 All right. Hi, hi folks. How are we doing good? Hello. Great. Hi, Lori We'll wait a few more minutes and see if we've got anybody else joining tonight It's Tom coming. Yes, Tom will be here. Okay How about Jim? Jim will also be here. Yes. Jim is recovering from Surgery and health stuff. So we're gonna be real gentle with him tonight Tom's gonna take minutes, but we're we're also gonna use the transcripts that Angela puts together. So, okay Do you have a name of the person? I have the slides from the person that March? Well, no, no, no, not Christine, but for the person that sent an inquiry in I keep going through my email and I cannot find the person's name. I have I have That's which person we have We're dealing with two at the moment. Hi, Tom. Yeah. Who is the person that sent in the photographs of Paintings the new one the new one Christine Mirabelle No, no, not the one that's going up March and April. Well, that's why I'm asking which one you mean So you mean the other one? No, not not Christine, but Terry Agnes Agnes Yeah, that's something right. So can somebody send me that email again? Hold up. You have that Tom. I lost Great game, but it's a good. I think she should we should put her in Yeah, yeah, we're gonna talk about that tonight. Okay. I'll give my little stick here. Okay, buddy Welcome to Amherst public art February meeting. Um, I am Terry Holt. I am the co-chair Thomas is the other. Well, Tom is the other co-chair In light of the ongoing COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, the then governor Baker issued an emergency order on March 12th 2020 Allowing public bodies greater flexibility and utilizing technology and the conduct of meetings under the open meetings law Pursuit to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021. This meeting will be conducted via remote means Members of the public who wish to access the meeting may do so by clicking on the zoom link This recording gets uploaded to the town's youtube channel promptly after the meeting No in-person attendance by members of the public is permitted But every effort is made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings in real time via technological means And in the event they aren't able to do so or regardless we will post this on the town's youtube channel shortly after the meeting Thank you All right, we're all here. I think Jim is uh Hopefully he's coming along well, we can get going Welcome to February. I can't believe it's February already but welcome to it Gosh we're halfway through it now. I can't even believe it How about that snow storm, huh? We're supposed to get two more inches today, right? Yeah, that didn't happen I'm okay with that though. Robert. Good to see you Nice to see everyone. I hope you have heat I do. Thank you. Fantastic and your basement is not under ice anymore Not at the moment. Okay I'm pulling I'm pulling for your basement Go heater go All right, does everybody have a copy of the agenda and the minutes? No, I should open that up. Um, I can uh share That if that's helpful Everybody like me to do that. I can do that. So we we don't actually get sent copies, right? We just have to go and look for them on the town site. So angela sends you an email every month with the uh with the invite And I believe the agenda is attached. Um Earlier this week. I sent you all the minutes and the agenda also so you can look for an email for me I think I sent it Tuesday Oh, yeah, the notice about this meeting came rather late. I apologize All right, where is my share? Share screen there it is All right All right, we're gonna share This screen. All right And I'm gonna get my agenda It's here Okay, you all see the agenda Yeah, all right Here we are. Okay, uh, I need to keep an eye on the zoom Just in case jim comes in, okay and I don't see any attendees of the public. So I think that we are We are good Unless I just don't see them Okay, um, so first, uh approval of the january minutes. I have january minutes. I can call those up too Thank you, Tom for making these happen Okay Um january minutes I already looked through them. I don't know if you all have yet Because I'm not signed in I should be signed in Okay, um I didn't anybody have any corrections to the minutes I'm just looking at them now. Okay. I'm good I see and just a typo, but that's not a big deal I In terms of, um Clarity this is this is great. Thank you so much All right, uh, will somebody please propose a motion to To accept the minutes, um with minor changes I make a motion to accept the minutes with minor changes. Thank you. Have a second I second. Are we all okay with this? Say I All right. Thank you so much minutes pass I'm abstaining. You're abstaining. Okay, Dara all right, um Okay on the agenda, we've got electrify amherst to give you a update on that. I have the uh agreement That I need to fill out. I did a very silly thing when I signed up for this and that was that I put my name on it instead of Amherst public art So I need to talk to angel about that and make sure uh, there's no problem with that I asked for 1500 to pay three artists um to do three traffic, uh Transformer boxes. Um, we got 850 So, uh, I think that gives us room to possibly do two we will do I'd like to I'd like to offer five hundred dollars per artist and we'll pay for supplies So we'll have to pay some of you there are some of our own money possibly Um, we don't have to vote on that today. That is just something I wanted to put out there And we can talk about it for march Because I'd like to start working on a call for artists We do have a process, um for this for this, um This is a project that we've done before in the past Uh, I will we none of us were here for it, but um, it did happen in the past So, uh, angela has assured me there's a process and I've looked through it And it makes sense. So, um We will work on that starting in march But uh, I did want to talk about, you know, if if it's okay for us to do two this year And for us to make up the difference in what that would cost And is five hundred dollars enough money to give to an artist. So those are things we could talk about today Eric quick question. How are the boxes selected? Does the town select those or so you uh, we can we can all get ideas together And then I will bring them to the dpw and they will let us know, uh, if those are okay to be painted And they basically have to um, not be slated for being replaced soon That was a problem. Uh, last year we had a beautiful art on one end, but it was But it had to be replaced. So we lost the art I'd rather that didn't happen. So I I'd like them to stay up as long as possible So I need to just talk to the dpda to um, the dpw had and, uh, find out which ones we can paint And then we we just kind of pick out the ones that we like and then we go forward with our call We actually go forward with the call before we come up with the with the boxes themselves actually So we serve as the, um Uh selection committee we do I need to look more into that process, but I believe that's true. Tom. It is I don't think we have other people to uh, to vote on that. I think it is we get to choose that one in that process Right. I think that's true Um, do we know what kind of paint that they use on the boxes? Are they using house paint? Or acrylic paint? I think it's acrylics, but I'll have to find I'll I'll have to look through the paperwork that Angela sent us right because that, um acrylic paint I think in some because it's on It's such a large piece that it might be more expensive than house paint I think I'm also going to talk to my, um, my colleagues at Arlington Public Art and find out, uh Get some more details about how their project is run. They've been running it for years And so I can get some more information about the details like that so that we can write on I'll talk to Amy Crowley because she ran it here Yeah, I need to I need to talk to Amy Crowley too Okay, great any other thoughts about electrify amherst Do do we know what people have been paid in the past? Has it been $500 or I think that is about the average is $500 In other towns as well. I wish we could pay them more, but um We have budget, um So I think what I'll do is I think Tom and I are going to look through the electrify amherst process The stuff that Angela sent over we'll have more information about that at the next meeting Um, so we can talk about the process and what materials we need and what we should pay and how many we should do And we can have more details about that. That'll be on next month's agenda This is just kind of to um to let you know that we we got a grant Um, I need to fill out the paperwork for And then uh, we can start doing the work of getting ready for for this call for art All right, so moving on Uh update on the apac acc merger conversation. We met with um matt and julian Three oh gosh a month ago and discussed um the possibility the potentials of joining forces. Um, this was actually um We were asked to have this meeting from paul the town manager because uh in his opinion Uh, there's a lot of confusion about how art is done in early in amherst and to see if it would make sense for us to join forces So he asked and so we made that happen and we had our first conversation Um, lovely people. Uh, acc does a lot of great work in town. I'm really really we're very very glad. I'm very glad we have them Uh, I think we saw some Places where there was potential and some places where we were not quite sure if we would fit And uh, we both wanted to keep our autonomy, but we also know we could help the other out I think um matt was especially excited about the idea of having Uh more people to help read these grants and make these decisions because it's been very hard to get and keep committee members for the acc. Um, it's a lot of work and um as you probably know, uh There has been a shortage of public people wanting to go out for often like this Um throughout the country And we are we're seeing that ourselves So matt was saying that they also have trouble having enough people to to to the go through the grant process. It's a long process So he was excited about the idea of possibly having one or two of us join forces with them So you have more more people to do that work um, and from our perspective, uh We liked the idea of being more connected to the artists that are right now applying for grants. I feel like Sometimes we uh send out calls for art out into the ether We don't really have an attachment to artists and the artists themselves are coming to the acc So it's possible that we we have this font of artists that we could reach out to for calls And for uh for collaborations Instead of like kind of just throwing out a call we could actually talk to a group of people So it's a it's a little bit more more potential for us to have Bigger discussions better better collaborations and artists who would want to do the work that we are engaged in So that was um our our part of that Um tom, did you want to add anything else to that? I know you had a lot You had a lot to say during the meeting Well, I think those those are in fact the main points, uh Where where things stand now or or where they left off at least at that meeting was desire to uh select topics that felt like they were worth um Being the agenda for the next meeting, right? So I think that's what we understand So we didn't need to have another uh Random conversation with the agenda. I think we're going to um We wanted to go back to our commissions and our people and talk and uh figure out what what is the next conversation to have That we have some bullet points and some things to really Talk about and think about separately and then we come together and have another conversation um, so that's where we are so um I don't really had a lot else to add um Like I said, the ACC does a lot of really great work. Um the uh Project they do in the spring every year the block party is a really big deal for the town I'd love to be more uh To participate more into that we we did we were there last year and I I'm glad we were there, but I would like to have more um more engagement with the people of Amherst that go through that and um, so Some things to think about. Um, Dara, did you have some things you wanted to say about this idea? I guess I just wanted to ask you all did you talk about the Basic different missions the two groups have Yeah, and how did y'all finally Determine what those were Are they the ones that are written down? Yeah, so we had um, we had our papers in front of us for the meeting. So angela And we got that ready for us. We had we could look at our mission statements right there um, it would just kind of see the crossovers and um There are crossovers. Um our mission is a little their mission is a little more uh wide open Um for all art ours, of course, it's just based on whatever public art is defined as which is a Strange word. What is public art anymore? A public art has such a big history and it has such a great use in communities in a million ways. So It's good that it has its own name, you know, and the only thing that I I have questions about it because the ACC Amherst Art Cultural Council all their their money comes from massachusetts cultural council, right? Right, right Right, so that's a very different pool of money than What the commission ever has and not really we actually apply for grants through acc No, no, I know that we can apply for grants from them But if you're if you merge it you can't really apply to grants for them anymore Well, if we merge then we would um have access to the funds that are allocated to acc itself for programming They have a budget not necessarily because the mass cultural council really does care about that that money goes Mostly to individual artists. It does the the remaining isn't a lot of money. It is No, and I it is it is to be used for creating art Oh, I don't know. I've seen things they do since I've been watching them for years, you know, and they're great And I think the commission has the potential to be great and a lot better And I care about the difference between public art being defined as something that is presented to a group of people to fit into a very specific Place in a town with sometimes with A call that defines a little bit about what it needs to be and it's different the the grants for artists individual artists The artists make up their own thing. Nobody tells them what to do Nobody tells them. Oh, we want you to do this theme This is the theme i'm looking for in my pop in my art And that's a really that's a first amendment thing to preserve It's a kind of thing that you don't ever want to lose as an artist. You don't want to be told what to do And so I care about the difference the art the public art commission has very very different calling than Individual artists ones that that basically the acc and mcc or that's their main missions You know, so they're different And I care about the difference and I just want to make sure I mean, do you really have to merge to make this work? No No, and that's that's kind of what we're trying to figure out if is this a merger or is this a Collaboration or is this we work together or we help each other? We really haven't defined all those things That what our mission is and what their mission is both revolve around public benefit so There's they they have organizations that come to them and want Programming and for you know for art. Yeah But it's all for public benefit and amherst art is also for public benefit So that we have some things in common with our missions tom Yeah, I think the the the key thing is not to just focus on the acc part of money But yeah, which is not very much sources. Yeah, and uh, both You know that one of the overlaps in chartering statements For the two groups is to seek additional money They said they told us that they really don't do that. Yeah, uh-huh. Well, that's because they get money from mcc Right. So did did you all talk about the town council? Uh bylaw that is the call. I think it's called the percent for art bylaw The 0.5 percent. Yep. I'll talk about that Uh, we didn't want to talk about that in that meeting so much But we didn't talk about that that's that's charged to us. Yeah, that's that's separate And wouldn't that wouldn't that be coming up soon with the new school? Yes Several questions there and I've asked angela to look into these it It really seems as it will for the school the uh, the bylaw says that when The budget gets created that that is the appropriate time To launch a process. It's been very well defined actually for setting up a you know committee to call or call for submissions and to You know create a budget line for it. So there's the school building Project. There's also the question I asked angela also whether the north commons project whether that Was grandfathered in other words whether that started before the law took effect Yeah, or whether the public art the percent for artists got overlooked another question I have is The the the library expansion Uh, is what kind of critter is the library is it I don't believe it's it's considered a town department even though the town has Um involvement In funding et cetera et cetera I think angela said that uh, dona doma the name of it. Uh, it has its own kind of thing too. So The north amherst is a little bit different dara cherry and tom. Do you think it would be a good idea to send all of us the percent for art bylaw? Yeah, I'll send out. I copied it and I read it and it's really good for us all to know What that is to help us with this bigger conversation about the acc and apac Because well, I think this I think this is the equivalent of the state funding that they get In other words, it's it's fundamental to their charter the state funding the The percent for art is squarely The squarely charged to us right and that wouldn't change when I look at the possibility of a merger I don't see throwing everything into the same pot necessarily and in fact, uh, matt reminded us that There are things about the acc That we really can't change that they are required by the state My view is he might have, you know, the two of us under one kind of Umbrella or whatever you want to call it And keep the things that are special to each of us but then work together rather than in in isolation on things like additional funding Contact with artists and cultivation of liaisons things of that sort. Yeah Well, it makes a good good sense that the two groups would communicate I mean, I think so. Yes. Well, these lines of communication have not been open before and so I'm hoping that even these conversations will help that Yeah, and and then Us deciding what kind of ways to communicate Together is really important too. And I'm I'm in always in favor of people communicating With other interested parties or people who can help people and all that kind of, you know, good stuff I don't want to throw like I don't want to I don't want to do what tom said But think only about that they they have money and we don't it's not about the money anyways It's really about the collaboration and the and having more hands to do the work In a time when there's fewer people going out for public office I think that's my key that my key takeaways were working in collaboration and in kahoots with them under an under umbrella Where we each keep our own autonomy but help the other out and benefit from their benefit from each other's Missions, you know, yeah, well, and I think that the if the ACC made it clear to the public Through different art organizations in the valley art advocacy newsletter all kinds of stuff They would have more people volunteering to read grants than they could deal with Maybe yeah, yeah Yeah, and so maybe they also really need to work on communicating with the individual art Groups where they find artists who would be interested in being on Their committees or you can have ad hoc committees. I imagine right MCC is a little bit picky about how the Local cultural councils get their people Yeah, I really don't know the particulars, but I know that they can be picky about it uh, well, you know reading that At 0.5 project in bylaw. It's really great to read it You learn a lot about what the town thinks About what kind of art and what kind of things they hope for Yeah out of it because see like there's a big difference between telling an artist what you want There's a big difference between commissioning somebody with a theme And telling them what you want their art to say And having You know just a way of honoring people trusting that people's artistic ideas are going to be That you can judge them responsibly Yes, anybody else want to say something about this? Thank you. Thank you. I have a suggestion. I've been thinking about this What if we gathered a list of all of the artists Who have interacted with either the acc or a us public art found um and sent them each a letter asking them What can the town do what should the town do to promote art and artists? I think that's a good idea because they're better people who've already self identified. Yeah That would be great. I'd love to see more networking happen in this town among the artists as well Some artists like to be alone Okay, would anybody else like to hit say and think about this idea? Laura you got anything? Um No, I mean I I I don't really I You're us. Yeah, I I agree that we you know, there should be more communication between us and the cultural council because I think as long as I've been here, you know, we've applied for things but there's been no real communication. So I I think that I'm all for that. Um, and in whatever way we can if there are projects to work together and you know I think I just agree with everything that's been said. I haven't really heard in a in a way that we disagree on Anything it's it's all for having more communication and that we do have different missions that we work with You're right. Thank you, Lori Robert, did you have your microphone on for did you want to have something to say? I'm just curious how how How large is the cultural council how how many people there are 12 members Tom? Is that right? It sounds right. Um Matt said that they have a have an opening or two They have one right now and they're going to have two or three open up this year Okay, and they're a little nervous about that October, November, December, January they have they get real busy Uh, yeah, so they have one space open now and one two three are opening up this year so Yeah, they're a little nervous about that. Understandably. It's a it's a big job. They get they get a lot of applications All right. Well, that was a good conversation. Thank you so much everybody for joining in on that Um, please send us all copies of that of the bylaw if you would yeah, of course And uh, if it come, you know, like you're Your agendas for those meetings with other people about the issue. Yeah, so so right now we can Decide among ourselves what we would like to bring up for the next conversation. So What would you like us to bring that is? um I'll write it down here Who has ideas about what we do you think we should talk about for the next meeting? Well, I think we've talked about them Okay So when when we have our next meeting with the amherst cultural council, what would you like us to bring? Uh, I I would need a little bit of time to prepare that. Okay. That's fine. It's totally fine. Yeah If each of you will think about that and you can just send them to me Um, I will let you know when the next meeting is we don't have it on the books yet Because we all we wanted to go back to our commissions and talk. So, uh, Think about it. Um, think about this conversation And if you have some points you'd like us to bring up at the next one, I'd love to hear it All right Okay, let's move on to the next. Um Uh treasure report robert you have any changes in the treasure report No, not since last month. Um, and I never Got a response from the town about the question of that um Money that was related to the nifa grant. Yeah, I guess I'm assuming that it's It's in the planning department. So whenever there is a project Perhaps we can contact them to That might be it But if you have any questions you're not getting, uh, callbacks or or return emails reach out to angela Um, because she is um, she is mighty and she is our liaison and she will get it done She's been really amazing lately. Um Been really really helpful So yeah, if you have if you have any problems with getting information from any town employee Just ask angela. She will she will help us with that Okay, um, so we can move on to the town hall gallery march plans. We have a lovely artist coming in in march um christine Mirabelle Mirabelle um So we're going to be having our next artist reception on march 4th Eighth march, I think it's We hang it on the fourth it opens on the eighth. Okay, right. So the question is when is the um When is uh jennifer moisten and Um, amela Well, yeah, when are they going to take the other one down? We can have we can send them an email I'll get in touch with them and work that out. Okay. Thank you I think they wanted to make a few changes to some of the panels because uh, they've had some new information come up from the exhibit right, right So i've had this idea of uh And and mickey told me what you think about having uh after um christine's exhibit ends at the end of april um inviting the black history month Uh project to go back up from may in june. So it's there for june 10th um, I I think we should have it up until august until the end of august and maybe Have um because after that we have somebody that's interested and maybe um It would be good to leave the black history one up for a while so that people could really walk through and Really see it. I I think some of the exhibits need more time. Okay, so um, my recommendation I get I hear that that's something I suggest that we offer them We offer may in june for the um the repeat of the black history um, so as not to We like to I'd like to see us move ahead when we get requests from other artists Okay, and then back ourselves up too far Okay, we have one record one person at this point. That's agnes mccraven. We do So that would finish so that would get us through uh, july and august. So then we'll be looking at the next one looking for september Right, so that does give us a few months to Look for some more artists Right, okay um Yeah, I think I agree with that mickey. Um I would love to have that black history month up all summer, but we do have a an artist who has reached out to us So I I don't want to Yeah, we don't want to push her off. Yeah, okay All right, so let's let's do that. Um, so march eighth. Um, we're trying to figure out the time. Uh, I think she uh, Christine wanted a four to six Right, that's what she wrote in her email that she sent out to um Everyone yeah, I I mean, I feel like we uh A lot of people can't make it there at four o'clock and so you're gonna miss a lot of folks I I hate you're gonna miss the the restaurant traffic that might be going You know going on in town and people who are working until 430 and five me included. Um, you know that it kind of Excludes those people from this experience, which isn't my favorite thing Um, I'd like to reach out to her and ask if she would be okay with moving it to five or two six So that we can have Hopefully more people who work nine to five who can show up Right. Well, that's fine with it's fine with me if you reach out to her. Okay. It's totally fine Okay, so tom, I think you were gonna reach out to her and see if that's okay and we'll see We've got it's already up on the website. It's up. It's up for four o'clock and if it has to be that's fine It's right. I can't even get there at four. No, I don't know who can right But um, if it has to be four to six, that's fine, but I would rather it be a little bit later We've got a press release ready to go that angela wrote and tom and I looked over And uh, it's ready to go as soon as we agree on that time Okay, but that'll go out on facebook and instagram too. I believe so And to valley news and reminder and all those other places that these these things go Sent the announcements out to five or six Media outlets. I took a quick look back at one of the confirmations and it does Offer a link to make corrections. Okay, so maybe the others will too Okay, in the case if we do change we'll make those changes Angela has already said that she would change the the town's postings. Right. Okay I like I said if we do need to put a sign outside There will be two sandwich boards one at each entrance that the entrance from uh Boltwood drive is uh going to be open by then so we have to figure out a different place to put the table Well Yeah, I have a place to put it but um, okay Yeah, we're also trying to think about some ways that we can help pay for this and angela came up with a bunch of ideas about getting uh getting area businesses to Offer them a table if they will offer some food or part of the money to pay for the receptions I'd like to be a little bit more creative about how we pay because I I I paid for the first one Mikey paid for the second one Uh, I paid for this last one, but I'm gonna need to be reimbursed because It's a lot of money. I agree. So, uh, I'm gonna be putting in a receipt for that prepare for that robert Um, but I'd like a way to pay for this that isn't asking an artist for money right I know we did that in the past. Um It feels a little skeevy to me to say pay for your reception. I don't like it. So, uh, I'd like to find a different way to pay for it Our charter says that we should ask the town For budget too. So I think I do think this would be reasonable I don't again With budget setting it wouldn't happen immediately. Yeah, but that would be a reasonable operating expense Right that would be an ask. Yeah That's something we can actually think about for the next time the finance committee gets together And we can have we could ask for a a budget for receptions and and you know See what we can get from the town Right. All right on the list. Uh, okay. Um Anything else about town hall gallery? Did you all get to see the black history month months? Did you everyone see that amazing exhibit? You haven't go down take a look at it really all our names are on it really good stuff Yeah, our names are on it. Where well The one in the town hall. Yeah, right in the Very front And has a list of all of us Oh on the public arts commission. That's very sweet. Yeah, I'm um, I'm on the amherst The town website and it doesn't show that exhibition though Under the public art commission No, it's not under ours Did we not put it up there? No, I think with the scramble to get it up Oh, but we didn't do that and we should have Take a look under the department of equity Yeah, it might be in the dei department dei That's that's where I found that's where we shared the press release from was from the dei Yeah, um It was on this page, but it has been taken down Huh Hmm. I'm not sure why it was taken down Well, this goes to the point about better communication Yeah, um This is after the fact, but we could ask angela to put it up on the public art page too Right. I think I think it should be up there. Especially it was here. I don't know why it was taken down And then when you scroll down further so for another agenda item for the future is The tour amherst art Destinations we really need to update it because there are pieces on there that are no longer there Yeah, absolutely Yeah, I've uh angela has done some updates to the pages that I sent but it we certainly need to update some more pages If you'll write them down and send them to me, I will I will pass those along Um Amherst the town of Amherst lost its person who did the web updates And I don't know if they found somebody else to do those. So I think angela might be doing them too Maybe they hired somebody. I really I really don't know but I know that they were The person who was doing that Did we ever get um any answers about like I was just because we were talking about our mission and um You know it's it says Developing policies for publicly owned works and amherst. Do we actually know what we owned? Uh, we have a basic inventory Where's that? Be great for us to all see that too. Yeah, I think that is actually in stuff that angela sent over she sent us How many pages tom she sent us like electronic pages from the last Yeah, there are like 500 pages. Yeah, tom's gone through a lot of it I mean, I think we could probably Get an input for a good one. We should have it all in one easy to find place Absolutely It's good to be educated about what's behind us and what might have been overlooked That's how we go forward is knowing our history and the thing about this commission is that there isn't really It's hard to strategic plan when we don't know our past, you know And so the the the legacy of this commission seems to be people do things great things, but then they move on and there isn't really that That continuity That's something that I think we'd like to work on is is having having more records and more processes in place that we can pass along All right Okay, so I am moving on to the chair report which I wrote here somewhere I can find it. Haha All right chair reports short one this month. Um I did want to say the tom and I have been working on a few things. Um They're in the planning stages like we'd like to convene convene a meeting To take a look at the policies and processes for public art. Um, this would be a full commission meeting We'd like to make that happen in person if possible I know we talked about this last spring and we we just could not pull it together I would really love to pull that together this this spring if we could I think getting together in person and talking about and kind of mapping out how we do things how we should do things would be really helpful Um Also, like I said the talks with acc are ongoing I think there's a place where we can both coexist and help one another I'm not sure what that looks like and I'd like to meet with the town manager to see what he was thinking about when he first Asked us to get together and talk about it. So That's something I'll be doing as soon as paul can make some some time for me Uh, the town of amherst has offered our commission the opportunity to have a non voting counselor liaison Um, we have said yes. We think it might be useful to have a town liaison I don't know that we will get one But um the possibility exists that we will get a non voting member to um Who is a town representative and it could be somebody from Planning it could be somebody from uh, the library. It could be somebody from public works We don't really know exactly how that comes out, but Tom sent along a a letter saying sure we would be interested in that. So we'll see how that pans out Did you want to add anything about that tom? It just that we made the you made the point, uh You know in support of our request we made the point that We could certainly use some help as we work on Our processes and our filling out of our understanding of our charter I think that would be helpful to get somebody to help us with that process. So we'll we'll let you know how that goes Um, and then I just wanted to acknowledge all the work that angela mills has done in support for our commission I don't know if you were all aware She's really come through for us. Um, we don't have a planner, but we have an angela She's been writing press releases updating the website baking cookies for our reception Showing up at the receptions helping us get you know get them ready and keeping us all on schedule and aware of arts events Happening around town Um, we are very fortunate Yeah, we are we are very fortunate. So right Um, uh, also, um, I would like to come up with a response to kathryn regarding the for want of a nail project And I think it's going to be a letter of recommended steps. I think it's going to be a Um, kind of a this is uh This is what public art is thinking. Um, these are the holes that we see We are having trouble committing to this project even though we aren't paying for it Because we don't have an answer to some questions about what happens to these artifacts at the end of this project And also who will be responsible for this that the north amherst public library when it needs to be repaired Um, uh, there's a lot of questions that we didn't ever have to ever get answered. And so We can't really sign off on this and move forward I think we need to write a letter of recommendation saying these are things that you need to see Or take care of Did did you ever talk to amy crelly? I did not I still have not gotten together with her I've been too busy because she's got a lot of information specifically on projects like this I talked to her about the one that's in kendrick park, which somebody Did themselves and then donated to the town and the public arts commission said no We can't take it on I I don't agree with The idea that we can have a town filled with statues that Private citizens decide they want to put up as ego projects. I don't think that's what we want filled all over our town I think that if there is a public art project that has public benefit that uses, you know, that uses town artists Uh, some kind of a collaboration and something that we're all looking forward to or we want to mark on something historically and using art That's really valid, but I don't think ego projects are something that public art should really be doing And so I think that's going to be part of the response and um, I'm happy to write it up And we can talk about it, but um, I would like to get that done. I don't like to leave her hanging I don't if she wants to keep moving forward. I think she can move forward with the north amherst library If they want to put that up in in the front, you know, the front there and they're all excited about it Then I think that that's what we will say is we will say you may do what you like But it won't be a public a public art project Because you can't sign off on it as a commission. It just there's just it breaks some rules that we really Um, feel feel worried about Yeah, well and because she chose the artist to do it and she chose The parameters which is not within how we do things. It's also I was About what how she got a How she got an mcc grant because if you read, um, you know the regulations for our approving grants They have to be a public benefit I don't really see how this is of public benefit and it also is supposed to be a group like a group And there would be a group who would come to us and say we would like to do a project and then the ACC would say, oh great Here you go Instead of it being one person One person is not an artist, you know, so it's a little it's a little odd that it got a grant Um, but I'm I'm I'm not against it. I think she should be able to do this if if the library wants to do it so Have you talked to the library? Yes, I did. I reached out to them to ask what they thought about it. They they all were very excited about it Okay So like so we've you know, I guess that our due diligence was I talked to the DEI about it. They didn't It wasn't even on their radar. Um, they weren't concerned So I said, okay, I'm moving on and then I asked the historical commission and they said, oh That looks great. No problem. So I said, okay. Well, this is this is the due diligence So then I was asked to to contact the north library and they said yay, you know so, um We just kind of pass this off and and let them make this happen if they want I'm sorry, Tom. Go ahead. Go ahead. He froze Oh, he froze. Oh, okay um, I Like the where it's being placed is a has that been talked about? That intersection is so Dangerous. It's actually not in the end. It's right in the front It's the library that's like facing away from the intersection. It's in the front yard of that It's not it wouldn't be at any kind of problem Visually place that that we were shown where it was going to be is in that little triangle on the back of the new addition to the library Well, it's actually like right in front of the library. It wouldn't it's not it wouldn't obstruct any view anywhere Not what we saw and it's not so much of obstructing a view It's a distracting a a confluence of one two three four five Groups of people trying to all go through an intersection Yeah, I mean, you don't want a distraction like that close to the road Because it's very close to the road where she showed it to we saw it the one thing I saw I didn't think it was that close, but I know a lot on the their parking lot Faces the the Autobot the the Towing people shop and there's a big swatch of ground over there. Let's see If it's on here somewhere I feel like we saw something because I wouldn't have made that up No, you were right I'm just I have not been to the Northamers library yet That's helpful. I've driven by it. Don't get me wrong I'm just not as aware as you all probably are of how close to the road that is If this is the is this the picture this right here Yeah, we do right behind that bench. It would be like right here, right? I just don't I don't I can't tell the proximity of the other streets from this picture So it's hard to tell well. I can tell so it's really close. Okay My my biggest concern with it is the fact that Uh, she was allowed to go in there and take them Yeah, could take the horseshoes Because when when all the other Sites were excavated like the parking garage Everything went to the town and then went to the historical society There's an exhibit at the historical society of the objects that came out of The parking garage So I just don't understand why That library Just let her in there I think the construction company was there were the people who just let her have them the horseshoes I don't think it's a library at all. I think it was just the people who were doing the constructions said sure how you go Yeah, but that's not how you It isn't it isn't but so I think We just need to kind of write this this letter recommending her next actions and Just let her know because I just I don't want to leave her hanging any longer It sounds like you are all in agreement with me. So we'll we'll just go ahead. That happened. Okay Uh, okay back to Let's see Where did I put my other it is? Okay, um, we are at the place where I would be inviting public comments However, there is nobody to comment. Um Um, so uh in other business not reasonably anticipated prior to 48 hours before the meeting I was going to bring up something that uh, jim sent me uh that he was excited about um, but he's not here hoping he is okay he wanted to talk about a proposal put together by The late eric browdy who i'm not aware of who that is. Maybe you all know who that is uh and his wife gigi um I'm gonna put this on the next agenda since we since he's not here. Um, but uh, it looked it looked interesting to me So I'm gonna send my allowed to do that. I'm gonna ask him what I'm allowed to do Because I don't want to break, you know public law Can we read that? Could you lower it back down so we can read what the proposal actually is? Well, I can't read that page, but Uh, it's a mural exhibition on amherst east common Uh, I love the idea um I think that i'm just gonna propose it today and say Look what we're going to be talking about next month Because he's not here to talk about it Um, but I will we're the east common. Is that by saucy street? tom Is that by south east street? It says the east common Yeah, I think that's that's what they call that that grassy area That's across from the fort river school Okay Oh Okay All right. Well, that's so this will be coming up for our march meeting Which I will send you out a doodle for so that we can pick a time So coming up we will have um, we'll have a talk about the letter. I'll be sending to kathryn. We'll be talking about this interesting looking mural exhibition and we'll be Talking about other things that I said we're going to talk about okay, so if there is if there is a list in all those that paperwork Not, you know, I don't want to make extra work if it's not accessible but if there is a list of the work that um We are actually responsible for that the town owns right, you know in our files It would be great to share that at the next meeting. So tom, what do you think about possibly sharing that big document? I don't think it hurts any of us to actually have a copy so we can all look through it Okay, what do you mean by the big document the one that um angela sent with all the pages of everything? That's about 20. That's about 20 documents Um, what I can do is is pull out I can go back and excerpt Pages that He throws again Tom you keep freezing So I just want to make sure that um, he's going to contact christine. Yep about the time and I'm going to contact agnes mccraven um Tom about who's going to reach out to the next person you can all both decide who's going to do that Right. That would be for uh July and august july. Okay. I've got it Okay, I'll I'll contact agnes Okay, my key to contact agnes. Great Um, I will be there on the 8th no matter what the time is. I'll try to get there uh on time, but I might be late Um, so we should probably decide if uh, you all want me to get the treats or if you somebody else wants to this time And we are going to be paying you back Okay, um, I can't get there before four. So I Okay, I I think we're going to be changing it, you know If uh, if christine is a is amenable, we will be changing to six probably like six to seven thirty Um, in any event, uh, in any event I can pick up refreshments and things Okay, we'll talk we'll talk about a list and get that all worked out Okay So to do this we've got um a list of public art that we own We'd like to see that if we can get it. Um, if that means just sending us all a bunch of documents tom That's fine Um, I'd love to put together that list and somebody wants to make it their pet project. That's fabulous Um contact christine about the hours. That's what tom's gonna do And mickey's gonna reach out to the next artist I'm gonna write the letter to cat to catherine And I think that was it And you all are gonna have uh conversations Well, you're all going to be thinking about Other topics you want us to bring up for the next conversation We have with the amorous cultural council and you'll send those to me separately Don't see see anybody else so that we don't break meeting law Right, okay, and then next month we'll talk about embracing community which looks really fascinating. Um, do send good thoughts and emails to jim I know he's not feeling well. He's had a setback So reach out to him and send him some love I'm gonna call him and see how he's doing. Um Does anybody have anything else you'd like to bring up? Uh, just a very small point to add on to lori's request there There's also the category of temporary works That we I think we don't want to get lost in memory Oh, definitely not It turns out it just happens to be that one of my very favorite public art Things in amherst is in that category Remember there were those little white structures that had snippets of emily dickinson's verse on it I mean those those are gone And so I'd like to see us try to Find it and record what we can about the things that have been temporary I think that's a great idea archiving all of that information is really good for history Um, and I love a temporary public art I love things that that break down with time and like with nature and wash away with the weather I think that I love that Yeah, who did it do we know who did the um The terracotta um tiles that are all over the town. I think that's that's in the that's in the records Yeah, that's actually physical and inventory right, okay You can probably get the information you want about those Tant things with the lines from dickinson on from dickinson people Yeah, I'm sure they talk to they probably have pictures and documented Yeah, good point. Good point. I'll be on in the files too All right. Okay. So I think that's it for tonight. Um, it is 759. We are good. Look at that Fantastic. All right. Well, thank you all for coming. I appreciate your time and I will send out a doodle for the next meeting And I hope to see you on march 8th Okay, thank you. Oh, I should do a whole okay. Let's talk about who this let's do this the legal way Somebody like to make a motion to end our meeting I make a motion somebody second I second all in favor Hi, there we are being all legal. All right. Thank you so much everybody. Thank you. Thank you Have a good night