Arts and Culture Commission - Regular Meeting

Is your mic on? Sorry. Am I just not?

Okay, I am calling to order this Tuesday, September 8th special meeting of the Art and Culture Commission. It is 12.32 p.m. Jess, you want to start with roll call?

Yes. Commissioner Goldbach? Here. Commissioner Campbell? Here. Commissioner Topping-Adams? Here. Commissioner Vildig?

Here.

And we are missing Commissioner Haar and Commissioner Johnson. Oh, and Commissioner Atkins. Sorry about that.

OK. I do not have the land acknowledgment in front of me. So I'm not going to read it in its entirety this time. But I promise it will be back next meeting.

Would you like, I could read it if you'd like.

I would love that.

Okay.

Thanks, Leslie.

The land that Eureka rests on is known in the Wiat language as Gerugigi. Past actions by local, state, and federal governments remove the Wiat and other indigenous peoples from the land and threaten to destroy their cultural practices. The city of Eureka acknowledges the WIAC community, their elders, both past and present, as well as future generations. This acknowledgment demonstrates the city's commitment to dismantle the ongoing legacies of settler colonialism.

Thank you. All right, we're going to start with oral communications.

So this is the part of the agenda where members of the public may comment on items that are not on the agenda for today. So if you were here and interested in talking about the proposals in front of us, we'll have a separate public comment for that. But if anybody wants to address the commission on an item that's not on the agenda, this is their time to do that.

Oops, sorry. Do we have anyone online?

If you are online and interested in making a comment on this item, please raise your hand.

All right. So I believe that is the end of public comments. And then moving on to new business, Bike Boulevard Art Planters.

OK, and I'm going to launch into it while we wait for the presentation to get pulled up. OK, perfect. I think we're ready to rock and roll. OK, so I'm going to start with a little bit of background for folks who may not be familiar with this project. And then we'll go into the details of the proposals before you today and the process by which you will select your proposals. And then we'll do public comment. And you'll do your discussion and select your proposals So what is the C Street Bike Boulevard planter box art project? Recently this year, the C Street was transformed to have a bike boulevard on it. It changed the direction of some of the streets. And as a part of adding in the bike boulevard and the street directional changes, planter boxes were added to specific intersections to help commuters visualize the change in street direction and really help to bring attention to that it is no longer one through street, that there are certain places where you cannot turn in. We have 12 planter boxes. They have had some graffiti and a couple of them have been hit by cars. This project is primarily meant to help to deter graffiti and help increase planter visibility. We'd like these to be bright and interesting and fun and notable so that people visualize these traffic changes and these planters and they're just more viewable than a gray box. So at your last meeting, you considered the proposal process and put forth some criteria, reviewed what staff had, and we launched it. We intend to have our artists paint the rest of this month and then through October 31st. And once each project is complete, we will sign it off and then the artists will receive a $300 stipend. As a part of this, the city will sand and prime the planters. You may see that some of them are already primed, and we're getting them ready to go right now. We'll provide safety equipment, including vests and cones, and then we'll also provide the perfective sealant that the artists will apply at the end. This is meant to be mostly an anti-graffiti and UV coating to help keep the life of the art a little bit longer. The artists will submit an original design, provide paint and painting supplies, paint all four sides and the top rim, and they must complete their artwork by October 31st. So here's an overview of the locations where the planters are. Wherever you see an orange arrow is where we have two planters. So we have two planters here on 7th and C, four because there are two arrows here on 14th and C. Excuse me. Over here on Booner we have another set of four, and then over here on Harris we have two. This is also the map I used when, I'll get to a little bit later, calculating artists' residency distance. This is the, I measured from their house to the closest segment of this to their house. So our call for proposals, as I mentioned, after our last art and culture meeting where you reviewed the call for proposals process and all of the language that went into it, we opened it up. We had an open call. We put it on a website with a webpage and then also used the website submittal form as our application form so all of our submittals were digital. It included the application info and then also the fill-in of the application itself. It closed on September 3rd. We did a big advertising push as we've talked about at the Commission We knew that this was a pretty short time window for for folks to be able to apply so we wanted to make sure that we did a really big push and call awareness out early and Broadly to get as many applications as possible. So we in addition to the webpage We also had it on our newsflash. We had it in our calendar on our website and We also did a couple of social media posts, put it in the newsletter. I did a direct email to folks who had contacted me in the past about wanting to do art on city infrastructure. As the utility boxes have gone on over the years, folks have reached out and they missed the first deadline, but I told them to keep them on the interest list. So this was part of that interest list I reached out to, I think probably 60 folks who had either not been selected in our past process, or had done a utility box, or had expressed interest in an art project with the city before. So that was a pretty good direct reach. And then we also, as this commission had directed, put signs into each of the planters. And the example of the sign that went into each of the planters is up here on the screen. It had a QR code that took you to the website. And I know at least one of our artists who was a neighborhood resident saw that. That was how they found out about it and applied with their art. So we received 42 eligible proposals, which is a wonderful turnout. And you have your work cut out for you today. I think we were thinking we'd probably get 20. So to get 42 is really exciting. On the back end, the application widget in the website then took everything and put it into an Excel spreadsheet. So I took that and I made a profile for each of the proposals and put that into attachment before use. So you see a one page of each. If there are Sizing or spacing issues that is more to do with me trying to fit everything onto one page We left the format submission the submission format pretty open for folks so that they could use Whatever was available to them, but that meant that I was sort of trying to fit everything onto a page with a variety of formats and Spatial issues so forgive forgive any of the proposals for spacing issues is what I'm trying to say on that I would also note that we didn't tell the artist to use a template of any kind, but you saw in the proposal selection that a lot of folks pulled the drawing of the planter from the website and used that. But I wanted to note that just because that wasn't provided to anybody, so don't ding anybody who didn't use it. And as for our proposals themselves, so we published, we closed everything last Thursday on the 3rd, and then we published everything on Friday. And so I emailed the commission all of the proposals and the matrix. We also published it to the website and they have our subscribers there. And then I directly emailed all of the artists who had applied so that they know that this meeting was today. So proposal selection. You will be selecting 12 designs today, as well as two alternates. And I'm going to ask you to rank those alternates to be first and second just for clarity so that we know who we're calling first in the case that one of our 12 designs is not able to complete the project. The selection criteria the commission decided on at their last meeting included design considerations, concept quality and clarity, and residency near the project area. So that is what you see on your matrix that I created for you and the basis for which you can evaluate your proposals today. So my proposed decision process. We have more proposals than we originally expected, which is wonderful. It's a great challenge to have. But it did mean thinking through how this commission in a public meeting selects 12 proposals out of those 42. So my proposed process for you is after this presentation for you to open public comment and hear from folks and then after we hear public comment then we pull up the proposals and the matrix and go through each proposal and you give me your score for each one and we'll tally it up live in that excel spreadsheet so that at the end we then can see sort of the cumulative score of every proposal and sort it and see what proposals float to the top so that you can then discuss, consider public comment, consider your discussion, and use the matrix as a tool for your decision-making process. It doesn't obligate you to pick the top 12 scores out of it. And then at the end, we'll have a motion. And I have some suggested motion language for you when you're ready. So with that, that concludes my presentation. I can answer questions if you'd like now, or we can, it's at the chair's discretion if you want to follow the process I propose, if you guys want to do something different.

I just, before we get started, I would love to say thank you to all of the applicants, especially the more beginning folks. I know that we encouraged, a lot of us encouraged people to do this and I just want to say I know how hard it is to do that if you've never put together a proposal before. So thank you, thank you, thank you, and do not let today's deliberations sway you from future things. There are clearly way more of you than we have surfaces to work on.

Are there any other questions or comments down here? Okay. Mirroring what Bernadette said, thinking the applicants and also the city staff, Sarah, I know this was a pretty intense turnaround for you, and I really, really appreciate all the work that you put into making this a slightly less overwhelming process. process for us so that hopefully we will get this done in a pretty efficient manner while also considering that all these are human beings who put a lot of work into their submissions. That combination is good to remember. Do we have any public comments? I don't have any here.

Through the chair. So we don't have anyone in the room that I'm seeing. But we do have a handful of folks online. So perhaps it's appropriate to ask them to raise their hand now if they would like to speak.

If you're calling in, it is star 9 to raise your hand.

Or if you're zooming in, just to hit the Raise Your Hand button. And we'll let you know if anybody raises their hand.

Fantastic.

There can be a little bit of a lag in the video. So it might be prudent to give them a couple seconds to raise their hands.

And we encourage public comment. We're not just asking because we have to. We actually really do want to hear your input, whether you're an artist or a community member who's living on the bike boulevard or, you know, whatever. All right. So closing public comment, and then I believe we are going to review the proposals.

Wonderful. Okay. So you'd like me to review the proposals and score the matrix at the same time?

Yes. If that is doable, then yes, please. Yes. Let me update it. If you'd need any, like, a backup set of hands, I'm happy to help with something. Okay. I think we'll be okay. We will just add numbers in as we go.

I think I have you all in a row now. And... okay so we are in attachment b proposals received and um just for since we had so many proposals i will know um i sort it you always got to decide how you're going to sort something so for the commission's ease i sorted it by proximity to the project area and then by alphabetical first name so first we have lucas thornton egrets on the move and if i could have each of you just read off your score and i'll fill it in Your cumulative score, your totals. So it'll be out of 30.

I see I'm the first column. So I gave 30 to the submission.

One second to figure out why we're not. Okay, only one keypad works. Okay, there we go.

I'm also 30. Okay. 24. I'm the tough one.

It's part of why I actually, if I can just throw this in here, it's part of why we did come up with the matrix was as long as each of the commissioners is consistent in their own scoring, then I think that's going to help us with this. So that's why we get to give opinions. And I will say personally, I very much weighted my scores individually. according to people's distance from, yeah, their geography. And then, you know, obviously the rest is kind of opinion. So anyway.

Okay. So our next proposal is Chandra Tim. Ways we move in this weird world. 16. 20. 26. 28. Our next one is Louise Bacon Ogden, Forest Floor.

Apologies, I jumbled my matrix. 21. 26. 30.

24.

OK. Next we have Michaela Craghead, Sunflower Seastar.

24. 24. 30. 23.

OK. And next up, we have Monica Blacklock. 19. Door window. 20.

21. 21.

And next up, we have Noah Scheffler, Humboldt Panorama. 30. 28. 28. 29. OK. Next up, this artist submitted two different proposals. I think they had noted, I'll just note that they had noted that they were proposing to do two side by side or one individually. So we'll do the first one, Penn and Pine, Always Growing.

30. I would like to see one or the other, so I'm going to put 20 for this one.

30, and I would also like to see one or the other, so I'm hoping we choose one out of the two.

29.

Okay, and the second proposal by this artist, Penn and Pine, I Love Eureka, Eureka Loves Me.

I know we're not at discussion, but I'm in agreement with the other commissioners of the one or the other, which is why I scored this one, although similar in design, 27. I put 30 for this one.

30 25 Okay, and our next one is river child chasing sunflowers 24 25 30 29 And next up we have Christopher Creighton, Together Under the Stars. 17. 20.

20. 21.

And then we have Athanur, Weather Report. 19. 20. 26. 21. And then we have Mycelial Murphy, residents of C. 29.

30.

30.

23.

And then we have Emily Hoogenwerf. Apologies if I'm not saying anybody's names right. Emily Hoogerwerf, garden slugs.

30. 30. 30.

28.

Tisha Cooper, Pollinator Paradise. 28. 29.

29. 24.

This next artist also submitted two different proposals.

So this is the first one, Alexa Stephanakis, Redwood Understory. 28. 25. 28. 23.

And this is the second proposal by Alexa.

Mushroom and fern. 27. 28. 29. 25.

Leah Lair, mothering mermaids. 26.

24 29 21 Murda Silva Boulevard of Broken Streams 28 30 29 including bonus points for the pun I see humor 28 Alena Vasileva, Humboldt Coast. 28. 30. 29. 28.

Maria Vasileva, Bird Rhythm. 23. 24. 28.

28.

Eat the innards, Trillium bodies. 21.

23. 27. 20.

Frederick Dasinger, Sun, Stars, Sky. 25. 19. 28. 22. Calypso, Red Moth Twilight.

25. 24. 28.

26.

Hayley Rose Kosinski, Redwood Fairytale. 25. 29. 28. 21. Roxanne Darby, bakery display case. 21. 23. 28. 26.

Trinity Sue Marsh-Heron. 24. 29.

28. 20. Beau Wolf-Cameron, mother's love.

21. 26. 28. 20. And my apologies. I should have noted at the top of introducing this one. This artist has proposed to apply rocks to the side of the box. And we, unfortunately, cannot allow that. We, in the past, have tried letting artists get a little creative with a three dimension on boxes. And it just doesn't stick. And by the fourth time, the artist is tired of reapplying it. And then you get kind of goopy glue. And it just ends up not sticking. Working as desired and I love the vision but so I think if this design is Just is picked.

We'll just ask them to paint the rocks That was a part of my consideration and scoring.

Yeah, I think that could be a hazard for those on rollerblades. I

And it did clearly say in the project rules that anything besides paint will need to be run by city staff, just as a point of clarification. Okay. Softee, Tale of a Frog. 20.

19. 25.

24.

Charlie Murphy, The Agreement. 20. 27.

25?

25.

Also, I wanted to note on this one, I don't know how the scoring is going to come out, but as a native design, I wanted to make sure that they, I don't know if they are a native artist or not.

I believe they are.

Okay. Cool. It didn't say it in the narrative for it. It described the influence of the design, but not their connection to it, so I just wanted to confirm.

Yes, they are, definitely. Thank you. I tried not to look at the names.

OK, so the next one is Jen McLaurin, Peaceful Waves. 18.

19. 24.

26.

Auggie Tapia, Dragon Portals. 22. 23. 24.

20.

Blake Regan, Clinging to Fragility.

12.

19.

17.

18. Liz Velasco, Nature Narrative.

18. 23. 26.

18. Mira Eagle, Cuteness Overload.

20.

21. 24.

26.

Monique Harper-Desir, Afro Futures.

20. 25. 18.

20. Carla Faulkner, Community Roots. 11.

15. 21.

15.

Griffin Griggs, Humboldt Kin. 18. 24. 22. 21. Ashley Rose, Solstice.

23. 25. 23. 24.

Fernanda Marisco, intertwining bloom.

19. 21. 22. 19.

Shianna's fine art, under the bay.

I scored this a 17 with the assumption that it was vetted for no AI use.

So we had the artists each check that they did not use AI in their proposal. However, we don't currently have many tools at our disposal beyond just the honor of the artist to check whether or not something is AI.

Trusting the artist, and I scored a 17. OK.

18 12 20 I really badly want to trust the artist but boy if that is their work I mean dang we want to know all about them but this one's really hard to believe that this isn't AI unfortunately Anna Catherine Burnham Tidepool

17 18 22 27 And Bob to Mayo float 17 19 19 21 Okay That completes our scoring. I'm making sure it's saved and then I'm going to go ahead and in live time you'll watch me fumble through Excel. There we go. Okay, I'm gonna bring us back to the top of our proposals.

Can everybody see?

Would you like me to make it bigger?

Okay.

That's the opposite way, okay. How was that?

Okay, let's see.

Okay, I will also, would it be helpful to read them all? Okay, okay.

What are our top 12 on that?

Okay, so sorting by top 12, you have, let me scoot down a little bit. Okay, so you're, Top 12 are Emily Hoogerwerf, Noah Scheffler, Myrna Silva, Elena Vasasilva. I'm so sorry. I feel like I'm not doing your name justice. Lucas Thornton, Penn and Pine, Mycelia Murphy, Tisha Cooper, Penn and Pine, Alexa Stephanakis, River Child, and Alexa Stephanakis. So you've got two artists in your top 12 who have two proposals.

Can we knock out the second of both of those artists? So the second Pen and Pine and the second Alexa?

Yes.

I love Eureka, which is the one with the text is higher. They're both great designs.

Do you have your mic on?

Okay.

The no text was my preference because I don't want someone to stop and read words when they're trying to operate a vehicle around bicyclists and pedestrians. But that's either one. I would love to see one of hers on the boulevard. Doesn't matter to me which one, but that was a personal preference.

These are all at stop signs, right? Yes. Okay.

So it is at the commission's discretion which one you would like. Or I can keep both up there. I can hide one of them for sake of conversation.

I can go either way if everyone else prefers the one with text.

I'm with you in terms of the text, but knowing it's at a stop sign words-wise. I do think the word spacing allows for a little more blue. So if we're trying to deter graffiti, I was thinking the one that had the design throughout may call less to those looking to put up some stickers or write on it themselves.

I agree, a pattern will deter more so than an image in such a format.

So would you like me to keep both proposals in consideration right now, or would you like me to hide one of them?

Well, I think this is exactly why we were doing this, which is really exciting. That's a question. When do we ask for public comment on this?

You did open up your public comment already for this item. If you'd like to open up a second public comment.

But the public just now saw these images. So I would love to know if there's someone in the public that maybe would prefer one or the other.

Anyone out there?

Yeah, I think that is a great idea and I would love to know if there's any other public comment on this Okay, so so chair you'd like to open up a public comment for this on the proposals and these giving everybody like to comment three minutes and You start in the room, I don't see anybody in the room approaching the podium so if you're online, please raise your hand if you'd like to comment on this item and And as a reminder, it's star nine if you're calling in. I'm not seeing any hands raised.

Or is this an opportunity to ask the artist which one they prefer if they're doing one rather than two?

Oh, that is definite. So what Bernadette was just suggesting is perhaps this would be an opportunity to ask the artists to choose which one they prefer, which, I mean, given... Obviously, neither of these are awful. So, you know, Pen and Pine, Jenna has proven herself to make some great choices artistically. So I think that is a valid option. I mean, the... see here as far as the total scores go I love Eureka Eureka loves me the one with the text has three more points than always growing which is the the berries design and Does anyone on the commission have any big thoughts on this? And Ami, this is page eight and nine, I believe, if that's what you're looking for. Okay. Okay. I think that's a great idea. I mean, both of the designs were around the berry motif. So, you know, they're not, like, vastly different. And I know that the write-up also included that since one had text, the other one didn't, that Jenna would be open to putting text on one and, you know, like, splitting the text to put it on both if she had both boxes or whatever. So... I think given that she was open to making some adjustments, I think that giving her the opportunity to choose which one she does, there's nothing specifically that we appear to be against her. Is that a valid option?

Absolutely. It's at the commission's discretion. So if you'd like to let the artist pick which of the two designs they'd like to do and just select that artist in one of those two proposals, that's very doable.

Are there any commissioners against that as an option? no okay since it was your idea i'm assuming you're not against it it was a great idea um okay great so there's one pen and pine okay so i'm gonna just hide the the second pen and pine just so that you can see who else is on the list thank you And then as far as Alexis goes, I mean, there's a five-point spread between the two options. Mushroom and Fern is the higher scoring. Redwood Understory is the lower scoring.

I do think the sizes are drastically different.

I think the grid lends itself better to the overall form of the planter than the first one, understory. I also think the palette has a little more variety and a little more visual enjoyment for passerbys, whatever mode of transportation they are on.

That was also my, that's how I scored, was with Mushroom and Fern having the higher number of points.

So my understanding, it's the will of the commission to only select one of the two, and I will go ahead and hide. It sounds like there's consensus that the commissioners prefer Mushroom and Fern over Redwood Understory.

Yes.

Okay, I will go ahead and hide Redwood Understory. Okay.

So these numbers on the left no longer quite accurately depict where we're at. So we've got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. So your top 12 ends with Haley Rose Kaczynski and Redwood Fairytale.

Okay, and can we scroll down just to see what the next couple after Haley are? So we've got Louise Bacon Ogden with Forest Floor and Michaela Craighead with Sunflower Seastar as alternates, and they were with the same total score between them. I mean, I guess if we're going for that, then also Trinity Sue Marsh Heron, that is the same, a tie for 101 points.

I think we might want to discuss some of that top of that list and see if there might be any shifting, maybe. No? Or are we going, like, well, the top 12. Oh. So...

I mean, if we are offering boxes to the top 12, because there are 12 boxes total for painting. Right. If we did a default of these top 12 folks definitely having a box, and then Sarah was suggesting that since we need to choose two alternates... And giving a preference, a number one and a number two for the alternates. And with what I'm seeing, Louise Bacon Ogden, Michaela Craighead, Trinity Sue, all have a tie for the same number of points. In what I would consider the alternate space So we would just need to narrow down which two and in what order So those three actually were in this like one after another in our so helpful if I pull them up again, I believe so yes, please I

so this is, uh, Louise. Let's see if I can't do this.

Oh, right. You sorted them. They are not one after another in our pages. No, sorry.

Okay. So this is Louise Bacon Ogden. And I will note, um, that this is one of the artists that lives quite close to the C Street project. And then we also have Michaela Craghead, Sunflower Seastar, who lives quite close to the project. And then we have Trinity Sue Marsh Heron.

OK. And she's a bit further. So, I mean, for me, that does help with prioritizing Louise Bacon Ogden and Michaela Craighead. Just purely because they are, like, right basically at the C Street corridor that this is happening on. I though props I just want to say like high five to Trinity sue for like getting this far through considering They live the furthest from the boulevard. So, you know weighted scoring and things like that in consideration They did a great job But We were to narrow it down for the alternates to Louise and Michaela. Does anyone have any thoughts on? Which would be a preference for like first alternate versus second alternate?

So here's Louise and here is Michaela

Okay, y'all, turn on your mics. Don't make me say this for you.

I pick Louise as the first alternate.

I would the same.

Nicole?

Over, oh. Yeah, I'm in agreement.

Okay. And I will add that I know Louise's art style beyond the, this is definitely sketch as opposed to like what her overall art style turns out as. So yeah, I'm in agreement with that. So with Louise as the first alternative and Michaela as the second alternate. Do we?

Are we not having any discussion? We're going strictly by numbers? Because we did discuss the people with multiple submissions.

The ones with multiple submissions.

I'm asking all of us if we are dead set on that or if we want to have a little discussion because we did have some differences in our rationale or reasoning.

I would like to speak on one specifically of Maria Vasilva's Bird Rhythm, beautiful design.

Bird Rhythm? Yes, I agree.

Yeah, my only qualm with it is if it's for visibility, this design is very dark, especially when the sun starts setting at 4 p.m. I think the visibility will be greatly affected. That's currently in one of our top 12.

Mm-hmm.

And it's up on the screen for you right now. Oh, no, Bird Rhythm.

Oh, Bird Rhythm. OK, yeah. That's page 21.

And again, wonderful design, beautiful concept. But if the end goal is to be more visible for drivers, not getting cars hitting it, et cetera, I worry. It's a bit dark.

That's a good point.

She does. I'm seeing in the proposal description, contrasting harmonious colors, creating a bright modern look. So would it be worth asking her if the darkness could be lightened up some, you know, we don't want to get rid of the, the contrast, but also like, I mean, even narrowing, you know, making some of those darker elements, like thinner elements. Yeah. thinner branches, trees.

I would caution us to not suggest how artists should repaint their paintings. I think we can go down a slippery slope if we head there. I'm looking over here on the left and we see 12 and beyond. I'm trying to find 1 through 12 on the text list of what Yeah, because, yeah, thank you.

And I'll just note, again, because I've hidden some of them, so the numbers on the left are not quite accurate.

You've hid the two we discussed that had multiple submissions. I'm fine with that. I'm aware of that. We had that discussion. I'm just trying to figure out if we need to discuss anyone on the top range.

Would you like me to pull up each of the proposals?

That would be awesome. Are you guys okay with that?

Absolutely, for clarity. Okay, so we'll start with Emily Hoogerwerf. Let me pull out a little bit on this to get it a little quicker. And this is Emily Hoogerwerf, Garden Slugs. Scores your highest at 118. Awesome. Good for you, Emily, for watching. Beautiful design. Okay, and then we have Noah Scheffler, Humboldt Panorama, which I believe is up. Bear with me while I scroll through memory. There we go. Okay. Humboldt Panorama on this one scored 115. It looks like your top two through four all scored 115. And then we have Murda Silva, Boulevard of Broken Streams.

I really appreciated the use of alternative modes of transportation in this artist's imagery. I just want to make that note.

And then we have Elena Vasileva, Humboldt Coast. And then we have Lucas Thornton, Egret's On the Move.

I have a question. I love the image, but, and correct me if you are aware differently, is this the same image we recently saw this artist do with a group from Uplift on the waterfront?

Yes.

That was why my score was a little bit lower in that We don't need the same design on two different parts of town. And we all know what Lucas is capable of. You're brilliant. We love you if you're out there listening. But that was my red flag.

Oh, yes. I did not realize that. Thank you for acknowledging that.

I also did not realize that. Thank you.

I originally, so I scored this a 30 because just according to The Matrix, it earned a 30. And especially him, you know, or they are being so close to the project. But yes, I wondered if that could be, you know, discussed in terms of, we're talking about diversifying the artists around the city, right?

Right. And as far as the rubric goes, design considerations, I lowered that point system because it's a design I've already seen done, submitted, paid for elsewhere in town.

I can't argue with that. I was unaware that this was a design that was already utilized in town.

Well, and by the text, it was ambiguous in that, like, this is where my starting point is, and I'm probably going to do something similar but different, was the way I read that. Tell me if I'm misinterpreting. But we didn't have a lot to go with.

And through the chair, I will say that in the rules of the program that I put forth, we asked artists to provide a fully baked proposal because we are going to ask them to not deviate from it. So what they've submitted is what they're going to paint. This isn't... I know I appreciate and love artists, and often it's an evolving canvas, but with it being on city infrastructure, we need to know what you're going to paint before you paint it. That's public art right there, 101. And stick to a proposal. So I would say that there's not a lot of room for him to deviate beyond what he has proposed.

Okay. Okay. So does anyone have thoughts about knocking this one out of the top 12?

Well, and my other thought, again, we love Lucas, love to see him do a big wall. I really would love to, I thought one of our tenants of this project was to, because it's small and the budget is small, to open it up to maybe younger, newer, maybe not any younger, but artists who were newer to public art and This is an artist where you can see their work in every region of this city as well as others in the county. And to those artists, I'd say reach out to me and I'll help you figure out how to do this out of town and get jobs elsewhere because the market can get tapped very quickly in small communities. I would like to see more diversity of the artists that we do fund. Anyone?

I don't disagree. I mean, we know that Lucas does great work. Absolutely. That this is a repeat design absolutely changes my feelings. I mean, the scoring would change vastly had I realized that, which is disappointing and also opens up a space if that's the route that we choose to go with it. You have thoughts on me?

Can we do a re-vote on the scoring since we have new information available? Or is that closed?

It's at your discretion what you'd like to do. You can also simply ask me to hide him and remove him from the top candidates. Or you can redo your scoring, whatever you guys would like to do.

If we hide Lucas from the top 12, then I could maybe, I mean, in case I am mistaken on here, I believe that that then brings us back to the three that had the same scores, which would bring Trinity Sioux up into alternate territory, which is...

Well, we still have more to look at. Yes, yes, absolutely. There are more to look at.

But yeah, why don't we go ahead and hide Lucas for the moment?

Yes.

Okay, and then we'll go ahead and look at our next proposal, which is the pen and pine proposals. Okay. And so you had discussed offering this artist to let them select which one they'd like. So we have Always Growing, which is the strawberries. And then we have I Love Eureka, Eureka Loves Me with Strawberries. Next up, we have Mycelial Murphy. Let me see. There we go. Residence of C Street.

I really love this one. I really love this one too. We know those residents.

Before we move on, I know we considered Louise Bacon Ogden's Forest Floor as one of the alternates, I believe. I just want to draw attention to the similarities. These are one of our top 12 residents of sea. And that's two different artists, two different works. But again, if we're just speaking to just a diverse look of these, that could just be one of our considerations if we are reconsidering alternates, that we have a design that's similar in the top 12.

I would agree. One of my tools personally I used when scoring was looking for images that didn't duplicate. I didn't want to see six with a heron on them or all mushrooms and so on. Something to consider. This was not in my top, but it's fine. I'm okay with it if it stays in the top 12. I think it

appropriate to the location and things that you see at those places it scored 112 in your scoring fabulous so for I mean I I feel III see you you know I see what y'all are saying I think if they are not on boxes that are across the street from each other mm-hmm You know, these styles of them are different enough that there's not going to be like confusion about whether it's the same design. Right.

No, and this was not one of my lowest scores. It was sort of in that higher middle range and I'm fine with it. I had no issues. So next, I guess.

Okay. Okay. Now we have Tisha Cooper, Pollinator Paradise. And Tisha scored 110 on your rubric.

This one makes me a little swoony, I'll be honest. Assuming that it gets a box, I cannot wait to see what it looks like.

next one okay then we had um you selected there are two proposals from alexa and i believe you selected the second of the two mushroom and burn okay that's that'll be a lot of fun and then we have river child up next i believe is up here Chasing Sunflowers, and this one scored 108.

I love this because the palette was very different than all the others.

If we're talking about visibility.

Exactly.

I do love the brightness.

Are you ready to look at the next one? Okay. Let's go down. Maria Vasileva.

So we just we discussed this a bit ago. Were we considering pushing it back because of those issues or.

It was something I considered in my scoring. I don't have an impassioned argument to sway anybody.

It's a lovely design.

Yeah, absolutely. It was just something that I considered when I scored. Upon considering that, if it sways anybody else, I'm open to removing it. But at the same time, if considering the contrast in the darkness, if it doesn't sway anybody, it can stay in the 12.

Is this a mother and a daughter? Or siblings?

I'm not clear of the relationship between the two of them. They have the same residence.

Okay, okay. Because there's something poetic about seeing family painting next to each other, doing two different designs, but I'm not familiar with either of the artists.

I love that this looks like a paper cutout with light behind it. It's just, it's so different than everything else. You know, it's just in its style.

Ready to look at the next one?

Okay, there we go.

Calypso, Red Moth, Twilight. And this one scored 103. So you have a couple that scored 103 together. That's fantastic. Mm-hmm. And then Haley Rose Kaczynski, Redwood Fairytale, also scored 103.

And this artist rounds out our top 12, correct?

I believe they did until you considered removing Lucas's design, and that puts Louise Bacon Ogden as your 12th.

Well, it's Louise, Michaela, and Trinity are all tied for that spot. They all have the same number of points. Yeah, can we, Sarah, can we see Louise, Michaela, and Trinity Sue, please? Absolutely.

Okay, so we've got Louise, Bacon Ogden with Forest Floor. And then we've got Michaela Craghead, Sunflower Seastar. And then we've got Trinity Sue Marsh Heron.

So if we're bumping one of those three up, I believe as far as geography goes, Louise and Michaela have the same amount of almost not space between them and the bike boulevard. Michaela, I would put in a more like up-and-coming position where this, I think, is a great opportunity for Michaela. If that's one of the elements that we were wanting to look at for this was giving some newer to the artistic scene I don't know I'm trying to figure out how to say that but folks opportunities I feel like this would be a great one for Michaela it would be great for on any of those three but I feel like Michaela is what would be a good one to maybe bump up to that 12 spot with Louise as first alternate, Trinity Sioux as second alternate.

I think Trinity Sioux is the proposal in front of us right now. Yes. Okay, so you're thinking Michaela?

Imagery-wise, I would put Louise before Michaela only because land animals versus water animals on C Street. We don't want to see C Street with sea stars everywhere. We're not ready for that level of sea level rise. No offense, Michaela. That's my personal taste. Although we did discuss that is similar. Louise's is similar to one of the ones on the 12 with similar flora and fauna. Yeah. I mean, if those two are alternates, I'm fine with that.

Does anyone have, in addition to Bernadette's thoughts on this, if we are narrowing it down to the topic of the art, bumping it to the last given spot?

Well, and that's just for the ranking of these two alternates, really. Nothing more than that.

I mean, we don't have a lot of sea life in the top 12, so that would also provide a variation in themes. And it is Sea Street. Oh, my gosh.

How did we not catch that earlier? I'm open to giving Michaela the 12th spot if that's where we're at. So I'm in agreement with that. My only thing is moving Trinity Sue to first alternate. That hair and that blue was not used as much.

No, Trinity Sue's design was really lovely.

It's very Art Deco.

Yes. And I think the fact that the other two live basically on the boulevard is what's bringing them forward. Was it 6.6 miles? Yes. It was a distance from Trinity Sioux to the location.

Not that that's far.

Are they Arcata?

I'm assuming. That seems like an Arcata distance.

Or deep into Cotton or Elk River.

With that information, I'm in agreement.

Although design-wise, it's beautiful. Absolutely stunning.

Yeah, I would like to see Michaela's first and then Louis' second.

So as far as bumping Michaela up into the top 12?

Yeah, I would like to bump Michaela up into the top 12 because her design is very different from everyone else's. And she's a newer artist. And then Louise would be the first alternate.

And then with Trinity Sue, a second alternate.

Yes. OK.

I can work with that.

OK.

Where do we go now?

So if you think you might be ready for a motion, I can pull up the motion language for you. Yes, please. And I'm going to, if you think you're ready for a motion, why don't I read off what you have as your top 12 and then your two alternate so that we can, then you can just make your motion off of what I've said if you all agree with that for clarity's sake so we don't have to hunt for names. Okay, so in our top 12, we have Emily Hoogerwerf, Garden Slugs, Noah Scheffler, Humboldt Panorama, Myrna de Silva, Boulevard of Broken Streams, Elena Vasileva, Humboldt Coast, Penn and Pine, one of the two proposals that she can select from. mycelial murphy residents of sea tisha cooper pollinator paradise alexa stephanakis mushroom and fern river child chasing sunflowers maria vasileva bird rhythm um calypso red moth twilight and then i believe we have michaela crackhead as our 12th

I've got Haley, Haley Rose Kaczynski. Oh, excuse me.

Haley Rose Kaczynski and then Michaela Craghead, Sunflower Seastar. And then for first alternate, we had Louise Bacon Ogden, Forest Floor. And second alternate, Trinity Sue Marsh Heron. Yeah, that sounds right. Let me count really quick just to make sure. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. What am I missing here then? Wait, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.

What did we just do?

So then I think I miscounted originally and guided you wrong. I'm sorry. Okay, so we have 12. Oh, okay.

Okay. How funny. So before we actually had 13, before we took Lucas out. Yeah. Sarah. No, I'm kidding.

But you don't have the first one highlighted. I do, yeah. Oh, okay.

So due to proximity, we can, you know, say sorry to Trinity Sue and then move Michaela to the first alternate and Louise to second alternate, both living in C Street or near C Street. I don't know the residence.

Like, so close. Spitting distance from C Street. Sorry, I read you guys wrong on that one.

And there's so many amazing artists, just the proximity, of course. You know, bumped them out. With Trinity Sue, for example. Yeah.

Can we, like, add 30 more boxes? What about that?

Well, I will say that this is a wonderful process in that, like, we have folks that have made these designs available, and maybe there's somebody out there who would, like, to see this design on a wall or something else of that nature. And hopefully these designs will get used somewhere else. Yeah.

Absolutely. There are planters galore and walls galore and dumpsters galore. And I mean, as far as like public facing art opportunities go. Yeah. I'm hoping since there are a lot of new to us names on this list in this presentation, I really want to think that this will open the doors for future projects as well with showing them that, you know, keep an eye on what the city is up to, keep an eye on our socials, things like that, and keep applying to do things here in the city because this is what we want. You know, there's going to be people riding bikes that live in town. There's going to be people riding bikes that don't live in town. And anywhere they go, pretty much in Eureka, they're running into public art, which is exactly what we're aiming for.

Absolutely.

OK, so we have our top 12 and our two alternates. And let me pull up some motion language for you.

Would someone like to move?

I move that the Art and Culture Commission select the following 12 proposals for the Art Planters on C Street project. And select as first alternate and second alternate the names we just discussed moments ago.

I second. All in favor? Aye.

Aye.

Aye. And that is unanimous. Wonderful.

Okay, well that concludes the items on our agenda.

Can I say one thing before we end? So if any of the artists out there that were selected are listening or tuning in, please do reach out if you have a need for paint. And I know I have a lot of half and quarter cans in mostly cool tones that are high quality exterior grade latex. I would happily give you if they were matching your... design palette.

That's really kind.

And I think my email is all over the place online for this. So they can.

If they can spell my name, they can find me. If they can't find me, find Sarah. She knows where to find me.

And then, I'm sorry, we missed who the second was on that motion. That was Nicole. I seconded. Okay. Well, I don't think there's any other agenda items. Your next meeting is October 20th, 2026.

Fantastic. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.