HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-11-01-ARTS-minLexington Council for the Arts
Meeting Notes
November 1,2023
7:00 PM–8:30 PM
Location:Via Zoom
Pre-Meeting Tasks
Review of draft minutes from October 4,2023 meeting.
Attendance:
Present:Steve Poltorzycki ,Elsie Xu,Shalini Kakar ,David Hoose,Marie
Hewes,Claudia Lach
Absent:Lisa Herbert ,Ashley Rooney
Guests:Alix fox,Sue Benson
Select Board Liaison:Doug Lucente
Recording Secretary:Marie Hewes
Meeting start time:19:07 PM
❖Call to order
The meeting was called to order by the Chair at 7:12 PM.
❖Secretary’s report :Unanimously approved
➢Motion to approve the meeting notes of October 4,2023
Motioned :Steve
Seconded :Claudia
❖Treasurer ’s report
Town Budget Account:$4,100 for other projects
MCC Festival/Project grant 2024 :$2,500 earmarked for lexington Laughs
Local account :$5,782.00:For any purpose.Rolls over from year to year
We have not touched it for some time.
MCC recovery Grant :$6,000.00 Can be used for any purpose.Supposedly rolls
over
Other potential source :
Council program :$1,820 .(20 %for our own project.We have to decide by
January).
Cultural District Grant:$15,000 :We need to use or make a recommendation.
❖Potential Arts Council new members
We met our applicants :Sue Benson and Alix Fox.We have a third applicant :Eric
Hellweg.
❖Survey
The survey was put into Lexington Listserv.58 people responded and we will
keep trying to reach more people.The survey was sent to the Community to
explore Lexington’s needs and wishes.Everyone present should also be filling
the survey.
❖Council roles
-Marie:Treasurer :will get trained in January
-The Secretary role will be turning .
-Claudia and Steve spent some time looking through Constant Contact and
will format the Newsletter and get it out to the Contact List.
-Elsie will be updating the website and will be connected with the
Consultant who is in charge.
-Ashley has been handling the Newsletter content as well as Social Media.
-3 openings on the Council,once filled,people will be taking roles.
The application will be finalized by the end of November Beginning of
December.There will be one more step in the process :Including Ethic
Training.
❖Grant subcommittee :will meet next week :we have 46 applications.Last
year we ended up giving 21 grants.
In December,we will select the grantees that we would like to fund.The
grantees who are not selected will have one month to appeal.Everyone
from the Council needs to attend the December and January meetings so
we can vote on the grants.
David offers to be part of the Grant committee.So we will make the
subcommittee meeting an official meeting since we have Quorum.
➢Here are the criteria to select the grants:
Preference is given to events that:
-Happen in Lexington
-Target or benefit the broadest range of Lexington residents
possible,including under-served and diverse populations
-Reflect community survey results prioritizing interest in arts in the
schools,and community events (such as festivals,concerts,plays)
❖Upcoming projects
➢Lex laughs,championed by Lisa:we need to narrow down on a date,
Comedian and venue-We were thinking of including High School
students.
➢Continue our Utility box painting program:
The Eversource boxes are really difficult to negotiate (we have been able to
complete one but it took several months).
We have 3 boxes in mind (Newly installed boxes)-one is in the middle of town in
front of CVS.
When we work on a box we pay the artist.We also pay a project manager (
Laurie)who is well connected with artists,knows how to assemble a jury for the
boxes and is very reasonable).Each artist was paid 500 dollars.The project
Manager has been able to obtain some donations for the artists.When we
completed a larger box,we offered 1,000 dollars.
A 250 anniversary theme would be welcome.
➢250th anniversary:We are also planning to have Jillian Tung join the
meeting one day to see how the Arts Council could be involved in the
preparation.
➢We also talked about a Grantee’s Reception :Late January to invite
grantees as well as some of the artists who took part in our projects.We
could also plan some music.
➢Storefront stories :Go around to some of the shop owners and see if
anyone has any interesting stories to share.Interview them and based on
that have a temporary Mural on their store.Let’s identify some of these
people and have the students in the Middle school/High school to
dramatize these stories.How can we identify these people?
➢Porchfest 2024/could also be part of the 250 anniversary.
➢Building bridges with some of the ethnic Communities in Town :hold a
Calligraphy workshop.(CAAL would also be doing something about
Calligraphy).
Next meeting is December 6th .One hour will be devoted to Grant business and
then if Jillian joins us,we will discuss our involvement in the 250th anniversary.
Meeting Adjourned at:
Motioned by:Steve
Seconded by:David