HomeMy WebLinkAboutArts & Culture - 2017-04-18 Minutes
ARTS AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMITTEE (ACAC) MINUTES
APRIL 18, 2017CITYOF KITCHENER
PRESENT:Danielle Deveau (to 5:10pm)
Michelle Gnutzman
Shirley Madill
Dave Schnider
Julie Soulis
Lori Thompson
Sam Varteniuk
Lydia Workman
REGRETS:Judy Allred
Aaron Francis
Pam Patel
Linda Zensner
STAFF:Silvia DiDonato, manager, arts/creative industries
Jeff Young, manager, special events (from 4:20)
Carrie Kozlowski, recording secretary
CALL TO ORDER:Sam Varteniuk
1.0Acceptance of agenda:agenda accepted as circulated.
2.0Declaration of conflict of interest: none.
DELEGATION
3.0Art$Pay: Cathy Farwell(postponed to a future meeting in Cathy’s absence).
PRESENTATION
4.0Special Events update: Jeff Young
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Highlights of the 2017 Kitchener events calendar: Canada Day (to celebrate Canada’s 150),
Cruisin’ on King (two-day event featuring music on day two), an expanded Rock ‘n Rumble
event, Downtown cycling race, Kidspark, and New Year’s Eve. Also the following third-party
events: Youth and Stars Success Walk (geared to helping youth find their career path),
Kultrun, Blues Festival, Ribfest and Etsy market.
A new website, KitchenerEvents, was launched last summer.Community events can be
added to the site, given they pass the approval process.
Website includes a toolkit of resources and links to assist community members in organizing
events. The City’s Special Events staff also meetswith potential event organizers to provide
guidance and contacts as needed (police, fire services, emergency medical services, etc.)
Overall, community event organizers are becoming better informed about what is involved in
organizing events. The website tools help to build the capacity of small, grassroots and not-
for-profit groups to successfully hold events.
There’s also increased interest from promoters outside of the region in holding high-profile
events and concerts here.
There areopportunities for sports tournaments to overlap with events to share audiences.
DISCUSSION ITEMS
5.0Public Art for Developers: Silvia DiDonato
ACAC members receiveda copy of the existing ‘Public Art for Developers’ brochure.
How to encourage private developers to invest in arts/culture uses (including public art)
could be addressed during the development of the Arts Action Plan later this year.
April 2017-ACAC Minutes 1
ARTS AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMITTEE (ACAC) MINUTES
APRIL 18, 2017CITYOF KITCHENER
The city’s Public Art Policy currently says, “The City encourages the private development
sector to participate voluntarily in the percent for art program”, but does not set out a
mechanism to encourage participation.
‘Section 37’ is the provision in the Ontario Planning Act that allows municipalities to extract
benefits from developers in return for allowing development that exceeds height and/or
density restrictions (also known as 'density bonusing'). The benefits can include arts and
culture uses.
ACAC comments:
The Arts Action Plan could outline how arts/creative industries staff could be informed about
developer applications to section 37, in order to advocate for arts/culture benefits.
Could contact with arts/creative industry staff be a compulsory part of the application
process?
Are there smaller-scale incentives that the citycould introduce to encourage developers to
invest in arts/culture uses?
Has the city identified its priorities for the possible benefits to be realized through density
bonusing?
ACTION: planning staff to be invited to a future ACACmeeting to talk about section 37
opportunities.
6.0Joint meeting: Silvia DiDonato
ACAC brainstormed possible topics/themes for joint meeting of Arts/Culture Advisory
Committees from Kitchener, the Region, Waterloo and Cambridge,tentatively inMay:
Could share information about priorities, approaches and how each committee finds utility
and ways to be useful and contribute. Then could identify commonalities, opportunities to
collaborate, and ways to support each other. Kitchener ACAC could present its vision
statement/lens through which it considers and responds to requests for feedback.
Light Rail Transit public art opportunities could be a topic with regional interest.
Section 37 of the Ontario Planning Act could be a topic of interest across the region, and
committees could share information about how they incentivize arts uses.
Could explore ways for the cities could work together to promote the region, coming out of
the momentum of the regional bid for the Canada summer games. What can ACAC
committees across the region contribute to help the region be seen as an entity of over
500,000?
The Waterloo Regional Tourism and Marketing Corporation could be invited to present on the
Explore Waterloo Region event calendar, and the committees could brainstorm
complementary packages between regional institutions to attract visitors to theregion.
ACTION: Staff to revisit the findings that came out of the last joint meetings.
INFORMATION ITEMS
7.0City Updates:Silvia DiDonato
Council approved the two arts/creative industries reports that went forward: acceptance of
the Enchanted Community Tree, the commissioned artwork created by Sarah Granskou, the
2016 Artist in Residence, to be installed at the forest Heights Community Centre; and a new
regional approach for funding the regional key cultural institutions.
Staff now undertaking a report on the economic impact of a potential regional media,film and music
office.
8.0Downtown Action and Advisory Committee:Sam Varteniuk, on behalf of Aaron, in his absence
Based on previous discussions, DAAC is determined to animate Goudies Lane in Junethrough
August. This could be an opportunity for arts/culture-related input.
April 2017-ACAC Minutes 2
ARTS AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMITTEE (ACAC) MINUTES
APRIL 18, 2017CITYOF KITCHENER
The committee reviewed the "Shape DTK 2020" report; a fact-finding collaboration with the
Kitchener Downtown Business Improvement Area (KDBIA). Five key community themes
emerged: vibrant street life; great shops andrestaurants; adiverse andwelcoming
community; well designed,andinnovative.
9.0Economic Development Advisory Committee:Danielle Deveau
The committee reviewed the“Shape DTK 2020" report. Retail space seemed to be a priority.
Parking was also noted as an issue.
ACTION: Staff to inquire if an ACAC update can be included as a standing agenda item for EDAC.
10.0Public Art Working Group:Lydia Workman
The committee received the following presentations:
Art$Pay: a portal for the promotion of the visual arts sector in the region, focusing on
employment, marketing, education and professional development.
Region of Waterloo:a new regional strategy has been launched that addresses placemaking
through pub art.
City of Kitchener’s Planning Division:undertaking an ‘art in public places’ project to
commission an artist to create an artwork for installation on Regional land. Not acquired
through the city’s public art policy, so not part of the city’s public art collection.
Neruda Art’s Canada 150 Mural Project:undertaking a major mural project with Chilean
and Kitchener artists, with a First-Nations/Indigenous theme. Received Canada 150 funding.
The city’s 2017 Artist in Residence, Julie Sperling, introduced her project, ‘Climate in
Pieces: from art to action. With community participation, she will create a mosaic focusing
on four areas or themes where citizens can take positive action against climate change:
food, transportation, natural stormwater management, and energy.
11.0Council Report: Councillor Schnider
See above item 7 for update.
12.0Member’supdates:
MT Space:Occupy Springprojectruns from April 200-22, 2017at the Registry Theatre.
Lydia:exhibiting artwork at the Flambeau Noir: Left Hand Path Conferencein Ottawa from
April 28-30, 2017.
Lightning BanjoProductions: Tale of Peter Rabbit takes place on May 13-14, 2017 at Steckle
Heritage Farm.
ADJOURNMENT: The chair adjourned the meeting at 5:35p.m.
NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, May 16, 4:00 p.m., Conestoga Room
April 2017-ACAC Minutes 3