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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Arts Commission - 11/20/2002Approved 2/19/03 Boulder Arts Commission November 20, 2002 Boulder Public Library Members Present: Also Present: Don Berlin Donna Gartenmann Patti Bruck Ken Bloom Erich Hill Karen Gerrity Ginger Zukowski Member Absent: Ann Moss Minutes of the October 16, 2002 meeting were approved as received. Information Items: Trevor Traynor changed the vemie for his visual exhibit to the Fine Arts Building at the University. Dates for 2003 Grant Process: January 23 is the tentative date for the Major Grant deliberation meeting. Gartentnann will check with Moss for final scheduling. Collage Children's Museum: The Museum announced it will close its doors at the end oF November. A citizens group is working to reorganize the museum. Vielehr Sculpture Installation: A successful privata/public partnership has purchased the Vielehr sculptures at the Haertling 5culpture garden. The pieces have been on temporary display. Approval of Final Reports: Reports for the Dairy Center for the Arts (Audience Development, Technical Assistance), Collage Children's Museum (Arts in Education), Blue Moon Danee (Major), Ana Claire (Major) and Magdalena Canyon (Mini-grant) were approved as received. The Arts Paper: The Commission reviewed a 2003 work proposal from Lisa Trank, new editor far the Arts Paper. Commissioners were pleased with the topics for upcoming issues. Trank had asked if a computer could be purchased fi•om the funds. Gartenmann will check with city policy and return Yo the Commission with that information. Zukowski and Berlin will meet with Trank to diseuss the paper. 2003 Budget Reductions: All City departments will be required to reduce 2003 budgets by an additional 2% because of the failure of the Safety Tax ballot issue. The supply/discretionary funds in the Arts budget will be reduced by $4300.00. QUARTERLY FINANCIAL REPORTS Karen Gerrity, Executive Director of the Dairy Center for the Arts, submitted financials. Gerrity has been able to reduce the Dairy debt substantially. The line of credit has been paid down to $100,000.00, the accounts payable for operating was $55,000 and has been paid off. All other Financial responsibilities are on target. Gerrity's primary concern is the demise of the Guild Theatre. The short-term effect has a negative impact. All rents through the end of the year have been paid to the Guild and the money is not available to the Dairy. Gerrity has agreed to honor all rental agreements. The long term will be positive. Gerrity is excited about having the spaces but the two theaters have been neglected. Repair needs include lighting, curtains, and an incomplete sound system. The Dairy has hired a part time tech support person who will be made available to renters, as well as a house manager. Staff is working to bring in renters and has already found four or five new users for the space. Gerrity has a list of 15 theatrical groups wanting to work with the Dairy. Gerrity approached the Guild and released them from the lease agreement and took the theater equipment in lieu of rent. The staff is putting together a theater equipment inventory list. In addition to adding staff, other Dairy staff undertakings include booking the space, redoing contracts, and dealing with equipment needs. Gorrity is very concerned about safety issues in the spaces and liability insurance. The theaters are operating at a deficit at this point. If the BAC line item were given to the Dairy in 2003, Gerrity would be able to offer lower rents to theater groups. The goal is to rent the spaces more frequently and to non-theater companies. In the past, the Guild was rented only 55% of the time. The Dairy's immediate goal is to improve the space and keep the rent down for the first year and make the theater safe. The main problem with theater companies is that they need more than space. The Dairy is offering a package deal for renters. The rental rates will be different for individuals, corporations, non-profits, etc. If the Dairy received the BAC funds, $13,000 would be used to offset rental costs to groups and the rest would be used to improve the space to make it usable and safe. Limiting the number of weeks any one group could rent will not negatively impact the Dairy. Ken Bloom, Executive Director of the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, reported that the Museum has had two successful fundraisers since the end of the 3'd quarter. The Exotica Ball netted $38,000 and the Contemporary Art auction raised $33,000. The art auction is intended to become an annual Museum program. The event is not focused on purely a benefit. The intent is to develop it into a benchmarking auction for this region for contemporary art. The auction comes with a full infrastructure - developing a collections policy, a collector's circle program, acquisitions policy and an educational component for artists. The long term goal is to make it work for the artist and the Museum. 1n order to do that, you have to develop underwriting. Bloom's goal is to establish this region as a center for contemporary art. This is a first attempt and BMoCA's staff realize that the community has a lot to learn about auctions. The response was good in terms of contributions from artists across the country. The profile of the Museum outside of the community is quite good. A primary focus of the Board when Bloom came to BMoCA was the Exotica Erotica fundraiser. It is not a Museum program. The objective is to stabilize the Museum and identify it as a Contemporary Museum. It needs fundamentals like defining a fundraiser and educating an organization on how to collect. The Museum has to develop a connection with the community and improve the status of contemporary artists who mostly end up in galleries outside of the state and region. The Museum Board established two fundamental criteria for strategic planning: branding and redeveloping infrastructure. One change in branding is in the new website. A few anchor programs have been established and the Museum now has a program task force. The purpose of the committee is to look at programs and their effect, benefit, and cost effectiveness. Bloom will start a series of focus groups and expand the process to tie up the question of anchor programs. Infrastructure deals with communication. BMoCA can't afford to print all the things it prints. The Museum will refocus most communication to digital, which will gradually become very effective. By January, the website will also have full capture capability and be interactive. The objective is to be on a two-week update cycle, will include an education page for teachers and a virtual gallery. Bloom has cut $80,000 out of the 2003 budget. He is reducing staff and printings. Bloom has three big issues with the facility -the elevator, second floor bathrooms and security. The greatest needs in the theater are HVAC and access to electrical, repair of the floor and replacing seats. The Museum wants Co provide a facility that people want to use. Safety, more access for use and comfort for an audience are primary. BMoCA will end the year out of debt. Guild Theatre discussion. Commission comments on the possible use of line item theater funds: •Does it needed to be strictly theater? •Mandate that one group doesn't get more than one space allotment. •Open it up to all artists. Encourage theater and music groups, films, etc. • Would filmmakers utilize the space? •At times they would. Small independent film groups would. •I don't want to fund lectures, etc. If the Dairy space let the people know about dark nights, they could fill the space. •Exciting to support those theaters and put stipulation that no group can receive more than "x" amount of subsidized space per year. •How would that play at BMoCA? •BMoCA and Nomad bring in outside groups that fit the mission of the theater funds. I would love to see groups subsidized. What will happen to the Dairy the first year out without the subsidy? One space is half way decent. There are possibilities at those theaters. If we spread the funds too thin, we won't be doing anything. •What if we put that line item to the Dairy for 2003 to transition and upgrade the theaters. This would attract groups that want to come into the Daity. They would then develop a clientele and the BAC could revisit the line item in 2003. •How could we limit some groups from benefiting the tnost? •One example is that no one group gets more than 6 weeks of subsidized space. •I don't have a problem with it going to the space. I want to make sure the money is available to anyone that wants to produce and make sure it goes to the groups •Karen was talking about keeping the theater booked. I felt the money would be going to Dairy support rather than theater support. •If groups continue to be subsidized, it's not realistic for them to realize that they're not presenting good theater. I like the idea of limiting the number of weeks per renter. Give the money to the Dairy this year but limit the amount of time per organization at a good rate. •In future years, I hope the money can go to city-wide theaters. •The arts budget has $21,000 that in the past has been earmarked for rent subsidy for theater. What are our options at the moment? • We have the Dairy request. I don't know if I would accept it without amendments. We have the ability to open it up to all performing arts for rent subsidy. •We could make grants just at the Dairy. We give one grant per group. It would give Karen the money to fix up the theater. •Could we require that? •I would like to see as many people get funds as possible. •I would want to make sure debt isn't included in the funds • We could take some dance money to upgrade the Dairy facility. Maybe BMoCA needs a bit to upgrade its theater. One of the reasons I hesitate giving the Dairy the money is that the Dairy needs to build a relationship with the groups. We need to encourage the Dairy to make themselves desirable. • Without this money going to the Dairy, the theater spaces might not be available and uo one will want them. It would go to corporations, etc, instead of the artists. • Would it help their facility if they put weeks aside for corporate use? Bruck made a motion to use funds earmarked for Collage Children's Museum for 2003 attd disperse $7500 for facility improvements to the Guild theater at the Dairy and $7500 to the BMoCA theater with written reports from each organization for the improvements required. Hill seconded. The motion passed unanimously. Zukowski moved to use 2003 theater funds to create space grants for city wide theater venues, one application per group and a maximum request of $2100. Approved funds will be sent directly to the venue. The motion will be re-evaluated for 2004. Hill seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous. The meeting was adjourned at 9:20 p.m.