Arts Commission - Regular Meeting

And twenty six Arts Commission meeting to order. And first item on the agenda is approval of agenda and minutes. So do I hear a motion to approve the agenda? Move. Do I have a second? I'll second. Second. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries. Do we have a motion to approve the minutes from the March 2006 Arts Commission meeting?

I make a motion.

It's moved. Do we have a second on that approval of the minutes?

I'll second.

K. Moved and seconded. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries. Alright. Oral communications. Do we have sign ups for oral communications?

We do have two oral communications today.

Yes. Okay. Yeah. Alright. You wanna come up? Who? You are first. So Alex Zimmerman, you are first.

You're very smart. Sometimes my people work for service.

Alex I didn't read the script. Do you do you want me to read the script? Alex, can you wait just a minute? We won't start the clock. I need to read the script.

In compliance with Washington state campaign laws regarding the use of public facilities during an election, no speaker may support or oppose a ballot measure or support or oppose a candidate for election, election, which includes your own campaign. Any speaker who begins discussing topics of this nature will be asked to stop. In addition, there are new rules adopted by city council limiting the topics about which the public may speak during our meetings. Under ordinance six seven five two, the public may now only speak during public comment about subject matters that are related to City of Bellevue government and are within the power and duties of the Arts Commission. Additional information about the new rules of decorum governing conduct of the public during our meetings can be found at Ordinance 6,752.

Thank you for your patience. You may begin speaking. You have

If the bank can do that. Right? That's just very well. Okay. Thank you very much. Yeah. First, my name, Alexander. My name, I don't don't come talking to you because you look to me like a dirty Nazi fascist bastard. That's exactly who you are. I come here because I need to speak to people, to Bellevue people. First, what is I talk you thousand time for many year, why don't show faces? What is dirty tricks this? Why are doing this? Only for Alec Zimmerman? It's exactly what is you notice, and I talk about this many time.

Number one. Number two, twelve year ago, they cut us freedom of speech, make a thirty minute in ten people. Is this in camera? You know what this mean? Is did this because Alexander meant bad boy. My question to you, dirty Nazi pig. You know what this mean? What this happened when one bad boy? You know what this mean? Why 150,000 people cannot speak? Can you explain to me, you dirty Nazi buster? Nobody answer me. It's very interesting. And right now, I speak about something what is absolutely critical. No one sitting in this planet have a mayor.

We with country what is we have a war. Not in America. No in planet. It's never happened. Bellevue One, number one fascist city in America. What is have unique situation, absolutely unique situation. 120,000 slave, what is working here. And mayor, Mohammed, what is have Iranian citizenship? If it's Iran, we have a war for fifty year, but right now, it's very hard work. And he said, this.

The bill will prosecute me seven times. All cases dismissed. For the last three year, they totally blocked my right, go to council chamber and speak. And I am candidate. Mayor Robinson and Mohammed, you know what this mean? This first in my history, you know what this mean? He he use more name more. He not use her original name, Mohammed. Why? Why he shame about this name?

I'm Alex, but I'm in everywhere use word Avram because I am a Jew, and I support Israel, and I support Trump. So what's happened, guy? Why you all here acting like a dirty, Nazi, fascist bastard? Why? What is motivation? You can explain this to me. You use the rules. This new rules only for Alexander when come last year. We were Trump. We were new American revolution. Stand up, slap, and happy cow. Thank you. Yes. I keep this for you. You're very smart.

Lynette, do we have any other sign ups for oral Okay.

Bailey, if you would like to join us.

Alright. Here we go. Alright. Hello?

Hello.

Okay. My name is Bailey Fuentes. I'm an artist here in the Bellevue area. I'm on the Eastside artist roster. I am here to just talk about an update with this project that I'm doing for the city of Bellevue. It's the project grants for 2025. I actually wasn't able to get my project done in 2025, so they said it's alright for me to move into 2026. So I'm hoping that this year we're able to just get the project done. And today, I just kinda I sent everything on the desk here. You've got a reference for a PowerPoint that I made.

So just essentially what it is, that first page is just an overview of what I what they accepted me for. So I had to type up a proposal for it. And so it just says, make an architecturally intriguing mural, in the Bell Reds Art District. And so that's what I got accepted for. And so I'm trying to do my art that I do in the Bell Red District specifically, and I feel that's a really big part of this whole thing.

So they gave me the extra thousand dollars. And then I printed out more pictures. So if you look there, there's a reference that shows you what the location is. It's a utility barn in on the other side of the the it's like a nature area right there in between. You see it as you take the light rail from the Spring District into the Bell Red.

And I'm saying that I've got this idea, vision for the mural, And we're saying to do something just super extravagant, and I kind of been developing ideas here. So in these next few slides that you look at, it's just kind of like what I have so far. It's not in any way final, but it's just like concepts that I drew up. I went down to there. I just like took some pictures, then I drew it up in VR.

That's how I I do my work is through the VR. And so these are just kind of like ideas that I have, and I was just thinking like, oh man, something where it's like black and white, and then there's just like this like spray of like spectrum color. And I thought that was really interesting. I think like peep something people would be able to really like resonate with something like that, where it's just so unique that it kind of like dazzles you when you see it. So when you look at that, I think that's what it is.

And then with my last thirty seconds, I'll just say I need to get approval from the city. The city needs to just like, they need to have an internal conversation about how that works, and then they need to update this right of entry agreement that they have. The right of entry agreement essentially just says like, I'm able to go down there, I'm able to do work, I'm able to spend time down there, and then they just like organize that time for me to be there. Everything else, I need to get a liability insurance so that there if there's any problems, I get that. But yeah, that's what I'm doing for 2026. So so hopefully, by next month, I got another update on what we're doing.

Great. Thank you. Great. Alright. That's the last of our oral communications. Great. Then we will move on to action items, discussion items, and a is partner presentation.

Alright. We have Ben online. There we go.

Hi, everyone. Can you hi. Thank you so much. Can everybody hear me okay?

You might want to speak up just a bit, Ben.

Oh, okay. Is this a little bit better?

We got you. I'm sorry. We turned it up too, so we did Oh, okay.

Thank you all so much for allowing me to present. I am so sorry that I couldn't be there in person. I unexpectedly had a sick kiddo and had to race off to day care, bring him home, and do a lot of lot of coordinating. But thank you so much for the opportunity. I'm gonna share, try to share my my screen here to see if I can properly work things.

I am trying to get everything to kind of let's see if I can do this without so my name is Ben Brando. I'm currently the interim general manager for KBCS. For those who aren't familiar with KBCS, we are the East Side's, I believe, only, public radio station or we sometimes call ourselves a community radio station. So we are a, five zero one c three. We're actually part of the Bellevue College Foundation.

We're a self support department of Bellevue College, which just means we don't receive direct funding, from the college. However, we are affiliated with the college. We broadcast on ninety one point three, and then also you can listen to us, streaming online, k b c s dot f m, or through the KBCS mobile app. We've been around, as you can see, since 1973. We've had a lot of different iterations of the station through the years.

I'll just keep clicking through to give you kind of a a broken down somewhat tour. We're in a very humble house on the campus of Bellevue College, and I would invite, each of you, if you're ever interested in coming by for a tour, we'd love to have you, at the station so we can show you the station. We've been in the current location, I believe, for about fifteen years, but the station has moved around a bit. It was in another house on campus, then it was in Factoria for a while, and then, it made its way back to the campus of Bellevue College. Let's see here.

Just giving you a little tour, we have a large music library. We're actually in the middle of digitizing a lot of the files for that. That's Bryce. He's one of our music librarians. We also and it doesn't do it justice.

I wish I could kinda give you a a panorama. I should have done this from from the station, but our vinyl library is completely filled with, vinyl records, that we've collected through the years. So, yeah, the station's been around since 1973. It's funded by individual listeners, a few corporate, sponsors, and, of course, generous grants from like the one that we receive, from Bellevue. The station, broadcast, it's 1,800 watts.

Our tower is located to at top of Cougar Mountain in Issaquah. It started out as a student led radio station only broadcasting about the range of Bellevue College, to where now in our current, iteration up on Cougar Mountain, we really reached the entire like Bellevue, Seattle, Tacoma Metro fairly reliably. So grown a lot through the years with, quite a a great reach and again, you know, also a global reach now that we you can stream us twenty four hours a day either through the mobile app or website. So for our format, we do offer a diverse mix of noncommercial music as well as news and public affairs programming. Weekday mornings are mostly progressive news and public affairs programming with an emphasis on social justice.

Weekday afternoons feature a mix of roots rock and soul music and include live in studio performances. And then weekday evenings and weekends are hosted by local volunteer DJs. We have a really amazing group of folks. We have around 30 volunteer DJs who, put together their programs each week and, really run the gamut from Hawaiian music to Celtic to Latin to bluegrass, hip hop folk. Really, we we like to say that, like, nobody likes everything on KBCS, but everybody likes something on KBCS.

And so that non commercial format allows us to, you know, not have to worry so much about, marketing and, and and that as far as being able to share, really diverse music and ideas, with the community. And if anybody has any questions as we go, feel free or we can wait till the end. I'm just running through and, kind of, I was running with the kiddo, and so I'm just kind of spitting it all out. So our flagship music programming centers around, we call it roots, rock, and soul. It's hosted from one to 7PM, Monday through Friday with our music director, Ian Hughes, and our operations manager, Greg D'Lea.

These are some of the artists that we've had coming in through our studios as they're either local or they're touring, Aunt Mar Liebert, Amethyst Kia, Aline and Wes. So a few just pictures from them. This is Amy Ray, of Indigo Girls. She came in to do a, in studio with us, just a while back. I was gonna play a video for you, just a real brief one to show you, if any of you all are familiar with, we're not an NPR station, but it's certainly like a tiny desk, at KBCS. And so it's just gonna share a little clip. You can see the the snafus of, live radio here.

Unless you share with audio, the audio won't come through. So Oh,

got it.

And then when you do share with audio, the presentation lags really bad, I've noticed.

We can we can skip over.

Okay.

The the the point being, it's a really small but warm space and really a lot of top notch musicians coming through because of KBCS', kind of well known and well respected, nature, especially in the roots and folk communities, but really all around. So weekend and evenings, as I mentioned, we have around 30 volunteer DJs that do all different types of programs. So just a few, of our volunteer DJs do everything from Hawaiian music, to bluegrass. We have had, the joy of being able to work with some of the other festivals happening in and around Bellevue, both the blues and jazz festival. I was able to announce last year when we had Lee Oscar come.

And then also, we have often had a stage at Wintergrass each year, and so I'm always really happy to partner with different Bellevue organizations and become even more involved in in in live music and arts in Bellevue. So our other part of programming is our public affairs and news programming, 5AM to 12PM, flagship program being a progressive talk, show called the Tom Hartman program that's nationally syndicated around the country with around 7,000,000, listeners. Actually, most of the listeners or a fair amount of the listeners that do call in though are calling in as KBCS listeners. So Bellevue gets, you know, a lot of recognition and name recognition out to those 7,000,000 other listeners around the country. Also, another flagship program, Democracy Now, if if you're familiar with that program with Amy Goodman.

For our listeners, we have around 60 to 70,000 unique listeners each and every week on the station. That doesn't include those who are streaming through the app or through our web stream. These are approximate estimates. So, yeah, we have a decent amount of, folks, listening all across the Bellevue, Seattle, Tacoma region. And, one thing that's great about our folks is really that they listen for a long time.

KVCS is a little different in the fact that we're not like commercial radio. People tend to kind of set us and then listen, throughout the day. It's a different type of listening. Course, no commercials and, a little bit more diverse programming. Yeah. Sorry. I kind of, the day was a little crazy, but, that's, that's kind of the long and short. I feel like I just went on, but if anybody had questions, I'd be happy to to answer any.

Sandra? Yes.

Me?

Thank you. So, Ben, thank

you very much for your presentation. So I I wonder what are the kind of challenges that you are facing as a radio station now that the streaming is all over around.

Yeah. No. That's a totally critical, issue. So, yes, I mean, you know, we do, face the fact that there are a lot of different options for for where you listen, how you listen anymore. And so we are working as, you know, diligently as we can to look more into things like podcasting, which can be difficult because you can't have music and podcasts for for rights reasons, but also looking to other places, like, we're putting things up on SoundCloud.

We're, putting things up on iTunes. We're putting things up on Mixcloud. So while radio, yes, like, it may seem like a more antiquated medium. The one thing that I think that is going for us is that we are seeing a lot of folks push back on what they're getting with the rise of AI, with, the rise of streaming services, the fact that KBCS doesn't have commercials is hyper local in a time where so many of our local media outlets are being bought up by large corporations, and, basically, that local voice is being taken away. We've seen for the past three years, our fundraising, hit records because I do believe that there is something that's being offered in community media that you're just not going to get through Spotify, which tends to create, like, a echo chamber.

Right? You punch in a few of the songs that you like, but then soon enough you realize that, a lot of what you're getting is the same thing. And, with community media, it's more of a dialogue with folks in the community. So, yes, we we, I would say the number one thing that we're we're dealing with is, the change in technology and making sure that we can reach people wherever they're at. But the good thing is that I think that community media and community radio are offering something that you really can't get anywhere else.

Does it sorry. I have the screen down.

I lose the mic. Okay. Thanks for the presentation. I'm curious. Do you have any, like, community, like, educational opportunities that bring people in and introduce them to, like, the technology you folks use? I'm thinking, like, a lot of students are at least with my son, like, he's seven and he's already pushing back on AI and a lot of things and really going towards, like, analog, like, records and collecting things like that. But are there opportunities to, like, introduce them to, you know, DJing or not just DJing, but, like, you know, how to host a show, how to be a volunteer DJ in the future, I guess?

Yeah. Absolutely. So we have a full on intake program for folks in the community who are interested in getting involved. I mean, we we are unique in the fact that if you were and we love all the all the stations in in the region, and so this isn't to say anything bad. But as far as, like, radio stations go and public stations go, if you go to some of your bigger stations, k e x p, k u o w, k n k x, all in in Seattle, I mean, if you come and you knock on the door and you just wanna do something, I mean, there's probably it's not gonna happen, you know, immediately.

With KBCS, there's a lot more accessibility. So I would say, I would be happy to, pass along information. We have an intake form that's readily available on our website for folks who are interested in becoming DJs or getting more involved. All of our, DJs have been trained, at KBCS, so that's something that we do offer to people as hands on training. You know, when you come to us, we have a lot of students involved, of course, being on the campus of a college.

We have students that have done k pop shows, you know, things that maybe we don't have knowledge about that, but that are really, you know, that are really popular and people are interested in. So long story short, yes. We we do have opportunities, and, I'd be happy to share my contact information if you want, more information. And to your point, we do see a lot of young people, coming to the station more and more because of that pushback. I think they're realizing what they're getting in the media is of a lot lower quality and a lot less thoughtful.

It's about how much quantity you can keep pushing as in the, you know, the never ending doom scrolling. With public media, you don't get that as much. You get a little more time, a little bit deeper and meaning more meaningful conversation.

Ben, this is Charles, McIntyre. Thank you for your presentation. I appreciate it. I'm a longtime listener.

Thank you.

I especially enjoy the, Sunday morning folk hours, and and I've also been a listener of the Bellevue High School station. And so just thinking now about your term hyper local, I thought that is very interesting way to think about it, and I appreciate any effort to draw media into this, you know, local local feel versus, like you say, the the global Spotify takeover. Are you you're saying that you're that obviously there's financial troubles everywhere, but you're feeling that there's no imminent threat to the station? Or you're feeling Yeah.

No. That's

financially comfortable?

I would say so and I should've yes. There are certainly threats out there. For those familiar with the corporation for public broadcasting, public media organizations that, were eligible and met the criteria in the past, and this is, public radio and PBS stations, public TV stations have lost federal funding, and so we saw about a 10% cut to our budget. We received around a $120,000 each year from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and that loss yes. I mean, that's not insubstantial, especially for a a small station like KBCS.

We have three full time staff, a few part time people, some students, and then we have around 30 volunteer DJs. So funding is a concern. We just came out of a spring fund drive a little bit slow, and, I mean, you can't blame people. Gas is $6 a gallon. Groceries are, you know, a good sizable chunk of a lot of people's paychecks.

And so, yes, there's a definite need, to, expand our sources for funding, and, it's so and we're so grateful to have, you know, regular grants like we get through the city of Bellevue because those really do, allow us to, to budget, to be, more thoughtful, and to have funding that that, you know, we can hopefully assume is is coming. I will say that, for KBCS, we're very lucky that we've been a very scrappy station through the years, and we've been, fairly frugal through the years and done our best to, be financially pretty careful. We are actually bringing on a new public affairs director. I myself, am am usually the development director, but we'll be bringing on a new GM at some point in time. So, I hope that we'll have more capacity as we go.

But, yes, we think every day about about that. And any ideas and thoughts about, funding is always welcomed.

Yeah. No. I I believe a $120,000 cut in a budget is is substantial. And, if you have if you are brainstorming, you know, opportunities to replace that, I I, in particular, would be very interested in supporting any sort of opportunity to, to help replace that deficit.

Thank you so much. That that is so, so very welcomed. And I guess just while while I have you, I will mention one exciting thing that we're looking towards. So the house that KBC has actually, we're in two houses on the campus. There's a house across the street that has another studio, but is mostly used as offices. For instance, my my office is a bedroom in a house. Very cozy and nice, but, when it's a, you know, a nineteen seventies rambler that's, kind of falling apart. We have some some issues. Our main, studio over in the other house, you know, if we're mowing lawns or the campus ops people are mowing the lawns, can be heard on air. Critters get into the houses.

And so, we are looking towards, hopefully in the near future, a capital campaign with a space located more interior on the campus so we can be more collaborative with, for instance, TV services. As we know, you know, video, as they say, video killed the radio star, but, video is an important element, and, we can certainly incorporate that in a way that would be meaningful for KBCS. So I would love to share as we get a little closer to that, share with everyone a little bit about, our capital campaign that we'll be having coming out.

Ben, I just have a question for you with your focus on local programming, which, again, I think is so sorely needed. You know, one of the things we at the arts commission are fairly aware of is the lack of a really comprehensive community calendar that can sort of broadcast to the community local events. And I'm wondering if you're coordinating at all with the Bell Red Arts District people who are working on that and just working more collaboratively to really have a megaphone for community events and community calendar.

Thank you so much. I feel like all of your questions, I'm so glad that you asked because there are things that I should have just, been throwing out there. Yes. We do have a community calendar on our website. And, so we, so if you go to our website, there's a place to submit your, community calendar events.

They do have to be qualifying events, because KVCS is a nonprofit. We can't fundraise for other nonprofits. And then there is some language that we can't use that commercial stations can. But, regardless, any nonprofit that submits a qualifying event to our calendar, we'll add them to our community calendar online, but we also have a process of selecting, different nonprofit events and providing free, spots for them for several weeks at a time. And so please, you know, any and I I've I've said this at a couple of our, periodic, arts council meetings, but if, nonprofits will submit their events, and, you know, we, being on the East Side, we'll prioritize East Side events.

We love to be able to share, and that's what's great about it. We're able to share all these great things that are happening on the East Side with the folks over, on the other side of, the pond, so to speak, and, to make them more well informed about all the really cool things that we have going on. So, yes, we do have a calendar, and I encourage folks to put their events on there because, that's what we do use to create announcements and they're free announcements, and they're not small amounts. They're, you know, several weeks, we will concentrate on on events. So it's not just a performative so that we're really giving some exposure to different nonprofits.

Thank you, Ben.

Thank you.

That's what

hey, Ben. This is Joydeep, one of top listeners other than KEXP.

Thank you.

I've been listening to you guys for a whole hour during my commute from Seattle to Tacoma.

Thank you.

Tom Hartman, you know, I recognize his voice, like, behind my head. So quick things, I'm gonna not repeat what Erica and Charles had said. Yes. There's a lot of interest from young people to understand how can they be a DJ and volunteer. Like my own daughter, she's 12. She doesn't wanna go to tech. She's terrified of the whole thing. And she uses a voice to do a lot of singing and other things voice later. So I would like to reach out to you to understand how do we get these kids to just understand how to be a radio host. That's all they wanna know. And Yeah. To be a DJ would be the next one.

Yeah. No. I we are yeah. That would be great. And, yeah, I'd be happy to to connect with you.

And thing a lot of folks don't know and one thing that we're currently looking at and, you know, I can't promise anything, but right now, a lot of folks aren't familiar with HD radio. If your car is, somewhat newer, not I mean, mine's a 2017 and it has it, but most radio stations are able to stream three two to three different channels. And so right now, one of my, hopes and dreams is to potentially also have a very, student focused station in addition to, what we're doing on our more, you know, global community as far as the entire region station that we have, to offer more opportunities for young people, at KBCS. So, yes, we would love we have running start students even that come and help out at the station. And so, yes.

Yeah. That's wonderful.

I do have a degree in radio physics. So when I talk about radio, my daughter shuts me up. Like, that's not the radio to talk about.

So

You yeah. You know, the Bellevue College does not currently, to my knowledge, have a radio program, but they do offer there may be, I believe, a podcasting program, which is something that, you know, clearly, we're eyeing very closely as so many young people are listening to podcasts and, looking to find music that way. But it's something where, you know, we're hoping a big part of the reason why I'm so passionate about this, capital campaign is the houses that KBCS are in right now are not ADA compliant. We cannot have instruction take place in those houses for credit. And so this is going to be, a really important step for, I believe, the college and for KBCS to have an opportunity to bring potentially more, instruction.

And through KBCS, so these students are getting, you know, a real world experience in a top 15 market in the, you know, Bellevue, Seattle, Tacoma Metro. A lot of students can't say that that, oh my gosh. You know, I'm on air in a top 15 media market, and potentially that can happen here, at KBCS with them. And so

Yeah. Thank

you. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for listening.

Wait. I have a quick question. This is Bhavna. So, I mean, I haven't yet actually heard your station, but most of the radio stations that I catch are either driving or I sometimes like to use some modern tech, like using, an Alexa device or something. Do you guys kinda stream? Do you still I know AI, we don't wanna be with that, but, like, do you use any of these other modern methods of getting your station out there?

Absolutely. Yeah. You can, ask your Alexa to oh, I I feel like if I say it right now in this room, it might start playing. But you can ask her to play KBCS. And and, yes, yep, you will get KBCS. You know, we also, you know, tune in. We're on. And so, you know, we're not, we while we push back on things like AI when it comes to the creative process, like, have a policy. We're not going to play AI music on the station. You know, it's really important that we protect our artists. We're not unaware that, hey. We have to be with it and be where people are. And so, yep, if if you do ask, her to play KBCS, you'll find us.

Okay. Great. Thank you.

Any more questions? Well, thank you, Ben

Thank you.

Coming and presenting and really exciting really looking forward to hearing more from you about your capital campaign. So thank you.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate all of your time. Thank you for having me.

Bye. Thank you.

Alright. So moving on on the agenda, the next item is night blooming deaccession.

Hello, all. Like Ben, I have some family things going on, so I am also remote today. I apologize for not being there. Today, next slide, So, real quick, I actually my name is Scott McDonald. I work with the arts team, Laurie and Manette.

I my title is public art specialist. I work on a lot of things around the maintenance of the collection, the longevity of the collection, and then I also work on major commissions like, Polodi, the Grand Connection Crossing artworks, and then a number of larger artworks out in BellRed that we have or will be installing in the next year or so. And then I also work on planning stuff, so you may see me in the future talking about things that aren't specifically public art. But today, we're gonna talk about an artwork that is near and dear to my heart, Night Blooming at the Bellevue Botanical Garden. Other than Pilote, I think this is honestly my favorite artwork in the collection.

And so it is with a bit of sadness that we bring this agenda item to you today. Today, we will seek a motion to deaccession the artwork from the public art collection. Next slide. So a little background. So the the artwork is, by two artists from Washington State University.

They both teach there, Taiji Miyazaka and David Drake. It was originally commissioned by BAM for their twenty sixteen wood biennial, if you were around for that. It was a great show. And you'll see I think it's maybe the next slide, but you'll see a photo of it up on the roof of BAM, which is where it kind of came into our first awareness. Was on the roof.

The the biennial was six months long. It ended up living on the roof for about two years. And in 2018, the artist offered to donate it to the city. We scrambled, found a absolutely beautiful site in the Botanical Garden, and got a foundation poured and quickly moved it to where it stands currently. The wood is is local.

It's a it's a spruce that came out of a very old barn in Eastern Washington. And it's the form is inspired by the old grain silos that you see, and specifically, like, the grain elevators. And how it's put together is similar to how they would build grain grain elevators throughout history depending on where you lived. And then the original expected lifespan was ten to fifteen years from that 2018 mark. But, you know, I'm not great at math, but it's we're not we haven't hit that ten year mark, but we've had a lot of good use out of it.

So next slide. So I'm this this agenda item is a little bit of a memorial in a way. So I'm gonna go through a couple shots and of it in different iterations. That first shot was at the Bellevue Arts Museum. This is getting installed on the Tatayuchi Loop Trail at the Bellevue or at Botanical Garden.

And you see, the artist brought there's only two, students in this picture, but there was, I think, up to 15, students from the WSU architecture, department that came to help the artist put the artwork, in this new location. Next slide. It had, it got a lot of interest from the city. The city was very excited to have it as part of the collection. So we WTV jumped on the the installation and came out and, did a wonderful, interview with the artists, and we learned a lot more about the artwork via that medium.

I think we we do have a link if it after Ben's, presentation just a few minutes ago. I think I'll leave it up to Manette whether we try to play it. Next slide. So here it is kind of growing, into its somewhat beehive's silo esque, form. Next slide.

And then you can just see that this is probably the last time this the the these pieces of wood have seen light. This is the very, like, top, the keystone piece, which you will then, on the next slide, see as it's installed from inside. So the way that the work was put together is that there's little slits between each board to allow little light apertures to kind of come through. And so when you go inside the work, it's like you're in a dark space, but it's really illuminated and it's a celebration of the light, and it's quite beautiful. Next slide.

And then here it is all finished and installed. There has not been a time I've probably been to this artwork close to a 100 times since it's been installed, and I've not ever experienced somebody not stopping to look at it or even to go in it. Kids my kids love it. It will be missed. Next slide.

So this is that Bellevue TV segment. If you wanna try playing it, and that it's up to you.

I'm gonna attempt.

I couldn't hear you.

I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna stop and restart. Just a second.

This is about a two minute long segment.

It might be kind of janky, but we'll try.

Taishi and I have have known each other for for getting close to twenty years now, and we've done a lot of projects in the in the past.

I am interested in timber grand elevators because of the quality of light when you enter the space.

It is working for you.

Been documenting and taking photographs of timberland elevators. And the one thing which I was impressed about them was the quality of light inside of the timber grain elevators. So

that idea of the phenomena of light coming through, in this old barns or something like this, what happens when a structure is falling apart and light is coming through it was something that was very interesting. I think Bellevue Botanical Garden was a great choice because the intention is that the piece won't be conserved and that slowly over the next twenty, twenty five years, it'll blend into its location and become even more a part of things. And that would be something that wouldn't be possible if it were in a traditional venue for public art. Most of these timbers, the timber grain elevators 300 miles away on the Palouse were constructed from, most of that timber came from West of the mountains forest. So in a sense, what we're doing is taking what fifty or sixty years ago was considered a resource so cheap that you could build grain elevators out of it.

We're returning it back to the place that it came from and letting it decay back into into its surroundings. I'm fabrication labs manager and adjunct faculty with, Washington State University School of Design and Construction. We put together a team of students to help us out to actually get their hands dirty, in this case, really dirty with, you know, 60 year old wood. It's really

fantastic to see them have that experience. This project's an awesome project because, it is constructed in a way that's very similar to how these crib silos were originally constructed. So you've got these two by six, two by eights that are just stacked, stacked, stacked, stacked, And, they they stayed true to the original construction, I think. And then the lighting and the way that when you walk in and you see these little shimmering light exposures, don't know. It's beautiful from inside.

People look at this piece from outside. Looks like a kind of a ordinary form building structure. But when they go inside, they can enjoy a like,

kind

of a show of the light.

Cool. Thanks, Vinay. Sorry.

Just a second. We gotta readjust

sound. Okay.

Okay. You're good.

Okay. Okay. So fast forward to last year, the botanical garden let us know that there were some sections that were breaking down. You can it's I apologize for the dark image if this was taken on the rainiest day I've ever experienced. And this is that deterioration on the right image in front of you is after we had actually chiseled out.

So it it didn't look as bad as as that, but there were a few boards here and there that had either part of it had broken off or they looked kind of spongy. And so I I called the artist, and we arranged to come out and tackle these, you know, couple boards here and there in maybe five ish areas. And then, I was a little concerned because we've had another artwork within the last six years or so, life cycle two, which was installed maybe six years ago. There was a original life cycle one at Chisholm Beach Park, which was made from spruce, and that deteriorated quite a bit faster than other work woods we have. And so life cycle two is actually made out of cedar if you do go out to Chisholm Beach Park.

But this being Spruce and always knowing that we had some sort of undefined time horizon on the on the artwork, Seeing the deterioration was not a great sign. Next slide. So here, the artist and I went out to the artwork. We started focusing in on those two to four boards, and you can see the light colored sections. There's actually more sections that we replaced on the other side of the sculpture where, you know, they look like two to four boards, but when you really started getting into it, the area that was rotten was quite a bit larger like that that higher higher section about two thirds of the way up the sculpture that I think we ended up, replacing, like, 25 boards in that section.

And then that middle section actually stretches around to the door. So the the concern is that there's just things we don't know about, and we're concerned about the integrity through another wet season next year. Next slide. So we are, with regret, recommending to deaccession specifically because of that deterioration being extremely hard to identify, without going through with a with a chisel, and seeing if we're able to how how dense the wood actually is. And then I just want a point of clarification.

So on this recommendation, because this is a safety concern, the city, regardless of, the Arts Commission's motion tonight, the city will still remove it from public view, this year. The DS session is really a a clerical one with the arts commission given the control of what is in the art collection and what is out of the art collection. So there's we're we're bifurcating the issues with this artworks simply because there's this is safety. So even if you vote not to do a session, we still have to remove it from public view. And then there is the possibility, and we're looking at it because the foundation it's an engineered foundation.

It was roughly a $50,000 investment that the city made into this location. We're looking at possible like, what are creative things we can do with it? Could it be reused for another art project? Could it be a site where every few years, we have an artist come work with this really unique foundation and and create something unique for the community? But all those things are being explored, and we definitely want the the spirit of the artwork to to live on in in this part of the botanical garden and also more broadly for Bellevue.

Next slide. So, tonight, I am asking for a motion from the arts commission, to recommend the decession of night blooming, and that would remove it from the formal roster of the public art collection. In terms of next steps, I will, then work on, procuring a contractor to remove the piece, and then we'll start exploring ideas for a future life for the foundation as well. So any any questions?

Oh, I'm so sorry, Scott. I can hear the sadness in your voice as you talked us through this. I'm wondering, like, do I know we have, like, a session, like, ceremonies and things like that. Do we do anything for the Dia session process? That's my first question. I guess just to honor the artwork and the effort that was put into it. And my second question is, are we noting like the material materiality of spruce as you've noted like, you know, we've seen it deteriorate as a material faster than other types of wood types. So like with projects like the Grand Connection and having a lot of other things being built up are, will we be discouraging artists from that material type?

I love the the, like, almost like a a seance or whatever whatever whatever we wanna call it, but a goodbye ceremony. I think that's a wonderful idea, and we should absolutely explore that. Spruce, I think at this point, I it's just gonna be a material that we don't recommend for outdoor application. And so for outdoor works, I I think we just generally don't accept that from here.

Thank you.

Unless there's, like, a a very specific project that's really about decomposition and that doesn't pose a future safety risk. But, like, for example, like, the the nurse log that's out on the City Hall Plaza, like, this idea of decomposition and regrowth being a part of a future proposal. I could see Spruce being something that could be used for that. But anything that's separate from that kind of those core ideas really is using the wrong material for for their project.

Scott, Scott, real quick. Once it's, taken apart safely, are is it gonna be destroyed, or have you considered perhaps allowing students or other artists to repurpose some of that material?

It's in all all likelihood, it will have to be destroyed because there's so many screws holding everything together that one, just to remove all those to take it apart piece by piece would be very time consuming and expensive. And and then two, again, we anticipate we're gonna see a lot of deteriorated wood that will be unusable. Yeah. That's our current plan. It's to not reuse it, that it would actually need to be destroyed.

Scott, like you, this is my favorite piece in the Bellevue collection, and I am really just devastated to hear that it's being deaccessioned, though I understand the reasons. And I think this maybe highlights the good work we all did creating a maintenance plan and asking these questions before we commission a piece in the future. Something I do wanna suggest, I saw your assessment of future opportunity that I would really maybe encourage the staff to think about is recreating this piece and materials that might survive because it is a wonderful sculpture, but it's a fabulous experience and it connects, like you've said, from very small children all through the aged people. And something I'm wondering if you've looked at it all is a process called shibori that they use in Japan all the time where the were wood is charred and the charring prevents deterioration. And it's highly effective.

They do it in British Columbia. They do it in Japan. It sort of maybe reconnects with our Japanese heritage in a really interesting way and would allow the piece to remain wood. So I would really encourage while you brainstorm opportunities, you maybe brainstorm, is there a way to make this piece that, again, that would allow it, you know, much more longevity? And maybe explore that with both WSU, you know, as the creators. But but ask some questions that way because I think it's a very unique and powerful piece.

Yeah. You're talking about Shosugi Ban.

Mhmm. Mhmm.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's a that's a good point. I think at this point, we're open to all all ideas on on what the next iteration is. Yeah. It's it's sad. But I think if you were to ask me, would I do this again? I think I would recommend that.

Yeah.

Just because the value and the love that it had created in the community.

That's we're a better

person. It was worth it. You know? Oh. That we'd make different decisions, that could extend that life. But even the life that we got from it, I think, was worth it. So Great.

Any other questions, comments? Do I have a motion to deaccession night blooming?

Motion to deaccession.

And is there a second for that motion?

I second the motion.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye. I think motion carries unanimously. Thank you, Scott.

Thank you.

Alright. Next item on the agenda is update to the art commission bylaws.

Alright. So this is an item that all of the boards and commissions have been have seen over the past few months. I am asking for direction tonight to bring back the recommended and updated bylaws for final action and adoption at the next regular meeting. So keep that in mind as I discuss the different changes that are coming to your bylaws. So you do have a copy in your packet of the red lined version of our bylaws.

Mhmm. I'm just gonna go over, there's kinda three critical changes. Again, all boards and commissions have seen this. It's nothing special just to the arts commission. So article two section a, this is a change clarifying the service your service on any board and commission is limited now to any board or commission at the city of Bellevue.

You are limited to two conservative or two consecutive terms. So right now, you're limited to two terms, but you could go and immediately be on the planning commission and then immediately be on another board and just kind of go through all of our boards and commissions. Right now, this is limiting you to two consecutive years. You take off in between. You can come back and serve on a different board or the same board, but there is now a very clear distinction that that break in between service, is required before you apply again.

Another change, is article seven section e. This is, regarding decorum, specifically, how long the exclusionary period is. We're changing that from sixty to a hundred and eighty calendar days, and then some updates to and clarity around what the appeal process is. And then some general formatting and language changes. We did formally say he or she.

We're switching more to a gender neutral, they, them, or themselves, and then just some formatting. There was some strange capitalization or lack thereof, and everything else will remain the same in your bylaws. Any questions about these changes? So, again, tonight, I'm asking for direction.

Do you need a motion, Manip?

I don't think so.

I think

Go ahead. For direction, more if it's if someone has an issue before I bring this back, now is the time to speak on that issue. Otherwise, I will be bringing this at a following meeting.

And this is consistent through all boards and commissioners Yes. Commissions for specific health.

Yeah. Alright. Then I will bring Real quick.

Yeah. So this is for us to approve next month

You will.

These bylaws.

Yes. In the future, I will ask for action, and then they will be signed and officially become your bylaws.

So maybe to step back a bit. There's two kind of governing body or documents for the board. You have your city code and policy, which is set by council. So above your city code governing the our commission is set by council. Your bylaws are something that you approve for yourself, although they are heavily, I guess, recommended and curated by your attorney, the city Bellevue City Attorney.

So these are some recommendations coming from our city attorney's office, consistent for all boards and commissions. There are elements of your bylaws that you all control pretty directly, like when you meet, things like that. This is a couple times it feels like almost yearly at this point. We have some, like, system wide updates, and I would put this in that category.

Yeah. Like, the Bellevue City code changes, it affects your bylaws, and then we make updates.

But if we approve these and the planning commission does not approve them, what happens then?

Then our attorneys get involved, and I don't know. Okay.

They're gonna have more in-depth sessions about these items.

Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay.

Depends on how much time you wanna spend on bylaws. Think we got direction? Yep. Great. It looks like our next item on business is the next meeting.

So we don't have enough items for May. So we're thinking June. I know this is getting into summer break and school and everything. I So wanted to confirm June 3 is our scheduled first Wednesday of the month works for you. Does anybody have issues with June 3?

Okay. We

shall allow it.

Will note. It may be remote. Okay. Email. That's fine. It may be remote. Okay. Just as long as you request remote before.

Oh, boy.

Well, that's a completely fair reason to not make it. I will note, every June, we have elections, so just keep that in mind. I will warn you before to remind you if you would like to pro promote yourself to be a chair or vice chair or someone else. The second thing on commission quick business is our capital facility allocation committee members. So I wanted to confirm we have our allocations committee.

Formally, those are usually for used for our art grants every year. Those will change before the next art grants are will be reviewed. We'll do committee assignments usually in September. But I wanted to confirm if the past allocations really the current, but those that reviewed our grants, for twenty twenty six project grants, if you would also want to do capital facility, grants, those open the thirteenth of this month and then close June 15. Your review period would be in June.

We would likely also do interviews this time with applicants to learn more, have you ask questions. So it'd be a little bit more than just reviewing and then talking about them. You we might also pull you into some meetings. The allocations committee for this year was Charles, Sandra, and Erica, you were an alternate. We can have a third person. I know you may may or may not have a new okay. Unless you're screaming to to review some grants while you may have a child. Okay.

Microphones. So chair Aldridge has volunteered for the committee.

Alright. So Charles and Sandra, you are also okay with being on that?

All this activity would be in the month of June.

It'd be June and July. We'd likely be coming back in September to the commission, so all the work would have to happen before then.

A lot of

I'm okay with that.

That's the application.

Yes. We'll have virtual meetings. Bigger applications, but fewer applicants. Yes.

Gotcha. Yep. I'm up for it.

Okay. Perfect. I'm okay too.

Thank you.

Do we have any project updates?

We sure do. So like I said, the cultural facility grants program is launching on the thirteenth. Tell all your friends who own arts and cultural facilities. Want to build them? Yes. No major changes were made to the guidelines this year. There were a few tweaks here and there, but for the most part, it stayed the same. I will also note we have officially switched to Submittable for collecting applications. We were previously using SurveyMonkey Apply, which all of you have experience having reviewed, grants. It's a very similar program.

It is a little bit potentially more user friendly, which we're excited about. So, that's it's, I think, an exciting switch, and we hope it serves everyone well, including you all for your grant review. There is a whole bunch of events here. I will note there I did, hear about one, after this went out. Has a class series, April at Overlake Church.

It is free, 06:30PM. So I just wanna bring that to your attention. All the rest of these, if you look at the packet online, we have links. You can learn about if there's tickets. And then I also included events in May since we won't be meeting in May.

Do you wanna switch to

So a quick update on some planning projects for the Belred Arts District. The planning commission will receive an update on recent work of the Belred land use code update. So if you remember, there's kinda two parts to updating the sub area plans. We have, like, that that neighborhood sub area plan, and then we have the code. This has been a really heavy lift for the city. Work is ongoing, but this is where the rubber meets the road. The planning commissioner will get that update on April 22 here in this room at 06:30. Public is welcome and encouraged to attend. If you wanna learn more about how they are prioritizing arts uses in the BellRed Arts District, great time to come and see it. You could also view those meetings live online just like this one.

We also wanna give an update on the Grand Connection art plan. The staff is working with an artist to develop initial draft of the art plan. You're gonna get an update. It's kinda tentatively scheduled for that June meeting. We're looking like June's gonna be a a busy meeting, but excited to see that moving forward as planned. And then two studies are coming up. You will receive in-depth study sessions on these later in the year, but we wanna give you heads up that they are coming. We are selecting a consultant to assess the needs and the feasibility of an outdoor purpose built event facility. So a lot of the conversation we had last time we met was around space and facility and things that we need in our community. We do wanna let you know there is some some preliminary study happening in that space.

The scope of work for this outdoor venue includes significant public outreach. You will hear more. You'll probably talk to these consultants as an art commission. We're gonna look at market analysis. Like, is there a market need to have an outdoor event facility? What are those funding facility models, other elements? Like I say, you will get a presentation of this later in the year, probably July or September. Really excited. We're kind of not saying park, if you'll notice there. I'm saying outdoor event facility.

We don't necessarily mean a band shell. We mean something that is more tailored for our community. We see a lot of need for, yes, outdoor concert performance, but also places for festivals, places where you have markets. Imagine the Bell Red Art District wanting to do an artist market. There's not a great place right now to set up your row of tents where you have electrical built in, things like that. You have easy easy load in, load outs. So staff has been looking at models across the country and the world. There's actually a great model in Australia. Couple acres. We're not talking huge.

We're not recreating Marymore, but somewhere in between. We have some amazing park facilities here in Bellevue. They're not necessarily set up for these types of load in, load out events, though. So early feasibility work. The second study that we're gonna be launching this year is a market analysis, operations validation, and fit study around the a major performing arts center.

You will get a very robust presentation on this as performing arts centers are part of your duties and responsibilities. As you are aware, we've had presentations in the past. The Performing Arts Center Eastside, a nonprofit here in Bellevue, has been studying and raising money towards a performing arts center for a couple of decades. The organization is currently in a quieter phase right now. And at the same time, the Bellevue Convention Center Authority is looking at their expansion.

So the city is taking the opportunity to look at the operation model of PACE and the physical model of some performing arts centers that could be a possibility at the Bellevue Convention Center and see if there's an opportunity for combined effort. So it's unlike most studies where we do a lot of preliminary outreach, this study is going to be more geared towards reviewing all of the previous studies for alignment. So you will see quite a bit information as we go. That RFP is likely to go live here in the next month or so, so we don't have applications yet. Other updates, we have in your packet under public art, no updates, but that is a lie because Belgate got taken out of the ground today.

So our one of our oldest artworks, Bell Gate by artist Lee Kelly, has been on the Grand Connection for a while, maybe the nineties, I wanna say. And the development on a group that owns the property that the artwork is on has recently filed their demo permits, and they're starting demolition to build a giant 600 foot tower. Several of them, actually. There'll be three new towers on that site. Staff had worked with Annie over the years to hammer out an agreement.

Bellgate will be reinstalled on that property after the building towers are completed. So the artwork is being taken out a little faster than we had thought. But in in good intention, it will be removed, stored by on one of their properties. Staff will have access to inspect. We will get quarterly reports on the artwork. Yeah. Look. Here we are. Live video of it. Come on on out. And then the artwork will be reinstalled along 106th Avenue, but slightly further north. So about halfway up that block. And that will likely be installed in, I wanna say, '28 or '29. Don't quote me. That might be '30.

We will be working with a development timeline there. But we do have contractual obligation to reinstall, so we are not worried about that part. Can't be there while it's giant hole in the ground, though. In temporary artworks, the artists working on the Balramiro have submitted their first draft designs and are now refining them. Commission will receive an update once they are finalized likely in that June meeting. And transportation department has selected a vendor to produce the designs for the creative crosswalks. So artists will continue to refine their designs, and the commission will receive an update once those are finalized as well. Looking at late summer, I think, installation on those.

Yeah. I think July or August.

Yeah. These

are the crosswalks, the four crosswalks. Yeah. So like many summers, we do a lot of prep work, and then summer comes, and there's a lot of install. Let's see. The final update in public art is that staff will be opening an application for emerging artists to apply for two public art projects, one in Lake Hills and one in Lewis Creek Park in Lakemont. Two projects are following the models tested with Crossroads. So this is our kind of scaling up, jumping scale. We've called it a couple of different things. That project from a staff perspective, and I hope from yours as well, was incredibly successful. We loved the artwork that we received.

It was very gratifying to work with an artist coming from studio scale into public art scale. So looking to recreate that model, make it more of an an or not annual, like, a regular program probably every couple years. Application will be live in mid April and close May 17.

I have a question on this, and I think there was a post that the Bellevue Arts Commission or the Bellevue Arts Group put on Instagram, and I saw a comment from somebody that's part of the Lake Hills community and asking about, like, what is their role as far as, like, being able to steward, like, what art gets put in their neighborhoods. I'm just wondering, is that something we would invite them to council meetings and

you know? It's a great question. And we do reach out to community groups when we are in neighborhoods. So reaching out to that community group is part of the process. It is very likely that somebody from that community group would be asked to sit on the selection panel with our art commissioners.

Of course, is part of your all's role, but it's community voice. Beyond that, after this artist is selected, you as you're familiar with, artists usually have a lot of community input in the design of their artwork. And it is a task that we build into their contracts to talk with and work with It can be a little jarring sometimes, I think, when our community doesn't necessarily know the process, and that's on us to help make sure that we're going to those going to their meetings to help inform them of the process. And I believe that is it. Any

written communications or other information we have received?

Thank you. Sorry. Any written communications or other information we have received? Not for this meeting. Alright. Then it is 05:48PM, and I am going to declare the meeting adjourned. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.