Mar 04, 2021 Public Art Committee on 2021-03-04 12:00 PM

We'll open the meeting for March 4th at noon and let's go over the item one of the minutes for January 28, 2021. Motion we approve the minutes from January 28, 2021. I think I'm the only one who can second so I'll second. All in favor. Aye. Aye. All right, next item on the list is receive report and hold discussion and give staff input regarding the status of the following public art committee projects. One the North Lakes dog park to the G Villa complex three the tennis center for their fire station number three, five the foundations of our history mural six MLK Jr. recreation center sculpture and seven the interracial women's fellowship. Able to aid John Whitmore here and I will be sharing my screen to be able to cover that. Okay, that should all be great. All right. Sometimes it takes a second to be able to move. There we go. All right, North Lakes dog park, we've been working a little bit more than we're on our third time that we have gone out to try to get some proposals for this, I know that we've had a couple of proposals in the past, but they were not leading to the scope of work very well. And so what we've done is we've now listed those on a variety of different of the local as in Texas based sculpture associations, and we've already received one proposal so far and they've got another couple weeks to be able to get those in. So we'll, once we got those in, we'll meet with the subcommittee, evaluate those, and then be able to have those brought forward to the whole committee. Okay, I'll keep moving along unless anybody has any questions. Okay, the Vela athletic complex is the Vela monument. What we have is it's under fabrication right now, and they're going to complete the fabrication. We've already issued the second month, the second milestone check to them. And we're currently working on the redesign of the base area. So that's going to be a little bit softer for it. So also to have people so that they're not going to be touching it if it gets a little bit warm, let's say in the heat of summer. So we're going to have something around there. We're still in the design phase of doing that. I did have some communication with the artist yesterday, and they sent me some pictures of progress, which is great. So for those that haven't seen the whole upper area is in shape of a soccer ball. And inside that soccer ball are quite a few different spheres. And so if you can see one of those brackets that you see where the soccer ball is made of, that's in the center section, and you can see progress on making multiple of those in that third photo to the right. Looks very substantial. Looks very cool. I like this. And the whole thing is supposed to be done right about June, and we're trying to make sure we get that timeframe. Again, if anybody has questions, we can stop and deal with those. Tennis center, lots of work happening out there. It's not ready to pick a site yet until they finish some of the other work. So we're still holding off on that. Still the same budget, next steps. We just have to have the subcommittee kick off meeting once we have a general location of where we think that will end up going out there. Fire station number three, they're getting quite a bit of work done out there as far as they've really built the whole other one, and now they're going to demolish the old. And once they've got the demolition done, that's when they start to put in their landscaping. And with all the other issues due to COVID and other things, they're a little bit behind on some of that, but it'll be very quick once they do the demolition from what I've talked to the project managers over that. This is done. And you won't see this one. It's just the official slide to say that project's been completed and looks great. We were really pleased with how it turned out. We've had quite a few compliments from people in the community. I think the best compliment we ever see is when people slow down and drive by it real slow to that, and probably clog up a little bit of traffic, but it's a great compliment to that particular project. This is moving right along. They're still in the stage where they are taking those large pieces of stone and getting it all roughed out, and then the final artistries, it'll be done by Madeline Weiner for that. And that, she says, is all on track, so we should be good. Drew has been working on site preparation and things out there. Quite a few things have to be done prior to when that stone actually gets here, but they're going to be improving the front area and some of the other side areas around that and moving the flagpole, that type of thing, before they can actually install this particular piece. Drew, did you have anything to add? No, other than we are working with the artist, and we will start the base construction, like what John said. We need to move the flagpole and some other landscape features just to be able to add the enhancement of that sculpture that's going to go there at the Martin Luther King Rec Center. So, more to come really soon. DWIF monument, Michelle has been working very diligently with the artist, gathering information, verifying, fact checking things about the DWIF. I see some of it because I get copied on quite a bit, and so they're really quite into it. They've now involved our public information, a public affairs group for some of the historical photos and also the library, the library archivist has been involved and is looking for different materials that will help them. So they're really trying to put together pictures and then of course text and parts of the story, but also they have recordings of some of these folks talking about their experiences at that particular time and kind of what it meant to them. So they're in the midst of being able to gather these things, so it's kind of a fun project to be able to see it all happening. And so, we open it up to questions. Hey John, before we open up to questions, I did have a couple of comments just based upon the sculptures that are still in progress, or more or less the sculptures that haven't started yet. So the tennis center, the fire station, to be exact on those two, please be looking for some emails soon. We'd like to set up subcommittees, so we'd obviously want to get your input on who you'd want to be on those subcommittees as those get started. They are in the works. We hope to get the construction of the tennis center started this summer. So in conjunction with that construction, we would obviously want to pick out a sculpture so all that could be completed around the same time. And then with the fire station, with its demo in the works scheduled, hopefully that should be demoed sometime this summer for us to be able to pick out a pedestal and an art piece so we can get that in really as the landscaping is going in. So everything really seems like it's being finished at the same time versus pieces by pieces, so a piece milled together. And then we'll open it up for questions. Just a quick question. I know that you're talking about the Denton station, you know, starting their demolition. They've already started their demolition. Does that speed up the timeline at all? All I know is that Chief Boots, he said that once they start that, it'll go pretty quick. I spoke to him about a week and a half ago. And so if they started already, then we're getting in better shape. It's okay if we do build it later. It's just, it always looks nice. You know, I know we had talked about some different options before with fencing and that all went away. So we would like to possibly start getting our ideas together on what you would like to see there. That way we can put out the request for proposals to have a nice piece put in that location. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay. Monet before we do that, I know Gary's remote at the moment, but he wanted to make sure that we welcome back all our past representatives from the public art committee and welcomed our new representatives. So we appreciate your time. I know it's been a little different us having to meet, you know, in the middle of the day versus what our normal hours used to be. And hopefully we can get back to some normality really soon. So we all appreciate your time and we enjoy working with you and look forward to enhancing the beautification of the city in the future. So, sorry, I'm probably taking this one. So, yes, you are. So Eddie Valdez, management analyst. So annually all boards, commissioning committees, they approve a meeting schedule throughout the entire year. So in your attachment, you'll see the meeting schedule for this year for 2021. However, I do want to point out that the meeting schedule prior to May, we are all meeting, you know, virtually, you know, so the assumption is after May, yeah, we will try to go back on a normal schedule. And I think I believe I put it on the first Thursday of the month. But before that, I know that we're trying to kind of work around that schedule. So if any case, it depends on how post-COVID, you know, if we will all, you know, meet in person, then we can probably update the meeting schedule. We don't need to do any approval or anything in the long term. It's just, you know, we just want to have something scheduled and we can always update that and let you all know if we're going to be meeting in person. But as it is right now, that's where we're meeting right now between now and May. You'll see the list that you'll see out there. It doesn't include the time, just the day that we're going to be meeting. And then hopefully by June, we'll have some normality. But again, we'll have to just be flexible. But on another note, before we approve that, I know that I received a couple emails from members and I know this has been a very big challenge for everyone trying to meet during business hours. And, you know, it's a challenge, you know, for everyone, including staff, because I want to make sure to make everyone happy in terms of trying to provide a day and a time that works for not only members, but also staff. And I know that the business hours is really, really tough. So hopefully, it will have some normality really soon post COVID. But as it is right now, if you have any objections on the days, I think I put it down for Thursdays for now. We can always, you know, move it on a Friday between now and May. Also, if you have any objections on times, even though I did not schedule a time, maybe there's a good opportunity that we can talk about the time we can all meet because we have it said during the lunchtime, but I know not everyone can make it. So twofold question before we make an approval of the scheduled meeting. One is any objections, you know, on the day between now and May, if Thursday still works. And also, let's talk about the time as well, since most of us, you know, are here. So we've already we've already lost one member because of the time frame, so it's not necessarily I don't know about anyone else left. I'd hate to see anyone else drop out because the person that we did lose was a valuable asset to the committee. Who did we lose? Nick Nick was unable to meet regularly during this time, so he had to drop out. Didn't we also lose Alicia? Well, I missed I missed last meeting. Unfortunately, I had a client that I was unable to reschedule again, not the best time. But I did I only knew about Nick because I talked to him personally. I didn't know about Alicia. Jodi, I believe, had some sort of conflict with her place of business or I can't speak on that officially. I don't know. Well, Alicia did tell me she had a class that conflicted, so she was not going to be participating. I saw her last week. We didn't lose her. We just she can't participate in the meeting. And this is what kind of drove this this opportunity, you know, to talk about meeting, you know, times and dates so that we can try to accommodate everyone between now and May. Obviously, we can't really meet after hours. I mean, we can just because of staffing reasons, we want to try to do it before five p.m. So I know this is open for discussion and it's not going to be forever. I'm hoping there's going to be normality really, really soon. I'm not sure how that's going to look like. I don't think any staff knows how that's going to look like as well. But we're hoping that we can get some normality and we want to make sure we accommodate to all members the very best we can. So right now, we've been meeting every six weeks, Thursdays at about noon. Do we need to change that? I guess that's what my first part of the question. I can make anything work, really. So unless it's just a one off thing. So whatever works best for everyone who has a less flexible schedule, I'm fine with. Do we have to revisit this and talk about meeting on a Friday? I'm not sure if that would be more accommodating to Alicia. And should we transfer the time instead of noon to 3 p.m., maybe like Friday at 3 p.m.? I'm open for discussion. I mean, I want to make it easy on everyone. And again, you know, there's other days of the week. Mondays are a little tough. A lot of city council members want to have a meeting at that time, Tuesdays as well. We also had the Parks for Christian Beautification Board meeting. So it seems like the Thursdays and Fridays are like the most open, but I kind of want to hear all of you out. So Thursday or Friday, noon or 3 o'clock or later time. Eddie, this is Gary. Our typical meeting was Thursdays at 4 o'clock. Now, granted, we would go possibly past 5, but could we try to go back to the 4 o'clock start, back to the original schedule, if everyone is that works with our schedule? Sorry. And and just try to keep it to an hour until we go back to in-person. Go with you, Mary, does that work with you, Mr. Stuhl? That works fine with me, Miss Franklin, it works and it works for you. Still want to meet on a Thursday, your schedule. We did set a record. Our last meeting was 30 minutes. So I did let Gary know that he was gone. So and it went really well. We make good decisions. So we just wanted to make sure that we accommodate everyone, you know, like, like what you said before, we don't want to lose members because it it's in conflict with with your day to day. It was it was brought up prior, so I'm a little disappointed we're only just having this discussion now that we actually had to lose someone and potentially a second person for this to be a pain point for it to be discussed. So maybe next time we can actually address this in a more timely fashion would be great. I think we did on September last year's meeting. But I think it it still was kind of on a beta test doing this every six weeks meeting at noon. And you know, I apologize that we didn't rectify that a little bit earlier time. You know, we really hated that we ended up losing one or two members. But on that note, since if four o'clock is the best time for everyone, do we still want to keep it on a Thursday or do we want to move it on a Friday between now and May? Because I'm assuming that we're still going to do virtual for now. So we can put it down for four to five. I think we were able to do it in under an hour for most of the meeting. It seems like that's been the average time. So four p.m. to five p.m. Is that all OK with you? That's fine with me. They're safe. Four to five. Yeah, that's fine. Thursday, four to five. One question is if we're at risk of losing Alicia or I don't know if Nick leaving was finalized or whatever, but should we check with Alicia or both of them just to make sure that if we're all open to Thursday or Friday, just to kind of make sure until we're in person? Yeah, that's a good question. Or does it have to be decided now? Yeah, well, I mean, what we can do is we can make the decision now. If you guys are all OK for Thursday, I will reach out to Alicia. I'll also try to reach out to any members that aren't here, like Michelle. And if it needs to be brought up, we can also amend the schedule so we can do all the amendments. And I just had to put a cancellation ahead of time or I could speak to the city secretary and ask if we can just bring this up in the next meeting and you guys can re-approve another meeting schedule time because or I'm sorry, if you look at the actual attachment, it doesn't show the time. So we're flexible with the time. It's really the day that you need to choose. You know, it could be Thursday or Friday. So for an example, if Alicia says, you know what, Friday is going to work best for me at four o'clock, then I could probably send out an email. And if we had to re-approve this on the next meeting, then we can do that. Does that work for everyone? So can we just go in and make the approval right now? Are you all OK with the meeting schedule as it is? And then if we had to revisit that in the next meeting, we can do that. Yes, yes, yes, yes. And let's make a motion that we keep it as proposed by Eddie with the ability to change it based on the new information that he's going to gather. And I'll second. Everyone in favor? Aye, aye, aye, aye, yes. And item D is received for nominations and elect chair and vice chair for the Public Art Committee. All right. So on an annual basis, very similar to the calendar. I know we're a little bit off on how members were on board. Basically, normally they would be on board around August or September, and new members would start around September. But since COVID, everything got pushed back. So on an annual basis, we had to elect a new chair or vice chair. And I don't know if you've all seen the attachment. I believe it's on the second attachment. I believe it gives you a little bit of a guideline. So if we're going to start with the chair first, and then once when the nomination everyone approves of, we'll go to the vice chair next. So anyone can nominate, anyone you can nominate yourself within this meeting right now. And then we're going to do it by the order by nominations. And once when we get the majority vote, then just assuming, I don't remember how many members do we have in here, but to say we have five or six members, if we have way beyond three or four votes, then that would be the majority vote, and we can stop from there. So once we identify the chair and a vice chair right prior to the conclusion of the meeting, the chair will be taking effect immediately, and they're going to close out the meeting from here on. So I guess the first step is for Monet to ask if there's any nominations, and then everyone will start voting on them. There's not going to be a second or someone meets you second, you know, or it at all. It's just everyone just kind of votes yea or nay. Any nominations for chair? I'll nominate myself. I'll second your nomination for yourself. You don't need to second, just. Okay, well, I guess Monet nominated herself. I vote Monet. Are the current chair and vice chair, are they present? Forgive me for not knowing. Michelle isn't here, she's vice chair. So it's round robin, we all go round vote? Yes. If there's no other nominations, there's no other other nominations than a day you can ask one more time, then you can go out and close it out and ask for everyone to vote. Okay. Are there any more nominations for the chair? We just need a vote from everyone now. All in favor for Monet? Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. It wasn't my preference. Well, Fred, you do have the option of not accepting the nomination. I think I will decline the nomination at this time. Okay. But thank you for the consideration. Do we have any other nominations? Do we need to nominate -- I was going to nominate Meredith Bowie if she would be willing to accept. I was too, I declined. I tell you what, I'll nominate myself if Monet promises to never miss a meeting. How about that? I should. At home working. Meredith, are you interested? Meredith, are you interested? I was going to nominate you as well. Hold on for a second. Meredith, are you interested? Meredith, nominated? No, thank you. I would -- Ed would be lovely. Thank you. But who nominated Meredith just for meeting purposes? I did initially. And then I, Georgina. We're playing hot potato here. Yes. All right, so we have Ed Steele as the nomination for vice chair. Do we have any other nominations? I was thinking Jody, but she's not here. My understanding is Jody's no longer on the committee. Okay. And you can still nominate any members that are current right now. So if they're not here in this meeting, you know, for example, Michelle, you can nominate her. Well, since we do have Ed Steele as a vice chair, we'll give it a couple of seconds. Do we have any other nominations? Thanks for the vote of confidence, by the way, Monet. I'm going to vote for you. All right, do we have a -- let's take a vote on the vice chair, everyone, for Ed Steele. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. All right. I think we have it. Any concluding items? The one thing that staff has for -- I wouldn't say it's concluding items, but an update that we will have for you or we hope to have for you at our next meeting will be the rendering of industrial park for the marrying of the DWIF -- excuse me, the DWIF sculpture with the reconstruction of industrial. I don't know if anyone, if you remember, I remember bringing it to you years ago, I think it was two, two and a half years ago, the original rendering of industrial, we had talked about maybe some art pieces on the side wall, now we have this beautiful sculpture and art piece that will be really in the middle of the park, and if you remember right, you know, we had that small kind of, you know, one person, two person kind of stage, kind of almost in the middle of the park. We're going to kind of keep that same concept and really make the art piece the backdrop for that area, and I think you're really going to like it, but we definitely want to bring it to you. It hopefully -- it looks like it will be ready in six weeks, so we'll be able to bring it to you for your vote on that, so it will really -- I'm really excited about it. I know I'm kind of mumbling, but it will really make that area pop and really enhance the DWIF sculpture that way people can access it, they can get to it, they can experience it, and really it just be a destination for all of us to be able to go enjoy plus everyone around and hopefully nationally be able to come see it, so -- and of course be looking out for emails to volunteer yourself to sit on those subcommittees for those other two art pieces for the tennis center and the fire station. >> Any more questions, concerns? >> And if you -- I just wanted to give you an update. I did speak to Mr. Finch, Carl Finch from Brave Combo. We talked about last meeting, and I know, Ed, you had to miss last meeting, but we kind of -- we talked about the artwork and the stamp concrete that's going to be in stamp columns that are going to be on the new I-35, so when they finish the I-35 merge and I-35 north and parts of I-35W, instead of hanging medallions on those walls, they're going to be stamped, stamped panels like what they have on I-35E along, you know, Lake Louisville, so that was thought of as a music theme, and so we are -- you know, I've had several conversations and meetings with him, and so we're going to sit down in person soon and kind of go over some different drawings, so we'll be -- that'll be a future, granted, that's probably about five years out, the construction of I-35 that TechStop is selling us right now, so that will be a future task that we'll bring to you on kind of us picking out a artist to be able to help us with those stamped concrete and walls, so I just want to give you an update that we're continuing to work on that. I know five years seems like a long time, but it'll be here before we know it, and we need to be prepared, so. Any more questions? Nothing else? We can conclude the meeting at 1233.