 Okay. So I call this meeting to order due to the provisions of the governor's executive order in 2520 and in 2920, which suspend certain requirements of the Brown Act in order of the health officer of the county of Sonoma to shelter in place to minimize the spread of COVID-19. The Art and Public Places Committee will be conducting today's meeting in a virtual setting using Zoom webinar. Committee members and staff are participating from the remote locations and practicing appropriate social distancing. Members of the public may view and listen to the meeting as noted on the city's website and as noted on the agenda. Members of the public wishing to speak during item three, public comment or during our public hearing items will be able to do so by utilizing the raised hand feature or pressing star nine on their phone. Then they will be giving the ability to address the committee. The recording secretary will take roll call. Eileen? Eileen, I think you're on mute. Sorry about that. No worries. You're okay. For the record, all members are present with the exception of Jeff Robinson. Great. Thank you. Okay. For public comments, if you wish to make a comment via Zoom, again, please select raise your hand. This is for the public. If you're dialing via telephone, please press star nine to raise your hand. Each speaker has three minutes. A countdown timer will appear for the convenience of the speaker and the viewers. Please make sure to mute yourself when you're invited to do so. Your microphone will be muted at the end of the countdown. Do we have any public comments from the public who wish to make a comment on the Art and Public Places items that are not on the agenda? Comments will be heard on specific agenda items at the time the item is called. There are no hands raised at this time. Okay. Okay. Great. We'll move on to the next item, approval of minutes. Copies of the November 2, 2020 meeting minutes have been distributed for your review. Are there any additional additions or corrections to the minutes? If not, do I have a motion to approve the minutes as written? I'll make the motion to approve the minutes as written. I second. I have a second. Okay. All in favor? Meeting minutes approved as written. Moving on to 4.2 copies of November 9, 2020 special meeting minutes have been distributed for your review. Are there any additions or corrections to the minutes? If not, do I have a motion to approve the minutes as written? I move that we accept the minutes as written. Do I have a second? I second. Okay. All in favor? Minute meetings approved as written. Moving on to the next item on the agenda. Number 5, 5.1 imagine art in old courthouse square. Staff will present the recommended artist identified through a comprehensive selection process. The presentation will include background and information on project development, goals, timeline, budget, selection process, selection criteria, and community engagement. Community members please hold any and all questions until the end of the presentation. Tara. Great. Thank you, Lisa. I'm actually going to have David Ward, a public art project manager who's been the project manager for this project. I'm sorry, there's too many words with peas in them. So David has been working on this project since he joined our team last December. So he's going to leave and start up the presentation and I will chime in on certain background areas and answer any questions at the end of the presentation. So David, thank you and take it away. I'll run the. Thank you, Tara. I'll start as soon as I see the presentation. Great. Hello, Art and Public Places Committee. My name is David Ward. I'm the public art project manager for Imagine Art in Old Courthouse Square. And today as a member of staff with the City of Santa Rosa Public Art Team, we'll be presenting an overview of Imagine Art in Old Courthouse Square and make a recommendation of the selected artist that the project selection panel is determined from the selection process. Next slide. Old Courthouse Square gets its name from the first courthouse on site dedicated by General Vallejo in 1884. The 1906 earthquake destroyed the building in much of Santa Rosa. Another courthouse was built on site in 1908 and served as the county courthouse for another 58 years before being demolished in 1966. From 1967 to 2016, the square was bisected by a major thoroughfare connecting Santa Rosa Avenue and Mendocino Avenue. Old Courthouse Square was reunified in 2017. The granite slabs that served as the steps of the 1908 courthouse were saved and incorporated to form the frame around the lawn, which is representative of the footprint of the original courthouse on the square. Reclaiming the public square in the center of downtown Santa Rosa was a statement by the community of its value on the importance of a communal public gathering space. It also offers a chance to make a statement about how art plays a specific role in reflecting the community's identity and in inspiring its aspirations for the future. Santa Rosa is the largest city in Sonoma County with an estimated population of 177,586. The city operates as the county seat and serves a wider population of 500,000. Next slide. Project Development. Beginning in August of 2019, the City of Santa Rosa Public Art Team formed an advisory committee to determine the project's criteria, goals, site considerations, selection criteria, and community engagement components. The project's first public survey was initiated to gather project goals, Santa Rosa values, and use patterns of the square. These results created the project's request for qualifications and project plan, including the project's budget, which was approved by the APPC in November of 2019. Tara, is there anything else you wanted to add about them? No, the advisory committee was formed before you joined our team, David, and so I think we had talked about a little bit of background on the outreach we did with that group. It was essentially formed of various stakeholders, including arts and culture, institutions, professionals with arts backgrounds, businesses in the downtown, and property owners in the downtown, as well as architect professionals. So there was a wide range of folks involved with that, really to exactly what you said, look at project goals, site considerations, and help us form the selection criteria for the project, as well as some of the public outreach components. So they were really a central part of the project development process, and really tied it to the specifics of this site, and brought a lot of value to that part of the development. So I just wanted to share a little bit more background on that, but please continue. Next slide. Data from Survey One, that was the first public survey that was launched in fall of 2019, and it asked a variety of questions about the use of Courthouse Square and other elements that define the public view of Courthouse Square. There were eight questions, and they involved how often do you frequent the square, and the most popular answer to that question was a few times a week or once per week. Question two was, which of the following have you participated at Courthouse Square, and the most answered response was a special event such as Wednesday Night Market, or to eat or meet up with friends. Question three asked participants to share what Santa Rosa means to you. Popular answers contain subjects and phrases like community, home, work, hometown. Also rural meets urban and center of wine country and tourist destination. It was also described with words such as potential and aspiring. Question four was what community values could be represented by this project. Top answers were number one was diversity, second was excellence and originality, and third was playfulness. Question five, which goals for this project are important to you? Most important to you, I should say. Top answers were one, to create a sense of place for Courthouse Square. Two was create a gathering space, and three was create a visual landmark or gateway, and all of those scored over 50% from our participants. Question six asked what the greatest benefits for a community to gain from a centrally located public space? The top answer was access to cultural offerings and to help support the local economy. Question seven was to provide any additional comments about the planning for the project, I should say. Popular results included responses on subject line of public utility and for interactive nature, service and safety. Also the quality of art using terms like boldness, sophistication, aiming high or inspiring. And then the last question was if participants lived within Santa Rosa City Limits, which 85% of the survey participants did. Next slide, please. Project budget, the project's approved budget is set at $300,000, and that's the approved budget and $280,000 of the budget is selected for the selected artist, which is an all inclusive of design and construction, along with any city costs such as artists honorariums, marketing and outreach, community engagement and site prep contingency. The project's source of funding is the public art fund, a combination of the required 1% of construction budget for the square and in lieu fees from private development required to meet the city's public art in private development ordinance, which these sources of funding can only be used for the purposes of public art. Next slide. The project timeline notes the different stages of the project's process. We have changed the timeline a few times. The RFQ was extended from its original deadline to support our submitable online submission system, which is a new submission system that helped us expand and open up an online submission form. Other things that affected our timeline or COVID-19 project hold, which held the project until July 1st when we officially resumed the project. Other extensions that we had to make for this were to switch our public engagement timeline to accommodate for online surveys. We also extended timeline for the RFP to be displayed online, and then also there were delays from the glass fire in fall of 2020. Next slide, please. The project goals of Imagine Art in Old Courthouse Square are to provide the entire Santa Rosa community with a prominent artistic symbol that reflects the uniquely Santa Rosa values of innovation and cultural inclusivity. This art installation should inspire people living in and visiting our city to reflect on what is special about our community and encourage them to gather downtown to experience it firsthand. The artist or artist team selected for this project will create a dynamic public art installation that contributes to a vital thriving space to connect with each other and with the space. The public art should be forward-thinking and express the innovation, diversity, and engagement of the community. The public art should help create a sense of place for Old Courthouse Square. Next slide. The request for qualifications. We received 148 submissions from across the U.S. This is by far the most responses the program has ever received for an RFQ and includes some of the nation's most international and most famous public artists. Approximately 60 of the 140 artists are from California and of those 14 from Sonoma County and 20 from New York. The remaining come from various parts of the country including Texas and Oregon. Next slide. For community engagement, as mentioned earlier, there have been several opportunities to allow the public to engage with the project's process and stay up to date with the project's status, including through the city's website. The two public surveys have helped determine the project's goals and development of criteria. The second public survey provided an opportunity for the public to view the finalist's proposals and voice their support for their favorite project and the best and most appropriate proposal that fits the project's goals. Tara, did you want to expand on any of those other public engagement? I think that both surveys were a very important part of this process and were even more so important given the kind of conditions with COVID and not being able to do the in-person engagement activities we had planned. We used other city tools to make sure that the word was out there to take the surveys, to learn about the artists who had final designs under consideration. So the City Connections newsletter, the City and out there, Santa Rosa social media handles. There were two press Democrat articles and of course, aren't public places meetings are public meetings that the public can participate in. I think that's it, but the public comments we gathered through both surveys were tied in very closely with the development of the project and the final selection of the final artist. Thanks, Tara. If you want to move to the next slide. Selection process. So one of the first parts of the selection process was forming our selection panel. Selection panel members, we chose eight members to represent the Santa Rosa public. Leslie Graves, event producer and organizer in Santa Rosa and she's also a downtown resident. Jeff Nathanson, executive director of the Museum of Sonoma County and also Art and Public Places committee member. Pierre Lavelle, Santa Rosa based architect and professor at Santa Rosa Junior College. Rob Sen, Santa Rosa based entertainment and creative industries business consultant. Charles Evans, a downtown property owner. Lisa Fuentes, City of Santa Rosa Public Art and Public Places committee chair. Andrea Ballas, a downtown business owner and CEO. Gloria Rubio, Santa Rosa based artisan and creative business professional small business owner. And of these, the 10 highest scoring RFQ submissions were identified by our selection panel for closer examination and they were selected. That was, we were able to select this finalist for the RFP section of the project. The selection panel was formed. Selection panel was formed representing arts professionals, downtown business and property owners, downtown residents and members of the APPC. Finalists were provided the data from the first public survey to aid in the development of the proposals. Next slide please. The selection process was developed based on the project goals and input from the advisory committee public surveys which created the artist qualifications portion of the project. Those sections are the artistic quality, originality and innovation as evidenced by representations of past work in photos provided. Appropriateness of the artist's medium and style for this project. Experience developing artwork for public outdoor environments. Experience success and or interest in creating public artworks in collaboration with an active stakeholder group including community outreach. And finally, excuse me, experience with projects of similar scope and scale or comparable professional experience to handle the requirements of working in the public sector. And finally, availability to participate in the design approval and implementation of the project and complete installation by the deadline. Next slide please. And then that using those criteria were five finalists were identified to move on to the RFP portion of the project. First finalist was Laura Haddad and Tom Drugan based out of Seattle, Washington, their proposal titled Valley of the Moon. Next slide. Next was Blessing Hancock based out of Tucson, Arizona, her proposal entitled Unum. Next slide. Next would be Gordon Cuther based out of Napa, California. Project or proposal was called the Dome. Next slide. Ned Khan, Sebastopol, California. Proposal named Air Arbor. Next slide. And lastly, Benjamin Ball based out of Los Angeles, California. His proposal entitled The Tie That Binds. Next slide. And then the final selection criteria was developed based on the project goals, advisory committee input and public survey for artwork proposals, artistic excellence, originality and innovation as evidenced by quality of proposal for this project, appropriateness of the artist medium or proposed medium style and project concepts, demonstrated understanding and incorporation of the stated goals of the project. Proposed artwork should be suitable and permanent for outdoor placement and address durability, maintenance and public safety concerns. Proposed artwork should be an effective balance of size and scope of design and choice of materials to ensure that the finished installation is of sufficient prominence to capture the positive attention of the public. Proposal includes description of how collaboration with an active stakeholder group, including public outreach might occur, demonstrated sensitivity to address the potential impact of the project on public citizens and finally availability to participate in the design approval and implementation of the project and complete the installation by the deadline. Next slide, please. And that brings us to the second public survey that we launched. And that was spring of 2020. We received 752 total responses and out of all those results, it seemed like the dome by Gordon Huter and Unum by blessing Hancock were the two highest scoring from the public data across a few different categories. The questions were formulated using identified project goals. The questions included which design best reflects the Santa Rosa values of innovation and cultural inclusivity, which design most effectively brings life to courthouse square as a multi-purpose centralized community gathering space, which design do you think gives courthouse square a sense of place that speaks to Santa Rosa as a unique diverse and resilient community, which design best acts as a visual landmark or gateway to Santa Rosa's downtown and artistic community, which design would encourage you to spend time attend events and gather downtown. And then also we asked participants which design do you like the most with the follow-up question where they were able to leave a public comment about why a certain design was their favorite. And all this data collected was part of the final decision by the panel. The results were given to the selection panel to incorporate into their final decision. Next slide, please. The selection panel decided to have the top two artists respond to follow-up questions about elements that they may need to further develop or consider in their proposals. The two artists that were identified submitted their responses to the panel feedback using any method they felt appropriate of renderings, images or written responses that were necessary to further clarify their design components and process. The two final proposals included in these responses by the artists were scored one last time by the selection panel to determine the selected artist. The selection panel met to confirm this selection as the recommended artist that is presented to you today. Next slide, please. And that brings us to the recommended artist which is Blessing Hancock. The selection panel was very thoughtful and thorough with the entire selection process and especially with the final decision taking into account the artist's responses to their final selection questions, also including the public opinion gathered through the surveys and finally with the project selection criteria kept in mind. Next slide, please. More about the recommended artist Blessing Hancock, the description of her proposal which is entitled Unum, which is Latin for oneness is a signature artwork that places emphasis on innovation, diversity and engagement as leading values of Santa Rosa inspired by the unified old courthouse square. The sculpture embraces themes of welcoming and inspiration while also relaying the Santa Rosa values of innovation and cultural inclusivity through its text which will be collected through a community engagement process that speaks values inherent to Santa Rosa. During the day this sculpture casts shadows of the words onto the square using sunlight whereas in the early mornings and evening hours it will be illuminated by LED light fixtures mounted within the sculpture creating a soft diffused glow within the structures form. Community engagement will be text on the sculpture that will be collected through a public engagement opportunity, hopefully in collaboration with the APPC to identify the selected words that represent inherent values to Santa Rosa. The dimensions are approximately 12 feet in height and 15 feet in diameter. The materials used are water cut or water jet cut stainless steel and LED lights. Next slide. Some of Blessing Hancock's past works. These are examples of summoning blessings past works with similar budgets size and stakeholders as imagine art in old courthouse square. Blessing Hancock has works in Portland, Oregon, Tucson, Arizona, Florida, Colorado, and Palo Alto, California. And some members of the selection panel were able to actually visit Palo Alto Art of Veterans Hospital to view the work which is presented to you on the top right of this slide. Next slide, please. The project timeline and next steps. The project timeline including today's meeting are on here. Timeline is subject to change and indicates our next steps and projected timeline. Next slide, please. And that brings us to the recommendation which is to approve the recommended artist for imagine art in old courthouse square's public art project. And thank you for your time. Staff is here to answer any clarifying questions. Thank you so much, David. Lisa, you are muted. I am. I just realized that. Thank you. Thank you, David. Did you have anything else, Tara? No. I'm happy to chime in and answer questions as if the committee members would like to start there. Okay. Do we have any committee members that have questions for Tara, David, regarding this item? If so, please. You know what? I will go ahead and go through all committee members that are here. And how about, and if you can pass if you'd like, I'll start with Monica. You're on mute, Monica. I think it was a great presentation and what good work everyone has done. I do have a question, though, about is it just sitting on the ground or is there any kind of like thing that is that it's on? I mean, or how is it secured? Anyway, I just couldn't see that in the pictures. But that's okay. Yeah. Thank you for the question. So her proposal does not go into elaborate detail on that pending the final design phase that we will work with her on once she's approved by the committee and we enter into an artist services agreement with her. At that point, we work with our ADA access coordinators, our risk management department, our other staff within the city to make sure that we are doing everything that's required for accessibility and safety. And at that point, we would get more details on the actual citing or footing of the piece. And those types of details can be shared back with the committee once they're solidified. But her design or her intention is for it to look like it is resting on the ground. But of course, it would be done in a safe and secure way. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Monica. Kristen? Thank you, David and Tara for a very thorough presentation on the process. I understand there were a couple of hiccups along the way to do with COVID and our ability to have these regular meetings. It can take quite a bit of coordination. So I appreciate your guys's hard work to put these meetings together and organize such a thorough overview of these art pieces and how they could impact the courthouse square. I don't have any questions at this point. Having sat on the other side of that selection panel process, I know the work that goes into it and want to appreciate staff. Thank you, Kristen. Melanie? I do not have any questions. Thank you. Nina? Yes, I'd also like to echo Kristen's comments. Great job. I do have three questions. One, I was curious. There were two finalists, Gordon Hoothor, being the other. And I looked at the notes that you had where he got a lot of very high scores and in some cases higher than Blessing Hancock. I was curious if you could tell us a little bit about the questions that were asked to both of the final artists and what was it about Blessing's responses or lacking in Gordon's that led you towards selecting the one that was important? Nina, are you talking about the survey? Because the survey Gordon did, the public survey, but not with the panelists. The panelists actually had Benjamin Ball and Blessing Hancock as the two finalists. Oh, okay. I guess I was curious how we got to this point in the final analysis. Okay. The survey, those answers and those comments Tara does have a list of them. So I'm taking a refer to the panelists and the two, Benjamin Ball and Blessing Hancock. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So that is Tara, did you want to? I'm happy to jump in. Yeah, I think I just want to clarify what it sounds like the question is how did the panelists narrow down the, sorry, how did the panelists narrow down from the five finalists to the two, Benjamin Ball and Blessing, or how did Blessing get chosen over Benjamin, which I'm just not sure what your question is. Your second question. Yeah. Okay. David, do you want to talk about the general conversation, the selection panel had weighing those two proposals? Sure. Yeah. Thanks for the question, Nina. And yes, I did mention in the presentation and maybe I wasn't very clear about it, but the dome by Gordon Heuther and Blessing Hancock's piece, Unum, were the highest scored in the public survey. But when it came down to selection panel and them filling out their rubrics and scoring each one of the proposals, it was Blessing Hancock in the tie that binds by LA artist Benjamin Ball that were identified. And those, it was a, I guess it was a consensus of some sort that they were the top two scoring artists and in a variety of categories, they, some of them scored much higher than the other. And so the selection panel wanted to see the two artists respond more acutely at some of the needs of the project that maybe were overlooked or not fully considered in their proposal. So the process of generating questions that were specific to their proposals and how they fit the project's needs a little bit better were generated. And then we packaged those questions from the selection panel and Tar and I sent them directly to the artists and they were given, I believe it was about three, three weeks to respond to those questions. And I think if I have them up right here, and I think it was about five or six questions for each artist. Does that answer the question pretty well? I just want to add onto that. I think that the, the general conversation that took a lot of time for the selection panel to consider and to think through and look at from every angle was really looking at all the selection criteria. So, you know, I think that like one artist might have scored higher than the other on one criteria, but then it was flip flopped on the other criteria. So it was a conversation about weighing the importance of, you know, how it filled the space, the material, the scale versus the concept, the meaning of the artwork versus the community engagement components. And so there were, there was a lot of conversation about the need for community engagement. And my sense from the selection panel on how they score things as blessings proposal included a very, very rigorous community engagement component by, by essentially committing to working with the public art program, with this committee, with other stakeholders, with artists locally in the community to gather the words that will be laser cut into the side of the piece. And to be honest with you, I don't think any of the other proposals came close to that type of community engagement. And I think that that was a major deciding factor, not the only but a major deciding factor in the final decision. Thank you. I really appreciate having that information in case I'm asked, you know, and I just, I mean, it's a great piece, but I just was curious how you got to the final selection. Then do you know about how many words or characters will be able to be in the text on there? That's a good question. I actually don't. We didn't calculate that with her. I think there's room for quite a bit, but I, so I'm going to say in the hundreds, but I don't know exactly the right number to tell you. So it will be of sufficient size that it can be easily read. Yes, definitely. I think she has a preferred size, height of the lettering based on her past projects. It is small enough so that large objects can't be put through the openings, but small enough or and but large enough to see so small enough to not cause problems with large enough to read. And so I think she she talked about that. I can't remember the exact size. It's four inches maybe something like that. She's very thoughtful in her process for making sure that she has meaning in the process she uses to to choose the words as well as the readability translation into other languages, if that's a part of our desire. So it's it will be quite a process to design that community engagement portion with her and others. So is it going to be all in English or other languages too? I believe there's an interest to see other languages as well. And what about maintenance and vandalism has been discussed at all? Yes, you want to talk about that one, David? Yeah, let me see if I could find Rowan's report. Yeah, while he's looking for that, I can share that we had a part of the selection process was to have our contracted art conservator look at the finalist proposals and have her give essentially a report on her thoughts about materials, maintenance, safety, and cost estimates for taking care of them as a part of our permanent collection. And so there was discussion about the type of steel to be used, the lighting components, having access panels like hatches within the piece so that a conservator could unlock, would essentially be invisible to the public, but a conservator would know where to unlock the hatch to get inside of it to clean it out and do other repairs. So there's definitely there was definitely a conversation about that. David, do you want to add anything? I'm just looking through the maintenance notes that our conservator made during the presentations and noted potential things that will need to be addressed, including corrosion and light gray staining from on the powdery surface that could cause corrosion and then also replacing lamps from age and damage. LEDs tend to last longer, but there's consideration of that. And then I'm just trying to see, oh, yes. And then her total estimate was $4,812 per year for maintenance. And there's a full report too that she provided to us and the selection panel as well. And David too, I just want to state to for what I remember, her cost or the cost of that piece was relatively the same of all the others or even a slightly less than many of the others, correct? That is correct. Yeah, it's the same if not on the lower end of the five RFPs that we received. Okay, thank you. So that's excellent that we had the conservator weigh in at the very beginning. It's great. So that money for ongoing maintenance doesn't come out of the project cost. That comes out of just the general budget for art and public places over the years. Correct. Great. Okay. Thank you very much. Thanks, Nina. Jeff? Thanks, Lisa. I was a member of the committee. I was a panelist, as you heard. And I will share that it was a rigorous process and we saw a lot of good proposals. I was impressed with the number of sculptors who, public artists who gave us their qualifications from around the country. And I'm familiar with a lot of them. And in the end, the five finalists included two who were very local, which I thought speaks well of our region that we have makers of that caliber. But in the end, it really, I think, was clear to me that we had a very keen interest as Tara was very correctly stating that community engagement was a major component. And Blessing has a very strong track record of making durable public artworks that have a significant presence in the public spaces they occupy. But in addition to that, also has a track record of community engagement. And I've been fortunate to work on a number of projects over the years that have included language and community involvement and interaction in creating text or other kinds of language components. So I think it's an opportunity for Santa Rosa. This is the one artist out of all of them who actually proposed that we have this engagement process so that we can actually get community input and then the words are going to reflect that process. So the potential for that from my experience is really tremendous. So I think we made a good choice. I hope you agree. And the one question that we really had that kind of a concern for me and a few other panelists was the scale and its appropriateness to the space. And we resolved that and I feel that it will have a significant presence. And if all goes according to plan should barely be a great addition to Old Courthouse Square. Anyway, thank you. Thanks, Jeff. I'm going to go on to Nathan and from there, Kristen didn't want to say something. So after Nathan, I'll go to Kristen and then go on to public comment. Nathan? Yeah, I don't have any questions. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Kristen, you're on mute. You're so on mute. Kristen, there you go. So I had a quick question. I know a couple of the selection panel committee representatives went to go see some of her works. Blessing Hancock's works and Pal Alto. And I wondered if any of them had shared with your committee, your team, about any words that kind of stuck out from the other projects that she had done there. I'm not sure if you guys, if anyone had been, I'm looking at Lisa online and it's quite powerful. Yeah, thanks, Lisa. You can share what you experienced in Pal Alto, but I wanted to chime in really quickly and state that for each of the projects Blessing has done like this with the words, there has been a separate and different explicit goal for the project and what the words are supposed to capture. And so each project isn't the same, essentially. For Santa Rosa, she would work with us to develop what the prompt is when asking for input from the community. So there's a lot of ways that that could go, but that is a big part of the next phase of working with her on this is to figure out what we want to ask people when asking for what words should go on there, not just what words should go on there. I think it's like looking to the future, what will Santa Rosa look like? Looking to the past, what's an important lesson to learn? I don't know what that prompt is, but those are the types of things we need to think about when moving forward with this. And so, yeah, I just wanted to throw that out there because not all the projects are going to be the same, but I know that Lisa was able to go see the ones in Palo Alto. Yes, yes, I did. I went down to the Palo Alto. It was the public library and then also the community center there where she had multiple pieces that lit up and I went there during the day and at night to see what they looked like then. And the text consisted of many different languages. Some of them I recognized, some I didn't. And then the ones in front of the library were passages of, you know, some words from familiar books. I knew a few people around there did recognize the sentences that were on there that went all the way around to what books they were. I didn't, unfortunately, but I thought that was great for in front of the library to have that. And you could, there was some kind of interaction with it because you're reading them, you're looking all the way around them. And then I'm not sure what was being said in the other languages across the way by the community center, but it was, it made it made the community center and made that area welcoming to everyone. I mean, it really just says, you know, you are all welcome here by having just a variety of like that. And I really appreciated it being there and being surrounded by that. Monica, you have one more question? Oh wait, were you done, Kristen? I'm sorry. Yes, I am done. Thank you for making that in-person experience. Yes. I am just curious about the appearance of it. In the pictures it looks sort of golden, but it's a stainless steel and I'm wondering about it. I think that golden is just what the light is. There is, we're looking into, we're exploring the possibilities of having different color lights. And as the ones in Palo Alto have, they do have a button that you can push on them. And each time you push the button, it changes color. The light does. So we're looking into that with her at the moment. Tara, I'm not sure. Yeah, I was just going to add that the surface is stainless steel. So it would have a silver gray appearance. It will look very different in daylight versus at nighttime because at nighttime it would be illuminated from the inside with the light coming out through the laser cut words. And the images that she put in her proposal show a golden light. That's her favorite light and she felt like that was a good fit for Santa Rosa, given our golden hills nearby. But she was open to the idea of different color lights or incorporating a button that the community members could push. Thank you, Monica. And right at this moment, I'm going to move on and I'm going to move on to see if we have any public comments regarding this item. And it looks like Candice. Yes. Hold on just one moment. Excuse me. Candice, you have raised your hand. Are you there? Hold on, Lisa. Hold on, Lisa. Eileen will facilitate that. She has to get the timing up. So just hold on a second. Okay. Yeah, no worries. No worries. Candice, please confirm that you can see the timer and choose, confirm your name if you so choose. I'm going to go. You are able to talk at this time. Hi, Eileen. Thank you. I can see the timer and this is Cadence Hinkel-Allinson. Good afternoon, Chair Puentes and members of the committee. I am the executive director of the Santa Rosa Downtown District and I just wanted to express our support for the process and the work that went into the whole project. It was inclusive and thorough and Tara and David provided many opportunities for engagement from the beginning of the process with the creation of the call for artists all the way through the selection. And we really appreciate the ability to participate in the discussion as well as seeing how transparent and inclusive the project was. The district, we've been working really hard to bring the square and the downtown area of life. And this installation is going to be really critical to that work. So I just wanted to say thank you to all of you, to the committees involved and especially to the staff for their hard work in bringing this project to fruition. Very excited to see it installed in the next couple of years. Thank you, Cadence. And I just want to apologize for mispronouncing your name the first time. Okay. Do we have any other public comments? No, we have no additional hands raised at this time. Okay. Thank you, Eileen. So I'm going to go ahead and go on. Let's see. Is there a motion to approve this recommended artist? So moved. Monica, you're on mute. Sorry. I move that we accept this project, approve of this project. Okay. Do I have a second? Second. Okay. The discussion is now opened. Committee members wishing to comment, discuss, please physically raise your hand. Okay. Nina. I was, when you talked about the lighting, it made me wonder, so it sounds like the sculpture will be lit from within. What's the ambient lighting like on the square at that location? Will there be exterior lighting provided by the city or what? There are already several light fixtures near the north end of the square. That area of the square has a certain amount of light in the evening. I think it will not diminish the internal light source from this piece. It will still glow and you will see light emit from it, but I believe it will also have an environment where it will not be pitch black all the way around it. Given the lighting from within, we are not going to light it specifically with external lights. It is meant to be lit from within rather than externally. Great. Thank you, Nina. Kristin. I wanted to just comment on the internal lighting. So if Blessing Hancock shows the amber or the golden light as her preferred color, I just want to call out that there will be considering of this piece in relation to the already light installations in the square that are changing colors. So I want to be conscious of that when discussion goes forward about what color to illuminate the piece. I think that the golden would be a nice compliment, but want to make sure that it is not too distracting from what is already there. Thanks, Kristin. I want to respond to that really briefly just by saying that the same programming software that those lights run through are probably what would be used for Blessings. So there is actually the ability to combine them on one DMX programmer which would allow for coordination of colors not necessarily match, you know, sinking them up completely. But anyway, we are looking at making sure that that is a part of our consideration when working with her on designing the lighting. Great. Great. Thanks, Kristin. Thanks, Tara. Melanie. Is the current panel going to be continuing to work on the final installation? Will they continue to work on through with the artists or how does that work? That's a great question. We spoke about that at our last selection panel meeting and I put it out there that I would welcome involvement by the members in some capacity when we work on the design process for the community engagement because they have kind of an investment in the history and they've invested a lot of time with looking at this proposal already. Of course, I would be asking for more of their time but I would include and invite them to be a part of that for sure. Anything else, Melanie? Did I answer your question? I think so. Okay. Thanks, Melanie. Jeff. Actually, I'll just add one other thing to what Tara just mentioned in addressing your question, Melanie, which is that I volunteered the museum to be engaged in that process of public outreach and I don't know if we'll be able to gather but certainly if we were able to gather at some point during the process of getting people to contribute language words that we would certainly host something like that and help get the word out and I just think that with the APPC and members of the committee and I know Kaden sent the downtown group that she runs plus outreach through schools and other organizations, I think we can really get a lot of people involved with talking about what words are going to be on the sculpture and how that reflects the community. I think it's going to be a full court press by all of us to try to really make this the best process possible. Great. Thank you, Jeff. Nathan, do you have any comments for you? You're on mute, Nathan. No, this all sounds good. Thank you. Thank you, Nathan. Do I have any more comments or Nina? Will there be any kind of survey to gather the words or how is it too early to ask how the community engagement will be facilitated for this? I think some of that was mentioned in the preview that David was going over. Yeah, it will be a process that we start early next year. So it will definitely involve a design process to really design the community engagement. So I think surveys are a useful tool if we know what we're asking. I think that it's going to take some time to develop that and then to develop our outreach strategies. It would be lovely to be able to have in-person events where people can gather and participate in community in person. But if that is something that we still cannot do, then we will definitely be using surveys for some component of that. And you mentioned that the selection committee would be involved in helping review that will art and public places be involved? Yes, for sure. Art and public places will be involved. We will need, like Jeff said, we'll need to cast a wide net to make sure we're touching as many parts of our community as possible through this process. So, you know, nonprofit partners, business partners, art and public places, partners, arts institutions, educational institutions. I mean, there's a service industry. There's a variety of contacts. I believe we will need to make and ask for help in reaching, you know, getting the input, getting words submitted from everybody. Thank you. All right. I have one other question, but I'm looking for the budget here. So the $20,000 that is not going to the artist is going for... Let me find my thing. Yeah, that's a great question. I was going to clarify that when David went over that slide, just to specifically say that the difference of the approved budget and the artist budget is $20,000. And that budget goes towards things that are the city's responsibility. We've already paid out some of that through honorary and payments to finalists, artists. Some of it goes towards community engagement type cost, printing, marketing, things like that. Some of it would go towards some kind of an event if we could ever have an event, either for the community engagement part of it or for some kind of grand opening celebration. Other costs include site improvements that the city is responsible for to prepare the site for the artwork. So there's a fine line between the artist's responsibility for installing the art, but then certain things that the city is responsible for. So we budget all of that out. It also includes a contingency. So there's a variety of things that that that will cover. So we can have a good marketing plan for the rollout of this project. I mean, there's money to do it. Yeah. Yes. Anything else, Melanie? That's it. Okay. Thanks, Melanie. Appreciate it. So let's at this point, I would like to move on and I would like to call a vote to approve the recommended artists and approve the artwork design as presented. All in favor. Hi. Hi. Okay. Any opposed? None? So are we passing this anonymously? Looks like. All right. I just wanted to see. All right. Great job. Great. Thank you. Thank you very much, everyone. Thank you all for this. I think the city will love this. I do too. I'm excited. Okay. So let's see. Next item on the agenda. See, we got 5.2 project updates. Tara will present an update us on current projects besides this one, of course. Yes. I know after this, I don't have much to say. You can see where I've been spending my time. So I do have a few very brief updates just on some of the lingering open and out projects that you may have seen downtown. The open and out program has kind of morphed and transitioned into the winter lights or the winter themed installations that you can see downtown now. While public art funds from this committee weren't used farther than what I presented to you earlier this fall, there are still more art pieces that you can see downtown that have been added through the winter lights activities. So I encourage you to take a stroll down there at some point and check them out. There's also some of the open and out pieces that finally got installed that were kind of the last ones to be installed. And they include the pillars, the welcome Santa Rosa, or they just say downtown Santa Rosa. They're large pillars and pots, planting pots at the end of 4th Street at East Street. And then there's another set down at B Street and 4th Street. Those are the tall ones are now painted by an artist Alex Cole with the kind of abstract landscape design. So that's a new addition since I presented last time. We also, through a partnership with the Snowman County Museum, we hung, helped to hang some pieces by participating artists in open and out. They were given the opportunity to hang one piece in the window front display at the museum. So you can see that on the corner of 7th Street and B Street. There's a poster that talks about that they were part of open and out. So that I wanted to let you know about. And then I think last time I can't remember if I shared our ongoing conservation and maintenance with our conservator preservation arts. They, they had worked on tuberosity in Olive Park and that piece is now freshly painted and cleaned up. And we are working on identifying the next round of pieces that they would start working on. Some of the pieces that they had on their list we have had to kind of hold on, given the activities with the road closures downtown, the open and out program, and the outdoor dining spaces have kind of cramped some of the areas where they were going to work. So the next item on their list was the woman with water jug fountain, the kind of near Russian River brewery on 4th Street. But there's, there was too much activity there for them to be able to get their cleaning equipment in there and to have water access at this time. So we will do that soon. And I think that's really all I was going to report on today. But if there's any questions that you have on other projects that you're curious about, I'm happy to try to answer. I just have a question on, you know, since now we have this new shelter in place, will the outdoor eating areas where a lot of the artwork is currently visible, will those still stay in place or what's the plan there? Yeah, that's a good question. I don't know if the plan is to completely take them down or to leave some of them up for when it's allowed again. As you know, the current stay at home order goes through January 9, I believe. So I have not, that's something that I can check on working with Cadence and others in downtown to see if there's a timeline for that. My sense is that most restaurants that can leave them up will leave them up. But that is because right now we have an agreement to have that set up as is through the end of January, I believe. And so that may be the timeline at this point. But things change very quickly. And we try to adapt and support as much as we can. Thank you, Smellany. All right. So we're going to move on to the, Nina, you had a question? Okay. Yeah, I got the question from a community member today about what's art and public places committee doing improving new art when the Ruth of the Zawa fountain hasn't been reinstalled. So what kind of comment, what can you tell me about the status of that? I knew that was going to come up today. So we are working on it. It is getting closer. I can provide a more detailed report to you. Actually, I have an item to bring to the committee at some point in the new year regarding the fountain. But the status is that we're working with our art conservators and art handlers to assess its condition and work on the best way to reinstall the piece on the fountain. We are trying to align our timing with the actual construction of the fountain, which has not started yet. So there was private funding secured and kind of a donation from Hugh Futrell Corporation to build the fountain. And so there's still an agreement being processed within the city for that work. And there's not quite, I believe, a timeline for when that construction will begin, but it should be soon. And we are hoping to make sure the artwork is put back on the fountain safely in an appropriate timeline. So it's in process. It's making progress, but it's not to a point where I can give you any dates at this point. So I know you can't give any dates, but can you give an off the cuff estimate of do you think that this new sculpture will be installed before the fountain? I actually think the fountain will be built before the new sculpture is installed. Yay! I don't know if the art panels will go back up, but the fountain will be built. There's two components to the project. So the fountain has to be built. The art panels have to go up. I think we're on a good timeline to see both the art panels and the fountain be built before the new artwork goes in in early 2022. That gives us essentially a whole year to work on that. But a lot of those components are out of my control, so I cannot promise. It should just put up an informational sandwich right there in that spot so that people that are curious can go there and look and see what's happening. Kristen? I had a follow-up question to Melanie's about the open and out program. I'm interested on when, I know that was extended, but I'm wondering about where to find more information about it potentially being voted on again or what committee would be having that discussion? So yeah, the downtown subcommittee gets regular updates from cadence at their monthly meetings, which are the first Thursday of the month. I believe they're at 8.30 a.m. on Zoom. That would be a good place to hear updates. You can also go to the website, which I'm going to have to remind myself I believe is openandoutsr.com, and that will give you a sense of what's going on with that. I'm not sure if it's fully updated today, but that is the website for the project. So I think that those are the two places that I would check for more information on what's going on with the closures and open and out. Great. Thank you. Great. Anyone else? Alrighty, then we'll move on to the next item on the agenda. Let's see here, community member reports. Do you need the committees to make a report at this time? If so, please raise your hand. You don't have anything? Okay. I don't see any hands raised, so I'm going to go ahead and move on to number seven. Tara, for department reports, do you have anything for department reports? I do not at this time. Thank you. Okay. All right. So that leaves German. So the next regular meeting of Art and Public Places committee is scheduled for Monday, January 4th, 2020, and this meeting is now adjourned. Thanks, everyone. Thank you, everybody. Thanks, everybody. Happy holidays. Yes, you too. Thank you. Bye for real. Always muted now. A great meeting to end the year on. Thank you.