City of Lawrence

Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission (LCAC)

September 14, 2011 minutes

MEMBERS PRESENT: Susan Craig, Christie Dobson, Amy Kelly, Mandy Lamb, Jane Pennington, Kathy Porsch, Mari Russell, Darin White, Sarah Harris

MEMBERS ABSENT: Lori Madaus

STAFF PRESENT: Diane Stoddard

GUESTS PRESENT:  Eric Kirkendall, Molly Murphy, Susan Tate

Commissioner Porsch called the meeting to order.

 

August Minutes were approved.

 

Final Fridays: Molly Murphy reported that Lawrence Final Fridays is now a year old with new venues added each month. Among the challenges are to maintain the energy and involvement of participants, to increase public involvement, to look for more young artists to participate, and to expand the outdoor projects.  Final Fridays needs to offer a range of artists each month and showcase Lawrence as a venue for creativity and innovation.

 

Susan Tate indicated that we need to move toward having a Final Friday’s coordinator who will collect information about arts organizations, artists, and venues and who will serve as the contact person for these groups. We must keep the focus on art and encourage broad participation throughout the city such occurred at the August Final Friday with venues and participants from the KU campus. 

 

Other ideas regarding Final Fridays were to establish a Facebook page, involve K-12 students, and work with a travel agency to construct a cultural tour of Lawrence.

 

We also need to determine the” value” of Final Fridays to help justify hiring an arts coordinator and to use in future grant requests. One way to do would be to survey downtown merchants and restaurants about the impact of Final Fridays on their traffic and sales.

 

As we learned last month, the Chamber of Commerce is withdrawing funding (at least temporarily) from support of Final Fridays thus providing an opportunity for LCAC to invest. Commissioner Porsch moved that we collaborate with Downtown Lawrence, Inc. and the Lawrence Arts Center in sustaining Final Fridays by providing $3600 or $300/month to the Lawrence Arts Center for this purpose; Commissioner Pennington 2nd the motion. Commissioners discussed where in the budget the money would come from and whether this is the right amount. It was decided to continue to evaluate expenses for the balance of the year and commit to a budget study next month to determine if additional funds can be invested in Final Fridays or other programming. Motion passed.

 

Outdoor Downtown Sculpture Exhibition Brochures: Commissioner Craig reported that the Lawrence Public Library does not feel they can properly house and make available the ODSE brochures from previous years but the Kansas Collection at the Spencer Research Library does have archival procedures and would accept the folder of brochures. Commissioner Pennington moved; Commissioner Kelly 2nd that we transfer the paper copies of the ODSE brochures to the Kansas Collection at the Spencer Research Library. Motion passed.

 

Phoenix Awards:  Commissioner Lamb and Commissioner Harris presented the nominations for the 2011 Phoenix Awards. LCAC determined that the following awards would be presented at the November 6 event at the Lawrence Arts Center: Toni Brou for Visual Arts, Sally K. Davis for Arts Advocate, Kate Dinneen for Exceptional Artistic Achievement, Rose Lawson for Arts Volunteer, and Susan Ralston for Arts Educator. Commissioners Lamb and Harris will contact the nominees and nominators and will plan to present names for a potential speaker for the event at the next LCAC meeting.

 

Arts Sustainability Task Force:  Commissioners Porsch and Dobson are having conversations with the KU Business School about a potential Service Learning project. Graduate students might be asked to study the Lawrence arts scene following clear guidelines form LCAC. 

 

Percent for Art: The architect for the expansion of the Lawrence Public Library has indicated that schematic designs are expected soon and the first meeting of the % for Art Committee may occur in before the end of the year.

 

The city hopes to expand its waterworks capacity in the next year with a major public project. Under the current ordinance, it’s unlikely that the project would include Percent for Art money but LCAC might want to lobby for a change in the policy. 

 

Lawrence Arts Center: Commissioner Porsch continues to talk with the center about sponsoring grants workshops and professional development for artists.  

Due to the planned LCAC retreat in January, the regular commission meeting on January 11 will be cancelled.

Meeting adjourned.