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HomeMy WebLinkAboutArts & Culture - 2011-12-20 MinutesARTS AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMITTEE (ACAC) MINUTES December 20, 2011 CITY OF KITCHENER PRESENT: Don Bourgeois REGRETS:Helena Ball Laura Lee Dam Juan Bohorquez Mark Derro Ashley Dean Cheryl Ewing Councillor Kelly Galloway STAFF: Cheryl York, Arts/Culture Coordinator Ann Marie Hadcock Carrie Kozlowski, Recording Secretary Allan Hoch Mark Hildebrand, Director, Community Aaron MacFarlane Programs and Services Earl McCluskie Cory Bluhm, Manager, Downtown Catherine Mombourquette (from 5:20) Community Development Bill Nuhn Sean Puckett Sarry Zheng CALL TO ORDER Don Bourgeois, Chair 1.1 Acceptance of Agenda Item 4, Economic Development update on Digital Creative Industries and overlap with Economic Development Strategy postponed until future meeting when Silvia DiDonato (Manager, Business Development) can attend. Items reordered. Agenda accepted as amended. 1.2 Acceptance of November 15, 2011 Minutes Minutes accepted as circulated. 2.0New member introductions Mark Derro: Chair of Conestoga College School Media and Design. Has been with the college for 7 years. Councillor Kelly Galloway: Rejoining ACAC as Council representative after a one-year absence. Bill Nuhn: Interim General Manager at Centre in the Square. Over 20 years at the Centre. Sean Puckett: Kitchener’s 2011 Artist in Residence. Photographer and collaborator on arts community-building projects. Sarry Zheng: Interested in community involvement and finding creative ways to address social problems. DISCUSSION ITEMS 3.0Convergence of Arts/Technology report: Earl McCluskie Full report deferred to January meeting ACTION: staff to include Convergence of Arts/Technology report on January agenda. 4.0Economic Development Department update on Digital Creative Industries and overlap with Economic Development Strategy: Silvia DiDonato Deferred to future meeting 1 December 2011 - ACAC Minutes ARTS AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMITTEE (ACAC) MINUTES December 20, 2011 CITY OF KITCHENER 5.0Informal updates from ACAC subgroups, as available Subgroups generally meet monthly. ACAC endeavours to report to Council as a committee at least annually. Areas of focus for subgroups came out of outstanding recommendations from CulturePlan II. A)Facilities/Services for the Arts: Aaron MacFarlane Surveyed artists regarding facilities/services needed. Limited survey sample resulted in inconclusive findings. Met with representative of Imperial Cotton Centre for the Arts and Cossart Exchange in Hamilton (creator of a successful dynamic space in Hamilton designed for emerging ideas, organizations, businesses and creative entrepreneurs addressing creative businesses, artistic development, project management and community networking). Rep believes that development of an arts space is not solely the city’s responsibility, but rather a joint effort between private and public sector. Subgroup to meet again, discuss findings, report back. B) City’s Role in Arts & Culture: Don Bourgeois Current focus: arts and culture in the context of the city’s Official Plan (OP). Reviewing recent draft of OP through and ‘arts/culture’ lens. Drafting comments. Will forward to ACAC. Goal: report for ACAC to consider at January meeting. C) Convergence of Arts/Technology: Earl McCluskie Connecting with leaders in arts/technology industries. Gaining consensus on how each field could collaborate with the other. Connecting with Creative Enterprise Enabling Organization. Goal: information sharing. D) Items to Monitor: Cheryl York Subgroup focus (three topics): audience development, youth issues and newcomer artists. Update on Newcomer artists: City staff met with and facilitated launch of mentoring programs delivered by two different organizations. YMCA Artist Mentoring program: 6 month duration. 10 mentors, 13 mentees o (program goal was 10 matched mentors/mentees). Funding sources: City of Kitchener grant ($10,000). Coordinator hired to run program. Neruda Belonging and Empowering program: three components to program, o training, one-on-one mentoring, performance opportunities. 15 mentors, 18 mentees. Funding sources: $3,000 grant from City of Kitchener and $19,000 grants from other groups. Total program cost: $24,000. ACTION: staff to post report on 2011 Mentoring Programs on BaseCamp 6.0Consider subgroup reporting to Council in New Year: all Important to keep Council apprised of committee activities and focus. February or March 2012 report to Council would be timely. ACTION: Staff to include ACAC committee reporting to Council on January agenda. Committee to advise on report contents. 2 December 2011 - ACAC Minutes ARTS AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMITTEE (ACAC) MINUTES December 20, 2011 CITY OF KITCHENER 7.0Municipal Cultural Planning (MCP) update Kitchener, Cambridge, Waterloo and the Region successfully collaborated on a bid to host a Municipal Cultural Planning Workshop in the region. Date: February 3; Location: Regional Museum. Goal of workshop: learn how to integrate MCP with other planning (Downtown Revitalization strategies, Economic Development plans, Official Plans, Strategic Plans). Invitees: All regional arts and culture advisory committee members, Downtown Advisory Committee members, Economic Development Advisory Committees, Municipal staff, interested private sector businesses and Creative Enterprise Enabling Organization In Kitchener, Cultural Planning is not as well integrated with other economic planning documents and policies as it should be. Kitchener needs an official, up-to-date Cultural Planning document to support other planning work and documents. 8.0Update: ACAC member’s meetings with Councillors: all Goal: ACAC members to meet with all councilors twice/year to initiate a dialogue and facilitate understanding of arts and culture issues in each ward. Allan Hoch and Catherine Mombourquette: met Councillor Dan Glenn Graham. He hopes for more private sector support of arts and culture initiatives (over public support). Meeting was a good exchange of ideas and information. Earl McCluskie: met Councillor Zyg Janecki. Meeting with Councillor John Gazzola in early 2012. Councillor Janecki supports the arts, familiar with ACAC issues. Hopes for Boathouse to continue to grow and succeed. ACTION: ACAC members to continue meetings. INFORMATION ITEMS 9.0Collaboratory 6 update: Juan Bohorquez Postponed in Juan Bohorquez’ absence. 10.0Downtown Live update: Staff Launched two years ago. Current goal: animate King Street late June to September, provide opportunities to performers, engage the community. Eventual goal: animate the street 356 days/year. 2010 Summary: City collaborated with JM Drama (who secured a grant from the KW Community Foundation to run a similar program region-wide) and BIA (who worked with Neruda Productions). 75 performances (music and other dance/performances). 2011 Summary: City (including Special Events Dep’t) worked with Tri-City Music (coordinated and managed musicians). Focus: music; musicians paid to play on King Street. Over 100 performances. New in 2011: Taco Tuesdays. 8 consecutive Tuesday lunch hours, a market vendor sold tacos on the square, with music and performers. Lessons learned: Keep performances intimate to engage passersby. Don’t put an acoustic performer o alone in a large space. Situate performances near patios and coffee shops to allow seating. Food + performance/other activity = success (Taco Tuesdays). o One champion organizer/manager would better facilitate the program than multiple o partners. Multiple performances at once create a buzz. o 3 December 2011 - ACAC Minutes ARTS AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMITTEE (ACAC) MINUTES December 20, 2011 CITY OF KITCHENER Musicians glad to get paid, appreciate performance opportunity, but seek opportunities to play in a venue (bar/restaurant). Could Downtown Live lunchtime performances be promotion for later performances in downtown bars/restaurants? Musicians seek opportunities to ‘open’ for a bigger performer. Idea for future year: close a block of King Street for four Friday nights over the summer, hold an artist market, take advantage of loosened liquor laws, find a big name performer, and have Downtown Live artists as opening acts. Downtown Live will continue to evolve for the next few years. Ideas: Animate the street after 5 pm, not just lunch time. o Use Rotunda, bars and restaurants as venues. o Take advantage of loosened liquor licensing for festivals. o Introduce other types of performance, beyond music. o 11.0Public Art Working Group (PAWG) Report: Ann Marie Hadcock King Edward school public art project: school’s greening committee will appear at next PAWG meeting to propose a public art project. Idea: artist to work with students to create a performance area on school grounds. Project could include Centennial component; to be funded from city’s arts and culture pooled fund. Project fits with recent public art report to Council (public art program to partner with students and educational institutions where opportunities exist) On a motion made by Allan Hoch, approved by Catherine Mombourquette: “That 2011 Artist in Residence Sean M Puckett’s commission proposal for a publicly accessible photo album of 1,050 photos that comprise his “Portrait of Kitchener” project be accepted.” MOTION CARRIED Discussion: PAWG passed this motion at its December 12 meeting. A large-scale book (similar to family photo album) would be located in publicly accessible stnd spot (1 or 2 floors) in city hall. Web site with Portrait of Kitchener photos to remain live for 5 years. Commission amount is $5,000. Sean Puckett declared a conflict of interest and did not participate in vote. 12.0Downtown Advisory Committee (DAC) Report: Aaron MacFarlane DAC considered results of public survey on future vision for the downtown. 13.0Council Report: Kelly Galloway Public meeting on City budget: January 9, 7pm. Council considers final budget: January 19. New Year levée: January 8, 2-4 pm. rd Council deferred making a decision on the 3 year of a grant supporting the Creative Enterprise Enabling Organization to final budget day. Council deferred consideration of Sustainability Funding, to final budget day 4 December 2011 - ACAC Minutes ARTS AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMITTEE (ACAC) MINUTES December 20, 2011 CITY OF KITCHENER 14.0Members’ Updates Bill Nuhn, Centre in the Square (CITS): Search for CEO continues. November and December are busy at CITS. Danny Boy coming in March, Jim Cuddy, Theory of a Dead Man, Jann Arden also upcoming. Mark Derro, Conestoga College: School of Media and Design is the fastest area of growth at Conestoga, which is the fastest growing College (900 students in 2011). Goal: double that in two years. College trying to differentiate itself, working with universities. Laura Lee Dam, Ministry of Culture: Deadline for nominations for April Volunteer Services awards: January 25. Ministry is working with CEEO to organize an information session (February 1 at the Tannery) about funders including Ontario Arts Council, Dep’t of Heritage, and local funders. Ministry is changing its name to Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport. Earl McCluskie, Chestnut Hall Camerata: launching live concert streaming in High Definition with local ensembles. Also streaming local concerts on line. Official announcement coming soon. Cheryl Ewing, JM drama, Registry Theatre and CCI Performing Network: Secured KW Community Foundation money to run workshops for artists on how to prepare to tour (early February). Participating artists will have an opportunity to perform at Ontario Contact event. Catherine Mombourquette, Catherine Mombourquette Photography: Participating in Wedding Trade Show at Bingeman’s in the New Year. Aaron MacFarlane: velvetropemagazine.com: a new on-line site including local concert listings. Sarry Zheng: Will contact Cheryl/Don regarding committee mentoring. Will contact subcommittee leads regarding joining subgroups. Interested in how arts/culture community will get involved in Centennial celebrations. Cheryl York responds: King Edward public art school project will include a centennial component. Oral History project (funded through the city’s Industrial Artifacts program) will have centennial relevance (recorded interviews used as a basis of stories and related to destinations on a walking/biking tour. City to provide signage and print brochures with QR codes linked to stories). 2012 Public Art project linked to centennial also possible. Berlin Tower ARTSPACE will feature Centennial exhibits in 2012 (including exhibit of Homer Watson paintings from Royal collection). 2012 Artist in Residence program will also have a centennial slant. Beyond the City, Registry working up a centennial play and reading. Community Groups invited to hold their own centennial events; grant money available. Councillor Galloway is Council Rep on Centennial Committee. Sean Puckett: Appreciated 2011 Artist in Residence opportunity, and connecting with the public. Other projects: Collaboratory 6; foto: RE (6 photographers collaborating to reclaim photography from its ubiquity) Elevator (elevate profile of arts and culture). ADJOURNMENT The chair adjourned the meeting at 5:40p.m. NEXT MEETING January 17, 2012, 4:00 p.m., Conestoga Room. 5 December 2011 - ACAC Minutes