Arts and Culture Commission - Regular Meeting

Hello and welcome to the September 17th regular Glendale Arts and Culture Commission meeting. Roll call please.

Vice Chair Kasumian? Here. Commissioner High? Here. Commissioner Harper? Here. Commissioner Alcob? Here. Commissioner Joseph Lynch? Here. And Chairperson Zadorian?

Here.

Agenda item one, report of the recorder regarding posting of the agenda. The agenda for the September 17th, 2026 regular meeting of the Glendale Arts and Culture Commission was posted on September 14th, 2026 on the bulletin board outside City Hall. Agenda item to consent items eight minutes of the July 17th 2026 Arts and Culture Commission meeting and B minutes of the August 5th 2026 Special Arts and Culture Committee Commission meeting Bless you Any changes to either of those if not, we can get a motion for the July 17th minutes.

I Move to approve the July 17th minutes.

We have a second

I'LL SECOND IT.

I'LL SECOND IT. I'LL SECOND IT. I'LL SECOND IT. I'LL SECOND IT. I'LL SECOND IT. I'LL SECOND IT. I'LL SECOND IT. I'LL SECOND IT. I'LL SECOND IT. I'LL SECOND IT. I'LL SECOND IT. I'LL SECOND IT. I'LL SECOND IT. I'LL SECOND IT.

I'LL SECOND IT. I'LL SECOND IT. I'LL SECOND IT. I'LL SECOND IT. I'LL SECOND IT. I'LL SECOND IT. I'LL SECOND IT. I'LL SECOND IT. I'LL SECOND IT. I'LL SECOND IT. I'LL SECOND IT.

Is that the special meeting? Yes. Oh, I guess it was just us. So I move to approve the minutes of the August 5th meeting.

Special meeting. May I get a second, please?

I will second it.

Roll call.

Vice Chair Kasumian? Yes. Commissioner High?

Yes.

Commissioner Vidor?

yes and chairpersons of dorian yes agenda item three introductions and presentations a rachel lee public arts intern good morning commissioners we are very excited to introduce rachel lee who's our public arts intern this internship is sponsored by the la county department of arts and culture and we're very grateful for that uh that sponsorship that when i introduced rachel

Hi, my name is Rachel Lee, and I'm a recent graduate of UCI, and I'm super excited to join as the public art intern and put my passion for arts, historical culture preservation into the position. Thank you.

Welcome. We're happy to have you. Thank you. Next item, please.

And I am 3B, Library Arts and Culture Events, presented by Larta Lopez, Program Coordinator. Construction on the Central Park Block project began on Monday, August 31st. Work is anticipated to continue through September 2027, barring unforeseen circumstances. Residents and visitors may experience temporary impacts, including reduced parking, noise, dust, vibrations, and changes to vehicle and pedestrian access around the Central Library and Adult Recreation Center. The Central Library and Adult Recreation Center will remain open during construction. However, their parking lots will be closed. For more information, please visit the link on the screen. The Armenian Film Festival, produced by the Armenian Film Society, exists to spotlight and celebrate Armenian stories and filmmakers from around the world. The Armenian Film Festival is rooted in a commitment to cultural preservation and cinematic excellence and serves as a global platform for both emerging and established voices in Armenian cinema, fostering dialogue, understanding, and artistic exchange. The Arts and Culture Commission is a sponsor of the festival. For more information, please visit the link on the screen. The Glendale International Film Festival is a celebration of the cinematic arts, spotlighting the powerful medium of film, the creative artists who make them, and the tradition of moviegoing, presented and produced by Glendale Arts. The six-day festival features in-competition and out-of-competition screenings at the iconic Lemley Theater Q&As, and panel discussions, a film, screenplay, and student competition and awards ceremony, and networking opportunities with peers and industry professionals. The Arts and Culture Commission is a sponsor for the festival. For more information, please visit the link on the screen. Glenda Library Arts and Culture invites you to join a series of virtual author talks in partnership with the Library Speakers Consortium. On Thursday, September 24th at 4 p.m., join us for an energetic conversation as we celebrate the joy of community and summer fun with Latin Grammy-winning musician Lucky Diaz, author of the sensational bilingual picture book, Palateroman. For more information, please visit the link on the screen. Join us for eclectic live music outside on the Arts Lock Paseo. The Jewel City Concert Series is a free outdoor concert series taking place every Saturday from 5 to 6 p.m. from September 26th through October 24th. On Saturday, September 26th, enjoy an evening of Armenian music by String Harmonies. Visitors are welcome to bring a chair and enjoy the music in the Paseo. Seats are not provided. Performances run 60 minutes without intermission. For more information, please visit the link on the screen. Artifacts from an Unborn Empire will be on view at Brand Library and Arts Center from September 26th through December 31st. This exhibition gathers artists who reconsider how civilizations are formed and who gets to define them. Through a range of natural and manufactured materials, they play with and challenge the systems, stories, and symbols that shape our sense of power, history, and belonging. An opening reception will take place on Saturday, September 26th from 7 to 9 p.m. For more information, please visit the link on the screen. Artists and artist teams are encouraged to submit proposals for the creative crosswalk murals request for proposals. The individual project budgets range from $1,000 to $20,000 based on the size and scope of the project. The project budget is for producing a design concept rendering only. The theme for this request for proposals is Glendale Sister Cities. The ACC invites artists and artist teams to submit designs that celebrate the Glendale Sister Cities through proposals that honor the traditions, culture, landscape, cuisine, and artistry of each city. The deadline to apply is Friday, October 16th at 5 p.m. For more information and to apply, please visit the link on the screen. Agenda item five, sorry, agenda item four, written communications, there are none. Agenda item five, oral communications, we have two cards.

I would like to invite Alan Medak with the Vineyard Symphony up to the podium.

Thank you.

You have five minutes for comment.

My name, again, Alan Medock, and the organization I represent, or the founder of, is Vineyard Touring Opera Company. And the reason I'm here today is I wanted to tell you a little bit about us and what we're doing in Glendale. and maybe there's opportunities to get some support from the city. Vineyard Touring Opera was founded in 2007 to give singers opportunities to sing. We put on operas, as our name implies, touring. We bring operas all over to underserved communities. After COVID, we stopped producing operas, but we continued doing recitals. In fact, we'll be doing a recital at the Glendale Senior Center October 19th. I think it's at 3 o'clock. We'll bring in professional singers and do some opera favorites. It's a lovely, I'll make sure you have information, so if you want to come to that. We also do symphonic things. Back in 2015 and 16, we did a program of new music for short silent films at the Forest Lawn Hall of the Crucifixion Resurrection. We did that two years in a row. We called it Sound of Silence. And we just love Forest Lawn. We did an opera there. In the last two years, we've been doing a program called Bridging the Centuries, where we put out a call for new music and we evaluate that and we bring together an orchestra and we perform new music, mostly by local composers. And we did that last year. We've done it this year, and we're hoping to continue doing it. It's been very successful. So I wanted to kind of let you know, even though we're based in Claremont, we have a lot of presence in Glendale. We love Glendale. We love Forest Lawn. And, you know, they've been wonderful about supporting us and giving us a fabulous space to perform in. So that's pretty much what we're doing. I left some programs from our most recent Bridging the Centuries, so if you'd like to see what it looks like. Actually, for our first Bridging the Centuries concert, our soloist that night was a Glendale resident, John Mason, a horn player, a frequent sub for the L.A. Phil. So we're doing a nice thing, and it's in Glendale, and I thought you should know about it. And again, if there's any ways that the city can support us, we'd sure appreciate it. That's all I have for you today. Thank you. Any questions? Thank you.

I have a question. Yeah. So it's probably not directly for you, but when a group like this performs, even though it's not funded by the Urban Art Fund, when they perform in a public space, like a city-owned space, does the city of Glendale, through any avenues, give them publicity so that the community knows they're performing? Or is this a private event?

No, no, no. This is a public event. And Eileen, I can't remember her last name, who's the director there, she's going to be putting together a publicity flyer. It'll be free and open to the public. So, and I gather they can seat quite a large. This is our first year there. So, I believe they can seat as many as 600. It's a big auditorium. It's a large auditorium. So, they just changed the date because they want to do a little more publicity on it. So, we're expecting it'll be a big crowd.

So, was Eileen with Forest Lawn?

No, Eileen's with the Senior Center. Glendale Senior Center. Okay.

Well, if you have a recommendation, maybe it's that you can forward this information once it's publicized, and we can put it into our monthly newsletter, or I don't know if it's monthly or weekly, but...

Correct, we have a newsletter, and then we also have our arts calendar on the Arts, Culture, and Museums website.

And we can add that to ours as well. That would be great.

Great, great.

Any other questions?

No?

Well, I want to thank you, taking time out of your probably busy Thursday to drive all the way over here and talk to us, and for hosting so many events in Glendale. We look forward to working with you. Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much. Bye-bye. Thank you. Have a good day.

Okay, next I would like to invite Eric Hawk with the Burbank Community Band.

You also have five minutes.

Thank you, I appreciate it. Hey, hey, and good morning to the wonderful members of the Glendale Art and Culture Commission, terrific city staff, and those who've taken time out of their day to participate in today's Meet and Review It. My name, for the record, again, is Eric Hawk. I'm the current president, board of directors of the Burbank Community Band. And many of you may know what the Burbank Community Band is, but for those of you who may not, viewing remotely and such, the Burbank Community Band is a wonderful concert band made up of volunteer musicians from Burbank and also, of course, the surrounding communities like Glendale. The band was first formed by Lockheed employees in 1940 at the site of what's now the Hollywood Burbank Airport. And I wanted to let you all know the community band has been rehearsing Friday mornings in preparation for its first performance of the 2026-2027 season. The band's next show, the band's first show, will be our annual Halloween concert, and it's going to be a lot of fun. This free concert for the community will be held on Saturday, October the 24th at 5 p.m. And it's going to be at a great location, the main stage of Dolores Huerta Middle School, located 420 South Mariposa Street. I looked it up. It's 6.6 miles from Glendale City Hall. The concert will feature music to move your spirits and music with eerie waltzes and festivals as well as familiar pieces from the big and small screens such as the Addams Family and Ghostbusters. Of course, a wonderful community tradition that the band has woven into our annual Halloween concerts is a Halloween costume contest which is for children as well as those of us who remember Halloween's past as children and with gifts and prizes and such. And last year we had our biggest turnout of costumed audience members and so we expect this to be a wonderful highlight of the performance as well. If you cannot make it to the performance on Saturday, we will have another show, sadly without a costume contest, but that will be the day before on Friday, October the 23rd at 10.30 in the morning, and that will be at the Jocelyn Adult Center on 1301 West Olive Avenue, 7.1 miles from Glendale City Hall. And both performances are free and highly entertaining. And I should also add that as a volunteer musician band, if I have inspired any of y'all to maybe be part of the performances, be part of our group, the Burbank Community Band, there's always room for one more. So I always welcome you. So if any of you do have or do play a brass or woodwind or percussion instrument, and would like to play with a group of genuinely kind and welcoming and talented folks on Friday mornings, please let me know or go to our website at burbank-band.org. The band rehearses Friday mornings at Burbank's McCambridge Park inside a wonderfully air-conditioned space from 9.30 in the morning to 11.30 in the morning. And would certainly love to see all y'all, if possible, either in front of or behind our marvelous conductor, Dr. Michael Stanley. So with that...

um i do have flyers for all y'all so i will distribute in fact congratulations eric it is always so lovely to have you at our meetings you're so sweet to say that thank you thank you very much so we're going to pass this around do we have any questions or comments

Are you going to be an emcee during the Halloween concert? Beg your pardon? Are you going to be an emcee of the Halloween concert?

To be completely honest, as engaged as I am with all the y'all, our conductor is a much better front man than I am. You should.

You would be a great emcee.

Oh, you're so sweet. Appreciate that, Commissioner Hay.

Well, thank you very much, Eric. As always, we look forward to seeing you here again. Thank you. Thank you. I'll be back. Have a great day. Okay, we can go ahead and move forward to the next item.

Agenda item six, discussion items, a public art demographic survey report.

Good morning, commissioners. So on March 20, 2025, almost over a year now, the Arts and Culture Commission approved a motion to work with Bronwyn Mauldin on a public art demographic survey. We're very excited that she's here today to present the findings of that survey. Oh my gosh, not survey. So I'm going to hand it over to Bronwyn.

all right uh good morning commissioners um so i'm bronwyn malden and um just so you know i have been doing research and evaluation in the public sector non-profits government philanthropy for i did the math this morning almost 30 years now and for the past 13 years i've been doing this work in arts and culture including with the la county department of arts and culture and it was really exciting to be able to work on this particular study because I've also lived in Glendale for more than 20 years, so doing something with my hometown for my hometown is really quite nice. Let me start by giving you some really exciting methodological details about how we conducted the survey. Staff put together a list of 866 artists who had participated in 15 different programs since 2014. So this is a lot of data compiled from a lot of different databases and spreadsheets and things like that and put together. This study was limited to artists who had direct contracts with with the city of Glendale. So this doesn't include festivals and other kinds of sponsorships and programs that the department and the commission have supported in the past. So keep in mind this is a very specifically focused study. The survey opened in January and closed in March, so it was open a good chunk of time. And we heard from 175 artists. Quite a few of them had had more than one contract, so they combined had had 239 contracts. That's a response rate a little over 20%, which I am sad to say is actually pretty good for a survey like this. And if y'all want to talk about response rates later, I can tell you why... response rates on surveys like this, that's a good number. And you should also know that Glendale Library Arts and Culture is really making themselves a leader in the field by doing a study like this. Very few public art agencies have done this. The city of Houston has done it. The LA County Department of Arts and Culture has done it. And now Glendale has done it. So I won't be surprised if y'all hear from other cities interested in learning how you did it as well. So that's methodology. Now to findings. The folks we heard from, the contracts they had, of the 230-some contracts, 86 of those were contracts with Brand Library Gallery, 62 of them were with Beyond the Box. 22 with Adams Square Mini Parks, 17 of those brand summer music series. There's more than that, but these are the top four responses. What's nice with this is that it kind of mirrors the percentage of folks that we had in that original 866, kind of it's proportionate to the programs and the number of the data that we had there. All right, as I was doing the data analysis, one of the things that really jumped out at me really quickly was if you look at that blue bar up there, that of the artists who'd responded, a very large share of them had received no payment for their work. That surprised me. So I dug in a little deeper to understand what was going on. And what I discovered was that the artists who had worked only with Brand Library Gallery, the vast majority of them received no money for their work. All the other artists, the vast majority of them had received funding money for their work. So this is something I think that you should also know that we didn't ask the artists to tell us how much they were paid. I mean, this goes back to 2014. Do you remember how much you received on a contract 12 years ago? So this is data that staff already had in databases. Anyone for whom that we didn't know whether or not they'd been paid or didn't know how much, those were excluded here. So these are all folks we definitely know whether they were paid or not. So this was something that that stood out. Then we looked at, we asked questions about artist education, and what we discovered was not surprising for the field of arts and culture and who artists are. So up in that upper left, that pie chart shows you that among the artists who responded to the survey, almost 43% of them had a master's degree, almost 43% of them had a bachelor's degree. This is an extremely highly educated group of people, this artist group. You see in the bottom right, the city of Glendale. Of people who live in Glendale, about 30% have a bachelor's degree, about 17% have a master's degree. So you're looking at a very well-educated group of people. And it's not, it's actually fairly similar to the respondents on the civic art demographic study that L.A. County did, looking at the artists they've contracted with. Again, more people with a master's degree, so that's 64 percent, but it's still a very highly educated group of people. um... artist earnings we wanted to know how much they were earning this isn't how much they were paid by the city but what are their earnings in the most recent year uh... median household income in the city of glendale in the most recent census is about eighty one thousand dollars so this is pegged to eighty one thousand dollars that black bar line in the middle so everyone on the right side of that is folks whose household income was more than that on the left side is folks who are less than that And this is interesting. If you look at total Glendale artists, you're looking at 20, 30, almost 40% of all the artists that have been contracted with earned more than the median. But if you separate out the brand library only folks with all others, you'll see that all others group, a larger share of them were earning more than median household income in the city. So an interesting observation. And now we look at race and ethnicity. You'll see that blue bar at the top is all the artists who responded again. So that is a little over 66% of artists identified as non-Hispanic white, about 15% as Asian or Asian American, almost 9% as Latino, and some smaller statistics there. City of Glendale population is about 63% white. So kind of similar there, kind of similar Asian and Asian American, but then you look at the Hispanic or Latino community, that's 18% of the population. So you see a bigger difference there. I separated out the brand library, that same group of people who only worked with brand library, all other artists, and what you see is the brand library group is nearly 76% white compared to the all other group, which is about 61% white. On the right-hand side, that bubble chart you're looking at, We had 42 folks who responded to the survey who identified as more than one race or ethnicity. And this is a count of how—all the choices that were made. So, if you picked more than one, you are counted in each of those different—each of those different circles. So, of the 42 respondents, 28 percent of—sorry, 28 of them, one of the boxes they checked was white. For 14 of them, one of the boxes they checked was Latino, and so on. So, that's how to read that chart. Okay, so the other thing we know is that questions about race and ethnicity don't tell us about the Armenian community. So we asked two questions to help us understand the representation of the Armenian community. The first question was, do you identify as being of Armenian descent? And 7.4% of respondents said yes, they did. We also asked, what is the language that you speak at home? And what you're seeing here is the top three languages spoken at home in the city of Glendale, and what percent of Glendale artist respondents speak those languages. So this is, I think, one of the most interesting charts in the entire study to me. About a third of residents of Glendale speak English at home. About a third of residents in Glendale speak Armenian at home, and about a third of residents speak 36 other languages. And Spanish is the third most commonly spoken language. And you can see that the artists are, that's a very different group of people. 86% of them reported speaking English at home. Really super interesting stats. I learned a lot about the city of Glendale doing this study. Okay, I'm gonna get to recommendations. There are so many more exciting charts and graphs and details in this, and I wish we had time for me to go page by page, but recommendations. My first recommendation, and when I talk about recommendations, I like to think of these as opportunities, because that's what data shows you. When you see gaps, what you should see there is opportunity, an opportunity to put mission, vision, and values into action. So the first recommendation is to pay all artists who contract with the city. I think the risk that Glendale runs by not paying some artists is any program that doesn't pay artists can only work with artists who are able to work for free. And that really precludes artists who simply can't afford to work for free. So I think that's something that should be considered. The second bullet is to really focus on building local programs and services. And I think y'all are doing this already. I mean, I'm looking at the festivals that you're supporting. But I think of Glendale as being an incredibly international city. and at the same time is an incredibly Southern California city. You know, it's both reaching outward and has deep roots here. And I think about what are the ways that that can be operationalized and acted on by the commission and by the staff. I think there's real opportunity there. Third recommendation is to really dig deep on Glendale's creative ecosystem. This is an interesting place because you've got giant entertainment industry firms that are either here or right next door in Burbank. You've got lots of folks living here who work in those firms. And then you've got this huge array of community-based organizations. You know, you can't walk down the street but you see, you know, a dance studio at a storefront somewhere. There's so much going on. And I think that Glendale's creative ecosystem, there are opportunities to connect with other departments in the city, thinking about economic development, workforce development. Where does all that fit together? So that's my third recommendation. My fourth recommendation, being the data geek, is always going to be to expand and improve data collection. The data that we worked with was great. and it's a great starting point and you can do better. I think that thinking about what is the information you need to make decisions, to design programs that really support the vision and values and the mission of the commission and of Glendale Library Arts and Culture. Think about, you can't collect data on everything, so strategically thinking about how you can improve and expand data collection. so that we can measure change over time. And that's the real value of a study like this, is you've got a baseline now. So where are you going from there? And then finally, institutionalize and professionalize the arts and culture agency. And I want to... The word professionalize, I realize that might not sound nice because I am not saying that folks here are not professionals. They absolutely are. I am thinking about the structures and practices of how decisions are made and how resources are allocated. For example, uh... cities like santa monica and west hollywood and burbank when they are making grants they have a public input process they they bring in members of the public to score grant applications and they are it is community members making those decisions and making those recommendations to the commission and to their to their electeds And so there are things like that. And I know that Jennifer and Loreto are well connected with this whole network of municipal arts agencies around the county. So there's real opportunities for learning from them, working with them, and bringing some of the best practices that are happening around Southern California into Glendale. We had an amazing designer work on the report. That's who I am. Thank you for they provided the photos are beautiful in the report. That's everything I've got to say. So I'm happy to answer any questions or hear any feedback that you have.

Great. Let's get started with Vice Chair Kasumian. Thank you so much for all this work. It really looks extensive. My question was, you said during the survey about a third of the voters spoke Armenian. Third of the respondents to the survey. Respondents spoke Armenian. And how do they identify themselves, within which race?

Okay, so let me correct. So that column on the right-hand side, that is the city of Glendale in the population. THE SURVEY RESPONDENTS, 3.4% OF RESPONDENTS SAID THEY SPOKE ARMENIAN. I HAVEN'T DONE THE ANALYSIS LOOKING AT RACE BY LANGUAGE. I'D BE HAPPY TO DO THAT AND GET THAT INFORMATION TO YOU.

YEAH, BECAUSE BEING ARMENIAN AMERICAN, TAKING SURVEYS, I ALWAYS COME ACROSS THIS ISSUE, BEING ARMENIAN, WE DON'T CATEGORIZE OURSELVES AS WHITE OR MIDDLE EASTERN, SO ESPECIALLY FOR A CITY WITH SO MANY ARMENIANS, IT WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE OUR OWN LITTLE

So I don't have a chart for that, but we did actually ask, because exactly, that's a huge issue, and I'm sure other departments in the city of Glendale have to address this as well. So we asked two questions. We asked about language spoken at home, and we also asked, do you consider yourself to be of Armenian descent? And 7.4% of respondents said yes, they did.

Okay.

Okay. Was that all your questions? At the moment, yes. Thank you. Commissioner, hi.

Yes. Thank you, our amazing staff and Ms. Malden, for putting together this very important survey report. I think the survey gives us valuable information about who our artists are and whether the opportunities we provide reflect the diversity of Glendale. One thing that stood out to me is that only about 22% of the artists who responded actually live in Glendale, while nearly 75% live outside the Glendale. Of course, I want Glendale to attract great artists from everywhere, but at the same time, I think we should make sure that our own local artists know about these opportunities and have a fair chance to participate. The report also found that Armenian, Hispanic, and Black artists were underrepresented. However, we should keep in mind that the study didn't include several programs we support, including the Armenian Film Society, Armenian Arts, Armenian Dress and Textile Project, etc. So I would like future studies to give us a more complete picture of everything we support. Another important issue is that artist compensation. As you mentioned, a significant number of artists, especially those exhibiting at Brand Library, Gallery, were not paid. I think we should look carefully at how we can create more paid opportunities, because artists should feel that their time, talent and work are valued. Most importantly, we will all agree that diversity should not simply be about numbers, it should be about opportunity and access, making sure artists from all parts of our community feel welcome, informed and represented. This is our first study of this kind, so I see it as a great starting point. And now we can use this information to make our programs even stronger and even more inclusive. So once again, Ms. Maldin, thank you very much and our amazing staff. Thank you too.

Yes, thank you very much.

Very interesting data. And in terms of payment, you know, I always feel as though the Brand Library, and I know there have been changes recently, but it operates as a gallery. And so there are many, many artists who display there and have been in shows there who have been compensated because they sold their work. So the idea was that if you're selling your work and there's a price on it, and yes, the library does make some money from that, as any gallery fairly should when they represent you, that it's a different animal than being paid a stipend. So, you know, I guess the question is, what would you see as the solution to that? And is, I guess my question to Library Arts and Culture is, is that practice going to be changing? Because I think we've discussed before in this venue the fact that artists who do display there and have a price tag on their work It was requested that they be compensated, but the decision was made that for legal reasons or something else, they shouldn't be because they have an opportunity to make money as any artist would displaying in a gallery. So could you just comment on that?

Yeah, I think that this is a question that the data can't answer, because this is a question of mission, vision, and values. And so I think that it is up to folks who manage programs, to commissioners, to have a conversation about what is the purpose of that program, and is it Is the model you're describing where they put a price tag on it and sell it, or would the purpose better be achieved by providing them with a stipend? I can't answer that question. All I can do is tell you that it is very striking in the data that there is one group of artists that you're working with who aren't being paid. And so... I think you have an interesting conversation ahead of you, but that is definitely, that is a values, mission, vision, values question to be discussed. Thank you.

And also Reflect Space, which is a place where artists, it's a mixed bag, but artists do display there. I don't believe sales go on at Reflect Space, but they weren't included here, so...

So if I may just comment on kind of two things. I think the first point that you bring up, Commissioner Vidur, about the art being sold at brand. Number one, I think a large number of those respondents were part of the Works on Paper show, which also acts as a fundraiser for the Brand Associates. So they pay a fee to be a part of that show, and it's a juried show. So I think that that's a conversation maybe we need to have on to Bronwyn's point, kind of our mission, vision, and values, and what the purpose of the show is, as well as how are we compensating artists overall. And I will say also to your point about Reflex Space artists being paid, that model has been shifting as well now that we have our arts and culture division, and I think that Under Jennifer's leadership, I think that we're looking at how to make sure that we are equitably compensating our artists across all arenas and not just in certain pockets, not just for some shows and not other shows. So we're taking a more comprehensive approach to everything now.

Okay, so when shows are curated for the brand, we now have three, we had more before, but we're still exhibiting artists under Stephanie's leadership. These artists are not paid.

I don't know for, I cannot say for certain if all of them are or are not, but we are also moving to a request for proposal model for shows at Brand to more similarly match the Arts and Culture Commission sponsored works. So that conversation will be revisited as part of that process as well to make sure our artists are equitably compensated.

Okay, thank you. And to Commissioner Hay's point about, you know, focusing on Glendale, and you mentioned the ecosystem, and is the community aware of it? Is there an awareness that this is an artsy town? Because we know that there are a lot of parts, but the whole is definitely not greater than the sum of its parts yet. So how do you propose that we What was my question? It had something to do with the fact that we have a very big community here, but your question about professionalism and involving the community, how do we actually look at involving the community, because I know the community has at times made attempts to involve itself, but there's still a non-city consortium of artists who communicate with each other, but the two aren't connected.

I mean, I think it's probably a couple of ways to approach it. One is I think really talking to other cities around the county and find, you know, how are they structuring different programs? How are they making decisions about how do they decide how money funds get allocated? How do they staff those positions, you know, that work? And looking at the agglomeration of programs that you're running here and figuring out where those models might work or how they might be tweaked to make sense here in Glendale. I go back to the model of grant making. Very commonly in arts administration across the US, organizations submit applications for a grant Community panels are established to score that. The scores go to the commissioners or the deciding body. And so that's very much bringing in that community voice to score and do that work. That's one way that it can be done.

Just to briefly comment on that, the way that I understood professionalize is to expand staff capacity. So we would love to be able to have that in-depth conversation with the community and build a grants program, but one of the hindrances that we currently have is we are a very small staff. There are several other communities that are like West Hollywood that are half of our size that have six staff members devoted to their arts and culture program. So that's the way I interpreted professionalized. But I think to Bronwyn's point, there's a lot that we can learn from other cities, and hopefully we can implement some of those strategies.

And I'm sorry to be so monopolizing here, but I have one more question that relates, I think, more to this. It's a question for the staff. Where does HyperSoCal fit into all of this? Because that is a program that I understand to be pretty large and significant, but again, to the point of What are we doing to pump up our universe here in Glendale? How is that and the amount of work or time that's being put into that affecting our ability to become a bigger ecosystem by ourselves?

Yeah, so I think that HyperSoCal is enabling us to be part of that larger ecosystem of Los Angeles County and beyond because it's a partnership with a number of other, usually smaller galleries and art spaces that may not get the attention that our larger art museums in Los Angeles do. And so that also provides us with the opportunity to have exposure to and with artists that we may not normally have. be able to communicate with or who may not normally see our calls for proposals as well. So it broadens the scope of who we are working with, what art in Los Angeles and Glendale looks like, and it's also contributing to making Glendale an arts and culture destination. because that's part of our mission as well and has been part of our strategic plan. And so part of making a destination is bringing folks from the outside in to see all of the wonderful things that we have. So I see it as a very strong partnership that I believe it's also a time constrained one. It's not someone's whole job. It's one project in the larger grand scheme of all of our arts and culture offerings. Thank you. Of course.

Okay. Commissioner Alko.

Hi, I just wanted to say thank you for taking the time out of your day to come and present this for us. And it was very inspirational. And I don't think I really had any questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Commissioner Joseph Lynch.

Yeah, I want to second that. I really appreciate you taking the time to both take the data and explain it to us. It's very valuable for us to have that information because, as you said, with gaps in data comes opportunity. My main question was, so for your point about institutionalizing and professionalizing the Arts and Culture Agency, I know you mentioned other cities have a program where they involve community members. I wanted to ask what sorts of community members would you want to involve and how do you propose including them in this, just informing them of their ability to make a decision here? Mm-hmm.

i mean i think i would look at some of those i i would start because i'm always going to start with data right because that's that's what i do um but looking at the demographics of the city of glendale and then looking at you know not just race and ethnicity but also like the the wild variety of arts types of, you know, small companies, big corporations, community-based nonprofits, you know, bands and performing arts groups, actors, you know, and visual artists, they're all here. And I would be looking at what's the mechanism for bringing their voice into decision-making. and creating those kinds of mechanisms. Maybe that's panel review processes, but there might be other things I think that y'all have the imagination and the creativity to think of what those kinds of processes could be. I will acknowledge that That's not a lot of people to do that kind of work. But I see real opportunity there. I mean, Glendale's what, the fourth largest city in the county, right? I think kind of there's a back and forth with Santa Clarita sometimes. But so I think that there's real opportunity to make... Glendale, the kind of destination for arts and culture that people like me who live here know it to be by tapping into those folks who live right here.

THANK YOU.

I APPRECIATE IT. THAT WAS A GREAT QUESTION. THANK YOU. I BELIEVE COMMISSIONER, SORRY, VICE CHAIR HAS ONE MORE QUESTION FOR YOU.

JUST A FOLLOW-UP QUESTION. THANK YOU FOR THE INFORMATIVE RESPONSES FOR ALL THE PREVIOUS QUESTIONS. JUST TO GO BACK ON THE SURVEY AND THE CATEGORIES, IS THERE A REASON WHY WE COULDN'T JUST ADD ANOTHER BOX TO CATEGORIZE SURVEYORS AS ARMENIAN VERSUS ASKING ANOTHER QUESTION AS WHAT LANGUAGE DO YOU SPEAK AT HOME?

SO WE ASKED THE SEPARATE QUESTION ALSO OF DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF ARMENIAN? THE CHALLENGE, OKAY, SO CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE PROBLEMS WITH CENSUS CATEGORIES FOR RACE AND ETHNICITY? THEY ARE, WE HAVE INHERITED THEM. THEY ARE THE STRUCTURES WITHIN WHICH WE FUNCTION. And they are not how human beings think of themselves. And that's the reality. So we're asking people when we ask a race and ethnicity question, we're asking them to put themselves into a box that they don't necessarily feel like they fit into. So one alternative mechanism is to have an open-ended question or add a whole lot of other categories that would be much more diverse, much more representative of the human experience. However, if we want to be able to compare ourselves to the population and to know whether we're representative or not, we're kind of stuck using the categories that census gives us. And so that's why we end up doing according to the census categories, which of these boxes do you want to put yourself into? And then we add additional questions that allow people to respond in ways that are more appropriate to them, also more appropriate to the specific community we're in. But your question is a question I ask every day. Why are we stuck with these categories? And it's really because of that ability to compare to the population.

AND THERE'S NOTHING WE CAN DO TO CHANGE ANYTHING AT THE MOMENT?

SO THERE'S TWO THINGS WE CAN DO. ONE, IF WE WANT TO COMPARE OURSELVES TO THE POPULATION, WE HAVE TO USE THE SAME CATEGORIES THAT THE DATA COMES IN TO US FROM EXISTING SOURCES. YOU KNOW, FOR EXAMPLE, IF WE In a theoretical world, the city of Glendale could survey all residents and develop their own mechanism, their own question and answer options that looks more like Glendale, that looks more like the human experience. That would be an incredibly expensive and complicated project, but that's one thing that could happen. If the city of Glendale had different data that's separate from what's collected by the feds, then there could be comparison points there. The other option, and I have done this in some surveys in my career, which is to leave an open-ended question. And you just invite people to write in, how do you define yourself? And I will tell you that gets really complicated really fast, and people write in very, very interesting things that Might or might not surprise you. And then if you really want to start to count things up, then you have to start sorting that into categories, and then you have to choose categories. So you're absolutely right asking the right question, and this isn't the only place that question should be asked.

Absolutely. Thank you for your response. Yeah. Yeah.

And if I may just also add to that, when we're applying for federal, state, and local grants, we need the data that is compared to federal data. So adding the are you Armenian, yes or no question is a common practice for us now, but we unfortunately have to have those categories. And as a mixed race person, it gets really dicey and complicated. So I completely understand your point, but we got to get those federal legislators. On deck for that one.

Thank you. Okay, so I just have one. I'd like to say thank you for making the data fun. It's really rough to just look at numbers. You made it really fun to look at. And whoever did the design as well, thank you. Yeah, they did a great job. And also, thank you for just putting the recommendations so easy to read because that's always what I want. It's just like, okay, tell me what I need to do, like solutions, let's go. So thank you for that. My question is, when it says all others on the... I just want to clarify, that means all other programs that are non-brand library, or does that mean all others as in non-Glendale artists?

Thank you. That's a great question. So it is the first, but I want to be really super clear. There were artists whose only contract was with brand library. Sorry, the artists who responded to the survey, whose only contracts were with the Brand Library, and all the other artists who responded. So that's all others.

Understood. Yeah. And then in the survey, it does say that 75% are non-Glendale living artists. Yes. OK, non-Glendale residents were artists of our programs, and then 22% to about 25%, because there were also people who preferred not to say, were Glendale living residents. Are these numbers including the non-Glendale living?

Yes, this is everyone who responded.

OK, so when you say Glendale artists, it just means anybody in our program, it's not people living in Glendale.

Who responded to our survey. OK. OK, thank you. That is so great. Glendale artists is the artists who responded to the survey. Understood. Yeah. Yeah. And let me also, the residence thing is a little tricky because we have data going back to 2014. We did not ask them, did you live in Glendale when you did this study? I don't think we, I think people might've had trouble answering that question accurately. So we asked, do you live in Glendale now? So it is possible that some of the folks did live in Glendale when they did the work. We just don't know.

I mean, we know people like Kathy Herenda, who were living in Glendale at the time, who don't live there currently, so maybe they did answer that one. She's still here.

Oh, she's still here. They haven't left yet.

Sorry. But there are lots of people. Okay, good, good. That's good to hear. But, okay, that makes a lot of sense. So there's just a few numbers that could tiptoe here and there, but...

Your point, yeah.

Yeah. I mean, it's good to see. I do think, one, it's great that the arts education, I love those numbers. I'm so happy to see, although we're lower than the L.A. County numbers. We're going to bump that up a bit. I'm not happy that it's not as representative of our city, of course. This is including non-Glendale residents, so that makes sense, but I do want to work on getting those Latin numbers up and getting those Armenian numbers up, and so that's something that we will work on and that we care about. I'm happy to see that we have so many Asian American artists. That's so nice to see those numbers, and it is representative of our city. But I also mentally am comparing it to the Armenian speaking, so maybe it's not as accurate. Because it did say 3% speak Spanish at home, Sorry, 13.6% spoke Spanish at home and only 3% were the artists. Right, that's right. So that's something we're going to need to work on. Just we can take a mental note when we're doing these things. Obviously, we don't pick based off of race and ethnicity when it comes to artists. But it is something that we just, you know, in the back of your mind, you're always thinking, like, is this representative of our city? Although we do include non-Glendale residents. So that's just it's good to see. So thank you very much. And also, when you did say that, you know, other people will be reaching out to us to see how we did it.

we will be recommending you highly because you did a fabulous job so thank you very much i guess i don't have any further questions if staff have any comments or questions i just wanted to briefly comment on commissioner high's point i really really appreciated him saying that this is a good starting point yeah we have to start somewhere with the data and now we know where we are so this is like you said a great starting point thanks to Bronwyn and her study. The other thing that Bronwyn had recommended when we met with her internally as staff is to do an artist pre-survey so that we're gathering this data from the beginning and we're not reaching out to artists seven years later to try and capture it. So that's something we can easily implement now is to capture that data from the beginning.

Thank you. Any other staff comments or questions? Anybody else on the dais? Okay, I think that is everything. You've done such a comprehensive and amazing job. Thank you. It was a very short discussion. Thank you. And we will be using this moving forward.

Thank you for the opportunity to work on this. This has been a real pleasure for me.

As a Glendale resident, we hope to see you back here. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Okay. We can move forward to the next item.

agenda item 6b 2026 through 2027 work plan progress commissioners we have a few updates uh as miss lopez said earlier the sister cities uh the creative crosswalks program specifically with the theme of sister cities is now open the application closes on october 16th at five o'clock pacific standard time and we have information on our website we also wanted to share we're very excited that the lacrosse and avenue rehabilitation project the creative crosswalks have been installed Ms. Lopez is going to pull on the screen some of the crosswalks that have been installed. If you haven't driven up La Crescenta Avenue, it's gorgeous. We're very, very happy with how the creative crosswalks were installed. I think Chairperson Zadorian was on the committee at that time. It was a few years ago. But we finally got there. Many, many thanks to Public Works for their partnership on this amazing project. We're very, very happy with the way they all turned out. So I hope you all can drive up to La Crescenta Avenue sometime soon. I just have a quick update regarding the mural ordinance. The mural ordinance was introduced to City Council on August 25th. We're going back on September 22nd for the adoptions. We'll provide an update after that. And then we also have a beyond the box update. Ms. Lopez is going to pull up the selections that were included for this round. I think, thank you so much Chair Zadorian and Commissioner Vidor who were on the committee, but I'm going to hand it over to Ms. Lopez to look at those selections.

Yes, so this year's theme is embracing artistry and artists were invited to propose designs depicting all forms of artistry such as impressionism, trompe l'oeil, super graphic and street art. We received over 130 submissions and we selected 14 applicants for this year's program and paired them with the locations shown here. So now we'll briefly go over each design. The first is by Rachel Elegone. She created a design in the style of blue and white chinoiserie porcelain with floral and bee motifs. And Trevor Cooper Smith's design is a lush, imaginative garden that encourages viewers to slow down and to spend a moment in stillness and observation. Next, we have Jurassic Power by Taline Johnian, which uses tromploid 3D effects that make a dinosaur appear to be breaking through the metal panels of the utility box. And Caragatan by Vanessa Villanueva paints a scene of a Filipino fisher in the ocean. Elicio Art Silva honors the 250th anniversary of American independence by intertwining history and heritage and marks 80 years of strong diplomatic ties between the U.S. and the Philippines. And Cuy Flo by Ricardo Cerezo celebrates Glendale's connection between nature, culture, and community and is inspired by the Friendship Garden and Japanese Tea House at Brandt Park. Erika Villar Rodriguez features a group of children painting directly onto the utility box, creating a scene that appears to happen in real time using trompe l'oeil. And Floral Folk by Andrea Lopez is intended to capture the essence of many cultures' traditional folk art styles. A Heron Rising by Dani Paraguteva is a graphic representation of the flight of a heron with fish, nature, and sunlight woven together as a pattern celebrating the beauty of nature. And Sagal Made creates a graphic art design inspired by the mountains and beauty of Los Angeles. Glendale Noir by Matt Saracusa used art noir techniques to pay tribute to Glendale's rich film noir history, highlighting two classic films, Mildred Pierce and Crime Wave, that were filmed here in Glendale. And Andy Rios celebrates the relationship between nature and community inspired by Glendale's native flora, the Verdugo Mountains, and the diverse cultures that contribute to the city's identity. And lastly, we have Janet Rodriguez Castaneda, which is an ode to linocut art focusing on Mexican linocut artwork, and Sunflower Paintings by Steve Ferro, which is an en plein air painting of sunflowers with a French easel.

Those are our updates.

They're beautiful.

I can toot my own horn. No, I'm kidding. It was very fun. So thank you for, because that was, how many applications again?

130.

Yeah, that's massive. Is that the most we've ever had?

Yes.

Yeah, it's a big deal. So thank you very much for going through all those and weeding them out. Any, oh sorry.

Agenda item seven, commission of staff comments.

Do we have any comments? We can start with Vice Chair Kasumian. I love the choices you guys made for those utility boxes.

Thank you. But other than that, nope. Commissioner Hight?

Yes, I do have a long one. Thank you, staff, for the update and for all the work that continues to go into these programs. I'm very happy to see progress happening in so many different areas at the same time, from creative crosswalks and beyond the box to the mural ordinance, performing arts, and exhibitions. I especially like this year's Creative Crosswalks team focusing on Glendal's sister cities. We have 11 sister cities and 4 friendship cities, and this gives us a wonderful opportunity to celebrate Glendal's international connections through art. I'm also pleased to see the mural ordinance moving forward to city council. Having a clear process can make it easier to bring more murals and more public art into our city. Beyond the Box continues to be another very successful program. Receiving 130 applications for 15 utility box locations shows that Artists are interested in working with Glendale and being part of our community. And I'm glad that we are not focusing only on visual art. The Jewel City Concert series brings live music to Artsakh Paseo and helps make arts and culture part of everyday life in our beautiful city. For me, the goal is simple. More art, more opportunities for artists and more arts and culture throughout Glendale. I think we're moving in a very positive direction, and I want to thank you, our beautiful staff, and everyone involved for continuing to move these projects forward. Thank you.

Pretty short and sweet. Thank you. Commissioner Vidura? No comment.

Commissioner Alcott? No comments, thank you.

Commissioner Joseph Lynch? No comments. Any staff comments? No?

Then thank you very much, everyone, for joining and coming to our meeting as well, taking the time out of your day and for watching.

If we can get a motion to adjourn.

I'll make a motion to adjourn. Second?

I'll second.

We're adjourned. Thank you. Thank you.