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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005-06-23 Arts Culture Commission MinutesEdina Art Center Board Meeting June 23, 2005 Edina Art Center 4:00p.m. Members Present: Dolores Dege, Liz Eisenbrey, Mike Kelly, Linda Kieffer, Ken Rosland, Alexandra Sifferlin, Ruth Valgemae and Jim Van Valkenburg Members Absent: Sandra Clark and Heather Randall King Staff Present: Brad Benn, Diana Hedges, Phil Johnson and John Keprios CALL TO ORDER Meeting was called to order at 4:00 p.m. APPROVAL OF MINUTES The minutes of last month's meeting were read and amended as follows, before being approved. A misspelling of Dolores Dege's name was corrected. Dee Dege also had several students in the Festival of Arts Minneapolis Mosaic, rather than just one. JURIED SHOW — Delores Dege Dee Dege reported that the Juried Show committee had met on June 23 to design and approve business card-sized handouts and other posters. Letters soliciting prize donations had been sent out and several responses had been received including a donation of $600 and a gift certificate from Arthur Murray Studios. Ruth Valgemae will contact the Watercolor Society and will work with the City to post information on the Website. Dee will contact W.A.R.M. and is working with Connie's Catering on the refreshments for the Opening Reception. Brad Benn had received a response from Minnesota Clay whose representative would like to visit the Art Center for a tour before pledging a donation. The committee's meeting schedule is as follows: July 7 — 4 pm; Aug. 11 - 3 pm; Aug. 18 — 3 pm; and Aug. 25 — 3 pm. MEDIA STUDIOS — Phil Johnson Phil Johnson reported that he would recommend closing the computer classroom at the Senior Center and disposing of most of the computers installed there. Revenues from computer classes were not sufficient to justify continuing to update and maintain the classroom equipment. Several of the newest and best of the computers would be used at the media studios for administration, video editing and DVD production. The others would be disposed of in accordance with procedures recommended by the City administration. Phil will confer with Patty Latham, City IT Coordinator, to work out the details. He, Janet Nicol and Don Clay were also developing the workflow procedures for a planned premium-level service that would involve customers in production of high resolution video and audio, graphics on DVD disks and multiple copies. Staff capabilities and training were nearly complete with one question mark remaining in the area of Adobe Photoshop expertise levels. OUTREACH ACTIVITIES AND EDINA PUBLIC ART COMMITTEE — Linda Kieffer Public Art An article had been published in the Sun Newspaper on the work of the Public Art Committee. Brad Benn and Linda had hung more art works at City Hall last Thursday. A cash donation of $10,000 had been received from the William D. Radichael Foundation. Linda has sent out a call for Glass Artists and several artists have responded on-line. The procedure and timelines were described in last month's minutes. Outreach Pat Greer is exhibiting at Jerry's Supermarket. Susan Bublitz will be exhibiting beginning July 26. BOARD REVISED GUIDELINES "A document entitled Guidelines for Organization and Function of Edina Art Center Board was distributed prior to the meeting and was the focus of an extensive discussion. Several items required clarification. Paragraph 2, Membership included: "Members of the Board who are appointed by the Mayor and Council shall be appointed in January of each year to serve for three years beginning on the 1st day of February in the same year, and the terms of such members shall be staggered." It was the consensus of the discussion that "additional terms should be permitted if no suitable replacement can be found for a Board member having served the maximum number of terms." The document further defined the Public Art Committee to be a sub-committee of the Art Center Board. Paragraph 10: "COMMITTEES: The Chair with the approval of a majority of the Art Center Board may appoint the following committees with the following duties: Item f: Public Art Committee: Advises the Edina City Council regarding all matters pertaining to the visual enhancement of City property via two and three-dimensional art. Members of the Public Art Committee shall consist of Edina residents and non-residents, with the majority being residents. The Edina Art Center Board representative shall serve as chair of this committee. Ken Rosland commented that the language was not clear as to where members of the Public Art Committee were to come from. Were they to be nominated as representatives of various art-related organizations? A discussion ensued. A minor revision to Item # 10 was recommended: "The Chair of the Edina Art Center Board, with the approval of a majority of the Art Center Board, shall appoint all members to the following committees with the following duties:" Jim Van Valkenburg reminded that the Art Center Board had previously agreed on a virtually identical recommendation that was to be communicated to the City administration. John Keprios confirmed that this had been done and that the proposed guidelines contained in this document were in line with City Manager Gordon Hughes thoughts. Mike Kelly stated that, looking to the future, it makes sense to consolidate art functions in the City. If each small interest group were to function independently, that would create competition for focus and funding. Chairman Jim Van Valkenburg asked for a motion. Mike Kelly made a motion that the draft proposal, as amended, be carried forward to the City Manager by John Keprios and Ken Rosland. Liz Eisenbrey seconded the motion. The motion was carried unanimously." DIRECTOR'S REPORT — Diana Hedges Diana reported that the Peggy Kelly Memorial Fund had received nearly $20,000 to date with a substantial donation having come from the Kelly family. The fund will be managed by the Edina Community Foundation. Mike Kelly explained that he had suggested to Diana and the Community Foundation that the memorial fund not be treated like an endowment that could only disburse the income from investments. Rather that the Art Center could use this fund to for needed "extras", but not for operating funds or capital requirements. Ken Rosland asked if the Foundation is charging a fee for fund management. Mike Kelly replied that a small management fee would be acceptable. Diana Hedges commented that the Art Center had never had a fund like this before but could now look forward to doing extra things like sponsoring this October Carnival of the Arts event. Liz Eisenbrey commented that, in the course of her membership activities, she had looked at membership demographics. When trying to identify the largest grouping besides Edina Residents, she found that membership is broadly distributed from all over the metro area. Mike Kelly returned to the topic of donation to the Art Center through the Community Foundation. He asked how these donations are shown as a line item when revenues and expenses are accounted for? Does the Art Center get credit for these dollars and are the related expenditures tracked as well? Brad Benn replied that expenditures are reported to the Foundation and they debit the fund accordingly. Mike Kelly asked again if the City accounts shouldn't recognize the effort and achievements represented by these donations. John Keprios said that he will clarify the situation with the City Manager. Liz Eisenbrey asked, in the light of this discussion, who should donors to the Juried Show write their checks to? They should continue to write checks payable to the Edina Community Foundation. Jim VanValkenburg offered a historical perspective to the preceding discussion. If a donation goes directly to the Edina Art Center, the dollars are received as revenue and can earn no interest. If donations go to the Edina Community Foundation, then interest is earned and funds can be disbursed over time as needed by the Art Center. Diana reported further that classes and kids camps were going strong with good numbers and positive evaluations. She asked for volunteers for Aug. 6 & 7 for Loring Park. A discussion resumed as to when the Revised Proposed Guidelines would be considered by the City Council. John Keprios suggested that the best time for this, based on the volume of other pending business before the Council, would be the July 19th meeting. Next Board Meeting will be July 28 at 4pm at the Art Center. ADJOURNMENT -The meeting was adjourned at 5:10 pm.