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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-04-15 ACAC Minutes Arts and Culture Advisory Committee April 15, 2025, 4:00 p.m. Schmalz Room - Second Floor City Hall City of Kitchener 200 King Street W, Kitchener, ON N2G 4G7 Present: J. Hall, Chair Councillor D. Schnider, Member A. Mehta, Member S. Florence, Member W. Rahimi, Member Staff: A. Hallam, Manager, Arts & Creative Industries E. Rumble, Coordinator, Arts & Creative Industry K. Varin, Committee Administrator _____________________________________________________________________ 1. Commencement The Arts and Culture Advisory Committee held a meeting this date commencing at 4:00 p.m. 1.1Acceptance of agenda Accepted on motion by S. Florence, seconded by J. Hall. 1.2 Acceptance of March minutes Deferred to May meeting. 2. Disclosure of Pecuniary Interest and the General Nature Thereof None. 3. Delegations None. 4. Discussion Items 4.1Revision of committee Terms of Reference: chair and staff 1 The discussion focused on deciding to adjust the name of the committee to better reflect the work of the Arts and Creative Industries team: namely to keep or eliminate the word ‘culture’. Members and staff gave input on definitions of culture, the public’s perception of culture, expectations for members of the public about the tasks that the committee supports, other avenues within the city to address culture and providing a clear path of selection for the Nominating Committee. Action: staff to send Terms of Reference to ACAC to finalize at the May meeting. 5. Information Items 5.1 Artist in Residence program updates: K. Varin The call for proposals for the 2025 Artist in Residence and Doon Pioneer Park Community Centre public art installation, closed on April 1st with eight proposals from local artists. The selection committee is reviewing the submissions and will meet in the last week of April to make the final selection. The selected proposal will be presented to ACAC before taking it to the Council standing committee at the beginning of June. Ellie Anglin, the 2024 Artist in Residence completed the design and content of the zine ‘Ribbon’. Over 30 local creatives contributed visual pages as a result of community engagement during the zine page creation workshop. Staff is working with the printing company to prepare the first batch of zines for the embellishment workshop to be held by Ellie on April 27 with support from Inter Arts Matrix at Globe Studios. Some of the zines will be distributed to the community then, whilst others at a later date at locations or events to be decided. 5.2 Public art updates: E. Rumble Council supported ACAC’s endorsement of the artwork ‘Swoop’ for Mill Courtland Community Centre. A&CI staff is facilitating a meeting with the renovation team and artist team in the coming weeks, and will also engage community centre staff to plan workshop opportunities during the time that the centre will be closed for renovation (starting this June). These workshops will give an opportunity for the community to contribute to the making of the artwork. The KPL Southwest artwork ‘Wintertime Stories’ is beautifully showcased in the brand-new library branch. The interpretive signage is now installed, and provides an example of a new potential approach to crediting public artwork in the City’s collection, informed by ACAC’s recommendations and discussions last term. The signage includes tactile elements made of the same material as the artwork, a 2 video that profiles the creation of the piece and an audio descriptionavailable on- site. This library branch is now open. The KIRC public art competition has entered the second stage in jurying. The project jury narrowed down the proposals to three artists’ expressions of interest. All three artists came to town to see existing works in the City’s public art collection and to talk to the project team. They will each prepare a more refined design proposal for hanging in the lobby for the jury to review. The jury will meet again in late May to hopefully reach consensus on a winning design. As the facility is planned to open in 2026, staff will start contracting the chosen artist as soon as possible to support integration during construction. Several other art installation opportunities have been identified by the KIRC project team and are pending acceptance. Funding for those would come from outside of the public art policy. E. Rumble is working with the Parks and Open Spaces design team to create and install interpretive signs, visually designed by local artists, in identified parks and green spaces in Kitchener. Fabrication and installation funding will be provided by Parks, and the consolidated public art budget will cover the artists’ commissions. Upper Canada Park - a baseball park - in the Doon area is slated for an expansion and as such eligible for 1% allocation through the public art policy. The call for public art submissions will be invitational due to a tight timeline for production. A&CI staff is developing a shortlist of artists to approach alongside drafting the call. Staff will be looking to enlist an ACAC member to serve on the jury. The jury meeting will take place sometime in August. 5.3 Member updates Councilor D. Schnider, J. Hall and A. Mehta gave updates. 6. Adjournment On motion, this meeting adjourned at 5:20 p.m. Karoline Varin Committee Administrator 3