Everyone, I call this meeting to order.

Can I get a motion to approve the agenda?

I motion.

Do I have a second?

I second it.

All in favor of the agenda say aye.

Can I get a motion to approve the minutes?

I make a motion to approve the minutes.

Do I have a second?

I second.

All in favor of the minutes say aye.

Aye.

Do we have any oral communications for this meeting?

Yes, we do have one person signed up.

Sorry, guys.

Family business is very important.

I know this.

I don't know about this for four years before, but right now I know.

Yeah.

My name is Alex Everman.

Just a moment, Mr.

Yeah, my Alex Zimmerman.

Mr.

Zimmerman, I'm sorry, we have a statement to read.

We're gonna reset your clock.

If you just give us just a moment.

What?

We're not quite ready for your public comment yet.

We still have a statement to read, and then we'll start your clock.

Oh, again.

Um yeah, I just have to read this out.

In compliance with Washington state campaign laws regarding the use of public facilities during an election.

No speaker may support or oppose a ballot measure or support or oppose a standard for an election.

Which includes your own campaign.

Any speaker who begins discussing topics of this nature will be asked to stop.

In addition, there are new rules adopted by the city council limiting the topics about which the public may speak during our meetings.

Under ordinance 6752, the public may now only speak during public comment about subject matters that are related to City of Bellevue government and are within the power and duties of the art commission.

Additional information about the new rules of decorum governing conduct of the public during our meetings can be found at ordinance 6752.

Yes.

And I come speak to your committee for many years.

Yeah.

First question, what is I have absolutely a duotic, you know what is mean?

Why you cannot show faces of people who speak?

And I speak more than five thousand times.

I speak every every week from Tacoma C at Eleverate, you know what is mean in dozen dozen places.

All show faces.

You only one who don't do this.

So you look to me right now like debilly, because I talking about this for a long time.

Where is this debilism come from?

First, this comes from Mayor Robinson.

You know what is meant because for seven years out under Mayor Robinson's rules, we come to absolutely fascist government.

Bellevue number one fascist city right now in America.

What is they did?

You know what is meant.

They class is a classic fascism because government aggressive with corporation.

I mean Amazon.

Microsoft, you know what is meant, May life miserable.

So 120,000.

People, you know what is meant from jungle, working like a slab.

Yeah.

But today I have something news with this.

I never see for four years here.

Yeah.

I'm so sorry, ma'am.

Yeah.

I don't know your husband as a consul.

But this comes to consul position not legal.

Is this acting like a criminal because Mary Robinson is a criminal?

I call her chip dory prostitute.

You know what I mean?

I'm not talking about trespassing for three years and cut my statement for election.

Yes, but they for seven years under her control, city come to absolutely absurd life right now in Bellevue more dangerous than in New York or Los Angeles.

I don't talk about transportation, you know what is meant.

Debt was come to 200% more.

So last week.

This uh statement, state of the city.

What is come for 50 people?

And for come to this meeting, you need to pay a thousand bucks.

This is very interesting.

Every time when this happened, you know what is meaning, make me absolutely shock.

I try to understand who are you guys?

A slave or the generative idiot.

I born like a idiot.

I said never seem like this before.

Everybody's state of the city.

What is make Muhammad?

We have new mayor, Mohammed.

Nice mayor.

My name is Avram is similar.

No problem.

Yeah.

Did something what is absolutely absurd?

State of the city, supposed to be good to people, not to aristocrat who pay thousand dollars.

We are Trump, we have a new American revolution, stand up slave and happy cow.

Guys, stop and act like a degenerative deal.

Thank you, Mr.

Zimmerman.

Yes, thank you about it.

I want to let the public know that the arts commission does not condone hateful or offensive speech from any individual.

While we would prefer people refrain from making these types of comments, the commission respects individuals' First Amendment free speech rights.

Individuals are allowed to express their thoughts or feelings, whether we agree with them or not.

Thank you all.

The first order of business is partner presentations.

Hello, Arts Commission.

My name is Margaret Toomey.

I am here on behalf of Studio East, which is a nonprofit based in Kirkland, but serves the wide um breadth of Eastside students and families with our programming.

So Studio East, our full name is Studio East Training for the Performing Arts.

We provide best in class theater education, performance skills, and audience opportunities to inspire, train, and entertain young people through engagement in the art and craft of theater.

Technical difficulties.

And the school stage, we worked with 15 schools to do our school, our show in a box.

So they have a title, they um bring students in, and we provide the scenery, the costumes.

We have a director, and for the musicals, we also send a musical director to support the performance over six weeks, culminating in a performance for the parents, the community, and oftentimes is used as a fundraiser for the PTA to help increase funding that they have for other programs and for school stage in the following year.

We have the community school school stage production of The Wizard of Oz.

Very popular this year because of the whiz and as well as um Wicked coming out.

Did I get it?

There we go.

Um, this is our storybook theater cast.

This is where we have uh professional performers um doing a script of some kind in the past.

You may have heard of our performances.

They were very rooted in sort of typical fairy tales.

This year we presented an adaptation of the storybook Me Jane, The Life and Times of Jane Goodall.

Um, and so this production was chosen prior to Jane Goodall's passing, but was very timely in order to bring the story of Jane Goodall into schools.

We went to over 32 schools in this last um spring semester.

This was just from March until June, um, across 16 counties, reaching 5300 students.

And through funding like the what was provided by Bellevue Arts Commission as well as for culture, we were able to visit 12 Title I schools and give them the programming either at a severely discounted or completely free offering, which was very exciting for us because that is was a new element we were able to present this year.

Right now we're in the middle of our summer theater camps.

We are presenting summer theater camps from June 22nd all the way to the 28th.

This is just a big overview.

You can see we work with students from age four all the way up to grade 12.

And we work at our location in Kirkland as well as three other satellite locations in the area in order to bring programming for summer camps and help support families to have an opportunity to send their kids for amazing transferable skills and learning opportunities while the kids are out for the summer.

And then the upcoming events that we have this summer, we have our teen summer musical, which is the prom this year, that's running July 24th through August 2nd.

And then we just had our first family meet and greet meeting yesterday for Willy Wonka kids, which is what you see in the lower left of the slide.

And that is really awesome.

It's for students, ages six all the way up to 12.

So all the students that are too young to do our teen musical.

And then it's um the creative team is our older students who are looking for an opportunity to have a leadership and present their own ideas around what a show should be.

So we are director, music director, a choreographer, all of our designers, they're all students ranging from age 15 up to 20.

And then the picture that we see up there is Annie Kids, which was our other second stage this last spring, which we had over 50 students participating across two casts in bringing Annie Kids to stage in a similar fashion.

And so those performances will be the weekend of August 7th, 8th, and 9th.

The graphic hasn't been finalized, so that's why we don't have the performance dates up there.

And I believe that might be.

Oh, and the last thing I just wanted to bring your attention to is next season, 2026 through 2027.

So these are all the shows we will have on our stage.

We have uh it's all movie themed.

So on the left, you see our main stage production, which is usually something that is fully realized, a two-act, uh, you know, two-hour play opportunity, and then on the right, we have our Bard series, we do two Shakespeare, and then we'll be doing one second stage next summer for finding Nemo for the younger kids instead of two, just because we found Annie Kids was very popular, but trying to do something during the school year with that age group was a little trickier, so we're shifting that to be our summer only program.

So that is what we do over at Studio East.

Um, I would love to answer any questions or any memories because I've only been with Studio for about 10 months.

So I'm learning a bunch of people who were like, I did this when I was a kid, or I had my children enrolled.

So I love an opportunity to meet people who have a history with the studio as I'm continuing to increase my experience with the organization.

Thank you for the presentation.

Um, so is your is the performances mostly held only in Kirkland, or do you bring them to Bellevue as well?

Yeah, the main stage performances are held in Kirkland.

Um we have a space there through the City of Kirkland partnership.

It's an old PCC that was built out over the last um year and a half prior to this last season to convert it into a 99-seat house.

But we are with our school stage programming and also looking to the future because that property is gone going on the market, or it's actually on the market now.

The city of Kirkland is selling it at the possibility of what a more uh spread-out offerings of our performances for the production side.

And that's why I wanted to highlight the beginning our school experience because that's where we really reach out further into the East Side community in terms of our footprint.

Our productions we do draw from Bellevue as well as North Shore School District.

We had one student for Sweeney Todd come all the way from Vashon Island.

So students are seeking us out for the performance opportunity, even if it does require a bit of a trek to come to Kirkland.

Very nice.

I think the other good thing that I um heard from you was that students not only get a chance to perform, but they also get to go ahead and practice their leadership skills and mentor the others.

So that I think is great.

Do you have any other comments or questions?

Well, thank you for your presentation.

Wonderful to hear it.

Um in the next five to ten years, where do you see the organization going?

Do you see it growing or you mentioned a new performance space?

Yeah, but kind of where do you see it in 10 years?

Oh my goodness, that is the million dollar question right now.

Um, I my hope is that in 10 years we lean in a little bit more into what we already have, which is kind of a hub and spoke model, where we have a hub that is an opportunity for performance spaces, um, as well as our classes, and where students are finding their third place outside of school and home, but that we have more strongly rooted spaces that um put us out into the community and not just this partnership with a school for six to seven weeks, but we have longer term relationships with our schools, opportunity to do more summer camps at those at those campuses, um, pushing it further out to that way, um, especially given what's going on at the state level around arts being pulled um away from being a requirement.

We know that we have a gap to fill when families are looking for those opportunities if it's not happening in the school building proper or sort of in the school day.

Um, and also we noticed we've done this with a couple of schools where it's cheaper for them to hire one of our teaching artists for a fractional sort of enrichment opportunity than it is for them to have a staff member on staff who's maybe teaching drama or theater as one of their periods or one of their pieces, and then having to fulfill sort of other teaching requirements.

So I want to lean into that and really find more opportunities for that to occur because I think that that's the future, honestly, for our organization.

But as a lifelong theater person, I started when I was in um in high school because I fell into a drama program.

I think that that's really what sort of builds the um the ecosystem and the the patrons as much as it does sort of who's on stage or backstage or sort of starring in the artistic side of theater.

That actually leads to my question.

So I'm curious, do you have any like anecdotal origin stories of people who started with your program and then uh became like, I don't know, whether it'd be a professional uh performers or anything like that?

Well, actually, one of our alumni, Zach Barr, who is currently based in Chicago, they just won a very prestigious playwriting award that was awarded in South Coast Repertory.

And I don't know the name of it off the top of my head because there's a lot of things that um, you know, he has won actually.

Um, but that was really exciting, um, and they were actually coming back to teach one of our summer camp programs, and they had they had to shift their planning because they are such a big deal now.

Um, so we're actually we were just had conversation with their parents and talking about whether or not they were gonna try to um get anybody in the Seattle area to produce the play.

So we're big proponents of that.

Um we also have some other performers that are working um locally.

Um, there's a director who just directed at Act and Um Act Slash Union Arts House, the former in Seattle uh production of the taming, um, and they were a studio East alum.

So there's a really strong um sort of pipeline that happens with alumni into um not necessarily Broadway, we haven't gotten anybody that far, but um we strongly believe that the sort of skill set that we're building is less about this sort of star-studded element and more about what they can do and sort of their leadership opportunities and how they can enrich more local communities.

We find that to be very, very strong um indication of success and in terms of our alumni growth.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Is this hooked up to that?

Okay.

So next agenda item is our Grand Connection Crossing Autist update.

Great.

I'm gonna do my best to not get confused between my computer and the mouse that's working on her computer.

Um hello everyone.

Uh my name is Scott McDonald.

I am the public arts specialist for the city of Bellevue.

I work with Manette and Lori in the arts team.

Um I have a wide range of duties.

Uh today I'll actually be talking to you about the Grand Connection Crossing and specifically the art plan update.

I work on also cultural planning, arts planning type stuff as well as public art projects.

Um then I'll also be with you for the next agenda item as well on the emerging artist projects.

Oh, I don't have to say next slide.

Um so today we're gonna go over the uh the grand connection um planning artists, his artist scope.

Uh he has three different things that we'll talk quickly about.

Um we're gonna talk about the objectives that we've set out for the plan, um, how we envision the plan to be used, and then the some of the different elements of the plan uh as well as uh next steps.

So uh Matthew Mazzotta, he was supposed to be here tonight.

He had a uh late late conflict.

Um I was already set up to do the full presentation, anyways.

So he sends his apologies.

But um, so Matthew Mazzoto was selected in uh, I believe May, March of 2025 to be the planning artist for this project, and he had three specific scope elements.

One was the public art plan for all art on the crossing, a the second is a preliminary concept for a large major artwork.

Um so that's sort of a refined napkin sketch of an artwork.

Um, and then the third element is design consultation on the crossing.

So that's a little bit different uh than the specific work of the art plan.

It goes beyond the art plan.

So he'll be continue to work with the designers to make sure that we're allocating the right kinds of spaces for not just the art projects that are in the in the plan, but looking for other ways to kind of get the design work to um support, complement, uh live within um the ideas that are in the public art plan.

Uh the plan objectives, they're relatively straightforward.

Um there's not a whole lot here that is earth-shattering, but we did feel it's important to uh list them out.

We want to create a meaningful cohesive and immersive art journey.

So this is not just a piece of infrastructure connecting East Trail with City Hall, that it's actually a place in it in and of itself.

Um we want to set clear parameters for artists.

So this is giving them visual ideas about kind of what are the global precedents for for art projects that we're striving for.

Um what are some of the conceptual ideas that they want to try to connect their work into?

So we're really kind of trying to tie in all of their work into that cohesive art experience on the crossing.

We see this as a really important project as we think about Bellevue's brand and our civic identity.

Um the artist in particular sees the crossing, and this is his interpretation, but he sees the crossing as really emblematic of what Bellevue is and where we're going as a community.

He wants to, because of the incredibly complicated nature of working on a massive infrastructure project.

This is way more complicated than say just an ordinary transportation project.

But working on a bridge where you're thinking about seismic, the bridges on springs, you adding elements on top of that.

You need to get artists working with the designers early on.

And so what this art plan is ultimately going to be doing is trying to develop that schedule so we have the right artists working on the most complicated, the most integrated projects into the bridge, working earlier.

And then the artist that we can kind of save space for can come in later.

We'll talk a little bit more about that later.

As with everything that we do, we want to facilitate public involvement.

That's at the core of our public art collection and all of our projects.

This one is no different.

And then I'll just jump to the last uh point there.

It's supporting emerging artists.

We, while we want this to be a destination, a world renowned destination, honestly, uh for arts and culture.

Um, we also want to think about how uh emerging artists can tie into this work, can tell a lot more of those local stories.

Um, and we see that as a really valuable part of the plan as well.

Did I go?

Okay, thank you.

Um, so the art plan, yeah.

Go ahead.

It was a skip slide.

We'll get back to it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So the the art plan, we see the art plan being used uh as this diagram illustrates.

So we'll have project start where the art plan is creating uh a lot of the templates, a lot of the information generating a lot of that information that's going to go into the artist call that's done by the commissioning agency.

So that's uh project details like location, budget range.

Um, does there's every likely every art project in here is going to have design requirements?

So that could be we need an artwork that is 50 feet tall to create that kind of visual waypoint that's bringing people into the system to artwork can't be above 20 feet tall to even weight requirements.

Um, so there's gonna be all those elements within the art plan.

So when the city or even um an organization or private developer that's connecting into the Grand Connection Crossing, they can have that place to start and and get that good framework.

So we're not kind of working in the wrong direction, honestly.

Um, and then the art plan also has a theme for all art, um, it has guiding principles, which are requirements that every art project has to um uh work through, and then design considerations.

So these are options for art exploration.

That's where artists can look at their own work and um and work and see themselves within that project while still tying up to that bigger theme, that cohesive experience we're trying to get to.

Oh, I clicked on the wrong thing.

There we go.

Um, so the theme uh, and again, this is this is really setting the framework for art on the crossing.

Um, I'll just read this because I don't want to butcher the artist's words.

So, refuge is evoked by a sense of welcoming, home, safety, calmness, health, and wellness.

In this plan, refuge descends mere quietude.

It is found in the vibrancy of social gathering, the provocation of new ideas and struct structural protection from the urban environment.

This is about activation.

So it's not simply about creating a it's an active version of refuge as opposed to a more passive version where you say maybe hide.

Like this is active, this is welcoming place.

This is about people occupying the space.

If it could be here, three possible themes.

How they decided to go to this one.

So honestly, all the themes that they presented, we wove them in because they were into essentially one theme around refuge.

They all pointed to it.

And then I think like some of the other themes were integrated in through concepts from it, integrated into the guiding principles.

So I would say that the themes presented just evolved into the much strong like the strong theme that we're presenting today.

Does that explain it?

Yes, but I remember discussing something related with technology.

So I don't know how can you talk a little bit about it?

How do you merge into refuge?

That's it's gonna be on the next slide.

Oh, yeah.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Um, so uh guiding principles.

So these are requirements for all art.

Uh we have uh the artist's concept of radical hospitality and welcoming.

So this art specifically contributes to all people feeling belong uh like they belong, feeling safe, intrigued, hyper-local identities.

So this is not just about telling stories of the physical limits of Bellevue, but we want to look at the community and say that there are international connections.

So what are those threads that stretch around the world?

Um and then and doing work about that as well.

Um, and then also just what what is Bellevue's future and where are we going and what's our community going to be like?

What's our cultural DNA going to be like in the future?

Um, again, as uh all projects will have to do some sort of community engagement.

We want to amplify stories of the area, of the community, of the site, um, it's history again, it's future.

Um, and then longevity.

So this isn't saying that every art project needs to survive for the full length of the bridge.

It's saying that we want to be intentional about which ones we want to see stay for 50 or 100 years, and uh which ones are we use as a tool for like reactivating the crossing.

So there's some uh typologies that will live for three months, some will be for an afternoon, some are some are one to two years, uh design considerations, so uh adaptive respite is uh an option for art exploration.

The image you see on the right is shows an artwork where the ribbons of the artwork is actually coming down, forming benches, forming places to sit, um, really taking an active role in the experience of the crossing, creating places where people can um lounge, converse, um, read a book, eat lunch, all those kinds of things.

Uh narrative discovery, so this is um the 20 mile an hour uh e-bike cruising through the space is we want them to have a different experience than the person walking.

Um we want the little details for people walking to be a driver for people kind of slowing down, waiting.

Maybe they they uh it starts conversations.

We want that to happen throughout the throughout the crossing.

Uh circadian vitality.

Um, oh, sorry, I skipped over living systems.

Uh so living systems, so we talked a lot about in the previous um presentation about nature and technology specifically.

So this is where that kind of is woven through.

So biomimicry and biophilic design, biomimicry is being inspired by nature, bringing that into and creating innovative uh design uh concepts and applications.

Um we want that to be a part of this concept of refuge, and then biophilic, which is about actually bringing physical elements of nature into our built environment.

Um, we also want that to be a big part of this experience.

Uh circadian vitality.

So this is uh artworks that address changing conditions.

So from day to night, could be seasonal, could be weather dependent.

Um, just so when you come back, you're always having a little bit different kind of experience.

And then, of course, diversity and inclusion.

This is really important to the city.

Um, we want to see uh both representation of different communities uh stories, and then of course, diverse artists as well within the within the crossing.

So as we think about okay, what are the artworks gonna be, what what are they gonna look like?

That's the really really fun stuff.

Um I will just share at this point.

We are still developing opportunities with the design team because the design is honestly seeming to evolve day to day.

Um because the city is has brought on what's called a um I can't, I don't know what the acronym stands for.

It's it's a general, essentially they're bringing on a general contractor who before design is complete.

So in other projects, the city will uh design and then bid and then build, and those are three kind of independent um uh phases of work.

We're actually building, bringing the people that are building into um the design process.

So we're able to get real-time uh value engineering um and costing, um, and then they'll also be able to recommend design um alternatives so we can go into the construction process having a really, really solid idea of what everything's gonna cost, eyes wide open.

So, but because of that, the design is gonna rapidly evolve over the next six months.

Um, and so I think we'll be able to come back to you about specific locations, specific project ideas in the future, as that kind of work really kicks off in August.

Um, but just to give you a glimpse of where the strategy is, uh the artist is thinking about three general artwork uh categories, foundational artworks, which are the big things.

Um they have uh big big moves.

Let's just call them that.

Um, the integrated artworks, so everything that is completely dependent on the design.

So think like the whole bridge needs to have a throw barrier fence, um, particularly on the light rail side.

So people don't throw stuff onto the light rail tracks.

Um that's a major element that we'll have to have as part of design uh that can't come later, say um, and then responsive artwork.

So these are uh often rotating, these are time-based.

Um there's ideas around uh typology that's a rotating plinth.

Um, there's uh these small panels uh along the throw fence that could be an opportunity to bring in art uh particularly emerging artists uh to say fabricate porcelain enamel panels that can then be attached to these.

So it's almost like a rotating gallery um opportunity and then time-based performance that would happen all along the crossing.

Um, okay.

And then I just want to uh highlight this.

So this is this graphic, with the exception of a couple the dashed boxes that are up there, um, was developed as part of the urban design framework for the crossing.

Um, the strategy for art placement and and you know, is it a big artwork?

Is it a small artwork?

Is it a big move?

Is it a small move?

Is really kind of built around this this concept of these different rooms.

And so each one of these boxes that you see up there on the plan um showing the whole crossing, that's highlighting a different room that the designers have indicated they want to pursue as a place for waiting um that has a different character uh than other areas.

And part of that is they they need to break up the length of the crossing.

I mean, the crossing is seven minutes and 40 seconds for the average walker.

That's a long, that's a long distance.

It's over a half mile, or it's a roughly a half mile.

Um and as comparison, the Redmond Technology Center, which is that bridge over 520 with the um the canopies, that's three minutes and 40 seconds.

So it's over twice as big as that.

Um and so we need a lot of stuff to happen to make this interesting, to make it a destination, and so the the artist uh and the art plan and the opportunities we're gonna we're gonna find and locate are gonna have to step up to that.

Um the art plan will also include a project schedule um and prioritization.

So the the schedule will be detailed on what projects have to go first, when we need deliverables by to meet the design requirements because any delay on the design um side of things uh will cost money.

Um and so I could see just knowing the schedule going forward, I could see artists potentially coming on maybe even before we've uh approved a plan.

Uh who I don't know.

It's the schedule's pretty wild.

Um and then sequencing is is the big thing uh in terms of scheduling.

Um, we need to prioritize certain projects over others that can come later.

Um, and then of course, like budgeting will be part of that prioritization will be part of the schedule because there will inevitably trade-offs will need to happen, and um, and then you know, opportunities could also come out out of the woodwork as part of this.

Um, and then also that just the scheduling prioritization just kind of anchors the intention um and and says this is a really critical project.

Uh, and then there's some other flexible kind of things we can be doing or or achieve over time.

Um next steps.

So we're focused on plan refinement, opportunity development.

Uh it says June, July or July, August up there.

It could move into September.

It will likely continue to evolve even after we have a we have an agreed-upon um general plan.

I think we want to think about this as kind of a living plan.

Um, and then uh right now we'll I'm I'm not confident that we will be back here September 2nd, but the ideas that we'll come back in the fall and um present give you uh uh more comprehensive update on the plan and at some point seek a recommendation to approve.

Um, and then a related scope um is the the artist's kind of second part of his work out of the three is to um bring back a preliminary artwork concept to you guys uh for a recommendation to approve um in the fall as well.

I think that's all my slides.

Thank you, Scott.

That was great.

Um I have a question.

Um, does the artist already?

I mean, I I think I remember hearing him talk last time that he would collaborate with other artists for various different, you know how you mentioned there'd be different sorts of artwork.

Are those artists already lined up?

Does he already have people in mind yet?

Not yet.

No, okay.

He doesn't.

My my second concern really was when you mentioned that contractors are already also on board and kind of weighing in on the design.

I'm wondering where the limit uh will arise for artists, you know, with the creative freedom that they may have.

Is that something you're hearing about already from Matthew?

Um I think artists that have worked when you work within the infrastructure world, there are there are lots of limits.

You're you're full of limits, honestly.

And constraints I think help often can help hone projects, uh, down to what their core like thing that they're trying to say or the form that they're trying to have.

Um so I don't see constraints as as a negative thing.

Um, but we want and as we look at each opportunity, we want to see, okay, are there possibilities if there's only one possible outcome of what something could look like or serve?

That might be a better design element, so better achieved by designers versus an artist, where we have flexibility or more flexibility, is where or can make like the throw barrier is a is a good example.

The artist is not going to be doing fabrication.

There is a requirement that you can't have an opening bigger than uh an inch in diameter.

But there, and that is a very real constraint that could constrain a lot of artists, but it also can be fuel, it helps develop the tool, right?

But then an a creative artist can come through and use that variation from a little tiny pinhole to up to an inch to create the an incredible mosaic.

And then when you said you're coming back in the fall with those, is that sort of already decided work that you're going to present to us or are there just going to be teams and we get to weigh in and give our opinions?

I think when we come back, we'll have to make a decision on where we are with the plan.

I want to stress at this point, they're not decided opportunities by any means.

Okay.

Um, and so when we come back, we want your input on things as well.

Like, oh, that's what we would like to do as well.

Is to give our opinion.

Yeah.

Well, maybe and I can jump into the plan as a set of possibilities.

It is not necessarily like we have these five projects and we are launching calls for artists right now.

There'll be possibilities that we'll implement over the long run of the project.

Some might not come up for many years yet, but we have a plan that says in this location we have considered this typology of art.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that'd be good for us to kind of um give you our opinions on as well.

You want to thank you.

Um I imagine there is a lot of different stakeholders involved in all this.

So I would like to hear a little bit about how have you been coordinated with other degrees.

What opinions have you received about these, all the themes and schedules and all the ideas?

Just to see how is the general coordination that I imagine will be like a main thing that will be managed during the design and implementation of all this.

Um, yeah, so we the way that we structured the project is the um the I'd say probably 90% of the community engagement came up front.

So the community engagement came out of or these themes and uh honestly the whole art plan came out of that engagement.

Um there will be reports back and engagement, particularly the Friends of Grand Connection group, um, who was heavily involved in the early engagement.

Um we don't have specific um meetings scheduled as yet, but that's the that's the plan.

And um, how about the internet coordination in between the city?

The city different areas of the city.

Well, in on this, yeah, yeah.

Um, so next uh in two weeks, we're presenting to the what's called the Grand Connection Guidance Group, which is um uh I think most of the department heads throughout the city, um, and as well as the city cabinet, so the city manager's office as well.

Um to date we've um been working with the Office of Grand Connection, uh from community development as well as parks and transportation is also involved in that.

Um so that next kind of big milestone is presenting to the guidance group, which is all the department heads, and then from there it's uh we're jumping into design refinement of opportunities, and then there'll be lots of discussions with leadership about budget and that kind of thing as well.

Yeah, uh just a quick question about um sound transit.

This is directly adjacent to the current sound transit bridge, not touching, not using any of its structure at all.

So there's no relation or coordination or work with sound transit related to this.

Um I don't think that's an uh a fully accurate uh statement.

I think the we have design um parameters that we have to meet with the bridge um related to sound transit, but because their um their line has its own seismic system, um there's requirements on how close we can be to their their guideway, their independent projects that we are responding to.

Okay.

I sort of had it in my head that they were it was an attachment to it.

Yeah, no, perfect.

Yeah, and then you we might have talked about this last time.

Um, this is all about the area between the trail and just past city hall, right?

It's unrelated to the long line pathway that goes all the way to main Bower Beach.

The plan.

Right.

The plan I would say is not unrelated.

I think there's even elements and particularly even some of the typologies that are in the overall framework plan.

There is an overall framework plan.

Yeah, and this is a subset of the overall framework, yeah.

Okay, yeah, yeah, across.

Because when you see this one, it's called.

It goes all the way to main bar.

Yeah, yep, yep, yep.

Showing them up that is in the else.

Uh one, I thought this was fantastic.

When I was going through the report, and hopefully this doesn't like offend anybody.

I was a little bit like underwhelmed, but hearing it and actually hearing you speak about it, uh, because like a lot more confidence, I feel like.

One thing I saw in the or one of the reasons uh when you're talking about like the guiding principles.

I think you maybe like recognize this because you you talked about it.

It seems like very safe.

And I would hate to go through all this.

We have such like a huge opportunity.

Like everybody, you know, in the city, as far as I can tell, is like backing this project.

And one thing that Velvey always has this stigma is it's very safe, it's very uh can be like underwhelming.

And I would hate to go through all of this.

And like the guiding principles is, you know, we want to be hospitable.

We want to be, you know, very welcoming.

All sound, you know, very good, very important things, but we should be thinking bigger than that.

It sounds like when I heard you're talking about in the presentation.

Sounds like uh that's under consideration, so I think that's fantastic.

Hopefully that's also like expressed, you know, to artists as we're uh talking it through because it can read very different uh like what's like on the report versus what you guys are actually you know doing or saying.

So I think that was really good.

Thanks.

And then uh one other thing.

I think you talked about this because you kind of touched on it uh regarding like adaptive respite and then the integrated artworks and uh um basically like how everything can be like a piece of a piece of art or it can be you know nice to look at, especially like with the benches uh you know that you had, I thought that was really good.

Uh but just like every aspect of the bridge, whether it's you know a wall or you know, whatever.

And again, I think you kind of touched on it, so I'm probably preaching to the choir of it.

I just think it's really important that we keep you know all those things in mind, the the integrated piece.

Doesn't all have to be you know like this is uh a mural and this is you know uh a sculpture of something.

So I think that's all really good.

Thanks.

Yeah.

And then one last thing.

Uh, this is just my two cents.

If there could be like a water feature from like the the start to the end, I think that would be awesome.

Sound might be super expensive, but I feel like that would be uh raise.

Yeah, it activated or something, but uh just an idea.

I will pass that along.

I cannot guarantee it's gonna go forward.

Uh but yeah, I appreciate the sentiment.

Yeah.

Uh first of all, if I think one word is biomimicry.

I know it's an extremely hard challenge, maybe being hard in engineering, and I'm super happy we're going with that hard challenge.

And uh on the water part, of course, uh, we have aqueducts from 800 BC.

With a very fine point one zero degree angle difference, we can collect the rainwater and make it across the bridge.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, your your water feature may not be visible, but it'll be there.

Yeah, yeah.

No, I think it'd be interesting at the next meeting to actually see what they ought to, you know, what what they're coming up with, and that's what I was saying.

It'd be nice for us to be able to weigh in on that and give our suggestions.

I think you might get some valuable and put that from us, yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

Thank you, Scott.

And then sorry, go on.

Clarification.

You the Office of Grand Connection has a newly hired chairperson.

Does that group in person have a uh have public meetings related to their activity?

Um or is this the conduit for public?

This would be the conduit for public conversation around the public art elements.

Um other than that, I'd say that the best conduit is probably the council meetings when they get regular briefings from the office of grand connection.

They didn't have a standalone commission, a public body like this where there's public comment.

Um, so yeah.

For the art elements, come on here, folks.

And then the friends of the grand connection, those that's again a separate entity together.

They're also not uh open for public comment and things, are they?

Um they're I believe a private nonprofit.

I do not know if they hold their board meetings open or not.

Some nonprofits do so nonprofits don't.

We we presented both to their board and to the bigger group.

The bigger group is about I want to say 60 to 80 people in attendance.

Um I don't know if it was um restricted in any way.

Okay.

Good to know.

Cool.

Do we move on to the next agenda item?

Which is emerging artists projects, artist selections.

Is that you, Scott?

You're taking over for that as well.

So I apologize for talking to you for almost an hour after the end of this, but I'm also happy to be here to talk about the emerging artist projects.

And I want to thank uh Charles or Commissioner McIntyre.

Um which I'm realizing I spelt your name wrong on the presentation.

Yeah, sorry.

Um I just want to thank uh the the commissioner for his participation in the artist selection process.

So let's get into it.

Hopefully, okay.

Try to get my there we go.

Um so I just want to point out this is an action item as opposed to the last one.

Um we will be seeking a motion to recommend the uh two artists uh that I'm presenting today for the upcoming emerging artist project opportunities.

Uh today we're gonna talk uh we're gonna I'll give you an overview of the program.

Uh we'll talk about some of the project details for these two upcoming projects, talk a little bit about the sites, and uh I'll give you a brief uh recap of what the artist selection process was.

So kind of how did we get to this point, and then um you'll see some of their work that they submitted.

We'll talk about next steps and then conclude with hopefully a recommendation to approve.

Uh so overview of the program.

So this really comes from, I want to say uh I started hearing from artists back in 2019 and 2020 about how particularly artists of color, uh diverse artists had been given given opportunity.

So doors had opened for them, or they were waiting for doors to open for them, but there was no support once they got the opportunity.

So it's kind of they they had felt, or some of the artists I've talked to over the years, have felt that they while they're given an opportunity, they don't necessarily have the tools yet to be successful.

Um, and so we ruminated on this concept for for years on how do we create an opportunity that's not just opening a door, but how can we create a supportive opportunity?

So we're actually building up artists, we're giving them them new tools that they didn't have.

Um this obviously this kind of program is um there's inherent risk in that.

You are you're asking artists that that don't have the skills necessarily every piece of the the skill toolbox that they need to have to create a public art project.

You're asking them to do something they haven't done.

But the the hope is that um you can create a supportive program that has um you know close to 15 years of professional experience uh in myself, um, and then also bringing in a mentor to support them that has their own track record and can see projects from that artist perspective on contracting, budgeting, how to talk with fabricators, how to create even architectural or fabrication plans.

A lot of these artists haven't done that in the past.

Um, and so at the time, we we had a uh funding from Amazon.

They had said, you know, we would really like to see a public art project in Crossroads Park.

We're gonna give you a hundred thousand dollars to do a project, and that was in 2021.

In 2023, when I uh came back to the city after consulting for a few years for the city, um, we took a hard look at okay, what do we what do we do?

Do we just do the standard kind of public art project process where we hire an artist that had already done public artwork?

We choose artists based off of completed public art projects.

Um, or is this an opportunity to finally take a stab at um trying to address that long herd issue?

Uh so we came up with the emerging artist projects pilot uh in 2023.

We hired uh our first artist was Anna Molazowski, um, and we paired her, who's she's a glass artist.

We paired her with um an artist who works across all kinds of materials.

She's also an architect, um uh Jill Anholt, who has been for honestly, as long as I can remember at this point, been working on a public art project that we're waiting for transportation to catch up on out in Bell Red.

Um, very very skilled uh mentor.

She was honestly the perfect mentor for Ana.

She both served as a sounding board, but then helped her through um you have to do all this work with the state to register to make sure that you're paying prevailing wages.

There's there's all kinds of like red tape and forms you have to fill out to do public art.

Jill help was able to help with all that stuff.

Um, and Anna, and this is the project that Anna um uh had fabricated um and installed in Crossroads Park in 2025.

So for these um after that initial success, we said, okay, great, let's let's let's get back into this, let's um identify uh two locations.

We took a broad view of where our public art collection is throughout the city.

Uh the Lake Hills neighborhood has one artwork, um, one public artwork that the city owns.

Um, so it's very underserved in terms of access to the public art collection.

Um, and then the Lakemont neighborhood, which is kind of its own little part of Bellevue, has zero.

Um, so and and there's different challenges with that.

There's not a lot of public space.

There are there are lots of parks, but they're often natural uh wetland areas um that are challenging to work around.

Um we did find a couple good spots in each of those neighborhoods uh that we think we can be really successful with.

Each of the budgets, so this is I want to be specific.

That the full budget is not $75,000 per project.

Um there is a larger budget uh that will uh that the cities uh well, not a larger, but there's a portion of the budget that the city is managing that goes to hiring and paying for the mentor, engineering, um, because we want them to work with an engineer, make sure everything's sound.

Um the city typically will pay for permitting because it's our asset, it's our project.

Um, so that's not something that uh is new to kind of how we run public art projects, um, and then foundation construction.

We decided to take that off the artist plate.

Um, so while we're doing permitting, we're also gonna do uh foundation um construction, which aligns honestly really well with the permitting aspect.

Um so of those four bullets, I would say the only one the three of them, the mentor fee, the engineering calculations, the foundation construction.

That would oops, that would typically be part of an established public artist's scope.

We pulled those off to just kind of lighten the load a little bit and make sure we're hitting all the safety things that we need to hit with every project.

And then again, because we have a lot of projects that are part of infrastructure projects that can span six, seven, eight years or more.

Particularly for emerging artists, we don't want this to string on for years and years.

We want them to have a very clear timeline of when we start, when we finish, they understand their commitment.

It's easier to budget over that period of time.

How to keep themselves paid and above water and not honestly paying for storage of fabricated parts, which can happen for those longer projects.

It's a really typical park.

It's a lovely park.

There's two ball fields.

And it's next to Tillicum Middle School.

Excuse me.

So you get a lot of middle school students walking through the park to and from school.

As well as just hanging out afterwards after school's out.

That's the Lake to Lake Trail.

So that's a trail that connects Lake Sammish all the way to Lake Washington.

It's roughly 10 miles long.

So you also get a lot of folks that are that are walking their dogs, going on longer walks on the Lake to Lake Trail, running through that southern edge of the park.

So we see that as another kind of valuable component for the site.

And then I'd just like to point out that it's just north of Phantom Lake nearby, which is mostly privately owned waterfront, but there is a public waterfront.

So there's a little bit, which is this is that's also part of the Lake to Lake Trail kind of park system.

So I think that's a good good part of the character of that area.

You can see the play play areas on in the background there.

Okay, the second site, uh, Lewis Creek Park.

I have a dot on the the likely art location.

Uh, there's a couple reasons for that.

Um it's a location that's visible from the street.

There's really no other part of the park that's visible from the street.

Um it's connects in with the the trail entrance at that north at the north end of uh Lewis Creek Park.

And it really stays away from the kind of problematic or or lovely features of the park, like the wetlands, the headwaters of Lewis Creek, um, and and respects that area as as what it should be, which is a natural place.

80% 55-acre park, so it's huge.

Um 80% of the park is undeveloped.

Uh, there's a mix of wetlands, meadows, forests, um, lots of trails, boardwalks, play areas, sports activities.

Um, there's also a community building there, which is quite lovely, uh, that does host some events, uh, community groups and stuff like that.

Um, so here's a on the the right, that's more in the interior, kind of near where the the headwaters to the Lewis Creek is.

Um, and then that left image, that kind of um portrait image, that's an image from the street of that trail entrance, which kind of really it's it's a dark image, um, but it it kind of meanders back into the the forest, and it's very my perspective is it's a very romantic uh lovely uh nature trail going back into the trees.

So we see that as like a really great opportunity.

There's also some lawn um just outside of the frame of that photo that um is along the street and and could be utilized as well.

So let's look at some art.

Okay, so the artist selection process, so the applications closed May 7th, was open to King, Pierce, Snohomish County, Skagit, Island, and Sanmon County artists.

Um we got 83 applicants, which was more than our initial um uh pilot project.

Uh we had a seven-member panel, which is much larger than what we would normally do for the budget for uh size of of these projects, but we felt like we really thought it we really wanted to have um a couple members from the Lake Hills community and a couple members from the Lakemont community.

Um sorry, commissioner for spelling your name incorrectly up there.

That'll be fixed.

Um and then we also had uh Anna Anna Lazowski, the original artist who we felt that was really great experience to have on the selection panel, and then um a curator who and um public art manager who does basically all the artwork at CTAC Airport.

Um the panel looked at all the the applications, scored everything, uh came up with six finalists at a panel uh review or artist selection meeting.

Um, and staff then interviewed each of the six uh finalists, and so the recommendation that we have is a staff recommendation.

Uh we felt like that was important for uh these projects because it there's such a close dependent relationship between staff and the artist, and we wanted to hear um specifically from them, you know, how they might address community engagement, you know, thing things that a panel maybe is is less concerned with uh than we as staff who are mission-driven around those concepts um are so the recommendation we have today are for two artists.

The first one is uh Aaron Franklin.

Uh these are not in order of we think this is the better artist or or anything.

I just ordered them simply because in earlier slides, Lake Hills Community Park was first.

Um so Aaron Franklin were recommending uh them for Lake Hills Community Park, they're Seattle-based.

They've worked uh primarily or historically, not primarily, um, as a 2D public artist.

So they've done a number of murals, uh, both by themselves and with their sibling.

Um, they've also done a form liner project, which this so they, you know, as we were talking about the Grand Connection, that's another potential opportunity is a design of a for artist design form liner.

So that's actually like a concrete stamp.

Um they've done some of that work.

They're a graphic designer, painter, writer, illustrator, and then um ceramicist and and ceramics are and the 3D work is really where they're wanting to push their art career.

They have a long history of residencies, grants, and solo and group shows.

So I'll just kind of read their statement and scroll through three slides here showing different work.

Um, so this is from one of two bodies of work that they submitted.

It's called lineage.

Uh each piece begins with a remnant of the last scraps, fragments, and excess clay are integrated into the next form.

Oops, wrong computer.

Rather than approaching the material in a fixed with a fixed plan, I allow these leftovers to become catalysts, working the direction of each or guiding the direction of each new work.

Come on.

Oh, there we go.

The practice became a way of preparing for uncertainty, resisting expectation while embracing play, flexibility, and change.

Uh, because I think the this concept of being flexible and listening, and in this case, she's listening to material, or they're listening to material.

That's a really important characteristic in a public artist.

You want to go into a community without a preset idea of what you're going to create.

And um, we were incredibly impressed, not only just for the playfulness for the color for the forms that this artist uh had in their work, uh, but just how much they wanted to learn, um, how much they wanted to listen to the community.

Um, I will, can you go?

I don't know if I can go back, can't go back.

Um, one more.

So I so in this body of work, um, one of the things that I loved was a sense of discovery.

Actually, go back to the artist selection page.

One more.

So this view on the right, you're probably wondering what it is.

Um, this is actually looking into the eyeballs of those little creatures.

Um, so I I loved that all these works had a uh sense of discovery.

Um, and here they also make more uh hanging pieces as well.

Um so that's that view of all those little felt balls is looking into the eyes of that.

There's another one.

The view on the left is actually cut paper within the within the artwork.

Um, so while they're creating these vessels, there's there's also all these kind of hidden elements um that are really playful and lovely.

The next artist, uh Ariana Heinsman.

Um, we are recommending them for Lewis Creek Park.

Um I will say that Ariana, I believe, was near if not unanimous across the panel as a selection.

Um we really wanted to honor that unless some major red flags came up the interview.

No major red flags came up in the interview.

She was excellent.

She's a Bashon-based artist.

Uh she has her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Rhode Island School of Design in 2013.

Since then, she's been working as a professional artist.

Um her work is rooted in joy.

Uh, and when she comes and presents to you, if you do recommend her for this work, um, she is she feels like the embodiment of Joy, honestly.

Um her work has the themes of nature, real and imaginary worlds.

Um, she's represented by Jane Reinhart uh gallery in Seattle, which is an excellent gallery.

And she's had multiple solo and group shows, and she has a very active uh commercial art business.

So she writes, I use the plastic plasticity of clay and the limit limitless nature of drawing to expand my ability to express the intangible aspects of what it means to be human.

Inspired by nonsense literature, my work playfully balances absurdity and convention to subvert logic and meaning, not to wallow in the existential meaninglessness of life, but to romp in the jubilance of existence.

This body of work is a colorful menagerie of ceramic sculptures, ranging from human to animal, imaginary to real, one's inner demons to one's inner Cheshire cats.

The forms evoke a sense that they will bend or morph into something else, like a cartoon, the roundness hinting at the breath they hold and ability to expand and stretch, playfully winking at the living slash non-lining binary.

So that's those two artists.

Next steps, if you do recommend, we will get into artist contracting.

We'll go into a site orientation with each artist, and tour of the sites and um and the neighborhoods, um, we'll get into uh mentor selection, which will really be one-on-one.

Meet me talking with the artist about what their specific needs are, where they really, really need to learn, or they need support.

Um, if they're interested in specific kinds of materials um that can work in a public setting and be safe and enduring, um artists that have those kinds of experiences or good candidates for mentors, and then it's me going out and talking to mentors and making sure that they're not gonna try to take over art the artist's vision, the artist's projects, subvert it, turn it into their kind of their own uh project with like these artists as assistants.

I experienced that when I was interviewing mentors uh for the first project.

Um then uh and then we'll start to get into getting the artists developing their community engagement plan and and working towards building uh the preliminary concepts, which I'll come back to you guys with.

We want to pause here before with for questions, comments before uh we request a motion.

Okay, I think that's a good idea.

Thanks, Scott, for this presentation.

I have one um question that actually even came to me when I was reading about this, and you mentioned it again today that you the idea first came when you heard about um artists of color that had doors open but didn't have the mentorship.

So I wanted to understand that when you had your 83 applicants, how did that theme play into the selection of the finalists before you'll interviewed them?

Secondly, I want to understand if the mentors that you will eventually provide the artists.

What is the consideration for mentors as artists of color?

Um, I think we always want to bring diverse artists in when we can, either as a mentor or as um the artists themselves.

We are not able to select based off of diversity.

That can't cannot be a criteria.

Um, but I think the lessons learned from those conversations with diverse artists are absolutely ingrained into the program.

Now, the when it comes to specific artists that are selected, we we have to create the opportunity and how we think best to support that opportunity, but it ultimately it comes down to an artist's work and their experience and um and what the panel responds to.

So like we we can't we have we have little control over over that aspect of it.

Um in terms of uh mentorship, absolutely.

Um I think in the case of um Anna Molazowski, it was important for Anna and uh I think she was right to have uh and a mentor that was female.

Um because was that her request?

Did she refuse that?

Okay, yeah, and part part of that is because uh fabrication, talking to fabricators, talking to engineers, um she wanted that perspective from somebody who had done it as a woman.

Um and so that uh kind of played into it, uh that uh mentor selection.

I appreciate that.

No, and I understand that the um criteria um may not be, but I just wanted to understand how the call was made for artists, um, you know, reaching out.

Maybe there are groups of artists of color, I don't know.

Just wondering if, you know, because you mentioned it and it's in your um in your written document as well.

So I just wanted to understand if a specific, you know, we made that effort to reach out to those groups to let them know, hey.

The the main way artists apply regionally uh to opportunities or find out about opportunities are are essentially two sites, uh artist trust and for culture, and so those are our our main pathways, um I can come back with or I can provide a project update um with those um I don't it's it's I don't know if I actually can do that.

You you can't really like look at an artist's name, oh no, like we can't like really tell you who was diverse or who wasn't diverse, you know.

Um but I think we did have a diverse applicant pool.

I think that's safe to say.

Yeah, I'd love to hear what Charles's opinion was as well for the through the process of selection.

Yeah, for sure.

No, so um uh first I'd like to commend Scott on his facilitation skills in the selection process, and um uh I'm especially uh was excited to participate uh as a commissioner.

I think uh the arts commission should be you know participants in in these processes, and uh especially that there are residents of Lake Hills and and Lakemont included in the in the committee, that they were fully involved and um and the the artist wasn't imposed on the neighborhood.

They were welcomed into the neighborhood.

And in terms of the selection uh uh and reviewing 83 applications, really it was about uh looking at the artist's creativity, yeah, the merit, right?

They're the their um their imagination, if you will, and being able to to um take their artwork and place it, you know, in the city, imaginatively.

Um their artist statements, um, telling them what their vision telling us what their vision was as an artist, and I think you saw with some of the the nice quotations, you just see that sense of you know whimsy and imagination and and commitment to their craft, and then um looking at their resume and seeing where what stage they were in their career as an emerging artist, so not necessarily young because they're just out of school, so they're emerging, but rather where they are.

Yeah, so yeah.

From one type of artist, some of them have been artists.

The other component, they need to be three.

Yeah, some have been artists for decades.

Right, right.

But are merging into into public art, yeah.

Yeah, so um I I've I commend the uh you know Scott's thought process in terms of a selection, and then of the seven committee members, how we whittled it down from eighty-three to six.

Um, I thought, you know, it was very thoughtful, and and uh so I I fully um recommend the this process and and how we came down to to the final six, and then their selection of the two.

Yeah, I'm good.

To me, you know this is just curious.

I didn't want to put anyone on the spot, but I was just curious.

How did it play out?

I agree that the the staff should select the final two based on a personal interview with them to see their compatibility, their ability to work well together with the city because they're gonna have to do all the all the heavy lifting.

Sorry, one thing that I'll point out that we were looking for was just that willingness to be to listen and to learn.

Um so that was that played a big part in the selection.

Good job.

It looks like uh great artwork.

So I'm anybody has any other questions?

If not, we can move on to the motion.

Okay, so then I make a motion to approve the I think I'll make that motion.

Anyway, okay.

So I make a motion to approve the um the slate of artists and to have the city move forward with it.

I seconded.

Wait, so wait, you okay.

But can I get a motion to approve the artist selection for the emerging artists project?

That's what we just did.

Now you ask, uh, all in favor, say aye.

Okay.

Yeah.

So all in favor approving of the artist selection for the emerging artist project say aye.

Aye.

And then that's it.

Motion approved.

We're done.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Yeah, let me know that sign because I was like, Yeah, so yeah.

So those that's great.

So what we are next reports.

Do we have any reports?

Committee assignments.

We have one more committee assignments.

Okay.

Let's move on to committee assignments.

All right.

Um, so you got a little peek of this um in your agenda memo before tonight's meeting.

Um I just want to go over that.

Um, most of you have already served on a committee before, so thank you.

Uh, especially if you have reviewed grants.

Um, so here is just an overview um of who uh what current members have served on what committees.

Um I will say we do have a um new committee at the bottom here.

Um you'll notice because we will be entering cultural planning, um, which uh is uh a huge undertaking that staff will be doing in the next uh probably two-ish years.

Um this will be uh creating a guiding document um with uh plans on kind of what the future of art and valve view is.

Um so these are our four proposed uh committees.

Um I will be looking for you all to volunteer yourself.

Um there is a number of members we're looking for for each.

We cannot have more than three, um, but we can have an alternate um that sometimes is used if you know more than one or two are not available.

Um, so Grants and Allocations Committee, we usually ask new members to serve, or if you have not served in a while, um the upcoming scope of work for this committee will be reviewing both the East Side Arts Partnership grants and the project grants, which are going to be opening in august um september um and then review will be mid to late October um and then we'll likely take those recommendations to the art commission in either November or December um so you'll be doing a lot of work in the fall um so keep that in mind if you want to sign up for that committee um the public art committee uh these uh just like Scott was talking about um so Charles served on the last artist call um these are we usually tap um one or two it depends on how many people we need from the commission on a committee um and then we always confirm with the the chair beforehand who should be on that committee um this is also a significant body of work although we don't have anything particularly planned um so I can't tell you exactly how much workload this will be in the next year um there could be one there could be three public art calls um if there was something that was more pressing for the grant connection that that might come up through this committee if there was things that had to move sooner than later.

Community partnerships um this is kind of a uh ever evolving as we need committee um for various partnerships whether it be with the Belvert arts district um or other potential partners um and then like I said cultural planning this is a new one um and this will be getting into nitty gritty uh what are these policies you'll be helping staff um kind of help shape our plan um so if you like planning sign up for that committee um any questions before I ask for your all thoughts on what committees you want to serve in all right uh we'll start with the chair um so you I can recommend my yeah which which I would like to do the community partnership and I believe you said public art committee needs the chair to be on it is that what I heard correctly no we just we tap you to confirm it you know hey who do you think on the commission would be good um or maybe staff recommend this commissioner how do you feel um we usually do go through the chair for that committee because it's not the whole committee that serves um on selection panels whereas all the other committees it's all of you always meeting together um the public art committee we use um in a in a slightly different way a little bit like a roster and then the chair helps make the decide decision who from that committee will serve on a specific panel yeah you can sign up for one or two um it kind of depends on how things shake out in the end um but yeah if you want to go through all your first choices and then maybe we can go through a second choice does that sound good I give community partnership my first choice and cultural planning the second okay and we can go around the room.

Sandra so my fourth option will be grants and allocations committee and my second option will be cultural planning.

Charles my first choice would be public art committee and second would be grants and allocations but I'm open to oh you exactly thank you so I need to um I can take the last two community and cultural planning.

Do you have a preference for a number one, number two?

Well, planning would be good.

Okay.

Other one I have no choice.

I'm just in the community people tell me about new stuff.

All right, Brendan.

Based on your guys's recommendations, first will be grants, and then I'm open to whatever for the second.

Um how about public art?

Sure.

All right.

Um, this is looks pretty good.

I think uh we still have one more commissioner who's not here, and then we also have a vacancy.

Um, and so given right now we have three people grants uh on the grants.

That's Sandra, Charles, and Brendan.

Um public art, we have Charles Charles and Brendan Community Partners partnerships.

We have Bobna and Joy Deep.

Cultural Planning, we have Bhavna, Sandra, and Joy Deep.

Um, I think I will talk to Erica.

For potentially public art to fill that third seat.

Um, and then uh whoever our new member is.

Maybe I make them an alternate on the grants.

Um and an alternate on public art, uh easy in um and then I might also put them on the community partnerships, not as an alternate as a third member.

Um, but I will be talking to you, Bhavna.

Um, once we have the um and then uh you'll all get the list sent out once we have a final.

Um yeah, but Sandra, Charles, and Brendan, I'll be tapping you pretty soon for those grant.

Fall will come sooner than we all read.

Um, yes, yeah.

So just for clarity, you all are giving your preference today, but our chair will assign that that's the official like how you get on which committee.

So it's not a vote today, it's we're hearing what your preferences are, and then a conversation with the chair who will assign you.

Yep.

Um, so um, no, any reports, or are we?

We're into project updates, might be our next item.

Yes, I'm missing something on the agenda.

Um, we got too close.

Yes, project updates.

Um, we received four applications um for the Cultural Facilities Grant program.

Um, they are being reviewed.

Uh, we're figuring out times for interviews, which is a new thing we added this year.

We wanted to give a chance for both um the reviewers and the applicants to ask questions, answer questions.

Um, and then those will come in the fall to the arts commission for recommendation to council for final approval.

Um we are getting our guidelines for the Eastide Arts Partnership and Project Grants finalized and translated into Bellevue's top 10 languages.

We added a few this year.

Um, and then here is a whole smattering of events.

There's a lot going on this summer.

Um, this is not everything, but this is everything that I could find from our grantees or that they told me about.

Um so all of those links uh should link you to more information if you need to sign up or how to show up.

Um do you want to talk about planning?

Sure.

Um so this will be our final update from the economic development plan.

After this, this item will roll off of the updates.

The plan was formally approved by council earlier in this year.

Um, we're very excited.

There are some elements in there that touch onto our work around creative economy, around the Bell Red Arts District.

Very excited for that.

Um you heard a connection to our update today about the grand connection.

I'm gonna hand back to Manette to talk about um this wonderful mural in a second.

But first, just an update that our we are into the summer and artwork maintenance has kicked off.

Um Pelodi got its hand scrubbing a couple weeks ago.

That's always a bit of a lift to take the full day.

We clean that when we clean that artwork.

We're gonna be looking at maintaining 25 to 30 artworks over the course of this summer.

Some of them go into the fall.

Um, but that is part of our ongoing regular maintenance contract with Art Tech as a multi-year project or uh contract as we work to do regular maintenance, make sure that the investments we make here in this room are maintained.

Oh, thank you.

I missed one.

I also wanted to give an update to this uh committee that we received eight applications in response to our request for proposals for a consultant to do a validation study around performing arts um if you remember we have talked about some of this work in regards to um how do we as a city and analyze the demand for performing arts center maybe move a little bit out of a responsive space where our community and uh nonprofit organizations have led for many decades and start really doing some internal validation of that work and seeing some um looking for some studies that that we're conducting ourselves um the scope of work includes um careful third party analysis of previously completed studies by external partners as well as some of our own studies particularly around market analysis how much demand is there what kind of we're really getting down to how many seats do we need we know we need a wide variety of typology of performance spaces but this one's really considered with the big house if we were to build a regional performing arts center how many seats are we talking about um once the staff once the consultant is on board as staff will coordinate a more formal update to the art commission in your role around cultural planning um so that will be probably a uh heavier item later in the year once that consultant is with I will share that almost all of the applicants were large national arts consulting firms were really excited with the applicant pool um and we will share more once that person's on board um so then the mural in Bell Red rent-free is officially complete um here are some images it is a lovely experience both as a pedestrian and on the light rail um and then I've been working with the art club at Bellevue High School and they have completed a box wrap design um this is to be put on Bellevue Way and Wolverine Way and this is just south of uh main street um right by the it's the closest box um uh it was a delightful um we had a little nudge um but yes delightful project they're all super excited um they want to do more um so we'll see uh if there are any other opportunities in the future um but yeah here's a picture they painted on canvas and then we got them scanned um and we're hoping it'll be installed in July um so that's exciting by the time they're back in school they'll have something to to see and look at every day um we got an update on the grand connection um we officially had a ribbon cutting and thank you all to attended um for uh river and crossroads park um it was delightful while hot um uh we thankfully had a little bit of shade um as uh and and also got to experience uh the sun coming through the art and making some fun shadows um but yes uh we'll remove this item from future updates um and then our call for factoria um uh closed in early june a hundred and fifty three artists applied um this was a national or a worldwide call um and uh there will be a panel meeting uh similar to the emerging artists process we'll go through that um and select uh some finalists um and um i think that is it that'll be quite a task now doing it now to 153 um i also want to confirm the next meeting date um we have no meeting in august this is quite standard um everyone pretty much takes off in terms of councils, boards, all of that.

Um does september 2nd, that is the first Wednesday of September.

Does that work for most of you?

Yes, works for me.

Yeah, should be okay.

I know that's a little bit in the future um uh no written communication.

Um so any other comments before we close out the meeting.

Yeah.

I mean, are they still existing or are they done?

Okay.

Because Sandy just resigned and I just felt kind of awkward that was a very random, abrupt decision, or it was just kind of two year term.

I'm not sure.

I would encourage for like internal politics of any nonprofit to reach out to that organization.

I will tell you that the organization is still active.

They were under contract with the city to deliver uh World Cup programming on Friday for the last game, which would have been the 26th.

Um, and that event did go, did happen.

Um so they are they for that they had actually hired Sandy back as a contractor to so there's some ongoing relationship changing there too.

Um I I would like to say encourage you to reach out to the org, reach out to their Instagram, they're very responsive organization.

It is common that new startups go through some shakeup, but I am incredibly impressed with their outgoing executive director in Sandy Vaux.

Um I'm incredibly blessed with how she has navigated this change.

Um I think I'm safe to share that she has accepted the job of the director of communications of the Bellevue Downtown Association.

Um, so she came from the downtown association, spent some time about Red, is going back to the downtown association.

That's a very positive thing for our community.

Um I think I might leave it there.

But reach out, there are partners in art.

Any other comments?

Oh, so it is now 6 16 and I adjourned this meeting.

Thank you.