001[Music] that [Music] this is B I don't think so I don't know who's been to our house the woman on there afan America hi there Welcome to our public art commission meeting we've got a few more folks coming on and um yes I am Bonita and I think I see everybody coming in um okay if you have any trouble let me no um I think I've got everybody open for um conversation got a few more Commissioners coming on here Alis here hold on hey Vina can you let me in you're in you okay see uh I don't see everybody I only see um I don't see like who's in the meeting or anybody else's faces I I don't see faces either I'm just seeing names for folks so um let me double check here to
002make sure I got them I've got coming in the correct way hold on apologize recording in progress everybody should be available here shortly hi there thanks for being so patient I wish I could say I never make any more zoom errors I cannot say that three years four years in how many years has it been yes seems like it change this every day something different noticed okay Robin and okay Larry this is Nan are you having trouble with your screen yes I'm I don't see anything at the moment what um to another public art commission um uh convention meeting and every one or two months we here on zoom and the welcome of aard for attendees to come over to provide your insights and your new ideas and to give us more suggestions and my
003name is f i Am the current president for AAPAC and my associate Jamal probably is also somewhere doing other important public art related projects now and uh but anyhow let's start and uh Bonita has suggested we should look all over the uh the agenda oh Jamal is there hello Jamal so today we call the meeting to order at 705 on March the 6 2024 and first we will do the roll call and uh this is f Jang uh I'm based in an number Michigan present at noox church now and Marana Mary anetta are you able to speak now okay I go for uh Sophie grillet are you are muted please yes s GRE here in an arbor and Peggy leard Peggy Leonard um here in Arbor Michigan oh yeah and Mary seos everybody um I'm
004here at president in Grass Lake oh great Jamal Bufford Jamal Bufford present ifs Salan Michigan okay Cynthia Harrison president in an arbor excellent and we have uh uh oh my sorry uh Alison Neil everybody Alison Neil present an arbor okay do I have any others no and uh the next thing we'll look uh do you have oh sorry for all the Commissioners have you ever previewed the agenda do we have approval for upcoming agenda can we give you an emoji I move y okay and uh all of us right okay okay I still need to marinetta PO Potter can you also speak I don't know why she couldn't hear me okay all right and and uh we have approved of the minutes and on the agenda and we will move forward you do a first
005a second then all in favor and then any discussion for each motion first and second a first and a second all in favor any discussion okay first and second so I I first I I said yes and then someone else needs to say yes and then we all vote and then we have a discussion in case anyone wants to add anything it seems backwards but that's just the way it works okay okay and I'm happy to Second thank you sure so all in favor we'll move on thank you yes all right and uh we have a following some old business to yeah oh we do have some public comments coming on the agenda and uh do we have a is anyone present here will give us some report on the old business uh I it
006looks like from the the agenda I'm looking at it's approval of agenda and then public comment and then Nancy is first under the public comment yeah so yeah okay let me is after the approval of minutes down a little bit further yes yes sorry that this is the public comment yes I was looking the next okay com is Nancy Nancy here I am here okay great Nancy please go for it thank you thank you very much I'm Nancy Margolis I'm the executive director of embracing our differences the art and education program all about diversity promoting diversity we were thrilled to receive the golden paintbrush award from you all and I wanted to say thank you very much and I wanted to thank you also for this I think I can lift it can you see
007this wonderful tile that was presented to us as well um for receiving the golden paintbrush award wow we we'll figure out where we're going to put it we will have a whole new exhibit up in Gala Park and Riverside Park uh hopefully May 1 and I would love to take all of you on a chour thank you very much thank you Nancy it's a wonderful report and next we will have Nan plumber are you there I'm here thank you n thank you fun um I'm with the Treeline Conservancy uh the the tree line it's I think it says Tree Town Conservancy which I like but it's not what we're actually called and we're called the tree line conservancy and I talked to you just about exactly a year ago about an art project um that
008we're uh undertaking at our test Trail at 4:15 West Washington which is just across the street from the Y and goes all the way through to Liberty Street and I want to recognize uh two very important Partners in that project who are here tonight Larry and Lucy Nissen Hello Larry and Lucy wave so everybody knows who you are and uh I have a short PowerPoint just to bring you up to date and to get any suggestions and advice that that you have may I share my screen now sure okay good are you able yes yes there okay can we see that okay sure yeah now the miracle will be can I Advance it so thank you very much for uh having me uh to to talk to you a little bit um the tree line
009for those of you who may not know is a planned and in the planning stages urban trail that will go from Arbor pond Pond uh Arbor Pond Argus pond at the hiron river all the way to the um Stadium area through the heart of an arbor and it's been in the planning stages for a long time it's hard to go through a 200y old city but uh we're making good progress and we've been using a city lot at 4:15 West Washington to test parts of our ideas and challenge ourselves to what we're going to need to encounter uh as as we get the big bucks that it will need to build this Trail so [Music] I'm now I'm working on uh pushing this forward hang on just a second okay there we go so the
010this is a view of the lot at uh 415 West Washington that's its address um and it's this is taken from upstairs at the Y and uh the test Trail if you can see my arrow here goes where these cars are parked now there's just a line of bumpers concrete parking bumpers that um that we are using for the the trail itself um this is a city owned lot and uh you may have heard some about it if you follow development matters uh in the in the press in the city reports the city owns it the DDA uses it for parking it's adjacent to the Watco an arbor railroad which runs along here and comes across Washington Street on a Trestle and then comes to street level at Liberty at the other end of this
011lot the city is looking at it as a potential housing site as it is with all the downtown Parcels that it owns it's a Brownfield in need of remediation it's been blighted for many many years decades there have been lots of interesting ideas for what to do with it it's in the historic district which makes it a little more challenging the one thing we know about it is that access is promised to the tree line and to the chimney Swifts that live in this chimney it's protected for that so not much we know but uh we're we're virtually certain that the tree line will go through there it's not a lovely place even if you didn't know the soil was contaminated uh it's it's clearly blighted and it's got a L neighborhood around it and
012it's really a sore thumb this is the general route of the tree line and that's where it goes now here's an artists rendering of what that might look like from the air here's Washington Street here's Liberty Street who knows what's going to be on this lot but something like this is certainly possible in the future so we've been experimenting with beneficial plantings and um just keeping the site cleaned up we've put up signage about what the tree line is and what this site will mean for the tree line and what used to be there this great team has come together to welcome people into the test trail with a work of art it was Larry and Lucy's idea to do something Artful at some one end or another or both of this this lot to
013let people know that it's there because it's hard to see in and uh Larry got me in touch with uh W WAP John who goes by at Graff Factory he's a graphic designer and fabricator of all kinds of ways to use words in our environment and Bill burgard who's at the UFM uh stamp school so we have uh been working on this idea for a while and we have uh something we'd like to show you that we think is going to be a great way to welcome people into this uh Trail this is the site as it as it looked just before we put the trail in the this is Liberty Street and this is this is taken from probably the sidewalk right across uh the street at the um Todman School of Architecture and
014design laboratory and Annex so it's not much to look at and even when you can see the trail and our signage on the street you might not know what you're looking yeah so bill has Bill Berard has come up with um a really fascinating idea that meets the dda's needs for for people inside and outside the parking lot to be able to see in and out so here's Bill's sketch over a a bit of the fence um that we were just looking at for scale here's a 10- foot section so this would be about 30 ft along the sidewalk and he's created this very Lively drawing and you'll have to read out our signs those would go away this Lively drawing that would be translated into three dimensions on on the fence and the way
015that uh W John proposes to do that is by digitizing this very image all the relevant parts of the image laser cutting it out of powdercoated aluminum so it' be very durable and very light would be laser cut and the edges routed so that they would all be safe edges would be mounted from the back of the fence so you wouldn't see the mountings and here's one of the things I just love about it is it would be removable and we could put it some we could put it back we could put it somewhere else because whatever happens on this lot eventually the fence won't survive the parking lot probably won't survive we don't know what might go there except the tree line but we know the tree line is going to need public art
016on it and so this work of art could persist um and exist in other places after it has served its purpose to welcome people into this part of the test Trail uh bill has told me that one of his Inspirations for that drawing is the work of the Sculptor Marshall Fredericks and I'm trained as an art historian and I'm trained to go look for sources so I went looking and you can see how how bill has translated into his drawing that sort of upward aspiration feeling this love of the natural world the inclusion of human beings in interesting postures so I'll go back and you can kind of see uh where that influence is but that was one of his Inspirations it should be noted that bill was the person who the water tower by
017the reconed building on was I think they had 500 people apply for Designing it and Bill was the person who was chosen to design the water tower so it's his design right now that is on that water tower he's extremely competent and we're very fortunate to have him engaged yes he's he's uh clearly not afraid of challenging and unusual projects so um the next steps that I know of is to get a firm approval from the DDA we've kept them in the loop all along but we need need them to look me in the eye and say yes you may do this uh we'll need to create new signage that tells people about this Gateway and tells people about the tree line but we need to clean up this this fence a little bit um
018we'll need to fabricate it obviously and install it which actually won't take a very long time I'm told so that's uh that's what I have to show you and um I'm here to answer any questions and take your advice what else in your in your experience and your realm of uh control do you do you suggest we need to do or should do I would love to know that yeah all keep that in mind and further provide feedback to Nancy and the next one will be Robin uh Suitor for a report on the Eber white mini roundabout discussion hello I'm Robin hi Robin yes um so yeah so I'm here to discuss the ew white mini roundabout that was just kind of finished up at the five-way intersection of Eber white Madison Mount Vernon and
019Mount Pleasant and I have some pictures that I can share here in a minute but so I just kind of wanted to let you know that we're moving moving forward with this it'll be a fully funded mural project and treetown murals will be doing the mural and we're hoping to involve the community like the Eber white some Eber White Elementary students and also people in the neighborhood that would be interested um and I've been in contact with Mary and about this the talk of this project um and in the middle there will be plantings that the neighborhood is coordinating to go along with the mural and the Anarbor Art Center will also be promoting this project and we're kind of hoping that maybe this would be like a pilot project to like spark more creativity
020and get more art and neighborhoods throughout the city so so we're just in the very beginning and I can share my screen and show you what the roundabout is see if I can do this so this is a closeup of it and let's see if I can back up to show you the let's see is it showing the other one see y we can see it further away now okay yeah yeah so those are just some um neat aerial photos to show you the space and so it's it's not necessarily a sidewalk it's just kind of in the middle to help with the traffic flow so I think adding art would maybe make it even more noticeable and add some interest yeah we look forward the neighborhood would appreciate on all the Kinder Arts that
021I have worked with and for second graders they would love that you know when they were you know taken to the school on the way out you know they might want to look around you know that was a nice uh add-on to the school community and next we will have Christa ska and uh you will provide us some feedback and Report uh yes Sophie please could I just um make a a comment about the the roundabout sure I think it's important to have some art on it not only for just because it would look more lovely because it's a bit plain right now but also to make people notice it more because it's very inviting for people to just drive straight over it especially if there's a a dusting of snow so I think it
022would be you know useful to make people more aware of it yeah where and what to do with it so uh Robin have you ever sent out an artist call open call for that uh whatever statue or sculpture or any like installation have you sent out an open call or or or it's only in the pr prayer Preparatory stage now or um so I was talking with Mary in regards to having treetown murals is going murals oh okay to orchestrate the artwork that will go there okay our Mary yes okay great thank you okay next please yeah I have a question are we are we wanting to have discussion after each of these presentations or are we coming back to that uh I think we can actually start going now right for n plumber do
023you think uh for her project tree town maybe Mary has some something to say also for the I'm just curious of the format of when you would like the commission's input on these different projects should we I think right now it's better we're not going coming back right now it's the good moment okay yes well should we go back to Nan Nan you had some questions for the commission you wanted some feedback okay so could you just refresh um Nan Prof sure sure gladly um yeah thanks for the the time to talk I appreciate um the um jurisdiction over this site is multi-layered and uh before we put anything up I want to make sure that we've made sure that that everyone who has a stake in this is okay with what with what we're
024planning to do and I haven't been through this process in an arbor before although I've been through it a lot in other places and in fact used to direct such processes but every place is different so I want to make sure that I'm not missing anything and that um that I get all the advice I can from you sure yeah I think Addison has something to say please go yeah I think you kind of touched on this I was gonna ask how the ownership Works in that property and what the plan was for maintenance and ownership of the artwork um in general when pieces have been placed on two city property they they um are then donated to the city and they become city property and then the city maintains them but I don't know
025if that's the plan along here or not there is an agreement and a process that is to make that happen um okay that's good to know I think the tree line in general is a project that the tree line Conservancy is working on for the benefit of the city and the whole thing will become the city's asset right now well well there's certain parts of it that we have uh that we we do in common it's really all on the treel line conservancy and so um without really thinking it through my assumption had been that this would be our thing and we can take it down and move it when the city or whoever operates that lot doesn't need it there anymore doesn't want it there anymore um and that we would take responsibility for
026for maintaining it in in the interim but if that's not allowed then I'd love the direction to the paperwork for um for that kind of arrangement I I I've never had it be a temporary thing I mean we've had temporary installments where the ownership still was the cities and they could take it down whenever they wanted so this would be a new situation um but I think you would just want to you know talk that through potentially with Bonita offline um and city folks to figure all that out um and likely you've done this but you know having a maintenance plan from Bill that he submits that says what would we need to go into maintaining the piece how to treat the piece if it does get vandalized Etc um those types of things we
027generally ask from from artists when we take on pieces so that the city can plan for and budget for maintaining them accordingly sure sure thank you Alison for providing that good advice and next we'll have uh Sophie oh oh yes Peggy Peggy please go oh you are muted uh Nan I just want to thank you for coming and continuing uh the discussion about the tree line it's I think a really exciting project I know it's enormous um but it's going to be great and I love the fact that the art is could be removed it's kind of temporary and so if as as the tree line progresses and you want to move it to another spot or needs to be moved I I like that aspect so the design is great and thanks for keeping
028us updated thank you for com thank you I I do have one question back to you all I mean do you want it or would you rather we kept it I mean is there a do you see an advantage for ownership being one way or the other I mean some of the places that this might go in fact that it probably will go won't necessarily be owned by the city yet it'll be a decade before the city owns the whole thing um to put it fairly optimistically so um on the other hand we have all we can say grace over I don't know that we need a work of art to take care of but do you have a feeling about should it should we do this the kind of the old way or should
029we try this new way do you have a feeling about that you mean new way in terms of you would own it and I would try for the new way I think just because I'm not sure if the city owns it if it will stay where it's supposed to stay I mean it might get stuck somewhere and maybe that wouldn't be the best spot for it I don't know Allison what do you think you have more experience with City with art installation in the city I don't know what the city would say um I think it's more about how they feel about potentially having to maintain something that isn't theirs because it'll be on their property um so if something happened and then God forbid you guys go away and they need to remove it
030from the fence or if they need to do maintenance to the fence and it needs to be moved or something you know so there so we need to write something down we write something and the legal department will probably want to be involved in some way and deciding how that happens but I Echo Peggy I'm excited to see something going in there I walk past that every day and we and when last time you were here I think we were talking about art would be great in that space so I'm so glad to see that happening it's it's really happening thank you Lucy and Larry yeah thank yeah yeah put together a great team so the they at the city um I have folks that I work with on a regular basis about the tree
031line is there anyone else that you would say oh this is the person you need to talk to about that Vita Cynthia or Vita would know probably Vita would know Cynthia do you have a take on it since you're on city council yes yes I I I do not have a take on it right now um Bita may I I can find out but to give you an answer right now just to give you one I no I do not I do not but it's obscure you you shouldn't feel bad about that soita I will I will give you a call soon and we'll we'll figure this out that' be fine man I do some connections for you I'll get some information when when you're ready all right I have a question Nan yes um
032if if it's done if another one is done on the Washington Street end of that section will you have to start all over again or is there a way to get approvals that could cover um both ends you know I think that uh if uh my guess is I'm sort of reading the zoom room here that more art is better in in the group opinion here generally speaking more art more better um that if and we have and I'm hearing we're going to need to write an agreement whichever way it goes and um we could certainly write that agreement and extend it to include any future second installation on this site because it would be a very similar kind of uh process project I would be inclined to use the same creative team so just
033for the consistency s yeah all for yeah thank you all for the feedback and great advice next please uh Sophie oh um yeah I I I didn't realize when you were first presenting that it was a a temporary thing so I'm glad you clarified that um I'm just wondering how temporary you're saying maybe 10 years but we don't know so in some ways it should be treated almost as permanent although then you would have to think what if anything would happen to the art at the end of it but as far as the the agreement would go it seems to me that the best thing would be to you to write what you would like and then the city you know adjust it as necessary rather than and don't try and ask them because it's
034a new thing so you've probably thought about it more than they have about how you would like it to be can accommodate more to your way of looking at it which seems to make sense um and also I was thinking in terms of temporary it might be possible just to have intentionally temporary art and have a rotation so then people might go through you know one year or the next year or one month or the next month and be interested to see what's changed yes that would be lovely I there are only one and a half of us on the staff and I have about $110 million do to raise so I this is the this is as Larry and I have often talked about this is the fun part for me I love my
035job I really do but as an old Arts girl this is this is really the The Sweet Spot here so that's a wonderful idea and I and I'm it will be really really fun to come back and talk with you about art on the trail generally because there will be other places and I would like there to be an art plan and um and may I don't know about you but I've been on Trails before where unwanted works of public sculpture just kind of get stuck because oh they need art on that trail let's just put that there and then you know what happens so um uh I would like art to be a living part an active part of the entire tree line and I think that's how the board has seen it from
036the very beginning and a place that or places that are just like you described Sophie places where people want to come on the trail to see what's new and that continues to invite them in uh I think will be um one of its distinctives if we can we can get this done and that's one of the reasons I'm so grateful to Larry and Lucy because they they understand about uh activating cities with with art and to uh to do that from the very beginning to have this opportunity to experiment with that is really a great gift with the anab parks be a good partner for you are they already involved no they are not involved and and we've agreed that we will not try to involve them they have okay they they don't want any
037more to have to take care of now that said okay there have been a couple practical things that when we've needed help that only they can give us they have been generous about that but this is not going to be a park and there will be no Parks budget for it in our lifetimes so that's why there is a treel line Conservancy honestly is to is to is to raise the money to take care of this forever I have a general question not just about the tree line does the public art commission um interact with the parks uh the parks for art that might go in Parks is that is that considered public art commission business or is that a separate unit yeah so the an public art commission Works its way through all of
038the CIP projects each year on an annual basis and makes recommendations for projects that could have enhancements or public art included in those projects which includes Parks projects so like one of those on our list of recommendations is that um the gallop bridge and so they came presented to us about artwork that they were going to have at one of the ends of the gallop and that some of the work that they're trying to do along the paths as well so um the only way that we interact is we make recommendations that's all the commissions actually really allowed to do is make recommendations we don't have our own budget or anything like that so we make recommendations about how CIP projects could be enhanced and then City staff that is over those projects will hopefully
039move those forward and often will come to us and say hey this is what we're thinking this is the project we're doing and we kind of do this kind of back and forth similar to what how we're talking to Nan about that project and give recommendations about the call and things like that and similar to like this roundabout project yeah yeah they have reached out to the N Arbor Art Center regarding the bridge and the Art Center is now working with them on possibilities yeah they have a call yeah um could the public art commission help if Larry and I wanted to get some art wanted to sponsor some art in um Parks an arbor Parks could you guys help move that along sounds like no AR well um we could if there if we
040wanted to donate through our endowment but um I'm not sure if that would be the most streamlined way of doing it to be honest uh uh could you advise us perhaps on what the most streamlined way would be um it probably depends on what area or what park you're looking at but Venita would know who the best contact at the parks would be if you have a specific place or location you're looking at activating great okay thank you that you wanted you want to do this and the process is slow is that what you're finding we're sure yeah sure yeah yeah that is often a problem with many projects within the city it just takes time more time we want I don't know if we really have an answer for streamlining but if you talk
041to Vita she could probably put you in touch with maybe some people that could help you and come back and see us and we'll give you encouragement okay offer much else but we'll give you support and encouragement yeah I can Larry I can touch Bas with you um but before the week is out I'll collect some information for you and give you a phone call and possibly give you a staff contact who might be able to help you okay I also just want to add I want to thank both of you for coming tonight you know I've never met you my name is Peggy Leonard I've lived in an arbor forever but I've admired a lot of projects that you funded and I've always wondered who are these amazing people who keep money into art
042projects and so it's fun to see you so thank you nice to meet you thank you for all you do for our city you make it beautiful and you have more coming so that's fun trying y yep great thank you thank you so much yeah and we want to do a lot more right at some point um I don't know maybe you will be very interested in giving us a little bit you know a slideshow about your your raise the the money the sponsorship for all the other public project you have done for anab I didn't know much about that if you could I mean in another side side um you know talk whatever yeah if you could give us some ideas and that would be fun to to learn about your you know contribution
043to making and number a beautiful Town sure and our idea is to be engaged with people like n and Robin who know how to get things done I mean that's what our experience is if you work with high quality people who know how to get stuff done stuff gets done and Nancy of course Nancy's amazing Nancy is the best absolutely yeah really what she's done is remarkable Mary Mary's phenomenal too we're doing the bridge in front of the Delana Center and the design is that her husband's just done the absolute incredibly gorgeous design that all the residents of the Delana Center are going to be able to enjoy so some of the and everyone yeah but I'm saying some of the more disenfranchised people in an arbor are going to have the most beautiful art
044outside their door and Mary's and Daniel are making that happen thank you for your generosity Sophie and Westside Art Hop Sophie has been the guiding force in making Westside Art Hop happen and really if it wasn't for Sophie it wouldn't be happening yeah there are so many pioneers in this small team thank you all yeah for all the great contribution thank you thank you Bonita for bringing us all on board on the same boat thank you so next we will can we also to provide Robin some ideas if you have uh any I was gonna say you know this this is all because of Larry and Lucy that I'm helping with this so yeah any feedback would be much appreciated it's important to know though that Robin the reason we talk to Robin is because
045Robin has been in charge of the ice cream social at Eber white for the past two or three years which is an incredibly challenging difficult job and she has done just an outstanding job of making it happen so that's why we talked with her because we know she gets done so uh we are just so appreciative to have her engaged with this do you have a time frame Robin for your project what you're looking at well I was talking to Mary earlier this week in regards to like hoping to move things along so that it would be possible by like early summer thinking that with when school is out there's also like the um spring Westside art art hop that happens like I don't know if we could tie that into it um but so
046just trying to hopefully move things along for a spring summer timeline Robin I took for granted that you were a city staff employee that was wor was part of like roads but clearly not so I guess my my followup question would be have you connected with the city and gotten all those folks on board who like would need to approve that project um so I did talk to Bita earlier well I guess it was a couple weeks ago and so it sounds like um the city would be on board to help with uh coordinating the permits and stuff once we have a solid plan of what we exactly are doing and they're and I will be assisting in that permiting and Discovery process right now I have the year of lots of different departments in
047the city because of the underpass project so it's kind of the timing is perfect um we had to find out first who's right of way it was and it's not M dos so thank god um so the city's been incredibly Cooperative with um getting through the engineering the legal departments um and so I'm hoping we can just kind of piggyback on that enthusiasm um making this a neighborhood-wide project paint by um paint by number kind of style with students tying it into the Art Hop potentially it's not a very large space so creating a couple of community um participatory days where we could have people sign up up um and then the design itself I'm looking at working with the fifth graders um to come up with some concept so it would be our role
048um with Tre murals would be really to facilitate and Usher it through um but that the project itself would be designed and implemented by The Neighborhood the students and the community and as most of you know this has become one of our areas of expertise and so we're very excited to help kind of Usher this through I think this is great I mean we've had some stumbling blocks in the past as partners being able to paint streets sidewalks anything um with art so hopefully this will be the first step to making that possible and doing something more permanent at the lovely intersection of Liberty in Maine or somewhere else too this is I agree lots of places for where the tree Washington Street is one of them yes Nan the because the the tree line
049will come uh will come alongside the Y and cross Washington Street at grade and asphalt art is is a way to slow traffic draw attention to the fact that this isn't just a regular part of the road and make it beautiful and there are other places like like Liberty and first for example is that right no yeah Liberty First Madison and Maine where the trail will cross so is is the artwork in the in that Central Area is that where it's going to be so it'll be there's a sidewalk that goes around oh okay okay so it'll be on the sidewalk okay thank you it's an interesting because there's not really a path to it so it'll be and there'll be some plantings in the middle too hopefully that will draw attention to it also
050great thank you excellent so I'll be done with this uh first three conversations on this projects upcoming and next we'll have Christa I think we are waiting for Christa to inform of her community wallpaper project yeah so I'm not really sure what is I guess what I'm supposed to be sharing but I was had read in the on M live a while ago that the an arbor Arts commission was considering making the throne bathrooms that are coming to town one of their public art projects and if they were I was really hoping they would consider having me um do the project I'm the person that doesn't go somewhere unless I know what the bathroom situation will be so I'm super excited about the throne bathrooms coming into town and I um would love to make
051it a community project I recently did a wallpaper in town here in Whitmore Lake and I would love to implement that same method to do a different style wallpaper for the throw bathrooms and can you tell us what what that means a w paper yeah uh I'll see I've never done a um share screen so I'm going to see if I can figure this out because I have a little picture um let's see okay can you guys see those yes okay so this is the one that I did for the community center in town here I collected Post-It note self-portrait drawings of people in town heard their stories connected with a lot of people I set up at different places to get a really diverse group of people and then I just redrew them digitally
052and then had it printed on wallpaper so I would love to do something similar but do something more fun and bright so either something as simple as shapes or flowers just have people draw a symbol flower I redraw it digitally color it and then um however I've seen some of the throne bathrooms decorated um so wherever they print I'm assuming they just um print a large large panels so yeah I feel like it would be a fun way to bring attention to the throne project um and a way to kind of reduce the bathroom stigma like everyone needs these bathrooms can just be fun I love the idea I um so as I was mentioning earlier we um our advisory only pretty much and so um we have advised that we would love to see
053these temporary bathrooms be pretty and enhanced in some way so they're not just porta potties all over town basically um and so they are on our list of projects that could be enhanced um the city whoever ends up staff whoever was our staff person end up taking on that project would be in charge of um deciding if they are going to enhance them and then putting out that call for art um and working with potentially you to make them pretty um but I I think that's a great idea I love that it's really cool and thank you for presenting it to us um I don't know Vita who is in charge of that project at this this point if it's moving forward if it's been assigned yet um but sending along those pictures or things
054could be fun to just spark the interest and get them thinking about it part of it is the actual the DDA and I've shared some information that Christa provided with them already so they're just now getting together as a team to talk about the Thrones so um I I'll certainly Circle back with you Christa and give you some information and I can just give you a contact for now if you'd like until they start to have those meetings H yeah that would be great I just had a quick question when you say wallpaper what is the actual material that that's made out of I'm assuming it's something pretty durable Uhl for the throne bathrooms or for the project I did in Town Projects you did when you mentioned your wallpaper paper or something yeah that
055it's indoors so it's a peeling stick wall wallpaper I designed for a wallpaper company so they have high quality wallpaper so it' have to be something different for the throne bathrooms but same design process okay there are materials that are used for um when I was in Lexington there was another Arts organization that that took on uh wrapping the electrical the great big electrical boxes that you see on the street I'm sure you've seen some of those and that's a a vinyl product that just is cryst to set is made for exactly that kind of application wonder how durable it was on our on our electric traffic boxes around town it's pretty durable we've been working with um Deb Pollock on completing the um Power boxes completing painting of the power boxes it's been very
056slow goinging um maybe with laa being uh the permanent DDA head that might help uh speed things along um so supposedly this year they going to be repairs on the old ones that were done before as well as some new ones but we don't have the specifics so far great okay right thanks Christa for coming and meeting us yeah thank you and the next we'll have the the approval of minutes do we all approve the minutes yeah yeah yeah first second and all in favor thank you and next we go down to Old business sop you're muted we usually we do first second all in favor any opposed and then discussion and then we have a discussion even though it seems weird that since we've all approved it they have the discussion after that's just
057the way the process is so you have to open the floor for a discussion where people could yes say my name's spelled wrong in the minutes or whatever they want to say yeah I was just gonna say as a small typo on the word pictures that's all apart from that looks fine okay so let's go down to Old business so it's it's a brand new thing this time we have so many you know presenters and we have you know many old things we haven't been catching up with so the first on the old business is the 2023 annual planning discussion we actually have we ever figured out the best timing to meet up not yet right for the doodle whatever we haven't been I mean Successful right Mary are we planning to meet up uh
058for our upcoming annual report we we can we attempted to um yeah was well were we the large the larest um possibility I mean the biggest that all of us will be available is that on March something are we we would have to do another poll because all those dates have passed I I think Bita advised us that if we're going to do a planning meeting it has to happen during a public meeting so it could happen today if you were prepared to do that or at our next public meeting yeah I don't think we'll have enough time right that's right she did say that Allison yeah so I move that we move it to our April meeting okay all right do you all agree move on to the next meeting okay we we can
059hold that date um we can hold the date and um put it on the calendar and and announce it as an an annual um meeting that way the agenda doesn't get quite so full with other items and if everybody could share um the areas and the items that we'll be discussing ahead of time we can certainly add that to an agenda um so anything that you need there uh let me know I can certainly get it to a special agenda for that do you have a calendar in front of you can you give us the exact date so we can plan for that it's is it a I don't have a calendar sorry next meeting is May 1 okay so we don't meet in April so it's May 1 okay perfect that'll be our plan
060meeting plan meeting okay everyone while we're at this pause point I'm going to say thank you thank you apprciate good ideas and advice and attention thank you so much you Robin Nancy thanks everybody wonderful okay you're welcome to stay you're welcome to stay yes okay oh suddenly I I didn't know who these people I thought they are all the attendees or you know they want to learn more about our our committee okay so uh Sophie you have something to say yeah I have a question which is that I thought in the past we did have some kind of retreat where we could discuss boring complicated things without using there are always public meetings though and in the past we did them in person but we were also meeting in person and so they had to
061happen at the library I think we often did it and they were posted as public meetings so people could come and attend if they wanted no one ever came but they could so it just has to be part of it has to be a public meeting because we're all there yes and I think we did attempt to do a public meeting but John karski was bowing out because of Co or people willing to I mean I feel like we could get more work done if we were in person honestly I have a very hard time focusing on um the meat of things during these Zoom meetings personally um to me and ideas flow easier in person so that's my two cents Vina could our could our May meeting be in council chambers and also online
062or I don't know um I can find a location here in City Hall for sure I just couldn't promise um council chambers um but we've got we've got some basement conference rooms that might be available um and would John be able to join us via zoom in those was um yeah we could we could set something up where John could participate yeah he's he's yeah not willing to do in person just yet and I understand a larger room even if we were able to spread apart and and and be a little bit separate but um let I can definitely check on a room for May the 1 I like that idea it would be fun to get together again in person definitely agree thanks V is it you're welcome um would there be a um
063you still want a SE an evening meeting or would an earlier meeting help people or I mean you can think about it and let me know we've got plenty of time to plan it but um I I'd like to try to block off a room fairly early if we can I mean would be able to start a little bit earlier but I don't know everyone has different types of schedules so yeah yeah how early could people start I'm willing to take the school day off we could start really early May 1 there wasn't any special early release whatever no school or half day no not on the public school agend no I will take the P I will do an early release I don't know do we want to do like 3 o'clock might be
064fun I don't know 4 I don't know oh I could do it on the in the morning but now it's after five what did you say Jamal you're muted oh Jamal said I'm pretty free the first so if it has to be early maybe like four yeah four o'clock sounds nice or three or four whatever you guys want to do I'm flexible me too would rather switch to the morning yeah the morning session is better for me okay what time P like 9:30 to 12:30 okay how about 10 I don't I like 10 to 12 yes do we need more than two hours yeah normally right I think we need more than two hours I don't know I don't know just posing the question we've taken up to three or four hours but I don't
065think we need to I think our window produc righton oh is there a parking place I mean in the downtown area normally it's very difficult to park Point uh if we're going to city hall there's the parking structure um on Washington and fourth is probably the closest structure um but there's also like metered spots around City Hall the community okay all right yeah and those have a twoh hour max so you you enough time for a two hour meeting sure that's so we could do wor then we could do our two-hour meeting till 12 and then put more money in the meter and then go to lunch Car Town for people that want to do that I like how you're thinking Peggy day of it yeah okay okay I'll put put that onto our uh
066agend calendar whatever uh Google let let me check locations here in City Hall and check and then get back to everybody that's right yes great thank you oh almost we are running short of time we have to carry on so the next thing on the old business is City flag project update so the panel of Judges met to determine the finalists these finalists will be revealed late March of 2020 24 the public input phase will take place after this reveal with the judges reconvening to weigh The public's feedback and select a final list to present to City Hall yeah there's nothing we should do about right so it's both basically the finalist will be no but I would like to just kind of add Vanita and I and I don't want this to come across
067negatively I guess there's no other way to say it this project is really dragged on and I guess I and I guess I'm only aware of it because many of my students entered and they every week ask me and I think we started fall and so it just seems like when we have contests and things like this and I know it's not us but it would be nice if it could move a little faster it will be done I um I also want to say say that I have a concern which they can do whatever process they want but the last time we had something where there were finalists that went out to public and the public felt like they were voting and that then the piece that was picked wasn't the one the public
068picked many of you know what I'm talking about it was not taken it was not received very well so I think they should be very conscious about how they're putting it out to the public and how they're expecting the public to provide feedback that their feedback is just feedback it is not a voting process if they're if they ultimately are just going to pick whatever they want um they should just be aware of that yeah okay n uh Sophie please yeah I think the advice was and I I don't know whether this filtered down to the end of it that we should or the judges should pick as the finalists three that they would be equally happy to have win so that the public would be picking between acceptable and delightful and wonderful choices I
069mean I hope there were at least three I'm sure there would have been but that was the that was the suggestion and I I think it was somebody else who'd had a flag contest at some point was suggesting this and I can't remember how it manifested as an idea but I know we did discuss it early on when we were talking about the project so hopefully that is going to be how it works but I don't know yeah I appreciate the input and and the updates from everybody it has been a longer process for sure than anticipated um we've got a small team working on it and schedules for everybody initially just to go through all 300 projects um took quite a bit of time and mayors invol involved and we've got the city clerk
070involved as well and some other staff members um so we're getting together as frequently as we can and we're on our last section here um we're waiting to find an illustrator um who can actually look at the set of finals that we have to make some minor edits to some of the the drawings and send them back out so so we're we're doing a little bit of work behind the scenes just to make sure we're putting out the the best options that we can for folks to select from right okay maybe Christa who was just on our call maybe she what same Mir maybe she could be the illustrator if you're looking for one graphic designer really don't we rather than an illustrator because the illustr okay you can kind of clean it up and
071make sure it looks a bit more flaggy if it's kind of a rough drawing and we wanted that that I that kind of came a little bit later wasn't a something that I was aware of that needed to happen um but been told that if we have that done as part of our initial process it's something that won't have to happen later when the final is actually Chosen and goes for printing and all of those things yeah right okay thanks for the update you're welcome okay now the next thing will be the new business invitation the city of anab Downtown Development Authority DDA and planning and transportation department invite you to public workshops on three planning efforts so this is just announcement right right anab comprehensive plan downtown area circulation plan DDA development and Tif
072plan those are the coming Workshop times so I assume these are the invitations we can be participating right if we have the time yes is that right Vanita yes so just take a look and you can Circle back and uh let Bonita know if you are able to attend those one or two or all the four workshops so there's also the contact information if anyone's able to go and be the squeaky wheel for public art Capital project oh Sophie please I'm just wondering if there's um a a link or somewhere that people can go in case anyone's watching this would be interested in going to the dda's planning um uh open meetings yeah I can I can look at the original invitation uh Sophie and see if I have a a link I think this
073actually just as an email from the DDA out to everybody but I can check to see if there may be something on their website yeah the 12th 13th 14th so they're looking for public input for projects is that basically they what's what is the DDA doing I believe it's the it's public input for the redesign of the downtown business area oh right changing it changing it how that's what the committee's gonna decide okay sounds epic I don't really know I saw the at I saw for they had you know how during covid they had parts of Liberty bled off so you could have more outdoor dining and I don't know gota okay those types of things I think I know yeah I know on Main Street there's a sign for it in one of the
074planter boxes because I saw it today but you know sometimes you just don't want to add one more meeting to your agenda but it does sound interesting is anybody planning on attending one one of these meetings or are they all the same or is there they it seems like the public art commission should represent yeah it wasn't the potentially doesn't look like the same the time was different I think they just had the open house and kickoff okay public open house three different dates and then we have the wrap up so I'm assuming that comes after ' had all the input from other meetings so yeah different well I'll I'll try and attend some of one thanks Mary and I don't even know where are they at does anyone know the meetings where are they
075being held the district andaba district library library that's right I did read that okay okay so as we go along maybe we are better clear about our schedule in the next week we'll see how much we can get our APAC Committee Member to go to those public open houses okay the next thing is a report from staff I'm sorry I think that's a duplicate yeah that's what I assume is the same okay thank you next report from our committees do we have any special you know project to report yes please Sophie me again um well at the previous meet at the last meeting I was talking about trying to organize a poetry project but um I've been told that we don't organize things we merely um encourage other people to organize things so I'm realized
076I'm not going to be able to do that so I don't know whether I was put in touch by the library with well I wasn't put in touch I was told to get in touch with a poet who does something very similar in an but after several emails I haven't had any response so I need to see if I can find another way to reach her or reach some other poets um and see if somebody might be able to move that idea along thank you for the update sopy please okay any other committee sub commmittee oh Allison how is it going with the student who wants to do the social media for hour not much I talked I talked to him he um didn't really know much about social media wasn't a social media user
077himself um after I gave him the overview of the project I said you know let me know if it's of interest and he never got back to me okay actually there's another student there's another student who is also interested okay and um yeah maybe I could put him in touch with you sure happy to talk to someone else I don't think that far the first one is going okay I will put Chris I think his name wle so in touch with you okay okay thank you any other members to report on your committees I heard last time when I was talking with Vanita and like Bonita has addressed a before um during this session she was thinking maybe next meeting during our planning meeting we should U you know write ahead of time what we
078are looking forward to do and how far we are finishing our current projects so we can have uh you know a list of things on our agenda to talk before we get to the inperson meeting in May yeah that that makes sense yeah that will prepare us yes be fine if you start to send me we can I can create a list and create an agenda for everybody yes that's great okay I do we have any special presentation for tonight Jal can you report you had a lot of events going on right last month so can can you report on something exciting I had a lot of events um yes well the Jones School documentary that was amazing that's a big deal I guess I could talk about that so I know I talked about
079probably started talking about a year ago over a year um but the Jones School documentary is now on the narb District Library website anybody can view it um getting great feedback um I played a a minor role and helping pull that together um it came out great and um yeah it kind of just tells the story of what is now Community High School and the the history of black families in that area of downtown in Arbor and you know getting pushed out and you know it's it's a great way to you know remind some communities about our history in this community and uh yeah I think it I think it turned out great so I don't really know what the there's a a a idea of making it broader to the you know broader Community
080outside of this area but I'll find out I guess it was amazing I was there Sophie was there we sat by each other and um even just to think back on it like right now it just kind of gives me chills just because there were so many things and I grew up in this town and I I was around during that time I was in elementary school but um yeah it it was just really eye openening so great and it was very well done it I was I was amazed I mean one of my sons went to Community High School and I had no idea about the history whatsoever and I don't think he did either and um the the Press of people trying trying to get in to see that movie was quite impressive
081and and people were lots and lots of people were turned away couldn't get in um to see the film and I'm so glad that I was able to because it was it was really really well made very gripping right from you know the whole thing so I thought it was a a very impressive piece of documentary um very uh very well made and very interesting and as I say a history that I mean Peggy doesn't know and she lived here I don't know and my kid went to that school so I mean probably it's been hidden till now so really congrat congratulations to everyone for bringing that to the to the surface yeah thank you for the report CIA has something to to let us know just wanted to piggyback on what Jamal said and
082one well basically Jamal mentioned uh that it reminded people what I wanted to say was it educated people because a lot of individuals didn't know so um I mean I just just looking around uh the room I was was way in the front but looking my right looking my left and and behind me there were a lot of surprised looks so I'm gonna I'm gonna venture to say that a good portion of the the room did not know I'm I'm gonna say a good portion of the community does not know um I've been really trying to promote it um and it was it was very well done music great it was it was really great so it's it's Anarbor 200.org yeah I wish they do another public showing of it too yeah yeah I was
083just going to talk to them I'm I'm planning on talking with a aadl about that I think you know it was in a smaller room I mean you know there there was something else going on in the main room but I I think it would be worth um having another viewing I think the discussion be after the viewing was really really good and that's why it's it's good for people to be able to you know log on and watch it but but I think having another showing and another public discussion afterwards is is uh warranted I I would guess they would I have I can't confirm that but you know since I I since I missed it I would actually like to be there yeah for another viewing as well um for people who didn't
084see it I think as an educator what was really appalling to me was the way we went about desegregating the schools and I I I never figured out exactly what the seven schools were where the students were all shipped off to but these kids were just put on buses and scent and and then it was interesting to hear the adults who were those children back then say how terrifying that was and how unaccepted they were at those schools and I don't know it just I don't know it just made me wishing that we could have done that better you it was terrible yeah this like she said the students at the schools that they were sent to weren't prepared for that no um the teachers either right yeah oh I'd love I'd love to see
085this this film to be screened to the student at at Pioneer High School yeah it was just a family a note sent out from the from the principal this this afternoon that there was some event in between the students some students have racial discrimination you know verbi AG whatever so might be a good educational film for the school right yeah I'm glad that the Anri library has it available to anyone who wants to watch it whenever they want so thank you Jamal for sharing that link I went and watched it immediately because I had missed the event I mean I wonder if it could be at a bigger screening like Michigan Theater somewhere you know just take it take it big yeah it was at Michigan but unfortunately the the main screen was was the
086main stage was being occupied oh great the film yeah fast way coming out yeah the the busing thing was such a disaster for lots of people and if they just made the school be really well resourced then it would it would have integrated itself you know you don't have to move anybody they would vote with their feet so and and you know we're we're still still seeing the Ripple effects in 2024 in in our neighborhoods and in our [Music] schools yeah okay that this is a wonderful meeting and we have settled so many things to discuss and Peggy you still have something I just want to add one more thing I have to do this as an art educator March is youth art month and again the um anner Public Schools art teacher teachers have
087partnered with the downtown businesses and we have art downtown so if downtown check it out we've also added something new this year on the corner of Main in Liberty we have an Arts installation of 200 yard sticks that have been painted by students from various schools and the 200 represents our Bicentennial and so yeah so that's a new colorful addition to the corner there so check out the art if you get downtown it's actually this year it's going to stay up through April 8th because we want to partner with the FES ofo celebration which is happening again that first weekend in April uh we figure people will be down we might as well promote the Arts so yeah check it out yes thank you for all these updates and uh do we have an agreement
088to aour to call aour and uh we'll look yeah thank you one more thing I just just wanted to invite everyone to the August photography museum on uh West William West William uh where I have a photo exhibition with two other artists and it's open on office hours so do drop in and have a look what's it called again V tal Tales told in brick and stone and there's a Ukrainian artist uh Ukrainian photographer and um me and one other artist who who've all done and where's the gallery phography about uh buildings and the the Resonance of empty buildings mainly it's in the Argus Museum on the corner of William and fourth got it okay Fourth Street not fourth have Street great um I'll be sending out a text to the leadership committee I think
089we should get together before the the annual before the annual yeah okay all right I don't remember what other committees I'm on I'm really terribly sorry um maybe we share that out and I'm happy to meet with anybody that wants to well and we can reassign at the next meeting at the planning meeting so get assigned then because we might change what committees we have even at that point so who knows fantastic good to see you all you're beautiful great thank you that's cor J and look forward to seeing you yeah bye bye thank you bye thank you