001start with our roll call that would be great yes i will allison buck here david recording esau progress oh i'm sorry i was supposed to say here and in ann arbor wasn't i supposed to yes yeah sorry david you're in ann arbor sarah fuller here in ann arbor sophie gray greg here in ann arbor john catarsky here in ann arbor peggy leonard here in ann arbor well santa young you're in ann arbor you have a quorum thank you i did not wait a minute i did not call travis radina you're in ann arbor sorry travis you're all right thank you uh next on our agenda is our approval of the agenda do i have a motion to approve thank you john second david thank you any a discussion of the agenda great all in favor
002of the agenda as it is i i any opposed great the agenda is approved uh next on our agenda is public comment the commission welcomes jennifer goulet except for i spoke with her and um she's actually gonna come to our august meeting um it was kind of short notice and so we've pushed it back one more time but she is the chair of the ypsilanti arts commission and she and i have been in contact and she's going to come talk to us about what they're up to and kind of introduce herself so we can have that uh conversation back and forth a little bit in august next on our agenda is trish duckworth did i say that correctly yes that's fine it's trishay but trish is welcome thank you okay so i'll just go go
003for it yeah all right well first of all i want to thank you all for um having us in in the meeting and on the agenda i also want to thank council person travis rodina for just everything you're doing how about that but for initiating and getting us into um before the art commission um again thank you all um so why are we here we are interested in doing a black lives matter street mural here in the city of ann arbor um it means a lot to the community right to see and to know i'm that black lives matter and that we're present in a world that tries to push black lives to the back burner and not really notice and see who we are as a people we are so excited because these murals
004are going up all over of the united states even right in ypsilanti we are so excited um we will actually be painting a mural in ypsilanti on saturday and sunday um the locations are south washington street just off of michigan ave and down into riverside park off of cross street see y'all even loves black lives matter you know what i'm being like hey so we are truly excited and just come before you all to ask if you would please um vote in favor of this mural it's not just a cosmetic statement right it's not just something that we want people to just walk by and look at um this is something that we are trying to do so that we can also push programming and um do certain community activities at the site um and
005and we'll talk a little bit more about the site in a moment that we are proposing to you all trevor will come with that but again this is not just a cosmetic statement this is something that we are using to push legislative change um this is something that we want to use to bring the community together about this very serious conversation and how we need to push black lives forward and enhance the lives of black citizens across the country right but even here in ann arbor as we know ann arbor is one of the most elite cities in the united states right and what an amazing feat that would be to have this mural have programming that would uplift the black community um so i'm going to pass it over to trevor and then he
006may pass it back to me in the end hey folks thanks for having us out yeah we really appreciate it can you all hear me okay yeah good okay hey is there any way i can share my screen to do like a 60 second presentation is that all right yeah do i need to be granted permissions or made a pro owner of ann arbor or something benitez can handle that if you're just in one second how about now trevor are you all set um it looks like it's going to work okay okay let me just scootch this around real quick and all right can you all see this yes yes great great so you know yeah as trishay said we are this weekend we're painting and a lot of communities coming together in ipsy to
007knock out two murals uh they are going to be sites for programming that that so we can celebrate black life and try to make black lives better um from from education to cultural to to you know legislative change that's what we're trying to do and so you know you all have probably seen these in the news right i mean you've seen this right so here we have san fran that's dc here's new york right and then ipsy's coming up right here so on south washington that's what that's going to look like by the tap room right off of michigan avenue and there's a big parking lot if you notice over to the right where you know we can just host a ton of program and put a bunch of tables there have all kinds of
008family activities uh the other one we're doing is is right off the cross street going down into riverside park and again yeah it's certainly not just cosmetic there are so many um you know cultural productions that we can host here so that's what we're excited about right um and then as far as ann arbor we wanted to chat with you all but we thought that let me get this how do i get the screen on a little bit you know there's the ann arbor african-american festival right and it happens uh down there on ann street so we thought this might be a good place to start if that space is already being utilized in such a fashion to celebrate black life then we were thinking about starting there um you know just it already is
009a venue right and and then we would like to maybe do another one but we want to take a minute to actually work with the community and you know and and work with a black community specifically to see where another good location might be um to to do that so so that's what we have right there uh does it does anybody have any questions about this location um i do um david he saw is the festival actually occur on ann street i thought it was on fourth ave so it's and and and fourth at the intersection really is the stage the section that you're seeing is generally um where mostly vendors are during that celebration okay so would it get covered up by vendor booths and in not necessarily uh covered up they will be
010able to see it um but there will be portions of it that will be people's tables and things would be right there as well remind me when that fair happens so it normally happens in june um i am grateful i've been one of the mcs of that festival for about the last 10 years now and um so really grateful for that opportunity um but it usually happens in june um looks like it could happen this year in august um but if it does not happen this year in august um we will come back next year in june but there is a strong push to move it forward to happen in august this year john just a second with senator i wanted to respond to trevor i think the place is awesome uh that uh particularly
011historically because there there were liveries and blacksmith shops predominantly black businesses right on fourth uh between maine and um on and between main and fourth and and on the corner of uh fourth and uh and and was the third post office of ann arbor and the second floor of that post office was where abolitionist met you know white new englanders met there and uh and they created a movement uh and right around the corner on fourth right by anne was the dunbar center it was the first african-american community center so i mean where you're situating this is absolutely perfect uh for the uh the history of of black businesses black uh social communities in uh you know in in ann arbor and and that uh birkenstock building it's the kaiser building it's called so it's
012where the the birkenstocks shoes are being sold that was the dunbar center and on the third floor were rooms that uh blacks could rent because they weren't allowed in any hotels in ann arbor so it really became a center of the black business community that it wasn't too much residential there uh but so it's an important site there is a mural already on the side of um i i i think it's a it's a retaining wall or it's a part of the uh uh the uh the parking structure yeah parking structure and and and it uh signifies several um uh black individuals in ann arbor's history uh there's uh some historical markers on the county building that talk about the black businesses on ann street so you know i think the the location is awesome
013i'm sorry with senator thank you okay um mike my question is why not fourth what you know over and yeah so actually last night when we had a conversation just talking about it we actually were proposing doing one on and and one on fourth that way it's on both streets um i was not aware of the full history so thank you so much i don't want to chop your last name so i'll say mr john um thank you so much for for giving that in-depth uh detail um but we do know that that is a the reason why the african-american downtown festival is there um because of that fact so thank you so much for sharing that and and our opinion my opinion i feel like having it on fourth and and is something that
014would be great great for programming not just at for the african-american downtown festival but even for other things that could happen there at that place as a matter of fact um we're proposing at the one in ipsy you know there's a black men read that they can invite kids out and have story hour with children there um we're looking and proposing to have students from eastern teachers come in and have their students to actually conduct class there right to talk about transforming policy and things of that nature high school is coming down so why did you pick n over fourth that's what i i'm wondering because for for me fourth gets a lot more traffic and visibility than ann does and so you know what made you go to ann um instead well i would
015basically say my partner no i don't wanna throw them under the bus but you know we're really big in in um in you know talking to the community um however we did talk to some community partners who felt that that spot um was good so we're actually looking to we're proposing two murals which could actually go on both fourth and end okay uh okay yeah sophie i see your hand up yeah i i'm i'm interested to hear that conversation about fourth versus anne because certainly ann is seen as more as a side street i think where his fourth is is very much a main thoroughfare a lot of people walk there as well as uh traffic so um so i'm just wondering were you were you planning to have one sort of say black lives
016matter and one more pictorial or graphic or what were you thinking about for the two sites if you do both you know at this point um at this point really when you type in black lives matter street murals there's a couple things that come up um all the beautiful murals that people have made and then immediately in that same batch of images usually there's just images of of people pouring paint on top people who don't uh feel like black lives matter who are not familiar with that what that's trouble and and so um you know the we decided for in ipsy our both the designs are using the official black lives matter font cornerstone and it's it's just in yellow and specifically because if someone comes and pours paint in the middle of the night
017or if it happens a couple times then it's going to be easy to clean it up make it look beautiful again and and it'd be much easier to repaint like a ladder and keep a line crisp than like a detailed you know a portrait with like you know transitional shading and stuff like that um so so i think the letters will still look beautiful but i think that you know it's like a placeholder for all the cultural programming that could happen there okay i see your hand up craig yep you yeah um so the bureaucrat will speak and it's um as you do this mural city code only allows you to use chalk paint within the right of way so it will have to be chalk paint by code uh and i want to make
018you aware of that so that would disappear pretty quick um um not necessarily if you look at oh the corner of detroit and uh catherine they're on the sidewalk there's a chalk paint drawing that's been there since fall it starts to degrade but that's yeah that's not what we can change that's cold the chocolate that comes like you're talking about the ones that come in like the spray cans commercial chalk paint it's not regular chop i i definitely respect um your feedback there sir um but i think anybody anything has a possibility to be changed when it comes to this mural but just one moment when it comes to the mural when it comes to black lives matter this is something that we don't want to go away i respect that i was speaking okay
019um and so this is something that we could actually even go to city council about and ask them to actually change the ordinance so when i mean that you know something can be done that is exactly what could be done i think city council is in the light now where we're at right now we can't accept something that would just go away right because that's been the existence of black people where we just want to push off in the corner a downsize or or or make it be something that really does not matter and we want this to be a staple in the community for as long as it can possibly be so if that is um something that is a barrier um then it would be something definitely that we would want to talk
020to the city council about that was one of my questions was how how long you wanted it to because all of the projects we've seen in the streets recently which have been monumental because we trust me there's been mural projects proposed for the streets for years that have been said no no no no and then now we've been able to do a couple that were temporary and i think the whole fact that they were temporary area was a good selling point for them so i was wondering what um if if it if your intentions were for it to be a long-term project or not so it sounds like long term yeah not temporary cool okay ipsy's letting us use asphalt grade paint you know what i mean so that it stays yeah the same that
021they use for like crosswalks right exactly okay go ahead craig actually craig if this is a continuation of what you were saying go for it but sophie did never it is it is a continuation and thank you uh because you were saying exactly where i was going to go is to change the code we have to go to city council and we would look at travis to sponsor those changes it would be a two-step process to change the code to allow uh non-chalking drawings within the right-of-way so i i'm not against your direction at all right away includes what exactly within the road basically in the downtown it's building face to building face oh so like the whole road yeah so so i guess what i'm saying is uh i i agree that if you
022want to put it in permanent we we go ahead and ask council to change their code sophie your hands up well uh can can travis speak first and then i'll sure um yeah i can jump in i guess one of my questions is a follow-up to craig's which that was my understanding as well under the current code because it was something that we ran into when um i was still president of the gym toy center and there was some talk of doing some art on the street and things for for pride um but um i guess i was wondering when it comes to the chalk piece uh the the chalk based paint piece um you mentioned i mean there there's stuff that has lasted since the fall in terms of cost is there is it
023more expensive less expensive than traditional paint is my first question because i wonder if this is just something trevor mentioned that there's kind of some plan to um potentially have to um to redo some of this anyway if hopefully this does not happen um but it as it as we have seen elsewhere where some vandalism has taken place things like that it sounds like there's maybe some plan to make sure that there's continual upkeep i wonder if that's something that could be planned in if it's not um if it's not cost prohibitive um and then i guess my second question and this is probably also for craig as we are looking at some of these locations that are proposed are any of those locations immediately being planned for any type of street or surface repair
024and replacement that would also factor into needing to redo the artwork itself so for your first question on cost of chalk paint versus regular paint i will admit i am ignorant of that i have not a clue um and we can look at the next 12 months of resurfacing and get back to you as to what are the intentions for those uh pavements my recollection is fourth is in pretty good shape as is and so i'd be i well i just don't want to speak because i'll misspeak without looking at any schedules so if if it is um the case that there's going to be some repair then it seems to me that to hold the place the chalk would be okay to hold the place and then when the street is repaired to have
025it then painted and this way you can remove the you have time to remove the obstacle of what kind of um paint or you can use you know if there is going to be some kind of repair stuff going on i would like to see it still be done you know and held in place by using the chalk paint until that resurfacing is is done if that's going to happen so you've had your hand up for quite some time yeah um i i agree that we need something permanent for sure um the chalk paint at mainland liberty lasted only a few days because there's a lot of traffic there but um i'm wondering whether they could be in order to speed things up as as uh wasanto was pointing out whether there could be a
026variance at least to start with is that a feasible thing whilst you know the actual code itself is wrangled with over a longer period you're you're asking a legal question which i don't know about granting variances to that part of code that's not within my purview to grant travis you're saying something he needs to be unmuted oh bonita can you run re re-unmute travis please old habits i muted myself um that is something that i can ask about as well i can um ask about what the options would be there in terms of um whether or not we can grant a variance or if the entire code needs to be changed great sarah you have your hand up yes i was uh just wondering if um if repainting is needed in any way is there
027a way that we could get the community together to help with re painting the mural um it's something that you know we we saw with the a2 net zero mural uh with gives 365 in the parks and rec department where the community came together as volunteers and actually helped with the repainting and that if this is something um you know again permanence is um i think honestly really required in this type of situation but um if it's going to take a minute to get there is there a way that we can involve the community in the actual painting so that there is um that kind of ownership and commitment um to the ideals of uh of what this mural actually means um and then i did have another idea uh or just you know thought
028um if the festival may or may not happen in june or august of this year um are there any streets that might be closed off for other festivals i know main street obviously is is one that is closed off pretty consistently during the summer months and um why not try main street maybe even this year i mean really to give it um the visibility that uh you know that i i think um would be great for the city to have um and if we're closing off streets for restaurants to have more patio seating and things like that um is there any way that perhaps we could think of main street also as another forum okay i'm going to come to you in just a second before we jump i will say that the um the
029gutman gallery and the guild is located on 4th avenue right before you hit ann heading north and we are will be applying soon to host a art fair in october 8th through the 10th closing down all those streets so that could be another event i mean it doesn't sound like it's quite as nicely aligned with all of your values and everything that you would want as the festival you've chosen but would be another date that the streets would be closed and we'd be glad to have art happening on the streets that's amazing um actually to your point when we first talked about this um because i so i'm not sure if you all were i'm sure everybody in washington county seen the crew report right and um we seen um the atrocities happening at the
030prosecutor's office and um how black and brown people uh were arrested and convicted at higher rates and um so our first thinking was hey we need to put this in front of the courthouse right so that we can remind the courthouse that black lives matter and then we also did talk about sarah main street in that area um that is closed off because as a matter of fact we came through there protesting many times last year um and so you know those sites um would be great as well and honestly uh more visible like you said um how can we put it out front and get it out front um the only reason why we were kind of sold with the and and fourth area was just because of the programming there but programming can
031happen anywhere um the mural can be placed anywhere right we just wanted as you stated to be visible and i think some of those sites would make it more visible also to your second point yes we would love for the community to be a part um as a matter of fact this is a community driven project and that's the model that we're using in ypsilanti so we will have um volunteers and we will have painters we have a muralist leading but community members will actually come out and do the rolling right because we want the community to be vested and feel like they are part of this project again it brings community togetherness that unity peace standing arm and arm i'm doing something that is very meaningful for the entire community excellent peggy you've you've
032had your hand up for a while peggy are you muted again all right vanita can you meet peggy she did so i just wanted to add a couple things i'm really excited about this project i i'm excited for it to move forward and i love your energy um i do know just because i was involved in painting the mandela that we did in april that chalk paint is twice the cost of other paint so i think it would be worth getting a variance and getting a permanent paint and we all know that that mandela mural only lasted a few days so i don't know if the street wasn't prepped right or what happened but there was a lot of work that went into that mural for it to only last a short time and as
033easy as it is to say well we should repaint it's a lot of work to repaint a mural touching it up is one thing but actually actually repainting it is a huge project and a little bit demoralizing when you put so much time and effort into it so i don't know we'll have you'll have to have some discussions i don't know if that intersection at maine and liberty because it gets so much traffic maybe that was why it washed away and i know we had rain but anyway it was just latex paint it wasn't chalk paint no i talked to mary about it afterwards and is that why she thinks it washed away it was only intended to be temporary but yes oh well more temporary than like one day but anyway yeah okay well
034i'm excited about your project and i hope you can get a variance to get a paint that will be permanent yeah it sounds like that sidewalk stuff would be correct i'm sorry can you say that again so only chalk paint is allowed but in fact the mandala was latex paint yep right how did that happen because i believe because the paint was donated oh we could do that donate the paint hey but it didn't work so anyway i don't know that project didn't come to us for approval we did not give them the same recommendations with our city crew as part of it so i don't know um so i mean personally i think it sounds like an awesome project i think actually the site you guys have selected is ideal regardless of what event
035you do it with or how you get it done i think having done a lot of research on the area and ways of tying into the black history of kerrytown you know whether or not you do that block of anne or if you do fourth avenue um there's just rich history of the businesses that have been along that area that you could tie into and really absolutely and celebrate and you know bring to light which i think would be important um to talk about the rich history of what you know what kerrytown and the area and everything so um while you might get more people seeing it in other areas i think it would have more of a you know a tie and a purpose and really engaged with the area in that space so
036like john it's a really awesome location for the his rich history that goes there and john is our local historian so he can really fill you in although i will tell you from doing a lot of research the library has a lot of awesome pictures and articles and things about that space as well that can be picked up too jen uh in addition there are a group of uh historians in town that recognize the deep uh african-american history of that area and so you could get folks to be storytellers you know kind of on the street and being so if you have it in that location is what allison is saying is that you might be able to tie in a lot of this stuff and there's there's a group that wants uh african-american history
037black history to be more uh prominent in in the way we tell stories uh and uh so you could uh you know you could use that as leverage if if it's that location using the dunbar center and and the african-american businesses on and the dunbar center on fourth and in in that particular area but amazing yeah um john was talking i remember some months ago about increasing the number of informational street signs um especially around that area so i wondered if that might be something can be tied in and maybe inaugurated at the same time or at least started or something i don't know whether john you've had any thoughts on that since then or well part part of it is money part of it is uh you know moving things forward and trishay and
038trevor i think have provided that impetus a reason to bring this front and center and uh you know what uh sophie was talking about are the glass panels and there are i think about 20 uh glass panels the group that has been responsible for those and they most recently have been identified as public art uh and under the city's purview uh and kind of under the art commission this is a new thing so there's a group of local historians the downtown historic street exhibit program i'm on the board of that and they give annual tours to high school students all over the downtown area and uh that group uh has been wanting to include more and more stories about african american history so this could be the impetus to move that particular project forward i
039know that they would prefer not to increase the number of glass panels but rather to increase the use of those glass panels i think this is a perfect exception just as painting the street in a more permanent paint than maybe adding one of these glass panels i think you could get a lot of traction a lot of support it's gonna probably cost about fifty thousand dollars to do one of those glass panels um but you have the community foundation kind of right around the corner and they might be able to provide kind of some funding so this could be a synergy in particular if you kept the location and and forth um but i don't i don't think there's a reason if you move it to maine why you couldn't also accentuate this particular area
040that's my input and i uh you know i applaud your energy to to go forward and i think we would all help in any way we can it won't be easy but you know anything good isn't easy to do and david i'm sorry you had your hand up and i just kept going on and on yeah i have for a long time um a couple things i've been wanting to ask first of all does it have to be yellow letters on on the paving is that a national standard somehow that we have to do that i know that's what was done it seems like many people have done that there's been other versions of that but that's been one of like the staples like an easily recognizable symbol of like you know this um not
041new movement but of the current like you know version of what's happening these days but what are your thoughts well a couple things first of all just looking at google street view of that corner the the mural that john mentioned has big blank walls on either side of it that you could paint on with the county's approval and not have to get variants from the city and not have cars running over it and wearing it down all the time there's also a couple big blank walls on some of the businesses around there that would have some room to paint if we could get approval from the owners the other thing is just yellow letters on pavement is not doesn't really have an aesthetic component which is the primary thing reason that this commission exists it
042would be nice if we could get something that added i mean this it's an important message but that added something aesthetic to the community instead of just yellow letters um you know could they be outlines that are painted in with with different colors and designs and stuff or surrounded with with other designs or something like that definitely something to consider you know i i think i i maybe depends on your aesthetic taste i understand what you're saying that it's not like a full-blown detailed you know uh floral mural in a sense but but it could be uh you know personally i you know i have simple graphic uh you know appreciation kind of of those aesthetics so you know i've always appreciated that starkness but but but but please let me think about what you
043said you brought up great points well you know art in and of itself doesn't always have to be beautiful you know and colorful art makes statements you know art pushes buttons art causes people to think so you know i don't i don't necessarily see it that way i see that um it's almost like um the guy who did the campbell soup cans you know so to speak that was considered art and yet at the same time it wasn't aesthetically pleasing you know um i've been to the uh metropolitan and not the metropolitan the uh martin museum of martin art in manhattan and i almost walked on something that was a piece of art that were bricks on the floor i said oh let me go this way and i'm like oh wait that's a piece
044of art so i don't know that as the name art means it has to be that so i see um those yellow letters as a statement as a political kind of artistic piece in and of itself so sophie um you guys we're going to start wrapping up this conversation i know we're all very excited about the project obviously i have lots of comments and things to tell you about um i think there are a lot sounds like there's a couple ordinances and variances and and things that you'll have to navigate and we're here to support you through that um but we have lots of ideas and we could go all day so i'm going to start wrapping this up so if your hand was up and travis your hand was up and we'll go in
045that order yeah just quickly on the the yellow letters in that font on on the black pavement i think that it's not just about what's happening in our city the point is to connect up with all the other cities so it would would make sense to to do the same it's like a logo you know people recognize it even if it's upside down or they can't read or whatever it's it's a recognizable thing so i think there's a reason to keep it that way even if you add something else some something else somewhere else yeah travis yeah and i i i will not say any more on that i agree with both sophie and macenta on on kind of their comments there i think there is there is something artistic about the statement that's being
046made and the simplicity with which it's being said um and and trishay we we've talked i think you know that i'm i'm excited about the opportunity here and um i will wrap up this part of the conversation by saying i i have written down the follow-up pieces that we need to follow up on and we can just continue to stay in touch and i will do my homework and work with staff to figure out what kind of bureaucratic hurdles might exist that we we need to consider and and potentially work through as well and um we can kind of continue to work on that and of course as well so trishay and trevor i give you the floor to wrap up this conversation awesome thank you so much um thank you all for your feedback
047um even mr craig i'm so sorry i just get so um passionate about things like this and so no harm at all sir my opponent i'm taken at all appreciate um very passionate but i don't want to be rude and so this is why i want to offer that apology to you not needed not needed at all okay thank you um what we will say for our final ask if we could do fourth and main street fourth and main street um i think that would just be amazing and i would love to just walk over black lives matter as we're protesting out there right um you know and i just thank you all for the opportunity uh to be here to present um you could have turned us down and not even allowed us to
048come in and present and so we thank you so much just for the opportunity and we are looking forward um to building um i will say as far as i don't know how you all do this um as far as do you cover expenses and things of that nature but we've actually raised money um and so we are so excited because we got all the money raised for the actual mural and the celebration um and so we hope that we can follow suit and do the same here in the city of ann arbor trevor yeah you know what um i i just i just want to say i think that that this is like a real chance to bring people together i was a program manager at a riverside center for the uh arts you
049know for a while and and and that really it was about there was definitely a lot of art on the wall and and and poetry and music but it was really about bringing people together and and we went through like the painstaking process of like filing all these different individual community groups to bring them together over and over and over and really made some great connections between people and i think that that's what this uh space can also be for actually i might be doing some consulting with uma um and they basically said we're racist and we want to have a more integrated you know community we want more black and brown people in the space and on the walls you know as far as art and stuff like that and so you know even
050like some community building we might be doing with them going through the student groups that that are u of m the black led student groups that there's there's so many there's so many there's so many separate pockets of community that could come together to make great uh you know community contributions you know educational social and civic and i think that really we're not just doing a mural we're making a venue for these people to come together and make these contributions so anyway thank you so much for taking the time to listen to us and and uh sophie it's good to see you again and uh you know so i will say we um we're movers and shakers as far as things go we can like track it down answers to questions you might have you
051know we can have travis throw around his weight at council and you know see what he can do to support the um changes that we need to make that happen we don't have a city budget ourselves the arts projects that we recommend are part of the capital improvement projects so when we were talking about the resurfacing i was thinking well if they're being resurfaced they'll probably be repainted and maybe we can sort of tie it into that that's how i'm thinking about how we could get it funded um so that's how we do projects as far as like if there's a project happening that's a city project and we can tie in design aspects to it that's where we recommend projects happen as opposed to having separate budgets for projects so when we get answers
052about resurfacing we'll be thinking about that also not necessarily like oh it's going to have to be redone then but maybe it could be done then with the resurfacing and we could support with them permits and things that are going along with that project to save you guys funding all at the same time so thank you yeah so let us know if any questions pop up we're here um you know i think you probably have all of our emails because uh vanita included you on our agendas but you can reach out to myself i'm the chair and sarah's the vice chair and of course benita and travis or whomever if anyone had these great ideas you want some historian reach out to john you know so thank you so much for coming thank you she
053probably can on mute results when i did it i thought oh shoot now do you uh vote how does this work do you vote on it and then you put a recommendation up or i know that's how we did an ipsy so i was just wondering sometimes we do vote for projects to go forward i mean i think we could move a motion that we support the project but we'd have to um there still have to be those variances and things that would come do you want me to do kind of a what what it would take and then maybe we can bring something formal back to the commission at the next meeting that factors in all of those pieces i think that would be great i think you'll get our support for sure thank
054you thank you thank you all right have great days thank you for your time yeah good night good night awesome great way to start the meeting so the next thing on our agenda is approval of minutes do i have a motion to approve thank you sarah and david can be my second uh do i have any um conversation about the minutes discussion i only had a couple really really really teeny things vanita and maybe it's better if i just email them to you but uh i believe the green fair they're not spelling it f-a-i-r either spelling it f-a-r-e just a small thing um and then it says an opportunity to profile sustainable local and plant-based cuisine i'm thinking you didn't mean the word profile like try try out i don't know those were the only
055really small things that i found when i looked at it how about highlight highlight that would work any other discussion of the minutes sarah and david would those be friendly changes that you would move forward with sure all in favor of the minutes any opposed excellent the minutes are approved next on our agenda is old business which it looks like we don't have any uh and then new business which we don't have any of it's gonna be a short meeting um and then we have report from staff ann arbor area community foundation update do you want to do that bonita or i can jump in fanita if you want um do you want to allison talk about how you arrived at your dollar amount and then i'll talk about process yeah so we explored um
056whether or not there were specific projects that we wanted or that were here right now that we could be investing dollars into um you know i thought about the pickle street project but we haven't heard anything about that moving forward for sure um we thought about maybe putting some money into the mural where there was supposed to be one happening with um i want to say argus but that's not what it's called the berm project but just didn't see any fits for funding but we did really think it was important to put some money towards um communicating and marketing out about our current collection and then celebrating the golden paintbrush awards um since that we're bringing that back and it's a great way to encourage the community to participate in public art projects so we
057looked at doing some advertisements that would allow us to shout out who wins that as well as lead people to our public art tour collection our website so we priced out the observer brick magazine and a couple different other options and with all those put together we came up with the number 2500 as a number of dollars to take out to pay for a round of advertising that would go out um once the golden paintbrush awards are announced so probably like august or so we would announce that um depending how you guys are on timeline with that um so that's what we were kind of thinking as far as we didn't want to take out all the money um because we didn't have specific things we wanted to spend it on but then we didn't
058want to just not do anything we thought it would be important to use some of the money to we've continually said we want to communicate we want to get out there and tell people about our collection and what we have going and get people excited and we don't know how to do that and now we have some funding to do some of that with so that was how we came upon that number and i'll jump in with the process uh the community foundation will move the money over to the city in july and it's available for the commission to spend through june of 2022 so that's fairly simple the other piece is asking the commission to think about their next draw on those funds not for a dollar purpose for a dollar figure so that
059when these budgets are put together in december in january next year we can have that money baked into the budget and we may not have to do any slights of no travis block your ears you may we may not have to do any slights of hand to take the money in and spend it without an appropriation so that's that's it any questions feedback what did you say the amount was 2500 is what we're taking out there was i think there was around 7 000 available to us and the remaining amount we're going to just leave available we're not putting it back we putting it back into the fund we're just leaving it there in case next year there's a larger project we want to take more money out for great i don't see any questions
060so i think unless is there anything other um items you guys want to report out staff wise that's not on the agenda uh i'm sure there is but i'm not thinking of it right at the moment i know reviewing the minutes it said that um the mayor was going to be tentatively set for may 17th at city council agenda the city flag thing uh sarah higgins has repeatedly reminded him of the city flag memo that we've drafted and it is within his purview or court to bring it to city council okay i i can follow up with him but i know she did it as recently as the end of last week i i would assume i don't know i don't want to speak for him but i would assume that with the budget and
061then we have a very long agenda for june 7th that he might be waiting to get past a couple of those things but um i will follow up with him and see great thank you all right so we can move on now to the report from the committees the first uh working group that we have um on our list is the business owners and developers work group i believe that would be you john nothing to report at this time uh the design review board hasn't met okay uh capital improvement project working group david nothing to report now great communications work group that's sarah and i and basically our update would be that we are going to have money to do some advertising with so we're excited about that um the fundraising work group is myself
062and i i'm sorry i don't know who else is in that group we haven't met recently um we haven't done any fun reading you on that one okay okay and the fundraising work group would encompass any grant opportunities because i know we had been speaking a little bit about a current or upcoming grant opportunity right um that vanita has been sort of spearheading um so we'll we'll let you know if we apply for that see if we can move forward with that you're right i was thinking the grant was under something else but i don't know where else it would fall so it's definitely under that that one yeah um leadership forum work group uh has not met but i will i don't know if i have shared with everybody that while deb is no
063longer on the commission formally she has said she would be involved with that working group still so she'll she's still gonna be helping out with that which i'm excited about um but we have not met to do anything with that currently now that we can actually get together with people in person more maybe there will be more prospects for that the nominations and leadership review work group are two work groups that are kind of lumped together but as far as nominating people for our openings because you can see it's a small group tonight uh we have two openings going up that are open right now deb speak and spot and jonas and travis has been really helping me out with recruitment and if you want to go ahead and give it up to travis i
064can give you a little bit of an update um because i also have a question into the clerk right now about this um but with my and allison's recommendation the mayor has decided to nominate two i think outstanding individuals both of whom were actually um appropriate enough for this meeting involved in the library um bor or the library's uh black lives matter mural as community panelists um so he is planning to nominate uh marionetta porter and jamal to serve on the art commission um for anyone who doesn't know i can briefly read the paragraph that i sent on each of them to the mayor um marionetta porter is a professor at the stamp school of art and design her research and scholarly investigations are grounded in the study of african american history culture and representation
065the themes these themes encompass various genres ranging from ethnography and folklore to visual culture language and religious traditions she's particularly interested in the ways the these complex relationships are woven into the fabric of everyday life through the language of visual art porter seeks to draw a correlation between historic memory and modern african american life to give voice to the history of diaspora and to acknowledge the importance of its influence in the birth and blooming of american culture and jamal buford is a rapper and songwriter who co-founded and runs the rap performing arts group the black opera alongside many other artists he's also a project specialist with washington on my brother's keeper and was re and recently partnered with afc ann arbor the rob murphy foundation and the mighty oak youth project to launch clclr academy
066which is the weekly program supporting young kids right to dream believe create and explore through sport nutrition reading and writing and so he has decided to nominate both of them i thought at this upcoming june 7th meeting but for some reason only professor porter is appearing on our list right now as a nominee um i did follow up with him today and he said that he as he expressed to council plans on nominating both of them so i followed up with the clerk to find out that was an oversight in not including him so hopefully they will both be voted on at the june 7th meeting and we will have new commissioners for our next meeting i wonder if jonah hasn't officially been taken out of the system both are there are two vacancies showing
067oh okay on the system yeah okay yeah i'm very excited um they're both going to add a lot of depth and i'm so excited we're gonna have a performing artist involved and someone with the university and they both have such awesome backgrounds and it's gonna be awesome so um hopefully they will go forward i don't see any reason why not um and they will be able to join us by our august meeting so thank you travis for helping push all that through and for helping with that process for those who don't know people apply online but we also in addition to getting random applications we encourage people to apply and then they apply online and um so that was the situation as that reached out to these people and said we think you'd be awesome
068on the commission and then they applied so um glad to have those visions filled with really awesome candidates and hope that they will join us in august so that's exciting um policy and governance work group you haven't had any policy or governance unless you talk about taking money out of the community foundation as uh governance and that's been covered um special projects work group um sophie or peggy yeah we've um we've been working on on getting the judges for the without naming any names for the uh golden paintbrush award and um perhaps sarah would like to talk about it actually because she's she sent out letters and got responses and so we're at the point where we just have to um we've got criteria from the original thing but we have to create the um
069you know the this sort of worksheet for how you judge people there's a word for that which is eluding me but anyway sarah yes so we do have four confirmed judges now so that's an update actually for the for the golden paintbrush special projects for group as well so we're almost to our goal of five um i am planning out and sending another reminder email to one of one potential judge and then probably going down our list and inviting one more person um so we're close to uh being able to move forward with putting together that packet of information for the judges and setting some meetings up so that they can all um speak and uh move forward with then uh the actual announcement after the selection um which should which would be really exciting
070so and we have marketing dollars now to put behind that announcement um and hopefully just grow a larger and larger audience uh for the 2022 golden paintbrush award as well um so moving forward on that danita can you remind us um how many applicants they were for that submissions submissions yeah you're muted um don't quote me i think the total may have been around 24 or 25 i remember you saying 24 and then we had a few overlaps of nominations which i believe um we would actually want to let the judges know that you know there were projects that were you know nominated multiple times yes okay and this is a big deal that we are up to five judges because the commission might be interested to know that we've had trouble getting people to
071commit to judging we're not sure why right sarah but i think it has to do with people becoming re-engaged with work and not wanting to take on anything more but we're continuing we're pushing on so yes yes and we do have um an invitation from lucy ann vance um potentially to go on her talk show she won't be able to be a judge this year but she would love to get the word out so that's something that we can look forward to as well there you and i have attacked before but if you need any help with getting any more judges or names or things like that just let me know thank you and thank you to everyone who submitted all these names and you know we've we've had a good response and and again
072getting the word out most important thing travis did i see your hand go up no okay all right anything else from special projects oh okay uh youth outreach work group which i think you're the lone person on that now peggy yeah so we're gonna have to find some more people for that yes so if anyone is interested in participating in youth outreach um let peggy know well hopefully when our new commissioners get approved and i'm going to say when they're approved that might align perfectly with some of the work that jamal does outside of the commission as well yeah that might be something he is interested in perfect thanks i also know that when we continue to move forward with the city flag project we had talked about trying to engage some of our high
073school students in that civic engagement project so anyway that might be a good way to reach out to the youth definitely all right any working group items that may have been missed somehow okay um before i adjourn are there any um personal announcements or things you would like to share sophie well i'm gonna share again because you can never share too much um the westside art hop is going ahead for instead of usual may in june uh 12th to 13th so we're doing it over two days and so far the weather looks nice um and also i'll be talking about it on the lucian lance show on tuesday so that will be broadcast um well i'm going to be talking to her and the recording will be broadcast on tuesday the 8th in the morning
074and the afternoon so listen out for that and we have over 50 artists so i thought we'd have not many people applying and not many people volunteering to host but happily we've had lots of people on both sides so though we've always got room for an extra lovely porch if you live on the west side let me know and sophie i do have a shout out from colleen crawley who heard you on the radio um and and told me that you i i unfortunately missed it but she said you just did a fantastic job um and we're actually going to spread the word at motowee certainly um with a bunch of artists to definitely participate so um great work so sophie if uh individual wanted to just like come as a spectator how do you
075get involved like yeah the best the best thing to do is to go to westsidearthop.com where as soon as i have five minutes to put together i'm going to put the addresses on there and so you'll be able to follow a little trail and go to each of the venues which are mostly private homes garages and porches and carrots and driveways oh thanks that'll be fun yeah i'm gonna stop by my house there will be an artist at the end of my driveway i was i was gonna give the same shout out to sophie and i actually have the the wemu story pulled up still so i'll send it out to anyone who missed it thank you i like it thanks well i will let you all know if you haven't heard already the ann
076arbor art fair is happening uh it will be three days not four this year thursday friday and saturday no sunday um but we're going forward so come out support your artists support your restaurants sell your businesses i hope to see there are no more announcements i will uh is there do i have to get a motion to adjourn okay thank you do i have a second second peggy thank you uh all in favor of a journey great uh any opposed okay good everyone have a great evening i'll see you later take care you