HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-06-08-ARTS-minLexington Council for the Arts
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Meeting Minutes June 8, 2015
Parker Room, Town Office Building
In attendance: Matt Pronchick, Diana South, Cristina Burwell, Lynne Klemmer, Seetha Ramnath, Jean
Hart, Cheryl Meadow, Emily Passman, Jessie Steigerwald, Elaine Ashton (guest)
Absent: Leslie Masson, Regie Gibson O'Hare
Recording Secretary: Seetha Rmanath
Cristina called the meeting to order at 7:15pm.
Diana made a motion to accept Oct. minutes; Emily seconded, no opposition- Approved.
Secretary's Report
• Reviewed minutes from January - May 2015. Diana made a motion to review April Minutes
approved, second by Seetha and Lynne. March Minutes reviewed by Diana, approved and
seconded by Lynne and Cheryl. January Minutes motion to approve by Lynne, seconded by
Matt. February meeting was snowed out, so a document noting this will be sent to the clerk's
office for posting in lieu of minutes..
• Seetha has accepted the position of Secretary starting May 15, 2015. Officially announced this
meeting, June 8, 2015.
Treasurer's Report
• Diana presented an updated finances spreadsheet
• Receipts from Grantee Reception, Discovery Day, Hidden Treasurers, May Day Booth with
Revolutionary Revelries and Parade all updated and accounted for, posted on Google Drive
• Golden Tricornes donations are being accepted and tracked
• Local funds are being tracked under 'Administrative Funds'
• Just received $1000 donation from an anonymous private donor
• Cristina will put out a request on the Lexington Listserv, and newspaper for a Treasurer to
shadow Diana this next year. It can be repeated in the autumn as necessary.
Website & Social Media
• Defining brand awareness /social media goals for next year (current Facebook Stats : 150 likes
- this over a hundred more than same time last year! ; , Hidden Treasures 137 likes in 2
months) - estimate is to double these numbers by this time next year. It was inquired as to
whether the LCA "likes" were by the same people as the Hidden Treasures one. Cristina will
review this for a future conversation.
• It was noted that our MCC contact thought the website looked great. The site was discussed for
its potential to be an umbrella for arts organizations in town.
• Cheryl offered to help with keeping the website updated, provided she can access it.
• The need to update information more periodically to keep traffic up, etc. was discussed (e.g.,
new photos or videos, links to arts things happening in town).
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• Conversation drifted into different ways to host a website, given the Council's limited
administrative budget. Further discussion was tabled with the suggestion that we could
review possibilities over the summer and put this on the agenda for the autumn.
Projects:
Hidden Treasures
• Was a hit ! Feedback has been tremendous. Conversation convention greatly appreciated for
making this a success. (though bird bath was stolen - reported in police report).
Discovery Day
• Received well, good first effort - next year plan on more activity based programs to draw in
visitors
• Other ideas for next year : Face - painting for children, temporary tattoos, signup sheet for
visitors, collage of words poster that describes us an organization, silent auction, raffle
• LCA should request to be positioned next to LACs next year
• "Raise friends" just as important as "raising funds"
Community Input Survey update
• Received 19 responses, 2 remain to be received from Cheryl
• Need to make sure only Lexington Residents respond
• Jessie to add request to Town Meeting list for additional feedback, as wider distribution will be
a good idea
• Cristina to formulate a summary of survey comments to note in future outreach for survey
participation.
• Already sent to Lexington parents listsery
• Unanimous approval to spend $26 to upgrade Survey Monkey output graphs and feedback,
available for 3 years
New Projects:
• LexMedia's Artists Series - a new request for a speaker series with interest in videos of artists
speaking, looking for co- producers and studio crew for filming. Please let Cristina know so she
can contact Mark. (ex. two or three people could get together and produce a show). Cheryl
offered to liaise with Munroe, regarding possible artists (etc ?) for this arts series.
• Lexington's Pocket Park Steering Committee - concept began around 10 years ago with the
need to increase safety in back parking lot and Edison Way. Current efforts include making this
space a "gateway" to bring visitors in from the bikepath, and provide a nice area to downtown.
New Business:
• LCC Councilmembers Training - all members identified to complete for next meeting. Emily
suggested that members get together at a coffee shop and go through this together as a way to
motivate each other to complete this task. MCC training is useful to understand nuances of the
grant award process. Online training link was provided in agenda.
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• Town Ethics Training - all members identified to complete for next meeting. This training
required of all town board and committee members. Training takes a good hour, and online
training link was provided in agenda.
• Planning for 2016
o Fundraising - 2015 was a great year for raising awareness for the Art Council.
Discussion followed about concretely identifying what we want to fundraise for and
the possible funds for this. It was noted that there is a trend for local cultural councils
to solicit municipal monies. In this vein, Cristina recommended (following
conversation from Jennifer Atwood (Mass Cultural Council liaison) to create an
awareness with town government in the spring before Town Warrant when budget
planning is happening. This would lead to getting an article in to the 2017 Town
Warrant. Prior discussions of the Council looked at requesting the town to match
state funds.
o Jessie noted that the Board of Selectmen is requesting submissions from all boards
and committees (LCA should have gotten this memo, but didn't) for their annual goal
setting.
o Cristina suggested that it would be a wonderful thing to have the Stone Building
(formerly the. East Lexington Branch Library, and more formerly still the Lyceum used
by Thoreau, Emerson and the like) as an Arts Center, and there was Council interest in
asking that the BOS work with us to revive this
o Cristina will be sending out a document to the Asst. Town Mgr. by Friday and will pass
to the Council to review prior to this.
o Dimmock Award winner : Junior, Sophia Campbell, $200 awarded from Dimmock
Trust
New Business:
In addition to the announcements listed in the agenda, Cristina noted the following meetings:
• Monuments & Memorials Mtg. - 6/15, 7pm
• Pocket Park Steering Committee - Wed. 7/8, gam
• Community Ctr. Art Gallery Mtg. - Wed. 7/15, 10:30
* Meeting adjourned (motion made by Cheryl) at 8:35pm. Next meeting September 14, 2015 at the
Reed Room.
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