Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission
February 26, 2009 Meeting Minutes
Present: Jane Pennington, Susan Craig, Grant Fitch, Dave Loewenstein, John Reeves, Donna Griffin, Kathy Porsch, Joanne Renfro, Amy Kelly, Christie Dobson, Diane Stoddard- staff liaison
Absent: Matthew Herren
The meeting was called to order at 7 pm in the City Commission Room by John Reeves. John introduced Grant Fitch and everyone introduced themselves.
The minutes of January 14 and the minutes of February 2 (as corrected) were accepted.
Officer and Committees:
Officer positions and committee composition were discussed. It was decided that members would be assigned to committees as follows:
Nominating Committee Phoenix Awards Committee
Christie Dobson Jane Pennington- Chair
Jane Pennington Grant Fitch
Susan Craig Joanne Renfro
Outdoor Sculpture Grants
John Reeves, Chair Dave Loewenstein, Chair
Amy Kelly Amy Kelly
Donna Griffin Kathy Porsch
It was decided that the nominating committee will need to meet prior to March 11 and present a slate of officers for consideration on March 11.
Draft Policy Manual:
John indicated that the policy manual had been discussed for sometime. He asked Diane to comment on any feedback from legal staff. Diane indicated that the only comment was related to the quorum. Legal staff indicated the need to keep the quorum at a firm number of 6 to make certain that there were no issues with the open meetings law. A firm number was easier to remember. As a result, a small amendment was made on section 4.6. John made a motion to approve the manual after correcting the word assuring to ensuring, removing a double negative and changing the sentence regarding the quorum. Susan seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously approved.
Outdoor Sculpture:
Donna discussed the ODSE contacts with the current artists regarding the potential of keeping the sculptures in place for another year. Susan suggested a date by which they would be willing to keep the pieces here for certain. Dave liked this idea.
Budget options were discussed and it was discussed how the ODSE fit in with those options. Amy made a motion to keep everything in place for the ODSE for one more year with no additional stipend to the artists. A friendly amendment was suggested by Dave to offer $300 of a stipend to the artists for extending the sculpture for one additional year with a commitment from the artist to be made by April 20th. The motion now was to keep everything in place for the ODSE for one more year, offering an additional $300 stipend to the artists and requesting a commitment from the artists by April 20th. The motion was seconded by Jane. The motion was unanimously approved.
Public Art Navigator:
John discussed that a group in Kansas City would like Lawrence to submit 3-4 artworks by March 31. This program was briefly discussed and John indicated he would discuss this further at the next meeting.
Phoenix Awards:
Dave indicated that he is working on an agreement with the Arts Center to display the Phoenix Awards publicly as a group. The agreement with the Arts Center would specify that if at some point they no longer wished to have them on display, the awards would be returned to the City.
Dave reported on possible stimulus funding for the arts.
There was discussion about fundraising and investigating grants. Dave, Kathy and Christie agreed to serve on an ad-hoc committee for this purpose.
Grants:
Amy reported that a large e-mail notice was sent regarding this year’s grants. Amy reported on a grant inquiry. The April meeting will be the grant determination meeting.
Roundtable:
Jane indicated that there was no meeting this month and therefore, no report.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Diane Stoddard
Staff Liaison