Call a meeting to order.

Thank you all for being here.

Our first item of business is a resolution to adopt the 2026 City Commission meeting schedule.

So moved.

Support.

That of obviously most directly uh affects the people up on the dice here.

My understanding is uh our clerk is run that by everybody and uh the proposed uh uh meetings time uh makes sense for everyone.

Um the public will know when they are when we get when we get it published.

But uh as long as there's if is there any further discussion about that?

Great.

Then I would ask for uh a vote.

Um all in favor of the proposed uh calendar, say aye.

Aye.

All opposed, passes.

Uh that brings us to our second resolution.

Uh this is the next step on our Bretton Meadows project, and Ms.

Ronero is here.

Can I have a motion?

So move.

Support.

Good morning.

Yes, this is the final step here uh for the Breton Meadows uh project.

This is uh to just jog the memory.

This is a demolition of a former grocery store.

Uh converting converting that uh parcel to seven new uh residential, multi-family residential uh buildings for 168 new apartments uh with uh 28 million in total construction costs and about half of those units being dedicated for tenants under a hundred percent AMI.

Great.

And we were all here for previous discussion.

I don't know if there's any need for further discussion.

Obviously, we were all very excited, I think, and positive about it the last meeting.

Um any discussion at this point?

All right.

Then um seeing none, uh I'll ask for a vote.

All in favor of moving this forward.

Aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

All right, motion passes.

Thank you.

And Ms.

Rennero, why don't you bring us to the same step on the next project?

Yes, this is the last step here for the 280 and project.

Next step going to uh the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, similar to the last project.

Uh this is a project that was approved back in 22 at commission for the same exact scope.

It's a new four-story building being added onto an existing office building to add 44 residential units.

Um now we are adding uh housing eligible activities with the change in Act 381.

And so this is a project um that's going to cover 4.2 million dollars roughly in eligible activities for the new housing uh TIFF across 11 point seven million in total capital costs.

Great.

Can I have a motion?

So moved.

Support.

Uh any discussion?

Again, uh looks like a great project and a lot of positive comments about it earlier on.

Um so any seeing no discussion right now, uh all in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

That brings us to our next item.

Uh thank you, Ms.

Renero.

Um this is a uh resolution approving the appointment of an interim city manager, which is a attorney.

Sorry, please.

Wow.

I was I was slipping that in on the agenda there.

Sorry, city attorney.

Uh so resolution approving appointment of an interim city at uh city attorney.

Uh a little bit of a I mean not a little bit, I think a fairly big bit of a sad moment for a lot of us um because our uh city attorney is a rock star and she's been uh gracious and diligent and uh her person her staff loves her, the community loves her, we love her.

I don't know what else there's to say.

I've getting her to tear up a little bit, maybe here.

I'm looking at her eyes, but um, you know, we do love you.

So um, you know, uh uh so so happy to have you have done all the work you've done over the years.

Um and um happy for you that you can make decisions about your life that make the make make sense for your life, but wish you were staying.

But since you since you made your decision, we'll honor your decision.

But that brings us to um having to uh move on to uh uh a new appointment.

So procedurally, uh I'd like a vote for I mean a pardon me a motion for the resolution.

So moved.

Support.

Uh and that brings us to the next step, and we've all discussed this and um logically in this in uh in this situation.

Taking your uh number two in the office and making them the interim makes a whole lot of sense.

Uh and I know that we all have are happy for Phil as he uh the proposal here is to move Phil into this into that acting role.

Um and that will take us to the bigger community discussion about who our next city attorney is gonna be.

And that of course starts with HR and search firms and doing maybe a national but certainly a statewide uh look for um uh someone to fill that role.

And of course it may be an internal hire, it may be uh an external hire, but that's a long process that's gonna give us the opportunity to talk about um how do we think that um that department should be functioning and how what should be its vision and leadership going forward.

But today um we're we're going to uh pass the baton, have hope to have continuity and stability.

Um Phil's already got stuff in the office, so he he can he can move his stuff over an office or two, but he doesn't have to get a moving truck.

Um but uh so uh I don't know, um city attorney if you want to say anything.

I I do I was gonna say thank you very much for um making this or accepting this recommendation because Phil has been my deputy the last six years and he's been awesome.

He's been committed, hard working, and a lot of what I do I always say is a lot of the compliments that I get are due to the team that I have and Philip is part of that team.

And so the thing that I take most comfort with is because it's Philip, uh that the um team won't miss a beat.

We'll still have awesome service to the client in the city, and I can't think of anyone that I but taking a risk because I have a lot of wonderful people.

But I think they support me as I'm I'm elated that Philip is gonna be the person that steps into this um interim period.

Right.

Thank you.

Uh so procedurally, uh I don't know if any colleagues, any of you want it, uh Commissioner Sasi.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I just want to say I first met um our city attorney when I was on our civil service board, and she was coming up because we were just going through our compensation study after 20 years, and there was a lot of internal turmoil uh in that department, and it was a new department that you had taken on, and you said this is the vision I have, this is how I want to restructure it.

I want um, you know, I I want individuals to sort of own these areas.

I want to build a culture.

And that was a while ago, because that was before I was on commission.

And I think today I I took a picture with you and I wrote a little post because it is is sort of a sad, it's a sad day for you.

It's a happy day for Phil.

Um, because I we've seen your relationship and the relationship inside of this city.

And it has made uh an immense impact, I know to me serving on here to know to have your good counsel, your concern, your caution, um, and your just appreciation for the work.

And so I hope you get some rest.

Um you deserve it.

You've worked very hard.

And then um to Phil, I know that you know you have the utmost professionalism.

You have presented topics where I feel like you've orchestrated the language perfectly so that we can understand the impacts to our city.

Um and just around the water cooler, people are like, I'm glad that Phil's gonna be here as the interim because he's gonna keep this continuity, this high level of professionalism, um, and not concerns about the team because I think that's what you both think about.

So I'm it it's a sad day, but appreciation that we have such a strong bench of individuals, and um we know you're not gonna be going away too far.

So thank you.

Uh Commissioner Knight.

Um I will get too deep on you.

Yeah.

Um, I just want to say the opportunity to have the wisdom and the passionate heart that you have for the work that needs to be done.

Um is is hard to find.

Um people come in to do a job, but you bring your heart and soul into everything that you do, and and we will hold on to that.

I'm not gonna let you get far, so um I I would dare say, Phil, I can't say you got big shoes to feel because I don't want to ever see you in her shoes.

Um, but I know that you have a heart for people, and um I've loved getting to know you and your compassionate side, and then you know, outside of work side.

Um, and I I love that we have that opportunity to keep the flow going instead of having disruption and a break in there, and I know that you will bring the same heart and clarity into this space.

So looking forward to it, and um uh looking forward to celebrating Miss Anita and giving her her flowers while she's here for all that she's done.

Uh anyone else, otherwise uh city manager.

Thank thank you, Mayor, and um I too want to uh wish our city attorney congratulations on our retirement and her 26 years of service to the city, and as much as she provides good counsel to the city commission on behalf of all the departments that need your daily guidance and counsel and uh help.

We appreciate the work that you have done in terms of uh helping your clients.

And so thank you for your leadership uh both on and off dais.

And I too want to uh congratulate my colleague uh Philip Strom on this interim uh appointment and uh I see his wife is there with them today, and so thank you for uh being supportive as well.

And just to uh I believe uh after the conclusion of Cal there is a uh small reception in honor of Miss Hitchcock with uh those of uh that are gathered here today.

Uh but there will be a larger community uh gathering, I think, September the 10th.

I'm seeing Phil nod his head, and so more information will be uh available about that.

But again, congratulations.

So uh I will call for a vote.

All those in favor of appointing uh Mr.

Strom as interim city uh attorney, say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

Umstrom, you want to uh come up and say something?

I'll give you a point of privilege here.

I'll be brief and just say that I'm very grateful.

Uh I take your trust very seriously.

Um I say thank you to Anita, Miss Hitchcock for allowing me the opportunity to come down here in 2019 and uh move my family and give them more opportunities.

And uh I I really look forward to serving you in whatever capacity you'll have me as interim city attorney.

I look forward to the process.

I think it's a wise decision to do a process that will be inclusive and broad and and get the next best city attorney for the city of Grand Rapids.

Um I have some opinions on who that person might be, but I'll let you make that final decision and uh special thanks to my wife and my kids and the Department of Law for um just being a great team.

Thank you.

Thanks.

So uh uh city manager stole my announcement about uh food in the hallway, but uh I I I imagine there are thousands of people getting in their cars right now to come up for that.

Um but uh yet we will have a uh a larger and and more uh more substantial uh uh celebration uh and that's important.

Um it's um this is this is hard work service and uh it's important to acknowledge all the all the blood, sweat, and tears, and all the heat and all the all the stress involved.

Um so uh you know it's uh you know if we if we want to have a strong city, it's important to value the people that that make it vocational work to do the public service that you've done.

So appreciate you.

Um that moves us on um to our next item then.

And I'm gonna um ask actually that we have an I think it's it makes more sense to have an update on Art Prize before we do our art prize resolution.

So um if we could uh talk if we could have our update now on Art Prize.

Um I think we've got a presentation coming.

Yep.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh so today, Mr.

Catelyn Whittington, who is uh the executive director of Art Prize is here to give us an overview, and as you've said, uh after you have questions about him, I think the city's portion of this festival will uh be uh reviewed by uh Miss Pittman, and then of course, any questions that you have before your uh deliberation of vote, uh we will happy to take that.

But I'll say this before he starts.

Um we are a city with many mantras as Calder, City, River City, Furniture City, but we have become affectionately known as uh art city as well, but not just because of our prize, because of the uh the culture that we're trying to create for artists around the community.

And you've seen that this summer, it feels like almost every week we've had a uh festival here right on our very uh Calder Plaza, but throughout the city uh activities and many parks uh parks and neighborhoods.

Uh but today we do want to focus on this uh three-week period that has uh uh as you saw in the uh art economic impact has been the most impactful of all the studies from uh fiscal perspective with over 70 million dollars in uh annual economic impact.

And so uh since it takes a lot of uh time and resources, we want to make sure that uh those of you who are here for the first time as elected to an uh art prize are well aware of what's happening and and then of course explain more specifically some of the city's uh provisions for the festival.

So with that, uh Mr.

Whittington.

Good morning, y'all.

Thank you for having me here.

It's great to see you all again.

Uh several of you on the on the dais are familiar with uh with this uh presentation.

So if y'all are new, welcome uh and glad to be here and present.

Um Art Prize 2025, September 18th through October 4th.

Uh we are you'll find that throughout this presentation, you'll find this focus of this intersection between exhibition uh experience and education.

And we really feel that uh that nexus is where Art Prize really shines and differentiates itself from other events, other festivals, other art competitions, art fairs.

This is really the value proposition of what Art Prize is as this decentralized open global art competition and cultural event.

So our mission is really to transform the art world through that event.

Uh and you know, this is an experience in Grand Rapids that really is is meant to inspire conversation and create this critical discourse around uh the aesthetics of art and whether and who gets to enjoy art.

And we believe that everybody is an artist and everybody has access and the ability to enjoy art.

But we also, our team really focuses on we believe that if we produce a world-class art competition and cultural event, the benefits that come from that will follow.

And I tell my team all the time, and I believe that we could all agree that we are not in the arts business and we're not in the events business.

We are in the customer service business, and we are there to support and provide service for all of our stakeholders, our community, our artists, our venues, uh the 795,000 visitors that come through every year or that came through last year.

Um that number, 795,000 uh and 70 million dollars in economic impact is produced by a team of 12 full-time year-round people.

That's it.

And so if you break out the math, there's a lot of customers service that has to take place for this to be successful.

So last year, 795,000 visitors to art prize.

We brought 2700 students through on field trips from all throughout throughout the region and even some uh from around Michigan.

We brought in 71 to 77 million dollars in regional economic impact.

Uh, we had a thousand artists participate, 160 venues, and and our voting numbers were way up.

We're really pleased to announce that this year uh we have over 1,100 artists that are connected.

We have 931 entries.

We only have 155 venues, we're down five, but we're really excited to see that our artist numbers are up.

Uh last year we had 43 countries represented.

This year only 27 countries represented.

There's international travel is is taking a hit.

But uh we're really excited to see the number of artists presenting up.

This year our award structure uh is a little different than last year.

We're actually splitting the awards evenly between the public votes and the juried votes with the hundred thousand dollar grand prize for each, as well as the category winners.

As with the past several years, uh the last three years or two years, this will be the third year.

We have our visibility awards presented by our friends at Miller Knoll.

Uh these will be five ten thousand dollar awards that go to uh artists who really excel in their work that represent underrepresented communities of BIPOC, uh LGBTQIA plus and artists with disabilities.

We're really excited to once again partner with Miller Knoll Foundation to be able to present this for these artists.

And then we have a venue award where we recognize a venue that really represents uh what it means to be a part of the artist community here.

Our grants.

So Art Prize is one of the largest annual direct-to-artest funding bodies in the world, actually.

We uh rank up there in terms of the sheer amount of funds that we give directly to artists uh with some of the the bigger uh foundations around the world uh and some of the bigger prizes, uh prize competitions and arts competitions.

Uh our grant program is really intended to one create access and opportunity for artists who might not be able to come participate in art prize.

This is national, international artists, and these are also artists that need that support to create something that is truly ambitious and to bring it here to Grand Rapids.

Uh so you'll see here this is a uh a rendering of what the Blue Bridge will look like during the event.

Uh this artist is coming in.

This is our featured public project.

This is one of our larger grant programs that we've done several years for several years.

Uh they take a lot of resources, it takes a lot of staff time.

However, these are the ones that are really impressive, and we're excited to be able to bring uh bring this work here.

Uh new program this year or revitalized program this year was our pitch night competition.

We actually took art prize to five different cities around the country in partnership with other arts organizations in each one of these cities.

Partnered with the K Matt Contemporary, the Idol George Museum, Art Prize wins, and they actually matched our grant funding to bring artists from their region or from their community to Art Prize this year.

And I'm really excited to announce with the Idol George Museum, and they're one of their curators is coming up.

The Idol Jorg is one of the preeminent uh museums of Native American art.

Uh so that was a Native American pitch night that actually went nationwide.

It was a really great program, and one of their curators will be here as one of our jurors.

I'm also excited to announce we've had the Modu Viget grants the last few years.

Um, but this year we hosted it as a pitch night at Ottawa Hills High School, and nine local artists pitched to a panel of judges, and three of them won a grant to realize their work and bring it here to Art Prize.

A few of those artists uh from this this program.

Uh Leticia Bahulio uh was at PitchNote, Oklahoma.

Uh, she's been trying to bring this work here to our prize for several years.

We're really excited to see it come.

Uh Isan Somersell with his emergence piece is one of our Motu Viguette grantees.

Uh, this is him moving actually from a two-dimensional into a three-dimensional genre and medium.

Really excited to see that.

And then uh Gina Herrera was the winner of the pitch night idol Georg with Soaring Eagle.

This is uh this is actually a representative work of the one that she will be bringing.

This is actually a work of her mother.

The one that she is creating for this is uh uh a sculpture of her father, so excited about that.

I like to share the art, you know, not just the not just the details and the the numbers, but um our hero grants, these really allow us to support kind of ambitious projects.

Uh think about this as as a discretionary fund.

These are projects when artists bring us something and they're like, we want to do this cool thing, and we're like, well, okay, it doesn't fit into any of these other categories.

This is how we find that opportunity uh to support them.

Uh we're really excited to partner with various groups, the Heart Side Business Association.

Uh we gave out nine venue grants to support smaller venues with their exhibition needs, as well as the Fulton Street Mural Grant in partnership with the Westside CIAD, CIA.

Uh, really excited about these partnerships, though.

These help us and help these community partners.

We can leverage our systems to administer these grants and these RFPs and reach out to our artist networks.

They can leverage uh our support in creating works of art in their space and bringing art into their space to activate their space, either during art prize or year-round in the case of the Westside CID.

This is a map of our venues.

Uh just a couple notes here.

We do have 155.

We're about 4.5 square miles.

Uh I'd like to highlight a couple outliers, one being uh Link Up, which is down on Madison Street, down on the southeast side.

Uh they are going to have a mural down there.

We're excited to be working with them.

Another is uh the Godfrey Hollows over on Godfrey on the on the southwest side.

Um, this is a an interesting artist community that is growing.

Some of the challenges that we have uh with moving outside of this the density of venues downtown is that you have these outliers and getting traffic down there, but we found with both of these partners, they are working to create events and create uh uh activities that are going to draw people there and make them destinations.

And so it's really it's great to be working with uh with these community partners and trying to find uh activation and and find ways to create something of value.

Um you'll also see uh a lot of density over on the southeast side over in the uptown district that really is driven by uh the Uptown Business Association working to get their venue signed up and make sure that they are activating around there and really creating a vibrant hub.

The same could be said for the for the Westside and Stockbridge Association.

We have a great work in relationship with them to uh recruit and get their venues on board.

Okay, this is where the experiences start.

This is the signature event.

So we feel you'll notice the geographics, the geographic distance of our venues.

Uh, you'll also start to notice some kind of the geographic uh distribution of these events and these activations.

And the intention here is to continue to drive people throughout the district.

If we can move people throughout the 16 days of art prize and throughout the district, we are doing the service to our community that we need.

We're getting people to move around, we're getting people to interact with venues that they wouldn't normally interact with.

We love our central core down here.

We love the Amway, we love the DeVos Place, but we need people to move outside of those areas for these other business associations and business districts to be activated.

So by placing intentionally different events and different activities, uh not just through time but also through space here.

We are creating a very intentional driver uh to keep these activities moving.

So opening celebration will be on September 19th at Rosa Park Circle and on Pearl Street Bridge.

A great note that this is in collaboration with GR 175 and the GRA 250.

We're excited about that.

We'll be uh co-branding everything with both, just to recognize the culmination of the GR 175 efforts and a kickoff for the GRA 250 going into 2026.

Our halftime show, September 26th, will be uh at Rosa Park uh sorry at Sixth Street Park presented by Rockford.

Uh Tierra Kennedy is the headliner.

She was on uh Beyoncé's uh Cowboy Carter album, so really excited to get her.

Um, and we have to you know say Beyonce every time we mention her just because uh and then the awards ceremonies on October 3rd is Studio Park, and we'll be activating that whole space.

It will be a red carpet style award ceremony uh in Studio Park, and we're excited about it.

Some of our activations, uh, the art prize clubhouse will be right in the Central Core, we're about 40 Pearl Street.

We're activating the old uh the old bank space there next to Terra Bagels.

Uh, these are we the last two years we've taken these underutilized spaces and really built them and reimagined them, and so this space will have our information, our merchandise store, artist lounge, volunteer lounge, as well as a media center this year.

Last year, our clubhouse had 30,000 people come through it uh over the 16 days.

So if you can imagine these underutilized spaces downtown, and all of a sudden we activate them, we put a little bit of resources, time, and attention to them, and we have this draw and people coming in and seeing and imagining what it could be.

Uh our Borealis, really excited about this.

This is an art prize experience at 555 Monroe.

Um this will be a ticketed experience, and the intention there, and there will be some opportunity for uh for complimentary tickets for students and and for for some of the some community members that we're working with.

But this is really an immersive experiential art installation and sculpture.

It's 9,000 square feet, it's 35 feet tall, and it's coming from the UK.

Uh, we're really excited to get this here.

Uh, and uh as you can see the scale from this picture, it is it's pretty amazing.

And you actually go and you it's a it's a maze.

Uh and there are no lights involved in the color you see there.

That is actually the color of it.

It's it's only lit from the sun and from the ambient lighting, so um pretty exciting stuff.

Biophilia, this is an art prize exhibit.

We are taking the underground parking lot at Silfa and working with progressive companies, progressive formerly progressive AE, now progressive companies, uh, to uh create uh uh an exhibit that is designed around biophilic design principles, which is this intersection of uh the built environment, nature, and how we interact and move through the space.

Uh so we actually have 25 artists from around the country and even around the world coming in to exhibit their work in this space.

Okay, all this can't happen without the partnership of our community partners, uh, especially the the city, the county, uh DGRI, Kendall College of Art and Design, our leadership partners in this new public-private partnership.

But we are really proud to help provide a platform that other community organizations and institutions can work with us to help engage, support, and amplify their efforts and their mission within the confines not the confines within the construct of our prize and what we do.

So this is the education, the engagement, the volunteerism part.

Uh this really creates our prize as a global event that is focused and and intentional here in the community.

So you'll see some of the names on here, Grand Rapids Public Museum, Creative Mornings West Side CID, Grandville Arts and Humanities, and uh many others that we work with.

Last year we worked with over 30 community partners, uh, and this is just a small part of the list for this year.

Um some of our partners are our sponsors, some are working with us on workshops, and we are helping to uh fund student field trips, for instance, for Grandville is funding some student field trips down to come to our Borealis, and then they are partnering with us on some workshops.

So uh excited about that.

Um just some notes on on the logistics of getting around.

We have our artist and venue events, these are opening receptions, performances, these are all listed on there, and ever hosting that.

So any member of the community can submit events that are taking place during Art Prize, and we will list it on the community events calendar.

These don't specifically have to be art or art prize related, but they are happening during art prize.

We found a lot of uh a lot of our partner venues wanted to list things on our schedule, like they're having a trivia night or things like that, or uh community partners might like, for instance, one of our community partners, the um uh the zoo, uh they have their power of pollinators exhibit, and so we're listing that on our communities uh calendar during that time.

It's a good way for us to help amplify these activities that are happening.

Uh our feature events, these are partner art prize produced special events.

So think Smart Art, which has their consumers uh consumers energy smart art, which will they'll have their uh that's a high school student art competition will be located here in City Hall, uh, as well as the GR 175 poster show will be here in City Hall.

Um, but we have the art of the Olympians at the downtown market.

These are Olympic athletes that are artists bringing work from artists from around the world.

And then we have our happenings, and these are art-related activities that might not necessarily be associated with the competition or registered venues, but they are art related, and so we list those as happening.

It's on our website.

I share all this just because I know we have the news here, and I want people to figure out what they want to go see and how they want to engage with the art prize during the year.

And all this is available at artprize.org/slash events.

All right, lastly, our education component.

We have field trips.

Uh we will be running field trips Monday through Thursday.

Uh every day of art prize that you know, every weekday of art prize, uh, starting at the GR Ford Museum and journeying through downtown, targeting 3,000 school kids again this year.

The great thing though that we do, and I and I really this was this was in place when I got here, and I and I really want us to continue to focus on this, is we create curriculum, both printed material and digital material.

This is we're gonna print 12,000 of these guides, and these can be used in classrooms, and they are used in classrooms uh year-round.

And so we take art's principles and then we exemplify them uh through the art prize artists and their work.

And then we work with the teachers that are there, we distribute them so the students can enjoy can can experience art prize firsthand and then take it back to the classroom and use that as a learning tool throughout the year.

Uh this year we have 12 workshops.

Uh these are for all ages.

This is not just student workshops, although we do have a lot of K through 12 or youth-oriented workshops, make and takes, things like that.

But we're really excited this year to also focus on some artist development, professional development, uh continued learning and lifelong learning kind of uh activities that are taking place.

All right, Art Prize 2026 will be here before you know it, September 17th through October 3rd.

Uh and at that uh I I open the floor to any questions.

Thank you all for your time.

Well, thank you.

That's um sort of feels like you you you get uh brought us to an all-you-can-eat buffet.

So I mean uh in it just really incredible to to have this in the community.

I s I remember when this started and I thought, this is crazy, like this is weird.

What is this?

And it and it it sort of exploded in those early years.

Um, I I love and we've had this conversation, you and I off dice, but I love the pushing art out into the community because you know it's people can go to art museums, um, but not everybody does.

Uh people might feel intimidated by art galleries, like there's a you know, secret uh criteria for walking into an art gallery, but getting art out, pushing it out into the community is just huge.

And um also obviously the connectivity with the with the business community is great because it's not just true that not everybody gets to see art necessarily in the course of their life as much as they might want to, but it's also true that like we all don't know the business community as well as we could.

And and putting those two things together so that we have an opportunity to introduce people to businesses around the community as well as to art, um, you know, just seems like a wonderful synergistic thing.

So I'm so excited by your energy on this.

You make me feel a little tired when you uh tell us all of your but your your your you know your your breadth of of uh you know your vision here is awesome and you're obviously making it happen.

Um so thankful that you're doing this, so proud that it's in our community.

It's it's maybe the first thing I remember about Grand Rapids thinking, we have something that other people don't have.

I mean, other you know we have libraries, there are other communities that have libraries.

We have an art museum, it's awesome, but other communities have those.

We have you know, a symphony, other communities have symphonies, but art prize is this thing that like you know, other people don't have, and we do, and and people come for it.

And uh I remember it was either last year or the year before, walking around downtown thinking this is the one time of the year that I sort of I'm around when our prize is going on, you sort of feel like you're in Barcelona or something.

Like it's it's hard to get through the the mobs of people.

And and when your downtown is that energized and that excited and alive and vibrant, boy, does it make you proud to live in the city?

So uh thank you for continuing to do this.

I think this is in a lot of ways the high watermark for um activity, engagement, uh community building, all that kind of stuff.

Um I mean, I have relatives who come and camp out in my house because they want to come do this.

And and you and I were talking about the economic impact.

One of the other fun things about this is a lot of people don't stay in hotels.

A lot of people stay with their family members who live in in our community, and so it's not just building art in the community, it's not just good for the business community, it's actually also good for bringing you know our relatives into town to see us.

It's good for it's good for it's it's a community celebration.

So and and it and it really from from my eyes just hits all the markers.

So uh thank you so much for this.

Um, I don't have any questions.

I just I'm just really grateful that you're that you're in charge of this and that it's going so well.

But Commissioner Sasi Thank you.

Um I just wanted to share thanks for the presentation.

Sounds like some really good activations.

I love the focus on the educational pieces, and I think this just like that continued example of that public-private partnership.

I just want to say thanks for working with our, you know, within the city and with all these other partners.

I know there's a lot of our departments out there who are very actively engaged during this time as well.

You know, I'm looking at Chief Winstrom, I'm sure the fire department, there's probably something with pyrotechnics that's involved.

Um, you know, our our parks teams, our special events team.

So we know that um all of you are working behind the scenes.

So the team of 12 that you mentioned, city staffers, um, these uh love to see the CIA and these other groups kind of coming together to make this happen.

Um, and another good reminder will be um our Michigan Municipal League Conference will be here that that kick off week too.

And so we're looking forward to inviting our municipal colleagues across the state to experience Grand Rapids and not just Grand Rapids, but as the mayor.

So, like people who are coming, you said 23 different countries to experience these these installations, this art, and um just hopefully being more connected.

So just wanted to share that piece and look forward to joining a couple of these events.

Thanks.

Thank you so much.

Uh, Commissioner Kilgar.

Yeah, so thank you so much for the presentation.

I just have a few questions here.

So um you said that you had a good relationship with uh Uptown, which is awesome.

I serve on the Uptown uh board.

I'm just wondering here, when I really look at the map here, you only really have in the heart of the third ward link up, which is wonderful.

I'm happy that's there, but I think this uh my feedback here is to hopefully maybe have some connections with South Town so that we can have more of uh we have like an arts and culture tour forming within the third ward.

There is so much rich culture and art that I think we're sort of missing out on here when we only really have one location in the heart of the third ward.

So I'm hopeful that uh we will, you know, and of course, Uptown is so close, right?

Wealthy is that border, so I'm seeing all of those, but that sort of further plays into this feeling of wealthy being sort of an island where many folks of color, to be quite honest, don't feel like they can really engage with the awesome things that our city brings.

So really excited for this, but I'm hopeful that in the upcoming years we continue to branch out even further.

Um so folks who maybe don't have resources or access to be in that sort of downtown corridor, uh, can experience all this wonderful stuff.

I'm super excited uh about the uh partnership with what is it, Miller Knoll about the divisibility award.

Yeah, that's gonna be awesome.

I I just really am hopeful to see more of that on the South side.

So thank you for your presentation.

And do you have any plans on that moving forward?

Yeah, so we have been in discussion with uh with the Southtown um South Town District, uh Sanita uh and and others over there.

Uh they went through a change in leadership this year.

We did have something planned to work.

One of the challenges that we have is um venues having to be open for 16 days straight.

And some of the business districts down there have a challenge uh regarding I found.

There's also somewhat of a there isn't that critical mass in one central business area.

You have five different um business districts around Southtown, which have some distance between them.

So one of the things that we were talking to Southtown about doing this year, which didn't happen unfortunately, but we are already looking to 2026, uh, is creating a uh a micro competition in within the Southtown district so that the pressure of being open for 16 days isn't on, and it can be more of a destination driver as opposed to what happens with artists that are part of the bigger competition if they're too far out.

So all of the venues you saw are in about a one and a half mile walking distance, which is a long walk, but it's not it's doable, right?

From the downtown core.

Um artists that are down there for 16 days and activating don't have the same chance in the competition as they do within the within a the re the central region.

But by creating a micro competition down in the South Town, which is something that that South Town brought to us this year as an and we talked through some ideas, we worked with them on some curation uh and some partners in the community that they could help curate with.

Um the idea being that it doesn't have to be a six 16-day event, it can be a destination driver where we can pop things up and then bring it into the fold as part of the broader community.

Wonderful.

So there are some conversations already in place.

Lovely.

Thank you for that update.

I really appreciate it.

Thanks.

Uh Commissioner Um Belljack.

Hi, yeah, thank you for your presentation.

Art Prize, I remember when it first came to our community and it was kind of like this burst of just everything.

And um having lived in New York City for a little while, it reminded me a lot of like that kind of like activation where um, you know, there it's 24-7, but here, you know, it's uh it's it's great to feel like you're in a city city.

Um but um I've heard you mention, I've heard others mention um this idea that it, you know, it really started in the downtown core, expanded a little bit.

Um it has grown on the west side, and it um I see that it is starting to move towards Roosevelt Park and things like that would be ultimate, but you know, and talking about the third ward.

What I'm hearing in even in the Heart Side Business District and other places is like how do we get people to move around better?

So I'm wondering what kinds of thoughts and plans might be around the idea of transportation or what kind of resources are needed to be able to foster that further so there could be dedicated transportation and things like that.

Sure.

Uh well, obviously, our partnership with um um GR Mobile is a huge part, and so we are working, we we push out all of the transportation needs as well.

It the dash route as well as the the work route and some of the others that our our attendees and visitors can participate with.

Uh some of the communities and business districts prop up their own uh transportation.

So I know that heart side funds and certain days, I don't think it's during the entire time, I think it's just weekends.

Yeah, they have their own heart prize going on in the city.

Yeah, they they run a shuttle uh that comes from I believe it comes down Monroe and then goes down and it circulates down into the Hart Side District and back up.

Um of the other things that I have found that work really are about the community activations within these.

So for instance, Uptown Business District, they throw uh a big street fair and celebration within during our prize.

It's just one weekend, but it really helps to create that that draw and that driver, and that's intentional with a lot of the events that we're doing in the activations to move people throughout, but resources only go so far.

And I think that in order to move people and get people to want to move, right?

People aren't going to go just because there's a shuttle.

You have to have a destination.

And so I think the more we can work with these community partners to drive destinations within these areas, the more we will see that that return for those businesses and those business districts.

But there's always uh constraint and resources, and we and time is uh time is the biggest one.

We only have 16 days and hit 365 days to plan it.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Um seeing no other questions or comments.

Um Ms.

Pittman, this is sort of the mother of all uh special events for the city, maybe.

Um so uh if you can talk a little bit before we um have our resolution authorizing, but I I'll ask for a motion for our resolution uh to approve the art prize.

So move.

Support um and I'm glad to see you've got a comprehensive document here that I'm sure has been evolving over the years, and I uh what leapt out to me is I'm really glad to see that we're regulating uh hot air balloons uh during that 15-day period.

So but if you want to speak to the uh this it's obviously a comprehensive document and it covers a lot of concerns, um flexibility on fees, concerns about historic issues uh and historic neighborhoods, um, you know, who can do what and where and when, and we don't have to go into all the details, but if you want to give us a high-level overview, we've all got the resolution in front of us.

Absolutely.

Well, Mayor, you said it best.

I couldn't have said it any better.

Um all of our programming that we do through the office is special events, that's what makes Grand Rapids vibrant.

That is, you know, when you read about us and we're on these different lists for all of the things that we do, it's because of everyone in this room and it's because of all of the events that happen.

Um our summer programming that leads up to Art Prize, we've had our Polish fest that just happened this past weekend.

Return to the river.

If you were downtown this weekend, it was dynamic.

Almost like New York, not quite, but um lots and lots going on.

And when you look at everything that we do as a whole, um, it's just really amazing what we produce here in the city the size of Grand Rapids.

So just I I just really your words just resonated with me because you know, this is what we do, right?

All right.

So we also um when we're looking at art prize, it's a both end, right?

So we have our resolution in front of you uh where we are looking at uh putting down pathways because we do have a lot of visitors that come from out of town, whether they're just coming from Byron Center or Holland, or if they're coming from as far away as you know, Nebraska, like you were saying, inviting families and friends.

So we put those Pantone pathways down, which are uh stickers that are easily removable by Art Prize and their team so that folks can know how to get around downtown, and that's something that I know that you mentioned, Commissioner.

Uh we also focus on uh the different parks that are activated.

So even though there's not an event perhaps that's happening in that park, there may be art in that park.

And we are drawing people to those other parks because other events are happening during Art Prize.

And so just that collaboration where we have that events calendar that will be up on Art Prize's website.

All of those events that are uh permitted through the Office of Special Events are on that calendar so people can see other events that are happening throughout the city throughout the same time of art prize.

Um I know my time is limited, so again, I'm not gonna go through everything, but uh we have a parade that will be taking place.

Uh that parade will lead uh from Rosa Park Circle and then it will go around downtown and end up on Pearl Street Bridge.

Uh we have activations all throughout uh an abuelan park, Sixth Street Park.

Unfortunately, Canal Park is still under construction, uh, but we have things going on in Hart Sides, so did of South Division will be lit up with our own version of Art Prize.

So we have so so so much going on.

So this resolution, I want to specifically make sure that the dates again of Art Prize are September 18th through October 4th.

Uh we will allow those uh uh art um exhibitions to start setting up uh by September 1st, and then they will be removed from the city by October 10th.

Uh we will have some pyrotechnics.

I can't remember which commissioner mentioned that, but there will be some.

So our fire marshal will be out there as well as our uh fire team and our police team is um and we also um I think that wraps it up pretty well.

Great.

Yeah, thanks for the summary.

So uh any questions from my colleagues?

Otherwise, I will um take a vote to approve uh having our prize happen again.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

All opposed, motion carries.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

And if that wasn't enough excitement, uh now we're gonna get a briefing on uh another really exciting uh opportunity, and it's something that our uh right place has been really working on, and it and it's uh a question of getting our business community coalescing around um oddly enough, tech.

So uh if you want to come up and give us a briefing, uh Ms.

Rakama, that'd be great.

Um yeah, so go take it away.

Good morning, everyone.

Thank you for having me.

Oh my goodness, it is hard to follow Art Prize as a special event, but I will do my best.

Um so my name's Andrea Ramkuma.

I lead business development at the right place, and then also uh director of Tech Week Grand Rapids, which I'm here to talk to you a little bit more about today.

Um here's you do have Wozniak, right?

Like that's not true.

We do, like yes, that can compete with our prize.

Very excited about that.

Uh so a little bit before I dive into Tech Week, a little bit about the right place and our work.

So we are the region's economic development organization, which means we're focused on the long-term prosperity of our community.

Uh we work very closely with our partners at the city of Grand Rapids to assist businesses with growth here in the region and really just try to remove any barriers that they may have to their growth and success, ultimately trying to create great jobs for everybody in the region.

So what is tech week, right?

So a couple years ago, it was uh started as truly a passing idea of you know, we're always going to these other communities and they have tech events, and at some point this became well, why not Grand Rapids?

Why can't we have this?

Uh so we took about seven weeks, I think was the time we had, and we put together a a tech week.

We worked very closely with the Smart Zone.

They were one of our first supporters here in Grand Rapids to help make this happen.

Uh, we also work closely with Art Prize, and in that first week that we had, we ended up having 3,000 people come out, which was a surprise.

It was it was a wonderful surprise.

And so clearly we saw, okay, we have some interest.

The market has been looking for something like this.

Our community's been looking for this.

So we took a step back and we thought strategically about how can we best structure this event so that it serves our community best.

We looked at best practices from other large-scale, you know, tech community type conferences.

You know them, you know, Denver Startup Week, South by Southwest, LA Tech Week.

And we settled on a model that is decentralized and truly driven by the community.

So Tech Week, it's composed of what is now over 115 events.

Uh but it's all throughout the city.

So it's not, you know, all in one conference hall where we have keynotes and sessions.

It's throughout the city.

It's actually throughout the region at this point.

Uh we have tech week events as far as north as Ludington now happening.

Uh but primarily about 90% of our events end up being in Grand Rapids.

Uh so that is how it started.

And ever since that first week where we had 3,000 people come out, we have seen significant growth year over year.

Uh last year we ended up having 16,000 attendees who came out to Tech Week.

And that makes us now one of the largest events of our kind in the community or in the country.

Uh we're we're by far the largest in the state, and one of the only ones that's larger than us right now is uh the twin cities in Minnesota.

And I think they have a dis they have an advantage because they have two cities there.

But uh we're we're now within striking distance of them because I think their record was about 22,000 people.

Uh so last year we had 70 events over a six-day program.

Uh we had significant website visits from 75 countries, and now we're also having visitors from other countries coming this year as well.

Uh one of the beautiful things about tech week is that we're able to showcase some of our local companies, which are listed up here on this slide, and get them in front of potential investment to help with their growth as well.

Before I dive into this year, I just wanted to highlight one of the rankings that we received recently.

Uh if you haven't seen it, uh this was on Good Morning America along with several other news sources.

Uh LinkedIn ranked Grand Rapids as the number one city on the rise.

And you see on the slide right there, the first bullet is tech.

They highlighted tech, they highlighted our strategy to become a leading tech hub in the Midwest, and they highlighted Tech Week as part of this.

Uh and I had nothing to do with it.

Uh they they did their their own research and they they chose Grand Rapids as one of the rising cities in tech.

And when I think back to when tech first started, you know, or when tech week first started, one of the reasons it started was because we wanted to change the perception and the brand.

And you know, we are we are a tech hub.

We can be a tech hub.

And so now to see uh an example of this coming to fruition and the rest of the country taking notice, I think was a very proud moment for uh all of the community that puts together tech week.

Uh so looking ahead, uh not too far ahead, tech week is actually starting on September 15th.

So we've got about three weeks.

Uh so Tech Week is led uh the right place, our team, we've got about five people that are dedicated to uh leading and operating tech week, very much in the background.

Um, you know, it's not the right place tech week, it's tech week GR, it's Tech Week Grand Rapids, so everybody can rally around that brand that brand.

Uh but we also have three co-chairs who lead our advisory board, which is made up of over 34 uh different businesses and other organizations throughout the community, and they they set the direction every year for the week.

And we work on a couple core goals that we want to uh do for the year.

And you can see on the slide uh the four core goals that we decided on this year.

Um, number one, we've talked about it a little bit already, but we want to continue elevating the region as a leading tech hub in the in the Midwest.

Uh we also want to uh strengthen our participation with local companies, and we wanted to attract a global speaker.

I'm pleased to say we did that with Steve Wozniak, who's coming to town, uh, you know, co-founder of Apple, really excited to hear him speak.

Um so we are well on our way there.

And then the second piece is we want to make sure that we're strengthening the tech talent pipeline.

Uh, we know the tech industry can't grow without the people behind it who are who are truly doing this.

Uh so one of the events I want to highlight that we have during tech week is something called our tech showcase.

And this has over 2,000 students coming to it.

Uh it the idea is we take six to eighth graders and we put them in front of our local tech companies to do hands-on uh hands-on work with them and really see what a tech career might look like before they start making decisions in high school and college on what their careers could be.

Uh we specifically uh we will focus on under-resourced communities and we provide transportation to bring them to the tech showcase.

Uh this year we're hosting at at the um Grand the New Grandville Um Esports Center, and thanks to support from Meyer, we're able to provide transportation for everyone to go there, and we have over 2,000 children coming.

Uh so really excited about that.

Uh and then uh the third goal is we just want to deepen our engag continue to deepen our engagement and reach new audiences within the community.

We still have a lot of growth that we can have here and a lot more engagement that we can have, uh, although we already have uh 250 companies and other organizations involved.

And so when I say tech week is community driven, it it truly is.

It truly is.

These 250 companies are hosting events, they're on the leadership board, they're sponsoring, they're volunteering at events.

Uh, it does not happen without this kind of community support.

Because like I said, it's just a couple of us at the right place who are operating this.

So very grateful to all the very strong partnership that we have within the community.

Uh and then the fourth one is we just wanted to work on enhancing uh and attendee experience and brand.

Uh, this is a decentralized conference, so sometimes you can go to one event and it might feel a little bit different than than another event during tech week.

I I like them having a bit of a custom feel to each one, but we just wanted to make sure that we're providing the structure so that everybody has a great experience at Tech Week.

So looking at the week itself, we now have I have a hundred events up there.

Um our applications are still coming in for events, and we're at um hundred over a hundred and fifteen now.

Uh you can see a couple of the topics that we're talking about here.

Again, the the topics are truly driven by the community and what the community wants to see.

You know, there's not necessarily uh there's not a committee behind the scenes deciding, okay.

We're gonna talk about cybersecurity and we're gonna talk about AI.

Uh this is driven organically by the community, what they would like to talk about here.

And it's very broad of 115 events, we cover a lot of ground in terms of content.

And I should also say uh there are a couple ticketed events during tech week, but other than that, it is all free and open, and we keep that by design to make sure you know anyone can come to Tech Week and cost should not be a barrier.

Our kickoff event is one of the ticketed events that we do have.

Uh so we have Steve Wozniak coming.

Uh we really wanted to secure, you know, a leading innovator and business leader of our time, and we are so excited to host him and talk to him about you know co-founding Apple and that journey and hopefully inspire you know business leaders and entrepreneurs in our community uh going forward.

So really looking forward to him coming.

That event is now sold out.

Um it will be in a couple weeks here.

Very quickly talk about our marketing strategy.

Uh Tech Week is first and foremost for our community, but we are uh also seeing a lot of interest from other communities throughout the country now that it has grown so large.

Uh so we've been doing we're on the national stage at this point, especially with Steve Wozniak coming.

So we're expecting quite a bit of visitors from other communities here, particularly uh Detroit and Chicago, and we've had a lot of interest also from the Bay Area.

Uh, you can see this is just some of our stats from the summer uh that we're seeing in terms of where traffic is coming from and where we'll have interest.

Uh we've also seen a nearly 50% increase in engagement this year, so we are expecting another record event.

Uh with that, you know, the it's September 15th of this year.

Uh, I will take any any questions.

Well, that's another amazing and really really exciting presentation.

Um, you know, you know this, and probably a lot of people in our community do, but I mean the story of Silicon Valley largely comes down to the story of connections.

Um there's I yeah, there's been some cutting edge research in the last couple years that really has pointed out that creativity is a byproduct of connection.

That um smart people with interesting ideas make the people around them smarter and more creative.

Uh and so uh thank you so much for doing this.

This is obviously exactly I think what we ought to be doing as a city.

It's kind of amazing that you've uh I mean it is amazing that you've pulled off something that sort of um punches above our weight uh so far, but that just means maybe our city will grow to catch up with all the great work you're doing.

Um so it sounds like exactly I mean, uh you know, if I had to dream for something that the right place would have done, this would have been one of the dreams.

So uh it's amazing you've already done it, and that it's you know clearly, clearly continuing to grow.

Um I'm excited to go to it.

I'm excited to I'm excited to have you here talking about it and um you know I think that it'll be interesting on the national stage.

Uh everybody's excited about tech, but we have a great city and tech can be mobile.

And so uh, you know, I know coders who live here or work for companies that aren't here.

I I know uh uh people in the tech world who are working for companies that are here, um, but they move around too and they do things in different places, and so uh if we can be a national focal point for this, uh it's just it can only be good for Grandapis as far as I can see.

So thank you for having a brilliant idea and running with it and uh and running through with it so incredibly effectively.

Um really really looking forward to this to this tech week and and uh yeah, stunning to see the to see the rise in the and uh and the success.

Thank you.

Uh city manager.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for your presentation and certainly the partnership the right place.

Real briefly, Commissioner Asassi and I sit on the smart zone board.

Um, and I I'm neglected to uh as I was labeling tags earlier.

There were two I didn't say.

One is medical city, and the other obviously is now as tech city.

We continue to grow, but the integration with of tech with our med tech, manufacturing tech, uh now FinTech with Acquishire being located here continues to uh grow our identity and and even it's infectious to government.

I think you heard this morning uh from Mr.

Canfield about some innovative things that we're doing in the civic tech space to help the public further engage with local government, and so this is all good for our community, and I think uh the mayor's right.

The more we can identify as a place uh for uh tech workers, it helps our economy and it helps our brilliant as a city continue to grow.

So thanks for your work.

Thank you.

Um anyone else wanna want to lean in on congratulations Commissioner Balchak.

I just maybe I missed this or um I know I've been aware of this for a little bit, but did you mention how long Tech Week's been going or when it started?

Uh so this will be the fourth year.

Okay.

Yeah.

So a lot of growth in just four years.

Yes.

Yes, it's great.

We uh we've we've had uh you know that second year we came back and we went from three thousand to uh thirteen thousand people that year.

And then we knew we it was it was real at that point.

And I I love the overlap with our prize too.

Uh smart and obviously that was that was very deliberate on your part.

But um again, synergy there, right?

Yes, yes, very grateful to have uh well also a partner in our prize, and they were one of our first partners and the energy that they bring to the community, it's unmatched.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, thank you so much.

Thank you.

Um seeing uh no further comments, we'll oh I'm sorry, we gotta move into closed session.

That was my last note.

Uh so uh uh I I would make uh I would entertain a motion that we move into closed session um for discussion of uh ongoing litigation issues, I believe.

So moved.

Uh can City Clerk can you call the role, please?

Commissioner Kilgore?

Yes.

Commissioner Knight?

Yes.

Yes.

Commissioner Asassi.

Commissioner Purdue.

Commissioner Belchak.

Yes.

Mayor LeGrand.

Uh yes, and we'll be uh convening in room 601, colleagues.

Thank you.

May Mayor, can we make that time specific and just say 1125 so that uh city attorney and you and others can gather here for the reception if you're absolutely we want to we want to we don't want to uh short circuit our our uh celebration.

So let's say at 1125 we'll convene in 601.

In the meantime, let's go get some celebrating.

Thank you.