Recreation & Parks Commission - Regular Meeting

You can start whenever you're ready.

All right. Turn my mic on. There, I know what to do. I'm getting older. Anyway, call to order?

Is that

Yes.

All right.

Do I start that?

You're just saying that you're going to call this meeting to order. And then you can begin the Pledge of Allegiance. And then I'll kind of take over from there.

Okay, excellent. All right. So we're going to call this meeting to order. And we'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance. I'm learning.

I pledge 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.

Okay. Agenda item C, roll call. Commissioner Tabera? Here. Zaragoza?

I do apologize. Tran? Here. Thompson? And Vice Chair Dennis?

Here.

And Chair Hypes?

Here.

And we have ex officio members Rodriguez? Here. And Kucha? Here. Okay. Chair Heibes, I would like to remind the audience that if they wish to address the commission, they must submit a green request to speak form located at the podium in the back of the council chamber. Citizens can submit public comments to the commission electronically no later than 1PM on the day of the meeting. Comments received before the deadline will be sent to the commission and will be part of the record and will be mentioned as part of the public comment portion of the agenda. Material may be emailed to cityclerk@cityofMerced.org. Any correspondence received after 1PM will be distributed to the commission and retained for the official record.

Agenda item D, public comment. We did not receive any electronic public comment. And we do have one public comment speaker. Can I get Farrell up to the podium? Yes.

Good afternoon, chair and arts commission. I'm Farrell Buller, 883 West 124th Drive, Westminster, Colorado, 80234. And I just wanted to address you this afternoon and let you know that I work with a company called one hundred and ten percent. And we are leading a parks recreation and open spaces master plan for the city of Merced on behalf of the Parks and Community Services Department. We've just kicked off this project the last couple of months gathering a lot of data about the parks and the programs and the services and now myself and our team of designers are here for the next two and a half days.

We'll be attending six different events across Merced starting with softball this evening. We'll be at senior bingo. On Friday, we'll be at the movie in the park. We'll be at the Lao New Year Day event. We'll be at the bike ride with the mayor. We visited the Boys and Girls Club. We toured a lot of the parks and the zoo today. So the idea is for us to really understand the city of Merced, its unique features, who lives here. And then really hear from the community. So we currently have a short survey out to the community.

It will be open at least for thirty days. It's available in English, in Spanish, and Hmong. So we want to start hearing from people. It's how you design a plan. We have the privilege of creating the future here for Merced residents and we know that that is a privilege and an honor and we want to do our best to get that right. And so through that survey, through all of the community events, and then we have a group of 12 individuals who have connections to the community. And we've trained them as wisdom holders to go out and host focus groups as well so that we can just hear from more people. And we're leading some other focus groups ourselves. So lots of community engagement is how we're starting. We have a lot of learning to do.

And we would love to hear from you all as well. We know that when people are vested in their communities, it's healthier, it reduces crime, and people enjoy their quality of life. And we know that arts and culture is a key component of that, of people feeling like they are accepted, like they belong, and that there is community cohesion. We also know that things even just like beautifying buildings and seeing art and unique benches or hearing music or whatever those mediums are, it creates a sense of calm for people. It also reduces things like safety, right?

It improves safety and it reduces things like vandalism. So with that, we would encourage you to fill out the survey and attend any of our events. Thank you so much.

Do we want to, can we do any questions or is there anything?

So the commission isn't allowed to speak on what was said right now. If you would like to speak on it at the very end during Deal. Commission comments or

I got it. Don't worry. This is my first day. So we'll figure it out as we go.

We do have two additional audience members if they would like to speak on anything that's on this agenda or during the public comment period. No. Okay, perfect. I just wanted to ask before.

Okay.

So moving on to agenda item E, action items E1, approval of an honorary arts district in downtown Merced.

I can talk a little bit about this. We brought this up before in the past. Tommy and I, mostly Tommy though, created this great presentation for the city council. I feel like it's nearly two years ago or something, right? So this is a work in progress making the downtown.

And we do have a diagram within our agenda here and a map of what that would look like of making that our arts district. And here it's even more specific where it's calling it our core downtown arts district which would be from MLK to 0 Street in our downtown area here. In the state of California, there are 17 designated cultural arts districts and none of them are in the Central Valley. And with this, at least an honorary where we are claiming this to be our arts and culture district, it gives us another step to being designated within the state. And right now, there isn't really funding again.

But they are trying to get that funding for arts and culture districts. Last month, as separate from this body here, but with the Merced County Arts Council, we were advocating for, and the California Arts Council advocating for more funding to happen with this. And so, if we get this in the proper spot, right, with this designation from the city, when the money does kick in with the state, we can get this funding for us as well. And we could be, which would be awesome, be the first in the Central Valley to get designated with an arts and culture district. And so I think that's why it's important for us to bring this forward, to make it it says it's honorary.

But then eventually, it will become official. And anyway, anyone has anything to add, Tommy or Chris or anybody that has worked on it. Go ahead and bring in your 2¢, I guess.

I have no power at this microphone. So that's probably a good thing. Thank you, Alejandra. The only thing that I would say is that the arts movement has been supported for a significant period of time or Merced's recent history. And I think it's suffice to say that downtown has been a significant component of that investment, being from the utility box installations to the renovation of Bob Hart Square and a potential sculpture there.

Even some of the private investments that have been installed downtown or made downtown, like the El Capitan, have included artscapes in their landscaping or their motifs out front. So I think that this is a great consideration for the commission to take on as a recommendation to form an honorary district in the hopes that it prepares the city moving forward if the opportunity arises for state or regional or national funding that would support that establishment.

Okay. Do we have any requests to speak or anyone have a comment or want to add to this discussion?

I don't have any public comment from the audience members.

Oh, yeah. Does anyone have a no pressure? It's a lot of pressure when there's just three of you here.

Go ahead.

Don't let me see. Maybe I got oh, right there. So I would have, so Colton, did you request to speak?

So I mean, if there's no conversation, I'd like to, oh my gosh, I just went blank. What do call it when you want Male Make motion. Make a motion, thank you. It's been a while since we've been doing this. I'd like to make a motion It's professional. To approve this as our honorary, the downtown Merced Honorary Arts District. I'd like to make

There's a motion from Vice Chair Dennis. Do we have a second? I second. Okay. There's a second on the floor. Do we go right to the vote?

Yes. So I have a motion by Vice Chair Dennis and a second by Commissioner Tibera. Chair and commissioners, please cast your votes. Takes a second. And the vote passes unanimously.

Nice. Okay.

Moving on to E2, commission to provide direction to staff regarding the downtown arts district signage design project.

All right. Do we have a presentation or anything on that?

Good evening, commission chair. Unfortunately, Jennifer Flackman, who's the typical advisor on the city staff to the commission is unavailable. She's at the One Voice legislative platform in DC advocating for things like arts and other things that are a concern to the city of Merced. I am here in her place just to bring back for your consideration a prior discussion that we had about the establishment of signage memorializing or honoring downtown as an arts district. So step one, you already put forward with a recommendation to make downtown an honorary district.

This would memorialize that initiative if it is confirmed by city council. And then I believe the last this was brought for discussion with a subcommittee. We were talking about potential layouts of what those signs, almost like way finding signs, could be. They were as humble or simple as street signs similar to what we have along Main Street or Veterans Boulevard signaling some of the veterans in Merced's history and as complex as what you see here with the Arts And Entertainment District at the station area there. So I'm not sure if there was any significant recommendation from the subcommittee.

I believe that Commissioner Camara a couple were at the meeting where we discussed the layout. So if there's any recommendation from the subcommittee that they want to bring forward for the rest of the commission's consideration, I think this would be a good time. If no one has confidence in what was decided at that meeting. It would probably be a good idea to generate some additional feedback from the general commission body today and move forward as a subcommittee to nail down what that layout should be And we could bring that back at the next commission meeting.

Request to speak. RUKA Tebera? I say that right? I'm sorry. Tebera? Okay.

Yeah. I just wanted to clarify, was this the meeting for March? Because I do have some notes. And I know we had a quick update for that. But it was mostly discussing the format we would do.

So on the bottom left, there is the Station North Arts And Entertainment District. And I remember we were discussing that at the time, everything in that proposed motion we are going to aim for is that on every block, there'd be a sign that says, Merced Arts District. And so right now, we are still kind of deciding on whether or not to do a fish out to the communities like, hey, how do you want to design this for each block? Or do a single form sign that's basically just Merced, Art District, represent. I think that'd be pretty But yeah, there was also a few other little motions here that we discussed that was basically the Bob Hart Square specifics.

And it was basically just designing around the 16th Plaza Street and really focusing on that area. Unfortunately, didn't come to a decision. But that is where the conversation did roam around is really emphasizing, hey, downtown. That's the Art District. That's where we're going to be at. And just having little plates and banners along each block and corner rather than the electrical box that were normally there. So we're just really flagging down people from out of town, hey, here's our

area. And commissioner, do you recall if Ms. Flackman provided a potential budget or a suggested budget because I believe the recommendation that was going to be brought forward for your consideration was for a potential number of signs. I think we talked about maybe an entry and an exit given the fact that M Street or excuse me Main Street is going to be redirected in the near future, wanting to have signs at the district kind of start and finish areas and then somewhere significant like what commissioner shared about the Bob Hart Square area because that's kind of centralized to the district location. So a way finding sign and then I'm not sure if we discussed a budget which dictated how many signs we could potentially fund.

Yep, go ahead.

I think we were just waiting on today's meeting determining how much the sign would actually be, but whether or not the motion would be accepted first to emphasize in the downtown area. But think that's something we could probably propose by hopefully by next meeting when Jennifer returns, we'll reach out to her and just be like, hey, we all agreed on this motion. So let's try to start laying down the groundwork for it. But I know it was like around how we were going to run today.

That's right.

If I may. So I'm just kind of reading briefly through the discussion. And I mean, she does state in there the $100,000 that was allocated for the fiscal year of 'twenty four and 'twenty five, our 'twenty four, 'twenty five budget. And it looks like the subcommittee I believe that's the meeting that you were talking about, the seventh. So the subcommittee did recommend issuing an RFP for the design of arts district signage to be installed. And I believe that's

why we're

here requesting direction from you all regarding that. So just kind of wanted to put that information out there.

Does anyone else go ahead, Colton? Just to clarify, so was there at the subcommittee meeting, we're trying to open this up to artists to design these signs and that's what, is that what we need to, doesn't necessarily say on our agenda that we need to approve anything we just need to give direction and is that what we need to find out if we want to give direction that we want to do this RFP RFQ whatever to artists to open that up

that was my understanding

yes. And I know that we have like $100,000 but that's not necessarily, of course, due to signage. So was there a percentage or a number that you can remember that?

Okay.

Not on my end no but there's probably something in Jennifer's notes

in the notes yeah Eddie

Hello? You're calling on me?

Yep. Oh, yep.

So was it Nick or Eddie?

I think it was Oh, was it Nick? Oh, It was two. Okay. It was two rather than So Nick, sorry. Okay.

I was at the meeting as well. And I did take down a figure that I heard, which was about 49,000. But that was combined for the Bob Hart and the Arts District signage. Combined. That's what I've got in my notes.

What sort of guidance other than I don't know if we're at a state where we can talk about commissioning like an RFP, right? I think it's are you asking us like what we like better

or what we're leaning towards?

My recollection was that there was several iterations that the subcommittee was going to bring back for your consideration. And instead of an RFP, we were going to put out an RFI, which is a request for ideas from the community. And then artists would solicit. And these would just be supplied as examples that artists could pull from. Does that ring a bell, or is that totally off base?

Nick, did you?

I wasn't at that meeting so I'm not sure. I did have a question though. Sure. So from the $100,000 that was allocated, how much of that is left? Because I know didn't some of that go for the photography event not too long ago, and then perhaps some other things?

Oh, because the 100,000 is

our total budget for the entire year.

For the entire fiscal year.

That's a good question, Eddie. I don't remember where we stand. That's a good question. I don't know how much money we have left from that $100,000 budget at this point.

Unfortunately, at this point, I don't have that answer for you all. But what I can do is find out what that answer is and then send you guys all an email with that information. I just don't have it at the moment. So if you guys are wanting to make an appropriate motion, It's really what you're directing us staff to do. And if you feel uncomfortable making a motion on something because you don't know what the budget is for this, then we can continue this item. That's an appropriate motion as well. Continue into the next Arts Commission meeting.

I

mean, I'd refer to the subcommittee. How do you guys feel about it right now? I mean, could like, later on when it comes to future agenda items, we can put it on there or something?

Yeah. Knowing figures from how much is currently available, I think we're still waiting on that part. And yeah, wouldn't feel confident to put ideas if we don't know how much a budget would be right now.

Because my assumption, right, is this is both the creation of the piece, the installation of the piece, and then, I don't know, like the replacement of the piece when the piece needs to be replaced. I don't know. I tell you, I don't know about this concept, but this is off the wall. But that bottom corner piece Bottom right? Bottom right, yeah. I'm seeing it. And I'm like, wouldn't that be interesting if there was something not like a walkway like that, but like a part of all of these iconic arts institutions and places in Downtown Merced, almost like you're creating an art walk path where people are like, oh, wow, this is what they do. I don't know. It might

be an

interesting thing to look at as well, just in my opinion. Make your way down Merced and see all the different kind of interesting businesses and organizations and art galleries and spaces that you can visit and see. The art center was established in 1903. That's not correct.

Yeah, those things are like think last I visited Philadelphia was like that. They have like these markers and historical buildings or whatever art displays, public art, and naming the artist, when it was done, how it was commissioned, all that kind of stuff. It's really cool to see and informative. So it is like an art walk. So

one idea could be I think there's two opportunities there. I think one is to really highlight the fact that no matter what arterial you come into the downtown corridor from, whether it's Canal and Bob Hart Square, 0 Street in front of the main between the Mainzer and the is it El Cap or Tioga or MLK, that you're greeted by a sign that says welcome to the Art District. And then there might be an opportunity to, on that same corner, maybe the same light pole or whatever underneath that, to install something indicating the history of the art or potentially individual art installations that are funded in to be installed in the Art District over a period of time. So maybe not a permanent fixture, or it could be, but it could also be a temporary installation that artists are allowed to install and have up for public view over a period of time with a contract. The one thing that I would say is this fiscal year is coming to a close next month, the June, June 30.

What's the next meeting date for the commission?

July.

So one thing that the commission should probably consider is the potential of a special meeting so that the decision can be made and the funds can be encumbered. We definitely don't want them to go, no offense Venus Rodriguez, we don't want them to go back to the general fund if they've been allocated at this point for arts. We would want them to be designated and tied up in a project. And just because I know next year, I'm not sure if there's going to be art installation allocations in next year's budget. That doesn't mean that we can't do the installations next year. The money just has

to be allocated this year by June 30. We could technically do that now, right? If we allocate if we encumber the current funding to the creation and installation of signs for an arts district

well, for the Historic Arts District, right? Not necessarily saying

that there's a specific timetable, but we've said this is what we're going spend the money on and we're going to save it for this purpose, right?

Yes. I think there's a couple of there's another report that I'll be giving on Jennifer's behalf or Colton as well on the art installations that are already under contract and a status report on that. What you could do, number one, the commission would provide a recommendation for how they want the money used and then staff would take that to counsel for that action of encumbering the funds. You could do a recommendation where any funds that are not already obligated to other art installations, that amount of money could be recommended to be used for establishing the downtown art district signage. Does that make sense?

So without having that number of what's available outside of the projects that are already earmarked, you could just say whatever's remaining. That might be tough because I don't know how much is remaining. So if it's a significant portion of money, you might end up with $50,000 for Downtown Art District signage. I don't know if that's the best if that's the commission's wish, it might be better to potentially hold a special meeting to flesh that out in some more detail before you provide the recommendation.

There's two Rodriguez's, so I'm going to assume. I'm going to start with Eddie first. Okay.

Have there been I know this is a different agenda item possibly, but it could affect this one. Has there been any updates on the RFP or RFQ that was going to be for open calls for our projects with this past round of funding? I know that that's something that was brought up a while ago. If we tie up this funding for the signage, will that RFP or RFQ for open projects just be canceled? Or will it be pushed back for another time?

I think that's on our next agenda Yes.

The next one is a report item giving you all an update on our projects around the city.

So perhaps this is kind of tricky because if you guys have to decide how much goes to the signage right now and the next agenda item is open call projects We don't, though. I'm sorry. So I don't know if there's any way to hear the next agenda item and then make a decision after the fact.

Yes. So if you guys would like to move the agenda item F1 to be heard before agenda item E2, then you'll have to make a motion moving F1 before E2. And then we can discuss F1 first, and then we'll move on to, you know, E2 and discuss a little bit more if that's what you'd like. I will say that for E2, if you guys aren't sure because of the amounts and everything, then you can also meet again with the subcommittee. That can be your direction is meeting again with the subcommittee that was formed.

Gosh, I'm so sorry. I forgot the name of it. The Future Art Projects Subcommittee. So that's an available option as well. But as far as moving agenda items, we'll need a motion and a second. And then we'll do a vote for it.

Nick. Yeah, I just wanted to my feeling is that certainly the subcommittee should meet again once we have a better idea of how much money is available. But I did want to point out that the council still has to approve the Arts List before we even talk about things like getting signage. So I when don't the council's going to take that issue up.

Sometime in August.

A really good point. What the recommendation could be and I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves because I think there might be some validity to go on to the next agenda item first and review in some detail. Unfortunately, just giving it a preview, I don't see a lot of hard numbers here either. So honestly, I think that from what I've seen, it's probably in the best interest of the commission to try to host a special meeting and nail down some hard numbers and then consider looking at a motion to take to counsel that if a district is established, this amount of money would be recommended to be set aside for those RFI projects. And if it's not established, what of the other proposed installations or projects could utilize that funding as a result of that?

Yeah, I think it's wise to consider one,

asking city staff to further investigate where we're at as far as our budget is concerned and getting some hard numbers that we can report on,

but also deciding on a special meeting in June for this topic. And just in case if the next topic we need to address the same issue next month as well, can all do it in a special meeting next month. I just think, I don't think we have enough information to make any kind of real decision right now. Colton?

Yeah, I kind of agree with that. I know that Jennifer does have, we've seen the numbers. I know they're there, but we don't have them before us for sure. And I'd, you know, so Chris, would we have to have this, like our ideas for funding for this fiscal year by the last city council meeting? It has to be on their agenda for the last city council meeting of next month, right? In order for it to count for this fiscal year for us to keep that funding?

My understanding is that the projects would need to be earmarked by the sixteenth in front of council for their consideration. Not that they have to be awarded or in contract, but at least identified. And the only reason that I would recommend that is just given the financial forecast that the city's projected to run into next year, if that money isn't earmarked for a particular project, it could be up for use for other means.

So for us to, we'll

have to

have a special meeting like really soon.

Probably Alejandra is the expert here. I'm learning every day. But she can let you know when the clerk's office would need to have that agenda posted and when staff would have to have that en route for approval internally, which means we would have to work backwards from there and have your meeting prior to that date. It's typically the Wednesday before. Is that correct, Alondra?

There's not a way, for instance, to earmark the funds for number well, for the city sponsored art projects. Just make the decision now for the remainder of the year, we want to encumber funds first for city sponsored projects and the remaining funds then to be put into Downtown Merced signage. So

what I'm seeing under the recommendation, and because we need to follow what the recommendation kind of has for us, it does say that there's that's the previous agenda item. Give me one second.

Someone call Jennifer in DC. Give her

a call.

She's only four hours away. I'm sure she's fine. So

just due to the recommendation written, it's saying the design and development of identifying signage for Downtown Arts District. It's not yeah, it doesn't say anything about having like, you know, you're marking a specific budget for them. It just says the design and development of the signage.

Okay.

So with that I can give you some dates of you know that you guys would need for the next you know for like the next couple of council meetings so you guys know like what your heart set dates are of when you need to have a meeting or before that And then also if you're wanting to recommend this to the subcommittee that you guys already have formed and have discussed this idea with, then you can do that. The subcommittee would be first And then you would have to bring it back to a special meeting, which is only a twenty four hour notice. And then make a motion at that special meeting with a very specific if you guys are earmarking a certain amount of funds to the budget for this project, then make that motion. And then we'll have to have it ready for. He has the amounts.

Jennifer to the rescue from DC.

I knew she was still awake.

Okay. So she's still awake. So the available funding outside of the projects that we'll revisit in the next report would be $4,000 for the Art District signage.

Okay.

So it would be a request for ideas that staff would put out to the community. Artists would reply to that request for ideas based on the $4,000 budget of what they could install and how many they could install based on that budget and the district location. And then commission would vote on which idea and installation they

So the artist would install the signs?

In my experience so far, the public works department does not like taking ownership of the installation because if something was to happen to the piece, the city does not want to take on that liability. So the request typically has been that the artist installs their product.

Let me go to Eddie first. Eddie, you had

I just wanted to ask, do you guys want a motion to see the next item first before any decisions are made? Or now that you have that $4,000 price, do you want to deal with this first?

Well,

yeah.

I'll leave that I mean, I'll leave that to the discussion. I have a clearer mind now that this is to me, because the signs that I saw didn't necessarily seem like they were. It seemed like perhaps there was a design to them, but that they were produced and then hung professionally because it looked like some signs were just on lampposts like you would see if you were going down Main Street. So to me, it looked like someone designed it, but then it was printed and then

Commercially printed.

Commercially printed and then commercially hung. So that's what was going on in my mind when I saw those signs right there.

And that very well could be part of the discussion moving forward. I think today is does the commission want to support the $4,000 commitment to the installation of a downtown sign based on RFIs that are released? The request for ideas can be massaged based on that $4,000 In other words, the city may use some of that $4,000 to subcontract an installation company. Like, just for example, Chris's sign manufacturing. Let's just say that that company made and installed signs.

It would be up to the committee next year after the RFI was awarded to or before it was released to determine how much of that $4,000 would have to go to manufacturing and installation and how much could be awarded to an artist for the design.

Excellent. Okay. Chris first, and then Eddie, and then Nick first. The names are incorrect.

That's Okay. I go by Chris too. So I have a question. How much per sign do the current wayfinding signs, the big blue signs with the little reset theater at the top?

I'm not sure. I don't have that information. We've recently installed in our department larger community center signs and sports park signs that are just similar, but they're not fabric. They might be aluminum with a wrap on them and a graffiti coating. Those are about $700 apiece, but those are large. We're talking about 36 by 72. So that's a ballpark of what we've paid.

Yeah. Mean, if the committee goes in the direction of recommending put out a proposal for design, but have designs professionally created, it would be good to have an estimate of how much per sign for like the wayfinding signs, for how much the little street signs on top spaghetti acres and so on. How much those cost?

I'm not sure at this point. If public works was here, they could probably give us a true up estimate on what they've paid to replace signs recently. It really depends on quantity of signs that you're ordering, color schemes and layouts. Is it something that can be just laminated on or is it something that needs to be etched on? So the manufacturing process will probably drive a lot of that cost.

For me, 4,000 is pretty substantial. I know one of the things that we talked about in the subcommittee was how many signs and I want to say there was going to be 10 something like that, which is about $40 a sign. So sorry, no, dollars 400 a sign. Does that sound right? Or $100

a sign. Closer.

Dollars 100

a sign? 4,000 divided by $400 Farrell, help me. Dollars 400. So that is pretty significant for manufacturing. It's not going to be anywhere near that for a wayfinding type sign. So you could imagine the rest of that would be paid to the artist.

Colton? Okay. Thank you.

Yeah, I know several years ago, we have our main street association and Multicultural Arts Center, we had put up banners. So we have our lampposts that have these kind of banners. And they're about three feet, two feet maybe, right? So I don't know what we have different sized banners downtown. These particular banners, full color, I want to say they're between $50 to $100 each, right? But the thing is, we had a local printer print it. We designed it. We had an artist design it. The local printer printed it. And then, with the help of the Main Street Association don't know how it works anymore if they're still they were in charge of putting up banners at one point.

So I don't know if that's still the case. But now we do have like the downtown Merced group, which too, we have a new executive director there. It might be a different topic, but there might be some collaboration there with putting these things up. So there are different types of banners, sizes of banners that we could put up and that will make difference of the cost as well. But we do have potential help to put those up besides public works if that's not the route we go.

Because I do know in the past, we did have Main Street Association that would put that up. And we used to have a quarterly it must have stopped. But quarterly, we'd have different banners up celebrating something downtown. But I'm thinking that these are going to be more permanent. So we'd probably have to specify which lampposts, which corners that these are going to be on as well. Eddie.

So I have a few questions. Chris, is it possible to ask Jennifer what the total budget for out of the $100,000 is left for all our projects? So that's my first question. And then Alejandra, you said for this agenda item, it's design. And what was the second?

It is design and development.

Okay. If we allotted that $4,000 or whatever price we decide for just design and development this time? And once the design is made, then for a future year when we have funding, then allocating that towards installation and manufacturing of it. Because as an artist, I would imagine somebody who designs these signs for the city probably wants to be fairly compensated. And if we're just going to give them the bare scraps that are left, that would probably be very frustrating for an artist.

This is the longest we've talked about a subject in a really long time. What is the possibility of finding out what our budget is? Is that listed anywhere? I don't know. I didn't see it. Because here's a suggestion I could make. What we could say is we want to encumber up to a certain amount of money specifically for this project. We don't have to release an RFI or anything right now. We're going have a special meeting in June to kind of like fine tune some stuff. But I think the goal overall is what we say is, here's a certain amount of money that we're looking to put into this project so you cannot take this money back to utilize it for something else.

Is that that's the understanding I'm developing right now. The goal right now is we have a certain amount of money that we want to encumber. We just have to figure out what that total is. And then we can decide later on how we want to spend it. Am I correct in that assumption? Maybe. I don't know if you're allowed to tell me since you work for this at APA. I

mean, you are giving us the motion is to provide direction to staff. We have that 4,000 amount given by Jennifer Flackman. So if you're wanting to encumber the 4,000 and maintain that and then come back at a future or special meeting, then that would be an acceptable motion. Let me find the date of when you guys would need to have this all ready and set for the June 16 meeting because I don't want you guys to think that you have this time. Then it's actually a really short time, Okay? So give me

one moment. Absolutely.

Nick?

One other thing to think about I I get confused between PBITS and TBITS. But we have one downtown. Is this something that they can help funding?

Perhaps. But I think that's something that, for instance, like if we were to create a plan where we want to allocate $4,000 to this specific project for design and development, That doesn't say anything about actual implementation. It just says design and development. We say $4,000 for this project. The subcommittee will meet again with additional options or even to maybe kind of fine tune like what we think is this sign.

We want an aluminum sign with this overlay or etched into it. That's what we're looking at. Then we can actually price those out. We can take more of our time to see how much it would cost to print, develop. But we've already said this much money for this project. And then we'll meet in June to figure out what to do with it. Or before June?

From what I'm seeing is on the eleventh, we finalized the agenda. Or that's the set date to finalize the agenda. We close our agenda on the June 6. So you would have to have a meeting between now and the June for you guys to make a recommendation to counsel and to just make it on time on the agenda.

If I could give a little bit of insight to so just because it is in context to this item for your consideration, I'm going to give a little bit of background on some of the other projects. So, so far, the brown bag lunch at Bob Hart Square to showcase the plaza's development, that's been allocated funding. The recycle sculpture at Farrin's Park And Creek has had an RFP written and allocated funding and hasn't been released yet. And then the utility box RFP, the next round of utility box wraps or paintings have had funding allocated as well. There's some work to do on the utility box RFP because I think there was a initial desire to look at a wrap process this round.

My understanding from Ms. Flackman was that they talked to a wrap company who highly advised against it. They're not holding up as well as they thought that they would. And they're extremely labor intensive. And this is coming from an installer that manufactures, installs wraps. So probably not the best investment if the installer's suggesting against it and turning down business. The brown bag concert had 4,500 oh, you need to discuss the amounts at the next agenda item.

I do apologize. We'll need to wait for

the next agenda item to go into details regarding all of that.

So our option basically is we need a table that we need to move this to the end of the

agenda or we need to decide

to encumber the funds right now. That's basically where we're at.

Yes.

But those funds are already allocated to those projects, right? Is that what I said?

Yeah, my understanding is that the majority of the funding is already allocated and RFPs are pending release for the majority of those. I know that there's two big investments out of the $100,000 allocation that were still pending your confirmation or recommendation, which is why I suggest moving this to the next one if you want to potentially add funding from the $100,000 towards the downtown district science.

Do we have a motion?

I'll make a motion to go on to the next agenda item.

We have

a And put this table list to put on the and go to the next agenda item.

Do we have a second?

Second. Second. Second. Okay.

So I just want to clarify. You want to move this agenda item to be heard after F1?

Correct.

Okay. So I have a motion by Vice Chair Dennis and a second by Commissioner Taberra. Chair and commissioners, please cast your vote.

Never mind. I'm going to do it that way.

And the vote passes unanimously.

Okay. Excellent.

So moving on to agenda item F. Agenda item F, reports F1, status report on city sponsored art projects.

So Chris, why don't you take the lead on this because now you have more information than over here.

Thank you. Thank you, Colton. So there's several projects that the commission has already recommended be supported with $100,000 from this fiscal year. Again, none of these projects have been awarded in RFPs. The RFPs are either in development or in the attorney's office for review to go out to the public for response.

But those projects are $4,500 allocated to the Brown Bag Concert Series for the Bob Hart Square Plaza, dollars 14,000 for the utility box I use this term loosely wrap replacement. So the art installations on the utility boxes, dollars 14,000. Dollars 8,000 towards a recycle, repurpose, reuse sculpture at Farrands Creek. Dollars 20,000 allocated to the R Street under crossing mural that goes under R Street along Black Rascal Creek I believe, dollars 4,000 towards the art district's downtown signage project, dollars 20,000 Bob Hart Square sculpture request. So I don't know if it was brought to the commission as a whole, but I believe the subcommittee saw the renderings for downtown.

There's going to be a stage in front of 16th Street facing Canal or former Canal in the plaza. And there's a large circle that's about five and a half feet in diameter. There is no design currently for what that circle should house, but it would be a showcase of downtown, a stage downtown welcoming people from Canal, 16th Street, 99, etcetera, to the downtown area. And then the last one was a request to assist with the Vang Pao Park Monument at General Vang Pao Park. Again, that is a installation of a monument, an art piece, not necessarily a painting.

And that's $29,500 And all told, that's $100,000 And I apologize we don't have this listed out for you all. Wow.

All right. So

how much of these have already been approved by the commission, or how many are up for being approved

by the commission?

Brown Bag, Recycle Sculpture in Farrance Park, R Street mural, and the utility box RFPs are already written based on prior council or commission's direction. The Brown Bag and R Street are under developed. Brown Bag And R Street will go out on the June 1. There's some work to do still on the utility box And then Vangpal Park and Bob Hart Square installations still need to be written. And so I don't I think that those are requests for funding and not confirmed allocations from the commission at this point.

Go ahead, Eddie. So I know when we initially got the funding, there was talk about having another round of open calls for projects, like either an RFP or an RFQ. Is that still to be considered? Is that going to be pushed onto another year? So I'm just trying to understand that.

It sounds like all the money is allocated for this fiscal year. And we don't know what the next fiscal budget looks like as far as if we have any funding for open calls. Is that my understanding? Is that correct, I assume?

I know that we have requested as a body to the city $400,000 every fiscal year, but that's not a guarantee, as we all know with budgets. Should

have gone up to a million.

What I highly suggest is that our city council meeting on May 19 is going to have a report given by the finance officer. It's just the very first budget report item that we have to introduce the two public hearings. So if you would like to watch that, you're definitely welcome to. It's going to be here. And then you can also go online and watch it. We'll have the two public hearings held on June 2 and June 1616. So you guys are able to definitely watch those meetings as well.

Golden? Alejandra, since you're the expert on this, is it appropriate for us to go to those just to or public comment to advocate for budgeting and that kind of stuff, making sure that there are funds for the arts?

So May 19 and the two public hearings, the public can come and comment on anything regarding that item. So if that's what you're willing to do or if that's what you're wanting to do, then yeah, it is basically speaking on anything that's on that budget item.

Thank you so much for that.

Was there anything about the already funding that's already been allocated that we need to be aware of? Like I know we said about Yes. Okay. What is that?

So I just got word. So the mural installations, the utility boxes, the R Street under crossing, those are on hold right now in pending some California legislation that's passing through that would exempt artists from being required to hold a contractor's license to install any type of art. Right now, that's a concern of city staff to go into contract with individuals that may not have capacity to actually carry out the work if this legislation passes. So the word is that the bill is in the Appropriations Committee at this point and expected to move through by the July, if not mid August. And at that point, staff would know what the requirements for any RFP that was solicited for the utility boxes or any other murals would require artists to have.

So just hypothetically, let's say California decides to do that. That funding then, would that go back to the city or back for us to then redesignate for other purposes?

I think as long as you're earmarking it for a project next year, you could come back after the budget's passed. That would be projects that are carrying forward. At that point, if staff get this your recommendations confirmed by council, that funding would be tied up in art projects. And then if it was determined that that funding couldn't be used for that particular project, staff would come back to the commission and then council to request that that money be reallocated to another project. It's not to say that the city could not continue forward.

It would just really, I imagine, skew the number of artists that could apply to the RFQ. So it would be the commission's prerogative at that point if the recommendation would be to move forward, even given the legislation that was passed that might limit artists that were capable of replying to the RFI or excuse me, RFQ or RFP. Or you could say, no, we want to pull that back given the limitations that that or complications that that would put on our artists and think of other forms of art that we would rather allocate that funding towards. As long as it's earmarked in an art project and it goes into next year as a pending project, that money is allocated. Yeah.

So you should be able to reallocate that money to another art project outside of murals if your recommendation is to move away from murals given the legislative restrictions. But if it's not allocated by June 30, that's when it would go back to the city general fund.

Well, does anyone have any questions, comments, suggestions, ideas?

Would you like me to repeat the project list? Or is everybody comfortable with the report that was given?

I'm comfortable with the report that was given. And it explains why the 4,000 is the 4,000. That explains it. This is just a report, we don't have to approve this, correct? No, right?

This is information only. Information only.

Oh, Okay. The action item. Okay, so thank you for the report. Now we can go back to the action item? Yes. Let's do that.

Let me read it out loud again. Agenda item E2, commission to provide direction to staff regarding the Downtown Art District signage design project.

So now what do we think about this project?

I still like the idea of using this to pay the artist to design it and then separating design and development from fabrication and installation.

Anyone else? Tiburro?

I have a question, Eddie. I guess how much time would it take to have a design by the sixteenth? Is that enough time, you think?

So you need the design by the sixteenth, or we need to decide to allocate the money for design and development by the sixteenth?

Just the decision to design or excuse me, to allocate the funds towards that project.

I think that would buy us

time if we did it. Okay.

That's much more clear.

Thank you. So what we would say is that we want to allocate the $4,000 to the design and the development of these projects. Did we still want a special meeting in June? And the only reason I ask is because right now, to me, design and I'm not sure about this, but design means a lot of different things because we saw a sign, and then there was a fabric sign, and then there was an obvious aluminum sign. And that, in my mind, means different skill sets, but I'm not sure.

Do we leave that up to the artist to make that recommendation? Is it more individualized? Those are the only questions that I still have, I think. Colton?

Yeah, I do too. I mean, there a consensus of like, we have those four images with the subcommittee. Was there a consensus of what design style they like that we can give to the were those four the choices?

Those four were the choices.

Okay. And does that mean that, I mean, do we want to, I don't know if we want to limit it or if we because sometimes it makes it easier. Because then you have one design you have to worry about, and that's it, instead of like four different designs and how do I want to do this. So is it possible for us to recommend one or two of those as a commission? Or do we need to have a special meeting where you guys have you meet and make those decisions, and then we vote on it at

the special meeting? It would need to be at the special meeting. I'm looking at that calendar date of the sixth. It seems to be like we need to do it then.

The bottom left. I like the bottom left one. I'm just going to be honest. If we're here, we've been here for a while. I like the bottom left one. I like the concept of an interesting graphic getting a graphic artist, a graphic designer to design it, and then printing it on aluminum, and then making it feel like it's more permanent, and finding a way to attach it

to a light pole, whether

that's I have to do it or we can actually hire someone to do that. That's what I lean towards. We'll go Eddie first.

All right. If these are four general directions, at what point would you like to incorporate an artist's perspective on this? Or do you want to kind of narrow it down so this is the parameters? Or do you want an artist to be able to say, Okay, maybe we can incorporate multiple aspects of these? Or maybe we can go or I don't know. At what point would you want an artist to chime in in terms of the design?

Well, Nick first, right? Technology,

wonderful. Yeah, I think I like all those options. And like you, I like the bottom left one. Part of the reason I brought up the blue way finding signs is I want whatever the commission approves, I want them to be durable. And I'm concerned about cloth in that regard. I've also seen what happened with some of the older wayfinding signs where the blue background is kind of dissolved in the sun. If we're going to recommend the city spend the money on this, I'd like to see the money last one: for a while.

Colton? I

just want to piggyback on what Eddie was saying. We have you as an artist, Eddie. So I mean, your opinion is valued, too. So I mean, your thoughts are and all the other artists, the visual artists that are up here, too. So

if these are the four we're generally liking, I don't know how you guys want to do if you guys want to put what was it, an RFI? Was that for this particular one? I don't know if you want to put that out and have artists chime in. I would say, yes, the sooner the better and be able to, like if we want to stick because there's a subcommittee. If you guys want to stick with these are the four directions we like the most, are we asking the artist to work within these parameters?

Are we saying this is kind of a guideline, but it's not a strict guideline, but this is what we're preferring? Consider materials. Consider durability. I would like to put that out as soon as possible so artists can start submitting their perspectives.

We would like to consider it as parameters. But guidelines, we want to give flexibility. We want people to claim the downtown as their own. The reason why we chose the four, I believe, was mostly just because of durability. That was a lot of the consideration. It's just like, hey, these designs work in the long run. We don't want to as much as we'd want a sculpture, hey, this is a downtown thing, these ones are going to last seeing 100 degree temperatures, rain, cold days. We need to think about that in the long run. The reason why we want to leave it up to the artists is because like red and white, top left, if they wanted to do something more colorful or more of a certain palette they wanted to go or color scheme they wanted to choose, yes, absolutely. Go for it.

Off the Arts District banner one, top right, let's say they want to do an image of some kind, we totally leave that flexibility for that as well. The only downside is that short lifespan. Bottom left for that aluminum panel, I know it's not ideal. But even then, if there was a, let's say, person of significance from the area or a color scheme or a point of reference we wanted to draw from that was more of stylized, bottom left would do it. If we want to go into detail bottom right with a historical figure of or historical significance in that area, we could also have the flexibility, too.

We're giving options, but we don't want it to be like, creative freedom, yes. But we were like, hey, this is a downtown walkable area. These are the things we want to have associated with the downtown area. I hope that answered the question. My bad.

Eddie? What if you guys motion to allocate these funds for design development and putting out the RFI as soon as possible? I'm just throwing out that idea.

I did get clarification from Mrs. Flackman that these were just, as the commissioner shared, examples of what could be considered based on some of the context that we deal with here in Merced, whether it's vandalism, heat, sun exposure. So these are all examples that we would include in the RFI to solicit a response from the creator themselves. So they're more than welcome to work off of these. They could supply another form of installation for consideration by commission.

But I believe that the commission's role would be to select the most favored version that was provided as a response. And that would be multiplied across the district. So it wouldn't be I think there was like 10 to 12 installation locations, mainly street corners or light poles that we allocated towards this. And it would be replicated on each one, not different on each one. So the style and the scheme, the verbiage would be the same. It would just be one respondent that you would select as your favored application. And those would go across the district.

Eddie?

Is there certain verbiage that as a city, as a commission, we certainly want? Like, we absolutely want this? Or do we want to leave that up to the artist? I don't know if the subcommittee came up with verbiage that they wanted on there.

Go ahead. Got a follow-up. Yeah, it was mostly just Merced Art District. And then it would be in those locations. I guess we would reach out to the artist on the style of which it would look like. The reason why is mostly because I think depending on the corner, they might want to pick a different style. And we wanted to get some flexibility in the choice of the work that they choose to do.

So our goal is just say we want to spend four thousand dollars on development of these signs with the release of an RFI. We don't have to release because we're just saying we're going to spend this money on this. So the RFI can come when the RFI comes. So what we really need is just a board approval or commission approval to allocate funding to the development and design of EDDIE W. J. Just design? J. Design and development, I thought. Go ahead, Eddie. J.

I would say design and development because some artists may like to incorporate workshops to see what the community wants or they might do surveys. That's not actually them designing. That's more like them getting feedback from the community. So maybe leaving it open. So maybe an artist has specific design and they're like, bam, this is what I want to give you. Another artist might want to incorporate the community more or something like that.

But you want to be very clear that the $4,000 should not be utilized for the implementation, the hanging, the printing.

Yeah. Okay. Oh, Okay.

I see what you're saying.

Gotcha. Oh, all right. I see. So maybe let's say design.

JOSHUA Comparatively speaking and again, I'm not sure comparatively speaking, how much have we been what is the standard rate that we have set to pay artists to do this style of work? Because well, this style of work, but if we've already set a standard of this is how much we pay utility box people this much, this is how much we're paying muralists for this much, is that in the same wheelhouse as what we've already said is our standard city commission rate?

So far for utility boxes, it's been roughly I think initially it was like $700 And I think this time around for the second round, it might go up a little bit. I'm not sure. But if possible, I would say if we can give $4,000 to an artist or pretty close to $4,000 for a design that's going to be replicated, that's what I would hope for.

If I could just give a little bit of thoughts for your consideration, the last thing I think that the commission would intend to do is have a product awarded, designed, and not have funding for installation. Given the situation that I know we're walking into next year, if there's not funding allocated for installation, it won't be installed. So I think that we just want to be mindful and maybe walk backwards with having the $4,000 allocated and then really working on getting some competitive quotes from vendors that could manufacture the signs as replicas and get the lowest bidder possible or quote possible that still provides a great product for us that's lasting. And then anything outside of that cost would be allocated to the artist.

Because I mean, my opinion, I think it needs to be percolated a little bit more. I think if we have $4,000 we don't have to say we could say right now that we're putting this in place for design and development and implementation of the signs. We don't have to give a specific number as to what goes where. We can have another meeting, another subcommittee meeting to kind of help determine some of those other things. But I would hate for things not to get installed if the city can't afford it. And you were did I did you want to speak? No, no. Was

agreeing. Yes.

Okay. Eddie?

All right. So agree with you. I think that's a good idea for the time being. Just say, let's put this for this general direction, not specifying too much. And then based on what Chris was saying, if we are going to have to use that $4,000 because we can decide.

All right, we're just going to pay for design now. We'll deal with installation later. Or if we're going to say this covers design and manufacturing and installation, I would say we might want to look more to sign makers rather than or people that make signs or rather than individual artists because we'd probably get more bang for our buck that way.

So I think along those lines, what we're talking about is that the content of the RFI or RFP that we want to go forward with the $4,000 to support this initiative. And that could be done either at the next commission meeting or with the subcommittee outside of a special meeting. For tonight, I think what staff need is a recommendation to allocate that dollar amount so that we move into next fiscal year with it tied up for this project. And then we can work through with either subcommittee or the commission at another next commission meeting on what the details of the RFI, including the manufacturing process or the production process, whether it's an artist or a company.

Yeah, I think I would agree that just establish the 4,000 for the project. And then the subcommittee can possibly meet to work over some details, even meeting with Jennifer to work through elements of the RFI. Then we can even do some sort of cost projections of even some of the signs that we know we like and work from there, work backwards almost. Obviously, we want to give the artists if we use artists, we want to give them as much as we possibly can that doesn't go directly KAUFFMANN: into installation.

Yep.

Colt and Dennis.

I just want to add. I just I think it would bother me a little bit that if we have a designated arts district and the artists aren't involved in it in some way. But I get what you're saying, too. So anyway, I'll put my 2¢ in there.

I understand.

So do we have a motion? Anyone?

Motion to I guess the phrasing would be to meet with subcommittee again before the sixth to discuss funds for the $4,000 since design is already set in place would be basically proposing the installation part of it. Is that my understanding?

I think actually the motion is just allocating $4,000 to this project. Motion.

I'll second that.

Alejandra is like, kind of?

No, it makes sense. So you're making a motion to allocate the $4,000 to the art district signage design project. Is that correct?

Correct.

Okay, cool. So I have a motion by Commissioner Tibera and a second by Vice Chair Dennis. Gosh. Chair and commissioners, please cast your vote. And the vote passes unanimously.

All right, let's move on.

Agenda item G, business G1, request to add item to future agenda.

Anyone have anything they want to add to the future agenda? Eddie?

I don't know if this is the right timing or if we would miss the mark by the next meeting. But discussing funding for a future fiscal year.

So because our two public hearings are going to be June 6 the last one is going to be June 16 for the next fiscal year, that's when council is going to adopt the fiscal year the 2526 fiscal year budget. If you're wanting to discuss the budget for arts here in the city, you would have to have that before the final so that Jennifer Flackman can bring it to counsel for consideration. So it'd have to be a special meeting because we're not meeting until July

Colton? Chris, I would love to have an update on Bob Hart Square. Mike, give us some ideas to how we want to go about those hard projects there as well.

Yeah. The next meeting is July. Okay. We should be pretty close by then. So I think it would be a good time to start soliciting some ideas and bring to you some potentials that we've come to understand that we could do as the installation there and then get a recommendation from you on that day as far as how we want to put that RFI out or RFP.

Awesome. Okay. Thank you. Well, I'm going to announce those things.

Anyone else?

I just want to come back to ex officio Rodriguez's request. So because that is within thirty days, you'll need to make a motion so that you guys can have that within thirty days from now and whenever you guys are set to have a special meeting just because the next meeting is on the sixteenth. I mean, that's twenty nine days away and it still, again, needs to be

We can make a special meeting. I don't think it's going to work, but I'm happy to make a special meeting if we think that we should. Or we just advocate at our local levels about extra arts funding within the budget. But if we want a special meeting, we can totally do that. What does everyone else think?

Go ahead, Eddie. I don't think it hurts to ask the city for extra funding, even if they say no.

Oh, but do we need to have a special meeting for that?

No. But in terms of MACHT: being

able to request that, we have to give that to Jennifer, right? So then we have to have a special meeting so that we can request that to give it to Jennifer.

Our current ask, I believe, is $100,000 That's what we have asked to be placed into this next year's budget. And so what you're saying is you would want us to advocate for more from the city.

Or no. Maybe I'm not understanding. Do we have to ask Jennifer, hey, can you ask for this on our behalf?

I think what we are in the budget right now is $100,000 is what the ask is for the next year's fiscal budget. So if we wanted a special meeting, we could have one and then discuss and vote on whether or not we'd want to ask for more DELL: from the city.

Got you.

And I think, too, that Chris is warning us that the city budget is not going to be what it's been. So we might even though we're requesting $100,000 we might not get it. So I think he's just preparing us for

tight times. I completely understand that. I'm hearing that everywhere I go. So the request is already in for us for the $100,000 Is that correct?

My understanding is that the city manager's office is their initial budget request was to look at $100,000 investment for next fiscal year. What the city manager will be presenting on Monday to counsel for their consideration are some of the mitigations that probably counsel needs to consider making so that we're within budget. And that's across the board. So to the point that was brought up earlier, as a commission, you've already advocated for your formal request through staff for $100,000 commitment. As independent citizens, there is a public comment process and public hearings lined up to get community feedback on the budget as proposed by the city manager given the financial realities.

So if there's any concern that there might be funding limited, decreased, deleted, my suggestion would be pay attention to Monday's meeting, the presentation from the city manager. If individuals from the arts and culture community have a vested interest, show up so that you can share your public comment and voice your opinion on the budget proposed.

Okay. Yeah, my only concern was that we already had for the initial $100,000 I was afraid that if we hadn't had that in that we weren't going to get any allocations for next year.

So in the meantime, all 10 people watching on Facebook should talk to their council. It's huge, huge following. All right. Anyone else have anything to add to a future agenda?

No? Moving on. Eddie? Sure. So for a future agenda item and in hopes that we'll have more funding, can we have an open call for either an RFP or RFQ? Because I know the first time we did it, it really helped a lot of artists keep their head above water financially to be able to have that. Absolutely.

I think we'll know more. And then when we get in, could we go ahead then at that point for our July meeting have a discussion based off of where we're at as far as how the budget landed and as a commission how we wish to move forward? Because I think that'll be an important conversation to have in July. Whether we have funding or not is how can we move forward as an arts commission into the new fiscal year.

If you're asking for just an update on what all happened for the budget and what was allocated to the arts for this next fiscal year, then yeah, that's definitely acceptable. We'll definitely know by July because June 16 is when it's going to get adopted. So that's something you can bring back in July.

Absolutely. So I think that would be something

that we'd want to be

able to discuss and bring back in July. Right. Moving on. Commission comments.

G2, commission comments.

Okay. Do we want to go down the line? Eddie, do you want to any comments? Blank here. I

currently have a show that's at UC Merced. It closes out the eighteenth. It's in the smaller gallery. I hope you guys get a chance to see it and enjoy it. And also, there's been shows like Nonstop all throughout the Central Valley. It's been exciting.

Nick?

I'm calling a barn dance up in Sonora on Saturday night. It's at the Aronas Club. It starts at seven Excellent.

That's fun.

It'll be fun.

Commissioner Cabrera?

I guess more or less of an update. Last month, was privileged enough to speak at the AERA conference in Denver, the Associate for Education Research and Analysis. I was lucky enough also to present at a roundtable discussing a book of a local group of authors who collectively wrote on San Gerocho. I also represented Merced in that case. In that case, I did get a chance to connect and talk to other artists on how they were recently cultivating different types of I guess the phrasing would be mini galleries.

And so there's a lot of advocation for it. So I just want to highlight a local artist. Patricia Zamora Paz is a local artist out near Livingston who is also advocating for local, smaller group art spaces. So I just want to advocate for anybody who is doing art spaces, matter how big or how small, keep doing it. There is a space for it.

I see Colton's list. Like At Golden Valley. This is happening this weekend, right? Golden Valley Hadestown is playing at the Golden Valley Theater. Is tonight?

It starts sometime.

Oh, it is tonight, isn't it? So it's a big deal. Mean, theater Hadestown is huge on Broadway. Very few high schools in the entire country had gotten the access to produce a high school version of Hadestown. So the fact that Merced, the theater program at Golden Valley, is able to do this. It's kind of a big thing in the high school theater community. So if you haven't seen it, I highly suggest that you trek on over there and you watch it. It's Thursday, Friday.

Tonight, tomorrow, and I think Saturday?

Saturday. 02:00 on Saturday. Tonight, tomorrow, and 02:00 on Saturday. I'm going to give it to Colton to do the rest.

Going on with theater, we have the Kraken Theatre Company. They're doing the children at the Mac this weekend. Playhouse Marsette is doing Steel Magnolias. Have two more weekends. Yeah, Hadestown is supposed to be really amazing. I wish I could see it. I saw Eddie's show. It's a must see. It's beautiful. And he had, last weekend, a nice panel discussion about the arts with fellow artists, which is amazing.

I hope that continues. Speaking of pause, I advocated with her last month for Arts Advocacy Day at the Capitol. And we were advocating for, as the arts council Merced County Arts Council and as an individual arts administrator, along with her, we make a good pair. This is the second year we've done it. Advocating for the SB four fifty six to make sure that that contractor thing is not there.

And also more funding for arts and culture districts and expanding the film commission from Los Angeles, Hollywood, to further California, because we have a really great film community here and trying to advocate that. So that way, we get filmmakers here and those tax dollars stay here. And they use our talent as well, potentially, know? Fill other DPs and different actors perhaps and stuff like that. But anyway, last night we had a grants workshop at the California Arts Council.

And there are arts grants available for us. Specifically, they're they're trying to get into a more rural region, as what we are. So the deadlines for most of these grants are June 5. So visit arts.ca.gov to look at those grants, to see if there are some potential for our local artists and arts organizations. They're like impact grants where an artist, an individual artist, can hook up with a nonprofit and create a mural or create some kind of art project throughout our region.

So look at those. Also, there's the Levitt Foundation. It's open. Oh, I forgot to put the deadline on that. The deadline on that is sometime in July. It's a music series grant. We almost got one a few years ago, but COVID happened and that didn't really happen. But anyway, music series throughout our region as well. So musicians or if we have ideas for putting using the moat, for example, and getting some music out there. Visit levitt.org for that.

And that's a oh, yeah. And for the Mac, we have our community spirit. It's an art show for all levels, all ages, all media that opens on May 28 with reception in July, July 5, actually, the day after July 4. And that's me.

I had one more, I want to wait on Tommy if he had any.

No, there's nothing in

my head. Okay.

Well, there's a reason. We have some audience members here. They host at the MAC, the Multicultural Arts Center, every first and third Saturday from 11:30 to 02:30. Figure drawing, it's on the 3rd Floor. And it's a group that's growing. I feel like we have people coming from Fresno. We're having people come from Oakhurst from all over the place. And it's a great place to build community. There's other Saturdays, but those are the two Saturdays that so the first and third Saturday of the month.

I will piggyback on the California Arts Council grants just because I know for

a fact that a lot

of their applications in the Central Valley are very low. And so you'll never get any money that you don't apply for. So I just highly encourage that if there's a grant for artists for you or anyone in particular, you should definitively apply for it because you never know what will happen. So that's all I got. And next, adjournment.

Yes, agenda item H, adjournment.

Do we have someone that would like to adjourn us? Anyone.

I'll make a motion to adjourn.

Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Excellent.

Okay, I have a motion by Vice Chair Dennis and a second by Commissioner Tran. Chair and commissioners, please cast your vote. And the vote passes unanimously.

What happens if it doesn't? Like if people are like, no, I refuse.