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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-09-08-ARTS-min EIELexington Council for the Arts Notes Wednesday, September 8, 2021 7:00 PM — 8:30 PM Location: Via Zoom: See below for remote participation instructions Facilitator: Jillian Tung Pre-Meetina Tasks Review of minutes from August 4, 2021 meeting and July 7, 2021 Both unanimously approved Attendance: Present: Jillian Tung, Steve Poltorzycki, Jessie Chen , Anwell Tsai, Lisa Hebert, Ashley Rooney, Shalini Kakar, Marie Hewes Absent: David Hoose, Melissa Talal, Doug Urban Meeting start time: I. Call to order II. Secretary's report III. Treasurer's report Need for a new treasurer :As Hema will be resigning from the council, we need a new treasurer. The commitment for this position is around 2 to 3 hours a month. The duties of the treasurer include the following: - Processing grants' demand. - Once a month, compare the running account that we keep with the town's records. - The months of october and November demand more time ( 5 to 6 hours) - Steve will be training the members interested in this position. Please contact Steve if you would like to volunteer. Our accounts: We have 3 accounts : State money, "Local" money, town budget. - Local account balance after FY 2021 State allocation: $1,918.07 - State account balance after FY 2021 State allocation: $10,585.81 - Total paid out to date for FY 2021 grants: $3,280.00 (from State account) Remaining in State account: $7,255.81 We should have nothing left in the State account after all reimbursement requests from grantees have been submitted and processed We will receive a State allocation of$7,900.00 for FY 2022 (once we have compared and reconciled our financials records with the town's, and submitted our financial report (due 10/15/21). Need to draft a letter to the city: The town of Lexington will receive around $10 million (out of a large allocation allocated to Massachusetts under the ARPA(the Covid relief Act). The money is meant to help business organizations / individuals recover from Covid. Steve will send a note to encourage the Town to allocate a portion of that money to the arts and culture sector in town (home-based artists, cultural nonprofits). IV. Grant cycle overview The press release has been distributed and it is being publicized in the media. Anwell has been adding the grant application on the website. We will be looking through the applications on November 3rd and we will be deciding in December ( point scoring system). We would have two weeks to organize this information. If you would like to help, Send an email to Steve and Jillian. V. Discovery Day/Viewing Day plans Discovery Day (October 9) is organized by the Retailers'Association. We will have a table, a tent as well as a banner. The online auction will open on October 8th and run for a week. We will raise publicity to drum up some excitement. We need volunteers to staff our table and share the information or conduct tours( Visitor Center and police Station). Jillian made some maps with QR codes that patrons can link to the website. We will also have a one page brochure about the council and what it is that we do. A si n-u Genius has been sent. Please consider signing up for one of the shifts on October 9th. The artists have also been invited to give tours for the doors. VI. Community input survey We are required to complete a survey. We also need volunteers for that task. Part of the mandate is to do a survey. That would be available at discovery day and there will be a candy bar/pens as an incentive. We could also have people sign the newsletter. VII. Brief Project Updates A. Doors Bidding Owl was our favorite platform but it was complicated so the following decisions were made: - 25 % of each sale will go to the artists - The historical society will handle the organization of the online auction and we will get 75% of the net proceeds. DPW will take the doors down after Oct 14th and bring them to Munroe where they will be stored. Volunteers will help deliver them to the buyers. B. Utility Boxes The project will be broken into different phases The director of recreation development would like to have the boxes at that location painted. With Suzie Barry 's facilitation, we have put together a proposal (4 boxes) . In the rest of the town, we have identified 5 smaller boxes (400 dollars per box + 500 for the project manager- from theCouncil's budget). We have also identified 5 boxes out of the historical district .( need approval) Finally there is one box near the high school and we might encourage students to propose a design. We will need to assemble a jury. Our Project Manager/Curator has already been hired. Jillian moves that 2500 dollars be allocated to the utility boxes :All in favor C. Cary Library/Music Musicians would narrate children's stories with their instruments. The Library and the BSO would be involved. The Next step is to approach the Lexington Symphony. Other ideas : Open mic, Porch fest , poetry and improv... D. Fairy Homes & Gardens Fairy homes and Gardens come to Lexington! ( Ashley's book) Week june 6th to 10th 2022 at Munroe and at the Library. The council would offer its support by designing a map. The objective of this project is to repurpose your old earrings for example, and use nature and imagination to build a fairy house. This project would include workshops or lectures and the library would assemble a collection of books on the topic. We could also invite artists to create their own fairy house that we could sell or auction off. On September 24th the Community Center will showcase a fairy house. VIII. Council administrative matters We have a few administrative matters: we would like to have our own newsletter (Ashley is working on a draft) and create a mailing list( we now have an account with Constant Contact ) and we will be using the website, Discovery day (clipboards for sign-ups). We will begin by using the list we already have and we would send one email and give people a chance to opt out if they wish. Meeting Adjourned at: Motioned by: Jillian Seconded by: Steve