Arts Commission - Regular Meeting

Okay, this is the City of San Marcos Art Commission regular meeting, August 22nd, 2026. It is 534 PM and I'm calling this meeting to order.

All right, roll call. Kate Cargill. Aslan Pollier. Sheridan Schaefer. Here. Arthur Simone. Here. Jason Weems. Here. Sarah Winfield.

Present.

We have a quorum present. Item 2 discussion, full submission on the next arts commission mixer. And germane to this is the. The sports awards are open until the 14th. So we put it put it mid. In September 14th to give you all plenty of time to have a. Insert early September point of order though, before we go too far here, do we need to say the citizen comment period thing? We do. Why don't we skip that? My apologies. I just didn't want us to get too far. No, for sure. So we'll back up a little bit to the citizen comment period and none signed up and there were none present. Good catch. Now back to the items. Full discussion on next March 10 mission. Can we approve last meeting's minutes? We did not do that.

Also, I noticed that when you announced the meeting, Jason, you said August 22nd. I think I said six.

I'm pretty sure I said six. Then I'm wrong.

That happens.

I mean, I'm pretty sure I said it right. I love it.

Order the order.

Okay, I'll call. We start with the city of San Marcos. Our commission regular meeting August 26th, 2026. It is now 536 PM and this meeting is called to order.

All right. And roll call again. Sarah Wingfield.

Present.

Jason Weems. Present. Arthur Simone. Present. Sharon and Schaefer. Here. Aslan Hollier. Kate Cardin. All right. Next up, again, citizen comments and then signed up if there are none present. Item one, consider approval by motion of the July 22nd, 2026 minutes.

I'd like to move to approve those minutes.

I second that.

All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, nay. All right, passes, unites.

with a count of four to zero. Very good. All right, next up, item two. All right. Full special on the next Arts Commission mixture.

All right, so let's go back for a second. What were you saying that was important?

Yeah, so the Smart Awards are going to be open for nominations until September 14th. So based on y'all's feedback from last month, we wanted to make sure that we had plenty of room between that end point and give y'all plenty of room to have a mixer in early September so that you'd be able to make a final push for nominations. Right. So.

And did we? Do we have a criminal injury date when we have something that we suggested?

We have a few dates. We're sort of on the fence about them as a group. So. I have.

Well, I actually am.

These digital calendars.

Yeah, but we didn't know that.

I remember us considering.

October I was on the wrong date.

We were considering. Weekends. And then I remember we had a little bit of a discussion about whether or not that was any good. Labor Day? Well, I think, yeah, Labor Day.

So is Labor Day on the 7th or something?

Yeah, Labor Day is the 7th, and so the 4th through the 7th is Labor Day weekend.

So it would probably want to do it, like, I mean, if the 14th is that sort of end of the one thing, so Friday, Saturday, or Sunday is probably like Sunday the 13th. What do you all think about that? Maybe Saturday the 12th?

Saturday the 12th is the pride parade in the morning, but... Could be a good chance to tell people to...

Although I don't want to, I mean, it's a pride parade can often be a little...

What days did we have last year?

What day of the week?

We had them on Sundays. It was a good turnout?

Yeah, we've had a great turnout. For the little bit that we pushed it, it was better than we would have thought.

I could do Sunday the 13th. I have something tentative from 2 to 4, but I don't know if 4 would be too late or if that would be 4 or 5.

I mean, it's still going to be pretty warm, so probably when the sun's kind of going down, probably at least a little better than right whenever it's overhead. Let's see what Tom said on the 13th.

Well, from what I really think, yeah, from what I remember, it sounded like our strongest contender was potentially the brewery. That's now the thirsty goat.

Oh, where we could do it inside.

And it could be inside in that instance. Did anyone have an opportunity to connect with them, or did we?

Well, we needed a date before we could come to the, you know.

Totally got it.

They're going to be down. They've worked with our commission before, I'm sure.

Yeah.

We do need this date to be able to connect.

If we're going to have a place that has indoors, the 13th.

should be great maybe around like five i would say five because if we do it too late that's gonna be like dinner yeah they gotta finish or go to another town or whatever they gotta do five on the 13th and then really shooting for uh the brewery uh indoors would be ideal and setting sunsets at 7 40 7 39 local time that night means it'll not be dark until eight or something but the cowboy's game

Oh, maybe it's not a whole lot of overlap, but that's the that's that's a highlight. Is that what that? No, it's probably different. Rugby.

Looking at this now.

I'm going to I'm going to. Propose a motion that that is a non-conflict.

Do you know, I mean, by chance, like what time they play on those days?

On the 13th, it's Sunday, it's 7.20.

Oh, so yeah, we'll probably be wrapped up for any hard course by then, I would imagine. It's usually about a couple hours.

And people might come early and then just hang out and stay.

Sure, yeah, watch the game together, like people do. It'll be a very community-oriented game. Okay, so, so do we need to motion this thing or anything? It'd just be consensus if. So are we in, are we all digging on this? Sunday, September 13th, 5 to 7 p.m. Location to be decided, but leaning towards the Thursday.

Yeah. And then just to clarify how it works with the committees and the commission, is it from this point forward, the.

Yeah, it's back on that side.

Yeah, the committees to like. Promoted or we'll, we'll give you all stuff to help. Yeah, please do. Okay.

But it'll be us to spearhead all that.

Sounds great.

Yeah. We just didn't want to make it. This is such a thing. We want you all involved. We didn't want to just make an executive decision on that.

Honestly, I feel like it was good to probably wait a little bit to see what other stuff popped up on the calendar. So I feel like this is the perfect time to nail down the date.

Yeah. And I definitely don't think it's too late for as far as telling people that They aren't going to really pay attention until we go. That's just the way it is.

Will there be an agenda or a presentation?

We do want to do some stuff with that. We are worried about having the time to do it at this round, but we were hoping to kind of introduce the idea of having a chance to do a presentation at the next semester, at this semester. So we would give everyone on the commission language about how to talk about it. And then we would give, we would give, might even have something kind of printed up for people to look at. But the concept would be that they could sign up ahead of time, we'll have to work out some details here, and they could give a limited time presentation to the gathering. TED Talk-ish, MOF, whatever, but like a chance to present what they're up to. We want to start moving towards activations. But we don't want to have these activations fell. So the first one we think. The first way to activate is to activate people to the idea that we're going to be doing stuff.

Yeah. And we'll also have QR information available for folks to submit or to nominate folks for the smarts awards.

It will be working with y'all for detail stuff. And then one.

location uh nailed down like for sure for sure send it to me and then i can send it out to the parks commission as a as a whole that's good run afoul of any kind of open meetings so when do smart board submissions close the 14th the 14th is that what time of day i think we had like 5 p.m okay so the day of okay okay so the goal is like

This is kind of like the wrap party of nominations. We're going to encourage people who haven't yet to submit their nominations then and there at the party. Is there a specific format? You said QR is the format which they would submit their nomination because there's a form, right?

Yeah, it's a Google form. Yeah, but we just need to get them there.

Yeah, so it's, I mean, it could be either way, but as long as they get to the point. So one option.

Because the event is on the 13th, is there a problem with us extending it to the 15th, September 15th? There's not any kind of written policy anywhere, and as long as we do it in advance. So we can technically just change the date.

Well, that'd be great. Just give them a couple of weeks.

Give them another day.

We love the idea of having a competition.

Because I know we have to order different things. When's the award? When are the awards?

They are in October calendar. And I'll if I haven't already, I'll go ahead and forward that to the to the to the full Arts Commission because I do have the location, the time and everything we need to add.

We need to add the date to the web page. It's not on. Actually, it's not even in the application. Oops.

This is a chance for us to discover these little things.

I'm going to I'm going to take a screenshot and send it to you. OK, I got it. It's a Google Doc. It's on here.

You know, I did share the link with the Arts Commission. weeks ago, right? If I didn't, I can resend it, then you can send it out to your... Oh, yes. For the nominations.

Yeah, I think so. I remember seeing it and I think reposting it too.

As we are discussing Cal invites for you to send out, I was wondering if you could also send out the Cal invites for the... the presentations for the cultural grants. Yeah, absolutely. I think it's the 16th and 17th.

We don't get those on our...

I still want to print out, but I feel like it's always nice to have an official calendar.

I kind of live on my phone calendar, so.

Are those open for anybody to listen to besides the

It's a public hosted meeting.

Okay.

Yeah, first of all, there's usually multiple chairs in there.

Yeah.

And then I'll go into more detail on that. And I'm fine because we've got an update on the process. All right. Okay, very good.

Census has been reached.

Census got some follow-up items for me that I'll get knocked out tomorrow. Next, item three, receiving an update on the arts and culture manager, the program itself, and the commission.

Okay, so the job posting closed. So I'm in the process of reviewing them all. I've gone through more than half. So then we will begin the interview process in probably three weeks. And then we'll go from there. So Charlotte is at a conference this week. But Charlotte accepted. Charlotte didn't accept the job. She decided to stay in her creative job. So she is not focusing on that. And she's attending a conference from this creative. So I am. You get me for a little while until we have someone.

So we're not going to be like in. engaging with Charlotte anymore. No.

Now she will. No, no, no. We were going to do something tonight, but she's at a conference. So she will be back one more time for a meeting and for us to show our appreciation. We were planning on something and then we forgot that she was at a conference this week.

Well, and if we want to include anything in the next mixer, let us know. So that's up to y'all. That's not, that's not, I would love to honor her.

There is your job. Yeah, no, just her contribution. So, I mean, she is the one that started the, no, the way before then she is the person who started art squared.

Right.

She is that person. So yes, yeah. But she just, she chose to, she chose that position instead of this one. This one was too administrative for her. Yeah.

And it's not. Whatever, whatever journey.

So yes. So, so yes. But we should repeat this trade too. Yeah. I know trade's like, thanks a lot. So he's not, I'm just saying. So that's the, in regards to that, and then the program, the name is Arts and Culture. That's the name of the program itself, the Arts and Culture program. And then the commission, we may end up changing the name of it from Arts to Arts and Culture, Arts and Culture Commission. Great. So that's yet to be determined by, management, if that's the direction we want to take, because it has to be approved by council, because you are an appointee of a commission. So we have to make a few changes along the way. And then also on the Convention and Visitor Bureau side, we will no longer be Convention and Visitor Bureau, we will be Visit San Marcos, like our official name. And then instead of Destination Services, we will be Destination San Marcos. So Destination San Marcos is here, Visit San Marcos, Arts and Culture, and Yeah, those two and little programs. So yeah, so lots of changes, lots of good changes, also positive changes in regards to name recognition and the focus of what we do.

Great. The next to see all the.

Yes, yes, yes. So we have a vacancy because Rick Rick had too many absences, so we will get that information. So we'll send you an email saying this is. Please share it with anybody and everyone. And that one will, they have to submit the application to the clerk's office. And then it will be on the 1st of October, the 1st of October, the first Tuesday meeting in October. That's when that person will be appointed.

I thought we received an email that they wouldn't do it until February.

Yeah, we did have something like that.

It's not going to happen. We need that person. Okay.

Yeah, that's pretty good. We have another code.

Yeah, that was that. I think that was just the city clerk's office just trying to make it easy on during, but they have other appointees on. They have right there in front of us. So why couldn't they just add us to it?

Perfect.

So yes, Trey requested it and he watched. Yes, he was. So and then was that it?

I believe that's it.

And then now, go ahead, I'm sorry.

All right, next up, I see the financial report from staff.

So if you turn that number to be turned to our arts budget, it's the only thing that has a lot of numbers on it. So you know, I don't really want to spend any money this year. Provides actual and Actual expenditures, the special events funding, that is not the, that is not this budget. That is non-Arts Commission money. That's where we spent a lot of money there. But in regards to any kind of arts, arts program, arts, anything besides grants, we really haven't spent any money this year besides grants.

Are we worried about that?

No, I don't know. All that money carries over. Okay. It's a city ordinance. It's not a city ordinance. It's a resolution from the city council that it carries over.

Okay, great. Because we'll spend if you want. I'm just saying.

And now that we will have two full-time staff, staff has more time to focus. A lot of the administrative part of it.

Great. Excited about those changes.

And then on the next pages are just the details of all our expenditures, which, of course, we processed, or Trey and Jared processed all the contracts, all the art project contracts. So general fund, and then, of course, all the other things along the way. So it's a lot of end-of-year grants that we've made payments as well.

For any questions, though? Great, thank you.

All right.

Item five, receive a staff report on the 2027 arts and cultural grant properties. So the grant window has closed. We have received over 30 grant requests just for that go to y'all. And then we've got several others. Before, like, the classic events and others, those aren't ones that go to you. All those are a different process and everything.

How does that compare? That feels about right from before.

Yep. We've got, you know, a lot of return. request, you know, against our known love, and then we've got a few new ones. Wonderful. So we're in the process of going through. I've done the first pass on the request to see if there's anything immediately disqualifying or, you know, incorrectly input or whatever. And then Rebecca and I are going to go back through and do the second pass. And then once we're sure that everybody on there is eligible to possibly receive funding and can move to the next step, then we'll invite them to the grant applicant workshops. They're going to be signing up basically, so the two nights that we do them are going to be three-hour nights, and it'll be a It's a situation where everybody needs to eat their Wheaties because it's going to be three hours straight, and then I'm booking them in 30-minute time slots. And so three people can sign up on SignUpGenius for each slot. And then that way, there's a little bit of wiggle room.

And somebody takes on less time, and somebody needs a little more to still work.

Yeah, and then even if somebody shows up an hour late, you know, we can switch around, you know, because I don't want to, it used to be, we just had everybody show up and then we, you know, figure out who wants to go first and da, da, da, da, so, um, we're kind of making a little bit more early, but I don't want to do it by 10 minute time slots because that's going to get too disruptive if somebody shows up a little later, calls in sick or something. And so that's worked well in the past before.

Are you going to encourage them to do like maybe like a 15 minutes before check-in, 15 minutes before your 30 minute window check-in with you kind of thing? Somebody, I don't know, it seems like it'd be good to have like a stage manager kind of idea going.

Yeah. Um, Yeah, we could. I mean, by the time they get to that point, I'll have their email addresses.

Yeah, you communicate with them and be like, check with me at 15 minutes before your slot. That way we can coordinate with the other people in that slot with you. I just think that would probably go better for you. That's great. That's a nice, agile way to approach it this time.

And then we're still going to be at the multipurpose room in the activities center. And we're going to try and figure out a way to where it isn't quite so intimidating. So I don't know.

I was going to suggest a dais with just a spotlight, but you're thinking a different direction.

For them to sit down, not to be standing in front of you.

I think that's right.

They need to sit and feel comfortable.

I mean, the fact is they're still going to be making a verbal presentation to seven arts, or at least six arts commissioners, you know, but. The format that we had before with the podium and you walk up and everything. So maybe if we make it like a big round table kind of deal.

Well, I think it's set it up in a variety of ways, right? The city has options.

Yes. One thing that we are going to stick to be strict about, it's going to be verbal only, no handouts, no PowerPoints or anything, because we want the playing field to be completely level for everybody. So we don't want it. one person to come in with their note cards, and then another one to come in with folders and PowerPoints.

And all of that consumes time. Yes.

And it's going to be a 10-minute presentation, or correction, a five-minute presentation, and then five minutes Q&A. And both of those will be timed. And when time beats, pencils down, I interrupt whoever's speaking and And the big thing for you as commissioners to keep in mind during this process is this is their opportunity to just verbally explain, just talk to you, have a common conversation about their project and maybe tell you, you know, help give context that, you know, maybe doesn't make it through on paper or whatever. So everybody has that opportunity. What we don't want is the perception that we're like coaching from the dais or offering alternatives or asking, oh, well, did you consider this and this and this? So we don't want to get in a position where it can look like, oh, we're taking a special interest in this one.

events have you considered and that that is a valid thing these are creative people doing fun things and it's easy to get lit up by their ideas so they want to contribute to that but we have to judge it on the merits of what they brought I do think it's, I don't think that we're a group that's going to have a lot of worry about this, but, you know, some people, they would rather, I think, sounds like they would rather communicate verbally just because maybe they're not the best speaker doesn't mean they don't have a really wonderful thing that we can support. So I just encourage all of us to be patient and try to take it all in as a whole instead of just like taking them as their presentation. You know, some people have a wonderful idea and they're just not public speakers. You know, you'll fill that out. Again, I don't think that's going to be a problem for this group, but I'd like to encourage them.

And what is very much in balance is if you've got any, if something doesn't look right or use about something there is like, hey, you had your venue. Or what's your plan for this?

Or are these children from San Marcos, as we had to do with a person who we don't have to name at the moment, but that's the thing. You have a great program. We love what you're doing. And a word that you just said makes us think that you're not actually focusing on the people of our county, of our city. That you're maybe just throwing out there, taking our money, but offering the service to whoever. And we love that heart, but we're going to have a function for our city.

And thank you for saying that, because I think I don't think for the next for this, the next grant process is. In the application process, we will specifically have them check off this benefits San Marcos residents.

And that helps because like we learn every year, we learned that last year in a surprising way. And so now they'll have to think about that ahead of time. And we'll have that sort of already just worked out for our own safety and security. But, you know, we're stewards of our city's, you know, treasure. We don't want to just give that away without being mindful of it.

In advance of this whole process, you will have been set up as, I'm about to say jurors, assigned jurors, but evaluators in the grant back end. So you will have gotten an email from me with full instructions about how to log in and how to do that. And I want to have it to where you've got at least a little bit of time to be able to look through them before the verbal presentation. Yeah. And then after that, it's going to be a couple of weeks of, you know, going in and putting in your evaluations and stuff.

I just wanted to add that I'm excited. It's one of my favorite parts. I hope that you all love it as much as I do. It's a lot of work, but it's where the rubber meets the rain.

And it's definitely, it's one of those deals. Don't put it off to the last minute. What is the date it opens again?

Or is that still TV?

Oh, for the... Well, he just closed it, so it'll be coming always. Yeah, it'll be coming soon. Yeah, I'll... Next week sometime.

Something like that.

I'll check and see it. When are the sessions? September?

Yeah, it's September. It's mid-September. Yeah, I see. So basically, by early to mid-September, they'll be open to you. um yeah the 16th and 17th okay so wonderful and then we'll and then we'll also print up um come back can you come open the thing again since now that they're gone we need to hear the door open thank you we need to hear if people walk in because it's

The gates are, the gates are open.

Yeah, so anybody can walk in off the street.

I did want to let the group know and I need to officially let you know, Trey, that I will be absent for the September meeting because I'm going on a trip to Africa. But that does not impede my commitment to the arts and cultural grants process.

Africa is a bit much, but if you're ever on a little easier trip, you could do a call-in.

That's true. Still do Africa. Africa?

Go do the Africa. Yoga, safari, retreat, I've seen. On. Africa.

Downward Lion. Yeah, right.

Great. That's so cool. I'm glad you'll still be with us.

I'll be there for the presentation. I leave on the 18th, so it'll be like, oh, so yeah, you're going to feel so accomplished.

So you'll do this. You're like, get the road. That's great. That's fine.

Very good. So that that's about it. I mean, there's a lot of other stuff going on behind the scenes. But as far as you're part of it, those are the next two big milestones. But Again, I'll be sending emails with instructions and links and everything well in advance. And then also we print out packets that have the synopsis of each application. So you can at least read that and say, oh, that's this one. That's what this one's all about.

All right, that's anything I'm missing before we move on.

All right.

All right, I have six receive a staff report on front projects.

So the project that you were working on with general funds, money in that neighborhood and the veterans think veterans park. That. we received permission that we could hold on to that money, carry that money over for 2027. So you don't have to rush anything. So we can do this the right way and go through the process, get community input. Now the community input will not include, we're not, We're not going to tell them this is what we want. We're going to listen to what they want.

Hear them first.

Yes, before we take any, and they have to, the community has to approve it. That neighborhood has to approve it. We were kind of, we had a piece of art that we wanted to place there, but that's not the way it should be, and that's not the way the city should operate. So now we're letting them decide. They tell us. We can talk about ideas with them one-on-one, however it is, but let's see what they would like to see in that part before we move forward.

Do we need to, not maybe this amendment, but at some point, will we need to create like a task force or?

No, it'll be, it'll be this.

Okay, great. I see you're conducting public meetings, that's what I meant.

No, but as far as, yes, we will have one after, yes.

No, you're fine. And then, but we're still having an artist that we're hiring to facilitate this process. So did that?

No, that application. No, no, no, this is okay. So how we should work is we will have a, we will take it to the parks board first and say, we would like, we have money. We would like to place art in the park. Then we come to council and we say, We would, we've got the blessing from Parks Board. Now we would like to, the city council, we don't know what the art will be, but we'd like to place art. Pursue this. Do you give us permission to do that? Then they give us permission. Then we have the meetings with the community. And the community, we have the conversation of what would you like to see in this park?

Right.

Then they will tell us. From there, we will, as a group, come up with first the task force, and then a group will come up with ideas to then,

Accommodate theorem hood.

Yes. And then we will do a coffer art. So there won't be a, we're not going to select an artist. We will have a coffer art. So everything moving forward will be coffer arts. We won't be selecting a specific artist for anything anymore. So it will be coffer art. Yeah. I do want to talk to you. Yeah. So, so yes. So yes. But yes, so we need to make it fair and equitable to everyone. I know in the past we selected artists and I know we all love Renee Perez and we select Renee. but it truly does, and we've had feedback from the community, and so it is, that's why we are where we are, but that's just a process, and everything else, other departments do the same thing, so we're just kind of following.

I think the most important thing is that the resources are being lost, but we're going to get to exploit it in a way that gets everybody on the same page with us, so that's great.

The whole reason this issue came to our attention anyway was because the community had strong opinions about it.

And there was this ticking clock on that money. Yes, that was.

And we didn't think, honestly, I did not think that it would allow us to, because it wasn't general. It was general fund and not hotel occupancy tax. But as long as it was permanent art, which this is permanent art, it does qualify for that, whether it's hot or whether it's hotel occupancy tax or it's general fund. And that's finance said yes. part of our project taking that heat off of the talk of it we're going to have to push it fast that that's why it changes the application it allows us to go through the proper process so you took down that call for the artist and then do like how quickly do you feel do we feel like we're going to have these community input meetings scheduled so we'll go to the parks board in october okay and then in November, we will go to the city council, and then we will have them following that. What's nice is there is a project called South of Downtown, which is a planning and development, and they're focusing on South of Downtown, and that includes that neighborhood, and that includes that park. So we will collaborate with them with meetings. And so if they have a committee, so we will have those conversations with them, and that's the direction that we'll take in regards to them.

Great.

And we can, we can decide as a Commission if it will be a local call for art on any of the art that we do, where, what areas, what regions, what, of course, the larger ones, it has to be a national, but this, on all the others, we, as a Commission, can decide who you want it open to, like how far you want it open to in this area. So, and it would depend on, per project count, that would be the decision there. Yes, you had that joke.

It would be great if the parks folks be aware that we want art and not have the art budget poached for a shade or seating structure, which seems, which would, you know, take the entire budget right there just for a shade. I hear you.

Yeah. No, I hear what you're getting at.

Thank you. What other that's on the project? All right.

Listen, there's that Sundial and Purgatory Park. I'm still finalizing the call for art for that one. And I honestly, I believe we're getting pretty close to like missing the deadline to get stuff in before this fiscal year.

I don't need to call you out. What's the hold up?

Just in time and then we're good. So I think the, the deadlines, it gets like contracts and stuff like that nailed down for this fiscal year is either approaching really, really fast or is already right.

Cause it's like September. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, I mean, but because that all that money carries over.

So what I was going to say doesn't really affect it much.

We're not losing any money when it comes to. Watch out. I'll give this text.

It's just a question. Where's our sundial?

Well, yeah, I know we definitely want to keep moving forward here, but yes, we're going to have lots of projects completed in 27. Yes, we're productive here. Yeah, yeah.

Basketball, basketball courts, mural call. That one's a little bit further from being ready to go because, uh, again rebecca and i talked about it and we're basically going to have to do two separate calls one for the artist and then one for the installation and those are going to be two different types of processes and calls which is fine i've you know we've done both why is that because the installation there's only like a few firms that are qualified to actually do the installation with that type of like quick, you know.

Oh, because it's, yeah.

And also, whoever we select, you know, I've got to have the call so that all parties understand that the installer and the artist are going to be talking to each other.

Is the installer able to recreate any things to do? I mean, are they an artist or are they a technician?

They're a technician, basically.

Who runs a program with a machine and the machine spits out art?

No, it's like people on the ground with brushes mixing the paint and getting it onto...

So they're going to be working with the artist in real time.

With the artist. So basically, the artist is going to... It's not so complicated, man. Oh, yeah, it is. It's kind of like...

Sorry, I was just going to say, like, I can imagine that maybe during that discussion, it would be helpful, like, when they start talking to each other, it would be helpful for everybody to be like, well, this will help us do this faster and better and make it happen. So if you use clean lines, we can do blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, or matches that aren't bigger than XYZ or something like that. So I can imagine that if they're professionals, they'll be able to ask that too.

But is this a thing that they do? Like they go and they collaborate with artists? This is like not unusual for them?

Yeah, no, I think so. It's a thing. It's just we didn't want to try and jam it all into one call where the artist had to manage their own installer and all that stuff.

I mean, should we maybe call for the art first so that we could show it to the installer and then they could know what's required? Should one come? Is there a cart? Is there a horse? Should one come before the other?

It's, I mean, I think both can be happening simultaneously. That's why, you know, like I said, it's all how we craft the call on everything. We want to make sure that all the respondents understand that, hey, while you're getting selected for this part, there's an artist getting selected for the art. You'll be talking with them. And you know, vice versa.

And within the call itself, it will specify just what you said it can. It has to be. It can't be anything few inches. It has to be something something that's easy to produce when it comes to painting and then having the sealant and all of that process. And this is very similar to the sidewalk installations or the at the price center. Sure, we're in front of the near the price center. All that that. They learned. We all learned. We all learned from that. And that they would have language to let them know that it can't be anything through school.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The process just doesn't allow for that at all.

So, yeah. So, that's the time, you know, on that. It's just, you know, basically... writing two well-crafted calls for different types of service, but it's doable just when it takes a bit.

And then it also, certain times of the year, and I don't wish I think what we talked about, but it has to be a certain time of the year when it can actually be installed.

Well, the temperature is going to matter, and clearly we have an extreme environment. I don't know if you all walked outside today.

Weather is a factor.

Weather is a factor. All right, next up, Dunbar History Trail. waiting to hear back on the CDBG funds for the lighting install. And that's going to be kind of integral to the actual, I don't want to say monuments because we, what we want to avoid is these looking like, you know, raised stuff, the

Marker, yeah, historical markers.

Yeah, let's just call them markers. The cultural markers. The cultural thing. Well, that might be copyrighted by the state.

I don't want to... Well, and also, when we use that, they... comments were made that a historical marker doesn't really show appreciation for a person. It's more of an item or a thing. So don't ask.

Whatever cultural is.

So we'll just figure out what it is.

It's just... Those things, though, are coming along. I'm kidding.

So the process is in process.

Let's see.

We'll cover the mural items in the mural report. Performing Arts Center Feasibility Study. So we, I can go ahead and say, so this evening we, emailed Keene Independent and notified them that they were the Selectee Parks Commission approval. So acceptance. So we'll bring that to you as an agenda item next month.

And this is going to say that we are now going to officially hire them to do the report. Correct. And we'll be able to take that report and hopefully make movement. Correct.

Do we know roughly how long it'll take to complete this building study? 16, 16.

And both the other entity that also was 16 weeks. Keen is one that we work with for the arts master plan. So knowledge and history of San Marcos was just something.

Yeah, that'll be great. And they probably already have some work done. Just the background. Cool. That's it. That's a big win.

Yeah. That's happening. And then, uh, we won't be sitting idle waiting for the arts commission meeting we'll be working on you know whatever um logistical stuff that we can be working on sure you know with understanding that it becomes official and can't sign any paperwork until so although this is a public meeting and it's being recorded um please don't share

Keen being selected yet until it's it yeah until posted on we posted on the agenda for next month free auto acceptance status updates got it yeah nothing is final but that's great that's that's a big already yes and we're gonna we're gonna email rick as well yeah it'll be

We talked about that today.

Yeah, the two of you were different.

It was me and Ian, I gotta say.

And then sculpture, plaques, and signage, that is in the queue. We'll get that done as quickly as possible.

Wait for...

That's for us. We got the name plaques, the title plaques for sculptures in the art park.

Oh, just generally? Yeah. Okay. They often don't have them, but we're going to have them on there now.

Right. Correct. We've got them in. It's just a matter of we've got to go out and look at each one individually and point out with Parks and Rec. crews, you know, where can we put them and install them, and they'll create the little plinths that it goes on and everything, so.

Great, that's fun.

I'm tired of being on the queue, and I'm ready to knock it off, figure it off, but it's still in the queue. And the rest is either recently completed or ongoing stuff, so. There is that kind of

out of the park.

Barring any questions, we will move on to item seven, receive a report from the Mural Arts Committee.

Okay, so we had the Cuauhtemoc project that we were working on. The board chose not to hold off on the project and not to work with the artists that we had selected, hence Next time we will go for a call for art and do all that whole process. So we won't be in this situation again. So the project itself will happen. The Guatemala mural will happen. It will be a 2027 project. So that will happen. Will not be with the artist that we were working with. So.

Is that place by Dairy Queen? Is that what we're talking about?

Yeah. So due to the language within our contracts, we were. legally required to pay the artist, although there was not the work that was done. But that's our issue internally. Our language just wasn't language that...

Lesson learned. Is it a big loss for our budgetary?

It's $15,000 total. I thought it was only $7,500.

We did pay initially $7,500 and that was the first interpretation that we read, but

We did not go through the, we as staff didn't go through the proper process of doing the whole contract process. So we paid out the $50,000. Yes, and let me preface, let me go back and preface it, but let me, this was a staff thing.

But this is also problematic for our students' costs. a lot of negative impacts in the community with their organization. So I just want to make sure that the city isn't getting like, duped or roped into a bad situation. It sounds like we were accountable.

It was it was it was again, it was internal. It truly was internal. And just a lesson learned. The contracts that we had were contracts that we just assumed were Or just faith or yeah, and then everybody signed good faith and so forth. But in reality, when you look at our contracts, they just, they didn't, they didn't have teeth. So we could go. Yeah.

We're getting bigger as a city around more of a budget that's going to happen more often if we don't stop it down.

Yeah. And we've had lots of lessons in the last two years, right, Trey? Not only with contracts, but other things too. And yeah. And this program, I mean, thanks to Trey and thanks to Charlotte, this program has grown tremendously. you know, leaps and bounds over the last five years. And yeah, so we, you know, you have your growing pains. We will have a policy now that goes to council. We will make some changes in that. But the big one is, the big change is that we will have calls for artists for every piece of art that we do. Just to make sure that not only the building owner or the city or whoever, but all parties involved

the understanding of how this works and that we work together um on this so i would rather us lose a few bucks but walk away above approach than uh have any other option so yeah sucks but negotiating for more money than is typically offered in the contract and then we could build that in the total it was a total contract okay i thought i thought you had said something um that they asked

It was that yes, they asked for the 2nd half. Oh, yes. My apologies for the mystery. No, no, no, no, no, no. I just said probably said it wrong in the heat of the moment. So, yeah. Yeah, because it was, it was still, we were still working on it when we spoke to you and then when. The mural arts committee. Everything was finalized. So she will come in. She will come in and sign. And there was a there's a contract disparagement contract agreement and so forth that we will all sign that I will sign and she will sign. So thank you. So but thank you. I mean, we have. legal team and management team that helped us, helped us read, truly read into the contract.

Yeah.

So that's the big news out of mural arts. Just as a follow-up, so we are putting together a call for art for a, for a Rattler mural. And so, and that's going to be a, We've talked about putting a mural on the, it's called parapet as I finally found the proper term for it. The parapet.

A parapet.

And that's the concrete, you know, it's not a guardrail because it's not a rail, but it's the concrete thing that keeps cars from going off the bridge. And we were talking about putting a mural on that on the one on Hopkins by Jack Roadhouse.

It would be on each side.

Right. Same thing on both sides?

It would be the same artist.

Is it long enough for us to do like that video that you sent?

And that's exactly, you saw the video, that's exactly the type of structure it is.

What is it called? Parrot.

Parrot. No.

We all learned it.

Oh, whatever he sent earlier?

It comes from the earliest animation. It's just the horse running around.

Doetro. I don't know why I know that.

The wind.

So technically, it could be part of the call for us if you ask that. You know, you could ask.

Could you? Yeah. Yeah. What is it? So you know that. Okay.

I don't know.

That's the other thing.

Technically, it has something. We can't go into detail, but if that was something that you wanted, that could be something that could be included in the call for us.

Great.

So it could be there, it could be there, or it could be at another similar parapet. Parapet. Parapet. And we have lots of those around too.

Yeah. Cool.

Actually, there's four, there's, well, two sets. There's one there at Jack's, and then if you go further down where the apartment's right before the Walgreens, the CVS, there is another set.

That's the one that I thought.

OK, so there's that one and then there's one closer to Jax or right adjacent to Jax Roadhouse.

So potentially two artists working on.

We could if we wanted to. I mean, that's up to y'all.

I mean, one at a time, I would say that.

Try one at a time. We can't go into detail.

Or talk to an artist.

That would be the mural arts committee that would have that conversation. It's up to you.

But I'm curious what y'all decide.

And those are... selections yes for the downtown mural gallery um and i haven't heard any in email saying stop don't do this so i'm yeah i'll go ahead and notify the selectees um and we that paper selected and yeah

Are these the ones that attached to the outside of the building by where we did our volunteer stuff that went to them? You were there.

Oh, nice. Replacing those eight.

Cool. Right.

That building with you for a long time.

Yeah, they've been there for a minute.

You did learn some things through that process as well. And not like, not artists. In this particular example, artists aren't always the best at following exactly all the directions of what they're supposed to submit. And I think that there's ways that we can continue to adapt the application process to make it kind of fail-safe to where it's like, hey, you have to upload one thing here. You have to upload one thing here. Because we got to the point where we were kind of like, they didn't quite submit all the materials they needed to submit. Does that disqualify them? Does that not disqualify them? And then we got to some gray areas with what are our grounds for disqualification?

Well, the too many images we had one, right?

They didn't. They didn't specify which one.

Which one was there?

Which one was their entry?

Sure, like you decided which one is my entry. Yeah, well, I think that y'all confirmed that artists aren't good at this. Not that you learned it. Yet again, we have that artists are bad at submissions.

We can find ways to make sure and and essentially that platform You can force them to say, I agree on this. Yes, I did this. Check it off. And that's the only way that they can submit something that that's. So there are ways where he's slowly, I mean, you know, investigating that and researching that. But yes, there are ways to do that. We learned a lot. I'm telling you, this year is just.

Lots of lessons all around.

All right. Item eight, Steve, a report from the Community Engagement Committee.

I mean, that's just a standing thing. Clearly, y'all are pretty up to date with what we're doing, but we do need to, we need a third.

Yes.

We lost our Rick.

Yes.

So, I don't know if we can put that on our next agenda. Absolutely. Great. I think we should make it some sort of battle royale to get the position clearly.

But that's our report.

We're excited to do the thing, the mixer coming up on September 13th, and we would love to have a third person for our thing. That's for update. Excellent.

And then I received a report on upcoming events. I reprinted our grant funded list of things coming up.

And we will do around the room if anybody has anything that's top of mind or anything.

It's just upcoming report on upcoming events. So if you have an upcoming event, you are more than welcome to share.

Okay, anybody got a thing?

Earth-related events.

I may back out, but right now I'm probably going to be in New York Square on Sunday. September 12th. Oh, nice.

Great.

Cool. I mean, is the Pride parade considered? That is the 12th.

So that's September 12th?

Yes, September 12th. So that starts at 8 a.m. and then I believe the parade starts at 9 a.m. Where does it start at? I think that They're setting up tents at Industry. It looked like the details were very evolving over time.

But probably down in Mulcair's.

Yeah, I know it was like set up tents at Industry.

And then, yeah, I go down to Mulcair's at Industry.

And, in fact, I'm not even – yeah. And then also there is a Pride pageant on September 5th. which is the previous Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m. Not in South Forge. And that is put on by S&T XQC or your council. And then the Pride and Pageant is put on by...

I don't know what that... I mean, I know what a pageant is, but I guess...

It's like people dressing up in drag.

It's like a drag pageant. Okay. Yeah. I keep seeing Ken Finley's songwriters in my head. I see Karen Finley's songwriters. Karen Finley was one of the many A5 back in the early 90s. Got in trouble with Jesse Collins. No, I don't know. Oh, okay. Back in the day. So yes, it starts and ends at industry.

That was okay.

Different Finlay though.

All right. Those are. I have to look that up.

A whole other songwriter. Okay. So that's all the events.

Yep. All right. Item 10, uh, future agenda items. So I already have written down, uh, new, uh, uh, appointed a new member for the community engagement committee. There was something else I feel like that he'd be added on.

Keen acceptance.

That's right.

Yes. Study acceptance.

Anything else y'all want to add on to next week, next month's thing?

Feel free to

know this but maybe we um meet between now and then and then talk about on that day we could potentially um discuss future dates for community engagement yeah we do want to try to step up this community engagement thing and it's not going to happen unless we put our shoulders into it so yeah maybe we should make ourselves have to get a little but no we want to have a discussion with everybody because it's different with what he puts on

What do we, I mean, I think it would be helpful to discuss something.

And come to a decision. Can we do that? We have a discussion followed by a vote for future dates and potential programs.

Yeah.

Yeah. I will, you know, not too much. But I think that's probably anything I want to add to the agenda while we're talking about it. Well. I hope that you will bless the rains down after.

Yes.

And if y'all have anything that comes up, you can email me and Trey and I will second it for you.

Sounds great.

All right. Next up, question and answer session with press and public. There are none present.

No adjournment. Okay.

Are we good? Everybody's happy? All right. It's Wednesday, August 26th, 637 p.m., and this meeting is adjourned.