Arts Commission - Regular Meeting

Welcome, everyone. I call this meeting to order. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda? I motion. It's been moved. Do we have a second? Second. Been moved and seconded. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Can I get a motion to approve the minutes?

I motion.

It's been moved. Do I have a second?

I second.

Moved and seconded. All in favor of the minutes, say aye.

Aye.

Motion carries. Do we have any oral communications for this meeting?

I did have someone email and request, but I don't see them online. I do know they were from Gauge Academy of Art, and they wanted to thank you all for the grant support. But, unfortunately, I do not see them.

Has the doors open?

Yeah. Are there any other Any other public comment? Alright.

Alright. Then we will move to action items and discussion items, and the first is Grand Connection Crossing art plan update.

Yeah. Approach. Can everyone hear me? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Hello. My name is Scott McDonald. I work with these fine people. I am the city's public art specialist, and I have that doesn't accurately describe my full scope of work, here at the city.

I work on predominantly large public art projects for the city, and then I also work on a lot of the city's cultural planning work. And so the the item we're gonna talk to you today about is kind of at that nexus of those two things, both public art and then cultural planning, art planning for the city and specifically the Grand Connection Crossing. So today, we're gonna we're joined by artist Matthew Mazzotta. He is the selected selected artist, that will be developing the art plan. He was selected by a panel, including Lydia, and others six months ago, I'm guessing.

And he's been a great advocate, and we'll get into some of the work that he's done to date. And he'll actually walk you through some of the things he's thinking about after going through the, community engagement phase. Excellent. Actually, next slide. Just started talking about that. So, just as background, so the the Grand Connection more broadly this this project is focused on a segment of the Grand Connection. The Grand Connection more broadly is a pedestrian bike path that goes from Maidenbauer Beach Park to East Trail over I 5 through downtown.

Or

yeah. Through over 405. Sorry. Can you go well, yeah. We'll we'll use the map, but in a second.

In 2017, we worked with an artist collective called Sutton Brass Color who did an art plan, a very high level art plan for the entire, Grand Connection. And then the really, the missing link all along of the Grand Connection has been the the crossing. It it will be the biggest investment by the city on the Grand Connection, and so that kind of brings us to where we are. We're we're looking to build the Grand Connection crossing within the next decade and, ideally, before 2030. And the Matthew will be, focused really on that grand connection, although there is some porosity, to specifically, like, his site.

So he could be while the crossing starts from City Hall Plaza and goes to the East Trail, he did the he could be thinking about the approaches to those areas, adjacent areas as well as in his art plan or potentially with the proposal he does. Next slide. So you could see up on the screen or on your iPads or surfaces. Mhmm. That's the general route of the Grand Connection, and the the kind of blurred gold area in Grand Connection Gold is our general art opportunity area.

Next slide. So his scope is really broken down into four elements. So we have the art plan. So he'll develop an overall theme for artworks on the crossing. He'll develop the public art opportunities for the crossing.

So that could be the permanent works, the temporary works. And what I mean by that is he'll identify locations, a general project type. Like, if something is underneath the the crossing, is this a light project? Is this plan to be a hanging project from the the structure? Because that has implications for design engineering.

And so this project is really trying to get ahead of those things as as we're working concurrently on the design of the crossing with the the architectural and engineering team. And then, also, he's been tasked with coming up with ideas for cultural programming on the on the crossing. So how do we make this a place for people? It's not just a place a piece of infrastructure to connect, but how to how is this genuinely a a community place that's celebrated and used in a lot of different ways? The second batch of his scope is a we asked him to create a preliminary artwork concept, for a large scale work.

This will come in. He's been asked to create, one concept, but potentially at two different scales and budgets. So we can kind of look at, okay. This is what we can get for this amount of money, and this is what we could get for an increased amount of money, and really kind of decide what best fits the project and also what we can afford as a city. The third item is, design coordination.

So this is this kind of goes beyond both the art plan, and the preliminary artwork concept. And it's specifically making sure that the things that are identified in the art plan are enacted within the, excuse me, within the design as the design continues to unfold because that has a much longer timeline than the art plan development or the the preliminary artwork concept. And then we do have an optional task. So if the city and the arts commission would like to move forward or recommend moving forward with his preliminary artwork concept, then we would go into further development of that art art concept and get closer to budgeting, really tight budgeting, not just general budgeting, really start to narrow down materials if there's form modifications, and then that would come back to the Earth's commission for their recommendation to approve in the future. So next slide.

But that would be a a contract amendment that we would do to his existing contract. So the the just to give you a brief overview, this is not, exhaustive of all of the the outreach or research that Matthew has conducted. But, we had Matthew to to Bellevue. He lives in Upstate New York in a rural part of New York, so very different than Bellevue. And so we had him out September 19 through the twenty fourth.

Very, very packed meeting and tour schedule. He met with over a 100 community members in that time throughout different forums, different meetings. He toured the Grand Connection with the office of Grand Connection. He took a bike ride on East Trail out to Google. We walked around multiple parks, looked at the Botanical garden.

We rode the sound transit line to look at some of the pedestrian bridges that go over five twenty, which I think is an interest kinda gives you a sense of scale when you're when you're thinking about the width of the Grand Connection, when you're thinking about the length of the Grand what does that really mean in physical terms? So we wanted to really try to center him in those in that kind of understanding. And then he just also wandered, went to a lot of different parks and public spaces throughout downtown and and in other areas as well. Ongoing, we are meeting with him and the design team weekly where we're walking through the design. And as they work, it's really been a collaborative process.

But as they refine their design, it's been a great conversation with Matthew to kind of guide in a different direction and get everybody on the same page as to what we're really trying to accomplish. Yes.

The design team, LMN, the architects? Yes. Okay.

Yeah. They've been great partners. And so today, the the artist's first major deliverable on their contract was a community engagement report. So this is a summary of kind of everything they heard and everything they learned during the community engagement phase of their contract. And through that, he started to kinda tease out some themes that he's heard during that work.

And so he'll talk specifically about those themes and what it can mean. And then, of course, like, we we imagine this to be a discussion. So please, you know, raise your hand if you have a question, and we'll do our best to to pause Matthew in his presentation. And then, at the very end, we'll go through I'll it'll come back to me, and we'll go through the next steps, following this. So, Matthew, take it away.

Hello, everyone. Can you hear me well?

You're a little quiet. So Overcoming. Yeah.

Is it is it too quiet?

No. That's good.

Okay. Well, thanks for having me. Yes, Scott. Thanks for setting all this up. Yeah. My name is Matthew Mazzata. I work both internationally and nationally. I'm a public artist, so producing public artworks. I've done them airports and parks all over in different contexts, but always community specific. I'm always figuring out what does this location need.

So here, I just wanna bring us into where we are right now, which is that some, you know, information has been brought forward through these different means that Scott outlined, and now we're trying to figure out what is our plan this this art plan gonna have for a theme. And so that's basically, a whole bunch of artworks are gonna come into the Grand Connection from different artists. So what is one of the themes that we might all be able to, work under, with all their various practices that would be able to make it so it's cohesive when we walk across the Grand Connection? Could we go to the next slide? Again, as what Scott said, I wanna make this a little bit of a discussion.

So I'm always open to hearing how this is being shaped as we move forward because, ultimately, we will all agree upon something and say, hey. This is a really good idea. Let's move forward. But, again, this is the plan, for what other artists would come into and design for, with their own practices. So, anyways, I'll just read a little bit of this. If you guys can't hear me, please let me know. Otherwise, I'll go on. There's a it's it's basically about, I think it's, like, 10 slides, and they're all reading. So, we'll do our best. But, three possible themes is what I'm gonna put forward, and these for this is for the art plan and the artworks.

From the community engagement, three themes emerged that hold many of the sentiments, dreams, and ideas, people in Bell Bellevue had for the future artworks and the experience of the crossing of the Grand Connection. So right now, I'm gonna there's a little one there. So we're gonna talk about this. This first concept is called repair. And so you see the one there, we will eventually get to one that will say two and then one that will say three.

So we're gonna go to three different concepts, so if that helps us out. But the first one is repair. So this is a larger thematic concept that could hold, you know, a guiding principle where other artists could design for, but repair as a concept. The title itself, the crossing, implies that this new connective infrastructure project is reconnecting something that has been separated. In this case, it's the highway that bisects the east and west sides of this city.

This physical separation makes it challenging not only for humans to cross on foot, but also cuts off access for other species that used to traverse this area. Just before we go into it, the main thing is repair in this one. I'm gonna break it down, I think, three times with different ways we could think about repair. So we can go to the next slide. And this is repairing natural systems.

Decades ago, decisions were made about preserving the streams and natural systems in Bellevue. For example, the storm water that leads to the creek is cleaned in the process and is an example of the invisible systems that we live with every day. Future artworks on the crossings might not physically repair natural systems, the natural systems we live with. However, they could foster an understanding of how these natural systems integrate with our infrastructure as a way of understanding what is under our feet, above our heads, and how it's all connected. So this is illuminating more of the natural systems.

We can go to the next slide. That was repairing natural systems. Now talk about repairing the social. Bellevue can be described in utopic terms by pointing out its global tech output, international residents, and the official mon unofficial moniker of safe and clean. Its reputation and aesthetic include symbols of luxury, status, opulence, and a high quality of life.

However, not all communities of Bellevue experience the same opportunities or qualities of life. This art plan could expand the theme of repair to address cultural injustice, socioeconomic inequality, and the negative impacts of technologies being developed in the innovation triangle by telling a story about who we are and and and where we want to go. This could help residents feel that downtown is theirs by reframing past and and current cultural perspectives and heal the divide however we wanted to define it. So this is really talking about the social element. So it's about repairing the social if that was of interest.

You can go to the next slide. I think this is the last one about repair, repairing. So this is an interesting concept, repairing the future. Often, think of of repair. It's about restoring something back to its original state. What happens when we extend this concept of repair into the future? What will need to be repaired in the future that we cannot easily predict? Ideas around sustainability, global impact, and climate are predictable areas of repair as seen in Bellevue's commitment to be carbon neutral by 2050. However, what will repair mean for Bellevue's future? Twenty, fifty, a hundred, a thousand years from now.

So I think this is where artists could actually start to predict ideas about where we're going. Okay. We're gonna go to concept number two. So that was repair. This one is a refuge. So we think about the crossing as a refuge. When we think about a refuge, it can bring out ideas of safety, calmness, health, wellness, and connection to the natural world. In a city known for its rapid growth and change in both its built environment and the residents who inhabit it, conceptualizing the crossing as a refuge could be an act of resistance. So we really think about this as a place you can go to that might have a different tone. So we could talk about and here, I'm gonna break it down a couple times.

Think about this concept of refuge, so aesthetic refuge. When we imagine a refuge, it can include protection from the elements, noise, a place of calming colors, intriguing, and pleasant shapes and textures, or could draw upon the practices and customs of the indigenous peoples, the indigenous peoples had for the land. Okay? Social refuge. So that was was it, like, how it looks and how it feels? And here's social. We know Bellevue as safe and clean. However, what does it mean to be safe? Can we see the crossing as safe? Currently, it's being designed for safe transportation on foot or wheels, but is it safe for social life?

Will The Crossing be a place where people can feel a sense of community and that they are represented in the way in the ways they would like? Is this a place that can connect, that they can connect to and have a sense of ownership, a place to show off to friends, family, and the world through their images? Is it welcoming and respectful to all, including those who have lived here for generations, for new residents and visitors, and even those that will only see Bellevue online? So it's talking about who feels welcome there and what kind of activities will go on. Social refuge.

We can go to the next one. The natural. So thinking about nature again. One of the signatures of Bellevue is its integration of the natural world with the built environment. The city's moniker, a city in a park, becomes clear as you drive through the city and the surrounding areas while being surrounded by greenery and trees. It's like sliding through a dense, through a forest. I think it got cut off. Sliding through a forest, but ending up in these dense urban pockets. As pleasant as Bellevue can look through the year, there are times when the natural world becomes challenging, such as the more recent and significant climate events like heat waves, storms, and smoke. Tackling these trends through art could make the crossing a location display climate resilient.

So it really might be a place where people could learn at the same time about the natural world and the larger, ecosystem. So this that's that's, refuge. Now we're gonna move into the last theme. So the first one we had was repair, which is all the little subcategories, refuge, and the last one is technology and the natural world as a concept. Two of Bellevue's prime identities, technology and the natural world, are in full display in its local landscape and global output.

These two distinct categories can be seen to have nothing to do with each other, be imposing forces, or in the case of Bellevue, together in harmony. Someone in Bellevue could be developing a new technology for someone on the other side of the planet while looking at, Mount Rainier on their lunch break. Art is an opportunity to emphasize the importance of our interconnected natural world in the face of all this growth. We can go to the next one. This is this next one is actually, like, a little subcategory that I got interested in.

I think it could it could be a theme as well. All of these, of course, and I'd love some feedback on these. But this is quite specific, but I just thought it was interesting talking about technology in the natural world. It focused on biomimicry, the study of nature's designs, processes, and systems to find sustainable solutions for human problems. This is one area of, of design that ties technology and the natural world tightly together.

And and some people might might know biomimicry, but and they might not, but it's just looking at the natural systems or how other organisms live, and bringing those in to solve the problems that we have as humans. It could be for infrastructure or, you know, how we build and all that. Thinking of the crossing as a crossing of technology and nature, this art plan could lay out the guiding principles for future artworks to carry some of the acts aspects of biomimicry, such as exploring experimental designs, exposing the beauty of the natural world, increase visibility or solve contemporary issues, or play with, with scale on this large piece of infrastructure. These artworks could be an opportunity to seamlessly integrate the growth of technology in our lives with the natural systems we are interconnected with. So, anyways, I just wanna put it all this back together, which is, like, we're trying to make a plan and artworks that have a cohesive, they're all cohesively joined even though they are made by different artists at different time, but it will all be on the crossing.

So these are three themes that are somewhat up to so that you could read into them, but they also are an umbrella to work under. And one was repair, one was refuge, and one was technology in the natural world. And, Scott, I'll just hand it back to you, but, ultimately, it'd be great to hear from some people if if in the room if you wanna frame it up like that.

Yeah. So, just to lay out the next steps because I think that's helpful for the discussion. So the first thing we're doing, this is what we're working on right now. We wanna establish a theme for for all the artworks. So this is just that that 10,000 foot view.

What is the collective experience of the art, or what is the general story that it's trying to tell? From there, if you step down, a few thousand feet, we get to, get the guiding principles. So these think of these as really, like, what are the values that the art for art inspiration. So that could be sustainability, cultural conversation, Bellevue welcomes the world. We could really, like, pull in all different kinds of things.

And I think those each of the the themes that he's exploring really have a lot of breadth. Any and potentially, those subgroups could honestly fit into the guiding principles nicely. From there, we'll identify the permanent temporary public and temporary public art projects. So permanent, we're talking anything over ten years. Temporary is up to ten years.

Temporary could be murals. It could be things like vinyl wraps. It could be the actually, like, temporary art programs that are recommended. Permanent, this is really part of the bridge. And we generally say, like, most permanent work has a twenty five year lifespan.

I think when we're thinking about this bridge, we need to be thinking about more like a fifty year lifespan, not just in how the art is made, but also how it will resonate in the future. Because, like, this this this project is beyond the scale we normally work at with most of our projects, certainly. And then the the fourth bucket that will be included into the art in the art plan is the cultural programming. So what are what are ideas about, again, how do we make this a place? From there, we're gonna bring back the draft to the arts commission for you all to look at.

And then following that, we will finalize the art plan, and that'll be likely in, connection with between staff and the design team and other folks as well. So that's kind of what the future looks like in terms of this project. So happy to open up for comments, questions for Matthew or I. Feelings. We like feelings.

And one question. So all these different possible possibilities of themes, have we looked at the feasibility of each of these themes? What would be the steps that would go into any of these themes that and what is the feasibility of that actually taking place? Like, is it feasible time wise or cost wise? Like, do you have do we have some sort of a breakdown of the themes yet, or this is very initial?

So I think the theme is used in different ways. So the the theme is helpful to design Conceptual. It it's a it's a conceptual framework, essentially. We're the we're we're not working to turn the bridge into a a natural a nature crossing. You know?

But we might wanna conceptually think about how artists can represent that feeling or talk about that experience or or what it means to repair natural systems through their artwork. So I think this art plan is really kind of focused on those art opportunities and how it can be reflected in the design. But I I think you're you the feasibility of the design is kind of the design is the design. It needs to work from an engineering standpoint, and then how best can we integrate the theme within the the experience of it. And our focus is largely on how artists do that.

And so the theme is really helpful for artists because it it frames their work. So as they're coming up with a proposal, they're not creating a like, if we're wanting to talk about repairing natural systems, for example, if that were our theme, they're not gonna develop a giant Tonka truck as their art proposal because that really has nothing to do with the theme. So we we want this to kind of centralize the work, the future work that goes into the projects. Does that answer your question?

Kind of. So you have, I guess, engineers working with this sort of a design team. You'll have people in place who

Oh, yeah.

Look at the feasibility of if an artist proposes something which

That would be further down the line.

So we Matthew is working with the the bridge engineers and architects working on the project right now. Future artists and and that's to try to get as much infrastructure. Like, the nuts and bolts, like, if if we need attachments with if we if we need attachments within the within the structure of the bridge, it's best to do that now Yeah. Even when we don't know what the art is gonna be. So that's a lot of what Matthew is doing is is focused on that.

And then when we're when we're working with artists, then it's all about bringing in engineers and making sure that their specific proposal fits within the design constraints of the bridge and the and the engineering constraints of the bridge.

So Got it.

Okay. It's it's way more complicated to work on a bridge than to work in a in, like, a flat park. Yeah. So

So when when the when, Matthew, you were talking about last theme related to the technology and natural world, I mean, something that's going to to be, like, challenging in a way because yeah. Can you describe a little bit more this concept of the biomimicry? Did I pronounce it well? Mhmm. Yeah. Can can

Matthew, you wanna talk to biomimicry?

Yeah. Sure. And just to give a a sense, because I know not everybody's an artist in the room, so this is probably gonna give a little bit of flavor to this. As an artist, there's always opportunities. So, you know, any city I work with, they've developed an opportunity. They've developed the site. And that basically helps the artist come in and go, okay. I I see some guiding parameters, yet I know as the artist, I'm always gonna bring my own voice. I'm gonna reinterpret it however. So that's why this this is a guiding theme regardless of what we choose, repair, refuge, or or the technology in the natural world.

But it gives some a little bit of framework for the artist to be able to get some guidepost to understand that their work will relate to other works, but it's completely open. So biomimicry is, is, it's a theory that already exists in the world where scientists and researchers and and engineers use and well, they study natural systems. You know, maybe how a shell, you know, for for a muscle or something in in the ocean, how it calcifies the inside of its shell. They said, okay. That's interesting.

Well, how do we play that into system? Our plumbing system calcifies. You know? Can we use this type of whatever this organism is doing, can we take that into our built environment? So that's biomimicry.

It's basically taking one organism's way of living. And if we see it as advantageous to how a problem that we need to solve, they'll take that solution that's been, you know, whatever, millions of years old and try to figure out a way to bring that into our lives. So biomimicry is that umbrella. I brought it in within this context of could an artist think about making art under that idea, which is because the the natural world is plays such a large part in Bellevue that they might be able to see something interesting about the natural environment and this brand new infrastructure project, the big crossing. So that's how I was seeing it. Does that answer some of the question?

Yes. So it will be interesting if all these engineering and architects will learn more about it. Mhmm. So it will be more as artistry, if you can say that. I mean, to relate not just related to the art that we're gonna put there, but to be embedded in in everything that they do. Because Right. The I mean, what does all of the concepts are really interesting, but this one also applies to what the city is also well known. But thank you. Yes.

That's great.

Sort of two questions. One, a clarification. What we're talking about now is a theme for the crossing Yeah. Of 04/2005, not the theme for the entire grand connection from end to end. That's correct. And is there is there going to be work related to a theme for the entirety?

I'm not aware of a a a plan to go back and and kind of relook at that.

Okay.

Anyone any other staff? I'm not aware of that.

Know what I'm saying? In terms of Yeah. Signage, wayfinding, etcetera etcetera There's thematically linked so that, someone starting at the beginning knows how to get to the other end from an or aesthetic standpoint and way not just simple go this way or the red bricks of the of the Freedom Trail in Boston. I understand your point. Thematically related to this. Yeah.

Absolutely. That's happening. So yeah. There's a the way finding initiative, the office of Grand Connection is working on all those things.

Gotcha. But it's Yeah. It's it's not related to Matthew's work.

I think it's integrated with Matt with Matthew's work. I think they respond to each other. Gotcha. Yep.

And then, then for Matthew, I appreciate your your work on this so far. I appreciate you having come out here. And so my question is, which one do you like?

I knew someone's gonna do that to me. Do you mind I I I have there's value in all of those for me. And so we're gonna make a next step soon. As I said, artists are gonna interpret you know, they're gonna bring their practice into this. So we're really gonna have them showcase their work and their ideas. We're just trying to give some guideposts. So I think each one of those is exciting for this location. Repair, thinking about, you know, how do we think about, you know, this city, the natural systems, the social life, all these kinds of things. How do we wanna see ourselves moving forward? The refuge, maybe it's a destination that has some value where you go there and you feel like, yeah, this is where we wanna hang out.

Yeah, the technology. We're talking about biomimicry. I'm not I'm not summing them up real quick, in any significant ways, but each one of them, I think that artists could just come in and just say, yeah. I think my work's gonna fit really well here, and, it will also tie into the other one. So I designed each one of those themes for artists to be able to walk into that and be able to produce work out of it. And I don't think we're limiting anybody, but, what we're hoping is that it does stay cohesive, if that makes sense. So I'm I'm up for all those, I think. Even as an artist, I like working under all those themes myself.

I recently had the opportunity to be in New York City and, walk along the high line. And I was just I was just amazed at what it's like to walk along the streets of New York and the the the people and the noise and the chaos and then travel 25 feet vertically and be in a different world. Right? And travel from point a to point b along the street is one experience, and along the high line is a separate experience. And and the and the the the natural naturalness of the plantings and the the the the wood walkways and the areas in which there are, in the summer, buskers, music, opportunities for poetry readings, little enclaves and outcoves.

What connects to me just initially, not, you know, not being in this for twenty minutes, is is that sense of being in a natural environment that's outside of the hundreds of thousands of cars that are traveling underneath you and the concrete and glass that's around you, but that you're in a a natural refuge in some way. So that's my two cents.

That's great. Thank you.

Mhmm. Thank you.

I I have a couple things I'm thinking about wanting to see. I think a really successful concept can influence the architecture, can influence the engineering, and so you can take an art budget and take it a lot further. I've seen that really successfully happen. And so that's what I'm looking for Matthew, is you to sort of influence the design team and their ideas and strengthen their ideas so they aren't just functional. They become much bigger than that, you know, for a budget, much bigger than an art budget can be.

It can influence form. It can influence light. Some of the things I'm not not seeing yet that I'm really, sorry, interested in sorry, is you know, one of the things I find interesting with Bellevue is it is its history, which I haven't really seen as part of your discussion yet and the evolution that this place has gone through from a real agrarian and yet interesting agrarian with its Japanese community that were the dominant farmers here, you know, through all these different immigrant groups that have come and created really a rich cultural mosaic. And I and that continues to happen here. It continues to change and transform things, and we're very aware of that with the cultural grants we give and the applications we get, and how diverse our community is.

So I would really like the concepts to embed that into it. And and I mean, I think repair, if you think about repair almost like a weaving and embroidering, potentially could contain that. But I'd really I'd really like to see your ideas enriched, so that they don't just talk about technology, but they talk about the continuum. You know, before we were technology, I find technology can sometimes be a trap because what was super hip and trendy twenty years ago doesn't even work a lot of the time anymore for artwork or it's very common and it's in every radio shack. So I sort of want to see ideas that that take a moment in time, but also that's a bead on a necklace or something.

It's it's much more than that. And again, sort of give that leaping off point you're talking about into the future. You know? And I think the refuge idea is interesting in terms of place making, which I think was addressed by some of my other, you know, member commissioners here that, you know, part of what I think Bellevue really needs is more places at a scale that's not a car scale. And, you know, how do we how do we make that happen, and how do we make this diverse community feel comfortable, you know, without cars separating us or glass walls separating us?

So I would love to see the artwork engage engage our diverse community, engage our differences, and pull us together in a way.

That's great. Yep. Actually, you know, under repair was repairing the social. And and Matt was talking about how do we represent, you know, past events or past, presentations of our history. Mhmm. Also, Deborah, yeah, because, you know, even being there a short while, what's at the what's at the, what's at the station, just across the highway, from downtown? There's a new work that talks about the Japanese

Internment. Yeah.

Yeah. And then I actually found a number of artworks that actually are talking about that, and someone even I think, Laurie, I know you're here in the room. You even spoke about the, was it you that spoke about the, the the stump that's right at city hall, that that was one of the first things that people had to deal with when they started were granted that land. And so you actually see some of the history even though it's not explicit sometimes being spoken about. So that repairing the social, I thought, would fit in there.

Yeah. That's and we I think we have a new piece that's also sort of a root piece that really references the Native American community and sort of bringing you know, connecting them, like sort of ideas of how trees connect, but also how indigenous communities connect. So yeah. Yeah.

I just thanks for your presentation. I think the themes are really exciting, at least for me. I was really jazzed as you went through each one. I think in addition to the place making piece of having refuge as a central theme is, like, the idea of, like, third spaces. My husband and I always complain about how there's not a lot of places, not just in Bellevue, but in The US in general, where you can just congregate and, like, without having the need to buy something or consume something in order to sit somewhere and just relax outside of the home.

So I think that infrastructure like this and having a place that's aesthetically pleasing, that's welcoming, and allowing people to feel like it's okay for them to sit for however many hours as they want without, you know, any, like, social pressure or any any economic pressure, I think that's really great. And then, yeah, speaking to, I think, the point that was made by our chair was, yeah, I think it's the repairing the social, I think, is a really integral part of the piece, which is also something I I'm excited to see how can we integrate all of these different cultures and their histories and their impact on the region and make it in a way that's a cohesive story. And would like to see something that's more, amorphous, I guess, versus, like, a segmented piece of, like, from this year to this year, this was inhabited by the indigenous people. And then pioneers came and took the land. And then the Japanese came and made it harvestable.

And then they got shipped away. So I guess something that is a little bit more critical in that way and a more creative way of presenting that that really strong history and what makes, like, Bellevue Bellevue, and then also looking into the future as we go into the age of AI and everything. Like, how how does that look? But, yeah, I agree. I mean, I don't wanna get fixated on technology just because it it's always changing, and we don't know where I'll go. But I think it's great to have, like, some kind of idea of, like, where could we be in the next fifty, seventy, hundred years.

That's great. You know, I just I just wanna say thank you. I mean, all of you have, you know, grabbed on to these concepts and already started showing the where they could go to or that they have interest. And that's basically what this thing's supposed to do is have other artists be able to go, hey. These are cool themes, and I would like to work under them. So that's ultimately what we're trying to propose is a plan that basically allows the whole connection to be readable as a theme, but all these artists to do it in their own languages and take on whatever themes they want.

Great. Well, if there are no other comments or questions, we will end it there. Thank you for your time.

Thank you for the presentation. Excellent.

Thank you, everyone.

Okay. So the next item on the agenda is the 2026 work plan.

All right. Thank you all so much. This will be a fairly brief item tonight. We're going to give just a high level overview of things that are expected in this year, although by no means comprehensive. We are a dynamic group. Things come up, and we respond as they do. Broke down the work plan this year a little bit differently into the broad categories of our committees. So each of our committees shall have some pretty robust things that they're working on this year, hoping to utilize that committee structure a little bit more. And then there's the three committees and then our committee of the whole. So starting off with our grants and allocations committee, we got our two projects.

Our Eastside Arts Partnership and Project Grants are in process right now. Those grants are ongoing. We have our oversight duties as a commission to make sure that our grants are being executed in the way that were pitched to us. We go check them out. We do our ongoing oversight. But exciting work coming up in this year is that we will be launching all three of our grant programs. So we have our project grants, our Eastside Art Partnership, and this year's also a capital facilities grant year. So all three of our programs will be in play this year. Staff has been working diligently kudos to Minette on getting software up and running, so we should be able to be slightly more streamlined in those granting programs this year. We're very excited for that.

And the timelines of the grants for EAP and project will be what you're used to seeing. We'll open them in late summer, review in the fall, come to council end of the year, early next year. Capital facilities will be ahead of those. So capital facilities will likely open around or I'm sorry, April, with closing in June. We'll have some more time to process. Those take longer. We'd like to build in interviews, have a more robust review process, listening to the feedback we heard from this body last time around. And then those would go to council in October. So very exciting.

Question, Lori, do you have any idea what the budget is for capital grants? Because

Yeah, absolutely. That should be a fairly stable budget moving forward. It's in our base budget. So we're looking around that same 1,800,000.0 to 2,000,000 Every two years, that should be a pretty safe, reliable number as we move forward. Turning our gaze now over to our public art committee, we'll see a lot of informational presentations, like you saw today.

I do want to flag that even though work might be in the committee, sometimes you see it as committee of the whole. So today's presentation is kind of our public art committee's purview, but we just come to committee of the whole for the presentation. We'll see updates on Grand Connection, creative crosswalks. If any gifts of artwork come to the city, those, of course, come here and to the committee for review and approval. We'll also see box wraps.

We hope to see Jill Ann Holt's rooted artwork in the ground this year. We are working closely with our partners in transportation to make sure that that one is timed out correctly. It will go when transportation goes. So we work with our peers there, but the artwork is ready to go. And as Scott alluded to earlier, that we will be launching out our emerging artist programs.

I think you talked about that. Maybe you talked about it with

me, not the commission. Thank you.

So we'll see some information around our emerging artist programs, similar to what we saw in Crossroads with our river artwork, rock work. Our community partnerships committee will be working on our letter to the Bellevue School District if that is something we still want to move forward with. That will be majority work in the committee since we got drafting and stuff like that. We probably don't wanna do in full session. And then the letter would come to the committee or to the committee of the whole for approval. So as we talk with our partners, that one will also have some coordination with our council our clerk's office, excuse me, because we would need approval for anything that gets sent officially from this commission.

And that letter is regarding urging them to open up their performance spaces for rentals again, because they have since closed that after staff cuts and whatnot. But Yeah. Thank you. Space, we all hear. We all know. It's very hard to come by. So making that available would be nice for the community.

That's a good reminder. That is a follow-up item from discussion this group had following many of our partner presentations. And then our Committee of the Whole will continue to have partner presentations. Those were really informative this last year. I think it was nice for us to hear directly from our grantees what they are doing, get a real hands on conversation with our committee.

I I deeply appreciated and valued all of the conversation you all had as we move forward. We will also be looking towards later in the year, starting that formal cultural planning launch. That might be end of this year, beginning of next, but there will be ramp up work ahead of that as we we eye towards that cultural planning. And I think the continued conversations from our partners and our art providers in the community help inform that work as it comes. Alright.

That's what we got coming up this year. Continuing the change that we saw in our cultural in our presentations. I think we're gonna talk about it in our project updates too, but you may have noticed that the memos were different than the packet this month. Mhmm. We're we're also working with our peers and friends in the clerk's office to make sure that we are standardizing across commissions. So y'all are a little bit ahead of the curve, a bit of a guinea pig. Pretty nice. Yes. But they are very slick. They look now like a council memo.

Mhmm. So that's a

little familiar for our council liaison. So you see that process improvement as well. So we are working in the background on some, like, streamlining process improvements. Thank you all.

Can I say a quick question? We, proved 30 plus grants, and they include things like Cinco de Mayo celebration, opening of a events. Do we have a master calendar of all of those things that are going on so we don't have to wait for someone to invite us to it? We can know what's coming.

No. We do not. But we do share so BellRad has a great events calendar. Mhmm. And so we share that out. We share all your emails. So, yes, you will get invites. That is something that, yeah, we could definitely improve on. I don't always get notified that people are having events, and then I receive a report. We had our event, and it's like, okay. So, yeah, I I can do a better job on trying to compile. Maybe it it goes in your meeting packets. You know, these are some upcoming events we know about. Mhmm. Like, that's

I I'd be glad to create one with from the approved list, the ones we know, Cinco de Mayo at this place.

Yeah.

And then share we could share it.

Let's Just

kinda Let's kinda

it as people learn things.

What we can come up with. Yeah. I thought, yeah, that is definitely good. For a little bit, I did that, and then it became way too much work.

Yeah.

So

And I'm also wondering if would we wanna make that a requirement of a grant that there's notification of events with, you know, x amount of time before the event? So it helps us create a calendar and, again, support community awareness. It's Definitely. I think

with our new software that we're using, I think we'll have a lot more control over different aspects of the project as it goes through, and that could definitely be something we implement Yeah. In the '27 and beyond.

I like that.

And this year, we can kind of Ad hoc it. Ad hoc Yeah. A schedule.

Any more questions? I think we moved to commission quick business in the next oh, I'm sorry.

So I do like the idea that Bellwood calendar because that goes a lot, and I think Sandy does a good job of cross pollinating a lot of different things too. So that could be a good source rather than having Monad do some extra work. We tell our grantees that that's a place to please inform them too because we have the system already in place with the big mailing list.

Okay. It's good. Sorry. Yes.

Oh, Sorry. So I would like just to propose to include in some of our future meetings this activity that we had during our last meeting that we had, like, this twenty minutes to talk about feedback that we have received from the community, different ideas that we have in development. So I really like the activity. So it will really, really good if we can Yeah. I think we're planning. Included. Not every meeting, but once or while.

Maybe twice a year.

Something.

Something like yeah. We're definitely schedule or quarterly even. Yeah. If you all found that discussion time helpful, definitely can put that in the calendar more often or less than people we see.

Yeah.

Trial out a quarterly. Mhmm.

Cool. Thank you.

Any other comments? Okay. I'm going to move forward to commission quick business, and it looks like the next item is next meeting date. And we are typically on the first Wednesday of the month.

Yes. We don't have anything for February, but we do have some stuff for March. If y'all wanna take a look at your calendars and see, it would be March 4.

I am not going to

be here on that date. I know.

But, like Do

want to raise your hand?

If it works, yeah, raise or okay. Joy, do does March 4 work for you? Okay.

K. Looks like we got a quorum. I

And then if you can do virtual, we'll also Not sure.

I'm gonna be out of the country. Okay.

Yeah.

We'll plan on March 4. Always let me know ahead of time if that ends up not working. I'm sure we can find another time because I know that's a little bit in advance. I also just a little quick item. You might notice we have one less commissioner tonight. Commissioner Chen left Bellevue. They are still nearby, but you have to be a resident of Bellevue to serve on this commission. So we have app applications. They're open until the January 19. If you know of anybody who would like to send out that and can't find it online, you can probably Google it.

But if you can't, let me know. I'm happy to send over the link, and we'll have a new member hopefully by the next meeting, but who knows?

Yeah. That's too bad. Yeah.

Order. Right?

So we are actually digging that through with our legal counsel right now. There's nothing in our current bylaws or in our code that would prohibit an 18 member from serving. Although our attorney's office is going take a look if there's anything else that prohibits, because I think our general logic is that someone has to be 18, but we're seeing where we're getting that from. So we're checking ourselves. It has also question has introduced a really good debate around who do we want on our board in terms of our work is often very long lived, right?

Culture is a long game. Artworks, we talk in twenty five, fifty years, and who is most impacted by the work we do. So there is some staff level conversation around how we may bring to you all for consideration youth members, if we are looking at some bylaw updates this year already for some housekeeping items. So to come, we don't have a solid great answer for you, though, yet.

I have some students who

are interested. They reach out for me

to help Yeah. A commission appointment is four years. I'm not quite sure how that would work with a

I know on other other boards commissions, not necessarily Bellevue, but they have, like, one year appointments. Uh-huh. Sometimes they are also nonvoting Mhmm. For you specifically. So I think that's something that lawyer and I Laurie and I are very interested in. So we're talking with our legal. We do need to make some updates to the bylaws anyway, so this could be a good time to introduce that and have the shorter appointments because, yeah, youth might move away

from college.

They might have more.

You know, if you're 16, by 18, you're probably going to college or something.

Exactly. Yeah. So maybe it's a yearly appointment. Is it one, two seats?

They stay in Bellevue.

Yeah. Have to go to Bellevue College.

In their future.

Talked me

on LinkedIn when we posted the post, and I thought it was really exciting when our youth wanna be the, you know, the shape, the future of our art in Bellevue because they are the next generation leaders. Right? So I think I I I was really happy. Somebody is interested. But I'll connect you with them, then you can follow-up.

Yeah. That'd be great.

Thank

you. One of the things that, like I say, it really sparked quite a bit of robust conversation. Both Monette and I have been the beneficial recipients of being youth members places, so we have that lived experience too. Yeah.

We have a youth program here, so it could just be a channel to allow people that sit through there and then come to here and actually serve on a council. And I'm sure that's good for their resume and experience too.

Yeah. Yeah.

That's it for quick business. Have a quick question.

Yeah.

So, you know, we had some recent appointees to our commission. Do you not have, like, applicants from that previous pool of applicants? You could

It's new. You open it up. It's we don't

have to do it.

We don't pull from past applications. Yeah. I mean, people are welcome to apply.

They reappear.

Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But it's not like we keep those and only pull from past.

In the past, it was John Stokes who interviewed new board members. So will it be our new council represent? Great. Great. Well, it's great to have you here.

Thank you. I'm sorry. I apologize. I missed a few meetings.

I did too. Alright. So do we have any project updates?

We do. So a couple updates for you this evening. We talked a bit about our grant program and the funding of all three of them this year. Also, in this just these last couple of weeks, our vice chair, Inamoto, joined us at council. And we had 30 or 31 recommended our grant our project grants approved by council on January 6. It was a lovely presentation. Thank you so

much for having us.

And moving forward with those now, awardees have been notified. Folks who have been rejected have been notified. They've also been offered the opportunity for feedback and their scores. So working with those folks right now. Belgrade Arts District.

Tonight at the Planning Commission, following this meeting, the Planning Commission starts at 06:30. They will hear a update on the Belgrade Look Forward land use code amendment Luca, a land use code amendment process. This will be one of their first updates around the if we think about the changes in our BellRed sub area and our Art District, there's the policy that happens in the Look Forward document, and then there's the code that follows afterwards. So this is that work on the code element. The Arts District was some of the big policy changes that we saw.

So we're looking forward to hearing some of those code changes that might follow to implement those policy changes. Commissioners are welcome to stay. You can watch in the audience and be an audience member for a commission meeting if you'd like. And that, like I say, is tonight at 06:30. The your update memo also has a link to that code if you wanna see it.

Oh, where do I I just deleted the slide. The sorry.

Just a moment. I clicked the close button. There we go. You've also heard previous updates around our economic development plan. That plan is still scheduled to go to council for final approval in 2026. So we're looking forward to that, to know more updates in terms of anything in there. That's just in its run up for council now. An update around our emerging artist public art project. Steph plans to launch two emerging artist public art projects in 2026. So if we think about the project we had with Anna Malowski in Crossroads, we

felt

like we learned a lot from that. It was a really beneficial project. Looking to launch two of those, at least the artist selection phase. Probably, like, the projects themselves would be offset, but we could get the artist selection done in '26. We are looking at projects that are in the Lake Hills Community Park area and then in Lakemont.

There's some areas of our town that we have not gotten to with a lot of art, a little underserved in our art offerings. And so looking at really honing in on those, we would do pairing with those emerging artists with established artists, like we did with Anna Malowski and Jill Anholt. That was a part that both of them gave us really positive feedback on, that the mentorship was incredibly helpful as they went through the program. So looking to launch that again this year. We are also planning in mid twenty twenty six to launch an artist selection for a piece of public art in Factoria.

This has been on the works now for a couple years. We have talked about this a couple of times. You will see more robust presentation on this item later in the year, but just a heads up that that is something that we're looking at as well. We're beginning some early work on the wares and, like, what chunks of land are even possible as we go into that. So we like to have the the location identified before we do the artist call. So very excited. And the final update is in our Crossroads Public Art. We are planning a ribbon cutting ceremony. You will all be invited. We're looking at 2026, but when the weather's a little bit nicer, we can maybe hope for some sun to see this dichronic glass on full display.

So just watch your mailboxes. We'll let you know. Very excited for that ribbon cutting event.

And that's it. Thank you.

Laurie, I had a question about the latest mural that I know we did artist selection on. I'm just wondering if there's any

So both artists are under contract now. They are developing designs to be reviewed by staff in February, and then we are gonna install May, June.

Will we get a presentation on those?

It'll be in your project updates.

Okay.

We can, yeah, share the final designs. Great.

Thank you.

I have quest

Oh, you on Hello.

I have a question about the Crosswalks

Yeah.

Project that we had looked for art or we had gone through applications maybe in October.

It was a while ago. So two artists were selected, and they have submitted draft designs knowing that we still haven't selected a vendor. So there's gonna be an RF queue, I think, going out sometime this month or next month. And once we have a vendor selected, they will work directly with that vendor to refine their designs so that it's within our budget and actually possible with thermoplastic. And then I think once we have those finalized, I'm more than happy to provide those designs and the project updates. And then they're gonna be installed this year.

Will they be working together then on

They're separate. So they each have two locations. Okay. So the artists aren't collaborating. They're doing their own, which I think is an interesting opportunity to see is there they're very different type of artists. And so, yeah, they're at different locations, but is there, like, a more successful type of art? Like, is it the more, like, figurative, like, animals and flowers, or is it more abstract? Like, does that at all change our, like, results and impact those results? Because we are studying this as a part of a grant. Do pavement treatments affect the safety of car pedestrian environments?

So we'll have four, four total Now we have four. So Yay. Plus then the intersection area, although that one was not studied for safety. Yeah.

And just for those who weren't here when we did this, one of the reasons we're kind of holding in this preliminary design is that the different thermoplastic vendors have different technical abilities in terms of how many cuts can they do, what kind of angle are they, what colors do they have available that they can actually make. So the palette might change depending on what vendor is selected by our transportation partners.

Gives me a question on the Pride Mural Street crosswalk that went in around the park around

Mhmm.

The city park. It looks kind of faded. And, you know, what is going on? You know, it's I didn't feel

very successful to me right now. All thermoplastic artworks on streets degrade over time. They do not stay vibrant. We know this. I think it is a, in a in a way, a lesson learned that we sort of already knew. Bright colors don't stay bright. The more neutral and, like, dirt colors you have, they'll say those So almost

more pattern as opposed

to color? I mean, it doesn't it's the light colors just become really dim as they collect dirt. It does not stay clean. It's you know, the tire marks

Yeah. I was disappointed. Just sort of

Yeah. We tried. There were there was a incident where a tire mark was burned in, and we tried cleaning. It's there's only so much you can do.

Yeah. I will note that even with the cleaning, it's dimmed quite a bit, so it really speaks to the color fastness of the material.

Mhmm. Yeah.

Mhmm. Yeah.

I don't think there's a magic product out there that like, if you're driving over, it's gonna degrade, unfortunately. Yeah. Unless you it is very expensive, so we can't just do it every year.

But we treat what's the expected life of a crosswalk RV?

A few years. Okay. I think we we were looking for the Pride one around five years. Okay. The only way to take it out is to grind it down. So I think it would take it being oh, it's no more safe like, no longer safe because it's getting too slippery. It'd be it would be a a removal because of, you know, that reason, or it becomes vandalized so much that we can't, you know, clean it. Or it cracks and becomes a problem. That would be the only removal would instigate a removal. For the crosswalks, I will say

The new ones. For the

new ones, the actual crosswalks, if the it is in our grant stipulation. It's a federal grant. We are supposed to take them out if they are deemed not safe. Okay. So we really hope the study doesn't I think there's there's other studies that point towards them being positive around safety, so we don't perceive that happening. But for whatever reason, if they cause havoc in the streets, we're required to take them out.

Good to know. Any other questions? Okay. Then we have any written communications or other information?

We do have one. This is a thank you from thirty theater thirty three. It is in your packet. I will also pass it around. Great.

Well, if there are no more written communications or other information, it is now 05:41PM, and the Bellevue Arts Commission January meeting is adjourned. Thank you.