Ann Arbor Public Art Commission Meeting 12/7/2022

001the Ann Arbor Public art commission meeting to order December 7th at 704 pm um and I will go ahead and start with a roll call uh Allison buck present in Ann Arbor Michigan rate Jamal Bufford president in Superior Township Michigan great um myself Sarah Fuller present in Ann Arbor Michigan Sophie Grier present in Ann Arbor am I muted no we heard you loud and clear uh John katarski present in Ann Arbor Peggy Leonard present in Ann Arbor to marionetta Porter president in Ann Arbor all right Lynn song I believe is not present this evening and last but certainly not least to marry peoples oh and I think you're muted Mary yeah I'm present and in Grass Lake wonderful um all right so um I invite a motion to approve the agenda as presented do I

002have a motion to approve I need to make one change on the agenda if I could Sarah okay um we have staff here to do a presentation for the city project so could I move um Hillary up on the agenda to do a presentation yes um so do we want to do that then before report from staff or just move report from staff up um that'd be fine either either way okay then we will we will do that because I think I actually should have another section in there where she's listed as a presentation rather than I I put her in staff but okay so we'll move we can move that up okay thank you great and Mary yeah as panelists do we have an option to share screen I can I can let you

003share a screen yes okay great okay so do I have a second for the amended uh approval of the amended agenda thank you Allison um all right and then um see so the next item on the agenda is the approval of minutes from our October meeting um do I have a motion to approve the minutes I moved to approve the minutes wonderful thank you um all right so I guess we can then get started um it does look like they're so usually we have discussion after approvals if anyone has any discussion of the minute and then we can all approve any discussion from the October minute all right then um I believe we have approval to move forward um yeah right sorry oh we vote on it okay um so everyone uh and approval yes

004yes and all in favor I I perfect thank you um okay so I see that we do have a public comment um Olivia Glenn a Community High School student so perhaps we'll start with that public comment there and Olivia you have the floor hi um can you hear me we can great um I don't actually have like a public comment like to add to the discussion that's being had but I'm like sitting in on this so that I can do like uh a project for my government class where I can sort of like participate and listen to a discussion in some type of uh government thing that I'm interested in I'm really interested in artwork so I thought this would be perfect so I'm just looking forward to like hearing about everything that is fantastic

005thank you Olivia for joining us um thank you and yes uh so thank you okay well then let's move on then to uh the presentation from Hillary and Hillary you have the floor so I'm actually so I'm Peter Sanderson I'm with Washington County Parks I'm currently texting with Hillary who has just lost internet in her entire house oh no so we're trying to figure this out so maybe we could if you have something else to do for a little bit maybe we can try and sort this out and come back to us absolutely on her phone she might be able to use her phone too just a little suggestion right well but we had a PowerPoint yeah we're gonna we're gonna work through some stuff we'll be right back okay thanks sending you good luck

006yes all right so then why don't we go ahead and move on to new business and that would be um Mary your presentation from tree town uh murals good evening everyone so good to be here uh welcome Olivia glad you're tagging along um so this is this is something I wanted to bring um to the attention of the public art commission um there is some exciting New Movement for a couple of new public art projects that are going to be happening in the city of Ann Arbor starting now um a lot of the groundwork is being laid right now but the work will actually be completed in 2023. um if I can share my screen I will show you the site locations and give you a little bit of information um and let's see here

007so the um two Target locations are what we're calling um the project we're calling murals that bridge um we have two sites that have been identified for uh renewal um and the this one is the Huron Street what you're looking at is what I'm calling the underpasses which are the concrete Wing walls and then the overpass which is the kind of metal um you know structure that kind of goes over so the Ann Arbor railroad which is actually owned by Watco um goes through the town as most of you know and actually creates these um sort of gates um for people that kind of come in and exit visitors and residents um at six different locations throughout our downtown and air air area um so these spaces we see as being highly transitional between neighborhood

008and City also so many people that come into our community come off of 94 M14 so we have here the Huron Street underpass and you can kind of see where the art is proposed to go so the wing walls and then actually the the bridges over top the metal um we have identified a couple other sites and so this is looking the other direction so the metal overpass on this direction as well and then on North Main when you're going up to M14 this is a mural that was completed in 2002 so 20 years ago by myself and another local artist it was commissioned by Peter Allen and Associates who have their offices and own a couple of buildings here on the North Main Corridor and they actually reached out about kind of restoring this

009mural and the timing was pretty perfect because there was already some funding coming in and some interest to actually have this whole Space kind of overhauled so here you can see it going into town as well so we're talking again about the wing walls and the concrete and also the metal overpasses um so we are actively fundraising um we have reached almost half of our goal of um 250 000 uh which is philanthropic money from uh local um people uh Larry and Lucy Nissen have stepped up uh Peter Allen and Associates have stepped up as well as destination and Arbor so those are three funders at this time and we are working with constellation Consulting out of New York to do the rest of the fundraising and development so we're pretty confident that we will

010raise the money needed to kind of oversaw overhaul these sites um they have been um through like surveys that we've conducted people have watched Art Go Up in these sites over the years but they still remain pretty blighted um and uncared for uh being such a prominent spot in our community uh these have been identified as sites to get public art so retail murals will be kind of leading this initiative and I just wanted to put it on everybody's radar and let you all know what was what was going to be happening so I'm happy to answer any questions that folks may have or just happy to kind of um let you all know what's the what's the process for selecting the muralists um the there is no process um at this point um I

011and my husband will be doing the first base designs um so treetown murals has already been selected to do the Creative Design um because of our community connections with youth and with other artists we will definitely be bringing in other voices so um that just means that we will be kind of overseeing the initial design and um the review of that foreign exciting projects Mary and John uh well I think this is absolutely wonderful this is what um has been discussed among our commissioners for uh years about Gateway projects so there's always been talk about uh could you know this is towns have are using it as a Gateway into the town a signifier an identifier and this is exactly um uh one of the kinds of projects I think that that people uh thought

012about um and uh and I don't think there could be anybody better than Tree Town murals uh you know I watched Mary I I've watched you grow your business I've watched you interact uh I don't think there's anybody that could do Outreach as well as you I mean uh uh you know your your experience with uh with with uh young people in town uh and uh and the quality of your work is just absolutely superb so I'm delighted uh that um uh that this project is coming uh into being and that you are leading it so uh kudos to you that's absolutely spectacular cool thanks so much Jen Alison yeah I'm very excited to see this project go forward I know Mary we had been telling me about this project earlier and um of course

013Echo John sentiments that glad to see you guys are on it and making it happen um you mentioned there were six of these is the idea that these are just like the two pilots and eventually we'll do the rest and uh also I'm super excited about the fact that the metal part is Incorporated in the project now I love to see that you're like slowly inching your way and getting Headway with the railroad to do more and more of those um so that's exciting as well but yeah how are we gonna do all six yeah I'm hoping that this is kind of a like a flagship project that will just gain a lot of momentum um the sites were identified uh with the interest of really connecting the neighborhoods with the city but also just

014giving something to people that come in and out of our community every day hundreds of thousands of people visit and drive under those underpasses and I think they go unnoticed if anything um because they just they need some love uh Watco has given their full approval and support for the project so um for those of you that don't know uh this is how I got my start as a muralist was actually being arrested for painting on one of these underpasses uh 25 years ago and I I've used this story in so many different ways to work with young people especially because we just didn't know what the Avenues were and which to do it correctly with permission um certainly the charges were dropped and that summer uh seven of us painted all of the underpasses

015for the first time and this was 25 years ago so this is a project that is super near and dear to my heart and um let's just let's see how it goes I love that story Mary I'm glad it's coming full circle um and there's a lot of traffic on Huron so you know you can sit there and actually enjoy enjoy um we were at delanis today doing a window painting workshop with um many of the residents there and getting a view from the dolanus window uh it's just that the whole Space just needs a renewal so it's just super exciting to see that funding is coming in that people are passionate about it I digress do we have any other questions or comments for Mary all right I'm going to take that as as

016a no um I wonder Peter if there has been any update on the Internet situation uh Hillary is enroute to her sister's place she should be there in about five minutes all right perfect well then um why don't we go sorry I'll just wait for her to jump on the meeting and then I think whenever it's convenient we can do that fantastic that sounds like a plan so then I think we can move on then to report from staff so I think first on the agenda we have the arpa funding update hi I'm sorry oh that's fine so yeah the arpa funding yes could I um make an invitation here um we have a new council member who's joined our public art meeting this evening I'm just noticing that Cynthia Harrison is here um welcome

017um Cynthia do you want to introduce yourself and tell folks a little bit about you sure good evening everyone um my name is Cynthia Harrison and I am the new council member for Ward one and let's see a little bit about myself first of all I'm happy to be here thank you for having me um I don't know it was uh born and raised in Ann Arbor um I'm a wife I'm a mom um I work I'm a program Community program manager for the Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living [Music] um currently there I'm working on a program for re-entering Citizens I'm really excited about that um let's see what else uh my art background um all through Elementary and high school was you know singing or dancing actually lettered in choir uh I think

018acapella acquire uh so that's that's my connection to the Arts um my youngest uh I call him an artist he's a Lyricist um so I selected the uh public art public Arts uh commission just because of my family's love for the Arts and um I just thought it was an appropriate choice to make so I'm happy to be here I I was chatting with Lynn earlier I was like I didn't realize I was there was just one um liaison from city council so I I guess I've replaced her so I just asked that you be patient with me I'm learning um we were just assigned I think yesterday or two days ago officially our assignments and um I believe I've got about eight committees uh and commissions so hello welcome I'm Jamal hi Jamal is

019he there Hi friend so Jamal um you you and Pam graduated together right you did yes go rats here on that's right yes yes go rest I I graduated from here on like the mall but Jamal is younger than myself and his appears uh with my my baby sister so and he was a big supporter of mine uh during my campaign so thank you Jamal welcome thank you Cynthia um I think I just have One update for the arbor funding I don't have a lot of information on it and I think last month I may have reported that we had some initial bids that came in um we actually had no bids to do the programming for the arbor funding and we're looking at a couple of different ways um to to move that forward

020and it I believe we're going to move forward without actually carving that out and and hiring um someone to run that program for us um I'll have to share more information as I know more I know right now we're working with Lego to put all the documents together and determine how we move forward from here selfie um yeah Bonita could you tell us a bit more about that I mean um what kind of solicitation was put out and you know what were the criteria and how would people think about it and maybe just some more information would be it would be interesting it is part of a normal City bidding process so folks that would have been interested in participating in bidding and and putting in um an option to be the facilitator of the

021Opera funding they would have gone through our purchasing process we had no submittals at all for to run the arbor funding program um and as everybody knows we have a local local organizations that have expressed interest and possibly doing um the facilitation of the arbor funding um staff is working with purchasing and having some additional meetings with legal to understand how that would work and how to set that up um and that's kind of all I know at this point until I have actual more feedback from legal if I know they're working on some documents they're looking at trying to figure out how much people need to be paid what portion and how they would um disperse the funds to individuals who might want to participate who will hold those funds how do we deliver

022the funding um so are there a lot of other steps uh within it that were we weren't quite prepared for because of what didn't go through the debating process if that makes sense yeah I I'm I'm still slightly confused I'm afraid because I know when we had the the meeting whenever it was last January I can't remember what it was now kind of been January whenever it was so we had an open meeting and lots of people came in and with ideas about projects they would like to do and I'm not quite sure how those dots get connected of the people who are interested in doing projects and how would they go about finding some funding for their project what would be required for them you know maybe I can fill in a hole here

023yeah between that meeting and putting out the bid Sarah Jamal and I met and put together a proposal for how those buns would be delegated I believe we all reviewed in a meeting those um criteria that we had put together one of the items was that someone would administer those funds and that the city would hire an organization to administer the funds this is the bid to find that organization that would come up with how they would get the submissions and would manage the granting the re-granting okay and so apparently no one applied to do the re-granting and I guess my question was I assume that the organizations who had expressed interest got direct letters about the opportunity is that correct Medina and they just didn't apply um for as far as as far as

024the bidding process um I don't believe they applied I'm not sure I really don't know I didn't see I don't know we had nobody apply no one even submitted a bid right and I'm just asking did they get direct letters because I know like when the for example when the gallery in um the city hall and like the commission when that went out for bid organizations got direct letters saying this is an opportunity that you can apply for administering the gallery within Chambers because I was at the alarm at the Arts Alliance at that time and remember getting the letter and been putting together a proposal and whatnot so my assumption is and if you could just confirm at some point that those types of organizations that we kind of thought would be inclined to

025do this type of work like creative Washtenaw the art center the Community Foundation those types of places got some sort of notification that this was an opportunity um that would be good good to know at least if they got if they got that kind of notification I can certainly check with purchasing to see if they set something out like that yeah just because we didn't get any bid so otherwise yeah um oh sorry Mary did you have your hand up so will it go out back out to bid again I don't know that answer either okay I'm sorry again we're working with legal to figure out how to do this I understand that um we can do it one of two ways we could send it back out again or we have the option of

026um looking at local companies and having them do this work um but I have not been able to get complete details back yet from legal we've just had a few conversations because it really just kind of happened um I think we were all a little surprised that we didn't get any bids at all and so that kind of threw us into a completely different way of thinking about this and looking at it is there a percentage that that organization would make if they were in charge of this re-granting process I don't know Mary I have none of those details at all I just wanted to bring it forward to you to clarify because I think I reported last month that we had actual bids and we did not so I wanted to clear that up

027and just let folks know that we're still working on this when we had put together the recommendations there was a certain percentage of funding that would go to whoever administers it because we understand that that is work and well thank you so much for the update on that Vanita and we will stay tuned as things uh progress from there um and Peter it looks like you have your your hand up there I just wanted to let you know that Hillary's back and she needs to be promoted to panelists please is she actually here I don't see her she's not showing up on is she she's under the attendees she's not on my list unless I'm missing her I said yeah I don't see her oh I see I believe Hillary has joined us now welcome

028Hillary we're glad that the Internet situation has resolved itself and um if you need a few minutes or if you are ready now to present um that that is up to you are you ready ready to go now yeah ready to go now but I hate to interrupt in the middle of your conversation so if this is a good time for the rest of you that's perfect we'd actually just finished um finished that update so if you would like to have the floor please do yeah thank you and unfortunately my internet didn't resolve I actually got in the car and drove to my sister's house who fortunately only lives about 10 minutes away um I am Hillary Hansel I'm a park planner and landscape architect with the parks department um and I'm going to be

029sharing my screen here in just a second uh but I have with me today I'm not sure if he's a panelist yet um Pete Sanderson with Washtenaw County Parks um so Pete and I are collaborating on one of the two projects I'm going to be talking to you about today which is the Barton Bandimere pedestrian tunnel um so Pete um we'll be chiming in later in the presentation and Anita I just want to make sure he's a panelist as well um so really quick just for um having an agenda we'd like to talk to you about our goals today just kind of what we're looking to get out from this meeting so this is our first time interacting with your group um provide an overview of both of these Park projects and kind of our

030preliminary budgets and then run through just some broad ideas for what we're thinking public art could be in these spaces some of the considerations we're taking into account um and really looking to have a discussion with all of you and then hopefully get some clarity on the next steps um going forward in the process and so um in looking at goals for today so you know this is our initial discussion with all of you I've actually not engaged with the art commission before so I am new to this as a city staff member uh but these are the two projects that were recommended by by you for public art um incorporation and so for us part of what we'd like to hear from hear from your group is understanding you know what the expectations are

031for the public art um you know what constitutes public art kind of what the goals of the Arts are for it to achieve um understand the process that you're looking for um in relation to these two projects we'd also like to provide an overview of the interpretive master plan that Washington County Parks developed for the border to border Trail um as kind of a cohesive thought process for how arts and other interpretive elements um are included in these areas and then you know as I mentioned discussing preliminary budgets and ideas and then also discussing this role of non-city Partners and private donors because we actually have a few different partners um in the tunnel project so with that um hopefully everyone can see this map on my screen here um we just want to kind

032of show that these two projects um they're both located near the border to border Trail which is the dark blue line um and they kind of you know this this orientation on the Southeast and Northwest kind of could act as these Gateway elements into and out of the city um so it's just really interesting timing that they're both um happening in similar time frames they have similar budgets so while they don't have to have um you know similar public art there's also this opportunity for the art to relate to one another and maybe play off with each other so just to provide some context there oops and then um so the first project I'll just kind of give a broad overview so um the Gallup Park um wooden vehicle Bridge many of you might be

033familiar with this it's the bridge you cross over if you drive into the park kind of heading southbound um it's basically reached the end of its useful life um it was built in the 1970s it wasn't built for the level of use um that it currently receives today so um we've been planning for its replacement for a few years now and the proposed bridge that we'll be replacing it with will be built actually just next to it just west of the current Bridge um it will actually retain the single vehicle Lane which I think adds a lot of like traffic calming so you'll still have to yield um to any oncoming traffic on the other side but we'll actually double the sidewalk um or Trail space on either side so it'll be a little bit

034bigger um you know we're looking to incorporate wood elements it'll actually um not be made entirely out of wood just because of the um the new vehicle loads that it must carry but we're looking at corporate natural elements so it still has a park-like character and feel um but you know we do need to use those strong materials because of fire truck apparatus lows because of the construction equipment um that needs to access the south end of the park because this is really um you know one of the only ways you can get vehicles into that um Southern Park where it's uh cut off from the rest of the city with the um railroad there and then um in addition to building the actual Bridge itself we'll also be doing some reconstruction to the Park

035Road in that approach and how it connects to New Bridge as well as adjusting the surrounding trails and how they connect the bridge we're also looking to pull the border to border Trail Crossing away from the bridge currently for those that might use the bridge currently the trail crosses just south of it and there's not a lot of reaction time or sight distance for cars to kind of see what's happening and see who's coming across so this is a safety Improvement to kind of give better visibility to this very very busy Crossing um so that's kind of in a nutshell the project it's an underwater underway right now we kicked off design this fall and we're anticipating that construction could begin as early as fall or winter of 2023 um probably not being completed until

036the following summer of 24. our current estimated project cost is around 3.5 million dollars but again this is kind of a very early stage cost estimate and so as we move through design refine what's actually um occurring here that number could change um it looked like what was typically recommended to council was about one percent of the project budget so um I think we're talking about thirty five thousand dollars um but just for clarification um you know the project cost that we're talking about is all in both construction um actually construction costs as well as the design engineering costs and then the last thing to know about this project is it does it um it has received arpa funds so the American Rescue plan act funds that the city um you know selected certain projects

037so we have about 2.3 million dollars um going towards this project and um with that I'm just going to do another brief overview of our second project and then we can kind of get into the discussion for public art so the second project um you know that we're partnering with um Pete and Washington County Parks and Recreation Commission on is this Barton ban to Mary pedestrian tunnel we're also partnering with the non-profit group a Huron Waterloo Pathways initiative between shortened to hwpi um you know their funding Partners were kind of shared um we've been working on this project for several years now starting with the feasibility study back in 2019 um that confirmed that this was a project that was feasible and so now we're currently in design as well with um a similar timeline

038for construction in 2024. so what this project is is you'd actually be adding um a pedestrian tunnel um kind of just north of the North Main M14 interchange beneath um the railroad tracks here um with Bandimere Park and the border to border Trail on the East and Barton Easter area in the west So currently there's no safe and legal non-motorized connection unfortunately many people choose to trespass and cross illegally at the railroad tracks which is very dangerous and it's also a critical Gap in the border to border trail that Pete's been building um you know both from the Ann Arbor side and the west side so this will be kind of an important connection tying those two together ultimately and so our total estimated project costs at this time is about 4.5 million so again

039public art budget around 45 000. and um you know just to talk a little bit more about the tunnel it'll be very similar for those who are familiar with the Allen Creek berm opening um tunnel so it's a Concrete Culvert that's actually Precast off-site ahead of time and so this process has a lot of approvals there's a lot of complexities in how it's actually constructed because we actually have to have the railroad times we're going to be shut down for 24 hours allow us to get in do this big open cut dig out a spot where then they place you know with a large crane this tunnel and then cover it all back up put the railroad across and trains are running about 24 hours later so something to keep in mind kind of the

040complexities we'll be working with on construction here and so timeline for the tunnel project um you know this past year this past summer we began design engineering geotechnical work um kind of doing soil borings and getting the information we needed we're using the same design team as the Allen Creek berm opening so they're very familiar with what the process processes are um and then so looking into 2023 we kind of expect the whole next calendar year to be finalizing design and then obtaining all the railroad approvals that we'll need as well as permits it's a little bit of a wild card um you know the railroad approvals are not a fast process and they're not always linear so we can't know for sure how long that'll take but this is what we're hoping for we're

041also hoping to kind of Define the public art component do some additional Community engagement kind of informing Community about this project and looking at anticipated Construction in 2024 so again very similar timeline to the Gallup Park Bridge and so with that um I'll actually invite Pete uh to speak a little bit about some of the public art he's been working on at other sites along the border to border Trail and then some of the considerations that that we're kind of thinking of as we look for public art these two projects great thank you Hillary so uh thanks for having us here tonight my name is Peter Sanderson and I'm a landscape architect and project manager with Washtenaw County Parks my main job is building the border to border Trail throughout the county over the past

042four years we've built about 16 miles of trail that includes some reconstruction working with the city of Ann Arbor and lots of other partners within the county we also work with the Huron Waterloo Pathways initiative as Hillary mentioned the county has an agreement with them and they've been raising significant private funding to help with construction of the project so working with them hwpi and our other Municipal Partners like the city and the Metro Parks the DNR um and others we developed a few years ago a border to border Trail interpretive master plan and the idea with that was to provide high level guidance about what might make sense to do along the trail in terms of interpretive elements it could be historical it could be ecological it could be art it can be whatever's there

043but the real question that it was trying to answer is how can we give this a consistent look or at least a consistent theme across the entire County and also why is this piece of art or why is this specific thing being interpreted so it gave us a lot of kind of broad categories but was not getting into any sort of design detailing or anything like that so I think Hillary covered a lot of the other Parts here but one of our big questions for you tonight and um especially from myself as somebody that does not work within the city's process internally is kind of understanding your public art selection process and how does that installation work because as Hillary mentioned we have a complex engineering project going on on one hand but we also

044want to make good public space and we want to figure out what's the best way to merge these two processes or run them in parallel so that we can end up with a nice product at the end but um can you go to the next slide Hillary so this is an example of a tunnel and and the first slide there too we built this tunnel in 2020 underneath m52 so this is out by Chelsea um and we used a stone facade but this is a very similar type of construction of what we're talking about doing under the railroad but this is underneath uh State trunk line Highway we'd used Cortez steel panels on the side and these mimic the um or these are right in the area of Stover Hill which I don't know if

045you can read the text there but that's the second highest point in the county so it's basically a topographic map of the area and then the other side shows a bathymetry map of the lake which is behind the viewer in this case so we're kind of relating to the natural features using um I believe it was water jet carved corten Steel and this is also a Gateway between the Waterloo and Pinckney Recreation areas the highway is the divider line so this was something that we built during the midst of the shutdown uh in 2020. which was great because we had to shut down m52 for a few weeks but you can see we did uh Stone facade this is real Stone not concrete or not cultured stone and pavers uh and there's Lighting on the

046inside as well and then later on and there was a sculpture that was donated to the project which was installed in the vicinity as well so just kind of in the B2B master plan or the interpretive master plan it does call for occasional large-scale interventions kind of leaving it open-ended you know they could be temporary they could be permanent but something that generally encourages movement through the space was kind of one of our big goals because the trail is about movement um so something like that would make sense or it could be something small we called them secrets and surprises in the master plan something that could be uninterpreted but something that somebody could discover but uh you can see here we're kind of choosing more natural themes so that it might not seem out

047of context in a park or along a trail near the river next one so the last thing I'll just mention is the general project overview there's two main components to the project one is building a trail through Bart nature area kind of along the existing main trail that goes through between the two pedestrian bridges that part's been approved by the parks advisory commission already and um then there's the tunnel area which we're really focused on we think that it would make the most sense to try and incorporate public art in the tunnel area to leave the nature area as a nature area experience with the minimum amount of human intervention so we were kind of envisioning this like a Gateway into and out of downtown Ann Arbor which is very timely given your other Gateway

048discussions this evening um but this is really a gateway to the west side of the county we've been doing a lot of work out there to connect to Dexter into Chelsea and then up to Stockbridge and there's about 20 miles of existing trail to the east all the way through the city of Ann Arbor and into Ypsilanti and now extending into Van Buren Township in Wayne County so next slide I think Hillary if you want to take over here is that right sure well yes um yeah and so again these are just some things to think about as you go through the next slides um you know talking about the definition of public art um you know we are looking for some aesthetic enhancements to the tunnel um and the bridge so similar to what

049Pete showed whether there's um you know a stone facade or other materials and you know do those things qualify and meet the goals of public art or as public Arts something something different something separate um and then keeping in mind with the public art like what's appropriate given the park settings you know how can it relate to its surroundings and just kind of understanding that um you know when people go into these natural environments you know it's usually where they intent to um find some rest but from the the built world and and um you know just making sure that any interventions aren't um too Stark or something that would take away from that experience you know also think about safety considerations um you know just a few sheds making sure that people um you

050know the art isn't blocking um visibility you know knowing that there's not a lot of light in these places there's not a lot of eyes on them in the evening time and just considerations for maintenance and potential for vandalism as well um you know we've talked a bit about it and kind of given the complexity of the design process projects um you know it's probably going to be pretty difficult to kind of integrate public art into the design of these spaces so we've been really kind of thinking that public art is something separate from the contractor work you know possibly it could be added at the same time or afterwards um but that's something we've been kind of thinking um at this point and so for um location options on the tunnel you know we

051could talk about whether it's something um on the wing walls and the sides like these orange areas whether it's something within the actual um concrete Culvert itself this brown thing on the exterior facade or within it um there's some concerns from our design team about you know not being totally aware of what the vibration from the railroad above could do to something within the tunnel itself so they said you know it's probably okay but we can't say for sure and then you know probably the the um simplest option is you know something in Jason into the tunnel on the site and then similarly looking at the bridge you know there's opportunities uh near the bridge so there's potentially a proposed like a river Overlook spot um you know it could be something near the bridge

052and the border to border Trail on the south end or it could be added onto the bridge itself possibly on the railings or um we're considering maybe Piers that act as Gateway features on either end of the bridge itself so just some of the areas we're thinking that public art could be and then some of the ideas we've been throwing around um you know is there some you know really interesting sewn design you know on the tunnel facade or wind walls or applied to the bridge itself um something that still feels of the setting and of the Earth whether that could qualify um you know looking at is there art embedded into the wing walls um you know or embedded to the stone these are some Andy goldsworthy installations that were done um you know

053other options are you know for the tunnel um possibly a mural inside this is one in the Netherlands with um tiles that were printed and then you know obviously always an option for a statue you know something Standalone near it um you know always a little you know I I intentionally included this one the stainless steel um kind of abstract sculpture because it is something that's very contrasting with the environment around it so just being um you know something for discussion you know also these kind of slabs of stone um are really interesting but thinking about like things like safety and whether people can see if someone's hiding behind there or or what they're about to encounter um a lot of opportunities for for statues and Standalone art pieces another thing we thought could be

054interesting is a Monumental Cairn um these are kind of uh traditionally much smaller in scale but kind of Trail markers where there's stacked stones and again two Andy Gold's were the interpretations of a kind of um monolithic version of that and whether you could have one at either end of um you know these two gateways into and out of the city on the border to border Trail and then lastly um this is kind of a Whimsical one um you know some sculpture that was added to bridge railing um I mean it may be more abnormal the bridge you know there's something that could be added after the fact um that's within the scope of you know the cost that we have in the budget we have to work with um and so you know just

055pulling this back up for um opening up discussion you know two other things to consider um you know we have relatively modest butts and budgets I know that um public art can be very expensive and so in this you know 35 to 45 um you know budget if that's you know what would be appropriate for these projects you know what we could expect could be accomplished and then we've also heard um you know from some of the hwpi folks that there may be donors um or members that would be interested in kind of bolstering the art budget for the tunnel specifically and so um you know how that could work with kind of this um you know the public art commission process um and how that could affect things um so with that I think

056I just like to to open up to all of you we'd love to hear your questions and you know really this is kind of our first time talking to you we very much expect to be back um any questions you have healthy yeah um I'd just like to say how very wonderful and exciting this is and um it's great that you're thinking in terms of what what art can you put in there um because as you rightly say people do go out to experience nature but there's always a fun surprise and something that people of all ages like when there's a really good piece of art that that relates well to the environment and um you know even something like the very contemporary looking steel sculpture at a very um kind of natural curve like

057a grass in the wind or something like that so it didn't seem out of place in that way in amongst the grasses so I think it's it's wonderful the the the the difficult part in a way is figuring out how you solicit um artwork and how you decide where those where those uh additional art pieces could go um within the tunnel for example the the flooring I mean I remember one of the tunnels recently by the river near Barton was it was it had poured with rain when I went and um the day before had been massive downpour and there was so much water around and so I feel like something with tiling or something that that's made out of very non-slip or very um you know rugged and and textural tiles would be a

058really good project to do that would be useful in as well as beautiful um and there there are some things like that which are useful especially those cans and things like that so you know oh yeah we're up to here now and I'm not as lost as I thought I was and that kind of thing so a lot of the art can be can be of use as well as just beautifying things and and making it more fun and interesting foreign about um you know water and the elements out here um you know because of the floodplain levels and the fixed elevation of the railroad we do anticipate that the tunnel will have water occasionally um you know likely in the spring it won't be there all the time that's another thing to consider um

059you know in addition to the railroad vibrations above there could be additional constraints and or aware of tear on whatever art um is implemented if there is Art in that area thank you Sophie and Hillary Allison I saw your hand next yeah um I think some of the questions you had asked was about um like except what is public art and what is acceptable art and the process so um I would just say personally like I love seeing the stone and other design aspects that help enhance the area however the more advanced projects that you showed with the stone built like the sculptures built into the side and other options is what I would Define as public art rather than just great design um and I would encourage you to go that next step with

060this funding because I think that's what we're hoping to see is not just a beautiful Archway but a beautiful Archway that's enhanced with some artists um work um and I hate to limit the type of art by and and you know like when you put out the call to the artists if you have all these different areas and I would even include under the bridge over at Gallup because there's people that go under that correct and boats and stuff as opportunities for places for art um and leave it open to their creativity um specifying obviously what the budget is and you know what there are some certain restrictions and things like that and you know notifying them that it probably would happen after the construction um in the Bandimere case um but you know I

061don't think that you really need to say we're only putting a bid out for a sculpture or we're only putting out a bid for something underneath it um I think really leaving it open gives you more flexibility and could potentially give you more submissions we do have on our website site and maybe Bonita's already shared it with you I'm not sure but we put together several years ago our suggested way of doing a um call for art and how you should run the process including engaging with the community and having them be a process of the selection a part of the selection process so um that would be like our guiding document of how we think it should be done if we haven't updated that in a little while but I think it still stands

062the test of time um and of course you know along the way we are always here to help and put in our two cents great but yeah it's really exciting I think the I think the stuff that you guys identified is great like those are exact great examples of what would be awesome to see there and so you're already thinking about it you're already finding awesome examples I think you don't need us to to lock it into something specific um I think keeping an open mind really is the best route um I know it would be nice to have it like let's do this um and make it more simple but I you know I love to leave it up to creativity yeah yeah I think that's a great great point I think we're used

063to working in the world where everything's defined before it's built and we plan for years so um yeah you know I think one thing that we're thinking was if we did know ahead of time if there was a statue or something that we would design around or have a platform for integrated but I suppose just thinking about you know as the design moves forward we could also kind of do the call for art and get some of that information still have some time to react to it just given the long design time frames we have exactly like when you're getting some concrete blade you could get the foundation for a sculpture if you know you're getting a sculpture but um yeah that's why it's great that you're talking about these things this early on and

064hopefully could you know get that locked in before you'd have to go backwards and do stuff like that mm-hmm yeah and I guess one thing that I'll just kind of piggyback on that is uh the the tunnel space is a pretty tight spot to be working in a lot of that is railroad right-of-way so we will have to play some restrictions on the artist in terms of what they can and can't do because Amtrak will have to approve it and that's a process that an artist does not want to do I can almost guarantee that it's more than our art budget just to have them look at our engineering plans so um yeah I think that that that's one of the aspects of this um and then also like was mentioned but if there are

065opportunities for us to incorporate something within the tunnel that's why I think we wanted to start on this early because if it if there needs to be an engineering consideration due to the weight of the stone or because the artist needs a platform in this location or something like that we can accommodate that now but we won't be able to accommodate that once the design passes a certain point so that's why we wanted to start the conversation today thank you and uh John I saw your hand up great uh and I I agree with what Allison said but let me say that if you can get an Annie goldsworthy I will donate money to have an Andy goldsworthy piece in our town I don't care what he wants to do or he wants to put

066it you know I mean it's worth it so uh uh but um and along with what Allison was saying about what is art um uh I would like to encourage you to think about more than sculpture uh but not to exclude sculpture I mean you know there's a there's a planning term Place making and and that that kind of brings to me what what art is about it's about creating a place and uh it can be a lot of things you you can do it with and uh I I know you you had said that it's very difficult to incorporate our within the design I I I I know it is but that is the most Exquisite art and if you just look at what goldsworthy has done and really that Amsterdam mural that that

067is incorporated really kind of in the design and uh so uh you you've done your homework as well I mean that's that's the good thing you've you've taken a look at other places and um two places that come to mind uh well the tunnel let me just deal with what Pete was saying about the tunnel um uh Chicago has some wonderful artwork and tunnels right by the the the Riverwalk and they incorporate light and so you could you know rather than I noticed on the one tunnel it's there you have just a strip of neon uh going down well you could be creative with that in terms of the color and how it's sort of washing that tunnel and um and and make it you know very creative and it could be incorporated you know

068as a part of that but you know uh the uh the the the um uh I I I I would hope you you wouldn't be too discouraged about trying to incorporate design that that's the goals standard of percent for R which is this this incredible program that we had here briefly uh the other thing was the bridge the going across uh um I forget where it was but your your family park yes yes and um uh Seattle has these wonderful bridges that they literally incorporate text uh with within the bridge elements and it is it's a discussion about uh uh the use of water where water comes from the value of water and these kind of aphorisms and sort of best pride and all this kind of stuff through text and getting it tells a

069story and um and it it can teach you things and Seattle has done some wonderful things in libraries doing exactly that putting text kind of on the floor of libraries so um and and that could be incorporated within those planks uh and and you could um you know there's all different kinds of ways of sort of doing it um so I uh I I would encourage you to think outside the box in terms of our Beyond sculpture Beyond something that's just kind of stuck on uh so and I mean Pete said it all I mean you came to us because you wanted to do it before the design got going that's what we were hoping that that we could do is that uh uh that um and we have a public art idea book and

070so we have probably three or four hundred different images of murals of all kinds of different things around the world uh but I I would I would explore uh Seattle and uh and Chicago I think Victoria uh island has uh has some public art and and and in that respect uh as well uh um but let me talk a little bit about about the Outreach and so the one thing that you know I've been on the art commission way too long but the one thing that I realize if the community isn't a part of that process no matter what you do even in Andy goldsworthy they'll probably thumbs down it so you you really do your Outreach and you know I mean and Mary thiefos knows how to do this better than probably anybody but

071you know I mean an Allison has has been here you know the the artwork that is really appreciated I mean painting a a rock on Huron is a beloved piece of art a rock a boulder I mean you know because people use it they love it so the more that you can do this is the start but the more that you can do in terms of that Outreach and getting ideas and getting people to participate and to help uh it builds a constituency for your artwork and there's nothing worse than a wonderful piece of artwork that is ignored or or or you know derailed and the dry saddle piece uh in in Ann Arbor is one of my favorite artworks but people hate it they literally hate it because it it was imposed on the

072community as opposed to you know grown up from the community so um I just went all over the place but in any event uh think outside the box and we're always here we'd be willing to help it any way we can so thank you can I ask just a brief follow-up on that I really appreciate those comments um with regards to community process and selecting an artist or maybe this is a question for Mary but um what's the best what's the best way to go about that because we don't want to go too far down the community process Road without an artist to you know we we have uh you know several step process to uh you know to sort of it's trying to get it into a concept you know and how you get

073the concept is going out and asking people so you kind of have public meetings something like this and telling us what you would like to see here you know giving some ideas and which do you like best in that and and there and and we have it on um I think um of Anita or Allison has it I mean so we we have best practices exactly well the you know you you should excuse me um kind of get this concept kind of out of the community without having any particular idea so you needs public meetings and then you know then you you narrow this concept down and then you you have kind of a task force that even refines this even more and those people on the task force are from the community and and

074then you then you have a a jury of of of people that know what they're doing with public cars you know maybe a half dozen people and so that jury sort of refused reviews it down to maybe two three or four and maybe just three and then you have a you know the top three that you'd be satisfied with whichever one of those three makes it and then you put it out to sort of a public you know kind of online we don't really care what you do but some type of that that that first of all defining the concept by brought out reach and really what that does is it educates people that hey there's an art project going on oh it's going to be down here oh they asked me yeah I didn't

075know what you know so you get to talking about that then you get a task force of people that have been kind of through this and maybe represent elements of the community and that task force sort of refines the concept and then that concept is a um a call for artists and you can do it two ways you can do it a request for proposal or a request for like you would select an architect or something so and it you know I I would recommend that you don't you know narrow the artist so you just you you say that we like their work and we're confident that these people could really sort of Do It um and then they you know you get to depending on how much money you don't have a lot of

076money if it was a larger budget you would give them a stipend to come to town and maybe do a Marquette of something and then that maquette would be voted on by by the community but you don't have that much money so it's it's really kind of getting getting all those elements to kind of focus down into uh the top three and then you know let the community at large kind of you know pick from the top three that's just my idea and you can see nine other people and they'll all have probably different approaches to it but that's pretty in line with what we have put together in that document thank you John and I hope that you had your hand up um yeah sorry I'm getting another another bite here um I was

077just thinking Some some things about the way art is used and um with the tunnels of what John was mentioning about the light I mean the way a tunnel it appears when you enter it is part of the safety feature I don't know whether it actually makes it safer I suspect it does if it looks bright and interesting and welcoming um and has something in there that you would want to go into as a place it's very different from kind of scuttling through under one light so I mean the the feel of the tunnel is hugely important in how how people feel about using it um another thing about art is the interactive nature of some art um obviously kids love walking along low walls and sculptures that people can actually handle or climb on

078or or aren't in any way delicate or really important especially in a park setting where Nobody's around you need to have it you not only need to have it but it's desirable to have it so that people can lean on it sit on it climb on it without anything bad happening um the the interaction with the environment there's a wonderful wind sculpture which nobody ever sees because it's in the back Garden of the Ford Library the Presidential Library in on North Campus and it's this incredible sculpture that does all kinds of different things with the wind and you'd never believe it was only a light wind that was making it all those things it's just amazing um another thought I had was about seating obviously seating can be just a park bench but seating can

079be a 101 different things and that's a real good opportunity for having some kind of um that's integrated into the into the actual physical environment and then the last thing I was going to mention was about um with looking for artists is that if you can get a sort of open invitation just well whether it's open or whether it's individual invitation to some artists to actually come to a site that you have sort of marked as a possible spot and have them talk with you about what the constraints or needs or or criteria are for that particular spot and they can get inspiration from the place but also understand how you see it from a practical point of view and that makes it much easier for the artists to get ideas I think if they're

080they're getting the inspiration of the place and the understanding of your requirements as well thank you selfie um so these are such exciting uh projects and we definitely want to be there to support you along the way um just something Mary and I actually just worked on a project with the water treatment plant a mural and the way that we helped uh was just joining some meetings with their staff to help with putting together that proposal uh the call for art uh reviewing that reviewing the initial artists having those conversations so that's something that we can definitely do we can be there along the way to kind of help guide that process um so we're definitely willing um to to sit in on any meetings that you might want our advice um along the way

081yeah thank you I'm very much appreciate it yeah one one quick last comment I'm sorry uh there are a bunch of artworks along the um uh the border to border Trail and in the Parks uh I I think it's called the uh can you imagine art and uh those projects some of them are absolutely spectacular uh we only paid the artist five thousand dollars it was an RFP I was absolutely Blown Away part of what it was is that we promoted the fact that the artist's artwork would be incorporated within the Ann Arbor collection and that and it was going the placement of it it was going to be on this border to border Trail so you might you that that might be a real asset to leverage as a part of of your sort

082of promotion that uh you know everyone wants to have it in the collection of Ann Arbor and the border to border Trail gets a lot and they'll get increasingly more folks so just as an aside um one question I have is just I guess talking a little bit more about the process I know you mentioned there's um this resource online that will definitely uh review but just thinking more about like how the concept is developed and how the community is engaged do you have an example of any projects that that went through that and what that kind of looked like because I guess for me I'm just wondering is the concept um you know things that the art should relate to such as we want it to be about water or is it something more

083prescriptive like we're looking for a seating element um I don't know I liked you know early on you kind of mentioned like not putting a box you know making the box too tight to kind of allow for artists to interpret things so just kind of looking for your um kind of idea of what that concept that the community would be providing input on might look like Allison you're muted Allison this isn't a perfect example because they already had identified specifically they were going to do the wall but um one of the projects the bridge over by on Stadium by the Michigan Stadium um that was actually managed by the art center but that was a city project and they put it out for a call and didn't specify what had to go on the wall

084so it could be a mural it could have been and so they got all sorts of different types of submissions obviously the final submission is those Metals sculpture pieces that were installed which probably wouldn't have been submitted had they said we want to put a mural on along you know or and and put it specific to that um but yeah I mean that process they specified that they wanted something that was safe in the environment so like there's a lot of traffic with cars there so there were certain restrictions on what could go there I would see in your proposal you it have identified and and I think it's great that you want something that is more of a natural theme that fits in with the environment and the water treatment plant they specifically said

085they wanted a mural or something that celebrated the history of the water treatment plant so those sorts of specifications on the themes of the project um sort of maybe materials even if you have specifications on materials um that kind of stuff and while you already have some of those ideas I think that engagement with the public could help drive that a little bit further and have some further ideas about what people want to see when they walk past those types of environments and um maybe hone it in a little bit more but those calls I I feel like they're in our resources somewhere and you could you could look at those we definitely have the water treatment plant call somewhere that you could look at as far as like the restrictions they put on on

086that call that was a much more specific because they specifically wanted a mural but it goes into like themes and timelines and all that kind of stuff which will give you the basic Bare Bones of what you would want to include in that great thank you that's helpful and I wouldn't shy away from this that I mean in your presentation it's very clear the aesthetic that you're going for because you have so many visual examples and that's absolutely fine to put in a call for art I think that can be helpful um it can help guide an artist but artists have obviously wonderful creativity so they are going to take that and run with it um you know the call for art as Allison mentioned for the water treatment plant was pretty specific and did

087mention um even certain you know art genres um Diego Rivera as an example the Detroit industry mural so there were actually you know uh visual examples of pieces of art that they that they liked um and we got things that were very close to Diego Rivera and things that were very far away and you get everything in between so it's not bad to add those visual examples for sure great I just have a comment um Hillary and Peter thank you so much for the presentation I think the part the Parks have been an incredible partner to Art and public art over the years and um I I've just I've watched it happen I think the border to border Trail is just blossoming um so just amazing work on that I live out in Waterloo so

088I'm seeing lots of construction in that area um with the border to border the comment that I want to make is you don't have to let everybody give input on the design you're you're welcome to create a steering committee of folks that are kind of a cross-section of the community and I would encourage youth voice you know I would think about we would want to sit at the table um you know creating a press release to get excitement around this is always a good starting point MLive is great for that um so you know you really get to shape this how you want and you know there's lots of different examples on how to do that you know are you keeping this like Regional is this the regional call is this a national call you

089know like um so thinking about that and you know funneling in what's important to parks and you know if this is a pilot project for you um you know keep it insular keep it small but you know let the community know what's happening I think people just like to know what's going on um I I was on the the um the committee that's selected um that worked to select the artist that Allison was talking about and it was an arduous process um multiple panels just so many things going on and then ultimately a lot of people were unhappy with the art so you really get to you really get to make this how you want to and you know certainly you know shouting it out and letting people know what's going on but you get

090to design it and I'm happy to be a resource I didn't notice a chat but I was going to throw my email into it if I saw one but I don't see a chat option but Tree Town murals at gmail you're more than welcome to reach out to me if you have any questions or need some resources about how to put out an RFP or an RFQ thank you I appreciate that thank you Mary all right thank you so much Hillary and Peter um these are amazing projects and we are again so happy to support in any way that we can thank you for coming tonight um does anyone of anything final words to say before we move on to our next item on the agenda all right thanks again Hillary and Peter thank you

091thank you so I think the the next item we're gonna go back to report from staff and Vanita that was oh no what we just talked about of course so we were we will move on then to report from committees um and so first on the agenda we have the nominations and leadership team of John and Allison um on our 2022 leadership report and I will hand the floor over okay thank you um I think everyone's received the report uh regarding um our survey which we have been doing since 2017 is just trying to get people's idea of what what they're looking for in leaders and who they think best fill that and if there's any uh interest in being one um that um Allison is uh is going to step down because of uh

092uh like all of us many other things that uh layouts and he means there I mean Sarah not Allison yes Sarah and um uh so um um we we would hate to to put you through another year Sarah but thank you very much uh and uh um and no one else seems to be interested and as I indicated in in the report um um that um um Allison uh and myself are willing um to have our names put forward only if there's no one else that wants this this is not something that uh you know um we probably have a lot of other things I know I do I'm sure Allison does so but we're willing to do this until we can recruit uh some other leaders and um um I have I have emailed

093back and forth with Jamal and I think maybe Jamal might be interested in and continuing um uh as Vice chair uh for another term I see his head shaking so that lets me off the hook yes so um and um that I have had discussions with Mary everyone thinks Mary would be great I agree uh but Mary has uh so much on her plate uh you know uh she probably would do it if we twisted his arm but I'm not so sure it would serve her or the art commission best so um um the recommendation uh um from our our committee would be uh for uh Allison uh to step in uh for the chair and and Jamal uh continue as the vice chair um and um uh and then I I'm willing to really

094focus time on trying to recruit some folks and to and to sort of build um in particular this Leadership Council that we've talked about it's a council that is already formed uh that we have kind of missions and stuff like that where we just don't have anyone it's it's a body that we can appoint ourselves uh members too and um so uh and I have talked with Mary about uh working uh together uh to try and activate that and hopefully that could give us a um uh new people that wanted to just you know tip their toe into the the art commission kind of uh uh uh community and see what it's like and maybe we'll get some interest out of that um so that's our plan it's um uh I wish there was a

095better plan but um so and that that's our report and our plan and uh we're more than willing Allison and I to answer any questions you might have Allison do you have anything to add before uh no you covered it all um John called me after we got all the surveys and nobody wanted to be chair and just kind of said you've done it before you want to do it and I said if I have to so um the thing is is I ideally would just be doing this for a year while we kind of recruit more people who might be more interested in doing the leadership roles maybe Jamal you'll find more time on your plate and more comfort in the potential of being chair after another year as I share um so that's

096kind of what we were going with but I obviously um stepped down for the position for a reason so if there was anyone who wants it it's open as well but I'm not going to leave us an alert so I do appreciate the the um the nominations and I do see this as a role that I could really thrive in the timing is a little tight for me so I'm going to use this next year to kind of see and really Ponder because I want to give it 110 but I I don't I wouldn't want to um just fill the fill the place I I I'm really um I see a lot of potential with the public art commission um in our growth in the way we develop our own community and so when talking

097to John uh about like really growing this Advisory board or friends of the public art commission I I do also see this project that I'll be embarking on with the underpasses as being a huge step in that direction there are a lot of people that are coming into my circle that are supporters of public art that have dollars that have buildings that have interest um so I'm kind of I'm going to use this year to kind of see how this project goes which is so epic um and then hopefully grow this advisory team and then potentially in the future step into the role as chair but I do need some time to think about it healthy yeah I have a question about the um what do we call an advisory team the group is this

098the list that we made of people who might be interested in in supporting the art Commission in some ways and it seems to me there there are two aspects there are people who would want to support in terms of finances or maybe publicity or things like that and they're the other people who might want to support in a in a more um Hands-On way in whether it's finding artists doing art themselves considering doing art considering being on the commission and they're not entirely the I mean there must be overlap but they're not entirely the same group and I don't know are we going to have some sort of meeting with them what's what's the plan the ideas we've created a group that's that's that's broad so we're not saying you you have to meet at

099any you know I mean one meeting a year is all the commitment we're asking and that you're willing to list your name on this group and you know that's all the commitment we're asking from them then it's up to us to create uh some way in which these these individuals um can be engaged and um at the at the very start I imagine it's just being giving them information so giving them information about what we're doing what what our plans are and what aren't going on and just so that they have a way of of getting a feel for for what's what's going on so but you know I mean the first step is to answer a lot of the questions that you you brought up Sophie what how would it happen and and what

100would they do and uh you know I think we have a name and that's it and we have no members and uh so um and that we can appoint them so I think that um you know Mary and I if we can work together we can uh throw some ideas out and uh you know in in a few months we hope to be able to to pull together some sort of a plan and people can you know uh refine the plan and then we can you know move forward uh with yeah but you know Mary brings up a very good point I mean she's being going to be engaging a number of people I mean from kids to donors and I think I I see it what I what I was reading into what she

101said is an opportunity well hey you know if you want to get even involved why don't you allow me to you know put your name forward to the art commission for yada yada and you know on the immediate question is what do I have to do well you don't have to do anything you just have to bring an interest and to be your name on a list of other people that are also interested and we hope to these are the benefits that you'll receive so that's kind of our Our Hope and this is just a a broad brush sort of outline draft that you know we'll be able to kind of uh refine it but uh I think Mary has something to add so I just want to point out that administrative roles within the

102Arts in our community have really shifted um the Ann Arbor Community Foundation the Ann Arbor Arts Center a new administrator to city council the new DDA director we have a new team a new force of people that if we position ourselves well that we can get art on the good side of all of these people and that we can really start to create a new conversation in our community and that excites me so that that I think believe there is a working group for that leadership group uh to wrap up this working group's work of nomination we are not nominating or voting uh for chair Vice chair today I believe that will happen at our other December meeting um per the earlier discussion so at that time you guys can either put your hat in

103the ring for a chair uh or just vote is my understanding Sophie yeah I still feel like we could use a couple more members I think we spread a little bit thin everybody seems to be on several committees and I don't know if we would want to make that happen and if so how that would happen to um open up to a couple more members is that a possible thing that's part of the leadership working group um is getting those applicants we have applicants that Vanita has put together that we've looked at and made some recommendations um but that was I believe one of the goals of the leadership working group which includes um chair and vice chair though I don't see why another commissioner couldn't be on it as well to help but we

104do have one one vacancy right now um and we do have applicants um but we also have uh as we saw from the leadership survey some ideas about people uh to reach out to and invite to apply as well um which is always open I believe to any of us on the commission so so if we did want to have more than one additional commission member would that go through the city council or how would it happen would we have to sort of put in a request so you know how does how would that work anybody know we only have just one opening Sophie um I think all boards and commissions um have a standard number um I'm not sure why the our commission ended up we'll have a total of nine right yeah um

105but I can check into that with the the city clerk if there's an option of adding additional people of just I'm not sure why the number is set thank you Benita you're welcome and I just wanted to say a thank you to everyone for allowing me to be chair and um learn a lot this year um I'm just really thankful to all of you um you have all just enriched this experience so much and I will obviously still be here and I am just so thankful uh to Jamal you're an amazing Vice chair and um hopefully we'll continue to be an amazing Vice chair and uh John as always being a great cheerleader to uh to try new things and Allison you are a fantastic chair and um you got it going on so thank

106you to everyone um so I guess um the voting will obviously happen at that December Retreat which we still need to decide a date uh of when that can be so I don't know if that's something we want to try to decide um on this call I think that might be better as an email thread where we can try to designate a time and date yeah December is almost over y'all it is yeah it is to discuss this ASAP in the world of retail it seems like there's a lot longer but but yeah I can send emails out to you guys and and get a couple of dates and check the main uh City calendar for um openings again uh it can be during the week we could also do on a Saturday it doesn't

107have to be in the evening it could be midday it could be morning um so once we select the date and and how folks are most flexible we can get it fairly quickly hopefully is this going to be in person or virtual um I could do either or John but you said you prefer virtual so that'd be fine it's not that I I will not come to an in person so that's fine so that and that and that's fine with me all right yep no let's just keep it virtual then because we for all participation yep thank you all right so I think we're gonna move on then to the next um committee uh which is just going to be special projects we do have a note about the golden paintbrush um flyer that's finalized

108and opening nominations for Golden paintbrush 2023 um so the special projects working group met um yesterday and we talked and Vanita actually emailed at the perfect time the finalized flyer because we all happen to be on a call at that time so that was amazing we're committee and we were able to move forward with uh with the golden paintbrush um uh 2023 so we are going to open those nominations and then we're also hoping to this kind of goes into the communications working group slightly but place an ad in the January Observer um uh Ann Arbor Observer the January issue um just shouting out the paint golden paintbrush award and the fact that nominations are open um special projects we will continue as the process um goes on to uh tweak maybe some of the

109um judging criteria we had for judges last time and just kind of smooth that process out but we want to make sure that we get the nominations out and communicated about first and foremost um so that's kind of the major action item from special projects and um selfie oh and you're on mute yeah I have done some some tweaking of the documents from last year which um hopefully these Special Projects group have and I think Bonita I shared that folder with you also and it should have in it off the top of my head the judging criteria a PDF showing what the nomination form should look like and FAQs and maybe there's one other thing anyway but four things which are for the the 2023 nominations to start coming in and and hopefully that means

110that the graphics department or whoever it is would be able to put the nomination forms and those other information on the website so that people can actually start nominating and it's open for when the ad appears in the in the Observer so let me know anybody if you feel there's something missing or errors or confusions um would be that would be good thank you selfie um so we discussed some other things during our special project update but I know that we are coming up on time here so um I'm going to move to our next um working group which is the CIP working group um so uh that is Allison and I currently if anyone else wants to join there is a couple openings there obviously we have some great things being done with these

111uh Parks um projects which all come from that CIP work and I just have to thank David Esau if he's here he is listening um a lot of that work he did helped help that process move forward so we did receive the 2023 CIP list and Allison and I from Vinita and Allison and I will meet in early in the new year to discuss some of those projects and recommendations for art enhancements Allison do you have anything else yeah I think that's where we are with that so thank you for getting us that list Bonita um thank you and then how about business owners and developers Sean any update nothing to report okay thank you um the Outreach working group I believe marionetta Peggy and Sophie do you guys have anything anything to report on

112the Outreach front Sophie's always a great note keeper Note Taker Sophie do you have anything we did all of me yes we did we we did me and um we were we were thinking of various things we should be doing really um including the ideas that we'd had earlier and hadn't really I don't know this year nobody seemed to be able to get our act together very well um so we were thinking it would be very nice to be able to put some things onto our website and I I I'm not sure what we can and can't do with the website but it would be lovely to have something like some interviews with the golden paintbrush awardees about their work um and uh website could could maybe have links to things like local calls for

113art I don't know whether that's possible [Music] um we talked about trying to link to other art which is public in Ann Arbor but isn't the public you know our collection whether that would be a possible thing to link to like the U of M is the obvious one um yeah we the website is something that we talked about quite a bit because we feel that it isn't alive enough and it it needs to have be more attractive in some way that people would go to to find information to find something about art events or calls for art or things about art that are happening in the city um and and make it you know change more often um I think that if I'm wrong the the overall Graphics and Design of the website is

114fixed is that true so we're gonna change that um I'm sorry Sophie could I ask Peggy a really quick question as you guys were meeting um kind of along the same line I think Peggy had sent some information to me as well um well so I have a question about a community calendar versus having things added to the website because I think we've we've visited that before with City officials and because the public art commission is an advisory body um I believe what they're going to say that there is not the website is not for things like that so I'm wanting to know if what you all might be interested in doing might be better served through some of the um community calendar items that we may have through some other City Avenues um so

115I could look at that and and I could double check again with Communications I have a feeling that I know Communications will they don't want us touching the page we're going over right now a complete overhaul of the whole city um website removing Pages trying to make standard pages with standard information and standard links um for for the public but linking outside of that to other art institutions and things that I I'd have to do a little bit more checking but I'm wondering if a calendar some other other mechanisms might work to to do that too okay that that's really useful thanks Bonita here okay I can check on that yeah we were just interested in having a way to make it more interesting more lively so yeah and have more pictures and have more

116more pictures on it so I mean yeah it would be nice if it could be a bit more visual including yeah like a slideshow of our collection or the winners of the public of the golden paintbrush or things like that you know that would be nice A little Eden video Snippets of interviews with them if possible but I don't know whether that's a thing that could happen let's see what we can find yeah it seems serendipitous that you guys are working on a whole overhaul of the website in general for the city so um a good time to put in some requests and see what can happen yeah the other thing we were wondering about was um the the CIP the garytown development that John was talking about earlier for example um do we have

117any involvement in calls for art for things like that or is that left up to the developer or how does that work anybody um it is on our it is within our CIP right it is a project that was selected so it still would have the option of um going through our um don't we have a a a a a a booklet of the our art selection process um we we do have a pamphlet or there are some mechanisms and some steps that we use for that um but if it's not yet a sign we'd be looking at the same kind of thing that just happened with the board of the Border Trail once that project is assigned to somebody if there's art there we know that there's art there it's just a matter of

118who who it is assigned to and I'm not sure Sarah if on that list it might have had a staff name attached to it already so we could start reaching out in that way as well yeah I I don't remember it really depends which carry down project you're referring to so are you referring to the one that's on the corner of Catherine and of course yes because that one yeah that's a city project and that I think is through housing um then there's the one that's like right behind Detroit filling station and that's a private one and so then we don't actually have any affiliation with that other than when they present their plans to John who as part of the design review board he gets to put in his two cents and say put

119in public art um and kind of tutor horn that we that we exist right and so that's the only real input we have and then you know they could always come back to us and use us as a resource if they so please um but as a private developer they don't have to do anything beyond what's already happened that project yeah no I think John that you you already uh encouraged them and I think that they took you up on the ideas of having various bits of Art in that project the one behind The Filling Station the canopy and so forth but I think what Sophie's talking about is the one that the Housing Commission has that is a CIP uh and so I'm assuming that was identified as potential and that they uh the

120Housing Commission is wants it to be a creative Community Center so and they have locations on the outside of it for so at the uh the design review board I recommended a rotating gallery on the Arts outside and they like that idea and uh so that they're actually planning to give um preferential treatment or or preference to a certain amount of residents that are artists however that's defined so they actually want artists to live there and the ground floor is to be gallery and exhibition space and the outside is going to be designed in such a way the bricks has to be indented so that you could have a narrow three-dimensional or visual work on the north side of the building so um you know at the moment it's just getting the building uh and

121together there's there's nothing that is uh public art that's being integrated within the structure other than this gallery-like space I guess so that's the best that I can share with you at the moment and I like the idea of for any new CIP projects that are approved and then assigned that we send out a packet that maybe includes that information on recommendations for how to hold a call for art um and an invitation to come to a meeting um something like that Allison did you ever hand yeah um I love that idea so let's do that Sarah um but the other thing I was going to say as far as making the website more lively I think our hands might be tied a little bit with the website but I love the ideas of having

122interviews of like the golden print brush people and having more pictures um that's more better paint what we're doing but maybe the better Avenue for that would be through those cities Facebook page and you know we haven't had the best luck of this in the past but we can always submit information to Communications and ask them to share it so like if you guys come up with ideas and you have content or images that you want to share I think the more we send stuff to them the more likely it's going to get shared right special projects working group even adding a kind of like standing agenda item to our meetings where if there is any if people just have any ideas for post post ideas that we could give to the city Communications um

123just kind of have a an added agenda item so maybe that's something we discuss further at the December retreat but yeah right if we have the photo and the copy then who knows what could happen um so great well um if there is not any more from the Outreach working group I'm going to go ahead and move on to Communications that is myself and Allison and am I forgetting anyone on that group did we have someone else join or was that wishful thinking marionetta did you join that one marionetta did okay wonderful so we haven't met but it sounds like we have some great ideas for things that we can start doing and of course um Communications about the golden paintbrush so that Observer ad all that great stuff is going on now and um

124and hopefully we can meet soon and discuss uh more ideas and I'm sure more will be generated at our um Retreat uh Allison and marionetta do you have anything you'd like to add okay great fantastic um then we do have our fundraising working group and I believe that is Mary Allison and myself um we did meet um to discuss um Allison actually will you take the floor for this I know that you you understand a little bit better than I would um what is going on so um as you all know we have the um small little bit of a money that we earn interest in our money over at the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation um and so we were talking about having a specific process for projects to come to us to submit

125for funding each year for some of those dollars so we kind of discussed what kind of ideas we would want to put forward and what that budget would look like what that process might look like and kind of got the ball rolling on that we haven't put together the criteria yet or the application but that's our next steps is to get that going and hopefully get submissions and maybe Grant out some money in 2023. right yeah the idea is is that this mini Grant could really generate some interest across the community I could see it bolstering projects maybe not funding entire projects but being um just an additional coverage and I think it's important for the public art commission to to be more active and have our name on more projects big and small I

126love the idea of mini grants I think that you know some of these projects have massive you know budgets and it's really important that that happens but for a great many artists you know a few hundred dollars can make a massive difference and uh you know then you get lots of little things springing up here and there which is which is always going to be fun and interesting and would certainly be a reason why people might come to our website if there was a way of getting planning for things so you know and then and then those people will have more input to us as well so it all you know has a positive impact I think thank you selfie Allison and Mary um so I believe that is our last working group um so

127before we adjourn for the evening does anyone have any final thoughts um anything you would like to add marionette I just have a question since um kind of knew I haven't been to a retreat before so I know that nominations is going to be on the agenda but what happens at a retreat that's different from what happens in our regular monthly meetings it's a time to brainstorm for the future and set goals so this um this meeting helps generate a plan document so the 2023 annual plan that will go to city council so we can kind of give them an idea of this is what we'd like to do in 2023 so we're all on the same page so it's a lot more I've experienced it as a brainstorming session a collaboration and it's actually

128one of my favorite meetings because we get to do idea talk and then we get to implement it for the rest of the year as best to our abilities um but that would be my interpretation of the retreat does anyone have anything else they'd like to add about that description I think it's a really fun and kind of casual time to really put your ideas on the table I believe it's a closed meeting is that right it's not open to the public is that correct Sarah um sorry I know it's open it is open oh it's open okay usually no one comes and usually we do it in person um but right uh so I mean I I've I just attended one of these um a number of years ago and it there was a

129good Synergy I think it's a great way to kind of grasp the next year and really put some challenges to the to the commission and um collaborate you know that's that's what we what we get to do thank you marionetta um does anyone else have any final thoughts right well I have one shout out um I know that York is holding its winter Artisan Market um this Friday and Saturday from noon to four Sophie I know you were in that right last last year last time yes there are going to be some amazing artists there so just wanted to give a little shout out to that event uh Sophie well if we're shouting out events then also this weekend at the same time there's the winter art tour which has 11 venues minus one and

130a 70 80 artists I'm not sure how many and uh so if you look at the winter art to a website you'll find who they all are and some of them are open Friday Saturday and Sunday and some of them are just open one or two of those days so you have to check out who you would like to visit not the website winterart2.com that's awesome Sophie I also want to give a shout out to a tiny Expo which is happening at the Ann Arbor District Library I think that's just one day though Saturday foreign making I think at that event also which is kind of fun um 4M venue is hosting an artist meet and greet with one of um The Guild artists and he'll have work up there if you haven't been to

131the new Forum venue space over where uh Lucky's like the grocery store used to be it is phenomenal and I highly recommend you go for this event just because you can do art stuff and see their space all at the same time and get good food and drinks so and when is it a tiny Expo it's on Saturday from 11 to 2. everything's on Saturday and Sunday this weekend I heard about that new place and I have been dying to go um it sounds amazing um yay so look at this so vibrant this weekend lots of options of things to do and celebrate art so um with that um I will make a motion um to adjourn uh this evening's meeting or yes I'm making the motion and then I have a all right and

132then can I have a second to adjourn oh second thank you um all right then any discussion final discussion just thank you Cynthia for being here nice to meet you thank you thank you for having me nice to meet you all and um and all right oh sorry and Olivia yes thank you Olivia thank you so much for having me this was super interesting great great and feel free to come back again awesome thank you all right so then um is there immersion emotion to adjourn all in favor all in favor okay so we are adjourned thank you all have a wonderful meeting or a wonderful evening