.430
Council Chambers: Fair, and worth… So, solidifying today, so that we can
start the 2026 planning for the public.
630
01:53:18.710 --> 01:53:37.509
Council Chambers: There's no pressure. Genuinely no pressure either way.
I think this makes a lot of sense. I'd like to throw out a detail. I… I
love this, especially because it's one change, and not more than one
change, because of the experimental nature and the unfolding, emergent
nature of this, like.
631
01:53:37.510 --> 01:53:43.780
Council Chambers: we're, like, feeling, you know? I like that it's one
change. Yeah, so we're in the same place.
632
01:53:45.070 --> 01:53:55.830
Council Chambers: Same months, it makes sense. Okay. I didn't want to
pressure you to take that. We want to hear from everybody, Tommy. Dan,
any sense on that one?
633
01:53:56.860 --> 01:54:00.480
Dan Groussman: I love it. I'm ready to make a motion if nobody else is
ready.
634
01:54:00.960 --> 01:54:13.970
Council Chambers: Okay. Hold that thought, Simon, any objection, or… No.
Ready to move on? I know it's not as grand. We were, like, talking about,
like, brand new world, but I felt like maybe just this is a good start.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
635
01:54:14.480 --> 01:54:17.390
Council Chambers: Alright, Dan, are you ready for one great big motion?
636
01:54:17.390 --> 01:54:26.370
Dan Groussman: Sure, yes, I move that we maintain a March, June,
September format, funding 45% in the first trimester.
637
01:54:26.470 --> 01:54:31.099
Dan Groussman: 30% in the second trimester, and 25% in the third
trimester.
638
01:54:32.630 --> 01:54:37.589
Council Chambers: We know that those numbers add up to 100.
639
01:54:37.590 --> 01:54:39.000
Dan Groussman: I went to art school, but I can add.
640
01:54:39.000 --> 01:54:50.960
Council Chambers: Okay, who would like to second that motion? I'll
second. Okay, all in favor of the, allocation time… allocation and time
breakdown?
641
01:54:53.680 --> 01:55:18.370
Council Chambers: Oh, that's unanimous! Great! Alright, cool. Katie, tell
your people! Alright, thanks guys. And you all tell your people to go
visit Katie every Thursday from 12 to 2 at the Fort Thomas Public
Library, where she can help them navigate these processes, learn about
the Arts Commission… Help them with their nominations if they're
computed. Yeah. Everyone… Has everyone down their charge for that?
642
01:55:18.370 --> 01:55:20.649
Council Chambers: The next, and then when we meet again.
643
01:55:20.650 --> 01:55:41.969
Council Chambers: over your Friendsgiving, over your Thanksgiving, over
your Black Friday shopping at the Maker's Market down, you're gonna be
looking for creative people, you're gonna be telling them about the
opportunity to nominate other creative people, or themselves, or, you
know, yeah, right? Is that something we can all commit to doing?
644
01:55:42.140 --> 01:55:49.180
Council Chambers: Probably 3 people between now and our next meeting.
Three people who are… who you know, don't know about the work.
645
01:55:49.880 --> 01:56:06.269
Council Chambers: And you all have the date on your calendars. How
exciting! We'll celebrate the absence of the leap year. Two days later.
One last thing I want to mention is that, after our final meeting of the
year next…
646
01:56:06.640 --> 01:56:09.029
Council Chambers: Mom? Yeah.
647
01:56:09.270 --> 01:56:34.069
Council Chambers: plan to stick around for a few minutes for a little
appreciation. All the advisory moment. Are you gonna be… Bring me food?
If I'm not here, you'll know why. We'll be sending you a treat. The full
moon, too. Oh, that'd be cool. Yeah.
648
01:56:35.140 --> 01:56:44.969
Council Chambers: And yeah, you'll still be… you'll still be with us,
Ben, right? Okay. We can also, we can also bid a bond and say farewell to
them.
649
01:56:45.010 --> 01:56:47.569
Council Chambers: And maybe we can even,
650
01:56:47.620 --> 01:56:57.420
Council Chambers: We'll see about laughing Joe and just having my
minutes, that would be great. It's true. I already arranged for his gift,
so they should come in.
651
01:56:57.620 --> 01:57:17.690
Council Chambers: Oh, good! Yeah, I was wondering about that, because 5
years of service, it feels like there should be some recognition, though.
Oh, oh, well, it's a gift… I arranged for gifts first. Oh, oh, oh, okay,
okay. All right. If there's anything you'd love to see on the December
agenda, please email it to artscom at cityofpt.us.
652
01:57:17.690 --> 01:57:29.629
Council Chambers: I don't think there's any correspondence, and our next
meeting is, Baby Tillman's due date, so September 4th, so we will see all
of those who are available, be here in Chamber.
653
01:57:30.430 --> 01:57:34.970
Council Chambers: Great. Thank you! 5 o'clock on the notes!
654
01:57:34.970 --> 01:57:36.859
Dan Groussman: Good work, everybody. Good drink.