Library Board - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Today is Tuesday, August 4th. I'd like to call the Public Arts Committee meeting to order. I see for a roll call we have an entire committee except for Gwenda. And I don't see any members of the public. So we'll move forward to approval of minutes. Is there someone that would approve the minutes for June 16th? So moved. Okay. So I'll make the motion to approve the minutes and you can second that. Okay. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. So we'll move on. Oh, that passes unanimously. We'll move on to new business. We've got item 04097, review of possible action on the final artist selection for the Thomas Press building on Friedman Alley. And we'll pass the meeting to Megan, and she can tell us what she's got.

Fantastic. Thank you. Okay, so we will start with the Thomas Press mural. At the last public art meeting, we narrowed down to three finalists, just to remind you who those were. James Baraney with a kind of historical motif across the entirety of the facade. Our second place was Jenna Brown Lee with a flowers and animal theme. And third was Molly Keane with a structural design, kind of more of a sculpture. And since that meeting, we have spoken with the property owner at Thomas Press, and he expressed that he's really interested in seeing the historical motif on his building. So we spoke a few more times with James Varaney, who proposed this design. And in those conversations, we've had a few clarifications from the building owner as well as some kind of artistic conversations with James and a few updates to highlight. is the property owner is interested in covering the entire facade. This includes the garage door as well as the windows. The thought would be enamel paint on the garage door and then printed vinyl on all of the windows. We're still working out what exactly the front door would have on it, just so it doesn't get completely lost and customers aren't sure where to enter. So that's still sort of a conversation. But yeah, he's interested in kind of covering the whole wall. and also removing the Thomas Press sign that was formerly on the right hand side of this facade. He would like that to be removed and then there was also a municipally owned street light that was mounted on the building and that also had been requested to be removed and has since been removed. The artist also was interested in making some composition changes. So the first is we've had approval from the Les Paul Foundation to use his likeness in the center of the mural. And then they also thought it might be appropriate to pay homage to the printing history of the building and add in the printing motif towards the right hand side of the mural. That's only fair. And I have some close ups so you can see more of the detail. So the yellow outline is where the door is. And then you can, I don't know if you can see from your angle, but all of the windows are slightly shadowed. So the idea would be that the artist would paint kind of around the frame and it would look continuous, but the window itself would be printed vinyl. And then again, they're not quite sure what they would do with the door yet, but the artist artists try to kind of have less crucial imagery in that space while they're having more conversations with the building owner. Do they still get light inside? Yes. So the vinyl would be similar to what they have on the side of a bus window where you can see in and out, but from afar it looks kind of solid with the design.

Well, that's supportive.

Interesting. Yeah. So this is one end of the mural. And this end is mostly unchanged from the initial proposal. But I think you can kind of see the shadow of the garage door from this angle.

Before you can see the windows if you don't look far. Yeah. I missed the meeting when you guys were selecting these. So is that painted or is he doing some kind of photographic technique? Or is he actually painting? He painted. Okay. Very photorealistically he's painting. Correct. Okay, cool.

Is that it? For this one, yes. If you have any other questions or thoughts.

Do you want to discuss this one or do you want to see all three?

Well, I think we're looking for an endorsement of this one just because the property owner was really infatuated with it. So you feel comfortable moving ahead with the artist. And then any other suggestions on the piece itself? Like one thing we were talking about is that printing piece that he added is in black and white, but the rest of it's in color, like I don't know if that makes a difference to you or if you think that works okay or anything else in there that you felt should be adjusted. I think we had a little conversation around the children on the very end, and I don't know if there's strong feelings about that either way. So I guess that's what we're looking for is ultimately an endorsement and then any final feedback on the design itself that we can – send back to the artist.

Well, it's my personal view that this property owner has been very supportive of what we had chosen, and the fact that they want to put Thomas Preston there seems fair to me. I'm okay that it's in black and white. How do you guys feel about it? I like it in black and white, actually.

I like how it pops. I like how it's a little less literal. back and forth in time.

Well, in the old machine, the print, the press there.

Right.

I actually like it. And I don't, however the door turns out, I'm kind of fine with it. I mean, if it just turns into a door, I'm okay with that.

You know, I don't want to, I don't want his customers not to be able to find him. I think the door, I mean, it's important for customers. I think it's also, I mean, it's a building. It's not a painting. It's a building. Right. So, I prefer murals that work with the building, don't hide the building.

In person, the garage door and the windows might look more like garage doors and windows than the garage door in this photograph.

But since the door is an opportunity, the door really needs to look like a door. I say go for that. Maybe you could do a different palette. That's black and white. He's the artist. I just think he could figure out a way to make it clearly a door. And whether it carries through the image. Maybe it's a sketch. Maybe it It carries the imagery, but it's clear distinction. Sure. Would be my suggestion, but I'm not. I agree. I think the door needs to be distinct. Not just so people can find it practically, but I think it's a better mirror that the door is distinct.

I kind of like that suggestion of making that section black and white.

The door. Yeah, that's a thought. It's just a thought. Yeah, it's different chromatic. It's all in pink and blues and, you know, whatever. But I agree, black and white. Yeah, I would instinctive.

I would defer to the artist on that.

I'd actually leave the door.

Leave the door?

Whatever kind of door he wants to do. Just a door, just a brown door.

I think it's a glass door that's got a black outline. I think that's what it is now.

That's not a bad idea, too. Just a door. Not to overdo the art. Yeah, it's getting kind of... Okay, do you have thoughts? I agree. Okay, is there a motion somewhere? Okay, yes, I'll make a motion. I move we endorse the building owner's preference to adopt or hire, what's his name? James Varney. James Varney for the mural.

Okay, so we should do that first. And approve the...

The other things are suggestions.

Okay. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right. That passes unanimously. Then we move on to the staff report. Any further information? Can we back up for just a second? Can we look at the kids at the other end for a minute? Yeah.

I mean, I don't know what the discussion was. I'm kind of curious. Can you share what it was or would you rather not?

Well, there were so many of them.

Okay.

I think it was just kind of questioning like how does that piece tie into the rest of the mural? Just thematically. So I think it was more like kind of just questioning like is that the right design?

How did the artist respond to that?

His vision is that these are all children that would have could have lived in the area, in the Waukesha area, over its entire populated history. So from, you know, Native children to European children, Hispanic, you know, all different cultures that have come and lived in this area over time, basically. If I'm understanding that correctly.

That's my understanding as well, yep. And the text back there, do we know what that says or what it's kind of indicating?

I believe that's the We the People preamble. Okay, okay.

That one figure toward the top on the extreme left, just with the shirt, looks kind of scary to me.

the face looked like the lighting or something is not quite right with the yeah I mean I would hate for people to focus on that one focus on like I don't want to walk down that street because there's that creepy face I don't know if it's like way too out there or not but and the rest of the faces look a little more realistic a little more realistic the ones that

The little boy in the brown and the little girl in the white. I mean, I don't know. I like the look of the kids in the middle better than these. They look a little abused, kind of.

There's a slide that shows it flat.

This picture looks stretched from the... Yeah, you could just do the photograph. There it is. It is a little strange up there. Yeah, interesting.

I guess the little... two figures that I mentioned that looked kind of similar, abused. Those don't look so much in this, in that. But you're right, you're right. Maybe we could just ask the artist what the intent is, or could he eliminate that? Why is it looking over everybody's shoulders? Yeah, and why is it black and white? It looks hard to make out what's happening. Yeah, looking over people's shoulders.

That might be native paint. No, we're going way back in history, you think?

Yeah, maybe. Okay, that's the guess from the accounting teacher.

Yeah.

I don't know. I don't know if I'm being too picky or too...

It's a good time to bring it up and at least discuss the concern. I mean... Yeah. Because, well, this will get related to our system. Right, correct. Yeah.

Don't tell him who said it.

Of course, this video is going to be on the website. Oh, no. He probably won't be interested in watching.

There is a different character, but again, I think it's his intent. The kids on the left are crowded together, and there's a somber quality, I think, overall.

Like more of an immigrant...

Yeah, like poverty and sadness and overcome challenge. I'm not saying it's necessarily bad, but there's a different quality. A bit of a struggle? What's that? A bit of a struggle? Yeah. There is. I mean, that's very historic. Probably what we intended, obviously. Anyone else? OK.

Who is our staff, her commission president? Is that Glenda?

Yes, she's the chairman. Okay. And we do have one other item.

Oh, go ahead. It's not on the paper, is it? Oh, I didn't read it. What? Oh, an additional mural. That's what you're talking about? Sorry. I thought the second one was about a Freedman Alley mural, and I thought we were about the same one. So item 04098, review and possible action on an additional mural in Freedman Alley.

yes so we have been considering what we want to do with the remainder of this facade so as you know the fox to the far left of this photo is in place initially we thought maybe putting some of the proposed art cabinets in this space with the utility boxes we thought that that may not be the best idea So we're exploring some alternatives that still activate the facade without potentially posing danger to the public. And one idea we had was the muralist who did the initial Fox painting had proposed a kind of continuation of the Fox family on the Thomas Press building. And obviously that... proposal was not selected for that site. But we thought about potentially reimagining it to fill some of this space. Then we spoke with the artist briefly and requested kind of to give us some initial ideas. And this is what they came up with. This piece is a bit larger in scale than we had imagined it may be. It may potentially be a bit outside of the budget that we have remaining after all of the other murals are complete, but wanted to bring this to this group for consideration, any thoughts or reactions that you have to expanding the Fox mural to more of a Fox family, if you will.

I think it's cute I love it. I think kids and families would like it. I don't know, do the baby foxes need to be bigger than the first fox?

I think where the substantial idea was just to have the babies and make them a little smaller than what they appear here and not have the additional adult box. Okay. You know, just kind of being playful behind the other adult. And so, yeah, so this looks to us like a little bit larger than we were envisioning. But we just wanted to kind of get your feedback because that was just our idea, right, how it might work. And she had kind of a different take on it.

I like it if we could afford all of it, but if we can't afford all of it, that makes sense, what you suggested. Is there, this is probably silly, is there any way we can get the stair, the fire escape painted bright orange? I mean, the foxes are making the building look so dingy. And I thought, again, could that be painted bright orange, those boxes be painted, or the lamp? Just pluck some color. into the architecture and the structure. I'm not sure.

We should explore that a little bit. Especially the fire escape. It would be really nice. I mean, this owner also has been really supportive, so I don't know. Perhaps. I think we do want to do a wrap on that box that says F.A. on it. Oh, okay. Because that's a city-owned box, so we can do something there. So it also could be part of this additional kind of piece of this box.

Hopefully you don't want to put a chicken there. Or you do. It'd be fun.

Or if you don't like the idea of continuing the boxes, we can do something. We can think about something completely different, too. If you think, like, let's just, you know, separate the ideas. You know, you've got the fox here. As you walk down the alley, you see something else, you know.

I'm not opposed to that.

To changing it up?

Yeah.

Yeah, depending on the budget, right?

Yeah. So we had some other submissions, too, that were good.

Yeah, there were.

We had a lot of good people. I'm not saying this is not good.

No, but if we ended up finding money, it'd be fun to put something on the side of a parking ramp or something.

I think Kurtz was saying not to the foxes, right? Not here. Do something else here.

Oh, okay.

Around one of the other murals.

Okay.

Just an idea.

Do you think... Do you think you would want to revisit all of the different proposals we got for this building and the other building and see, you know, like once we've honed in on a budget number and we get more serious about it, just kind of look at what we've got and see if there's something that fits or do you want to send out a whole new proposal?

You know what, if something that we already saw fits better with the budget, this one sounds like it's a little bit better. Yeah, if something fits.

Because we could do that, like once we get a better understanding of what kind of funding we might have left, we could kind of revisit that. That would be great.

I think with the original artists that proposed, especially since we got such a great response, it would be nice to use a few of them. And I feel like we kind of led them to believe that we were possibly going to look at their work for different areas.

So we'll move ahead that way.

Okay.

Good. That sounds good. Next is caller person's report. I do not have a report. Do we have a new meeting?

I do have a communication or a staff report. Go ahead. So here's this here from the transit center. Okay. And what we've been talking about is their desire to do some murals in kind of where the buses are and where people are waiting for the buses. There's a lot of blank space in there. So what we're going to work with her on putting out an RFP and then bring some of those responses back to this group to help do that selection. Inside or outside? What's that? Inside or outside? Kind of. Inside.

Undercover?

Right. Yeah. So it's like they're outside, but it's just because it's kind of open air. Right. Sure. Yeah. That's a great idea. That is a good idea. And then the other thing we were talking about. Where would funding for something like that come from?

I don't know. I think we're, yeah.

Yeah. Assessing your options?

Yes.

Okay. And then one of the other things we were talking about is there's that sculptural piece in the front, which is by Richard Taylor, that originally was supposed to be a fountain, but we were having a lot of problems with the fountain. And so they ended up filling it in with stones and then people started throwing the stones around. And so just the feeling like maybe we need to rethink the placement of that sculpture or the pieces that are around that sculpture, and then the sculpture itself is starting to weather some.

Okay.

So what I was thinking, unless you guys have a better idea, is having a first conversation with Richard Taylor and kind of see what thoughts you might have about that. Good idea. Yeah, that's good.

I mean, that's the first, that would be a great first step.

Okay. Because I know, like, there's a whole base under there to support the sculpture and, you know.

Because it was made for art.

Right. So the idea didn't work out in implementation. But actually the transit center, the art that's in the transit center and on the outside was the very first project that this committee worked on.

So we're going back to the beginning. So your plan is to talk to him and then maybe bring that to us? Yeah. Is the bus station interested in moving it or just improving the base or what?

Anything we can do to help. We're pretty open to whatever you guys might have. I figure you guys are going to have better ideas than just me. Moving it, rearranging it, if we can transition it into something. An idea I had kind of been tossing back and forth was maybe transitioning it into like a garden bed space where we could maintain that and then maybe some light seating or something that would be more applicable to what the space is used for and easier to maintain because the rocks are... They get everywhere? Yeah. But our garden beds are doing great so maybe we extend that into the piece and I don't know. Would there be a possibility to do, I don't know, trellising instead of the water, right? I don't know. But I'd be very excited to hear anybody's opinions.

And if I remember, it was a long time ago, but if I remember correctly, I think Richard also at that time had anticipated like a sister piece on the other side of that walkway. So they kind of came up like that. And that just was never realized. So maybe just rethinking that. installation.

He would have a lot of ideas. We'll see. I like your ideas.

If you make a sculpture into a fountain, do you need a clear pool of water or can you put a fountain in a pond?

I think you can put a fountain in a pond. They usually have them as aerating tools to keep the pond healthy. Right, exactly. Okay. Because we could move into a pond. We've got lots of ponds. Why don't you just move it all together?

Move the whole piece somewhere else. Right. You know, unless that costs hundreds of thousands. So the money is always a factor. But yeah, I'm open to those kinds of suggestions. And if you already have an RFP out, we can see what people want to

in there you know that might be more transportation themed or right it's the 50th anniversary of the transit system so that's kind of the impetus or it will be coming up um so that's kind of the thought too is maybe celebrate some of that history so how long has that piece been there um 20 years yeah transit center has been open uh it was 26 or 27 so probably right in there yeah it was shortly after it opened because i know it was built when we did the call for artists but it was shortly after that because architect actually helped us through that process so cool that's all yeah any other thoughts on that

Okay, now we need a new meeting date.

So I think we will let you know about September. I think we may skip September just because we might be waiting for responses for that RFP to come in.

Okay.

But we'll let you know. Keep that date open tentatively. Keep it open and we'll let you know. We don't want to have you guys meet if there isn't anything to make a decision on. Okay.

All right. And thank you for flipping it to me. Go ahead. No, I just was sending you the thoughts. All right. If there are no objections, we're adjourned.