Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
The Benicia Arts and Culture Commission held a special meeting on February 19, 2026, at 6:00 PM in the City Council Chambers. The meeting focused on hearing mid-year compliance presentations from four community grant recipients: Benicia Literary Arts, Benicia Ballet Theater, VOENA, and the Museum of History Benicia. Commissioners heard updates on programmatic activities, financial use of funds, and community impact from July 1, 2025 to December 31, 2026. The meeting was called to order by Chairperson Hekmat and adjourned at 7:20 PM.
We'll go ahead and call to order. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for coming tonight to this special meeting by the Venetia Arts and Culture Commission. Looking forward to tonight's discussion. We'll go ahead and turn over to roll call. Commissioner Nervous, please. Yes. Here. Here. Here. Here. Thank you, Commissioners. We'll go ahead and move into the Pledge of Allegiance. Who would like to lead us? I guess I will do it. All right. Now we'll move into the next section, which is reference to the fundamental rights. The red fundamental rights of each member of the public can be found in a municipal code posted on the city's website in a plaque that's outside located outside this entrance. Moving on to section five, adoption of the agenda. Do we have any comments or motion to adopt the agenda? I make a motion to adopt the agenda. Thank you. Someone second it. Yes. And now we'll go ahead and move into the next section, which is opportunity for public comment. This is the portion of the meeting that's reserved for persons who wish to address the commission on any matter that's not already on the agenda. So you have a maximum of three minutes. No written comments. Reporting out from July through December thirty first. As Jim's getting set up by last night, I did help it was helpful for you to know how much funding each grant he received. So Benicia Literacy Arts received a total of 5,428 for the two years, so they receive about $2700 a year from these grant funds. Thank you, Jim. It's all yours. Her many contributions include serving as the chair of Venetia's Open Government Commission, President of the Benicia League of Women Voters, co-founder of Carkiness Village, and Benisha's fourth poet laureate. Just to name a few. So who are we? And we have a mailing list of about 1,200 names. We also have paid technical support person who manages our website and our social media presence and a paid bookkeeper. Our mission is to encourage informed, thoughtful citizenship by harnessing the written word. The arts and culture grant funding has played a critical role in sustaining and growing Ben Lit. What is it that the work we do? Our approach is simple. We make reading and writing entertaining, educational, and personally fulfilling. Many of our events are shared with the Benisha Public Library and the Poet Laureate Program. I want to mention that we try also to expand our outreach and get away from just focusing on readers and writers.