Arts Commission - Bylaws Subcommittee - Regular Meeting

We're ready to go. Does the chair want to make a or vice chair, pro tem, make a welcome?

Well, I think the first thing we have to do is make a motion to accept the pro tem.

Okay. Is there

a motion to accept?

Do you want me to chair? Yes. Somebody has to make a motion.

I know. Second.

So it's

Donna. Yes. Yeah. I motion that that Ron be the chair I might sign. Who was the second? Who's the second?

You have the second. Okay. Okay.

You got that? Alright. So we have a motion a second for the pro 10. These are terms that usually doing. Okay.

All those in favor?

Aye. Aye. Alright.

Alright. So I'd like to call the City of Joliet Arts Commission meeting to order for Wednesday, 11/19/2025. First up is roll call.

Sure. Deborah Fallot, absent. Donna Franks Tapley, here. Tom Gutowski, absent. Ron Romero?

Here.

Julia Rosati? Absent. John Simpson Junior is absent. Peg Stoeiber? Here. Deborah Summers?

Here.

Deborah Valling? Here. Did I say that right? Valling?

Valling. Valling? Okay. Here. Alright. There is quorum.

Next item is approval of minutes from the meeting from 10:15 twenty five. It should be in your package there. Is there any questions? If not, we would need a motion to accept as presented.

I move to accept the minutes as presented.

Okay. I said. I'm sorry. I said sorry. Yep. Okay.

Motion started.

So moved. Alright. There was a motion and a second. All those in favor?

Aye. Aye. Okay.

And next item is Citizens Bureau agenda items. Seeing no citizens here. Seeing none, we'll move on to agenda items, which is a staff update on the draft public art ordinance.

All right. Okay. I have a presentation. We have a presentation. All right.

So it's been quite some time, I think, that this has been discussed in detail. So as you may or may not know, Ray Heitner and I and staff have been working over the last many months to prepare a public art ordinance. And so the direction that this ended up taking so there was this public arts policy document that the commission here had been working on. And his staff kept diving into the details of that policy document. We just kept coming back to how does the city enable public art to actually get put up in the city?

What is the process to intake art for the city of Joliet? And then as some of you know here, I am the director of the planning division. So my name's Jane Bernhardt. And one of the tasks that we have in the planning division is to work with our sign regulations. So again, how do signs get put up?

How do objects get put up in the city? We work closely with our building division to do that. Where I'm going with what I'm going show you we'll jump right in is to talk about the process that we're proposing to intake art, public art, into the city of Joliet, both art that would be paid for through city grant funds, as well as private citizens and private entities, what's the enabling process for them to move forward. So just some background information. This arts commission was established in 2019 to review proposals and assist in the process to create art projects in the cities, which are located in the public realm.

And we know that there is a desire from this commission and the public to see more public art installations throughout Joliet. And it's been a frequent topic at this meeting. The city doesn't have a clear and transparent process right now to enable public art on private and public property. So a purpose of this ordinance would be to regulate how the city defines, intakes, reviews, accepts, and removes, or deaccessions, public art in the public realm. So I want to stop for a second and draw your attention to the two images on the screen.

So the first on the left is a mural that is at the location of a barber shop on Plainfield Road. Is this public art, or is it signage? So the city right now would we don't have an art a public art process, as I just said. So we would evaluate this with as a signed ordinance, And it we would identify how much signage this property has, how much they're allotted, because each property is allotted a

certain amount

of signage. I'll get to that in a second. And if they're over that amount of signage, they would have to apply for a variance. I will say, in this case, this image in front of you, there was no application, and they it's just it just happened. And this would be an instance of where we have to go back and work with existing parts, whether it's with this you know, and and to kind of try to figure out how we get an installation like this to compliance.

This, as you can see, is definitely calls attention to that business. So this would be one of those considerations that would have to be thought through through the arts commission as well as the staff permitting process. So I I'm paying this to your attention because these are the nuances that we have been trying to sort through at the staff level and we're bringing to your attention as Arts Commission members. The other image on your right is the blank canvas. So this is, I think, that actual, we call that a a kind of an embankment or abutment.

That's owned by the city, I believe. That's owned by the city. But right behind it, it's owned by the relevant company. So in any case, public art could go there. And again, what's the process for allowing and enabling that to happen?

So these are just examples. An objective of the public art ordinance is to really clarify relationship between Joliet sign regulations, which is in the zoning ordinance and then the municipal code with regulating and permitting public art. Our zoning ordinance defines signs in a way that allows for the regulation of things like murals and statues and other attention generating objects. We require permits. Each property has a total amount of signage that's allotted to them.

We regulate the placement of signs or objects. And we our building department takes a very hard look at the installation to make sure they meet public safety requirements. And then we are enabled, through our zoning ordinance to look at the duration of signs and objects in the city of Joliet. Okay. The thought with this draft as we're working through this draft, and again, this is an update of where we're at with our thought process.

And we'll break, and we'll go on to hear your questions and feedback on this, is that all public art proposals would initially be reviewed through the city's sign ordinance. So this chart on the right hand side is an overview of all the zoning district categories in the city, and what their total sign area allowance is for each of those zoning districts. Proposals that fall within a property's allotted square footage for signage could be reviewed administratively and would need to go through a public process here. But properties that exceed property's allotted square footage for signage would require a public art permit. This public art permit would be a formal application, and it would include basic information in addition to a plan detailing what is the artistic intent and what's the narrative that will be documented in this application.

Will detail how that artwork will be installed, how it's going be maintained. And then it will detail removal requirements. There will be a clear designation of who's responsible for the installation, maintenance, and removal of the artwork. And then there will be an outline of the estimated costs associated with the installation, maintenance, and removal, which that's something standard at least in the building division. All of our applications for building permits and for sign permits require an estimated cost of the value of that construction work.

So some, I guess, some key terms to think about is a session. So we so we're thinking about this in

the sense

that someone who's proposing a mural on the side of a building, it's most likely to exceed the sign allotment for that property. So in the downtown, for example, the a property is allotted around a 120 square feet of signage, and that really doesn't go that's enough for that property to have a wall sign, maybe some window signs, maybe a ground sign if they even have a place to put a ground sign. But murals can be 300 square feet, 600 square feet in size. So any mural would likely already surpass this total sign area for that property. So the thought is that they would apply.

There would be a sessioning process to become part of the city's collection. So by the Arts Commission granting we'll get to the grant the per the permit review part in a second. By the Arts Commission granting this permit, it the city is now accepting it into the the city art collection. Then there'll be an art display agreement, which formally details the duration, installation, removal responsibilities, and other conditions, which kind of speaks to the concerns that we've heard through the last couple of years. I think this art commission has responded to is, we have older murals.

There's no one responsible for taking them down or fixing them at this point. So this art display agreement would detail out these installation or removal responsibilities. The public art ordinance would also outline how public art is removed from the city collection. We'll go through that at the end of this short presentation. We'll just talk about the public art permit, which is a document that we issued upon approval of the proposed public artwork.

And then what would be considered part of your purview to review for a public art permit? So it's really anything that can be viewed within or from the public right of way or from a public setting. So I used an example that what we don't contemplate regulating is if someone was putting up a statue in the backyard of a business or a corporation that's not viewed from a public street or a public alley. So it's not meant to be enjoyed or seen from the public. That is not something that this is intending to regulate.

A process will consist of there's a formal application submittal. There will be review and approval then. So we talked about administrative review can happen if it's a very small piece that wouldn't exceed that property's sign allotment. So we could do that administratively here at the staff level. Then the next level would be administrative review to make sure that the public art application is complete.

It's got all the necessary components then for this arts commission to review and approve. And then a third tier is that city council approval may be required for projects that were valued at over $25,000. So that's been that's something that we're evaluating right now. But the goal the goal at this point in time would be to have the arts commission review Well, City Spencer, yeah. They would have to do that.

Yeah. The Arts Commission would be the review and approval authority for the public most of the public art permits. These are some draft evaluation standards. So your review would look at the quality of the work, aesthetic merit. So under consideration would be, is this more advertisement, or is this just art for art's sake?

You would think about the context within how this proposed piece fits within the context of the city's public art collection. You would evaluate the suitability of the proposed site. You would look at the installation requirements and then maintenance requirements and durability of the artwork. And then this slide just details what our thoughts are related to how you would deaccession, how artwork would be then removed from the city's collection, which is Okay. Again, the public art permit and the agreement specifies a time frame.

So a mural is not meant to last thirty years. It's not meant to last probably more than ten years. I don't have that exact number. But this permit and the agreement would detail the terms of that mural I'm using mural as an example to be on a property. And if that property owner or the applicant wants to renew that agreement, absolutely.

And they would go through this process again. And maybe it involves refurbishing that mural or something different. So this isn't meant to kick everything out, but it's meant to keep things looking fresh and also to hold the art, I guess, the the the artist or the property owner accountable for if it's not maintaining the standards that the city would like to see or you would like to see that that would need to come down. Artwork that is on private property would again be removed by the property owner at their own cost. And then, you know, what would be the next step?

So, you know, I'm here tonight to get initial feedback on kind of our thoughts right now and where we're at with this process. We will continue to work on an ordinance. So this will be an ordinance that gets adopted by city council that clearly again, clearly lays out to the public what the process would be for how the city enables the intake of public art. We would then draft the associated documents. So what would

be the how would the

application look, and what what would the permit look like. So we come back to the Arts Commission for review of of a real ordinance and then those application materials for your feedback, and that may take a couple meetings. Then it would move, after your final recommendation, to city council for approval, and then the hopes is adoption, and then it would be part of the follow-up process for the intake of public art. Well, so that well, yeah, that was it. I did I guess I would say before I we start answering, I guess, questions is I guess I hid this slide.

I can unhide it. Oh, there it is. So we did some research on our some of our more prominent peer communities too. And, yeah, I wanted to share this with you because I know you you also have done research with other communities. And we only saw for this, we we just specifically looked at how they intake public art and how they work with public art that's, yeah, within the public realm. So I'll leave that on here for a second. But,

yeah, I

would love to hear your comments at this point on the intake of public art.

I I have a question.

Yeah.

Would there be anything that addresses art that is already there prior to this proposal, prior to the back

of this? Great great question. What we are contemplating right now is to do an inventory of what is existing, and then where the goal will be to bring those existing public art I'm not gonna use murals as an example. So maybe existing murals. And not the ones that you've talked about here that are city that city the funds of the community public art program funded, but murals that are on private property.

Right.

Right. How to break those into compliance. Yeah.

Yes. So anything that's over the signage requirements would be kicked into the public

park? Yeah. Right be yes. Because right now, their only option is a variance. And the the process of getting a variance is that the applicant needs to prove that their request is necessary because there's a hardship. I wouldn't I mean, there's no hardship for these for public art. So this we don't wanna go down the path of a variance. We think we think we wanna make enable a more clear, transparent process and a better process forward so that someone's not having to get a variance for public art.

So that barbershop mural, that's in violation of the signage because it's

We have lot of examples of that. Yeah. We have yes. It is right now. We we have a lot of examples. I shouldn't say a lot. That's exaggeration. We have some examples which you have just brought up about. We have murals that fear more towards advertisements for the property.

Is that why did you think this this is a violation? I was curious.

That's This is a this is definitely an advertisement for a barbershop. Yeah. Okay. It's cool looking. Well, that's subjective. I think it's cool looking. But

That's because it has your name on there? Is that why it's is there an advertisement?

Yeah. It says Louis Barbershop. An Alright. But

if you didn't have that,

would that be considered an

advertisement? Advertisement? If it was just

You know, that that that gets the point of, like, what your your purview would be. So if you know, I'm just I'm just speculating, like, two years down the road, if this person came in and they wanted to do a gigantic mural on the side of their building, I mean, I I I think with because they don't have to there's if you they would come to you and because the only way for them to do this project, let's just say again, two years down the road, is to get permission from the Arts Commission. Because, otherwise, they don't really qualify for a variance. There's no hardship. Mhmm.

So your in your review, I feel that it would be appropriate for the Arts Commission to say, like, well, we we like x, y, and z, but this really veers more towards advertisement. But I would suggest coming back to us and losing the, you know, the Louis Barber shop or the or the things that you think make it scream more towards advertisement. Now staff should have already hopefully communicated that to them too. I'll just say that. So we hopefully would have caught that and already made that recommendation, but at the same time, it's still the right of the applicant. If they really want to bring this to your attention, they could do that. So

I have a few questions. Yeah. I think signage and and art, I don't know that we can define it so clearly because this is obviously an art piece. And though it has his their name, the business name on it, does it learn lean to his signage? Does it lean towards art work? I don't know. How does that work for, like, the the ghost print that's on the backside of the Rialto? Is that a sign, or is that artwork? Is that you're advertising the Rialto, but it's also, you know, it's it's also artwork out there that's supposed to be kind of retro looking.

Oh, the one they they did more recently, you're saying? Yeah. Scott Street. Yeah. Which they had to get a variance for. Mhmm. Yeah. I think that's you're bringing again out the the good questions, and it's something that we're still trying to tease out through this process.

And can it be done by percentage? I mean, obviously, there's a lot of elements in this that's more leaning towards art than it is his than his business name. Is there you know, how much of that does it lean heavily more towards artwork than identification? Or just just a thought. Yeah.

Yeah. If I this is Sany. If I I might be able to take a stab at that. So I think, you know, Jing put up the slide about kind of peer reviews, and I think this is exactly why we're having this conversation. This is a basic start. There's some terms in here and ideas, and these are the type of questions we want to try to get answers to. I think looking at our peers, looking at our neighboring, like, surrounding towns and cities to see what they've already done would be really good examples to bring back. And then that would ultimately be part of the ordinance, which is also why we're not handing you a draft ordinance right now because we need to get met we need to get

more clarity. Yeah. Before get Yeah. Yeah. No.

These are exactly the type of questions that we we need to talk about now because these are the type of questions that will actually come up when that permit process is occurring.

And then also, when somebody is doing the artwork, who owns the intellectual property? Because then comes into play, is it work for hire? Are we hiring somebody to do the artwork for the city of Joliet, or do they own the intellectual property? Because the the predecessor to the art commission was the Friends of Community Yard or Friends of whatever it was called before. And when I came on board I mean, I I had a pretty harsh phone call that was like, you can't take that down because we own the the intellectual property, and we don't have the the right to do that. So how do we handle just

Yeah. No.

I I can conversation. How do we

I can answer that. So I'm gonna, again, have to keep this image up here. So I'm gonna speak to the private sector stuff first because I keep looking at this How do we respond to requests that we get so staff gets about, I wanna do a mural. I wanna do something cool on the side of my building or on the side of that building. And it's not we're not talking the use of city funds.

So this is just a private citizen who or so or so. So someone owns a building, and they engage an artist. And they the goal for me is is this process will help define how that property owner can hire their own artist and get something up on their building as art. So to me, the intellectual property is is that artist. To me, this just because they're accepted into the city collection doesn't mean that we, the city, would take over that intellectual property.

For projects that are funded by the city, I don't have an answer. So I think you bring up a good question. But I don't that I mean, I've scrutinized a lot of friends of the community public art agreements and documents. I mean, I and there were agreements and and and stuff with the city. I can't speak to, you know, how that would unfold in the future for other kinds of arrangements. But it wouldn't be the Arts Commission ever holding the intellectual property because this

is a city commission. So if there

was ever an entity like Friends of the Community Public Guard or the art movement that was it was in existence more recently. I mean, that would be the entity. The Yards Commission is is the city commission.

Right. Yeah. We're just a recommending body. Yeah. That's all we do. Understood.

And oh, I'm sorry, Ron.

Can you

add something? You know, I think a good example also is to talk about the Sija Chen sculpture

Yeah.

And kind of the intellectual property for that. And then Yeah. As I bring it up, I'm like, oh, I don't know all the details. Yeah. But I think it's something we can look into because it's probably a lot of it. City wise, it's gonna be case by case basis as well. But we are already doing that with Sijia Sun Sijia Chen and Sculpture. Excuse me. But the difference is here that James talking about is the arts commission not only would be part of the process for city owned art or city produced, paid for, but also private entities having a process for that so that it's not right now with signs. I yeah. So

yeah. I would think, you know, the the liability of somebody paying somebody to paint this on the side of the building that we see up here now, that's gotta be on the owner themselves to hire them and would it Yeah. You can assume that's work for hire, but you would yeah. I would almost lean that way. They hired that person. Yeah. They didn't just provide them the the the,

you know,

the place to paint. They gave them they paid them to do that. So I to deaccession that would probably not be a big thing. But anything that the city owns, I think, that probably has to be written out

Yes.

Very specifically to say that this is public property owned by us. We own we'll own the copyright on that. Yep. But then and I'm sorry to be devil's advocate here, but then what about because there was other concerns about this. We hire somebody to put that out this great mural on one of the big boards here maybe in this thing that you have here. And that person who did that, do they own the the the rights to that artwork to say, I'm going to reproduce that, mass reproduce

that,

and sell them as postcards. Can they do they have the right to do that within as intellectual property owners?

I think those are good questions. Well, I'll I'll just my thought is that that would get worked out with the artists. And that's almost to me, that's almost differ that's aside from this process. Like, that's a city of Joliet funding kind of agreement with the artist, which doesn't even to me, doesn't have to relate to the process of get getting the art piece getting installed and then maintain it deaccessioned. I mean, it would relate. So, like, that's to me, it's different.

We're gonna have to keep that in consideration.

Yes.

That that same example of the Friends of the Art, Community Art, was we weren't able to it was on city property, and they were had a fit because we were taking down their their property. Yeah. So I think that I don't know if we can treat this separately. I think we need to be aware of this as we walk into it.

I think be aware of it. And going back to Sija Shine only because we have the contract with her, within that contract and once again, different artists are different. And public art and sculpture is also probably going to be a little bit different than murals as well. But there are things in there about intellectual rights, but then there's also parameters in there about reproduction and things like that, how you can use it. They are within the artist's contract. But that is going to be something that if it's city produced, Citi paid for, will will be a little different, I think, than than that. But all great questions.

Yeah. I mean, I'll just put this slide up here again. So the third bullet well, second and third. So the application will have will outline this information and then the, like, clear designation of who's responsible for the installation, maintenance, removal, regardless if it's private applicant or a city sponsored project. And then this art display agreement that the this agreement is what outlines, again, the these requirements.

So my understanding is we did not have the type of agreements that with the Friends of the Community Political Guard that would have specified the maintenance and removal requirements. We just didn't. I mean, it was a long time ago. But we've learned from that, and that's that was really why we have this agreement here is because we've learned from that, and that's knowing that it's necessary.

Do you know the history about that, friends of art? Because my understanding was that there was don't quote me on this, but I think that they were allowed, like, $250,000 a year to maintain the artwork, to put up new artwork, to maintain the artwork being the predecessor to the Artist commission, like, do we know where the funding came from or how that all came together?

Do you know?

I mean, I have it. Yeah. Oh, you do?

Well, so the Friends of the Community Public Art was funded in large part by the city of Joliet in starting in the late nineties. So the murals, the statues with the mosaics were funded by the city of Joliet with some grant funding from the national, I believe, endowment of the humanities, but it may have been also a state grant. The Friends of the Community Public Art was the was the entity that carried out the project. So I don't if that answers your question. But, like so there was a lot of there was a lot of funding involved at that time.

I don't my understanding is the city did not pay for ongoing maintenance at the cost that you you just said. I think they just paid for the initial for the installation. They paid for the artist to do the work. There was I mean, there was exhibits exhibit exhibit showings. I mean, there was there was a lot of excitement at the time, and and there was other ways that the art was promoted.

There was, you know, magnets. There was postcards. I mean, all that was paid for through that through the city, or we had some grants to help pay for that kind of like the PR component of that. Since that time, the city has paid some, you know, modest amounts for some maintenance mostly to our mosaics or statues. So that's been happening since I've been here, at least that I know of. I don't know if that answers fully your question.

But It does. Yeah. And it was brought to the commission before about how to handle artwork, which we voted on some time ago, which was fix it if we can, remove it if if there's nothing that could be done, and then to look for so somewhere in our minutes, there was something that was presented a long time a long time ago about that that probably would be included in this, I would assume. Right?

Are there any other comments?

Yeah. I okay. No. No. I was just I wrote some questions down earlier. Yeah. Is there a like, what what actually exists right now? Is there a public or a permit that exists already? And then is there did I miss it? Is there a copy of the signed ordinance? Are these things that still need to be created?

So public art permit doesn't exist. This that would be the end goal of this process would be to establish the requirement that you need a public art permit if you want to put up or install art or that is above and beyond what is allowed under our sign ordinance. Sign ordinance has been in existence since the sixties. It's been amended from time to time. It's it's within our zoning ordinance.

So so the issue with the barbershop mural is that it's bigger than the sign ordinance? Bigger than what the sign allotment for

that property is. Yeah. Okay.

If it were within the sign ordinance, they would able to keep it even if it was, like, an assignment? Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. If they if it's within their sign allotment, for sure. Yeah.

Anna. I didn't.

You you spoke about location. On the way here, I saw it was very colorful, so I know it's beautiful. I kinda was upset. I couldn't even see it because it was at the on the back of a building. I came here telling Donald about, oh, it's really nice. You need to go see it. So location matters will matter. For example, would I get have to get a permit if I had a building and it was all on the back? If it's not if it's not visible to the public eye, then it's okay. Is that what you were saying in here?

That's what we're suggesting if it's not visible, but you just said you saw it. I did. I I would say it's visible. And the public can see it. Right?

They can see they can see the colors. They can't you you would not be able to figure out what it is. But you can see I I wish I could it's beautiful. I mean, it's just well, I don't know what it is. I can't tell you if it's even acceptable, but it's it's full full building Okay. Off the road Yeah. In the back.

Yeah. Okay.

I mean, the goal right now will be if it's visible, we would want to have it go through a process. Okay. I mean, we're we're not trying to be punitive. We're just we're trying to almost we're trying to enable a process. Because right now, there is no process, and it's confusing. And staff, sign city staff has to turn projects away because there's no clear and transparent process.

Okay.

And, also, right now, because there is no process for public art, it does enable staff to turn away things that would probably be inappropriate too. But but, again, that would be kind of weeded out then through a more clear and transparent process.

So our goals are to like we did before, did a little research and looked around at some other cities and what they have and tried to come up with our own policy. I mean, I feel like we this was something that started some years ago, a couple years ago maybe, and then it just it sort of fell through. So we're back at this again.

We Well presented, I think it was October 2023, a a full public arts policy. We don't know what happened to it, but I was just going through it right now looking at it. Some of the questions that we're asking, what should we do, is already kinda hammered out in that in that policy. Like what? For instance, like, who owns the copyrights and things like that. Hold on. Let me get this pull this up here again. Yeah. That it could be, but that was something that was presented some time ago. Ownership and copyright policy for works included public art asset inventory.

The city shall own the physical work, and the copyright copyrights shall be retained by the artist with reproduction rights allowed by the city and arts commission for appropriate promotional and educational funded in part by the city of Joliet. Yeah. So that's some of the stuff. I'm just wondering if any of this has been reviewed or been looked at.

No. It's definitely been reviewed, and I think what you just outlined would be part of that document that's part of that art display agreement. So definitely part of this process as we've been moving forward. And that to me, again, that speaks to public the public funded art and stuff that's coming through. Like, you're you applied for this grant, and now this arts commission is is tasked with figuring out how to spend that grant funding through that.

So to me, that's where that falls. This ordinance would help address the private sector enabled projects as well. I you know, to maybe Ms. Frank's question too, you know, we wanna take your feet I mean, we want to keep giving us information if you feel like there's other communities that we haven't looked at. But at at this point in time, like, we know you've spent a lot of time on thinking about a public arts policy.

We took one component of that policy. So I would so maybe to your point too, Ron, that the public arts policy hasn't been tossed aside. The staff took a really deep dive on how how is there a path forward, though, for enabling public art to happen in the city of Joliet. So we really just took a deep dive at one of the one of the components of that public art policy. And we're presenting to you, you know, an overview of where we're at in the process.

We're not expecting the Arts Commission to do a bunch of research at this point in time. And we were happy to take more information. But I mean, we have staff now who are, you know, been been here to do arts and culture. So and the planning division staff is gonna continue to help drive completing this type of a process. So if you have information, we're happy to keep diving into the details.

But we want to get something to use to help move public art intake forward. And public arts policy is still another project that the Arts Commission should continue to work. And I know you have thoughts on that too. I haven't you know, I haven't this is I don't this isn't I haven't been at your meetings because this isn't I haven't been the staff liaison for this project, but I have been working on the side with doing what you're seeing here today.

Yeah. Where does that mural that's on Central that's right around Central Campus on Trex, where does that fall in terms of via session?

That's a good question. So that was a mural that done through the Friends of the Community Public Art Initiative. I don't know where that would fall with a deaccessioning process, so that was done through that big larger effort for the murals for the city. Something to think about. And, again, I guess to maybe Ron's point, like, that question is would be part of what your public arts policy was looking at. Right? I mean, when I read that, it was talking about the deaccessioning of existing City Of Joliet community funded art. So I am not here to talk, I guess, about that. So I don't wanna confuse the two projects. And that is that project's not dead.

It's it's just I have been working on this to get to enable a process that the arts commission can respond to in the future.

Thank you.

Do you have, like, some milestone needs to win the second half of the final draft of your

That's a good question. It's mid November, so I would hope that we because we wanna we want to move this forward. I would hope by, I would say, I guess, summer. I would aim for spring. But yeah.

To have a so then when you get that drafted, is

that Oh, a draft? I'd like to have a draft to this group by spring. And then if there's things that need to still be hammered out, like, have the final go to the city council this summer. But I feel like we're almost there. I really do.

Okay. Alright. Well, I will continue to work with Anne and and you all, and hope to be back in a couple months with some more updates. And Anne will continue to give you some updates on, you know, where we're at with this process.

Thank you. Thank you. Do want me to

pull up your Yeah.

Yeah. In

case you're wondering why people are showing up, there's a preservation commission meeting at six. So

Hey, o. Okay.

We move on through the agenda then?

Or Yes. Okay. That's

So next up would just be member comments.

Any other questions? No. I'm sorry. This is still part of staff updates.

Oh, apologies.

We had we had two components to kinda the staff updates. Jane did the public art, and then I just wanted to provide some updates as well.

Oh, there you go.

So Oh, okay. Thanks.

Just a couple things. First of all, Donna, Tom, and I really had an amazing opportunity to attend the One State for the Arts and Humanities in Champaign. It was a three day conference. It was meeting the moment. There was three zero seven professionals and 39 breakout sessions.

I have to say, and Donna, I would love your input here, I found it incredibly helpful. You know, there's there were workshops from everything about how to budget things, how to get things done. I mean, it and just the network of people we got to meet from different communities all throughout Illinois. I know that I learned a lot and really came back invigorated with starting to implement things in Joliet. Donna, did you wanna add anything since you were there too?

I mean, I definitely echo what you're saying. Just being that I'm a student of art. Went to school in Chicago in undergrad and, you know, programs like Little Black Pearl, like the people at what is it? The Morgan not Morgan Park. What is it?

It's gone. I'm always losing my train of thought, but I'm so frustrated that I can't remember the name of this art center. But being able to network with folks that are making decisions about what happens in their community, I thought was really enlightening. You know, the boots to the ground, the people that are literally making those decisions about how they're reaching out to their communities and networking with them. One of my goals for wanting to attend beyond being a part of this commission was to, you know, I think in my mind somewhere, my little art studio becomes a like the Joliet Public Arts Center where, you know, visual art happens, then humanities happens, and dance and theater.

And so I wanted to go to learn about how these things sort of come about. And I'm about six years away from retirement, and I mentioned this over that over the weekend from the public school where I work. And my goal is to sort of transition right into community arts. And so I think if there's anyone who's wanting to continue working in, you know, the public art spaces that, you know, being a part of these conferences and going and networking and meeting people is definitely to our advantage. It's Beverly Arts Center.

I couldn't think of it. But I was able to talk to the women that run the Beverly Arts Center, and they had a lot of great information to share about funding and just reaching the community. And so

And what I'll add to that as well is, you know, the theme was meeting the moment. And I will say it was definitely an interesting moment that we are all meeting in, with federal funding grants being changed. Lots of things are changing. And to have all these people come together to figure out how to get through it and how to support each other, it really makes you realize how important the network of arts and culture really exists and how how important it is. Yeah. So

It's also brought a

light to sort

of where we are, where I feel like not just, you know, what, the last couple of years a part of this commission. It sort of, again, shines a light on where we are and what we need to go with a lot of communities so far into these programming that the community can be a part of and partnerships they have with schools. I just think we have a lot of work to do here. So that was eye opening for me.

Yeah. You know, I mean, and, you know, the mayor and city manager hired me in this role and created it because they really believe that arts and culture are important to the vitality of people that live here and to bring tourism here as well. And it's really great to get examples from there to kind of show the economic impact of that and, like, the impact it really does so that when these projects are actually done, we can help justify them too and help see some of the return by having people move here, enjoy being here, revitalize downtown, and the communities as well. So I'm looking forward to it. To also, just a quick update on the the Unity Dome update.

Sija Chen came here to kind of present her itinerary when she was here in October, And I do know that some people were able to join her at some of the community workshops. I wanted to outline the different schools that she visited. I really took a couple of days to kind of go with her, and it was really astounding. I have to say congratulations and thank you. You chose an excellent artist to really create something and to represent the city of Joliet.

I was really in awe of how she worked with anyone from second graders to people very, who were artists in high school who wanted to go into art. I mean, just the way she worked with them to pull information from them to figure out how this Unity Dome will actually represent Joliet and what's meaningful to people. I have been involved in twenty five years of arts and culture, and it's rare that an artist will actually take the opportunity to incorporate community input in a final project. That does not happen often. And so I'm really proud of Juliette for kind of taking that step.

Sija will actually be well, not be here, excuse me. We'll do a final presentation. The Arts Commission actually helps to recommend for the final sculpture proposal. December 10 is what I'm proposing at 5PM. We actually currently don't have a meeting scheduled in December, but in order to meet the May timeline, we're looking to do that.

And then I did just want to add, part of the community engagement was online submissions. And in a matter of, I want to say it was two weeks, she got 104 submissions. So that's people from Joliet submitting their ideas and things like that that she was able to take from, in addition to the community workshops and the schools that were visited. So, okay. Any questions on Sija Chen? I know hopefully most of you got an opportunity to meet her when she came here.

Okay. And,

actually, I'm gonna turn it back over to Jenny. I do wanna say something first, though, because I've had the opportunity to meet with some of you. There's still some I do need to meet with. And one of the first questions I keep being asked is, what is your vision? What is your goals?

And I had a really great conversation. So Jane is leading the comprehensive plan for the City Of Joliet. And we recently had kind of a touch point, and she was able to talk to me about some of the initial feedback from that community, workshops and things like that, that are going to develop visions and goals for arts and culture. So I think working along with the comprehensive plan we've already gotten feedback from the public on what they want or from the community I think will actually help us to develop what we do in 2026 and moving forward. And, Jane, if you can talk through that a little bit.

Yeah. So thanks to all of you who've already participated in the Joliet comprehensive plan. We had a big public engagement process that started this summer, and and, you know, it was the first phase kinda is winding down. Now we moving forward, we have we, being the advisory committee and staff, are evaluating vision goals and objectives for these kind of big topic areas, and you'll see them on your screen right now. What we would like feedback from the Arts Commission is on these objectives and goals and whether or not they align with what you see through your lived experience here in the city of Joliet and your and how in your practice or businesses.

So we are having this was done purposely, a workshop on January 21. It's a it's the third the third Wednesday of the month. So it will be at 06:30PM. The goal will be to you guys are already, the theory here is to capture your attendance for a workshop geared towards arts, culture, and heritage. The details of, like, the questions that are gonna be asked during that workshop are still being thought through.

Our we're focusing right now, to be honest, on the housing, neighborhoods, and transportation mobility because that's happening pretty quickly. But I would encourage you to think about what are some things I know you haven't seen this document yet because it's in draft, and the advisory committee hasn't seen it even yet either. It's going to be at the December meeting of our advisory committee. But, you know, what are what are some things that you would like to see come out of a comprehensive plan related to arts and culture. So just keep that in the back of your mind.

And as we move closer to the workshop, we'll we probably would like to take that feedback from you and then build that into questions as we have a facilitated meeting that night. On the screen is the digital version. We are encouraging people to preregister for these workshops. This is on the city's website in the project web page, so you can just click on that. I also have here, if you wanna take this is the print version, which has a QR code, so we're encouraging people to preregister.

These workshops are all open to the public, but we are targeting, you know, specific people who we think would would add specific value to these workshops. So, again, I you should have all received an email from me about this about these workshops and as especially as your role as the arts commission.

So I don't know if

there's any questions I can answer about this.

Please help promote it. This is the opportunity to really get people to have a voice with this, and it'll help us shape our 2026 and beyond goals and vision.

That's it.

Do I wait for the to have a meeting in December? Is that something that needs to be done here? No.

No. I mean, I would coordinate with them just to make sure that you can come. We you

can do that via email. Yeah. And if not,

pick another day or yeah.

Where was this at again on the Joliet website?

So good question. Joliet.gov/comprehensiveplan.

So is it an option, like, on the drop downs? Or I don't know if it's on there.

Okay. On here. Yeah. It should be on the home page too. Yep.

Were we planning a December meeting? Do we do we need to Right. I think we had talked about not doing a December meeting, but do we need to make a motion to say that we're going to have a December meeting?

Or That's what I

was just just asking.

I don't think

you need to make a motion.

I mean, you we there could be communication offline. I guess you could also hash down now if you want. I mean

Are people available on December 10 at 05:00? Sijia Chen's available then. So I will send an email out tomorrow to all commissioners to see if that date will work for people to get a quorum to do that. Didn't wanna go much later in December.

So Okay. Any other old or new business? If not, public comment. And if none Mhmm. Then we just need a motion to adjourn.

Second. Motion to second.

PEG made a motion, and then second was alright, Donna. All those in favor of adjournment?

I. I.

Alright. Any opposed? Meeting adjourned.

Thank you.

And happy birthday, Jane.

It's not done. It's got to come off. I even asked her to do the