Okay. This is a recording of a meeting of the Ammerst Public Art Commission on June 30th, 2026. Because of suspension of some certain open meeting laws by our governor, this group is able to meet via remote means
and our wonderful IT staff will upload this recording to the town of Ammeris YouTube channel within a week or so. At this time, I want to recognize our chair, Tom, and thank everybody for volunteering. >> Thank you, Angela.
>> Thank you. Have a great meeting. >> Thanks, Angela. >> Okay. Good evening, everyone. [clears throat] Well, as I say on YouTube, let's let's dive right in.
I'm trying. I got share settings. Okay, Tom, I made you host. If anything happens with your feed, just text me and we'll start it over. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
Okay. Can folks see my agenda on the screen? >> No. >> No. >> [clears throat] >> Are you trying to pull up the agenda right now? >> I am trying, but I downloaded a update
to Zoom and now I don't recognize >> what it's trying to trying to do. Do people have a copy? >> Yeah, copy. >> Let's do it that way. Let's just
read along on our own there. Okay. Okay. So, um I want to skip around a bit. uh in the agenda. Uh we'll start
as usual with the approval of minutes from from last time. Uh but the main things I'd like to do this evening, make sure that we do this evening are select um two APAC members to join
the advisory committee and make that a formal decision. I'd like to get um some thoughts on the Boltwood garage poetry boxes. Several of us paid a visit there a
couple of weeks ago. Um going to ask Matt to speak to that in a few minutes. Um also need to have us review the call for artists
for the electrical control boxes. And I think those are those are the major those are the items I' really like to get to. So let's let's look at the at the
at the minutes from May. And by the way, I um I should have figured this out before, but I realized that if you're listening to a lengthy podcast, if you crank the
playback speed up to like 180, it vastly improves the the re the playback of the meeting. [clears throat] >> Okay. Um I have a question just about where the online meeting documents
um with all those bullet points. >> Yeah. At the moment they're nowhere. They're >> okay. >> Um but when we when we finish these these minutes, they will go with the
minutes onto the uh town's website. Okay. So, the things that are listed there, the contract for the poetry boxes, >> Yeah. >> the draft specification, those will be uploaded there. >> Yes. >> Okay.
>> Yeah. Yep. So, that's I think they called I think the label is meeting packet in the in the right margin when you're on the >> Yeah. >> APAC web page. >> Yeah, I see that.
>> Okay. Tom, isn't there a place though where they put um documents so that a person who's coming in from the public would have access to information that's going to be discussed at the meeting like the agenda? I I thought I thought
that that was part of like on our on the public art commission's web page. I think it says when the next meeting is and I thought this stuff was sort of there because doesn't that have to be made available to the general public who might want to
>> Yeah, it's supposed that's the meeting packet that's supposed to be all presented agenda and accompanying documents. So, they they'll have to shoot me over this one, but um that's the way it's supposed to work.
>> Okay. >> I thought the minutes [clears throat] looked great. I didn't have any comments at all. >> Okay. >> Yeah. I wasn't I wasn't there, so it's very helpful to see it. Um Okay. >> So, thank you for who who drafted these.
They do they do look excellent. They're very easy to read. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. Are there other questions, comments on the minutes? Can I see >> make a motion to approve?
>> Okay. Thank you. And we got a second. Let's see a show of hands to accept. Okay, it is unanimous and I thank you all for that. Okay. So, going back to our agenda, [snorts]
um, in one sentence, the update on the town hall gallery is that we will have um, a new exhibitor beginning, I think, August 7th and
running two months. Really, really beautiful paintings. I'll send you and include in the meeting packet [snorts] um pictures from her exhibition. Uh and we have somebody lined up then
for October and November as well. So that's looking up. I'm going to >> Oh, one of those people the photographer. I remember you talked about the photographer. >> Yeah, the photographer is going to be is
going to be uh October, November. Megan, hello. >> Hi. >> Hi. Gang's all here. No, it's not not here. Lori's here. >> Well, no. Yeah, we're down. We're down a member, but >> down a member. Lori isn't here. Thank
you. [snorts] Okay. Um I don't know that there's an update on social media work. Um so let's go on to percent for art.
Um basically we need to decide which two of us will join the advisory committee for that project. I'm I'm not interested in I'm not going to do it. Um, Lynn has
been volunteering to do this for like a year and a half. Um, and we need Well, we need two people. We need two people for this. So, is there are there other people interested? Dave,
>> I'm definitely interested. I I know we talked a little bit just trying to get a clear sense of how that aligns with these meetings and if just getting a clear idea of the commitment because I definitely want to do it. Just want to make sure I can I have the capacity to
to be helpful. >> I nobody really knows the answer to that. However, I think the best because we're going through this for the first time, but I my best guess is that there will
be uh periods of flurry on this first to discuss and draft or help draft with Apac the uh call and specification of
what art we're looking for. Call to artists. I expect then there'll be a second flurry when uh proposals have come in and need to be reviewed and discussed.
>> Um I would not I would not be surprised to see that there could be you know 20 or more coming nationally given the size of this project. So there could be some real
some real heavy periods there and then weeks of nothing happening given given my life's work on committees. That's that's that's where I'd put my money if I were a betting person. I
>> mean I'd also be interested in um in doing it. You know, one thing we could do, David and Megan, is if the two of you were interested in tag teaming this, you
know, one covering for the other. Um, that would be a possibility. You mean like if one of us can't make a meeting? Is that >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. I mean, sure to have that
>> as an option if we need it and we have more more people than we need. So, >> but yeah, I'm I'm gonna go in blind. I'm saying allin. I have no idea what I'm betting on, but um >> Oh, we're we're glad you're a colleague
here. That sounds good. >> Okay. All right. Let's do that. And so Lynn, you're in. You're in, too. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Okay. All right. Oh. Um, can I have a
motion putting all of the preceding several sentences together that um >> I can make a motion that um representing APAC at the um percent for art advisory
committee will be Lynn Thompson as a full-time member and um David and Megan will either alternate or share co- co co-fill the second seat. [clears throat] >> Okay. Do we have a second for that?
>> Second. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Watkins. Okay. Um, show of hands to to to approve this this good. This is the way commissarat works. I don't think we've ever had a negative
vote. [laughter] [snorts] Okay. Thank you. Thank you everyone. I'll report that on to to Paul Bachman. I'm going to explain [clears throat] that uh Lynn is part of
the tribe of retired people has endless time and focus for this and [snorts] that David and Megan are part [clears throat] of the tribe that are keeping the world running and love this.
>> That's very generous. Thank you. this this this work but are levelheaded about Okay, got it. Okay. Um the um electrify Ammerst.
Um I'd like in a moment to take a look at the call for uh for artists. The background here is that we've been doing
um we've been doing up to five boxes uh a year. This year we have funding from the business improvement district to do two boxes. Um, and I'm suggesting that we cover a
third box and that these will be this will be interesting because these are in prominent positions downtown. One is out on the main common. Another is at the
um North Pleasant Street end of that little alley that goes between the tea house and the funeral home which is right across from the fire department and CVS and it's kind of half hidden in the
bushes there at the moment. Um [clears throat] and then the third uh I'm suggesting would be uh at the Amity Street parking lot that is next to
uh Ammeris Coffee and the cinema there. And it's it's right out on the sidewalk. It's a newish box in nice shape. And um so I think that that would make
three that leaves us that that is easier on our budget too as as we'll see in a minute. I think we're going to have to spend a little more money than we have in the past uh on these.
But um so the and the general timeline would be that we would put out that call as soon as this week if we agree on everything here and set
uh and give uh four weeks for people to turn in their proposals. Then we have a meeting. We'll use our August meeting to select the winners and then that will give us time this year to notify the winners
uh before the cold weather sets in which caught us last year when we were delayed for other reasons. Right. So, if you pull up the draft um
call, it's a 2026 call for for artists. So, I'm starting it off by saying [clears throat] that public art commission in partnership with the business improvement district is calling for artists to submit. I want I want to give them credit for, you know,
>> directly here for for stepping up very very nicely to uh to help us on on funding these and sponsoring. Um, and then I I try to use just one sentence
to talk a little bit about purpose here where I say, "These public artworks are intended to be beautiful and engaging, drawing residents and visitors to the town's center.
the from the bid's perspective. Uh I think this sentence I'm I'm confident this sentence represents their thinking. They their purpose is to help downtown businesses
draw people and they are not asking us to create advertising for those businesses. They believe that if these are compelling artworks in total, all of these boxes painted and already
and these new ones, that if it brings some some more people into downtown, whether they're Ammeris residents or visitors, that that's a good thing. I was tempted to get a little more wordy and put some more on there, but I
thought maybe maybe not. So, if you would all take a look at that paragraph and let me know if you've got any thoughts, suggestions. Yeah, I know that we when we were drafting our mission, you know, kind of our mission thing, we came up with some
language that talked a lot about public art and the value of public art. And uh it makes I I understand what you're saying with keeping it short, but I feel like there might be just something in there >> that speaks to the value of public art.
>> One more sentence. I want to I have to go back and kind of pull out that document and >> and look at it. Um >> so possibly just a little bit more. >> Okay. Okay. I think that'd be easy enough to do. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah. I like that idea. I think that could still be pretty short. One or two sentences max that just >> gets more at the mission. Um >> it also promotes us a little bit as public art commission. kind of what our
what our role is. >> But I'll I'll look, you know, tomorrow I'll look that up and and you know, send you a sentence or >> Yeah, that'll be good. That be >> And is this Oh, sorry. >> No, you go ahead, David. >> Is this the entirety of what applicants
will see or is there a second stage where if you know the more details? Yes. In >> terms second stage. second stage. Um, [clears throat] for example, we're going to need to break the news to them that two of these
boxes are pretty ratty with 20 years worth of um, not so much graffiti, but uh, you know, the remains of stuff that were glued to them. >> They're gonna have to get out the
scraper. Is it possible since we do know which box that there going to be three boxes? Is it possible to include a picture of the box and its location? Because if I as an artist, I might like to go to the site and actually see what it how what does it look like? What does
it feel? What's around it? Um it's so um >> it is very sight specific. And I remember when we talked about these last time, I can't remember if it was you, Lynn, who who went out and took some photographs and >> a part of our process which I thought was really fun was trying to match, you
know, the submissions with the locations. Um, so that was fun to do. But I agree that, you know, and I don't know where in the stage this comes, but if the artist is interested in a specific location, that might, you know,
play into their design or it might be something that we take into consideration when we make that those decisions. >> Yeah. You know, I wrestled with that when I was drafting this and I'm glad I'm glad you brought this up because
we we should talk it over together and see what decision we come to. I definitely agree that if I'm an artist thinking about one of these boxes, I'm very likely to be
to at least want to take into account where it is, what the background is, etc., etc. Um but on the other hand um we might if if we give artists the option of
selecting a box to paint, we might get 27 submissions for two boxes and none for the third. >> Yeah. Or you can word it so that it's you know these are the boxes we're painting. If you want to be specific,
you can. You can't. It's not not a guarantee. The boxes are different, a little bit different sizes and shapes. Like you said, >> I I feel like if a person knew that their this box had the potential to be where some of these boxes are, we might get more submissions.
>> Okay. >> You know, because they're they are pretty, you know, pretty visible. >> And presumably, well, I don't know. I was going to say if if we ended up in the in the kind of
worst case where we we didn't think we had a good submission for one of the three boxes. Would we go back to artists who had good designs but for other boxes and say, "Well, how about
doing this one instead?" >> Yeah. I I my feeling is you I think you can sort of say these are the three that are going to be painted. >> We're not asking you to be necess I don't know >> you could word it in a way that it says you know it's it's the committee's
decision to decide where these ultimately go but if you want to >> if you have a a you know a direction that you want to go in it [clears throat] >> work that way. Yeah, I hear it. >> Matt, Megan, do you do you guys have
thoughts on this dilemma? >> I think it'd be fine to include the locations. Um, but doesn't mean I think it's still to Lynn's point, it's up to us where the final art actually goes. I think it's as a hook for people who are
applying. it might interest them to know. >> Um, but ultimately the decision will lie with us and I think it's perfectly fine to accept submissions on behalf of all of them. And if they >> want to include the specificity of where they'd like it to be, that's fine. But ultimately, >> you know, it's our call and I think that
prevents the the pothole that you're worried about, Tom. >> Yeah. Okay. Yeah, >> I agree. I think I think telling people where the locations are is probably >> Mhm. It's probably a fun idea actually.
I mean, it might inspire some things, but yeah, we should we should definitely have the last call. Um, I also like the idea of adding a little bit more about public art and what that might look like
>> for an artist when they're thinking about painting one of these boxes. >> Mhm. Um, >> I think it might just be helpful because it looks like the next steps for them is they sketch
out their proposal. >> Mhm. >> So, they just like get right into it, right? >> Yeah. Well, we can help that a bit um by including I don't know if I even put it in here. Oh, here. It's sort of a nothing at the
where it's sitting now. But um see enlivening public this this um set of pages here enlivening public spaces has really nice
pictures of existing uh boxes, painted boxes around town. One of my thoughts would be, I mean, you could include as part of your heading or something a box that's been recently painted so we can see what it what a
finished one looks like. Show them where these new um new opportunities are. >> Okay. >> And I would actually include one of the when we got those submissions, they were so all over the place. There were a few that people
really had articulated, you know, this is this side, this is this side. And though and I would even include a sample of what somebody had sent that made it very easy for us to be able to understand um to we had it for made it easy for the committee to visualize what the final product would look like where
some of them you know just a single image was really hard to figure how it was going to work and I like the idea that you say you know showing all services I actually think of it as five services versus three services I'm not sure when you said three what
you were eating there. [clears throat] >> Oh, what I was thinking is that some of these some of these boxes have a really ugly back end. You know, it's all sort it isn't a plain surface. >> Um, so it's
>> so they may have three to five services depending on if it's a freestanding box or if it's pushed up against a bush or something. Is that what you mean? Well, um, some of them, uh, the back surface
is is not flat. >> It's it's got a it's like subboxes on it. >> And I've seen those painted and incorporated design. >> Yeah. That's why s a sample I don't know is
>> you know the um that salamander one would make a good example because it really shows how the artwork kind of wraps around the box. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Mhm. would it be um too much to just provide them with a
very simple template like showing like this is the front, these are the sides, this is the back. >> That's a really good idea because >> we'd like you to cover all of these. >> I think they're all all the boxes are unique though in the amount of surfaces
and their scale and size. So I think the one thing I would add to the conversation is like keep the proposal a little bit vague. I think it might be good to have an example of one that we liked in the past and we moved to approve. Um but I would hesitate to add
too much detail to it because part of I think part of the proposal is an interview process to say hey how how well have you thought this through? um is that's going to help us decide and I think if we go down the route of trying to provide too clear a template um it's going to discourage people from applying
and it also might not give us the detail and kind of those proposals that we'd like to see the initiative on. >> Yeah. What if we What if we did something where I'm trying to remember I don't have that document here, but the I think the one that's over by Big Y, the
one that's kind of that moody Tim Bart Burton kind of style. >> I think that submission did follow that pattern of showing all the sides. >> So if you showed a finished one and you showed the >> Yeah. >> the submission, then
>> that would be and then a person could go and look and look. Well, we could, you know, I see a balance here. As chair, my job is to find balances, but the the the balance I see here is
that uh that that meets the, you know, provide the sketch, you know, give people a, you know, thorough sense. On the other hand, the the box that in my personal opinion
is the most successful this year um had very little detail. This is the one with the blue herand >> that's up by the UMass Police Department. I don't think he even finished the sketch.
>> I think he showed the two sides of it. >> Okay. But um >> but he showed no color. It was really >> line. I think that's cor that that recollection I think is accurate. I'm speaking to Matt's,
you know, suggestion that we have to be, well, I don't have to, but we might want to be a little careful about not giving so much detail that we make that
a key criterion or allow it. >> Wait, you don't want to encourage >> I wonder. So, I would just add I wonder if similar to the specificity conversation and like showing the that a
template could be made available. I'm just wondering in terms of like equity and access um like I do think that the presentation of those sketches >> um helped us make that decision
>> in ter right and so >> I think if I'm remembering correctly like we're talking about some of them really included that um multi-panel kind of vision and others didn't and I'm just wonder I can't I'm trying to think back to how we made that decision. But I
think the ones that we're mentioning, I think we favored because it did kind of provide a clearer picture of what the the artist was um >> Yeah. >> intended. >> Show that they had thought it through, >> right? >> And how, you know, they had figured out
how it was going to >> Okay. All right. Um Okay. I'm taking all of this in for for reddrafting. Um, do you think does it make sense for me to put say one, two, three little images
side by side showing the the target boxes or just leave it to the description of where they are? Description is just fine. Um, and I think it's it's really up to the artist
if they need to site visit or how much detail they want because I think part of this as a proposal it's it is it should be kind of a sketch. Um >> because I think there's special accommodations need to be made when the final box and art artist are >> paired. And the other thing you could do
is say these are the new ones and throw in a couple addresses of recently completed boxes >> and go on their own and check it out. >> Yeah. So, you know, >> are some of the newer ones going to be
added to the enlivening to the website? >> Yeah, they [snorts] should be. They they they really should. Yeah. The um the Samantha Ge Geffin, who's the town's
uh communications person, webmaster, etc. She has she has this summer an intern who's going to work on our stuff. >> Yeah.
>> So, um yeah, I I think I think certainly my intention that we get it a central complete uniform set of documentation for these and a single source a richer source
for people to see. Yeah, >> because if we don't want to provide like a template or anything, I do think referencing the the website and even if and if it could be passed on to that intern, I think it's the images that are already there are great. I think the
ones I would think are most helpful are seeing the same piece >> from kind of >> all showing one piece from all all different sides. >> Okay. Okay. Yeah. Well, um my understanding is that this intern uh
will be doing some uh new photography to help in that way and we can we can we can guide that also. Um and one last thought while we're on this um general topic is that I think we're beginning to
see a bit of a I don't know about a divide. We're seeing more of a spread of profile of person who's stepping forward in response.
Some of the people that we whose whose proposals we've accepted um are professional electrical box painters >> and have a lot of experience with it and do good work. We we've thought so. uh
that Tara Bilatta who did the salamanders box uh she does this not exclusively for a living but heavily uh is not a valley resident does this all over eastern Massachusetts
and we've had several in that in that uh profile and in terms of inclusiveness uh I think we want to we want to keep in mind that we we want to we want to make it
possible for a a bright high school senior to win one of these two if the art quality is there. And so if in everything we've been discussing in the last 15 minutes, if
when the dust settles, we're not discouraging the um rising artists. Let's let's put it >> Well, for the younger artists, I think the more information you give them is probably probably [laughter] better.
>> Okay. Um Right. We still have more to discuss on this, but what I'm beginning to think is that I'll I'll need to do a re u some more editing on this, get it back to you, and then we're going to need to meet again to approve it,
and maybe we can maybe we can schedule a 10-minute meeting uh rather than wait another whole month. If we wait another month, our >> our whole timeline is going to slide into the cold season again. [snorts] >> Can we do it online? Can we do it like
just through email or something? We have to >> a public meeting to approve it. >> I think we do have to have a public meeting to make a decision. >> Okay. But u you know maybe we can manage to squeeze in a 10-minute meeting somewhere
in the next 10 days and still not completely lose our timeline. >> I'll aim for that. >> Okay. >> Okay. Um the the sentences that I have out um
with back with the yellow and blue backgrounds, these would be alternatives from what I believe we discussed. >> Yeah, we did. Uh the problem that we're trying to address here
is that uh we had upwards of $500 submitted by one of the artists for materials and I felt obligated to pay that because we had only said reasonable allowance
for uh supplies. >> Yeah. My my um vote is to go with the second one that you've got highlighted in blue and just have it be 650 flat price.
>> Um and that includes the materials. >> So you've corrected for inflation and you're not going to get any surprises and it's it's it's you know >> Yeah. Well, this way the we don't we don't need to um
be reading through um paint store receipts either. >> So that would be my vote [laughter] to go with the number. >> Others [clears throat] other opinions. >> I agree. Flynn.
>> Okay. Yeah, I think the 650 is good. >> Mhm. Okay, thank you. Okay, now let's move down to the submission details and I was wrapping my mind
trying to remember whether we had suggested improvements on this going back months and months. and I looked through the emails and couldn't find anything. So, >> your memories to see and to recommend
how we might either add some more items here or give a little more detail for the ones that are here. The only thing that I think I would do is on number four is to incorporate a little bit or to reiterate really what
you've said above like you know a sketch your proposal showing the >> you know the different sides of the thing just to make sure people really understand you know that's what we had in mind. Okay. >> Okay.
And the only other thing you could say maybe is a you know one paragraph's artist statement. I don't know. You're asking them for an artist statement about the piece they're creating or about themselves or about I mean what I don't know if you need to be more specific about that or
>> Well, an artist statement is a thing that artists who are already in the field understand. But going back to the point I was making a few minutes ago,
somebody who's not who who's new to this might not understand might come up with the same question, Lynn, about what do we want them to talk about. So maybe I can add add a phrase there.
>> Yeah. Like how how does this satisfy the >> Yeah. >> the goals of the project or something? What does it mean to you? >> And incidentally, but helpfully, these artist statements are are really very
very helpful later on when you want to provide at least some minimal documentation about, you know, who painted it, >> etc. I don't know that these are going to make
a big difference in which which artists win the I'm saying this carefully because if it's not going to help us make the decision maybe, you know, it's we're getting ourselves into something else.
But, uh, I I think I can help on that on that point on the drafting. Um, in terms of getting this out, I know that you it goes on the website. Do you actually send like this out? Is there >> Yeah.
>> How do you send it out? How do you get the word, I guess I should say? >> Yeah. The that works in two ways. Samantha Gifin has a regular list of places she sends press releases and this whole
thing that you're looking at is the structure of press release that she uses. >> Oh, okay. >> So, this will go on the town's website. It will go, you know, to the traditional media like uh Daily
Hampshire Gazette that go to the indie. Oh, >> okay. It go to it goes to a a whole list of places that uh organizations and and uh public and media that uh
that disseminate calls for for artists >> out of the school cycle or you could send it to the art high school art teacher. >> Yeah. Well, the um sorry
I also so that second path is that I I put it in the next door, you know, community. >> Oh, yeah. That's a good that's a good for it. >> Yeah. I noticed, by the way, if I put something, you know, Apac related there,
that it it they report back, you know, that it's that the item has been opened and read by upwards of a thousand people. >> Okay. And like Facebook, they probably have a Facebook page. >> Yeah, Facebook and that darn Instagram
page where we can't find the password. I was going to u my grandson is a painting major at Greenfield Community College. I was going to send this to him. That is that's is that a conflict of interest if I wasn't I mean I would
submit but if I didn't vote or something that's okay. >> No, no, I think that's that's fine because the submissions all come back in the >> the front door and that's your opportunity. Um, and I think this is covered in some
of those policies that we need to sign off on uh for the town. And in that case, you would just uh make known to the committee, you know, your connection with the artist and then we would decide
how to deal with that. So, keep keeping it transparent. [snorts] the um well thinking about you know wanting to get submissions from a [snorts] wide range of folks including you know high school students for example. I'm just thinking about the the
dates of when this is going out and when it's coming back, which will be kind of during the summer months. And I I don't know if that has any bearing on how word would get out to students through um
through say, you know, educators. Um I also was it says that we would get back to folks between the 7th and the 31st. Um I just wanting I don't know what our committees I assume we would have to make sure we could all meet in between
those two dates. >> Yeah. >> So I just I'm wondering if there's enough >> I know you mentioned wanting to get back to the artists in time for them >> to work while it's still warm I think you said but like is that a big enough window for us to make sure that we'll
have a quorum to um a quorum to meet and and make those decisions? it does push things a little bit. Um, and if we don't get a quorum, then the whole thing
is going to slide on its own. Um, >> I think the last time we did this, I think maybe it was you, Tom, put together a packet that had all the submissions and all the images. We all got that ahead of time. So it may be that people can do that you know on
their own and then come together and then what the way we what our process was is you know we all got this ahead of time. We got together and we kind of ranked them. We just went through and ranked them and then we looked at the the rankings and kind of came up with the top
>> four five or whatever. So it it wasn't a it doesn't have to be a a long long meeting if people you know come with sort of some of their suggestions. I think the the key thing of what you're saying there Lynn is that we did in fact
uh handle the um evaluation and the decisions on awards in a single session. If um
let me let me look again at the at the calendar as I work on the various edits that we've uh identified here and try to remember back to
last fall. And I think at the moment, my recollection is that it was about November 15th that it started getting too cold
to paint. And that what that means is for the for latex paint to be able to cure adequately, you can't have freezing temperatures overnight.
And once you get into the latter half of November, that gets kind of dicey. >> And we don't want to, you know, it's not for the it's not for the suffering artist. It has to stand there in the cold that we do this. It's for the it's
for the ability of the paint to cure. That takes something like 30 days for latex paint. David, are you thinking that we should try to set up a date now for August and and back everything up to that
and then we'd have that technically scheduled, you know, like third week in August or something and then >> yeah, I can that's that's an idea. I can put out put out a not a note to everybody with suggested dates right
after our meeting tonight. So, if we can decide in a day or two whether we've got um got a meeting date we can fix or whether we're like the French and we all disappear for the month of August.
[snorts] Okay. Okay, there other other thoughts on on this. Okay, I'll try to get the editing done tomorrow so I don't forget the suggestions and so you can take a look.
And I also then want to see if we I can get us back together, you know, even for a 15minute meeting somewhere a week from now with the dates rolled another week
to um keep things reasonable. Okay. All right. Uh, finally, Matt, would you like to start us off with um some thoughts, suggestions to open the
conversation on the Boltwood uh poetry boxes, quote unquote? >> Sure. Um, I think for me, after the site visit that most of us were on, except for David, sorry you missed it. Sorry,
missed you out there in the sun. Um there's some like challenges with that space and the installation which I think we've all kind of recognized which is now that there's been two different installations in there. They're not easily serviceable. There wasn't a
long-term plan. Um and they they don't change with any kind of frequency. So there's not necessarily a reason to kind of revisit them. Um, but having now been in the space and kind of identifying what's possible, I I'd like to kind of
propose that we work together on providing infrastructure to make it uh available to community contributions and also give this uh commission kind of the ability to update and improve it over
time. Um, and I think specifically like I' I think an angle I'd like to take would be installing screens and some kind of computer. Broadly speaking, it could even be just a Raspberry Pi to serve content on those five screens. It
could be a unified canvas. They could be run individually. Um, but it would be easy enough to kind of program that on a weekly schedule, a monthly schedule, a quarterly schedule. um do different programming at night and during the day and I think it invites kind of a lot of
opportunity to either showcase photographers, showcase animators, showcase other types of light and installation artists that way. Um, so yeah, my my thinking is really to
work together with this group to put together a plan to kind of build that infrastructure and then work with the community and our other collaborators at large to kind of uh bring it to life visually. And so far, what I've done is come up
with that little speech and started to map out what this might look like from a budget perspective and put together some mock-ups, which I'd be happy to share kind of the next monthly meeting in a more presentation type format. >> Well, I like what I'm hearing.
>> Sounds great. Thanks, Matt. And I should add I think we can do it at a very reasonable cost as well that would um basically serve as infrastructure for a long time. Um it wouldn't theoretically need a lot of updating
which I think is actually a big sticking point for me with the previous works. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Mhm. >> And was there any movement on getting that sign off for the town or >> No, I was going to say um to honor Lor's
concerns, I think I need to go in there with a wrench, [laughter] take the thing down and give it bring it to Angela's office [laughter] or wire cutters. I think it would be pretty easy with the right tool. >> Yeah.
>> So, I don't think that'll be a blocker. I think, >> you know, if we put together a plan that we all agree on and figure out how we're going to solicit contributions >> to it, um maybe we start to think about a new sign. >> Yeah. [snorts] Well, another another
point here too is once the discussion about this new iteration goes beyond our small group and people start going there to look for themselves, they're just going to get very confused by that
irrelevant sign. Um, so >> one, >> sorry, since I wasn't there, can you What's the sign say? [laughter] It says something about uh artwork by a certain by an individual
whose name I'm blanking on too. Okay. >> And it's sort of like, huh, where is this? >> It does say sponsored by the public art commission. So, the fact that there's nothing there, >> that's that's I think that's what Lor's >> primary concern is. >> Yeah. I mean, it names the gallery, it
has the artist, it has the name of the artwork, and then a short description of it, but none of that is available to view anymore in the way that the artist intended. >> Yeah, I think that's the that's the correct answer. >> I'm curious, Matthew, when when you
sketch it up, if there are ideas for like new labeling or if part of it the intrigue is leaving it kind of without more context. Yeah, I kind of think it's an interesting space that currently if
you've been by as we as we were all together like it kind of draws your eye but then you look closely and you're like this can't be right cuz like in one window you see paper towels in another one there's like a mirrored surface that was clearly part of a previous installation. Um and the sign to Tom's
point just adds a lot of confusion. I think in a world where you see motion on a unified canvas across five windows that is like, you know, a matching color swirl or something that's going to draw you over there and then maybe 15 seconds
you're seeing something else. That doesn't require as much explanation. What it might require is us to think about how do you credit a revolving door of contributors and creatives that have brought something to life. Um, I don't have an answer for that yet, but I think
in a world where we program something that changes, say every quarter or has like a different schedule over 24 hours, we might have to get creative with how we >> think about talking about it. >> Well, there's also that's all that's all
true and and important. There's there's also the problem that these are these are very small windows and um I think there's there's a challenge
uh to getting passers by to even pause to notice that they're there and what's what's in them at night. Much less of a problem if you got you got all kinds of dynamic lighting things going on.
during the day it might be a little more difficult but that brings us back to the sign. So, what would a new sign once once we figured this all out? We need to think about what what kind of uh direction to hey, take a look at that.
And we need kind of a carnival barker uh function to say, hey, you want to see this? But we'll get to that. I'm I'm getting it. I'm getting ahead of us. >> So, once we rip the sign down, we should bring it to Angela. Well, I'm thinking
what um I don't want to get busted for vandalism. I mean, I could I could get busted for vandalism just for taking it down, but I don't want I mean, for out of respect to the town, I don't want to just uh you know, take it home and never
get seen again. But, uh Angela um Megan is our official liaison to the town and she helps uh ah that's what I'll do. I'll I'll do a Lynn Thompson and I'll go
to Angela first and say, "Angela, please solve this problem for us." Because she did Lynn did that when the town DPW man wasn't didn't show up at the appointment to let us in.
And it turned out that he had some other emergency and you know we just got left hanging until Angela knew that somebody else nearby bank center had the key. All right. So >> now we know.
>> So um I I'll go talk to Angela about that and we'll see if we can uh get that signed down, you know, quickly. And >> there are so many hard problems to solve and this is not a hard problem to solve. >> Should not be a hard one.
>> Should be able to do it pretty quick. [laughter] >> I think once we figure out uh once we hear Matt's plan and I'll decide that it's brilliant, it'll be pretty easy to
figure out how to get people over to that site. And I mean that area is It's just ripe forion and I >> mean they have those se that seating area there now which I don't think was
there originally. So they're trying >> it. Yeah. No, I Megan I I think that's a that's the kind of problem we'd love to have. >> We got something cool >> and now let's [clears throat] make it known. I I I didn't mean to make that
sound like it was an obstacle. >> Oh, no, no, no. >> So, that actually might segue us into that post that's there with a potential sculpture on it. I don't know where that I think that's on your agenda here.
Yeah, I I sent email to John Paige asking him whether he had heard back from that artist because um that was again part of my summary last last week and it's in the
minutes that uh u you know after I filled John in on the the outlines of the policy that we had drafted and is with the art uh lawyers about um [snorts]
uh unsolicited public art you know gifted public art what criteria of process does it need to face so anyhow on that basis John was to go back to the artist get some get a a
better a better statement of of the purpose and the vision etc talk with DPW about their their view on the suitability of the mounting point and method
etc etc etc. So, we're I think the ball's in that court that uh John needs to get back to us once he has heard from the artist, you know, some responses so
we don't so that we're not um we're not flailing around um on the topic. Just need to keep keep track of where it is. Okay.
Any any last thoughts uh for this evening? Okay, Matt. So, I'd like um be very happy to to have you show us uh you know, more presentation uh more thought uh once you've had the chance to work on that a bit.
Um, >> I'll bring it uh for next meeting. >> Yeah, good. Thank you. I think we've made we've made more progress on this in a meeting and a half meeting and the visit there than than we did on in the
last 10 years on that topic. So, all right. I'm proposing then that this for this evening we quit while we're ahead. And um if there are no further comments, uh suggestions, requests,
>> I'll just I'll just say something out loud so I'll be accountable to it. Lynn and I talked months ago about some changes to the website. And knowing that Samantha has an intern who's focused on it, I'm going to >> send an email. I'll make sure to copy Lynn and Tom and anyone else who wishes
to be um to just kind of say, "Hey, we have a list of things that we have already discussed and want to do and let us know how we can help." >> Yeah. >> I' I'd welcome that. >> Yeah. I think it might help, you know,
Samantha and the um unnamed intern maybe focus their efforts a little bit more and we can align pretty easily knowing that we've already done a bunch of thinking on it. >> Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I think that would be helpful to them as well.
>> Okay. Can I get a motion? >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Yes. Thank you, Lyn. >> Second. >> A second. Okay. Show of hands to adjurnn. Okay. Good. We don't have to stay for breakfast then. All right. Uh I'll be back in touch. Take care
everyone. Thank you. >> Great. Thanks. >> Thanks, Tom. >> Thanks. Night. >> Good night.