 So yeah, I just want to say welcome everyone. My name is Angela Mills. I work for the Town of Amherst. I want to thank everyone on the Cultural Council for all of their hard work during the selection progress process. And at this time, just to give everyone a heads up that we are recording to the cloud, and this meeting will be uploaded to the Town of Amherst YouTube channel shortly. And I wish everyone a great meeting. Thank you. Thank you, Angela. Before we get started, I need to let everyone know that pursuant 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 also do so in the following manner. They are able to join and also by recording later. No in-person attendance of members of the public will be permitted. But every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings in real time via technological means. In the event that we are unable to do so for reasons of economic hardship and despite best efforts, we will post on the amherstmass.gov website and audio or video transcript or other comprehensive recording of the proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting. And now I will take a roll call of everyone that I see here so that we could determine that the audio is working for everyone. Robin. Here. Thank you. Lea. Here. Cody. Here. Christy. Here. Rachel. Here. Matt. Here, thank you. Thank you. I do not believe we have any new business to get to straight away, Matt, unless you were planning on talking about the collaboration with the cultural district. Or are we holding that for? Yeah, I think we should hold off until I can join us since she's been the lead. Absolutely. I'm sorry, I didn't have a chance to read the email. Do we have an anticipated time that she might be able to join? She won't be able to join tonight, but she'll be able to join on Thursday. No problem. Got it. OK, so. Thursday or Wednesday. So that's a good thing to bring up. I would say that I'm not quite sure other than I certainly blame myself that we ended up with three meetings this week, which I think is a heroic ask of any of us and perhaps not possible. So we would like to provide that we have quorum today and Wednesday to consider dropping the meeting Thursday. Yeah, so let's let's tentatively look at doing that. I think it was just kind of a thing where there was the 30th and the first, and it seemed like different weeks because it was different months and it's not. Yes, Cody. I have to be very at seven. Yes. And I know where you're going. Yeah, we'll see you over there. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for making a time long night for you. So with that, I suggest we pick up where we left off. Rachel, any chance I can get you to volunteer to help us with our time boxing again this evening? You did such a great job. Awesome. She's ready to go. OK, so I must fully admit that I have not looked at this since we were all last together and I have completely forgotten it. I'm going to assume you all have your documents so there's really no need to screen share. We could just call out the grants and follow along. And in addition to that. We're still doing seven minutes. Sorry, seven minutes. Oh, we're still doing seven minutes. Yeah, it will be seven minutes. Yes. Got it. And I am going to apologize in advance that I'm going to have to at times deal with my dogs like now. Right. Sorry, if you can still hear them outside. All right. So we are starting with. If you're following along in the panel book, it would be page 113 sequence number 13. This is a grant at the Amherst Senior Center and it will be celebrating the season of the winter holidays. The applicant is David Bates, the third applying as an individual and as far as how we all collectively looked at this, it came in as a 3.0. So it had a tremendous amount of support and they are asking for $475. So this program is going to be celebrating the winter holidays, cultural diversity of the New England region. They're bringing in or winning for former David Bates since the grantee and he will have songs and stories designed to educate and entertain and create a feeling of community. There's a sing-along aspect in carols, Native American stories, family stories, traditional and contemporary New England folk tales. It'll be about 60 minutes and will be sponsored also by the Amherst Council on Aging and it is scheduled for next year, Monday, December the 11th. Is this definitely next year or this year? I didn't think to check the date, just to be sure. Must be next year because that's a Sunday this year and there'll also be a video link. So those who can't attend in person will have access and can share on social media for a period up to three months. So the only comment from anyone was we should be sensitive about the singer having a connection to cultures that they're singing about. I guess this is maybe around appropriation, but it seems to be well-rounded. And I would say to that comment that it seems that this is very respectful of the diversity in trying to respect and include all cultures. So it seems very inclusive and thoughtful from my perspective. So is there anyone who would like to champion and fully fund this event for $475 at the senior center? I would like to, OK. Excellent. Is there anyone opposed to fully funding it if we had the funds? Well, as a community member, I personally haven't heard that they debate. So I was a little skeptical, but you know mine. Sure. So one of the things we can do is go to the panel books, in a case like this, and look at the supporting materials to see if there is a letter of support. There are some links to flyers here. And we do have a letter from the town of Amherst, signed by Haley Bolton, who's the director of senior services, basically a letter of support. And she says, the stories bring warmth to the coldest time of the year while celebrating a variety of holiday traditions. They would not have the budget themselves to do something like this, but they would value our support to be able to bring this to the community. And this is a really nice comment that there's a special focus on elders and their caregiver pairs. So the caregivers in particular have some of the toughest, most generous, and physically demanding work at times. So I think this is really nice that they were able to support that. There's several letters of support here. I'm all for it. OK, thank you. I'm all for it. Is there any need of any additional discussion from anyone? Julianne, I am also all for it, but I would just like to note as we go through these that we have a lot of similar letters from the senior center. And there's maybe a message in all these letters of support that they're writing around their level of funding. And I would be curious, and I wouldn't want to punish any one great applicant on this front. But it does seem as though we are funding the bulk of their entertainment slate for the year. And of course, there's no better thing for the cultural council to do than support culture for our seniors. I'm not questioning that in any way, but I do think it does beg a question around what the senior center's sources of funding are for really vital events like cultural stuff like this. That's an excellent point. And to that extent, in the same way that we, and I'll get right back to you, Robin, that we're looking at the total assortment of music versus science and culture versus theater versus, we may have to assess specific to certain venues and their assortment, which we could certainly do towards the end. Yes, Robin? Matt, I had the same observation. I heard Haley speak about the senior center and they do not get very much funding from the town at all. They pretty much have to self-fund. So it's one of those issues again, where there are other sources of trying to fund things that we might think the town should be funding, but the town is not funding. Time's up. Sorry, it's been up for a little bit. I'm just letting you know. OK, I think with this one, I will make a note of these and we'll have to come back to it after in the next round. OK, so the next one after this is the... I'm going to say it wrong. Who's going to say it for me correctly? I can't let my camera off. Oh, you're going to turn your camera off and recuse yourself. Can you say the name of the powwow correctly for me first? Ode Nong Powwow. Ode Nong Powwow. Thank you. Awesome. So this is to be on the Amherstown Common and we're familiar with the work that Justin Beatty and everyone involved did last year. And it is a two-day event, May 27th and 28th. They're asking for $7,000 and projected to serve 2,500 people. Overall, we noted this collectively as a three. There's very strong support. This would be the third annual Ode Nong Powwow and the first to take place on the Amherstown Common, which, to me, that seems really significant and meaningful. This will not be directly affiliated with any of the colleges or universities and it will include Indigenous people throughout Western Massachusetts and the surrounding area and it's open to the public and free of charge. It's over Memorial Day, includes drum groups, dance competition, community dancing, Native American vendors and food and entertainment and it really brings it all together. The music, dance, visual art, storytelling and the group is intending for this to become an annually held event that's not only a staple in Amherst but is a premier Native American-oriented event in Western Massachusetts and have it become really truly an event and a destination event that brings people into our region. Summing up comments, there are a couple of folks saying they really want to fully fund this but it's a big percentage of our cultural council's total available funds and yeah, there's another person who says the same. So is there anyone who would like to champion fully funding this? Julianne, I'll go ahead and be the person. Yeah, I would second that as far as I'd like to fully fund it for the caliber and significance and that when you look at where the name of Amherst comes from, how wonderful that we can turn the tables. Yeah, and I just wanted to give one piece of context that newer members may not be aware of and that's that this past year we funded a large percentage on the Odenong. I don't believe it was 100 percent, but it was one of our larger grants as well and due to I would say sort of some pretty very significant miscommunications. They were denied their access to the town common that they had reserved and we actually had reviewed their paperwork to reserve that common this time last year and then they were denied that access. The town hall did eventually turn around and say, all right, our mistake, you can have it after all but that was about a week after they were denied and they had consulted with their leadership group and changed venues and decided to stick with their rain venue, which I just want to put that out there because I think what we have this year is of course a really good proposal, but there's also a commitment among town manager and other people in town hall to make sure that this happens on the common as long as it's not raining. So just a piece of context I think folks may not be aware of. Thank you for that, Matt and I would like the third that proposal to fully fund this. Go ahead, Christy. Matt, I don't, I mean, that's an awful story. I didn't know that, but how does that affect how we look at the funding? I mean, oops. Yeah, well, not necessarily Christy. I mean, I think each person can do what they want with the information, but I shared it just because in my mind it strengthens the application and the likelihood that it will come off this year without a hitch given that they've got all the support of the town offices. But I defer to individuals how they wanna handle that information. Yeah, I guess that's just a piece of background information that Matt has provided. I was gonna say that in the context of our funding, these like, okay, so this is a two day event and I guess from not looking right now at specifically, actually this was probably the wrong way to put it, but what I was gonna say is that we're also looking at giving some support to the block party, right? That's gonna be, is that like a one day event or something? And so I'm just wondering if in the context of the entire budget, how we wanna weigh something like this versus something like that, given the duration, you know? I don't know if what I'm saying is relevant too. It is relevant and I wanna get back to Robin who had a question, but I think at this stage we're really looking at each grant on its merits. Does it meet our guidelines, you know? And how strongly we feel about supporting it. We can't balance the budget at the beginning. We have to go through and see which grants can go forward and then really looking at that total. So and how it all works together provides benefit, Robin? I just wanna say that I, and I actually said this last year at least probably that for me, I would support fully funding it for many, many reasons. I just don't know that we can really do that since there are others. But for me as much as we can provide for this for so many reasons. Was that the time box, Rachel? Yeah. Yeah. Yep, I think that's the sentiment we probably all fully would support fully and we'll have to reconcile it. And yeah, so that I don't go over, but the next event is being applied for by Rosemary Kane and it is the Margaret Maher and the collection of Emily Dickinson. It's an opera musical that will be held this weekend, December 3rd and 4th at Hawks and Reeds in Greenfield. They are asking us for $500 and say it will serve about 200 people. It's original music, narration and drama, telling the story of the story of Emily Dickinson. So I think that's the sentiment narration and drama telling the story of Margaret Maher and Irish servant in the Dickinson household. She saved Emily Dickinson's poems from the flames following a promise to Emily to her death that she'd burned them. And she thought better of burning them. And in the trunk of poems, they also had the only adult image of Emily Dickinson. So the comments were, love the work and appreciate the amount of her ask versus the overall funding. So what, $6,900 total budget and asking us 500. And the tickets. 22. $22. Yeah, the tickets, but it's really interesting town culture and also that it's in Greenfield. But overall, it was a three overall from the group. So is there anyone who champions fully funding this? Sorry, I'm not looking at my screen if people are raising their hands. And Cody, thanks for finding your way back. I feel like with the distance things, it gets complicated with fully funding because this is such a small amount. So I feel like we could afford to fully fund it, but then looking at another thing that's in Greenfield that might be asking for like a thousand we'd want to like fund half. So I don't know whether to think about funding like distant events as like up to $500 or like up to like 50%. And excuse me, let me correct myself. It wasn't a 3.0, it was a 2.14. So I think I have too many tabs open. So I think from that, that there really isn't necessarily the support from the group to fully fund. Yes, Cody. Yeah, oh, so good cost. And you know, most of us say, well, take your prices and buy it, but for some it is no, I see it not as accessible to everyone. So that in the distance. Also, I would think it would be in the museum and her house is here, so it's just weird. It would be so nice in the museum. When is the museum opening again? Does anyone, we have that in here somewhere. So it might have been a decision, I don't think they're open now, right? I'm pretty sure they are, I'll double check. Yeah, it might also be that the museum as far as accommodating that many people in one spot. So were you saying that you don't believe that Hawks and Reed is accessible, ADA accessible? Cody. No, I'm saying financially for everyone 22 bucks may be a little much. So are folks thinking in terms of partially funding and certainly it seems like we should support something like this, but it certainly doesn't fall to us to necessarily have to fully fund it. I'm sorry, I missed my notes for 50%. I'd support 50% certainly. I support 50%. Thank you. Matt, what were you saying? Well, you know, I would support 50% as well, but I was, maybe I missed the rationale behind, for me, the 6,900 overall budget for a pretty big production. I thought 500 was a reasonable funding level to come in that with for us. And since it is, you know, we are for better or worse, the umbrella organization for all things Emily Dickinson. But I mean, I take the point that we don't want to fully fund it, but to me it seemed like a reasonable ask for us given, you know, our role in relationship. Yeah, I'd easily go 300 or 350 if we have it, especially for an original work and related to Emily Dickinson that should provide more traffic, you know, to the museum and therefore to our town and our businesses. Is there anyone that would oppose being at 350 if we had that? I can't hear anyone. Yeah, thank you. Okay. How are we for time Rachel? We have 30 seconds left. All right. Any other comments? Okay. Moving on. Our next grant is from the Charlemont forum. This is for the summer speakers series coming up this summer. This is a humanities focused series. And they estimate they'll be serving 400 people. And as far as overall support, lost my place again, we were at 2.57, so pretty strong support here. So what this is about is the forum offers two events in the summer. One is about immigration and pressures in the US response to the southern border. They're bringing in Tyler Moran to present an overview of complex nuanced issues, pressuring immigration from Latin America and the US's current policy response. And then the next presentation is about climate and migration and who's impacted looking forward to future temperatures drought rising sea levels and the population shifts that could come in decades in the future. This is going to be presented by Dr. Alex de Charbenin. And he's going to look at this, both how it will play out in Europe and the US and the folks that will be impacted by climate change and have to seek economic survival beyond their villages, towns and countries. So this is a, you know, a nice kind of a different, different type of event that is serving a larger global need. Is there anyone who champions fully funding this? Robin, thank you. I also would support fully funding it. I would too. Sir. All right. Are we all in favor if we can. Yeah. Okay. So with that, we will go ahead and move on. I have a question related to this, Julian. So for like events like this one, I had in my notes that. Because of the format of the presentations. We wanted to, I don't think I saw anything specifically about, for example, interpretation ASL, but I suppose there's closed captioning, right? Because I'm just saying if they're specific, like accessibility considerations, would we have funds to give them money to support those? Rachel, I can. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I can speak to that quick. Just because we, we did set it up for them. Two years ago and work through the commission. So that's a good question. I don't have an answer to your question, but. Just. Context is that they were. They're all about it. Two years ago. When we were offering a lot of direct assistance for it. And I don't have their, I don't have the budget from their panel book right in front of me this second to. To say whether they set aside money this year or not. But we, we did not offer and are not currently planning. To do that. So. I don't know. I don't know. Towards those supports we were asking our grantee or applicants to wrap those supports into their budget request. Okay. I didn't. I don't think that's anything particularly like specifically addressing that. That's probably why I asked the question. But thank you. Would there be a way to work with the MCC. So like a portion of the part that you have to review, I think it's a good question. I think it's a good question. I think it's a good question. I think it's a good question. I think it's a good question. I think it's a good question. Is this project like. And like list our accessibility needs. And then have them do like a one or two sentence response. That should have been. In the grant itself. I'm looking at the questions and looking for where it should be. Yeah. Unfortunately. That's a good question. But unfortunately the. With 400 or so municipal councils. I don't know. I don't know. But I, yeah, cause I feel like. If it was like there, then it's like. Like I feel like when it's in the guidelines, like. I don't know. I feel like that would be maybe a way to improve people thinking about that and putting it in the budget. But I think that would be a lot more work where we'd really have to like meet with the MCC and talk about that. But like that could be a future goal. And I think that's a really good question. And I think that's a really good question. And nothing specific that I can see skimming. The one thing we could do is we could recommend to them. That that goes into their template. Yeah. Yeah. Because I mean, then it's like improving. I mean, that's the best outcome for that. I don't know if that's a complicated process. I do think that we had a call to action for people to really spell out how they were going to accommodate people. And yet it's. It's not really prompted. They would have to just put it in, in the lines of texts that they're putting in. So it'd be nice to be able to, to be. Have it be an item that can't be missed, you know, can't be skipped. I know. This is a lot. Talk about. Not really. That question about accessibility. Maybe we need to. We kind of do that. And then we kind of don't do that because there's a blanket. ADA accessibility that must be there for the actual location of the event. And then the accessibility. Topic that we're talking about now has to do with expanding beyond that to be even more inclusive that. And we're asking grantees to really think about how. Somebody can. You know, participate in an event like this. If they can't hear the speaker speaking. So there, there are two levels. There's, there's the first level that's absolutely required period. For ADA physical accessibility. And then a second level that. We encourage and we're at time. More, more on a, on a, on a voluntary proactive basis. Yes, but we'd like to see people. Speak to that. Thank you, Rachel. Okay. If there's a range that you all prefer to hear to listen to, just let me know. Oh, I haven't heard your ringtone. I have to be looking for you to wait. Okay. Let's keep moving on this. This next one is called magic for. Using my spot folks. I've lost the magic. All right. I'll get it back though. I promise. Magic for seniors and families. It's April 17th, 2023. And it's at the banks community center. This is Edward. Cope junior. Who is applying as an individual. And this is. A magic performance that's usually geared toward the understanding level of seniors. This event will be open to seniors and their families during April vacation week filled with comedy and suspense suspense. Volunteers of all ages will help perform magic routines from mind reading to coins to cards. And there'll be something for all ages. So they are asking for their total budget from us of 400. And $50 and serving approximately 45 people. Is there. Anyone who champions fully funding this. I'm champion. Okay. Thank you. And you as well, Robin. Yeah. Is there anyone who is opposed to fully funding. Again, this would be if we have the funds and this may fall under the umbrella of how many senior center. Projects can we do in total. Are we sure this is at the senior center though, it says bang. That's the bank center. Probably the senior center, but it's not. Maybe additional material. Does that not what they mean by the banks community center in this case. And it's magic for seniors. I think that was one of the ones with the supporting letter wasn't it? That is a good point. Yeah. I can't quite get the supporting letter open. But I'm looking right now. Yes. Probably. Yeah. I had to download it. The clues add up to senior center. It is at the Amherst senior center. Yes. I, you know, I, I fully support this project too, but just to, I do think at the end we may, when we're balancing the budget, we may want to go through and look at all this senior projects and pretend, you know, we do have that. We do have that statement around. Looking for a diversity of grants. But I, you know, so I, I. It's just somebody to bear in mind, but I mean, I support this, of course, as a, as a project. I'm beginning to, you know, track with this as well. And they're all connected. I'm beginning to, you know, track with this as well. And they're all coming in interestingly. At about the same, you know, stipend for an individual, which I would say is a bit on the high side at times. I mean, with what it would be worth it at some point to go through and look at what our average stipend value is across the board. What's the high? What's the low? What's the low? What's the high? Normal. Not that, you know, everybody should get the same, but. That's my comment. Any other comments on this. Just that if we're going to be funding. Let's say, you know, there's like what five or six. This round. That. Relate to. Activities and programs in at the senior center. I think almost all of them came with a letter of support, right? From the programming person. So I guess at the end, what we could do is just maybe, you know, make it. Look at the group and then decide, okay, we'll give so much to each like based with a hopefully somewhat equitable basis. Whatever we determine that to be towards the end. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It is something to think about that if, you know, one group is. We only let, you know. One person apply and when you have, you know, this is certainly meets our guidelines to have multiple letters of support, but a certain point they also should kind of curate which programs they're, they're supporting if and and champion championing themselves. Right. That's an interesting point because if our, our. Policy is that, you know, one individual one group may launch or submit one application. We're not limiting it to one venue may only support. Right. Because that's essentially what's happening here. Yeah. Any other discussion here. I have a comment. And then. And then. All right. Well, we just won't do it. If. We don't get. Findings. Yes. They may be. Yeah. So there's actually a question to that in the application and here's their answer. How will you adjust the project that the cancel council cannot fund the entire amount you are requesting? And their response is partial funding has never affected any of the energy or presentations required to present to your community, a professional performance. I cannot adjust my program to give a partial performance. I always give 100%. So in this case, it seems like this particular artist is saying, hey, if I can't get the whole amount, I'm not coming. Personally, I find that a little, little disappointing. And this is not going to work with our time boxing, but to go back to David Bates, the third. His response was to the same question. If it's needed, it's possible to cut back on publicity costs, equipment expenses and stipend amounts. For the series curate. Curator, my priority is paying the poets a fair stipend for their participation in reading. So in the past when we've had to, you know, really kind of balance the budget and, and we certainly appreciate someone who's willing to bring culture to the community at with the funds that are available. And I, for one, myself would give weight to the other artists. And I, for one, myself would give weight to the other applicant. Based on their willingness to be flexible versus one who, if I read that correctly said, you know, if I can't get a hundred percent, I can't give a hundred percent. So yes, Rachel. Hi. Thank you. Okay. Wait, can I ask a quick clarifying question? Are the events at the senior center open to the Amherst public? And if so, is there usually Amherst public that comes to them too? Or is it usually mostly senior populations? I believe it's usually mostly senior population, Robin. You probably know more about it. It's definitely open to everybody. And I think part of this is they're saying, oh, you know, bring your grandkids and. Yeah. Others and whatever. I think they're trying to. Bring in more people. To the senior center and, and, and more. More. Programs and. Other stuff, but it's always open. As far as I know. Yeah. It did say that it was open. It's no cost to families. And okay. So moving on to the next grant. The name of the, the grant applicant is dear Ella, I think. And this is music for education and joy. They're citing that this would be in, in around the Amherst community. And they're asking for, they have a total budget of 1,000. Of which they are asking for, for 1,000. This is a dear Ella is a trio that's bringing their program music for education and joy to people of all ages. Playing for nonprofit schools, et cetera. And. They support social justice causes inclusion and they play a style of folk swing and blues and soul music along with some sing along music, history and dancing. There's some lectures and demonstrations that will be streamed. And they will work with all cultures, races, genders and tailor their program to fit spreading hope through music to every audience. Annie Patterson. And Mary Witt and Andy Percival. They all love singing three-part harmony and the music. They feel will bring the community together and they bring years of performing experience. So. The comments that we had here. Were. There's, there's no data location. They're charging $10 to $20. For, for tickets. And I think there was maybe a comment about the slum. And I think there was maybe a comment about the sliding scale and not being clear how, how that works. At this point, when we're looking at no date and no location, no, can. It doesn't meet our, our guidelines as far as I can tell. Is there, there anyone who supports this. And believes it does meet our guidelines. I have. Half of that. It doesn't meet our guidelines, which is. Very disappointing because this would be. In amazing. Event. I mean, these are three amazing singers. Who do. Wonderful, wonderful performances. But. There's no date and there's no venue. Yeah. Yeah. And it's a little. Concerning too, because they're applying to us and we ask if you, if they applied to any other councils and they'd say they'd like to apply to other councils, but it doesn't list that they did. Yeah. Okay. So no one supports that this meets our guidelines at this point. Then. I believe we have to let this, this one go. Just sadly, because it would be really, they are amazing, but not performing anywhere doesn't help us. Yeah. Yeah. Especially with our direct granting, you know, it might have been one thing. The old reimbursement model, but with direct granting, you know, we really do need to do our due diligence to see that, you know, the event will occur and could be successful where it will occur. And it will also be accessible where it occurs. So. Okay. If there are no other comments. No. Okay. You. Sadly. The next one is a music telling series. By Eli Alkus. It has. Quite a long date range starting in July of 2022 to October of 2023. I think that might be. A typo. It's probably all in 2023. Okay. Well, I don't know. Let's see. So it's, it's at the Amherst farmers market. They're asking for. $1,510. And plan to serve. 1,250 people. So. It's big. It's free folk music. Along with a series of stones and stories performed at the farmers market on the town council. It's. Five three hour performances. Two of the performances have already taken place and were great success. July and October. Of 2022. And these are sets of their original works and interpretations of old folk blues gospel songs. Which are carefully curated. First audiences. They're looking forward to rekindling and reinventing things like this train. A song about race and inequality. For younger listeners. Things like Teddy bears picnic and more American folk songs. And. To get to our. Comments. One person said. They supported partial funding. And so. Someone else said that it seems like a pretty low number of performances. And. Another person said, wow, it's a really large. Ask as far as how much they're asking for. And we had this at a 1.64. So. I guess to start the conversation. I'm not sure. From at a 1.64, I don't think we're looking at fully funding it. Who champions. Partially funding this. I would champion partially funding it. I think some of the performance at the farmers market has, has been an ongoing and I believe that. It really does draw children and families out and supports community. But I would, I would only support. Somewhat small funding amount. Is that a question, Cody? Yeah. Yes. I'm just saying. And you guys know. With me. I'm just. No. I'm just. And. We. Can. See. What we are. Seeing. At the. Seas. Is. That. More. Why. More. At. Per. Case. In. More. Why. More. At. Per. Case. Is. That. Is. Is. That. Is. That. Also. Have. Venge. Be. So. So. Can't. They. Pay. Out. Of. That. That. That. That. That. That. That. And. Be. Coss. about. How do we want to be cautious? No, I guess my head is that well, will they constantly apply for different people or are they and will they be pretty? All right, what's the number of funding request? Well, we do have in our guidelines and this is something that it's kind of harder to do up front, but at the end, we now have in our guidelines that we can assure that we spread the funding around to assure that we have different kinds of events at different locations, that it's not all music and within music that it's not all acapella. So we will be able to go back and say, hey, we support this, but let's look at how many of these kinds of things we have where they're happening and make sure that there are different things for people to do, not just the same thing and the same spot for the same audience. So yes, we can absolutely do that. And one of the things I liked about this specifically is it's very public, it's very open, like it's in the town commons, it feels accessible, I think it was free and that stood out to me and a lot of the music grants. I'm sorry, if I'm back and forth is someone's raising their hand. Yes, Robin? So we do fund at least one other person who maybe even two who we fund to perform at the farmers market. And so I would just like if we to make sure we're not they're somewhat equivalent in what we pay that there isn't this huge difference in that and I don't think there's any way to do the full funding on this. And support though number, it got sense. Well, they do, but that that I think speaks more to the number of people who are attending the farmers market, you know, as far as their quality time engaging with this. I think it's, you know, not every person and certainly, I respect that the performer is is doing five three hour performances. That's a lot of time, you know, so the ask isn't, you know, outrageous from that perspective, but as far as community benefit for how much time that these community members are actively engaged with it, it's perhaps not the same as someone who's going specifically to attend just a performance. Yes, Rachel. I was just going to say time is up, but I was also going to say that in my notes, I had put down that maybe we can support in terms of money, like one of I'm sorry, I had some background noise. Could you say that again? I was just saying that time is up, but I had in my notes that maybe we can support one of those five sessions in terms of the, you know, at BMO. Yeah. So I would be right there with you. So yeah, possibly 300 would take care of, you know, one of those. Okay. Moving on, bless you, Rachel. The next is being applied for empowerment through the arts and they, it is lifting all voices arts and theater, amplifying and empowering. This runs February through April and it is at the EETA arts office and Craig's door shelters. They are asking for $2030 to serve 200 people and overall for this, our support was overall 1.36 and I think I'm going to switch and start doing some of the comments before I go into the description. So one of the concerns was just a very large ask and another comment was not full. I don't know what not full means. Another said that it makes culture possible for people and dire circumstances gives them dignity, inspirational moments and a human connection. So what they're doing is over 10 weeks this group will be holding classes for folks with housing instability. So it takes place at Amherst community connections and then supporting people who are getting rehoused and at Craig's door shelters to those who are experiencing homelessness in the winter months. They are able to express themselves through arts and theater with the rainbow players and this is an expressive outlet that's often not open to them and the sessions will be once a week providing two choices either to explore theater improv forms or visual arts through paint, clay, collage and mask making and at the Craig's doors the participants have a different option with visual arts and theater and perhaps cabaret open mic in the evening held each week with the rainbow players. So is there anyone who champions this particular event? I champion it and I dance through it and it's yeah especially for the homeless our leadership provides a sense of community and it helps a lot. Thank you. Other comments. I also champion it in spirit and and yet have some concerns that well it is local to hear that we are the only group that they applied to at all and that we are the entire budget. So I'm curious what would happen if we didn't fund it since all the eggs are in our basket here. And what they are saying is if they're not fully funded they might need to reduce the number of weeks and they would reach out to a support network for added support. So I think you know the reality very well may be that considering how much of our total budget we can't fully support it and it sounds like they recognize that they would need to get additional support and would be willing to do so. Any other comments? I basically feel the same way you do it sounds wonderful and great. I question the ability to pull it off. There's not a lot of information about that and is there any reason that we feel that there's like a nexus where these folks should have applied to other cultural councils? It just seems like it's a lot of coordinating between different groups and I don't have a lot of confidence in that being able to happen. Just not presented in a way that it looks like I don't know it just I also can't open the additional materials so what might say yes we work together and we'll be able to do it but I don't know. I mean I think it's great. I think this if something like this can happen it would be great. I just somehow I'm not convinced it can happen. Okay is there a number that you think is appropriate for partial funding? I don't know if she can do it in partial funding. That's kind of part of it. So can I I would just ask I don't recognize this group from previous years does anybody is anybody else? Well well someone to sell we have given grant to but not as this group so I don't know anything about them. I do think it's I think it's an ambitious I'm sorry to interrupt I think it's really a great project that is fairly ambitious and it is a fairly large ask and it's the kind of thing that I don't know. I mean we may want to come back to I had it as a firm too in other words yes I'd like to fund it no I'm not going to advocate for full funding but it's also one of these ones that you know maybe a little bit of seed funding to see if they can get something started and get the ball rolling this year might be wise but I'm actually going to go back and look at some of the supporting materials because I I don't have another tip in my tongue either. Yeah and looking at this not sorry Rachel not only to pull it off but also to have the the qualifications to to work with people that are in crisis you know it's it's something you know that I'd like to see you know some credentials that that go along with supporting that that it's not just passion but there there's a skill set there that is going to truly address being supportive no matter what's coming up. Rachel yes just the time's up. Okay thank you okay really appreciate everybody's comments there so next at the Jones Public Library we have Rhonda Fazio who would like to bring dying to wear it creating community through color in spring of 2023 she's requesting $600 to serve about 20 folks and our support for this overall was a 2.21 and it's basically an interactive creative workshop focused on design and function of a classical silk scarf. Participants will work side by side with the artist and create their own unique piece of wearable art using natural dyes ancient techniques and there'll be a discussion with the artist about the origins of natural resources connecting culture and diversity through storytelling of our shared American history and they'll be encouraged to share their stories about the region's textile history during class and they'll also be a demonstration of how to wear the scarf at the end of class so comments around this um what one person said that um there's there's no way to fund the $75 worth of travel so we couldn't uh we have to be careful to not fund fund that and that is a unique event um is there uh anyone who champions fully funding this okay um is there anyone who champions this at all I I support it in that um it does bring some unique experiences uh that it is interactive that it is encouraging people to learn uh a new way to not only make art but to also wear it within the community and and tell stories uh when they're asked about where did this come from um I think it does serve a small number of people um although you know textile art is some of the earliest and most enduring art of of human culture I do think it's a little ambitious and as someone who's made silk scarves and academic um uh institutions like I don't fully understand how and where all of this can really happen um for a sizable group of people and with just one session uh that that would be my concern is um just will people really come out of this with with all they're intending to do here any other comments nope I'm the only one who finds this mildly interesting I find it interesting and that is textiles which is a lot more important than people realize in terms of culture and history and all sort of stuff I'm just not sure this I'm not sure what this is actually who would participate how people would get to it um and just I thought this one was great I I'm sorry Robin I didn't know and just it the amount of money makes sense otherwise um I think it could be fun but I'm not sure about funding it I'm not clear what it is entirely so it does remind me of some of the knitting workshops that we funded a couple years ago and I think stuff like this is very inclusive and community-based and um you know some people who might be intimidated by more traditional art might be interested in coming to weaving class we're talking about the weaving class of the Jones this is uh you know it's more like a surface design for a silk scarf sorry I may have simplified it in my own mind it's a weaving class of the Jones mm-hmm mm-hmm I mean yes I was just gonna say this is kind of following the same category as applications we've gotten in the past was like I want to run a painting class for 12 people there's no cost to participate I believe but this one this one is and it's at the it's at a public location at the library and it's okay but I suppose I suppose yes I I okay but I I guess I was still I have some questions about the so-called public benefit of something like this that's um I mean yes there's in in in principle there it's you know members of the public can participate for something like this you know I look at it and it really it's it's ambitious to have 20 people doing this you know especially given given the space and and time and materials and everything else I mean I I think it's a tremendous amount of value if you can have I'm not saying that we necessarily can fully fund it but 20 people you know actually go and make some sort of wearable art that's that there's some value there and it's got no cost to them it I mean it does remind me of the we had a fairly popular knitting grant a couple years ago that we ran and she did a series of workshops around it but I personally I like it because it's um you know it's it's very user-involved and it is a low number of participants and I agree that we probably don't need to fully fund it but I I certainly think we should give it some support and and I think anything that you know is not just a passive audience uh participate you know it's a participatory but participatory thing I think is um is nice so I'm with you Julie and I definitely support um funding it at 50 percent or more yeah um yes thank you more about it yeah I'm a huge fan of interactive work I so I definitely agree with Matt on that I would support 50 percent or less um definitely not full yeah I I think with it being here in Amherst you know absolutely I'd like to do 50 percent and like Matt perhaps more so um I think it's worth you know at this point putting it in at 50 percent and you know none of this is final and um in past years we've looked back to say well which which of these events really are in Amherst time Rachel yeah um so so that can be a deciding factor about you know which which ones go uh we'll give a little more to her a little less thank you um moving on to the to the next one we have another event at the Jones Library this is Kerry Ferguson and the Grumpy Time Club Band this will be February 24th at the Jones Library they're requesting uh $550 um it's interactive music concert for children and families um it's in one of the large accessible meeting rooms it's in the morning during a school break week and the band is a red and gold four to five piece band which includes musicians and costume dancers they play original music from Kerry's award-winning album the Grumpy Time Club and they do some covers of some tunes and they're just uplifting and funky pop danceable music sets so they work in themes of LGBTQ family prides or stewardship love of nature social justice uh inclusivity and self-esteem and uh social emotional learning um there there was a comment that it's a large stipend for one event but it sounds like it's multiple folks who are um splitting that stipend that have to to look overall um we gave this a make sure on the uh a 2.5 so it was it was pretty well supported um so with that is there anyone who uh supports fully funding this yes Robin we support both funding it i don't think it's a lot okay any any further discussion sorry i'm making notes so i'm not looking if anybody's okay so we're good okay sounds like fun okay so moving to the next um Andrew Friedman has his flow at the Amherst farmers market um the uh this is occurring um over three dates one in May one in June one in July and requesting $300 for the series and um it's three to our events um folks are going to receive an intro to flow arts instructors will be available for the different apparatus and participants will get to try props from different movement disciplines um they can come on a drop in basis and stay for as long as they want flow arts are multiple multidisciplinary performance arts that combine dance circus arts multicultural movement practices and cultures ranging from Africa to south to the south pacific as far as comments here we had one person who was slightly confused by the description um another person said it's different and no doubt will be interesting um for those participating in watching and that it's roughly 50 an hour and someone else questioned if this is circle circus and martial arts and said that it would definitely benefit the community and um um this had again had a 2.5 for support um so is there anyone who supports um let's put jumping around here potentially fully funding the $300 request thank you Christy sorry I I'm sorry I fully I support fully funding this night I thought we're talking about this phone when I voted fully funding the last one I didn't want it to so sorry I'm sorry you thought what no I thought the last one was this one because I think I was looking at my clock so I do fully I do support fully funding this one but not the previous one because I put my hand up for that okay okay they're they're both you know in Amherst and not not a crazy ask so I think we're we're still good okay I think if we're if we don't have anyone who objects to funding this then we can move on good thank you okay and uh then we have the friends of the Mount Holyoke range um they have their summer summit house sunset concert series it runs uh July through August at Skinner State Park in Hadley they're asking us for $600 and expect to serve about 600 people um it's a non-profit group promotes land conservation and nature awareness of through uh with groups like the kestrel land trust and they sponsor nature walks and talks as well as a 5k run this is a beloved ongoing summer concert series and they work with the massachusetts department of conservation and recreation um and uh it supports the Mount Holyoke Summit house and the equipment needs of Skinner State Park and as part of the cultural mission um they present five all volunteer run summer concerts and by musicians based in western new england to highlight the mountain range historic summit house Skinner State Park and support um the goal is to support uh local nature and preservation and our overall scoring for this um was a 2.14 and the comments were um it's a great series it's diverse uh it has diverse funding resources another person said we might need to adjust for just the total of music um another person said it's uh $15 per ticket so i i would add that i didn't capture this the first time i went through but my i think i'm understanding this correctly that it's actually a fundraiser to support having the the park and uh support um having natural areas to to go to as well as uh maintaining this uh Mount Holyoke Summit house um so with with that is there anyone who supports um um i guess we'll start with with fully funding this i want to support it i was really fascinated by this thank you and yeah yeah okay my only reservation would just be you know total total budget for for music but i i think it's uh it's it's pretty amazing and and it brings culture and and support so much more than the music here uh and and the preservation of something that's a community treasure so um okay moving on to the next this is another for the uh Amherst Senior Center Sean Fullerton is uh going to present acoustic memories it's one performance date in April and he's requesting $250 uh expects to serve 50 people and um um he will have songs that cover a variety of musical genres acoustic guitar accompanied by vocals and harmonica um whenever he's allowed to perform without a mask hopefully we're uh assured that in 2023 and um one uh person asked if it's open to more than just the senior center i guess there was a concern as to whether um it's really open the community i believe it is but certainly marketed towards the seniors and our overall score for this was uh 2.5 is there anyone who supports fully funding this i would say i support fully funding this and that it's it is one of the lower stipends um but you'll have to certainly go back and look at everything for the senior center um but as far as you know one of the more reasonable asks i have you know this seems like there's no reason not to do it i would wait till we go back and yeah so just take it for granted that anything that we're deliberating right now um nothing here is final for anything right and that you know we will specifically go back and look at these these different um locations or or um styles of events absolutely good point so moving on uh to the next um a second i want to be sure that i haven't lost my place i have not okay so um the the next is shelvin i'm going to butcher this name last name gabriel and shelvin yana i hope uh sorry if not when you get this on the recording this is creative resilience dialogues and disruption it's uh planned for spring of 2023 unlikely to be the third week of april it's likely to be at hampshire college they are asking for two thousand dollars um and our overall support for this was a 1.36 um so uh this is a series of workshops for community engagement of art presentations um if you if you must know why i jump up they are absolutely destroying my back door trying to get in apologies um so could you sum up their project um is to help fund a creative resilience conference at hampshire college where one weekend day will be open to the public for both panel discussions about resilience and artistic practice and disrupting system i think it's systemic oppression um as well as a series of facilitated dialogues in an exhibit and then they'll also have recorded elements of the program to provide to those who cannot attend as well as a virtual dialogue option so the comments for this um were it's a powerful project it's a very it's a limited audience for the funding level requested another person said that it lacks public benefit since it focuses on amherst college on hampshire college excuse me another said they're unsure about the specifics of of that but they liked that it was free and another person said that it is a low number served so um i think realistically there's there's probably no way to discuss fully funding this is there anyone who champions this and would like to speak to it there's no i'm sorry could could you say that again kody i didn't know i said i would support portion of the funding okay and and what do you think is important specifically uh thank you yeah creative expression and that it's you know something people can participate in is is fantastic um i have some reservations as to whether this meets our guidelines because it's suggesting that it's at hampshire college and it's um that it might be and and and it doesn't have a date and i'm looking here to see um i'm looking for a letter of support um and i'm really not seeing any of the supporting material did anyone see anything that i might be missing so i i am concerned that it doesn't currently meet our guidelines um especially under the direct granting is is there anyone else who shares that concern christy does i'm sorry did you say something robin yeah i assure you there's no real time there's no real place it's a very low number of people it's not clear to me i mean it sounds like there's this great idea let's develop this conference but i'm also concerned i'm sorry i've got a lot of background noise here i'm also concerned that i believe i'm seeing information about the organizer but not the other folks that will be participating it seems like a pretty large event there is a list of several people but i i think i only have one one cv right oh and yeah i have to agree um just looking at the summer the summary indicates hampshire but there's no letter of support and then the panel book indicates you know possibly at hampshire college possibly you know over a certain season so i do think that you know this is right on the cusp of even being an eligible grant i i think so too sadly i mean i think it is interesting but we really can't fund something where there's there's nothing to support that it actually um is is scheduled to occur okay um at this point we we are at 7 30 i believe i see kody headed to hockey i'm guessing correctly yep yeah um thank you bye um i think we we made solid progress today i don't know if anyone kept count of how many we've progressed through but i think we're getting into to a rhythm and doing well and um um we can conclude with you know ideally we'll we'll get have a quorum on wednesday and cancel thursday is there anything else uh that we have to to add at this point tonight yes rachel just waving nothing time's up that's all thank you all good i really appreciate everyone being here i appreciate all the all the comments and insights and um i think uh we can keep making good project progress i'm toast by the way so um very tired good night everybody great job julian good night great job thank you look forward to doing this again with you wednesday but not thursday thanks so we're doing wednesday yeah well it's all tbd but yeah i i think we'll be able to cancel thursday so i've got to run thanks