07-20-2005 MinutesSALINA ARTS & HUMANITIES COMMISSION
July 20, 2005
The monthly meeting of the Salina Arts & Humanities Commission was held at the
Smoky Hill Museum Community Room at 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, July 20, 2005. In
attendance were Marilyn Benyshek, David Cooper, Trent Davis, Peggy DeBey, James
Hall, Luci Larson, Bill Medina, Cheri Parr, Abner Perney, Linda Smith, and Paula
Wright. Staff Present: Kathy Burlew, Carrie Carpenter, Brigid Hall, Dee Harris, John
Highkin, and Glenda Johnson. Also in attendance: April Middleton, Salina Journal.
Absent: Linda Moore and Chelsey Mueller. Staff absent: Sharon Benson and Karla
Prickett.
Smith called the meeting to order 4:05 p.m.
Focus Time: Smoky Hill River Festival — 30th Year
Highkin opened the floor for discussion. Highkin shared two ideas from staff: 1) notion
of making this year a Festival year — doing activities for entire year. Some activities have
already been scheduled. Eugene Friesen performed in June; Mingo Fishtrap will be
performing August 12 at Jerry Ivey Park for a back to school concert. 2) Art Car Parade
— invite art cars for a parade in Salina. Staff has also been working with schools in
regards to workshops.
Comments from Commissioners: DeBey - has noticed a lot of bad mouthing in the paper.
Need to flood the community with art ideas — would like to see something positive every
month. Benyshek — incorporate more local area of the arts — incorporate activities with
local, regional and county events. Soderberg — Festival in the community — would like to
see more visual art leading up to the Festival — 2 or 3 weeks out. Permanent piece in the
park — loves the piece that is there and would like to continue to add to it. More shade at
Stage II — making the Festival a more comfortable place to be. Would like the staff to
take a good look at Stage II and come up with ideas of changing the layout. Lower the
level of water in the pond and let people in it. Highkin — there is a deeper area at one end
of the pond so if we lowered the water there wouldn't be any water at the other end.
Soderberg - it will always be an attraction to all people so let them wade in it. Medina —
broaden the arts more and make it not just focus on the arts — it is all about the quality of
life — overcome it by educating the people and how it effects each person. 30th year could
be about community of arts instead of the Festival. Parr — put out awareness of how
volunteers can get involved. Wright — can we advertise all the volunteers in the past? B.
Hall — some of the groups we don't know all the names involved. We acknowledged the
volunteers during the 25th year of the Festival. Wright — suggested that the committees
give the names of all who showed up doing the Festival and place an ad in the paper after
the Festival acknowledging the volunteers. Larson — can't believe the amount of people
who aren't involved. Wright — put flags up during the Festival in the downtown area.
Perney the poles have been taken down — this is very expensive and the wind tears the
flags up. Wright - every year have something really visual posted about the Festival.
Benyshek — how many businesses help promote the festival? Soderberg — bring the
Festival to the people who will never probably attend. Benyshek - are the employees of
businesses encouraged to come? DeBey — get the word out and get people involved.
Wright — develop a card like a University has for the school's activities — make it for art
activities. Medina — do we have a budget that is going to be established for the events
that are being discussed? Cooper — do something special at the Festival — even though he
likes being surprised by unknown bands, schedule a big name for entertainment for
Friday or Saturday night. Having an attraction or act that is big would attract more
people.
Highkin would like staff and 2 or 3 commissioners to serve on a committee in regards to
the 30th Festival year. Smith asked if anyone who would like to serve on the committee?
Wright nominated Soderberg, J. Hall and Medina.
Minutes
Parr motioned to accept the minutes of June 22, 2005 and Benyshek seconded. Motion
passed.
Staff Reports
Soderberg asked about the minor revisions that were mentioned regarding Horizons.
Highkin - after the last Horizons review we talked about revisions that need to happen so
Benson and Highkin reworded the applications to reduce the redundancy of questions and
added a box for applicants to explain the project summary. Highkin — there has been
discussion about bringing Charlotte Talbert, Denver, to help with revisions for the
Horizons review process. Larson — ask for explanation of the number on First Treasures.
B. Hall — if we have artwork leftover we return the items to the artists. B. Hall — this has
been our largest year regarding donations and more children participated than other years.
Executive Director Report
Highkin mentioned the articles in the Salina Journal regarding public art and thought for
the most part they put forth the effort to address positive publicity. Gail Goldman lead a
4 '/z hour session with the CA&D committee. She also met with several city
administrators and commissioners. Goldman received a sense from each of them of what
they want from public art. Medina commented he left the meeting with strong positive
feeling that public art in Salina is moving in the right direction. Medina would like to see
more education for the public. Soderberg commented that the meeting was very
productive — Gail is extremely gifted in interpreting information and how we can make it
better. Highkin and Goldman meet with Jason Gage for 1 '/z hours and it was very
productive. Jason values public art and believes that Salina needs public art. Medina —
CA&D members have been on the committee for 5 or more years — believes the
committee has a path to move forward. Benyshek — are the points of the meeting going
to be shared with the SAHC Commission? Yes — Highkin and Medina said that the
details of the CA&D meeting will be brought to the commission at a later date.
Highkin — staff will be working forward from Goldman's report and then the commission
will be brought in for discussion.
Highkin- briefly discussed the progress of the Museum renovation.
Highkin and Benson attended the USD#305 board meeting for support of the Arts
Infusion program. There is a line item budgeted for $15,750 for Arts Infusion. Highkin
praised Benson on her presentation to the board. Budget is normally finalized by the end
of August or September.
Lori Brack will be presenting Horizons workshops on July 28 — 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. and
July 29 — 9:00 to 11:30 a.m. Highkin asked Commissioners if they know of anyone who
would be interested building an art component to please have them sign up for one of the
sessions. September 11 is the potential date for a Horizons picnic with the developing
artists — will be very low key but enjoyable. Anyone interested in helping organize the
event? DeBey and Benyshek volunteered. Looking at Kenwood Park for the location.
Commission
Smith explained the process of interviewing the three potential commissioners. One
candidate could not make the meetings at 4:00 but could at 4:30 — realizes this would be
overtime for staff but feels 4:30 meetings would accommodate the majority of the
commissioners. Larson, J. Hall, and Benyshek suggested this time would be better for
them, too. Parr motioned to change the time to 4:30 p.m. with or without nominated
candidates starting with September's meeting. Motion passed.
Cooper — committee met twice to pare the potential list to 3 individuals. The three
candidates are (1) Ted Zerger - who has taught for a number of years and has been
involved with a number of activities through the community; (2) Rachael Loersch — has
been involved with the Festival for 15 years — needed the meeting time moved because
she is a teacher; (3) Randy Hardy — filled out "expressions of interest form." The
committee laid out the parameters. When visiting with Ted and Rachel they both
expressed how thrilled they would be to have the opportunity to serve as commissioners.
Highkin interviewed Hardy. Highkin had concern with losing two commissioners that
had construction background and thought Hardy would be a good replacement. Hardy
has a construction related business — Highkin was interested geographically where Hardy
works and lives and that he has good contact with community involvement. Talking with
staff there was expressed interest in having a potential commissioner who understands the
Festival — Rachael's name came up — she teaches school at Sunset and has a strong reach
to under -served families. Rachael lives outside the city limits. Ted is an interesting
community builder and has a strong academic background. Benyshek — what's the next
step? Smith will call Debbie Divine and send a letter of recommendation. In September
we would have three new commissioners. Highkin will lead an orientation for new
commissioners, student liaison and City Commission liaison to familiarize them with all
the SAHC programs. Highkin thanked Cooper for the leadership and the committee for
all their hard work. J. Hall motioned to accept the three candidates and DeBey seconded.
Motion passed. Smith — reminder this is not a done deal until they have been appointed.
Executive Committee met to discuss the slate of new officers. The committee's
recommendation is Larson for Chair, Moore for Vice President, Cooper for Secretary,
Parr as Treasurer and Smith as Past Chair. Benyshek motioned to except the
recommendation and Davis seconded. Motion passed.
Smoky Hill Museum
A lot of activity has been taking place throughout the gallery. Harris shared more
information that has happened after the Museum report was submitted. Next week staff
will be running around getting things cleaned and installing artifacts for the opening on
August 2"d. Some setbacks have pushed the schedule back a bit. Problems with the air
conditioning and refinishing the hardwood floors had held up the progress. The floor will
be finished tonight. All sections of the project should be complete by the end of the year
and a grand opening will be scheduled for the new year. The Museum will have about
750 objects and 600 photos and graphics that tell the region's story in 16 sections. Some
of those sections will include a flour mill, architecture, education, religion, American
Indians and natural landscape. Harris presented the first draft of labels. Staff wrote the
description of the labels and Michael Gutierrez designed them. J. Hall asked Harris if the
Museum will be laminating the labels. Harris — yes, now that we have the capabilities.
Susan Hawksworth does the production on laminating and the printing. The leaves for
the Oak tree are being inspected for terrorists but the tree has been delivered. Putting the
leaves in the tree will be time consuming. Mill work was not completed on time (due
date was July 13) so with help from Shawn O'Leary this will be done by August 12.
Getting the mill work completed has been the biggest problem so it has put the timeline
of the opening further away. Floor is a light color and makes it look a lot lighter.
The strategic report doesn't have many changes because of the renovation. DeBey — will
the renovation be ready by Santa Fe Day? No, but it will be ready to open by the end of
the year. Soderberg — sneak peak? Harris — nothing has been scheduled yet but when a
few more things are done the staff is considering a sneak peak for Friends of the Museum
— calling it a donor recognition party. Grand opening will be announced later in the fall.
Store will be opened on August 2"d
Other
Smith recognized the three commissioners whose terms end August 31, 2005. Smith
recognized Soderberg for serving as a commissioner for six years; she has been a leader
as a chair, Horizons leader and has great knowledge of our community. She has been a
tireless volunteer served with enthusiasm and a lot of class. J. Hall served eight years as
a commissioner - finished a term for someone else plus two terms. J. Hall has spent
countless hours working on the past Festivals. He has construction knowledge, asks
difficult questions, and it's so obvious he loves the arts in Salina. Medina served for 6
years. He is a leadership man — chair for Commission CA&D, finance committee. He
has a strong vision for the arts and also has a strong knowledge of construction. Grant
meetings without Medina and Hall's calculators will be missed. Smith presented
engraved pens to the three commissioners. Smith is honored to have served with all three
and each has helped through all the transitions of SAHC. Highkin also thanked the three
in making his first year enjoyable.
The meeting was closed for the foundation meeting.
/kab