Hi everyone. Seeing that it's six o'clock, my name is Angela Mills. I'd like to welcome you to a meeting of the town of Ammeris Public Arts Commission. Um, this meeting is taking place via Zoom due to the suspension of the continuing suspension of certain open meeting laws by the governor Mora
Healey. This meeting is being recorded and will be up uploaded to our Town of Ammerst YouTube channel by our wonderful IT staff in the next 7 to 10 days. Um, at this time I would like to thank our chair Tom Wger and turn the meeting over to Tom and noting that as of yet we do
not have quorum. Okay, thank you Angela. Okay, so quorum will be four. Um, we have now six members.
Uh the quorum rule counts against the authorized number of members which is seven. Okay. Oh Tom, I just wanted to note for you now that you're host Lori Freriedman's looks like she might be in the attendee
room. Can you pull her over as a panelist? That would be great. Hello, Matt. How's it going? Okay. How are you? Oh, pretty good. Trying to stay cool.
Yeah, it's a challenge. Lori, can you hear us? Tom, do you want me to try and bring her over for you? Oh, there she is. She's in. Yeah. Or she's raising her hand. Okay. I think if you tap on the right side of
her name, it'll give you the option to bring her in as a panelist. I'm here now. Okay, there you are. Okay. And I know that we have one more person waiting waiting room. We'll have
a section of the meeting that will be open to um the public participants. Okay. All right. We've got a quorum now. We're still hoping that Dara will join
us. Okay, let's get started. Uh what I'd like to make uh first item of um the agenda for our session is to welcome two new members
and um that's TR Rosenberg and Matt Watkins. Uh it's their first meeting. They've gone through all the bureaucratic requirements to get signed up legally just as we all have. Um, so I'd like um
I'd like each of you to uh to introduce yourselves uh to us few sentences and then we'll we'll do the same for you. So TR, could I ask you to start? Sure. I I've um I've lived in Amherst since 1972.
Um and uh I'm a retired transpersonal psychotherapist. was also a professor for a while local community colleges. Um, and uh I'm a grandparent now and I have
a wonderful life. We'll we'll try not to ruin it here. I I I guess about art I could say that I do have a I I do have a degree in in fine arts and fine art painting. So that was part of my draw here to this and and
I was a professional artist for a while back but I gave it up when I was 30 years old. Mhm. Um deciding to make money instead of dedicate my life to being artist. Yeah. As I recall from the interview, you've done quite a number of different
things. I have. Okay. Well, thank you. Matt, would you give us a little introduction? Sure. Uh, I'm Matt. I've lived in Ammerst for only two and a half years
now. Came in the fall of 2022. Um, my background I'm mostly in video as an animator and director, but I just left um a career in in tech as a creative director. So, I spent a lot of time working with designers. And in fact, I I
told Tom on the interview, we had a number of projects that were trying to collaborate with public arts councils in Cambridge and other folks. So, got to see the process from the other side a little bit. Um, but I spend a lot of my free time hanging out with artists, musicians, and working on music videos
and live performance projects. So, um, was looking for a way to get involved in the community. Well, I think you've come to a place where you can probably do that. Welcome. Thank you.
So, I Tom Warner, chair of the the commission. I'm just beginning my second three-year term. I've been chair for a little over a year, I think. And um I too am retired. Uh
I was originally a professor of French literature and uh then spent jeepers almost 30 years uh doing um higher ed um information technology management and
worked at I guess over over 80 colleges 81 colleges and universities prep schools over that time. Some of my favorite projects were art connected. So uh I was on the project that built
the uh five colleges um museums collection database worked uh at when I was at Binmar College worked with the art history department when um man a long scrubble to to convince
them that uh digital images were going to blow away their code of chrome slides but eventually it did. So, I'm really just sort of a a professional bureaucrat um with, you know, one toe in the water
on on on art. Um probably chaired a 100,000 committee meetings and I wish at some point I w learned how to do it well. Um but uh I do enjoy working in this group here. Lori, would you would you go next?
Sure. I'm Lori Freriedman. I've been in Ammerst since I guess 1994. Um, prior to that I was in New York City and before that uh in San Francisco I um up until moving to this area I was in
the art business, director of an art gallery in New York City before coming here and prior experience in an auction house and in museums. Um, and since being in Ammerst, I've had two
kids and raised them here and I did some um curating uh at very at different museums and nonprofit spaces and then went back and got a master's in business and I've had various endeavors to make a
living here in Ammerst and I'm currently um doing development for Jewish family service at Western Mass. nothing to do with art. I'm working in the area of refugee resettlement, but I still have a couple of art clients that I do some consulting for.
Thank you. And I've been uh with this group uh on the commission for three years. Thanks, Lynn. Hi, I'm Lynn Thompson and I've been an ammer since 1985, so quite a while. Uh
my sort of formal training is in fine art and print making specifically, but I've worked as a graphic designer for a long time at UMass. Um while I was at UMass, I was on their arts council for about 20 years. So I sort of familiar
with how um that worked. And um I recently retired and really was looking for a way to get back into you know being part of the arts. So that's kind of why I joined and I've been a member since February. I'm the last new member.
Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Welcome. Okay. All right. Let's um let's get some and D. Darra, are you here? Yeah, I'm here. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see you.
That's okay. Um I'm Dara Bara Dixon. I've been here since like Lynn since 1985 because I came here to work. I almost live my whole life I've lived where I had to go to work. So that's why I'm here. But I also always wanted to live
in New England. I'm from Louisiana. And uh I had a dream my whole life after I was probably a late teenager to live up here. So when there was a good job up here, I really hoped I'd get it. and
I've lived here since then and um I my work is almost always in poetry and fiction writing but I have been associated with other community art projects that do visual art of all kinds
and also performance art and other kind of ways that people like to make art. And um I I think public art is a really good good place to be because it is a place where people are actually thinking
about putting really good art out in front of audiences who sometimes are not necessarily even looking for art, but because it's in in the path they take to
work or near the school they work and go to have a chance to see pieces of art of all different kinds. And I think the public art commission has I've been this is my second term on it. And it's very exciting to me that it has seemed to
come alive in the last three year last year and especially in the last year and a half. And it makes me really happy to see the quality of thinking and and ambitions that people have for the
commission now. And so it's very good to meet two new members tonight too. So that's me. Okay. Thank you. And so in addition to presenting yourself, you've also given a very nice kind of mission statement for
for the group what what we uh aspire to be about. Okay. Let's let's get some bureaucratic work done here. So, I'm going to try sharing my screen. So, by the way, folks, I've got a a new computer and I've switched uh extenders,
so I hope I don't cut out the way I was doing so badly uh last time. Okay, so we just take a look at the today's agenda. Pretty simple. We've introduced new members. Um I'll talk about some of the backlog
that we've had at uh town hall. And I think then probably the most of the rest of the meeting we'll be talking about uh percent for art project picking up where we were uh last time. So that's what um
I'm foreseeing for the meeting here. And um so if we take a look at the minutes from last time, which I sent out about this time yesterday, um I've hope I hope you've had a chance
to look through them, about page and a half. Our new members are excused from from this particular chore. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes. Okay.
A second. The second. Do we have any discussion about this? Nope. Okay. Would all all uh in favor of approving the minutes, please uh say I. I. I. Okay. That sounds like we're passed
and we can put these away. Thank you. Yeah. I'm not seeing anything on the screen other than just your sort of task bar, the tabs. I'm not seeing a document.
And I don't see Lori. Do y'all see? I see everybody. Are people able to see a document on the screen? No, just a tab. Just a taskbar at the top.
I think you have to make this the whole screen visible. There you are, Lori. Is that any better? No. No. Well, you know, I don't have any more
documents to show and I'll take the next four weeks to figure this out. So, I'm going to stop the screen sharing here. I'm I'm sorry. As the person with nominal IT background, you'd think I'd be able to do some of this stuff, but uh
it always proves to be a a challenge. Okay. So, we were talking last week about the position of uh project director for the
percent for art project. Um, I did uh get a response from Angela this afternoon on follow-up email um asking to to meet with me so that she
could share some of the thoughts that have come from the from the HR department about it. So, as I've said before, uh I'm not going to proceed unilaterally on this. I will hear what she has to
tell me, take notes, and then send you all an update on it. Um I'm frankly a little bit concerned that it hasn't moved faster and wondering whether there are issues
um that we don't know about here. But uh I hope to find that out in a day or two. Um we also talked about uh la last time about uh coming up with nominees
for the jury committee, the percent for art uh advisory committee. And I think we've uh I think one of the things one of the steps we concluded at the end of that
was that we would like to uh explore putting up uh a public call where people could submit uh applications to be on that committee. My observation is that we've got a pretty fair number, pretty good start on
the professionals, art professionals, but um really don't have uh names or a good process to come up with nominations of people who might be parents or just
other interested parties in u uh you know in in the town. So, I think maybe we could talk a little bit more about that at this at this session. Um, I'm waiting. I I sent Paul Buckleman a
note asking for his advice and effectively his approval to put up a form of that kind on the town's website. And I've not heard back on that. Um, Angela said she'd try to expedite
getting an answer for that, too. So, I'll try to find out some more uh tomorrow on that, but if we have other or different ideas, um, we there's still time for us to consider those. And then lastly, I thought that maybe we
could spend some time today thinking about uh key elements that would go into a call for art for the elementary school. And um
I think there's going to be quite a bit to consider there. Maybe some more research to do too. Yeah. So, is there any more to say about where the
work that would lead to hiring a project manager is right now? I don't know where. Yeah, that was the because that's who we need to help us any kind of call for art. Yeah, we can't do anything without a project
manager. Without the project manager. I agree. I I think you know we have some ideas but I think the project manager should be here with us when we start to talk about parameters for the project because it will be her job
to to move forward and and do any of the research that is involved that's needed. Yeah. Yeah. So how how or how is the job of project manager being defined? I was directed to fill out an online
town form to request creation of the position. Oh, could we see the form? Uh, yeah, that I'll I'll have to find have to find where is on the website background. That'd be great. Yeah.
You had sent us a document that desri that outlined the duties. Is that the So the form the form just has like three questions to to get started and then then there's a
sort of a uh an entry blank where they they want to know what the duties of the job are. And that was the document that I passed to everybody before last meeting and that we reviewed at at the last
meeting. So that has gone to the to the town's HR department. Okay. And my understanding is that they look at that and that do whatever things they do uh
in the background and then proceed with us to a fully developed job description that would have the qualifications for the job. um time timeline, you know, when does it
start, how long does it run, things of that sort, which are yet to be yet to be determined. So, that's what uh I'll be discussing with with Angela, who did meet with the town HR department, and she said she'd like to sit down and
discuss it with me. So, could one of could one of us volunteer to go with you to that? Sure. Sure. Okay. So, what I'll do is um I'll get in touch with Angel via email after our meeting, ask her to suggest a date and
time when she's available. Then I'll relay that to everybody. Great. Here. Thank you. Yeah. So Lori, going back to to what you were saying, yeah, I agree that that um
getting that project manager on board is is really pivotal and we shouldn't try to by implication from what you're saying shouldn't try to go too deep in specifying
the project. Yeah. Till we have that person. Yeah. Um, I think what might be useful though, see what you all think. What might be useful would be to do some discussion of
that in anticipation of possibly participating in um interviews with potential candidates. Uh, that I I imagine they would want to know something about what's, you know,
what's on our minds. I don't think we have to be definitive uh there and of course a suitable candidate will understand where we are and why we don't have and why um specifications and
why we want them to participate. Um who who is responsible for the hiring? Are we involved in that or is it the town? Well, you know, because I don't know, and again, this is, you know, we're first run through on the bylaws.
Um, I would think that the that the project manager would be would would be reporting to us. Well, yeah, reporting to us. But I'm wondering about the hiring.
The hiring. Well, again, I don't know, but I'd certainly want very much to insist that uh that either we make the se selection or that we make the recommendation if it needs to be if it
needs to be the town manager, but that we don't just sit back and and um hand off uh that that work. Oh, go ahead doc Darra.
Good question. Does do do TR and Matthew know the recent history of the percent for art that the commission has been involved in? Do do you all have a good sense of what we're talking about? I I do. Oh,
I have a little bit about it. Okay. Where did come from, Matthew? Just so I'll know what you read, you know, or saw. Um, I have two children in the Fort River School currently, so I'm aware of council's actions and the building project from that angle. And I did
review the previous month's meeting, so I understand pretty much. Yeah. Great. Thank you. And Tom, do you I mean, TR, do you have any questions about I'm I'm listening. I mean, I'm trying to understand what you're talking about.
Okay, great. Yeah. Um I would just just quickly um I think what you're what you're hearing TR and and Matt is that there there is there is
some tension around the project. Um, part of it has to do with uh the the fact that it's the first time it's the f this is the first run through on the town's percent for art uh bylaw and I
would say secondly there's some jockeying between advocates on the council who spoke up and voted very very strongly for the project and others who probably
represent uh some part of the their constituency as well who are concerned about the amount of money that's being spent uh on this. You know, it's it's the amount specified by the bylaw,
but I think there's some tension uh around that too. And I guess maybe a third thing to uh highlight here and I think you're hearing this in our conversation of the last few minutes is
that uh we really don't know where decision making is going to fall and how open and accessible to us uh those those processes are going to be. So, uh,
I don't have enough experience inside the town government to be able to inform myself with opinions about uh, uh, how that might come down. But uh I I think we
just in a sentence that uh our consensus is that we need to be at least very vigilant about it and probably the second sentence that we want to make sure we don't get uh elbowed out of it. As it is
the uh public art commission did not was not invited into the percent for art process until later than the bylaw uh presumed. So, we're playing catchup in in a number of ways here.
Okay, I'm talking too much. So, uh yeah, Lori had a comment. I did. I have some um concerns based on past experience. Um in the last three years when we when I
came onto this um commission, we we really didn't have much information about what had been done. prior by the commission prior and we came in where there was an active um
grant uh I think what was it called just um trying to remember the name of the grant but anyway it was um a $10,000 grant and um the people who were involved in it one was a a town planner who then left
the town and I don't even know who the new town planner is and that was probably. So that was probably 2 and 1/2 years ago and then someone one of the commissioners there were no more commissioners left on the commission who were engaged in it and we tried to keep
it going so that we could keep the money and do the project but um it was for public art and we tried to work with the town. We did everything we could and we lost the funding because we couldn't
couldn't get um the town and everyone on board in a timely matter to meet what was required by the grant. So, um, my concern at this point and also now
that the town came to us at a later date than what is, you know, in the bylaw and, you know, they they definitely showed up in terms of getting it to the council and our voting on it. And I think that went well, very well. Um, but
I'm concerned that you've you've submitted something to them and you haven't heard back. The hiring of this position is key. It's key for us to be able to move forward. We're not experts. We're hiring an expert. That's what the
money's there for. So, I am um I'm cons concerned. I don't know. I I think we need to know who in the town is involved, who's who which town planners going to be involved in this. You know,
which key people on the, you know, who are town employees are going to be on this project. So, I'm hoping that in your meeting with Angela and then hopefully with with the town manager, you'll be able to kind of nail
this down. I I I would hate to see this drag out for months and get, you know, I I really hope that we can move forward. Yeah. I think come and I don't need to I I don't mean to be a naysayer. It's just the experience I've had and I think we'd have to be
squeaky wheels. Oh, I think that you're accurate and really I think as a commission we need to say as a group that we need to know X, Y, and Z. and ask for it to be delivered to us in
a way you know like we can ask for that. Are are there any existing known milestones with regards to the project when like essentially anything drop dead where it's like we must have X by X or
is that up to us to establish? Well, I mean, you're you're shaking your heads, but at some point, the school will be in a place where it's not ready to accept a construction project for public art or whatever the case may be. So, I think there probably is a hard out.
Well, because we um were bought in so late to the process, whatever art is installed will will likely be installed after the school is built and finished. And um but I think it's very important
while the process is happening for us to get this going so that we can be in conversation with the architect and the builder and um but there's not a specific timeline. We are not because of
the our being brought in at this the late date the artwork work needs to exist be placed um within the parameters of the building. It's it can't be like set into
a wall. It has to work with what's already there. So there's going to be no changes to the building to accommodate whatever the artwork is. Which means the deadline's a little bit amorphous but I think we need to work with the
consultant that we hire to create real deadlines and that would will require the research also working with you know all the different people who are involved in this this whole project and we've been very much on the sideline of
it until this vote came up and and went through. I think one thing we do have in um in our favor with regard to time is that the funding is not bound by time. It's
not the situation that we normally face with a grant. This is a line item in the construction project. Uh so but uh one of the things that Paul Bachelman said after the
um council decision, you know, the next time I had email with him was that that he would he wanted to get back to working on timeline for this. Um and so that's I'm I'm I've just added
that here in my notes as something. We want to know the people who are going to be involved. We want to know the process. We want to know the timeline for it. These are basic things that we need to know in order to see that it gets carried out and also to have our
our part in managing it. Darra, I'm just curious about where the numbers came for the column called duration on the page that you gave us. Percent for art proposed process. Yeah. Oh, I just I just sort of guessed at those.
Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And I think also, Matthew, one of the things we talked about on the way to uh meeting with the council was that we liked the idea of being able to have
participation by teachers, parents, and some of the students at the school. And for that to be meaningful, it can't be a token. It has to be integrated in some kind of curriculum stuff that's real.
And I think that that will take time too, just like it's going to take for all the other work to to happen. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's really meaningful. I think that was something I was going to suggest after listening to the conversation last month is um no one
mentioned elementary school teachers or students on the call as being a part of the advisory committee and I think there's two current elementary school teachers that will be moved to that building when it opens. I forget what the date is. I'm sure that
it'll be later than we expect, but it's forecast for fall of 2026. Yeah. I mean, my my feeling is having worked on a lot of projects where there's a lot of gaps is we have actually quite a bit of information. We know when the school is about to be
done. We know the amount of money we have. We know what we need, which is a consultant/ project manager. We know who we need to talk to. And it's a matter of kind of getting those responses from them and getting input from the right people.
But I so I have some experience as a project manager and I think you could start to put in uh an outline of a timeline which you've done. But I think you could get a lot more granular and start to say and I think this is actually a line item on the agenda which is assigning things
to people not just on the council but probably to members of the the town government as well. And I was looking at the the bylaw. It offers a pretty broad license for what we're responsible for on the council. Yeah, that's been both a blessing and a
curse for us, but let's take it positively. Yeah, I think you got to own the space too a little bit. Yeah, I I'm hoping too by just to insert a thought here. Um, you go back to the tensions business. We're we're going to
hear a number of times a number of different people that gee this is an awful lot of money etc etc. Um and one of the things I think we want to say uh in that
uh context is that's all the more reason for us wanting to be very organized and insistent on having a suitable project manager for it at a suitable time.
Um, this is this is, you know, by far the biggest piece of public art that Amorest has ever seen and was likely to see for a very long time. We want to get this right. And um, I think that's that's an
argument we can use if we start hearing uh, nickel and dime complaints about do you really need a a project manager? Do you really need this? Do you really need that? Do you re do you think that might be questioned? I think I anticipate that
they could be I think I think that's possible and I think we need to be um just as when we appro appear before the council we need to have some well formulated thoughts on how we think things should be done and we should be
ready to step forward and articulate them effectively and I think we can take some some uh confidence from what we were able to do in that setting there in the council. Okay.
Um I'll just add that while we um you know are are waiting and working to put together what we need to to hire a project manager we did we do need to put together a an advisory committee a percentage for advisory committee which
has been happening at the same time. And um you mentioned um someone from Fort River, the we mentioned an art teacher and someone recommended that we contact the high there's I guess a coordinator
of the art program for the schools and so it was recommended we contact them and then they may either be a person who of interest or would know someone who is. Um Tom and I have met two potential
people to be part of that advisory committee. Um and we have a few other names. So we have been working on that. And if you know if you have thoughts about people you know who have a home in the Fort River school that that's
probably an area that we didn't haven't really had access yet to add. Do do we is is there a teacher from the school on the committee list the names we had we had names from uh last at the
last meeting from Mikey Cutting. Uh I've put together I put together a list but I was also I didn't share it here in this meeting because I was looking at Darra's concerns about us bandandying about the names of people that we haven't even
talked to, you know, and having that be on the public record. So that's I don't know what to do with that walking that tight rope there. But I I would say that as I as I mentioned earlier, um we've got more leads on professional
people. The two that Lynn and I talked to were we're were professional uh people and uh you know professor from Ammerst College and the curator of the university's museum.
But we're we're just beginning to to address the question of coming up with names of of of parents. I would I would put the I think I think we're in a position too where we can
um uh we can we can decide uh about about the teachers to include. What I'm kind of stumbling over is that the bylaw says that there are to be art professionals and then others and
there's to be a majority of art professionals. So, and then unspoken but looming over this is how big is the committee going to be? Oh, that's been specified. Huh. Yeah, we we need to again we need Paul
Bachelman to give us a number. Well, you need Yeah. Yeah. might be all right to make a recommendation. Yeah. And I was going to suggest you mentioned some way of capturing names or volunteers on the town council. Is there
a reason we couldn't do that with a a Google form and then open it to even to the point of not saying people's names aloud, but open it to nominations as well. Whereas I could use the form to nominate
an elementary school art teacher and then we would take up the information after and see if they're even interested. Yeah. I I have a feeling too that once there are people who are being seriously considered for the committee, we need to
see CVS and we need to see a page anyway for them to say why what they see their role in being on the committee doing and being like not it's it's not exactly a job
application, but it is a statement of purpose in a way of why they want to be and are suitable for the committee because it's big job. Yeah. Um the the day after our June
meeting, I sent out this little flurry of emails to you all, including a draft of some questions that would go on that form there. But to to to your point, Darra, uh I I agree that uh I don't think we'd
be making decisions based on a few one-s sentence answers. We'd like to see like to see something more and we'd like to be able to um again for the future as well as for the good of this project have a good
process, right? And a good and set a good standard for it. So, this isn't just people we happen to know. That's right. It was your point last time or one of your points at our last meeting. Uh,
yeah, that's good. Thank you. So, if people would look um look for that email after the meeting and I'll I'll I'll go back and send it again and uh if you give me a quick uh some quick reactions, I can then go ahead and ask
uh ask the town IT department to put up a put up a form uh for us. So you do like a Google form and then we could direct people to that if there was someone you wanted someone they could you could
direct them to that. Yeah. And I think Yeah. If you if you have a list of names already, I think it would be appropriate to ask them if they're willing to be considered it publicly.
Yeah. Okay. I'd also go to to uh Matt's uh suggestion that you know we can we can blend uh nominees that we've researched ourselves with those received through a
public call. Put them all essentially this is these are my words now. put them all into one pool that we would then draw from to make a list of recommended uh members.
Yeah. When we met with Jennifer uh Lind a couple of weeks ago, she actually also kind of nominated the same person that uh Terry had mentioned, Lorenzo. I'm not sure um who's the gallery coordinator. Gallery director at Hampshire.
Yeah. So, I thought that was interesting. She just came up with the same name. So, it seems like he's somebody to follow up with. Yeah, that's that'll be a followup. I guess one of the things that came up at the town meeting was that we needed to involve the colleges. So, that's kind
of why we're kind of started there. That was, you know, comments from the council members. What was the reason given for wanting to involve the colleges? Just out of I'm new here and I'm curious. I I think and
this is just my my reading of of the tea leaves there was was just the thought that well you know we happen to be a college town we've got these resources on these campuses faculty art professionals etc. uh just I think it
just seemed like due diligence. I think that was the implication not that we would and but not that we would be asking the formal participation of the institution but just tapping people resources at them and to go back
again to something you you mentioned uh Matt uh before while we did not discuss in involvement of of uh art teachers or students at the council meeting we had discussed that pre uh previously within
the um within our group within the commission here. Uh Mikey Cutting who uh just cycled off the the commission has worked inside the schools for many many
years and she a number of times reminded us that we should look to the resources inside the schools and also the uh the representation that they could they could give. So, um
there are a lot of unfinished thoughts and avenues to purs pursue around this. Um what I'd like to do um since I've noticed that there is a person in the waiting room, I'd like to pause for a moment and u and and bring her in. Uh
again, the rule here is for public participation is that uh we're not supposed to be um we're not supposed to be engaging in a dialogue but but are to listen to the
um to the thoughts that the person wants to share with us. So at this stage this is uh uh Pamela Rooney and um going to invite her in here.
Okay. Promote to panelist. Okay. Pamela, are you able to to to hear us to join us? I see her. She's on mute. Looks like she's coming up. Um, I can see her on this.
We'll do both. Okay, it worked. Welcome. It's It's always a It's always a mystery how this all happens. uh Pamela Rooney, 42 Cottage Street, and I have appreciated your conversation about sort
of the formation of the the advisory committee, but that's not what I weighed in on. Um, I have been having several conversations with people uh in North Ammerst who are particularly interested in a project that was proposed to
represent uh one of the founding uh industries in North Ammerst and that being a blacksmith shop. uh that there was a person that had done a fair amount of of
homework and some um design work even to create a sculpture of a sort that would represent the um the blacksmith shop literally on the
site where the North Ammeris Library now sits. And so I wanted to encourage you all to put that back on your agenda and to strongly support it um for the reasons stated. I think it just is a
really neat representation and would be a very a very visible um um attribute I guess for the history trail that they're trying to create in North Ammerst. So it would be one stop
of many uh that would help connect us to what happened and what what North Ammerrist was like you know in the early days of our settlement and presettlement even. So that was the reason for that's the reason for weighing in. I hope you bring that back
up and I hope you can help move that project along. I guess it's it's in your hands as I understand it to um to help make that happen, move to the next step. Secondly, just having been listening to
your conversation about the the advisory committee, um I have a draft charge for a committee. I I I honestly don't know if you are expected to create this draft of of you
know what the charge to the committee will be for creating the public art at the Fort River School, but I'm happy to send you um the basic format and template for a charge. You know, the committee is supposed to do
this. This is this is what they're expected to produce. Uh here are the number of members. uh this is the makeup of the committee. So I'd be happy to share that with with any or all of you if it's at all helpful. Um it
listening in on your conversation made me aware that um what appeared to be just sort of move ahead and you know go out for go out for bids for designs and proposals is is not exactly the easy
solution that I thought it was. So, I appreciate the work and the thought that you're putting into it. Um, I think I think that's that's sort of it, but anyway, wanted to encourage you
on both aspects. Thank you. Thank you very much for your your time and thought. Um, I'm happy I'm happy to engage, but I know you're not supposed to engage. Okay. Um, as chair, I'll take the liberty of saying I'd like to get in get
back in touch with you on both of these topics. Okay. Okay. And and uh just as a response to one of your earlier comments, now that the c now that the council has voted, they voted the full amount for the the
percent for art, um there should be no question that that money is available for that project. So, I would not I would not be I would not be concerned about that. What I suspect is that you would want to
um you would probably want to put a a decent budget together on, you know, what percent of that of that money is going to be the project manager, what is going to be the actual art, what is going to be the installation part of it, you know, that kind of thing. So, but
but I I honestly don't believe that anybody will ever try to pull that money back from you. So, don't go there. Thank you. Thank you very, too. Thank you. I'm going to go have dinner. Yeah. Okay. Bye.
Bye. Okay. Um, we have about um about 10 minutes left on the on the clock. If you don't mind, I'd like to turn to the to the topic of maybe dividing up some tasks
uh here for for us to take on. Um try to get some work done that way on an individual basis um between meetings. uh focusing on uh the the current
current topics we've got and things we can anticipate. So, um Dary, you had some thoughts on that. Uh do would you feel comfortable sharing what you some of what you shared with me? Uh I'm not I don't have my email in
front of me, so maybe if you do, you could remind me what I talked about. Okay. Um you made the very good suggestion that um we might want to
divide up uh you know the work and I I don't have the email right in front of me but um I will um I I'm going to look for it right now. I think the work was responding to uh
your email that you where you listed a series of projects that you were interested Okay. having done. Yeah. So, I was looking at things like um an inventory of public art. Yeah.
In in Ammerst. And by the way, we have a um uh Mikey and I worked on a spreadsheet uh which I I have shared in the past and we'll we'll send again now um that at least you know gives
gives some basic information about what it is, when it was created, where it is etc etc. Um so that would be that would be a project um with a couple of benefits. Uh one of them being that the
town does not have an inventory of public art. And um secondly, we need to update uh the public art commission's website where there's a tour of public art in
Ammerst, including some things such as the Hope and Feathers Art Gallery that aren't here anymore as So there's kind of a logistical uh thing to do to do there.
Um, can you put those tasks in the form of a a chart or something and then we can Yeah. Yeah, let's do it that way. And then see sort of volunteer as we see. Um, okay. Yeah, I think that sound that sounds
that sounds good. Uh, rather than me trying to rack my mind for them offhandedly here. Um I I I will mention that uh I had the thought that at some point
ideally in the next few months we should have a little bit more open agenda. Not that we're going to have nothing to do on the percent for art project, but if we get uh the percent for art
committee and the and the project manager uh created, we perhaps don't need all one hour, you know, all 60 minutes of each meeting hour on this. And so what would what would we what would we put
bring to our agenda as newer items? And on that line, one thought I've had is that can we do some thinking ahead about something less formal than a quote
unquote master plan, but some forward thinking about places and around town and types of art. So that when we get things like the horseshoes project that
uh our guest mentioned that we have a framework of thinking. Maybe not decisions or tight or regulations or prescriptions but uh that we get away from where we
are now. where is uh you know project by project whether we're proposing it or somebody in town steps forward with it. You know there's really no context for how does this fit into the art scene the art
interests around town. So anyhow that's more than I intended to say but that's the kind of thing I hope we'll get a chance to talk about. Oh, and then we also need to knock off that finish that um mission and policies document that we
spent so much time on and we came very very close and then I lost the notes on what were the to be the last u changes to it. So may I'll put that in the charts for anybody wants to take one look last
I'm not familiar with you just called it the horseshoes project. I I've I'm not familiar at all with what called um may may have happened before you came on board. It was want of a nail. Can you send any send any information
you have about that to us newer guys? I don't Yes, I I will. I'll send it. Yes, I will. In fact, I just uh pulled that out of a deep stack of paper here on a on a desk. the original proposal and then I can send some of the um
some of the documentation for what our discussion about it was in I believe if I remember correctly we left off where we asked for more information from the artist and didn't re we are waiting to receive it and I think that's where we um
so there isn't an existing piece of art there's something to be no there's just a design a design And uh you know without without getting too too much deeper into it here what what the artist had done was she come up with the idea and she she
shopped it around town but didn't really go to all the places that you would think would be part of a a standard for on boarding public art. So the design the
um design board which likes to evaluate public art that's going to be visible from the street didn't contact them. DPW public works which would need to uh which would be responsible for the
long-term care of it. uh the the historical society not con not not um not consulted there. So, but I was I'll send that back. Uh I think I do agree that with uh Pam Rooney
that it'll be good to get it back on our agenda and it was part it was one of the reasons that launched us on the on the mission and policies document because we were acutely aware that you know we didn't have good answers. We had some
misgivings about the project but didn't have policy to stand on. And I I don't mean to sound so ven venal about it. It was it was that you know there hadn't been thinking or or
understandings or or guidance available for somebody who even if she had stepped forward at the outset rather than coming in at the very last moment to us. It's a long-winded way of saying uh there there's there's a story there and it uh
it twisted our tail for a number of meetings. Okay. All right. So, as a followup, I've got some things that I've noted to send you. Uh Matt, did you have Yeah, sort of related. I was curious if there's a a central way of accessing documents
related to public art. Um yes. Yes. including like minutes and um things that you're talking about like a spreadsheet of tasks that would need to be completed I think. Yeah. Yeah. I'll again I'll I'll send
everybody both for the folks who are new and as a reminder for the rest of us where these where these can be found. And uh there are there are a number of things in scattered places on the town's
uh in the town's electronic records that could be pulled together into one uh under under the banner. I think they can all be public uh publicly accessible too. So that would be great.
Okay. Um do we have any um last thoughts or questions? Um as we get down we're getting now down to the the seven. Well, do we have some next steps for amassing this
uh percentage for advisory committee? Um, yeah, I will send the draft questions that I came up with for the online form and if you all individually just send back any comments or
suggestions, I'll take those forward to ask Angela to have a have the form created so that that all comes back to um a central and official place. Those will come back to the to the
commission's um email address. I was wondering with the schools, do they have I mean, they must have like a newsletter that goes out to parent or something. It seems like you could get like a little blurb saying, you know, we're looking for parents interested in this and direct once the once we've got
the once we've got the the form online, that's get people to Yeah, exactly. And if there's a parent teacher association, I would I would think that would be another avenue to publicize the
availability of that form. have something like that for September would be good. Yeah, I I live I live just a mile from Fort River, so I can go in uh again, I've had it in mind to do this, to go into the Fort River School
and then into Wildwood, introduce myself, talk with uh talk with administrators and and faculty who who would be available, teachers who be available and uh collect some thoughts
uh from them too unofficially, informally. thoughts just gathered to share with you. Okay. You want a motion to adjourn? Yeah, I'd love that. Okay. Okay. We have a motion. I have a second.
I second. Okay. Everybody who does not want to stay here all night, please say I. Hi. Hi. Nice to meet you, Matthew. Thank you all. Thank you. do. Okay. Nice to meet you.
See you soon.