Parks and Recreation Committee - Regular Meeting

Alright. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to our Appleton Public Arts Committee for Wednesday, April 22 at 08:00AM. So I would like to call our meeting to order. First of all, we're going to stand for Pledge of Allegiance, please.

Allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right. So for World Club membership, I am Elise Christamichi.

Jake Bauer.

Jane Lasty. And on the screen, we have Alright. And then excused today are Luis Fernandez and Jane Lasty. Sorry, not Jane. I apologize, Jane. You are here. And I am so happy you're here. Laura Extra, so it's early. Alright. So first on our list for today is to approve the minutes from our previous meeting that was held on 04/01/2026. So if we can get a motion.

A motion to approve.

Perfect. And I'll second. Wonderful. Thank you. All right.

Jen, are you going to want to speak at all today? I just have one comment. You have one comment? Okay. Well, you came exactly on time for our public hearing moment, if so you're ready, you can step up to the

I

can't hear her.

Oh, public mic? Sorry. I apologize. There you go. Alright. You're ready. That's me.

Thanks. I'm Jennifer Stefani. I'm the executive director with Appleton Downtown Incorporated. I'm also president of Sculpture Valley. And I just want to thank you for all your hard work. My goodness, you must have put in many hours on this project, and I just wanted to say thank you for that. We did have one comment in regards to

the buried alive posters, because

there are two of them. And just to bring it to the attention that he didn't actually do this illusion, and there are two posters that are representing the buried alive

illusion, I think. Right? Oh, like on Yeah. Okay. That would have been something that You can come up to the You may approach the model. Will meet you at the model.

Yep. I see which ones you're talking about.

That was the only thing that I had a comment on. Okay.

Okay. Yeah. So it's

on a different side.

Okay. So you're saying he didn't do it. So I was just wondering then why were they

Well, were still it was still a published poster.

Okay.

I just don't know if we need two of them. Two of them

on there? Okay. Yeah. All right. We we still had some alternate photos from last time, correct?

I can go grab them. I was prepared to just review the edits.

Sure. Okay. So is that what we should continue doing, or do you think we should consider our alternatives, alternatives, Kara? Kara?

The committee can decide what, if anything, to do with public feedback.

Okay. Perfect. Sounds good. Thank you, Jen.

And if needed, I can do a rush edit on if we decide that we need another picture. Can get that done today.

Okay. All right. Any other public participation? No? Okay. Wonderful. So then it does take us to our, action item, which we can talk more about, Jen's feedback. So, our action item for today is to review the edits of images that were selected at the 04/01/2026 meeting for the year of the Houdini theme to be displayed in the Welcome Tower in Houdini Plaza at 121 West College Avenue. And I do want to give a huge thank you to Jake for taking the time to edit those. Really appreciate it.

No problem. I'm happy to

I did note so I did look through all the images, and I just wanted to note that there are a few edits that I do recommend that we consider for moving forward. And those are let's see. Photo number one, I think adding a black border on the left and right sides would bring in some more cohesiveness with the borders. For photo 16 a actually also could use a black border, so those are the own I think the two photos that don't have black borders on them. And they could be thinner like the Houdini image.

They could be thinner like photo five a, if need be. Like, five a has a thinner black borders.

Mhmm. Okay.

So but photo one and photo 16 a need black borders on the right and left sides.

Okay.

Photo 38, you can see the watermark.

Oh, it's there.

It's in the front. We can go to the tower too

if we need I see it. Oh, good.

That's okay. It's like more of it's yeah. So the photo photo 38 needs its watermark removed, and then photo 19 a, I'll let you finish that part.

Hearing what you were talking about? A little

clarity on the name. Here.

Just clarity on the where it

says Harry. This is 19a. This gets blurry here.

Oh, I see.

So if Harry can and, like, down here, I don't know if, like, you can get a black outline or just, like, hairy it's a Harry gets a little blurry. I

can manually add a black outline in my program, so I'll go ahead and do

Okay. Yeah. I think that adding the black outline would help it be a little more cohesive and pop a little bit more. And then if anyone else I'd like to open discussion to any more edits or the consideration of what we should do with the feedback we received from Jen.

So 2a doesn't have a black border either. Oh, it doesn't? Stating that that would

So do we want every one of them to have a black border?

Yes. Sorry. I didn't see that one. Thank you so much. Yes. I do think that if we're going to have black borders on some, we should have black borders on

all. Right

and left. On the right and left side. So we should also add border black borders to the right and left sides of two a. Okay. And they can be like, I think that if, like you know, as long as the thickness makes sense on them, it can be thinner, like I said.

They don't all have to be the same thickness, but we should have a visible blackboard on all of them. Yeah. Okay. No problem.

Whatever makes sense to, like, not take away from the image but to still make it cohesive.

Okay. When I did these, I saved the instead of Photoshop, I used GIMP and I saved the GIMP file for each of these. All I have do is reopen it real easy to add the borders.

That's not no problem. Okay. Alright. Kim, any other, feedback?

Just responding to Jennifer's comments. I appreciate the comment and I think that we should be sensitive to that. I would advocate that we find an alternate. Okay. My preference would be to keep 17 and look for an alternative for 38.

I think I agree

with the process, how we can do that yet in this meeting given that we don't have all of them at our fingertips, or do we? I don't

Yeah. Like, are we allowed to bring them in?

Can quickly somehow figure out what that alternative would be.

Cut out downstairs, but it's not part of the agenda packet. Like, it's just review. That would

be okay. That'd be okay? Okay.

Steph is gonna go get paper copies we have in our office. If you do decide to move forward with an alternate, I think we would amend the action that you had taken. Mhmm. Previously to Yep. Then you would also add the editing provisions for the borders and anything else. Okay.

I'll go run and grab those.

Just sit tight.

I think that works perfect if we find a replacement for 38 because that was the one with the watermark anyways.

Oh, that would be easier for you then, right? Yeah.

That works perfect. Yeah, I could probably have these done since I have the day off, I could probably have these done by the end of the day. Shouldn't be too bad.

Yeah. Because when would we need the like, when is the next meeting that they would need to be ready for?

Yeah. So I know Steph was reaching out to the Parks Department to see when the next Parks and Recreation Committee would be. If they have a special meeting, it would be next week, Monday. The cadence of committee meetings are a little off because of the election in April. So the earliest would be the twenty seventh. Otherwise, the next regular arts committee meeting would be on the eleventh. The editing would not need to be done in time for it to work through the agenda because we would bake into the motion the editing that you would be doing. Okay. So as long as it's done by the time we give it to Mr. Bolt for production Okay.

We'll be okay. Okey dokey. Sounds good.

Alright. So we're just waiting on that. And then one is just trying to see here. Jen, can you remind oh, did you find him?

Oh. I only have the ones that were on the tower at the end of the day.

Perfect. It's ink. Right?

Oh. So we don't have all the extra photos. So we just have the additional alternate that we try to edit.

Okay. That one came out funny too.

Yeah. Did we get two alternates? There was

just one.

There was just the one. It was the one where he was hanging upside down. And the upscaling, it's too fuzzy, so the upscaling just makes it look weird.

And there isn't an alternate like, another version of that online that we can find, or can we not like, that same photo but a different

So I wasn't sure what the rules were with the copyright. So when I was doing this, I was only using the source that was linked in the document because I didn't want to run into any problems.

Makes sense.

I can also pull up the previous meeting packet with all the photos if that would

work, then I can put on ClickShare. Yep. Okay. We can do that even if it was, like okay. Cool. Oh, Kim. She's getting smaller. Oh.

Kim,

your bandwidth is low, so we can't really hear you.

Maybe, Kim, turn your camera off. That might help a little bit. Replaced.

It it you know? Oh. Because that's what we're pull so we need to be looking specifically for me now?

No? Can you try again? Just repeat what you said. I think we can hear you now, but just repeat what you said, please.

Well, when we need to consider when we're picking this alternate, we have to find a poster, not a photo. Right? Because that's what we're pulling out Mhmm. Is a poster.

Thank

you. I was clicking the wrong meeting. Meeting. Here we go. I've got it's okay.

You hit click share? No?

Yeah. I got click share. Okay. Sorry.

Did Kim go away? Kim, are you still there?

I'm still here. Okay. Good. Alright.

And then click share. It's just thinking. Just thinking?

Yeah. Alright.

I'm gonna try turning it on. I think it's from here. Oh, yes. There you But then will Zoom go away? Oh. I think it'll still be there. Kim, can you still hear us? Uh-oh. Kim? I think we lost Kim.

Let's go back to Zoom.

Kim?

I can hear you. Okay. Okay. What we're gonna do is we're gonna take your computer up here so they can see the photos.

Yes. Okay.

There we go.

This is really we're doing great. This is good.

So, luckily, I did save I in in the packet that you have today, I kept the numbers the same as the previous packet. You. So so then it's just a matter of scrolling through the previous packet and seeing if there's any Yeah. What photo you'd like to use.

Alright. Feel free to Kim will take that. We'll have we'll show you what we look at when since you can't see. Right? Or

Kim, we can email you the link to the previous packet so you can see the same photos. Hang tight.

Sure. Perfect. Thank you. We want a poster. So I think that all the posters are down.

Okay. So

We got that one. We do 20.

Okay. So let's see.

We had talked about that one being potentially a little creepy last time.

Well, I think yes.

But which

one of the options? Or 21.

That looks really good.

That one looks so blurry.

Yeah. That might not upscale well. This one, do we already have that one?

What, 22a?

I don't think we have that one, do we? No. That one could be an option.

20, 22a.

We weren't going to choose the a ones. Right? Because those were the AI

b's are

the AI ones.

Oh, okay. But

that 22, that would kinda match the the blue color scheme that we're removing from this. That could be a good option.

Okay. Kim, so we have 20 and 22 a as options so far.

Yeah. I haven't gotten the email with the link yet.

I'm checking on it. Kim Kim, remind me what your email is.

KimR,kimr,@rlco.com.

Kim, can you see that? I don't think so.

Oh, probably not. Absolutely not.

KimR@rleco.com?

Correct.

Okay. It's That one. Sent. There'll be a link to the photo packet.

Perfect. Thank you.

We have a picture similar to that.

We have didn't choose because it was

a little too skinny.

I mean, that's a program or a post beard. No. No. No. Because her head's cut off.

Yeah. Go back to the creepy thing.

That one, we did not like either. Creepy. I

mean, that one's not that creepy.

That one's somewhat creepy, but I would say It's

not as bad as the head off.

We're going on a creepiness scale. Yeah. Sorry. Some of them.

This one is blue.

Yeah, but I think

It's a lot.

That one might be problematic.

Yeah, it's kind of a little weird.

Awesome. And then we already did that one. Okay. So pretty much, I think

20 or 22 seems to be our best. Just reattached

20 or 22 a seem to be our best bets. Kim, did you receive those yet?

I did.

Okay. So we were looking at 20 and 22a, and then 35 maybe, but it is a little A little creepy. Creepy is our word of the day.

Yeah. That's Yeah. It's not that bad, but it's kinda a little weird.

It is. Yeah. What do you think? Alright. Go back to 20. 20? That's 20. It's his head. A little sinister, but not too problematic. And then, this is 22a.

About Houdini's will.

Not a fan of twenty two eight.

Okay. How do you feel about 20?

Yeah.

Is good. It's mysterious. I can

hear that.

I'm okay with 20. I like it.

It's him. It's more Yeah. Then I

will upscale that one and edit that. So just to clarify,

replacing photo 38 with photo 20 once it's been edited? Yes. Okay.

And I can add we can add that to them when we actually want them. So we need to go ahead and amend the approval first, or how does that work? Because we did because it wasn't an actual alternate and but is it okay? Yeah. Sorry. No. It we'll let you deliberate. Do you want your computer back? One data. One data.

Yep. And that's where they would add the new photo and the edits all at once. Right? Right. Right. What we recommend is you amend the action you took at the last meeting to swap out the photos or the images and then stipulate the edits, that would be made before installation Okay. Before production.

Alright. Let's see. What was the other photo that we said we needed to add the black border to? I just wanna write that down real quick. Was

We had one, sixteen a, and two a Yep. I believe. Mhmm.

Okay. So anyone else wanna say anything? Kim, do you wanna say anything else before we move forward here? Nope. Okay. So I then recommend, so I want to, first of all, amend our action, that was decided at the previous meeting, and we I want to, you know, keep, I would like to motion to keep seven or sorry. Keep image 17. We're gonna replace image 38 with image 20 once it is edited, with a black border and to be more, yeah, visual.

Left and right.

Yep. So we're gonna have the black border on the left and right for that one added on as well. And then the additional edits that I think we need to make to, the photo selection is to add black borders on the left and right of photos one, two a, and 16 a. And then we need to, outline the word and clarify it on, the word Harry on photo 19 a.

I'll second that. Thank you.

All right. All in favor?

Aye. Aye. Aye.

Oh, wait. What, Kim? Sorry. Aye. Aye. Thanks, Kim. Okay. Perfect. Well, I look forward to seeing those up in the tower, hopefully. Jen, thank you for all of your time that you spent on this, Robert. Yeah. No. We appreciate it. Okay. So, last step then.

We do have an information item that we just need to speak on briefly. So I do wanna inform the committee that, I you've seen the letter here, is that we have the resignation of, our vice chair, and committee member, Bo Vang. And so at our next, regular schedule meeting, we will vote on the election or we will elect a new vice chair. And then I believe we're in the process of adding a committee member as well.

So alright.

I would like to motion to adjourn if we're all set for that then today.

Yeah, I'll second that motion.

Alright, we're all in favor? Aye. Alright, thank you. Kim, thank you. Thanks, everyone. Thank you.

Bye, Kim.

Bye. Have a good day.