Arts Commission - Bylaws Subcommittee - Regular Meeting

Okay. This is the Wednesday, 08/20/2025 City Joy Arts Commission meeting agenda.

We'll start out with the roll call. Commissioner Falado?

Present.

Commissioner Frank Stapley? Present. Chair Gratofsky?

Present.

Commissioner Romero? Present. Commissioner Rosati is absent. Commissioner Simpson? Here, sir. Commissioner Steuber is absent. Commissioner Suburb is absent, and commissioner is absent. We do have a quorum though.

Okay. So we need an approval of minutes which I wasn't at the last meeting. So I have to abstain from voting. So move. Seconded.

Motion by Simpson. Second by Romero.

Frank Stapley.

Aye.

Gratowski. Abstain.

Absteen.

Romero. Aye.

Simpson. Aye. Falado. Aye.

Motion

carries. Okay. For the

citizens be heard on agenda items. You're not here for that? Old business. Is that gonna be this discussion of this Arts Council grant?

No. That's under your new business. That's under new?

So we don't have any old business?

No. No old business. Okay.

We'll jump to new business.

Let me ask you a question. Okay. Ray, where where does the the statue for the new park stand. Do you know? The I guess, not the statue, but what what do we call it?

The sculpture.

Yeah. Sculpture. I can't get into that too much right now. They're to say, I think,

council's action on award of contract

will likely be coming within the next couple weeks or months. But Soon.

Or years.

Soon. It won't be years. But that's that's that's about all I can comment on that right now.

Have you been in contact with her?

Yes. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And and her team has working with our staff on, you know, rightsizing the sculpture and, you know, making sure the load bearings are okay. So there's there's been that dialogue ongoing, but yeah. We're we're we're looking to get that in front of council shortly.

So I assume her nor her crew has been here to visit, but have they been sent any video or pictures of where we're standing with

I don't think they've been here physically, but they've they've they're very familiar with the site. Yeah. So they're familiar

Sounds like it's gonna happen. Can you say that? And if you're not, that's fine. I'm just

You can't say anything with 100% certainty, but yeah, it's it's the city's intention to bring that to council for their action shortly. Yeah. Alright. Thank you.

Good question.

Engineering that they're doing for the for the structural part of that, is that something they're providing or is that something that the city has to have our people look at to make sure that it works?

Or Yeah. It's it's our our public works staff are verifying their calculations. So it's it's a bit of a group effort. Yeah.

Okay. Thank you. Sure.

I have a question. I don't know if this is going to old business, but we had talked a couple meetings ago about the art wall project.

Mhmm.

Mhmm. Is that still going forth?

I would it's not on our radar right now, I would say. But, you know, I I would say if that's something that is a potential art project that you may want to discuss later on in the agenda here, I think that's fair game. K. Yeah.

Okay. Any other old business anyone needs to discuss? New business? Discussion of the Arts Council general operating support grant?

Yes. So if you read the packet, there's a memo in there about the 2026, general operating support grant. This is the grant that this commission's received the last several years, for various general operating expenses. So this year, we only received $2,500 for that grant. You know, we followed through with the initial paperwork and notification letters to our local significantly less than what we've received the last couple years.

We are taking a recommendation to the city council September 2 for their acceptance of the grant. We expect those grant fund funds to be released to the city by November. So one thing I thought would be good for this commission to weigh on today is at such a small amount if there's a

way to

program expenditure of those funds early on here. I had suggested in the memo, you know, we do still have two outstanding payments to our poet laureate that are due. One is due December this year. The other will be due June 2026. Those are each in the amount of $1,500.

So to me, it would make sense to allocate this $25 to that cause and then try to pursue any other projects with alternative grant funds that might be available. But it is your discussion to have and, you know, feel free to chime in.

Did we spend all our grant funds from last year? We did. And I assume that was on the stuff at the Bicentennial Park and musicians and

Yeah. It that that made up a large portion of it. It was almost $8,000, the the musicians at Bicentennial Park. You know, we had a a few other random artist payments that made up that that

My understanding had to be used up by the end of this month? Correct.

Yeah. So that that has been expended. There won't be anything that carries over for next year. Yeah.

So this is the grant that we've had in the past that was started 18,000 and went to 20,000, 23,000, wherever we ended up, and now we've got $2,500. That's been the bulk of our budget. That's been all of our budget, I think. Right?

It's been the bulk for sure. I mean, the city has received or or allocated rather somewhere between 10 and $15,000 in art maintenance the last four years. That will continue next year. It'll be $10,000 allocated to art maintenance in 2026. But

Outside of the IAC grant?

Yes. And I should say pending pending council approval.

Approval. Yeah.

Budget. But yeah. So, you know, between that $10 for our maintenance and this 2,500 for this grant, it's not a lot to work with. Right.

In that award letter that we got for this grant, was there any explanation why they cut over $20,000?

The only explanation they gave was that there were more applicants this year, that they experienced significantly more interest in the grant and thereby thereby had to reduce grant amounts to fund as many groups as they saw fit. And I you know, one of the things with this grant is it's not traditionally like a competitive grant. So as long as you follow the criteria in the application, you know, there there's an expectation that you would be awarded something. So I think, you know, that's that's why there was the reduction or at least, you know, that's what they the justification they've given. We we do we are in the midst of, like, a three year cycle for this grant.

Ron, you probably remember last year, they kind of retooled how this grant would work where you have to do kind of a larger application in one year, and then the two subsequent years, it's a bit of a paired down application. Well, we're in the first year of that paired down application cycle. So, you know, if that continues to follow suit, the expectation would be we would still have something in 2027. But, yeah, it's what what that amount is, I don't know. I I we were we were not expecting this much of a cut to this. That's for sure.

Ray, did I know there was some discussion that whether it's last year's grant or this following year's grant was going to cover some of the cost to go to the Illinois Mhmm. Arts Yeah.

The one state conference? Yeah.

Yeah. So what do I assume now that that's off the table?

This year's budget. Right?

Well, I unless they spent it all. So we we spent we paid for the registration and the hotel fees with the 2025 grant. So the only thing that probably could be expended, and, you know, it's it's difficult to promise this, I would say, because we don't know exactly when we will get the, money in hand for this 2026 cycle, but the only thing that would be possible would be, like, meal meals and mile mileage reimbursement.

So some of the money's committed or or has been spent already. So we're registered.

Yeah. Yeah. The as

far as the details, who's gone and what's covered is has to be worked out, but some of that was covered from last year's?

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Hotel fees and For for

three people?

Three people. Okay. Yeah.

Alright. I just So that was this year's budget, which has to be spent by the thirty fifth of this month. Right?

Yeah. It's spent.

Yeah. It's already it's already been accounted for.

And then we report on that next month. Correct.

Okay. Correct. Yeah.

So who's applying for these grants? Is there are is I mean, are we past the twenty twenty six grant cycles for applications for other stuff? I mean, is this gonna be it for

Yeah. You know, this kind of gets into the next agenda item a little bit, but that's honestly something that would be good for the commission and all of us to look into a little bit. You know, it does seem like a lot of the 2026 grants, their application windows were in June or July. There are probably a couple options available that we could maybe still look to apply to in the fall if you're interested. But, yeah, it's I I didn't find a whole lot in my initial research, but, you know, then again, you know, a lot of you are a bit more have a bit better background in some of that stuff.

So I would I would certainly kind of lean on you to help with that research, but yeah.

So as a as a city, we don't have, like, anybody that writes grants that's focused on our commission at all? So we do have

we do have a staff member that is that manages all the city grants here, and and she she actually just started about a month ago or so. Her name is Becky DeGroat. And she and I have discussed, you know, if there's grant opportunities that I'm not aware of that she can maybe help assist with. So I know that she is interested in helping along with this cause. And and so we long story short, we we do have a dedicated staff member that will look into this as well.

She also manages every other grant that the city has, you know, from public works and construction and all that. But

yeah. So what's the priority for the the Arts Commission on these grants? Somewhere in the middle, towards the top, or way on the bottom? I mean, do you know? You know, it's a question that I'm just kinda curious because it seems like we do a lot of stuff here with the arts commission and then we're not seeing any progress on too much.

Mhmm.

And that's why I'm asking you where we're as the arts commission, what are what are where are we at? Are we

necessary? It it might change some with the new hiring of this person. I mean, I guess, I'm assuming that beforehand that if we didn't have a dedicated dedicated person, or did we? I mean

No. Yeah. So that's that's been part of the ongoing struggle is, you know, we we haven't had, like, a dedicated staff member to really focus on arts advancement all that much. So, you know, I I think that will improve over short time here. But, you know, I I I would say, to answer your question, Tom, it's I'd of flip it back to the arts commission in a way.

You know, what priorities the city has for the arts would ideally kind of originate from this commission. Right? So, you know, if if you want to focus on new mural sites, you know, that could be a priority. If you want to focus on deaccessioning of mural sites, that could be a priority. If you wanna focus on putting on events or putting on, you know, some of the things that you I have talked about with that that are are done in other cities with public involvement in arts, you know, that could be a priority.

But, you know, I I would say any of those should be done with the framework that there is a funding source in place to help see that through, or or at least an idea of what the ultimate project cost might be to see that through. So absent of, like, a larger public art master plan, I think that's how we would go about this is, you know, see where the commission wants to really see what the commission really wants to tackle and then kinda work from there.

Yeah. It just seems to me, like, through the past several years, we sat here and come up with ideas and ideas and talked about murals and doing new murals and redoing old murals and putting lights under viaducts and doing art walls and doing all this stuff and we come up with all these ideas and everybody seems excited about them. Sure. And then they just keep getting turned down because one of them for funding. Mhmm.

And obviously, that's, you know, a big thing. But so we're in the city of where we have a 160,000 people, whoever it is, and we have no money for the arts, and it kinda, you know, hurts everybody's excitement about what we can do because we put our time into it as volunteers for the city of Joliet. Sure. And yet nothing comes of it, and we've talked about all different types of things for years now, and and nothing is nothing we're not doing anything, you know. We we don't have any plans in place. We that's why I'm excited about

the sculpture. But But that's on hold. But that's on hold.

So where do we go from here? You know, what what do we do? And you I would keep saying, well, it's up to you guys what you wanna do, but we've had plans, we've had ideas, and and they just keep getting stranded. I talked about those art banners and put them over along Joliet Street there along the And then I see that John Bay's gonna take that lot over possibly and redo it, which is a great idea. And maybe he wants to become part of that also. So but do we know is he gonna take that over? Do we know that that's gonna be a place where we can hang all these banners? We kinda don't know that because

To follow-up on what you're saying, brought in from I was we took a road trip, and whenever we take a road trip, if there's a small town or a city and they anything about a historical or arts district we head there so I brought in from Paducah their wall to wall what they've done on their riverfront if you want to take a look at it and it's murals but they were painted on the riverfront but I mean we go we went into this I went into three or four towns and I took notes I mean I went to Paducah Kentucky population 26,500 average income 51,000 they have eight or nine art centers co ops they have a artist relocation program which I just found out about today where they actually want artists to come into downtown buildings and they give them grants for not just for space design for remodeling for advertising they even had one of the things I sent Ron a picture of one of the things I really liked is they had these banners and they just said open and they were multi colors and they all the stores down there had them.

So it was a city effort. So when you walked to the streets, it was unified and they caught your eyes. Oh, let's go to

this one. Let's go to this one.

That's a different place. And it was, you know

I I agree that, you know, things

are better Those are those are in expensive and, you know, when I look at I went to Gadsden, Alabama, population 33,000, they have nine with nine art centers with an in average income of under 40,000. Went to Wetumpka which if you saw that on HDTV the hometown takeover we went through there population 7,600 and some they have nine or 10 different art centers and they have a main street Wetumpka art district that they're supporting and I know that you know there's been restaurants yours creator cafe magpies different places that you know want to do stuff for the arts I mean is there any way we can do anything to support them even if it's advertising or a banner saying you know or you know businesses we need to be partnering if we especially if we have no money to do anything ourselves because where there's art, there's even art and music, people come.

And the money is a big factor but why why don't we have money to do any of this?

Why why I think if you go back and review many many meetings, we've talked about looking for sponsorships, we talked about other grants. Throughout the year, I've sent a lot of grant I don't know if there's any feedback on those, but the Illinois Humanities was like a $10,000 grant. We don't Was that ever applied for? Do we know? Or I've sent probably half a dozen fairly solid grant opportunities Mhmm. For the for the arts, but I don't know that we've got anything back on that.

Yeah. And the issue is a lot of those are project specific. Right? And so when you apply for those, you have to have a project that's fairly well scoped out, ready to go in the application. And so that's been so the struggle with some of those grants is that if that is not as polished and ready to go with the application stage, then, you know, the grant will ultimately just be rejected. Some of these grants

received. Our the museum has received quite a bit more than the 2,500 this year, so we did get more than that. And I'm quite familiar with what it takes to put these grants together. A lot of the grants are information that we have. What's your, you know, what's your EIN number? What's your GATTA number? What's your income? What's your that kind of stuff we should have already in the bag. We should just be able to put that in. If it's a project specific grant and we meet every 30 days, we and we have the right to call a special meeting for something

Mhmm.

I think we're leaving a lot of money on the table. I'm I'm terribly disappointed that our only funding source had gotten cut down by $20,000.

$20,000.

And and all along we've been coming up with ideas to to find other funding knowing this was our only source, but there's been no movement on it. And and to add insult to injury is to look at what DEBT came up here with every other single town and every other state with 30,000 people or 10,000 people and they've got all these arts. It's like there's not much of a purpose for the Arts Commission to be here if our voices aren't being heard, if we're asked for our expertise, if we're asked for funding opportunities or ideas, and it's falling on deaf ears, and and we're not getting anywhere with this. It doesn't make sense for us to be here for $2,500 or not have the opportunity to do sponsorships or find other funding sources to carry this out.

Our fundraising.

Our our fundraising. Anything. We're our wings are clipped, we're not able to do anything with this, and it's just terribly frustrating. And I understand now coming on here there were several people before us that had been for a short period and had left because there was lack of movement. And now I think we're experiencing this.

I'm I'm hoping that at this Illinois what am I calling it? Arts meeting.

Oh, the

One State Conference.

The One State Conference.

Conference. You know, there might be, you know, people there that grant people there to, you know, to say, hey, you know, these grants are available and we can pick up some information to do that, but, you know, that'll be for the following year.

State can when you meet because I've been there before, you get a chance to meet with our state representatives, and I'm not sure actually, I know at least one state representative has reached out to us and I've shared that information about some potential grants from that too. There's quite a bit of money still available for that through them and that's what you're doing is meeting with your state representatives to say we've got this, you know, we advocated for the Illinois Arts Council when I was down there. I forgot what the number was, $18,000,000, and I think they got a little bit more than I don't remember the exact number, but we advocated for quite a bit of money, and I think they were a little shy of it, but it was quite a bit of money. So that's an opportunity if we're going down there, not just to learn, but to actually get in front of our state representatives to say, hey, we need help here.

And I think that's very important to get our representatives, our legislators to help us out. We have a huge city here. There's a lot of love for this city amongst

all the all the Well people Any successful city has a thriving art scene. I mean Absolutely. Would it be would it be would it be wrong to just ask Anne what what she's hearing and give us some encouragement? What I am I putting you on the spot? I'm just

I I don't know if Anne wants to comment on that. No.

I'm just ready. But She's got all the experience

of doing

stuff. I'm

just give us give us some encouragement. Sorry to do that, but I don't know. What's your what's your experience tell you if I can ask?

I'm not sure. Okay. Now it's on.

Yes. Mhmm.

Please keep in mind, I've been here two weeks.

I understand. I'm just trying to

put you on. I also wanna acknowledge, you know, that Ray has and I've only caught up with him briefly, but I know that he has really been working to help support this group. So in the conversations that I've had, I've I've really focused on getting out in the community and, you know, meeting people, talking to people, seeing what's out there. I've met most of you out at events. What I can say is there's definitely the passion and enthusiasm that I'm hearing from you.

You know, as as Ray mentioned, there's a new grants person who started, I think, a week before me, so she's still getting her feet wet as well. You know, I met with her very briefly, and I'm glad to hear that, you know, Ray did as well, but as you noted, that's probably for a little bit further in the future. I also know that one of the reasons that the mayor wanted this position was arts and culture in Joliet. So, hopefully, that instills some hope in you that that is a priority for Joliet, in the future, but I do ask that you understand that it's not gonna come overnight. So but, no, I mean, I'm very excited to be here and help support Ray in, you know, working with this commission right now during this meeting, looking to just kind of learn what you have been doing over the last couple years and then hopefully develop plans from there.

Well, and that's that's all I'm

That's all you wanted to

That's all I wanted to hear. I mean, just some encouragement from from your standpoint, from someone who's had the experience that you have, you know, it's nice to have an advocate for us.

Yes.

And I'm not expecting you to have done it in two weeks or three weeks or, you know, or even this year to to whatever extent that is. It's just it's nice to hear that you realize that it's important. So that's all. And thank you for putting for me putting you on the spot.

That's quite alright.

Thanks. And I'm hoping maybe can draw from your experience to help us find that funding that that we haven't been able to find. There's been questions for the two and a half years or whatever I've been on the commission here as to what we can do to raise money. Can we find sponsors to help pay for things? Can we hold fundraisers? How how do we find that funding aside from one grant? You know, of course, obviously, there's questions of what's legal as a as a city commission, as an organization, what do we have the rights to do? I think we need that kind of direction, where to find funding.

I'm still learning what that direction is. So

I'm sure it's understood.

But I'm always open to discussions and, you know, any suggestions, and I will hope to come up with some too.

You know, I would say, like, as a chair of this commission, you know, we're talking about grants in numbers of $2,500 or $10,000 and that's that's nothing. We realize overnight. I mean, we're not we're not trying to get anything accomplished overnight, but we also have to set some goals and do something with it. Because unless you start doing something with it, everybody's gonna lose enthusiasm for getting anything done. And we're run through commission members left and right here because nobody wants to waste their time doing things.

Everything's valuable. Time is the most valuable thing you can ever use. You can never get it back. I know, like, on a personal level, I still work. I own a restaurant. I have to either close my restaurant down or I have to get somebody in there to work so I can come to an arts commission meeting, which is fine with me and it's it's not a complaint. Don't get me wrong. But I'm not the only one in that same situation. So we have to be cognizant of what people are doing here for the city of Joliet and trying to get this work accomplished. And we know it's not overnight, but we've been doing it for years and nothing's nothing's progressing at all.

We were talking about that what was that thing we we were discussing. I I can't think of the name of it, but, like, a a directive for the Arts Commission for the

Public art art for two years. What was We talked about it. Long time. Talked about it

and we still don't have it. Well, how come we don't have something basic as that completed here? And and unless we get something like that completed, where do we go from here? We keep coming up with ideas. I happen to be in Geneva a few weeks back on a Sunday.

They had a huge art show, maybe seventy seventy booths right in the middle of their main street. They closed the main street off. Sponsorship things. One of the local landscapers put up a giant structure in the middle of the street temporarily with plants and trees and pictures of their name sponsoring this event. People selling food, people selling drinks.

The the place was just loaded with people. It was as hot as can be out, but it was loaded with people and people were buying things there. It was great to see people buying things because when you have when you have art events and nobody buys anything, well, that makes the artist not wanna come to any of the events either. So we have to find some way of getting started, coming up with an idea. Let's do it.

Let's get it started and show everybody that we are really here to make this city more beautiful, but also to use talent. Like, we have a couple of artists right here with us that they're very talented artists and yet we don't wanna lose them because, you know, that's that that that's the importance of having artists on an on an arts commission. I'm a collector of art. I'm knowledge about art. I have a lot of different things, but I'm not I'm a culinary artist, but I'm not a I'm

still an artist.

I'm still an artist. But it just gets frustrating and and I'm not saying that just from me. I'm saying that from a bunch of people that I've that I've spoken with here in the city of Joliet because I do I don't get around as much as I used to be unless you come and visit me at the American Legion. But still, I do I still talk to a lot of people. I go to a lot of different places.

And like Saint Charles, once again, they just did a plain plain air event and I was picturing us doing it out at Pilcher Park. Mhmm. They got a nice they got some places out there on the East Side, which would be a great place to have an artist come out and do some constructing and do some art, open air, and have people come and visit that. You could have food trucks out and you can do all kinds of different things.

And I think they had, through many sources, about $750,000 in their budget.

And I that's why I'm saying, we're talking about $2,500 that's in our budget for the city of Joliet. Fourth largest city. The fourth largest city in Illinois. We have $2,500.

And I have a question too, Ray, regarding Becky, our new grants person. Does she have support staff? Because if we're looking at one person applying for grants for every department, you know, that's really not going to be effective.

Yeah to my knowledge she's the sole grants coordinator for the city and you just hit on a big issue here is capacity to apply for these grants, see these grants through. The reality is that we have, at a staff level, had difficulty, you know, applying for these grants on a routine basis and and administering them. And then frankly, as a commission level, there's been a great deal of turnover within this commission that has kind of hurt the ability to see through some of these grants, you know, year to year. So

yeah. I mean,

the these are challenges that are kind of unfortunately ongoing, I would say. But, you know,

I think actually

I actually think that if you put this commission alone in a room and took us off the commission, we would

probably done.

Something done. I am actually going and meeting and pulling artists together to meet at local restaurants and say, let's start meeting and let's start talking and let's see what we can do because no one is going to do it. No one's gonna do it. I mean, I was in Morris over the weekend. They had a juried art show

Right.

On the courthouse lawn. This is their umpteenth year of doing it. Juried. We can't even get the art show, much less juried.

Yeah. Well, and you say that's funny you say that because before I came here, I had a young man come to my to my restaurant today and I met with him and he had called and wanted to do portraits of my customers live and I didn't know who he was. He came from Cornerstone Services and I told him, take my picture. Here's a piece of paper. Draw my face and I wanna see how long it takes you.

So it took him fifty minutes but he's apologetic. Apologetic. He was using a ballpoint pen and the back of a sheet of paper, but we're planning on doing something with him to come in and do a night where we're gonna have an artist in there to come and draw faces of of the clients. And they could either donate to him or buy him or donate to Trinity or to Cornerstone Services, whatever he expects. But little things like that are what the Arts Commission can put together on our own. And not having any budget, but, you know, we also have to be able to get people to come to different things like that. And

We had conversations too about putting art work in different stores throughout the city and creating an artwork art walk that would You know, part of our mission, as that was originally written, was that the arts are supposed to be something that helps with economic development by bringing people here that come to gives them another opportunity to do something else in in Joliet, to be able to put artwork in those stores where people go into those stores, maybe buy a cup of coffee, go have lunch at your place, or something like that so that it continue to do that. I don't see that there's a big rollout of funds to do that. You get the artists that put their artwork that maybe they've already got completed, and we put them in these stores. We do some advertisement. Can't be too hard to get that together, especially through social media.

That doesn't necessarily cost a lot, but that's one of the ideas that we had talked about that kind of didn't go anywhere.

You know, there's eight of us businesses in Joliet that promote artwork for Cornerstone every month. And we have a rotating display of artwork. So it's it's jitters and Babes and myself and five other individuals that have taken upon ourselves to to work with Cornerstone. And yet September 4 coming up here in what is that? A week and a half, Cornerstone has a huge art huge art show.

Well, when you take a start taking a look at the art that these individuals make, there are people with disabilities within our community. They are taking the best that they have and putting it to good use and there's only eight members of the community that are helping them to sell their art and to promote their art show, the annual art show. It's huge. It's on Joyce Drive. You wouldn't believe some of the art What's

the date

on that? It's September 4. Fourth. Let's see. I advertise that. That. I've got that out. I know Jitters has that out. I know Babe's Hotdogs and like I said, I I should have brought that sheet with me because I think those are important things. We when we talk about money, these are individuals that are donating their own money or time or effort to try to promote a show like that. Yet, who's heard about the who's heard about the September fourth Art Trailer Cornerstone?

I knew about it last year,

but I haven't heard this.

You know what? You know what? And I know that's pretty it's pretty drastic. And I'm not I'm not trying to be rude. I'm not trying to be arrogant. I'm not trying to be forceful on anything. But I'm trying to make things out that there's plenty of things that we can do when we only have a 2,500 budget. How do we get people involved in it? How do we get things done? I'm I'm making sure some of it's getting done by talking about the art show Cornerstone Services right here.

And I think that's an important thing for more people within Joliet and for the City Of Joliet itself. How many people does Cornerstone employ in the City Of Joliet? One of the largest employers. It used to be. Now maybe with the trucking it's not, but still it's been here forever and they they are a huge part of our community. What is the city of Joliet Art Commission or the City of Joliet itself doing to promote them?

Could we have a City of Joliet Arts Commission online presence?

We've talked about that too and we've got turned down for that. We can't

do There's been discussions. I've been on the board since it's in session. If if there's a way to it used to be the what was the art group?

The art movement, Julien.

I mean, if if there's a way to partner with somebody that that does some of the work. External. Yeah. We can't more than two of us can't even discuss an event

because And if we do put something out through the city, they have to approve it. We

Right. But then that would be fine that they're the gatekeeper. Gatekeeper. But if we had it and we had businesses come to us and we could say, hey, Jitters is having an art show, you know, can we put it out there on our page? Cornerstone is having something. Get businesses to want to buy in to be part of this it drives business for them.

So I mean we do have an arts and culture web page and we have had a running agenda item the last several agendas asking this commission if there are events that you want us to publicize let us know and we will put it on that web page. So that exists. I understand it's a little bit nested within the city website, but it's out there. You know, part of the the reason why this commission was not allowed to have its own Facebook page. That was something that was discussed.

Is that none of the other commissions within the city have their own social media dedicated web page. So is that a discussion we could continue to have? Sure. But, you know, that's that's the reason why that wasn't put into existence. So, you know, I think the city is fully on board with promoting any of these things that you're talking about, any of these events, any anything. We just need to know. And, you know, frankly, I haven't been getting a lot of contact on that stuff. So I

agree with that.

But if

If I don't know, if our social media managers don't know, then, you know, it it falls to the wayside.

We've had conversations about social media, and I'd like to say that I think the difference between us and other commissions is we're not the liquor commission, we're not the police and fire department, we're not that. Sure. We're arts. We're we're more public facing than inward facing with this, and burying it within the in the city website, to be honest with you, I don't think you can do a Google search and find anything on the city website that would have to do with you're gonna have to stumble over that in So it's really not outward facing.

So It's very not proactive for us to have a web the website because I personally don't go to the Joliet website because I don't need to go to the Joliet website for anything at all.

Except to maybe pay your bill or

Well Pay my taxes on

Not where you think to go to.

On Joliet, but I wouldn't go to look up any event or anything at all like that just because it's all through social It's already hit you right in the face.

Yeah. So

you see it constantly.

I'd rather see a banner that moves around that said, you know, sponsored by or or or Joliet Arts Commission

I brought some ideas about planting trees in a new place and having somebody sponsor the tree as a family name. You put a sign out there, people would love to do that, you know, as as we move on. Well, that that takes up money.

We we have we have trouble raising money because we're a city entity and they're afraid that the money gets lost in the shuffle, so to speak. I think we've made our we've probably made our point. I mean, I don't unless somebody else's

Well, I I just just to just to con to to finish up, it just seems like when we're looking for sponsorships for, let's just say, planting a tree, we're liable to get a sponsorship for planting a tree because they're getting something back in return that they can see a legacy item for a family. They can see the tree grow. They can they can watch that so they're more likely to do something like that than the

Could be a sculpture.

It could be sculpture. It could be an event. It could be whatever it is, but we don't know what people are out there. And I always talk about social service organizations such as United Way. If United Way does not get back in touch with all their founding members and their past presidents, they never know who's sitting out there on a pile of money that might say, wow, they remembered me and I have nowhere to put this money and I will donate it to to a cause. A cause could be a statue. It could be a tree. It could be a park bench. It could be anything. We know that those things work based on other communities around us. So I just think that we we need to really stay focused on doing something though. Let's just get something started.

Accomplished. Yeah.

Anything. Yeah. And until we get something done, we won't get anything else completed.

So I think we've I think we've aired our grievances, and we'd also like to welcome you in. So sorry. We're to be honest with you though, I'm very hopeful now that we have somebody who will kind of oversee and and help with this as well too, so I think that's very important. It's not gonna be without challenges, but you have. You can hear the voices here. We're all wanting to do, you know, as they say, time, talent, or treasures. That's what we're here to offer, and it's fallen short, and and maybe having that advocate in that specific department to help us with that. We look forward to working with you any way we can.

So real quick, I understand Donna has to leave shortly, and that would take us below quorum. So Let's go. Any action I don't know if there's a way to

Is there anything else on here

that through the agenda or if there are things you would like to table to next month's meeting, I'll I'll leave that up to you. I I would assume for now for the 2,500, you'd like to maybe table that discussion the next month or

Can I make a suggestion? I have some friends on the Bolenburg Arts Commission. Is it would it be appropriate to invite them to one of our meetings or to chat about what they do for funding or just to bounce some ideas off of them. I feel like it's a commission that gets things done. You know what I'm saying? I feel like the conversation that's been had for the last twenty minutes has been about

Yeah. So

not getting things done. So

So they probably have quorum rules that they have to abide by with Illinois Open Meetings Act. So I would guess not more than two of them could come at one time. But all of our meetings are open to the public. So, you know, they're certainly welcome to attend. Just, you know, if they're going to discuss anything that would be considered public business for their commission, you know, it would probably wise to not have more than two attend. But anyone is certainly welcome to attend and sit and observe.

So I guess I'm concern my question is, you know, is how are we generating ideas and putting stuff out there and then nothing happens? So who where why is the buck stopping somewhere? Who's stopping the buck? Is there somebody voting and saying no? You know, so I'm just trying to understand better.

So I I would push back a little bit on the notion that a lot of ideas have been generated. Like, there have been a lot of discussion. Just now, there were discussion of, 15 different projects. But there wasn't really a concerted effort to move anything individually forward and for a lot of things that were discussed. You know, a few things. Yeah. There there were blockages on the city's end, be it from a public works nature or a funding nature, but, you know, I think

It's too big.

Yeah. I think this commission could better prioritize, you know, what it really wants to accomplish. I so

Well, on this on this the rest

of this agenda here that we need to get through so so Donna can leave

And my apologies. I just

It's it's not a problem. But we don't have too much on this agenda for tonight. So what you're looking for is you want to award this 2,500 to the Polaroid. Is that what

this is a staff recommendation. If more consideration is needed on that item, we can do that.

Right? Table it. But we gotta pay and we owe them 3,000 that takes up, you know, three quarters of it or more.

That's all. Right?

Well, it's 2,500.

Yeah. So I I think we have an obligation to fill that.

Mhmm.

And I think for $2,500 that we can't focus on $2,500. That can't be our full budget.

Well

So, I mean, if that's if that's an obligation that we have to pay, then I see the money goes right to it.

So so we need a motion then

if that's what you'd like to do, yeah, a motion would be in order?

I would make up that motion as presented that we take that 25 and put it towards the poet laureate.

I'll second.

Motion by Romero, second by Falado.

Romero. Aye. Simpson. Aye.

Falado.

Aye.

Frank Sackley.

Aye.

Gratopsky. Aye. Motion carries. Okay.

So the last thing then really is the meeting schedule. Is that correct, Ray?

Well, there is an additional item about future grant opportunities, opportunities, but I would I would think

we make a motion to table that?

Yeah. I think that's worth tabling. Yeah.

I'd make a motion to table both of those until our next meeting.

Do you wanna table the commission dates as well?

Yeah. Just for the sake of time here.

Yes. Okay.

That alright with it said, we does the city need to know about before next month?

I think we do need to know about the meeting dates by next month, so I'm sorry. Yeah. I can pull that up real quick if you wanna just take a quick look.

I assume it's the same third Wednesday?

It's third Wednesday of each month, 5PM minus December. Yep.

That's fine.

So And and like we've discussed, special meetings can be scheduled if, you know, we have an agenda and enough notice now with kind of these new scheduling policies. We need probably about two weeks notice before we do a special meeting, but it can be done.

So we need a motion to the future grants to the next our next meeting, and then we would need a motion to Approve. Accept the 2026 meeting dates.

Ray, you want two separate motions for that?

Two separate motions of receipt.

So that I need the motion to table the first issue, which is a future grant opportunities.

Is there a second?

Second.

Motion by Romero, second by Simpson to table grant opportunities to September.

Simpson. Aye. Falado. Aye. Frank Stapley. Aye. Gratowski.

Aye. Romero. Aye. Motion carries.

And then we need a motion to accept the 2026 meeting dates?

Yes. So move as published here. Third third Wednesday of each month except December.

Is there a second?

I'll second.

Motion by Simpson, second by Romero. Falado.

Aye. Frank Stapley.

Aye.

Gratopsky. Aye. Romero. Aye. Simpson. Aye.

Motion carries.

So then we need a motion to adjourn. Well,

we have new or old business. There's

none. Comment.

Public comment?

Aye. Okay. So a motion to adjourn. Had nothing better to do tonight. Motion to adjourn would be in order then. Motion to adjourn. Donna, you want a mail?

We're move to adjourn. Minutes.

Please. Yes. Get your name in the name. Alright. There's a second.

Simpson. Motion. All in favor of adjourning signify by saying aye.

Aye. Aye.

All opposed? Okay. Motion carries. Meeting's adjourned.

Thanks.