City of Lawrence

Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission (LCAC)

Annual Retreat January 10, 2016

Haskell Indian Nations University

Members present:  Chair: Katherine Simmons, Kate Dinneen, Christie Dobson, John Hachmeister, Patrick Kelly, Mike Maude, Kathy Porsch, Sean Reardon, Richard Renner

Members absent:    Jerry Johnson, Michel Loomis

Also present:          Porter Arneill, Arts and Culture Director; Joshua Falleaf, Kristina Walker

MINUTES

Chair Katherine Simmons called the meeting to order at 1 p.m. at Haskell Indian Nations University.

Action Items:

· The December 9, 2015 minutes were accepted as presented.

· John Hachmeister made the following motion, which was seconded by Kate Dinneen and approved unanimously by the LCAC members present:

The Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission elects the slate of officers for 2016 as follows: Katherine Simmons, Chair; John Hachmeister, Vice Chair; and Richard Renner, Secretary.

· Kathy Porsch made the following motion, which was seconded by Sean Reardon and approved unanimously by the LCAC members present:

The Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission strongly recommends to the Lawrence City Commission that the City Director of Arts and Culture serve as a permanent member of the eXplore Lawrence's Transient Guest Tax Grant committee.

LCAC Business:

1. Outgoing Commissioners – Christie Dobson and Kathy Porsch were thanked for their service.

2. Incoming Commissioners – Kristina Walker and Joshua Falleaf were welcomed and asked to introduce themselves. Kristina grew up in Lawrence and works at the Spencer Museum of Art. Joshua is Dean of General Education and Humanities at Haskell Indian Nations University. He is also over arts and theatre and is part of the Delaware Tribe Collaboration Group.

3. Elect Secretary – Richard volunteered and was subsequently elected. Mike Maude agreed to serve as back up due to Richard's professional travel commitments.

4. Mural Policy – Katherine provided background on why the LCAC is seeking a policy. She said the effort was prompted by a desire to match the review procedures to current practice and streamline the process for artists. One of the recommendations will require a change to the sign code, which must be approved by the sign code board. Porter said he is in the process of setting up a meeting to follow through with this process.

5. Review Committees – Katherine led discussion on the existing committees. She said she and Porter have discussed the possibility of adding a new committee, possibly an "arts and economic prosperity committee" to work with the National Endowment for the Arts' Arts and Economic Prosperity program, which Lawrence will participate in for the next round. Porter said that the $8,450 cost will be paid over three years and will be shared by eXplore Lawrence, which paid for the first year. He said participation in this survey and analysis process meshes very well with STAR sustainability, which the City and County are currently pursuing, and with the Culture Plan. The challenge is to get the surveys to a broad cross section of the entire community, he said. Porter said he will send a copy of the survey to the LCAC members. The online survey is not up as of yet due to technical difficulties, he said.

Richard asked what the committee would do. Porter said the committee would help with communicating with the arts entities across Lawrence and helping to ensure that they are distributing and collecting the surveys at their events phoning and emailing to the individuals at the organizations will be the key effort. Kristina volunteered for the committee.

Katherine said the other new committee she and Porter had discussed adding was an external grants committee. Patrick said it seemed to him that the grants, both external and internal may dovetail into the Culture Plan. He said he worried about having too many committees. Katherine said she and Porter thought of this as the "Money Committee," which would be a little bit different from the Culture Plan Committee. Kathy suggested blending the grants committees into one and indicated that the Grants Committee has in the past dealt with both external grants and the Community Arts Grants program, although this responsibility has been unofficial. Porter said he thought having an Economic Development Committee would be a good idea although he agreed that there are a lot of committees and there may be a way to blend some of them. Mike said it would make sense to blend the money-related committees, including the Culture Plan. Porter said the Culture Plan is complete, the challenge now is marketing and implementation.

Katherine asked Patrick for recommendations as to which committees should merge. Patrick said he thought the City-Owned Arts Maintenance Committee could be blended into the Percent for Art as both relate to City-owned art, some of which was funded through Percent for Art. Katherine said she favored that. The City-Owned Arts Maintenance Committee's efforts have been put on hold because it was moving towards GeoMapping, but that effort was postponed until the Culture Director position was filled and Culture Plan was finalized, she said. John asked if Percent for Art ought to go into the funding-related committee. Kate said she thought Percent for Art was more specific. Katherine said when Percent for Art is active, the members have intensive and lengthy meetings, and suggested the LCAC needed to keep enough separate committees so no individuals are overwhelmed by their volunteer efforts.

Mike suggested a two-tier set, where event-oriented committees such as the Phoenix Committee and the Outdoor Downtown Sculpture Exhibition Committee fit into one committee such as the Culture Plan and Economic Development committee that require more intensive long-term efforts over the course of each year fit into another. Patrick agreed and said he thought there was a set of possible committees that would make sense rather than trying to merge existing committees. After further discussion, it was determined that there should be three categories under which committees fall as follows:

PROGRAM COMMITTEES:

Awards and Grants (a blending of the Phoenix and Community Arts Grants committees)

Final Fridays

Public Art

Percent for Art

Outdoor Downtown Sculpture Exhibit

City Owned Art Maintenance

Murals

STRATEGIC COMMITTEES:

Arts and Culture Committee

Culture Plan Committee

GOVERNANCE COMMITTEES

Executive Committee

Nominating Committee

Sean said he saw the Community Arts Grants Committee as managing another periodic event, like the Phoenix Awards program, that is aimed at community arts engagement and so it should go under the Program section. Kathy suggested eliminating the Website Committee, since it has not been active in years and there is now no need for it with Porter monitoring it and there was a general consensus to do so. She added that some committees are temporary, such as the Murals Task Force, which formed for a special purpose and such ephemeral committees disband once they accomplish their purpose. Kate said the Culture Plan Committee needs to remain separate due the amount of work that needs to be done on it over 2016 to develop the branding and marking plan and the implementation phase. Kathy agreed and added that the implementation phase will be a long-term ongoing effort.

Kate said she would be the Round Table Liaison in place of Kathy. Patrick asked why we have liaisons. Joshua said he saw no reason to set apart any one organization by assigning a specific liaison and suggested eliminating liaisons in general. Katherine suggested a Community Liaison would be more general and that this individual could be tasked with connecting with the arts and culture community and reporting back to the LCAC each month. Kate agreed and said if there is a Community Outreach Liaison listed there is someone people feel comfortable approaching. Patrick disagreed. He said all LCAC members should be liaising with the whole community, and suggested the Executive Committee take the lead in that. I think we should eliminate the official liaisons, because we all do this, he said. Porter agreed and said all the LCAC members' emails and telephone numbers are listed on the website and anyone can contact them at any time with questions, concerns, or suggestions. John asked if there could be a listserve where the LCAC agenda and attachments would be posted to the arts and culture organizations and individuals who opt-in rather than people having to search the City website to find it. Porter said there is a listserve with 428 people on it who have signed up for the subscription list. Sean said people also have to make an effort, the LCAC and Porter can't do everything for them. Katherine suggested the listserve be reviewed carefully each year to ensure there are representatives from all the known Lawrence arts and culture entities on the list. John said in this age of Facebook, there also should be an enhanced social media presence. Porter said he would bring the listserve list to a future LCAC meeting so the members could check it.

To wrap up the discussion, Katherine said seven committees had been identified and categorized. She asked Porter to roll the members of the existing committees into these new committees and asked the LCAC members to review what committees they're on now and think about these new committees for discussion of where they want to volunteer at the February meeting. Kate volunteered to be added to the Cultural Plan Committee list.

LCAC Commissioner Handbook: Porter presented a new handbook in hard copy and indicated that the material it contained is available online as a PDF for anyone to see.  http://www.lawrenceks.org/assets/artsandculture/lcac/LCACMasterOrientationBook_Nov.2015

Role of the LCAC -- (Leader/Facilitator/Activator/Initiator/Optimizer):

Mike said he thought at a previous discussion there had been consensus that the LCAC should be an initiator. Katherine said the members had agreed that LCAC needs to be the initiator when it comes to policy. Richard said it seems like the Cultural Plan changes the LCAC's purpose. It says, "this is the direction we need to go" and we have been making decisions based on that, he said. Katherine said in her mind LCAC is all of the things listed (Leader/Facilitator/Activator/Initiator/Optimizer). We have tended to be more passive in the past, she said, but as things like the Culture Plan and the hiring of the City Director of Arts and Culture have jelled we have become more active in initiating. Patrick said it is addictive to be an activator, an initiator, but though he felt more empowered than before now that Porter has been hired, that is dangerous because LCAC is comprised of volunteers with full-time jobs. I like the idea of planning and I feel like we have a roadmap with the Culture Plan, but I don't feel like it is our job to implement everything in the plan, he said. Mike said that spoke to the old adage, if it's everyone's responsibility, it's no one's responsibility, and nothing will get done. I see our role of taking things to the City Commission as the initiating body between the community and the City Commission, he said, I find that exciting. We do take things to the Commission, Katherine said, and I see that as our role. Patrick said LCAC should not be the mediator between organizations or community members, but can provide them with information so they can handle their own issues.

Porter said the City's expectations of his role may be different from the LCAC's expectation. He said he had little executive direction from the City when he took the position (understandable with CM Dave Corliss leaving and Diane Stoddard taking over as Interim CM), but that will change when a new City Manager is hired. Mike asked Porter what his perception was of the City's expectations of him. Porter said that he has a sense that the City doesn't really quite know what to do with his position yet. There is an apparent expectation that his position should fit within the city culture, which may be different than people think, he said. Porter said that while he is in the City Manager’s Office, he is not really at the executive level so he may be left out of discussions and decisions. Kathy said the LCAC had understood that the Director of Arts and Culture was on the same level as the director of each City unit, even though he is currently a department of one. Katherine agreed and said she thought that perhaps he simply had not been added to the lists, which could have been an oversight. Patrick said he, too, thought it just fell in a gap with the City Manager position open. Porter said he would bring this up with Diane. Kathy said if it turns out that Porter is not on the same level as all other department heads, the LCAC should write a strong letter to the City pointing out that this was the expectation of the community and was written into the Culture Plan.

Katherine asked where the LCAC should go with its role, then. Patrick said everything the LCAC does from this point on needs to relate to the Cultural Plan. He said he sees the Cultural Plan as almost Porter's job description. Katherine said overseeing the events and programs that already exist and all the communications related to them should go through him. Porter said there seemed to be an expectation that he would write grant proposals, but that could be a full-time job in itself. Kathy agreed and said this had not been the LCAC's expectation. John said Porter needs to be highly visible so that he is positioned as a vital part of the City and important to the community. Porter said the challenge is that Arts and Culture is not seen as a central thing in the broader community. John said that it is part of Porter's challenge to make it more central. He said there is so much to do that Porter needs an intern, which would add to the perception that he is head of a department and that Arts and Culture are central.

Katherine pointed out that the discussions of the LCAC's role and Porter's Role had merged into one and asked if the LCAC members wanted to formalize LCAC's role. Patrick said he didn't think so, because it constantly changes and LCAC needs to be flexible as things change. For example, we need to deal with how we interact with entities that want us to represent their ideas to the City Commission, he said. This was the consensus of the group, as well.

Joshua said in working through Haskell's recertification process he became aware of the critical need for methods of assessment in any endeavor. "Not only do we need to demonstrate how and why, but we need to demonstrate the value," he said. "In order to do so, we need to assess what the core functions are and whether we're doing them effectively and efficiently, and if not, how we can improve them. I think if there are self-created core-functions of the Arts and Culture Director and assessment measures established to show they are being accomplished, this will help to truly show the impact of the Arts and Culture Director," he said. "I think we're moving in the right direction in trying to quantify the economic impact of the arts and culture, and we need to capitalize on that and expand it," he added.

Mike agreed and said the LCAC needs to focus on the strategic part of this and measure the impact so it can show the community what their tax dollars are accomplishing. Kate said the County went through this process and EMS now has the whole process laid out with measurements in place for assessment. I agree, we need to get these numbers so Porter has them to show, "this is why we matter, this is why we are important to the city," she said. Joshua said LCAC needs to identify its operating procedures and set up measurements and show how the City is demonstrating its contributions to the back-end rather than all the work being done by volunteers.

Porter pointed out that the whole legacy of the LCAC is online and anyone can find it. Patrick said there is a lot of data related to economic impact of arts and culture. Kathy said it is not visible. Patrick said Horizon 2020 will have an arts and culture section now and it has not before--that is a deliverable. We now have a Cultural Plan--that is huge. We all kind of have a mind-set that has shifted dramatically, Patrick said, we are looking much beyond downtown Lawrence, where as our focus used to be largely on downtown.

Joshua said he had attended a competency-based conference and so his question would be, "Would any of these events have occurred without the LCAC?" If not, the LCAC needs to publicize its achievements and make certain it is widely known what it has accomplished, he said. Kathy agreed and pointed out that, for example, the LCAC started Final Fridays. Porter added that others have taken credit for that. There was discussion of orchestrating special events and publicity to celebrate the fifth year of Final Fridays.

Katherine said she thought the implementation of the Cultural Plan would not happen without the LCAC. She added that, for those individuals who focus only on the numbers, the data will be important and that is what will click for them. However, companies thrive on a creative community, they may not be arts-focused corporations, but they rely on creative work and want a creative workforce available, she said. Porter added that having arts helps with employee recruitment, too.

John said LCAC needs a different kind of presence; a different way of engaging. There is a young demographic that is not very connected with the City, and if they did connect to the city, it would be huge, he said. If you look at the demographics of the polarization over the East Ninth St. project, it is interesting to see who feels they're not represented or heard. Katherine said Porter could start using the LCAC Facebook page to blast out information and provide guidance and information. Porter said the challenge is to figure out what people are looking for and set up and get coordinated and get funding to help people accomplish their arts and culture-related goals. John said the fact that we now have a template for mural agreements is great and it will be very useful to artists. LCAC could set up more templates, such as one about  how to do public art, he said. I think people would find that kind of thing really useful if they can find it easily on the website or through social media.

Joshua said all these things are exactly what he was talking about needing to publicize.

Katherine asked if, once the new/merged committees' memberships are established, it would be useful for the members to sit down and determine the committee's missions and procedures going forward and how they'll access their progress towards the goals they establish. There was a general consensus this would be a viable way to move forward.

Patrick said he would like to explore putting some time limits on the public comments during meetings. They take up too much time and make our meetings too long, he said. Porter agreed and said people really should be able to articulate their position in three minutes or less; anything more is just ranting.  Christie said it is unfair for entities to show up unannounced and demand decisions without sending materials ahead of time so LCAC members can be prepared to discuss it. Patrick said he thinks it's reasonable to expect that if a group is coming to us with some sort of proposal they provide it a week before the meeting so their proposal can be on the agenda and the LCAC members can read the materials before the meeting. To ask to meet and send materials to Porter the day of the meeting and ask us to make a recommendation to the City Commission the same day, that is untenable, he said. He asked if this can be put into the LCAC policy. Katherine said yes and after doing so, that information needs to need to be publicized and posted on the website. We certainly can make it clear what the expectations are, Porter said. Patrick said it seems reasonable to set a time limit. Three minutes might be too short, he said, but perhaps five, and have people speak from the podium rather than sitting down at the table with the LCAC, and when the time is up, point that out. Sean asked if time limits also could be set on the public presentation part of the meetings and suggested fifteen minutes. Katherine said time limits have been given to presenters, but they don't always honor them. Patrick said he is fully in support of Katherine saying, "I'm sorry, but your time is up," when people start to go over the time-limit. In cases where they're here to make a last minute request, just because it's their emergency, does not mean it is our emergency, he added.

There was a consensus of the members that setting and enforcing time limitations both for the invited presentations and for ad hoc comments or requests should be set and a for materials to be submitted a week in advance of the meeting to give LCAC members time to review them prior to the meeting requirement be clearly articulated and shared widely with the public.

Cultural Plan: Mike asked whether Porter and Katherine had been able to consolidate all the responses to the Culture Plan. Katherine said they are in the process of doing that and once they have that done will bring to the LCAC and discuss how to move forward. She said they are starting to get an idea of what priorities are based on the feedback She encouraged anyone who wants to provide input on the matrix to do so and send it to her or Porter as soon as possible.

Arts and Economic Prosperity: Katherine said she and Porter are working very hard to get a special meeting with the City Commissioners. They were aiming for mid to late January, but it appears that if they are successful, it's more likely to be in early February

DIRECTOR of ARTS and CULTURE REPORT:

Porter said the Outdoor Downtown Sculpture Exhibition (ODSE) information is updated and it should be posted now. He said he put it into the packet for the LCAC to take a look at and it needs to be published. He also said he would get the Community Arts Grants application information posted, as well.

Katherine called attention to eXplore Lawrence's draft Transient Guest Tax procedural document. They will bring it to the City Commission so they're able to post it, she said. She suggested that Porter should be on the review committee for those grants. Porter said the grant is geared towards marketing. Kathy said she agreed that Porter should be on the review committee and made a motion that the LCAC send a memo to the City Commission strongly suggesting that Porter Arneill serve on the review committee for the eXplore Lawrence Transient Guest Tax grants. Sean seconded it, and the motion passed unanimously.

Miscellaneous: Kate reported that she had attended the Lawrence Art Guild emergency meeting in which the activities of the president, vice president and treasurer were discussed. Where it stands at the moment is that they are trying to get the 501(c)3 reinstated and move forward, she said. There were 40 or 50 people there and many were former officers. Kate said she thought it would come out okay in the end, but there are concerns about the historical documents of the 54-year-old entity, as well as reinstating the non-profit corporation.

The LCAC Retreat adjourned at 4:05 p.m.