Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-03-06-MMC-min Monuments & Memorials Committee Meeting Minutes Thursday, March 6, 2025, 4:00 p.m.by Zoom Members Present: Linda Dixon, Chair; Avram Baskin, George Gamota, Leslie Masson, Regina Sutton, Nick Wong Members Absent: Glen Bassett, Liz Huttner, Mirela Vaso. Guests: Bill Poole, Andrew Pan, Parent Mentor, STEAM Team; Stella Shen, Parent Mentor; Andrew Pan, STEAM Team project leader, Business:  Linda convened the meeting at 4:05 pm, read the Town notice regarding the conduct of public virtual meetings, and declared that a quorum was present. Approval of Minutes The committee approved the minutes of its meeting of February 6, 2025 by roll call vote with two corrections: 1) The National Archives in Belmont should be referred to as the National Archives Boston at Waltham; and 2) Leslie Masson did not attend this meeting. Status Report on “Path to Liberty” Monument Proposal Chair Linda informed the committee that, at a meeting with the Historic Districts Commission on February 6, 2025, the HDC voted six to one to deny a Certificate of Appropriateness to the “Path to Liberty” monument group. Linda referred to her memo advising the committee of this action on February 13, 2025. Since the vote of the HDC is final, this project is terminated. STEAM Team Projection Mapping Proposal Stella Shen, Parent Mentor for the Youth STEAM Initiative, summarized a proposed joint effort between the STEAM Team and the Monuments Committee whereby the STEAM Team would collect stories from our monument database and use them to showcase Lexington’s history and to educate the public by several means, including  Projection mapping on the Stone Building, bringing stories to life  Conducting seminars on digital storytelling using AI technology; and projection mapping  Conducting a debate on the ethics of AI in digital arts. Chair Dixon, Linda submitted, Respectfully 2025. ,3 April be meeting next The p.m. 025: at adjourned meeting The The team envisions a community competition where small groups will learn and practice using AI techniques to create a digital art presentation. STEAM Team members will conduct workshops and provide training, including discussion and debate on the ethics of AI. Groups will come together at a major community event in October, when each group will display its digital story, using projection mapping, on the wall of the Stone Building. A panel of judges (high profile community members) will select ten finalists, and then the audience will select the winners from this group. A grant obtained from the Munroe Center for the Arts, their partner in this endeavor, has provided financing for their needs. Stella stressed that by basing the whole endeavor on stories from the M&M database, this would help to increase public awareness of Lexington’s history. In the discussion that followed, points raised included  Have they considered Emery Park as a venue? It is a better people gathering point. A tent would need to be erected to cover the projector.  Concern that there is too much reliance on AI, would offend professional designers.  Make sure we have a chance to check the presentation at the final stage.  Is focus too narrow? Should they bring in a creative, multi-disciplinary team to help?  This project was designed to showcase the Monuments & Memorials Committee. Report on Loading Monuments into Database Nick Wong reported that, according to Judy Baldasaro, it’s not possible to enter our entire batch of new and modified stories into the database in a single step. Nick must enter them one at a time. He is doing this at a regular pace as best he can. Website Redesign This Working Group report will be moved to a later date.