Arts and Culture Commission - Regular Meeting

Hello, everyone. Calling to order the Manisha Arts and Culture Commission meeting, September 3rd, 2026. We will defer roll call to later. No? Okay, we'll do roll call. Here.

She will not be here tonight.

Here. Thank you very much. And now we're going to go forward to the Pledge of Allegiance. Who would like to lead us? David, would you like to lead us? Thank you, great job. So I just want to make a reference to the fundamental rights of the public. The fundamental rights of each member of the public can be found in the municipal code posted on the city's website and on a plaque that is posted at the entrance of this meeting. Item five is adoption of agenda. Do we have a motion to adopt agenda?

A motion to adopt the agenda.

Oh, I guess I have to second that. I second.

All right. We'll go ahead and take a vote. Or I don't think we need to take a vote. We've just adopted.

So thank you, Commissioner Tova, for stepping in for our secretary. So at this point, you would take role to affirm that we adopt the agenda as submitted.

Chairperson Heckman? Yes. Commissioner Tover?

Yes.

Commissioner Wilson?

Yes.

Commissioner Nervous? Well, the others aren't here, right? Commissioner Dunlap? Here. Yes, thanks. Commissioner Lopez? Commissioner Lewis? Commissioner Nervous? Yes.

Thank you very much. And we're going to go ahead and move forward to opportunity for public comment. The portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the Commission on any matter not on the agenda that is within the subject jurisdiction of the Arts and Culture Commission. Each speaker has a maximum of three minutes for public comment.

I'm sorry David and chair if you wouldn't mind turning on the microphone.

Thank you Can you hear me? Oh, yeah So the majestic theater is now becoming the ownership of Alicia and Brandon Brewster they've aligned with initial Community Foundation to create the majestic theater fund and so that we can help support their operation and work with the city of Venetia. So I'll let her talk about the Majestic. The Venetian Community Foundation is proud to support the Majestic Theater and its performing arts as an important part of the community's heart and history. Through the Friends of the Majestic Theater Fund, BCF will help strengthen charitable arts programming, create opportunities for local performers, introduce children and families to music, theater, dance, and film. Together, we are helping the Majestic once again become a welcoming gathering place where creativity flourishes Generations connect and arts bring our community together. That's our goal So PCF will be collecting funds in order to support the performing arts and all activities including the high schools and other groups All right

Hello, Benicia Arts and Culture Commission. I'm here today as the new owner of the Majestic Theater. My husband Brandon and I look forward to bringing this theater back to life. Our goal is to preserve its historic beauty while creating a community event space for Benicia through movies, live music, performing arts, and student opportunities. Through our partnership with the Benicia Community Foundation, we have two methods for giving One through the Friends of the Majestic Theater Fund, set up as the benefactor of the Benicia Community Foundation, which is a tax-deductible donation through their nonprofit. And the other is directly through our Majestic Theater website, currently operating as an LLC. This is not tax-deductible, but monetary gifts support our restoration efforts and improvements to the building. Please visit our website for more ways you can be involved through volunteering and sharing entertainment ideas. at MajesticVenetia.com. We look forward to collaborating with you and thank you.

Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

And through the chair, if anyone has a question for any of our presenters, you're more than welcome to ask any clarifying questions.

I have questions. First of all, I'm very excited about this. I've wanted that theater to open since I moved in. I've already sent you my information. My personal email is in a volunteer form I already filled out. I'm very excited about this. I operate two theaters in San Francisco, so I know what you're up against and I'm totally willing to help. My question is if you had a timeline of when you think this will reopen.

We don't have a hard timeline at the moment. Our goal is one year. It really depends on how quickly things move with our red tag. The HVAC process is underway, but then we move on to electrical, and that will be in conjunction with PG&E. So that's where the timeline could take several months. After that, we just need to have some bathroom renovations. So best case scenario, six months, but realistically, I'm thinking...

Great. I wish you the best of luck.

Thank you. Thanks for filling out the form. I do recognize your name from that. Thank you.

And we would love to have you back at any time. So please feel free if you would like to give an update to the commission. I know this is something that they're passionate about. Please feel free and we can agendize you and we could make it a more large discussion. Great. Thank you.

So since I'm here, should I go on to the next? All right, so I don't know if you're aware, we're doing a mural now. It's 100 foot by 10 foot high down on the bicep court there. Has any of you got a chance to take a look at it and see it? It's underway. It's been underway for a while now. I'm going to give you a little overview on what it's about. At the heart of the mural, the community hands that surround the children. So down there's parents' hands surrounding children's hands planting a tree. So as they plant the Tree of Life, a beautiful image of the Venetians caring for its future. Behind them, the waters of the Carquina Straits, the sailboat honors our waterfront, our history, and the sense of possibilities that have always shaped our city. The lotus flower rising beautifully from the muddy waters represents hope, renewal, and ability to grow through life's challenges. The tree carries that story forward. Its roots represent The tree is a tree that's in the center, but as it comes up and about, we're going to have 200 handprints from children up there. And the school's already working with that to send it out. The tree carries a story forward. Its roots represent the generations, history, and experiences that ground us. Its strong trunk represents our shared community values and the foundation. Its leaves, formed by the handprints of children, represents the young lives we inspire and help to grow every day. The surrounding hands express kindness, generosity, protection, and the gifts we pass forward, from our seniors to our youngest children. This mural bridges generations and reminds us that when we nurture one another, give back, and share what we have, we help create the strongest, most compassionate community in the very best society we can. That's what it represents. I've left you guys the flyers up there, too.

Thank You David I had a question actually what Would you mind sharing just the timelines and how how we could support the endeavor?

Yes, so the timeline is is the the cutoff date for the when we sent the Notice out from Chris at the superintendent of schools sent it out the first day. We had about a hundred sign up and The next day we had almost 180 sign up. There was going to be a lot of process in place that we've done evaluation in reference to all the schools, the volume of students in the schools, what the percentage of that represents out of the 200 and how we back into a lot of that we'll be going through and selecting that and how we deal with the families. The timeline on that is September 8th, that cutoff occurs. September 14th is when we have a test on the 11th that will go through a run test. And then on the... On the 14th is the date we open up. It goes on for like five separate times from 2 to 7. And then so it'll end probably within the next 45 days. It'll be done and completed. The sign up is on that sheet I gave you up there if you have people that want to sign up on it. What else was there? Oh, each child, as they come in, we're going to give them a certificate. It's going to show the mural. Themselves let them put their handprint on it with the paint and then have them take that home as a certificate certificate of recognition Thank you sounds like a beautiful initiative, thank you very much Thank you any other public comments

This would be a time if any of our grantees have upcoming events or fundraisers or any announcements. I think this is a great opportunity during public comment. I did email all our grantees and I will continue to do so so that we can always know what's happening so that we can support their events, fundraisers, etc. Welcome.

Hello, everyone. I'm Veronica Bierce. I'm the president of Venetia Theater Group. And I'm excited because we just are in the process of casting our new show, which will open on the 16th of October. And we have a few fundraising events coming up. And I love the fact that you guys will help promote those things. And I did, I don't have any flashy anything for you today. I just have a basic sheet I can give each of you that gives the basic information. We are in the process of of making a flyer, and that will be mostly on social media. We have a paint and sip on Friday, October 9th, and Saturday, October 10th, from 7 to 9, and the cost is $35. With that, you get a glass of wine or a beverage of your choosing, and all supplies, and you also get a chance to win two free tickets to our show, Run for Your Wife. Our other, yes, wife, not life, That's the sequel. The other event that we have is a bingo night, and it'll be on Sunday, October 18th, after our matinee. So it'll be about 5.30, and the cost, again, is $35. That includes 10 cards, so you get 10 chances to win. There are prizes for each game. So it could be a gift... of gift basket or plants or wine or two tickets to our show, there will be a myriad of choices. And then the final grand prize would be $100. And that's all.

Thank you very much. Any questions?

Hello, I'm Jim Kennan with the Benicia Makerspace, and I'd like to thank the Commission for supporting the Makerspace and our annual STEAM Discovery Festival. Our next one is coming up probably this spring, or aiming at May 1st right now. And I really wanted to ask a question. In the past, the Makerspace has supported the STEAM nights at the local elementary schools. And I think because they were organized by the PTA, we've lost our connection. as connections with the local schools or PTAs who are willing to support their STEAM nights.

I'd be happy to make that connection for you.

Thank you.

Hello, I'm Art Sullivan, the president of Venetian Performing Arts Foundation. Didn't realize we only had three minutes, so we'll do really quick. We've got, we just finished, we just finished working with Luca on the, and at the, basically the Guitar Fest was wonderful. Four days of guitar festivals and training and people playing and learning all about the guitar and enjoying it. at the Luke, it was really great. If you didn't go there, it was amazing. We have a number of projects coming up, and one of them we're excited about right now is our jazz program. We've just kind of put together with Stephen Locatetta, and Joe is the board member. I'm going to mention that for a second here.

Yeah, sure. Thank you again for having us back. Arts Council, we, the British Performing Arts Association, hosted our last Jazz O'Clock concert back on June 1st, and Amazing success. I think we finally zeroed in on the formula there. It was quite successful. It was the first one where we turned a positive outcome for our fundraise efforts. And based on the feedback we received from audience members, from performers, I think we've identified a number of opportunities to just further enhance and improve that whole show experience. Coming up on November 30th, which is a Monday right before Giving Tuesday, this is all on purpose, We are aiming to have our next Jazz O'Clock. This will be a purposeful fundraiser for the Binnish Performing Arts. And what we are seeking to do is to showcase a local, national, international level talent. We're working through a number of candidates right now to find out who has the ability, but follow that same calculus of youth showcase, which I believe we have commitment from the Benicia High jazz program, maybe their ensemble, maybe a small group combo. that is also assisted by Steven Mogateta, who Bart had mentioned. And with our time frame, we'll have to... Yeah, and then follow up with our North Bay Big Band, which used to be with the Vallejo Rec District, but now is part of the foundation. It's really exciting. Performing educational and all that. So excited to have that coming. Turn it over to Sherry or Mike.

Hello, everybody. I'm Sherry Lee, and I... pleased to say that we are going to be doing another Fiestas, formerly known as Primavera, now turning into Fiestas Cultura. And we're looking towards presenting this to the community in the spring, probably the first week of April, but we've got to work with Anne on that. We've had your support before, and we're looking forward to that again. What Fiestas Cultura is, is an event that celebrates all of the contributions and cultural values of all immigrants, Especially those most recent but remember minding the community that we are all coming from somewhere else at some point in our history Whether it be recent or are in the past And that we all went through hardships to get here and that we all brought value to this community to make it the Wonderful place that it is so we are excited to do this it involves performances cultural performances food graphs art poetry and there's a lot of involvement with the student population including scholarship opportunities volunteer opportunities and performance opportunities so we are looking forward to that again and we have a bunch of upcoming events to help us fund this and that would include on the

Jazz o'clock is one.

Jazz o'clock will be one. There will be an opportunity for fundraising at the jazz o'clock. So I'm hoping everybody is there. And then on the 1st of November, we have two things going on. One at Ethnic Notions in Vallejo, which is a children's art project. and that will be helped by some of the art teachers from this community to engage them in some cultural arts. And then we also have a bingo game over at the Chill that same day.

Come down and play bingo. Yeah. November 1st.

Yeah, November 1st is a busy day. And then in early December, we're looking towards having a butterfly ball. Butterflies are the international symbol for immigrants. And that will be at the escape. So we're looking forward to putting that together and then in the springtime we will be working with the Baxter's to put on another Mardi Gras event. So all cultural events all involving music and or art and Definitely involving as many members of the community as we can as we can enjoy and present to. So I hope to see you all there and looking forward to it. Thank you.

Beautiful. Thank you so much. Hi.

I'm Allison, and I'm with Golden Gate Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, and we work with BART to... connect singers, local singers, with a larger group that performs with a full orchestra. We perform twice a year at the Clock Tower. Our next performance will be Dia de los Muertos performance, but it'll be on Halloween. In the afternoon, we'll be done by the time it's trunk retreat time. So... Please come down. It's going to be multicultural. I'm going to give a list to Sherry because I think some of the people she's, her performers may perform with us. We're lucky. Our rehearsal starts on September 12th. That's like a week from Tuesday. So if anybody's interested in singing with a full orchestra, it's an amazing experience. Feel free to contact me. Golden Gate Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.

And it's also, they have the Sing Along Messiah for those that want to sing Messiah.

That's true, and that's in mid-December.

December 13th, I believe.

Yes, it is.

There you go. And then Mike is representing our theater side and film side in collaboration with...

Hi, my name is Mike Cason. I'm a business and intellectual property attorney, but I've been tasked with some creative outlets lately, which has been a lot of fun. So one of the things that we're working on is a documentary about the Port Chicago 50. Specifically, it's about the exoneration effort that took place recently to actually get the Port Chicago 50 exonerated. So we've been putting that documentary together for some time now with the help of the performing arts foundation also we there's a um improv improvisation aspects that we're trying to get an improv team to come out and do some performances. These are professional improvers out of San Francisco. They've been a big hit in the past, so we're trying to bring those performers back. And then just in general, working with David and Alicia on the new Majestic Theater and all of the aspects that are going along there. So I'm trying to help with that. So brevity is the soul of wit. If you have questions, happy to answer them. Thank you very much.

And the last one I'll represent. Andy Brent's a board member who's putting on Local and Live on October 9th and 10th, I believe, at the Escape. It's going to be a wonderful time of basically local musicians coming to play, similar to Porch Fest in that regard. But it's going to be right there, a couple days. It'll be fun. Come on down. It's no charge. It'll be just hanging out, enjoying great music. That's our presentation. Thanks so much for giving us time.

Thank you for...

Each person gets three minutes.

Thank you all for your presentations. Also, please make sure that you let Anne know of the specific dates and the events so it goes out to all of us so we make sure we can come and support you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you so much. I was going to say it's all music to my ears, but I should say it's all arts and culture to my ears.

Hello, I'm Helena Fowler. I'm representing the Board of Directors for Benicia Ballet Theatre. And we are, one, super thankful to be part of this group, but we'd love to talk about partnering more with some of our fellow grantees. Yes, maybe the Golden Gate Symphony would love some of our folklorico dancers, too.

Part of our summer curriculum. We'd love that. And we are, of course, looking forward to that.

But we wanted to give you a little bit of an update of some of the things that we've had going on and some of the things we have coming up. Teresa really wanted me to thank you, all of you, for the grant. Because of the grant, we were able to offer 33 dancers a reduced cost for our summer, the Benicia Summer Ballet, our Benicia Ballet Theater summer programming, which included workshops and conferences. And we had a really large... showing for the intensive which is we also recently just this past saturday had auditions for the nutcracker and we will be welcoming over 70 dancers for this year's nutcracker we're pretty unique in that every dancer under the 18 and under that auditions between gets a part and so we're extremely inclusive and very welcoming of all levels Performances this year are December 12th at 1 and 5 o'clock p.m. and December 13th at 11 and 3 o'clock p.m. at Solano Community College. So we would love to have your support and we'd love to see you. The school year, or the school opened, the Venise Valley School, opened on August 18th for a 26-27 school year with about 135 students enrolled for weekly classes, which is fantastic. We're really able to spread our love of performance and community more. And finally, we're planning our spring show, which is going to be Coppelia, another well-loved ballet story form of Dollmaker. Very funny and very engaging. And that will be, we'll have two shows, April 24th at the Vacaville Performance Theater. So we'd love to see you all there.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. I'd love to have any other public comments. No? Any online or any written?

No written.

None online. Thank you very much for everyone who came from the public to deliver public comments. It's really encouraging, really inspiring to see how this community perseveres and how we are able to maintain and bolster our art identity. So thank you for all your contributions. We will go ahead and proceed to the next item of the agenda, the next section of the agenda, which is information presentations. And we have a For Benicia Arts Festival report by Vicky. The floor is all yours.

Good evening, Benicia Art Gallery Alliance appreciates the invitation to share 2026 Benicia Arts Festival and our vision for 2027 with you tonight. Last June, the Benicia Arts Festival gave us a chance to try something a little different. Rather than creating another traditional street fair, we treated Benicia itself as the festival grounds. The 12 galleries, Arts Benicia, public spaces, and downtown businesses, musicians, artists, floral designers, and community organizations all became part of one connected arts experience. Our theme, Art Blooms in Benicia, helped give the day a visual identity, but the larger idea was simple. Invite people to a walkable waterfront arts experience and let them discover the arts already happening here.

We decided to tag team this. Hi, my name is Tim Urban. I work with Vicki at NY2CA Gallery and I work with the Benicia Arts Gallery Alliance on their marketing, design consulting, and event planning. The festival brought together a wide range of Benicia's art community in one coordinated event this past June. Highlights included Sip of Art History with Picasso, Rita Kahlo, and even the glorious Bob Ross. Free live music performances throughout downtown. Ballet Folklorico up there. We had floral art interpretations pairing floral designs and floral designers with the galleries that are part of Nisha Art Gallery Alliance. For the week, Leading up to the event, the plein air group brought out the plein air paint out around Venetia with a conclusion on Festival Day. Amazing turnout. We had collaborative giant flower sculptures identifying the hosting galleries. That was really fun and adventurous to see what those would all turn out like. Everybody had their own idea. We had interactive art activities for the visitors on Festival Day. the free vintage trolley connecting all the festival areas, the pottery throwdown at Happy Life, live glassblowing, painting, portrait drawings, mosaics, and other art demonstrations. And then, of course, the public art directory trail that was also live on the map in collaboration with your group, actually, with the help of Chris. One of the most important things we learned was that people did not need a central festival site. The movement through our town was actually the experience.

Venetia already has an extraordinary concentration of artists, galleries, studios, museums. historical places, and creative organizations. The festival gives us a way to present those individual pieces as something larger. It allows us to say Venetia is an artist's destination. It also creates connections between organizations that may normally operate independently. Well, we saw that tonight. Look at how many we can get even more done. A visitor might come to see a gallery and discover Arts Venetia. They may come for music and discover the museum. They might ride the trolley and find a gallery they have never visited before. They might come downtown for lunch and encounter artists working in public. That cross-pollination is one of the festival's greatest strengths.

Our goal for the second year? on June 5th, 2027, will not necessarily be to make the festival dramatically bigger, although that would be awesome. It will be to make it stronger, easier to navigate, and even more distinctly, Benicia. The first year introduced the idea, and the second year coming up gives us the opportunity to establish the Benicia Arts Festival as something that residents and visitors begin to look forward to each year. A consistent annual date, identity, and city partnership will help us to build recognition over time.

The trolley was an important part of the festival experience and helped reinforce the ideas that the entire town was participating. For 2027, we will continue improving. We have a trolley tour guide, who is going to stay on the trolley. One of the pieces that we noticed had occurred is that people were afraid to get off the trolley because they didn't know when they got out to Arts Venetia and the museum. So we're going to have a tour guide that's going to be able to get off the trolley to go in because the driver can't get off. And that way people will know, it'll be announced that the trolley is here to get back. And we're going to have signage. So trolley signage for stops, that was something else that we were... Encouraged to do and also the map and schedule will be distributed to businesses way in advance To the hotels and that so people are going to know that it's coming up The goal is to make it effortless for someone arriving in Benicia to understand. Where do I start? Where can I go and what can I discover next?

Some of the most engaging moments happen when visitors actually watch the art being made or get a chance to get their hands dirty. We will build on this experience with pottery, paintings, glass blowing, floral design, public art, and more participatory workshops and projects. These experiences help to turn someone from a spectator into a participant or maybe an artist.

Live performances was an important part of the festival, bringing energy to the spaces between galleries and activity areas. Last year, performances were spread across several smaller locations throughout town rather than centered on a single main stage. For 2027, we are looking at adding a central stage on the Capitol Lawn while continuing to support smaller community performance areas throughout the festival. That combination feels like a strong fit for Benicia, a central gathering place with music and performance still woven throughout town and encouraging visitors to keep exploring. We also want to strengthen the support around the festival and create new opportunities for participation. We will be actively seeking sponsors and developing a dedicated sponsorship page on the festival website. This will give local businesses, organizations, and community partners a clear way to see sponsorship opportunities, understand what their support makes possible, and get involved at different levels. We are also looking at replacing the pre-festival gathering with an after-party to come together to celebrate what happened and continue the sense of community after the formal festival activities wind down. On the programming side, we want to bring new performances and fresh voices while continuing to feature local talent. Expanding the mix of music, performance, and live arts will help keep the festival evolving and get visitors something new to discover each year. Over time, the Benicia Arts Festival can become one of the city's cultural tourism identity alongside its waterfront, history, restaurant, shops, and other attractions.

Right. So we would like to invite the Arts and Culture Commission to get involved. No need to wait for us to get into the heart of designing this festival. We'd love for you to be a part of that. Some ways that you can assist and get involved, participating again with a member in the development of the 2027 Festival, Chris Dunlap, was an extremely valuable asset to us last time around with securing musicians, potential performance locations for us, sharing his expertise, and, of course, the tie-in to the public art piece, which we really valued and appreciated. Other ways, helping us to think about how to involve youth and emerging artists and getting them involved in the program as well. Lastly, advocating for the festival within the city, letting people know that, yes, indeed, it's happening again, and if they didn't hear about it, they should come this time. Our hope is that this can become a truly collaborative Benicia Arts event rather than something owned by a single organization. The festival gives Benicia a moment each year when we can collectively show people who we are. A beautiful waterfront town. A historic town. A town filled with many working artists. a town where galleries, musicians, performers, businesses, and residents are connected to one another. Our hope is the Benicia Arts Festival can become the day when we all open all of those doors at once and invite everyone in.

The first year showed us what was possible. Now we have the opportunity to... take what we learned, bring more people into the planning process, and build something that belongs to the whole community. We would love for the Arts and Culture Commission to help us shape what the Benicia Arts Festival becomes next. Thank you. Is there any questions?

I don't have a question, but may I make a comment? It was a very rewarding experience for me to see the festival build over the months before it happened, and the day was exquisite. The timing with your mural with the festival was, it was a delight.

Thank you. We're hoping you join us at the table again in October. Any other questions or thoughts?

I have a question. Do you have any estimation of how many people came?

We were told 2,000 to 3,000 did show up. And so we're hoping for more. That could be a different number. Colette was on maternity leave and she was looking into a company that actually can go in. It's kind of weird. They can go in and see by your phone where you were at that time and that day, and it actually can give you a more accurate number of how many people come to your event. He was looking into that, but others told us that they were calculating by other means that it was 2,000 to 3,000. What was the challenge was that because it's on First Street and there was so much happening within the galleries and within like the inn and other places, sometimes you would come out in the street and it looked empty. But when you would go, because we all took turns going around, there was a lot going on within the businesses or within the courtyards. So, yeah. That was exciting. So that's why we were presenting that this year. We're going up a little bit more outside so we look more full. But we're still sticking with no tents, except for in the central space, which Chris had suggested last year. And we're going to make it develop more and putting that area at center.

Would have guessed more than two or three thousand Just by what I thought it was great and knowing that was your first time you guys did a really good job. I was I Couldn't find anyone to come with me, so I said I'm just gonna go by myself Let's just spend like a half hour walking around I spent the entire day there Didn't even feel alone. I was just walking around seeing I took the shuttle here and there I thought it was really good, and you guys did a really great job Thank you. Yeah, thank you

Yeah, I loved how, you know, when I was on First Street, I just came across people I hadn't seen in years and people that came from out of town. I was like, how did you hear about this? And people just said, oh, I saw whatever thing on social media. People, I saw people who drove maybe 100 miles to get here for that program. So I just want to say, you know, great job. I mean, I'm just anecdotes, but, you know, those are important. They're telling. And you guys did a wonderful job. And I just loved how there's so much diversity and all different age groups. That was really good to see. Congratulations.

Thank you. We're hoping to expand on that. I know there's so much going on and listening to the wonderful presentations before ours. There's a lot. The one woman suggested, you know, this collaboration. And that's what we really want. We don't want it to just be the Benicia Art Gallery Alliance. We would like it to be us with other also to make it even better. Thank you.

I have just a few comments. I just, I think of you every day when I go to the public library because your beautiful flower is still in our lobby and it's just, it's gorgeous. And I wanted to thank the commission. They've been, you know, Commissioner Tover got us, told us about this early on. You know, Commissioner Dunlap was super excited to get involved. I know Commissioner Lewis and our chair, Hekmat, both performed as performers and now I'm I know Treva and Greg are huge cheerleaders and love everything that you're doing. A lot went into this presentation tonight, and I want to thank you. We've been in constant contact.

The pictures are gorgeous.

They did a lot of work, and we've been talking these past couple days trying to, how we can make this come to life, and you did a beautiful job, so thank you.

Well, we lost a lot of the photos, because we lost Nima, your photo, and we're like, well, where's the photos? We know we took the X capitals, and where are those? And we had all of these, and we're like, I don't know, they're somewhere out there in space. So, again, we thank you, and thank you, Chris, for being on it, and Nima, and Busy isn't here. And of course, Jeff, we saw his photos in here. So it takes all of us to make it happen and appreciate it.

And be sure to tell those that maybe missed your presentation tonight that this is being recorded and they can watch it online starting tomorrow. Because I think it's a really great summary and it's really exciting. And congratulations. Thank you. June 5th.

Thank you so much. Appreciate all your contributions.

Thank you.

Thank you. Was wonderful presentation and now it's hard to move on but now we have to move on to the consent calendar The action here is to do we have a motion to approve the minutes I move to approve the minutes I second the motion All right. Madam Secretary, would you like to take the roll call? Thank you. The right one.

Hi. Chairperson Heckman?

Yes.

And Commissioner Dunlap?

Yes.

Commissioner Tover?

Yes.

Commissioner Wilson?

Yes.

Commissioner Nervous?

Thank you very much. Approved. Thank you very much, Commissioner Nervous. So we're going to go ahead and move into the next section of the agenda, which is ad hoc committee assignments, and to discuss the formation of various ad hoc assignments and appoint commissioners to these temporary groups. Ms. Dudley, do you have any suggestions for how we proceed here?

And this can be really informal. I know the chair and I had an opportunity to meet to go over the agenda, and I think we wanted an opportunity to open the forum to talk a little bit about what we want to accomplish this coming year. You have an opportunity to create these ad hoc committee assignments that allow you to meet as often as you wish. You don't have to follow the Brown Act. And it gives you an opportunity for a little bit more free flow and dialogue and idea sharing. In the staff report, we put some suggestions down, but we want to open up the floor. Obviously, I wrote down tonight, we may choose to add an ad hoc for the arts festival itself. We just asked for a volunteer last time, and Commissioner Dunlap willingly, you know, said he would do that. But we can, ad hocs can have a maximum of three commissioners. So if people want to get involved, you have the opportunity. Some of the ones that I have down, and I know, please, Chair, you and I talked at these at great length, and you could probably give a little bit more clarity. We have on there the piano ad hoc commission. Our current piano is in very poor condition just due to the elements and the years of service that is held. And so we most likely will be wanting to go out for an RFP and... get a new piano for the season. It gets brought in probably here, we were just talking about that, probably gets brought in and probably will be decommissioned somewhere in October. So we'll be looking during the winter to go out and do an RFP and try to find a new piano, a new artist. So that ad hoc would be putting together all that information and bringing that back to the commission. The art inventory maintenance ad hoc we had before I think is very, very important. We accomplished a lot last year with the $10,000 that we have for art maintenance. But that committee, that ad hoc really is vital to get out there and be the eyes for all the art in the community. The community grants ad hoc, there was some wishes from some of the commissioners to relook at the questions that are asked of our grantees through the grantee process. And we would need to start looking at that now if that's something that you guys were interested in. And then we also, in our discussion with the chair, talked about having an events marketing kind of ad hoc. where we could include the piano concert, do more things like that where we can not be here in the council chambers, maybe be out in the community creating that collaboration like we saw tonight. And then I just added the arts festival. At this point, you know, it's open dialogue. We can all talk. I don't want too much. I know your time is very important. You all are volunteering and giving back to this community. So I want to have something that's doable and meaningful to all of you. Thank you.

And I was going to propose that, you know, when we talk about these scopes, like where do you draw the lines? For the pianos, the more I think about it, I just want to toss this around with what you guys think about it. We have the maintenance side of the pianos, and then we have the creation side of the piano. And I think of those as being very different things. You know, the whole RFP process and picking artists and going through that versus the maintenance side. A lot of the maintenance side of it is very analogous to... a lot of other public art in a way. There should be a process to it. They all have nuances, of course. But one way that we could do this is to have the public art pianos is public art. Just have that as under the art inventory maintenance ad hoc and make the piano ad hoc about everything that's outside that related to the public art pianos, the RFPs and events.

I agree. I think from seeing the engagement that we had, I mean, I've been on this commission for two years now. It's the first time outside of the grant presentations that we've had them come here to talk to us and tell us what's going on with the amount of enthusiasm that these organizations have. I mean, going through the grant process and giving them this money to see the smiles on these people's faces and to see the progress with the theater reopening and the art festival. Things are happening in Benicia that I think we really have responsibility as You know as representatives of the city that that we need to make sure that they're successful and their ventures and to keep this going I You know along with the amount of people they came to the art festival of come to the other events, you know like the piano Events that we've had that brings many to the city Which is tax dollars And, you know, I think that that's something that we really should emphasize this year in addition to the public art maintenance too. I think that really should be the focus of what we do this year, to really be engaged with the community. My two cents.

May I ask a question maybe to put something on the agenda for next time? This is about upkeep of the public art. I'd like an update on the defacement of the memorial benches. and I'd like to know what we can do about that and if or What's happening and and what will happen this is really an attack on people's families here So I'm concerned about I'd be happy to put that on a future agenda I Can't believe

But one thing that I heard from a few of the groups that presented tonight was this idea of engaging the youth, right? And so that's very passionate to me, is how do we get young people to be a part of the narrative and to be leading some of these arts initiatives that are happening around the city? I think it's great. and how we can engage them and even more on the public art side how we can encourage them to be a part of the performing arts side so I think I don't know if that's an ad hoc or what that would be under but I think that there's an opportunity for us to inspire the youth to be a part of this conversation and to fill up these chambers when we're having these conversations.

I agree with that. Totally. I was on the board with Arch Benicia and so much of... It's like what do you see when you go to receptions and you go to these things? You see a lot of older people. The senior population really engages in it. And how does this get carried forward? And how does it become sustainable? And you're exactly right. It's bringing in youth. How do we get, I mean, I see like these other groups are getting the high school and some of the other schools engaged in some of these projects. But I think that's another thing for us to kind of consider to help perpetuate the youth on being involved Even with things in the city, you know, the public art, like you were talking about, it would be wonderful if we could have something that's put together by, you know, some of the kids in the schools that would actually be a public art project. You know?

I also love the intersectionality between seniors and young people, right? I think we have a... robust senior community right and we have a lot of youth like to have them come together to do something very structured and powerful and I just think that would be great as well so I guess again my wonder would be like is there an ad hoc that focuses on those type of initiatives that bring

Young people to the table and also, you know have that moment for some cross Some of it I know when we've had discussions there's a limitation to exactly what the city can do as far as as representation so like what you were saying with an ad hoc committee is if we could have those kind of conversations about you know what how can the commission be more involved and be able to accomplish those goals but still adhere to whatever the policies are we have to abide by

And there is an opportunity for the ad hocs and this commission to work very closely with the Benicia Public Library and the Recreation Department. So if you had a idea that came from an ad hoc to have a, I'm making something up, an event at the Senior Center where we pair artists from the high school and middle school with some of our artists at the Senior Center hosted by the Recreation Department who oversees the seniors that you have a great Nexus with staff here The Commission makes recommendations and then the departments can if if the opportunity and we we are able you know bring that to life through staff and then the Commission can come and participate and be a part of it that way and I think it's a lot of great ideas. We only meet every other month, so you don't want to lose this momentum, right? So that's why these ad hocs are really great, because we can meet for coffee, we could say, okay, the art maintenance one, I worked closely with that committee, we met, we divided tasks, the group went out, completed those tasks, came back, and we were able to actually get something really wonderful accomplished last year. And so, you know, looking at the list, I don't want to overdo with so many ad hocs. If we could bring them together and know that it's vague. So, like, having, we can title it whatever, events, marketing, can kind of tie into bringing youth involved, working with seniors, working with all of the collaboration we saw tonight. Yeah. I want to defer to you on your interests and where you're willing to donate your time.

I was going to say, to that point, because I agree, we can't have too many ad hocs, in my opinion, because we have too many ad hocs. I mean, we're only a certain number of people, right? I can't even keep it straight in my head. How do we just simplify as much as possible while allowing people to specialize in that scope, right? Like one structure could be where we have an ad hoc for new art, new public art. It could be the public art pianos. It could be a mural or whatever, right? That's one. So it's managing the RFPs. And then you have another one that's for maintenance. And probably we should really, I would advocate we actually include the title decommissioning because that's going to be a big thing that we have to think about. And then another one could be just events. or outreach or whatever, whatever word you want to use.

I do think it's important. I don't want to lose the idea of the community grants ad hoc because I think we, the last time we met or the time before that, we really talked about like the questions that we were asking the grantees and like kind of editing to gain more information from the different organizations. So I don't want to lose that one.

Is there, is there, Is there a way, say that we had like three or four ad hoc committees? Do we have an ad hoc committee that would basically deal with public art? Because I think the maintenance and the new requests should really be in the same group because of the fact that when we had this initial discussion about the maintenance of the public art, there was no program. um at the time that the city had incorporated and through the conversation you know that we came you know fix your house, right? And then you move forward. And I think, you know, now that we've gotten that off the ground, I think the new calls for public art that go, I think should be also contained within the same ad hoc committee because of the fact the stuff that we learned would be really beneficial to designing those requests. And so it's all kind of in its own house as it were. I think the events, Part of it, too, could be in its own ad hoc committee and then branch out, like, say, you know, not telling you have to do it, but if Chris wanted to be on the art festival committee, when we meet as an ad hoc, he could report on what's going on there, and then that would be built into our commission meeting. So we could kind of just identify maybe three or four different ad hoc committees that we want to do, and then whoever wants to be part of one or two of them, and then go from there. And then they can, within their own groups, can branch out and address these other issues.

What about just, based on what you said, just simplifying it further, like we just have one ad hoc that's responsible for public art? through and through, and another one that's for events and outreach.

With the events and outreach, I think part of that should be about facilitating these connections that we're seeing here in the audience. And each of us goes out and encourages, that's what we do, to get synergy within our grantees.

So, for example, you're saying that under public art, art inventory and maintenance and pianos would fall under public art. And then maybe like performing arts events and marketing is all one group, one ad hoc. And then community grants. I look at that one as just always there, right? And then I'm trying to figure out how to streamline some other ones around that. But I think community grants always should be its own. Ad hoc, yeah.

I do have a question as we're brainstorming. Another option would be, but I'm unsure, and I want your feedback on this, the grants could be agendized and we could do a deep dive at a commission meeting, but just know, so if we start going through the questions and wanting, you know, if you wanted to make that just a subject matter for one, our next meeting, Commission meeting we could do that but it's very formal you know we have to follow Robert's rule of orders and ad hoc level you could have a little bit more freedom so I'm unsure with the grant the grant questions are the grant questions I know we want to fine-tune them tweak maybe delete one add one it's not gonna be a major overhaul So I wanted to get your feedback on that.

And there's so much overlap with all these, right? So it's just a matter of, well, we just want to draw a line. And then we can always change it later if something's not working. But I mean, at the end of the day, like we do grant outreach for questionnaires. We're also talking maybe the same conversation about, hey, do you want to come and present something at our commission meeting? Or did you know such and such is working on this other thing? You might want to talk to each other, right? Yeah, I mean, it's all so much overlap. So it's like, I just say like, we just draw a line, like just draw the lines and there's no, really no downside, right? If it doesn't work, we change it.

And I want to thank the commissioners. It was really your idea through last year to where we got tonight. Because we wanted to have an audience. You know, we've talked about collaboration, like that was a priority. And they gave their presentations we all saw what was happening and we're like this is fabulous so i've stayed in constant contact with them since then and said our commissioners want to go to your events they love promote you as you guys are ambassadors so um i want to thank you and i think we can continue this dialogue during our meetings with this collaboration because they feel so welcome and they feel so supported by this commission and i think we'll just keep that up here at the commission level but at ad hoc there's so much more we can do but i want to thank you for that

If we made it kind of a standing that when we have our commission meetings that there would be a representative of each ad hoc committee that could report on any progress or if anything that they want to bring or that needs to be before the commission related to business, that it would be brought up during our commission meetings and then we could vote. I think... THAT'S GOING TO HELP MAKE SURE THAT THESE AD HOC COMMUNITIES ARE RELEVANT. I THINK ONE OF THE PROBLEMS THAT WE'VE COME UP WITH THESE IDEAS AND THEY KIND OF FALL AWAY, YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO LIFE AND I THINK IF WE KIND OF IF WE MAKE IT SIMPLIFIED where it's doable um and then we can report on it during our commission meetings um you know each person if there's anything relevant but to speak to um and have a part of the meeting and this so it keeps the energy going that we keep it um part of it

We're going to get me to argue against being simple. So do we want to just draw a line in the sand to say, let's start here and see how it goes? Just call out what should be our ad hoc committees, and let's just try it.

Yeah, I mean, I sort of think about the things that would interest me to do and then try to put where would that land in which ad hoc committee, right?

Give an example, Greg.

Well, something that interests me would be to curate a calendar, a publicly available calendar of every arts event happening in the city. Like, I just figured out I can subscribe to the 49ers calendar, and it's in my Gmail now. Whenever I click the button, I can see what the Niner, when their game is. Okay, but also like my wife's school she works at has a calendar you can subscribe to so I can see if she's, oh, she's going to have a rough week that week. You could create something like that. It doesn't have to be Gmail, but something pretty simple to aggregate all of the arts events going on in town and put them in one place that everyone can look at. And so I think about, well, I want to make that happen. What ad hoc would I be in for that? And that, like, events and marketing, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so that's the sort of way I was thinking about, like, what interests me, excuse me, and then what ad hoc would I go in if that thing interests me, and would that fit in two different ones or as...

I think if you make ad hoc committees for the purpose of coming up ideas opposed to just having a function, a purpose, like the maintenance ad hoc committee, we had to do something um if they're broader in scope as far as the titles or what they're supposed to do like the events public art grants and then have other things under those umbrellas it would make it a little bit easier and also with foster um a way of people bringing ideas of how we could um you know build a calendar community calendar um how we can all you know go to these events um how we can improve the grant process um you know how we can better maintain our public art make awareness of the public art and also which will bring more interest in people wanting to contribute to it So I think if we design these in a way where it brings in new ideas and it's energized by that, opposed to just purpose or function.

I also loved, the presentations were wonderful, but I don't know if you noticed that people were chatting. It was happening. I mean, I'm in school mode right now. I'm a teacher and I teach middle school. So I almost was off mic. But I also didn't want to do that because they were chatting with each other and trying to figure things out And I think we talked about that right how to be that and you were telling us okay, but we can't you know, but we can do right and I think maybe um the community grants ad hoc can be a part of that conversation that networking that like oh what ideas do you have and kind of Guiding the conversation being a facilitator of conversations. I

And do we have to decide on what the ad hocs are tonight?

Or is this more of just an open discussion?

No, I just, our next meeting is not till November. I believe it's November 1st, Thursday in November. If we wanted to kind of hit the ground running, an ad hoc would be the way if we wanted just to scale it to the two or three that you've discussed tonight. Okay. Or we can put this on our next agenda.

Yeah, I mean, there's like two basic things, like if I had to like do like a chat GPTI thing we talked about. There's the external side of things, and then there's the internal side of things, right? Like broadly how to think about it. Like a public art maintenance and looking at the schedules and looking at it if a bird poop went on a certain bench and what we need to do about it, that's like more like internal kind of responsibility in a way. And you have the external facing ones, which is engaging the youth, bringing the intersection of youth and seniors, looking at events, the ROI from events, events that we can use the city, the library or senior center, whatever, establishing a calendar. Those are more external. I mean, if we want to keep it simple, just do two ad hocs. One of them is more like RFPs and maintenance, and then everything else goes another way.

Yeah, when you explain it like that, because I had it down to three, which was basically I was thinking like events and outreach instead of marketing, like call it outreach, public art and grants. But then the way you explain it, like outreach would actually tie in with grants, and that would be an ad hoc, and then you could have public events and public art.

Well, the outreach, what he's referring to was when we were talking about the grants and after we had went through the process and we were a little bit concerned that there was a little bit of disconnect with the people that were applying for the grants and what... kind of funding that was available to them. And I think because we were so passionate about making sure that they had the resources available to them, but then when you the city, you folks, sorry, there's limitations. So I think, you know, and it's one thing I've seen that's really kind of good about the ad hoc committees is that we do have people like us that are on the commission that are, you know, we're volunteers from the community to do this but then we also collaborate with people from the city that can say okay well those the ideas are fine but this these are the limitations of what what the city can do and then we collaborate together to figure out how do we bring the ideas that we have to fruition And that's where, you know, we do. We need you guys to kind of, you know, when we come up with these grandiose ideas, to do things because we're so passionate about what we see. But we know that there's limitations on to what the city can, you know, commit themselves to.

If I can make a suggestion to such good input. I think we want to do so much. But maybe for tonight, we, because you can add an ad hoc at any time. So, and for some, an ad hoc definition is a short-term assignment. So the grant ad hoc is gonna look at the grant process, grant questions, the review, scoring, make some suggestions, and then once that's done, it's retired. I think events, I think the events, they're one-time things. So the piano, whatever you guys decide to do for events. So I think keeping it very simple for now, just for tonight, and then we could stew on it and come back at our next. But I think what I'm hearing is kind of art, public art, and that includes the maintenance and then potential new art is one category. And then we have the events outreach. And we can outreach on all of our ad hocs. I think that's another great one. I think we all would like to hit the ground running on. And then the grants. So we can have three ad hocs. We can have volunteers tonight, or we can wait till the next meeting. Totally up to the commission.

I would like to call a motion for that structure sheet later. I'd like to call a motion because there's no being wrong. We just try it. And we need to differentiate or collapse things or whatever. We can always do that.

I think that we should wait. I mean, as far as the volunteer part, I think it's great that we've had this discussion tonight to kind of identify the pathway forward. But I'd love for, you know, busy and...

That would give the opportunity. So the chair and I can work on maybe defining a little bit of ideas so that at the next meeting you can volunteer for the ones that you want. We can get those locked in and then hit the ground running.

And that would delay us for two months, right? If we don't form the ad hocs tonight, then we'll have to wait for the next meeting.

Because your motion was to form the ad hocs tonight. And we can always add people to them.

You could switch. Yeah, we can assign people. And because Commissioner Lewis is here and Kiara is not here, I understand we could either, knowing them well, we can put them on one. And if they want to bow out, we'd be more than happy to.

I would sort of prefer that we get started. There's been a lot of waiting around. We have a lot of enthusiasm in the community. There's a lot of things, like Jeff was saying, that are happening in this town, and I think that we should be a part of it.

I also think that when you and Chairperson Heckmatt come together to kind of flesh out what the...

responsibilities or the ideas under each ad hoc is that something that you can email to everybody or no i think the motion right now it's kind of what i'm hearing is no one wants to delay kind of hit the ground running so i think um the motion was that we have three currently from tonight moving forward uh three ad hocs The ones that I just described. And then he would just need, chair would need a second. So someone would need to second if we want to do that.

I'll second the motion.

And then the secretary would take role. And we could at this time ask for volunteers to serve in those roles. And then those ad hocs could start right away.

We have a second.

So we'd ask our secretary to turn on her microphone and announce everyone's names because she loves the microphone.

Chairperson Hedlund.

Yes.

Chairperson, I mean, Commissioner Dunlap.

Yes.

Commissioner Tover.

Yes.

Commissioner Wilson.

Yes.

Commissioner Nervous. Yes. So I just want to be clear for the notes that we are forming the three ad hocs, and now we're going to ask ourselves to volunteer. Okay.

And you do not need to vote on the positions. So you've created the ad hocs, and we can take volunteers.

So just enter the notes, the meeting minutes. Yes. That you take them. I'm very happy to volunteer for anyone, but I think the least popular one is probably going to be the public art one, so I'll volunteer myself there.

What?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They are all going to be very popular.

Would there be any benefit to only for now putting two people on every committee so that the two commissioners that aren't here could have their pick? Unless we know there's some they won't want to be on. I think... Oh, we get to volunteer them?

I think those that are here tonight do get first opportunity for your passion. And know that we will all be involved in all of these things.

I would like to carry on with the meetings with the arts festival, if possible. That's what I would prefer to do.

Yeah, and I would guess my calendar idea goes under that same ad hoc, right? Stick me in there.

And I'll do the public art and the grants.

I will do the grants. And I'm also interested in outreach.

I think that is a great start. So we've got, do you have those Commissioner, you want to repeat them back?

Okay, so for events and outreach, I have Dunlap, Wilson, and Nervous. For public art, Heckmatt and Tover. And for grants, Nervous. Oh, and Tover.

Got it.

Thank you, that was a great discussion. I'm really excited about the months to come.

Beautiful. So we're going to go ahead and move on to communication from staff and members. City Council Annual Report. Commissioner Wilson, thank you so much for your participation and partnership there.

Oh, so long ago. I almost forgot. Yeah, I know.

I would like to commend... Our chair and Commissioner Wilson and I believe Commissioner Lewis was going to attend with you. It was the best. presentation our city council has seen in ages. For those of you that didn't get to watch it, I'm going to brag on whoever's amazing idea that was. I think it might have been our chair to have Bart Sullivan from Benicia Performing Arts come with his guitar and and sat in the audience as everyone arrived and played the most beautiful, calming, gorgeous music. Every council member walked in, every city staff, were in awe. They said they wished that we could have that music at every council meeting. It set such a wonderful tone. And as your chair presented a year in review of all the grantees, he played in the background. Then they swapped, and then Commissioner Wilson got up and music playing. I mean, everyone was smiling. I just, I can't thank you enough. That was just amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing.

Thank you, Anne. You were very instrumental to helping. Structure this put it together. Thank you so much. And I just want to say shout out to commercial Wilson that he Last-minute notice. He's like I'll do it. I'm in He did a really good job of just reading the information and presenting it very well and in the background Commissioner Lewis did she helped a lot with helping shape up the slides. So I It was a team effort. And it was, of course, all based on all the great contributions of everyone here and our grantees.

Do that every single time. Everyone was smiling. I don't get to see the city council smile that big. It was beautiful. So great, great job.

It was a lot of fun. Great. Yeah, so I don't think there's any remarks to make about that. I thought it seemed like it was well-received, and we got some comments from council, but overall, I thought that the tone and the response was very positive. So anyways, congratulations. Unless there's anything else, we could push forward into the upcoming grantee events or fundraisers.

I just have a couple that I think in the spirit of beginning of the meeting, I just wanted to end. There's just so many amazing things happening in our community. I encourage you because you guys are involved in so much. This is a great opportunity for us to share with our our other ambassadors of art and culture. But some things that I noticed online that I'm sure you're aware of, but for everyone out there watching, but One House Bakery is now doing live music, which is really wonderful, great addition. The Inn at Benicia Bay, I see that they're doing, they're gonna do a jazz explosion tomorrow night. The Relic Tavern, Lucas Beer Garden, incredible music performances. You know, day in, day out. So that's pretty amazing. I wanted to let you know that the Benicia Public Library is hosting a very special display for 9-11. And it is going to be their bringing posters from the 9-11 memorial to the Benicia Library. Very special. And they will be out and displayed from September 10th to the 12th. The other thing I wanted to mention, there's going to be a reception at the Benicia Public Library for the Plain Air Gallery, Plain Janes in the Light is the exhibit going on right now at the library. If you haven't had a chance, please stop by between the 4th and the 10th, and they're having a reception on Sunday the 13th from 3 to 5. So those are some things that I saw. I think it's important for us to just keep up all the good work that's happening out there.

I think they're doing live music at the Majestic also. Not the theater, the bakery next door. I remember, I don't know which night. It was one night a week I think they were doing it.

Oh, and there was one more. I'm sorry. I printed it off. I noticed online art at the Venetia Club is Saturday, September 12th from 1 to 5. 15 local artists are being shown. So another great event for our community celebrating art.

Thank you very much. And with that, I believe we're adjourned. Thank you so much.