My name is Julian Ramirez, Houston City Council Member at Large Position One.

I don't really hold any official role with this committee, but I've been asked to get the meeting started, so I'm gonna do that.

It is 207, and I'll call this meeting to order.

Present in the chamber, we have Councilmembers Sally Alcorn, Joaquin Martinez, and myself, and also staff from Vice Mayor Pro Tem Amy Peck's office, uh, Councilmember Abby Kamen's office, Councilmember Tarsha Jackson's office, and Councilmember Mary Nan Huffman's office.

We have uh a number of items on the agenda.

I do want to announce that item number three, the Houston Arts Alliance update will not take place during this meeting, is what I've been told.

I believe that we have folks from the mayor's office of cultural affairs.

And I would ask uh Alton Delaney, Chief Curator, to come forward if you're here.

Good afternoon.

Wonderful.

You can sit or stand, whichever you prefer.

Okay, absolutely.

And I would turn that microphone on.

Or you know what?

Hello, hello.

There we go.

Can everyone hear me?

So it's in a slide deck as well.

Yes, and let's uh let's see if we can get that slide deck brought up.

There we do have someone in the back.

Hopefully they're listening.

Click from here or they click.

They will advance it for you.

So just tell them when you want to go to the next slide.

Good.

Real high tech here.

Hey, at least the counter rises to my height.

That's pretty awesome.

That's right.

There we go.

All right.

Shows yours.

So about 35 miles northeast of here, there is a little town called Splendora, Texas, off of Highway 59.

And there, on a street named after his family, a fifth generation Splendoran grew up being interested in of all things the arts.

But there was a challenge to that, because at that time there were no arts in Splendor, Texas.

There were no galleries, there were no art fairs, there were no coffee shops showing art, there were no murals.

There certainly wasn't any museums.

And in fact, there were not even any art classes in the public school system.

So when this young art appreciation turned 16, the first thing he did was went and got his driver's license and went and enrolled in art classes at Kingwood College, which is now called Lone Star College.

And the other thing he did is he started investigating art events around town and going to every art event in Houston that he could.

Does anyone here remember the public news?

It was a local publication that advertised art going on, uh rock shows, bands, those kind of things.

He read in the public news that there was a well-known artist from Splendora giving a talk at the Contemporary Arts Museum.

So he went to the Contemporary Arts Museum to hear that artist talk.

And after the artist talk, he approached the artist to introduce himself.

Now, of course, I'm talking about myself here.

I am this young artist.

I approached the artist who it was James Searles, and I said, I too am an artist from Splendora.

And James replied, Well, I've never met another artist from Splendora.

And in fact, I've never met anyone from Splendor in an art museum before.

Because the situation was then, as is now, is that most people don't go to art museums.

But where a lot of people do go are to the airports.

Now for the last six years, I've been running the art program at for the Houston Airports for the City of Houston.

And last year, the airport served over 60 million passengers.

That's on average of one million passengers per week.

In comparison, the most well-attended museum in Houston only gets about a million visitors in the entire year.

And the Contemporary Arts Museum, which is still going and still has some incredible exhibitions.

So the airport gets in one day what some of these museums get in an entire year.

Now I don't bring this up to critique museum attendance, although I would like to encourage everyone to attend the museums and go out and support the museums.

The museums are certainly a very important part of the creative economy and the cultural scene here in Houston, Texas.

But what I'm saying this is because the importance of public art in public spaces like the airport.

So I did bring some slides, and I'm gonna talk pretty quickly and run through these slides and show you some of the things we've accomplished at the airport over the last year and a half.

So we go to the next slide, please.

So the first slide we're gonna talk about is Paradise.

And Paradise kind of sums up how I feel about the airport art program.

It really is a little piece of paradise because we have all of the elements to make for a successful art space to show art and to bring in incredible artists.

Most of the projects I'm showing here are part of the international redevelopment project that's happened at the airport over the last few years.

So this is Terminal D.

Paradise is by the Brazilian artist Regina Silvera, and it is located at the knuckle of the airport where old C meets New C and Old D meets New D.

It's right in the middle of everything.

Regina Silvera has been making art for some 60 years.

She was selected through a process through the Houston Arts Alliance, and we brought her in, and she did this incredible triptych of a Tarrazo floor, a suspended glass ceiling piece, and a wall piece, all celebrating winged pollinators of the region, because at the airport we do celebrate the magic of flight.

Now, when we were choosing art for the airport, we we considered two things.

First of all, we considered that the money that we're spending are from our passenger fees, and so we want to uh recognize our passengers.

About 50% of our international destinations are bound for Latin American countries, and so we wanted to represent Latin American artists, and that's why on either end of this new terminal, we brought in well-known, internationally known uh Latina and Latino artists.

We also wanted to support Houston.

So at the six new gates, all six new gates have artist uh artwork by Houston artists, which I'll show you in the next slide.

Well, sorry, this is the other end of that, so it's bookend on either end.

This is Carolina Casedo, who is Colombian.

So these were the two bookends of the new international terminal.

Uh, this piece is called Nuestro's Cosmos, our Cosmos, celebrating uh Houston is Space City, uh, and so this represents the phases of the sun and the moon.

And then the next slide we'll start to see our international artist.

So gate one is delightful conversion uh by French artist Emily Duval, who's based here in Houston, Texas.

The next slide will show gate two.

This is Geraldo Rosales, is a great artist.

He has a show right now at Laura the Gallery, and another show opening locally at Andrew Durham this weekend.

This piece is called Blue Bayou, inspired by uh, of course, Houston is Bayou City.

The next slide is Reginald Adams.

Uh he is of West African descent, and this is a great mosaic that he used, uh he created using uh community involvement with over a thousand people working on this mosaic.

On the next slide, gate D4, we see Lovey Olivia.

The piece is called Comforter.

Uh, this is inspired by the G's Bend uh quilt makers uh who are famous.

They're another set of creatives from a small town in G's Bend, Alabama.

And fun fact that G's been quilt show that took over the world and went to the Whitney, and they're now in 40 museums.

Do you know where their first exhibition was?

The Museum of Fine Arts, right here in Houston, Texas.

The next uh slide is gate number five, and you will see unique uniquely Houston.

This was a trio of artists, uh, including a poet who wrote a poem about Houston, and then they created this great work of art celebrating that.

And finally at gate D6 and the next slide, you will see the artists Nick and Jake, who are a married gay couple and their pieces celebrating Montrose, which tells the story of queer histories in Houston, Texas.

In addition to that, in the next slide, you will see some of our work from the new ICP, which is the International Central Processor.

So this is Miguel Arzabi.

He is of Bolivian descent, and uh he embraces his Andean culture of basket weaving.

So it's hard to see in this picture, but he actually paints canvases, slices them, and then weaves them together into this piece called Todos Bienvenidos, of course, which is everyone's welcome.

The next slide will be Marta Chillandrone.

Marta Chilandrone is uh of Uruguayan upbringing, lives in New York City, unexpected spaces.

This piece was fabricated by Meta Labs, which is a local fabricator here who did an amazing job.

It's three giant stained glass pieces across the facade of the building.

The next slide, you will see our departures curve.

Um, this is a Mexican American artist uh Rafael Vargas, uh Horizon Spectrum, and finally the last slide on the new work in there is um Graciela Hosper continuous motion, Graciela is Argentinian.

So you can see we're represented both local artists and a lot of these well-known Latino and Latina artists celebrating uh the culture of Houston.

And then if you'll see the next slide, please.

We also relocated work because of the construction.

So the beadwork columns piece went to the outdoor pet area.

And the next slide, you will see Coastal Fiore.

We worked with the architecture team to bring in a Del Chahuli.

This is currently the largest Del Chahuli at an airport in the world, and it's right here in Houston, Texas.

So when our guests are leaving Houston Airport, they cue up under this and get to spend time under it having viewpoints from many different perspectives.

The next slide will show we also purchased 30 works of portable works from artists.

Portable works means small works that can move around.

And you'll see we've created a floral gallery wall here, all celebrating the flora and the fauna of Houston.

And the next slide, you will see we created a Terminal D mezzanine gallery where there are 20 works of art, all by women Texas artists in one location.

So you see I've got a theme going here with the with the galleries.

And in the next slide, you will see our gallery over our connector gallery, and these are small portable works.

And of note, you'll see we have a Mac Whitney piece here.

We were really excited to get the Mac Whitney piece in before he passed away.

And we worked with the gallery Sonia Roche, who's here today.

So it's really great to have that piece in the collection.

There were three artists we brought in that passed away in the last year, so it was really good that we got them recognized into the collection.

Next slide.

The rental car facility, uh, this on the left there is an HJ bot.

He also passed away recently.

So these were Texas legendary artists who had been egregiously omitted from the collection for many years and are now being represented.

Next slide is we did a portrait gallery over at Hobby, and you can see the big smiling face there.

That's Matthew Jean-Baptiste.

Uh Matthew Jean Baptiste was one of our first artists in residence at the airport, and he's gone on to he's experiencing quite a successful career, so we like to think that we helped him on his path.

In our next slide, you will see our artist in residence program.

We have the we started this during the pandemic to put money back into the community, and currently we have the airport has the longest running artist in residence program at any airport in the world.

We've continued that throughout the pandemic, um, and we currently have two artists, one at Hobby and one at Bush.

Uh, next slide.

We'll see we also have an art ambassador program, and Ronnie Horn was one of our ambassadors.

She's here today.

Ronnie, you did make it into the slide deck.

So uh you'll also see we brought in Outspoken Bean, who is one of the Houston Poet Laureates, he did poet with the poetry with the passengers, and we had a caricature artist, and yes, that is a caricature of me in the middle there.

Uh, next slide is we've expanded our harmony in the air.

We have now four stages and live music seven days a week at both airports, and we were one of the only venues in the city during the pandemic that continued to have live music when all the other venues were closed during the pandemic.

The airport continued to have musicians performing at the airport.

Next slide.

Uh we also partnered with the University of Houston and brought in their Latino cartography displays.

These are interactive kiosk, bilingual kiosk, ADA compliant.

These are uh, as you can see, there you can scroll through them, and it covers all of the art in uh the Latino art in Houston, Texas, and it also includes special galleries for each airport.

Next slide.

We partner with the Houston Botanic Garden, which is a neighbor over at uh Hobby Airport.

Next slide.

And all of these, like the Houston Botanic Garden, Sawyer Yards is another partnership we do.

These are cultural collaborations.

So these are temporary exhibitions we bring into the airport at no cost to the city, uh, and it keeps things fresh for our passengers.

As some of you know, Sawyer Yards is the largest collection of art studios in the country, and it's right here in Houston, Texas.

Next slide.

We also are showing art cars at the airport.

The art car is the largest and longest-running art car parade in the country.

Next slide.

We partner with Magpies and Peacocks for the first ever fashion exhibition at the airport.

They use upcycled Southwest Airline uh interior upholstery to make these outfits for the first ever fashion exhibit at the airport.

Next slide.

The rodeo, we partner with the rodeo annually.

The rodeo is the longest running rodeo in the country, again, right here in Houston, Texas.

Um they give out millions of dollars every year to scholarship for artists, young artists like me that didn't have an opportunity for these types of things now do through the rodeo and and other organizations.

Uh and we bring the scholarship-winning art in every year.

Next slide.

Photofest is the longest running art fair in Houston, Texas.

The PhotoFest is the biennial that's happened here for 40 years and still going.

Next slide.

NASA.

I mean, not only we do we bring the best in the country, but we bring the best in the world.

No one does what NASA does in the entire world.

And and in fact, recently when NASA did the uh lunar landing with a machine that was built at Intuitive Machines over at Ellington uh Airfield.

There was art in there by the artist.

Is anyone know the artist?

Jeff Coons.

They actually put art on the moon.

Only Houston, Texas, can say we are so proud of our art scene that we're putting art on the moon.

Next slide.

H Tones is a new display we've added by Historian James Glassman, which celebrates the colors of Houston.

Next slide.

Including that, we also have major expansions going at United Terminal B, which is going to be millions of dollars invested, billions into the terminal and millions into the airport.

Next slide.

Over at Hobby, same Southwest Airlines is expanding.

So we're in the process of a $2 million art per art purchase for Southwest Airlines for that expansion at Hobby Airport.

And next slide.

And we were very fortunate to work with the artist David Addocks before he passed away.

They were looking to do legacy placement of his iconic We Love Houston sculpture, and the airport was able to respond to that.

And we moved this over to Hobby Airport, and it is now on the arrivals curb, welcoming everyone to Houston, Texas.

And as you can imagine, this has become a very popular selfie spot.

We love Houston.

And why do we do all these things?

Well, it is because we love Houston.

We don't want to be just the best on our block or the best in the neighborhood or the best in the state, or even the best in the country, but we want to be the best in the world.

And this year, the Houston Airport was once again awarded the best airport art program in the world for a third year in a row by SkyTracks.

So I think that's something that all artists, all city council members, the entire city of Houston can be proud of.

So it was based on this success, and I know that was a little lengthy, I apologize.

It was based on the success that we're seeing at the airport that I was invited to come in and help with the mayor's office of cultural affairs.

So Steve and David brought me over a couple of months ago, and I've been working very closely with some of the council members and with the Houston Arts Alliance and with community members like the Houston Arts Foundation and the Houston Area Gallery Association to try to get things flowing again with the mayor's office of cultural affairs.

I joked with Stephen that I thought I was joining the art team, and it maybe seems like I joined the firefighting team because there's a lot of fires that I've been putting out.

But I just would like to say that over the last two months, we have accomplished a lot of things, a couple of them that I'd like to share with you.

Up Art Studios is the team responsible for all the mini murals around town.

We have extended their contract, and they currently have dozens of mini murals across multiple art districts, uh council districts going into place.

The Houston Art Foundation, and Heidi Vaughn is here, who's the chair of that foundation.

The Houston Art Foundation is nearing completion of 13 conservation projects on city-owned art around the city, mostly in parks.

The Houston Arts Foundation has been working for 60 years as a partner to the city, conserving art, and we are in the process of expanding their agreement so that they'll be able to access more art.

All artists, galleries, and curators for the city hall exhibitions, everyone that had an open invoice with the city has been paid and is paid in full.

Maybe some of you have seen it, and the mayor himself even complimented it, so we're very happy to be getting that kind of attention.

Moving forward, all of these temporary exhibitions will be moving into the what we're calling the connector gallery, where you can see down there we've already painted, there's gallery lighting, and we'll be installing picture hanging rails there so the art can come in and out without damaging the walls, and we won't have to be stepping around easels in the rotunda here.

Um what else?

There are numerous LOAs from the previous contract that we're working with Houston Arts Alliance to get closed out, and new LOAs are being written and created on the new contract, so projects are moving forward.

Round one of the hot grants just went out to the community.

Um this included let creativity happen.

There were 27 new grants with a total of 117,000, and the city's initiative.

There were 13 new grants with a total of 128,000, making a total of 60 new grants to artists and art institutions here in Houston for a total of 245,000 have gone out, and round two is already under the process.

I've been uh working with Houston Arts Alliance grant team on this, going to some of their meetings.

They really do make themselves accessible for this grant process, and so we encourage all of the art community to apply for these grants.

Houston Airports has completed conservations of Christian Eckert, Hillebrand and Maximum, and installed a Cat Martinez art piece at Hobby Airport in District I.

There was an art day reception last week at the Hope Community Center, um, which was over in the A-Leaf district celebrating uh they had an art day celebrating art there.

That was made possible by money from the mayor's office of cultural affairs, uh delegated through Houston Arts Alliance.

There was a groundbreaking ceremony just yesterday out in the August heat at 10 a.m., which I don't recommend it.

Uh, but uh that was over in the A Leaf uh that was over in District B in the Greens Point area.

Uh that's where the North Belt Police Station.

There's two major art projects going in over there.

And one of the things that the community has been asking about is the the organization of the mayor's office of cultural affairs.

We have uh placed a job listing to hire an arts administrator.

That listing received 286 applications.

We have done interviews, we have narrowed it down to one or two finalists, and we are waiting for final approval on that hiring.

Uh meanwhile, I have been over here several days a week.

We have set up new office in the legacy room in the mezzanine level, and the mayor's office of cultural affairs is open for business.

Thank you for your time.

Alton, so thank you so much for that presentation and thank you for taking the reins uh there in your department with the city.

We truly appreciate that.

We do have uh council member and a couple staff in the queue, but first let me uh recognize that uh chair, uh Evan Shabazz, Councilmember Evans Shabazz has joined us.

And in the back, working behind the scenes, we had staff from uh Councilmember Evan Shabaz office, Corey, and of course Russell from Councilmember Castillo's office as well.

I will turn it over to Councilmember uh Al Corn.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Alton.

Great presentation.

I really appreciate you walking us through, and you know every one of those artists' names.

Good for you.

Um and and just to explain a little bit about the selection process for each piece at the airport.

Sure.

So we are, of course, last year we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the city ordinance, of course, that designates that 1.75% of vertical construction budgets would be allocated for art to beautify those facilities.

So that's the money we spend uh through our civic art program.

Those monies, of course, are channeled through the Houston Arts Alliance through the civic art contract that we have with the Houston Arts Alliance.

There are various processes we use in a selection.

For an open call for uh portable works, we do a request for acquisition.

That's typically an open call, and that's usually something we do locally to really appeal to younger artists, up and coming artists, and it gives us an opportunity to fill in some gaps that the collection may have been missing.

And those are reviewed by a panel.

Okay.

So we get a we get a we get a usually a very healthy response to all those hundreds of submissions.

Right.

And then a panel of experts is chosen through the mayor's office of cultural affairs and the Houston Arts Alliance, and it's usually five people that then score the portable works, and then that is uh the highest score is the first purchase.

We purchase that piece, and depending on the price, we take the money out of the bucket, then continue to go down the line, purchasing as many pieces as we have money in the bucket.

Got it.

And then the big commissions.

The big commissions are a little more complicated because of uh these are multi-year projects that go on.

And so what we typically do is do a request for qualification first, because we want to see that the artist has the skill to be able to fulfill this type of assignment because these are quite large and uh architecturally integrated work, working on a construction site, permitting all these types of things.

So we'd like to know that they're qualified to do that.

Um then those out those submissions are scored, and then we narrow it down to three finals.

Again by a panel of experts.

By a panel of experts, yes, ma'am.

Uh those are then narrowed down to three.

Those three are given a request for proposal in which they create a proposal specific to the location.

Uh they're usually given some kind of small stipend to pay for their proposal, and then again that same panel of expert reviews those proposals and then choose the ones that's best for the client and the location.

Got it.

Thank you very much.

Well, the airports are beautiful.

Um, great job.

Uh, I love seeing the new pa I need to get out of I'm a hobby girl myself, but I need to get out to IAH and see all the new beautiful uh works at at IAH.

Thank you.

And thanks for thanks, like um, Councilmember Ramirez said.

Thanks for stepping in and helping out at Mocha.

Happy to be here.

Thank you, Councilmember Alcorn.

We will go to staff from Councilmember Hoffman's office.

I have uh thank you.

I have a couple of questions about um number five here on the list.

So in Congress um at the Capitol in DC, they have a tunnel where uh members can pick people from their districts to put up artwork.

Is that something that we've thought about or are going to think about, or is that possible?

Everything is possible.

We're thinking about that.

We're thinking about several options actually.

We're looking at several different options on how best to populate that space.

Uh but it is a great and you know the space we're talking about now.

It's a really beautiful space, well lit.

So that's certainly uh we're we're always open to hear uh what the council members, you know, any suggestions they have for that space.

And then my uh second question is about number eight.

So could you walk us through the the grant process and the uh the the price tag on the grants, what the qualifications are to get the grants?

That might be an HS.

I cannot walk you through that.

Okay.

I will tell you.

I am new to the grant process, so I have been learning, and it is a uh and Taylor from uh the Houston Arts Alliance when normally, but she's under the weather today and is not here, and that's one of the things she was going to talk about.

I think she did provide some notes to the council members that have some some ideas on how that works.

But to be perfectly honest, I'm still learning that process myself.

But it is similar to the art call, and that there is an open call for submissions, those submissions are reviewed by a panel of experts, and then artists and institutions are awarded uh amounts of money based on uh different categories.

Qualifications.

So does the city get anything out of the grants like artwork?

Is it essentially like the city commissioning artwork or no?

This is the city commission.

Well, I mean, the city gets a lot out of this.

We get to you know enjoy the opera and the orchestras and the symphonies and the museums and all the artists that are thriving in you know within the community.

But no, this is not a purchase of work, this is a support of an artist or an organization.

Okay.

Very good.

Thank you.

Did I say that right, Michelle?

Okay, good.

We'll go to staff from Councilmember Jackson's office.

Thank you.

Councilmember Jackson sends her regards and she wants to commend you on the excellent work you're doing in District B.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

Thank you for that.

Alton, I I have a question.

Um is there a way for for Houstonians or anyone really who's going through the airport to offer feedback about the exhibits that you have in the airport?

Yes, we do have uh a customer comment program that's on the website, so you can go on the website and make comments uh on, and we get a lot of positive feedback on our art program.

In particular, our artists are our programming, like our artists in residence program, our Harmony the Air program, those tend to get the most feedback because people just really love to see live artists in their making their craft.

And uh do you have anywhere on the website sort of uh interpretive information about the exhibits that uh passengers visitors can see in the airports on the website?

There is some information on the website.

That website is undergoing uh remodeling, let's say, and so there's still some uh reorganization of that.

And as well, the Houston Arts Alliance, their website is is currently being developed that has all of the city's artwork across the city, including the art at the airport that will be readily available to be seen by anyone.

Okay, wonderful.

That's all the questions I have.

I don't see anyone else in the queue.

So we'll give you thank you.

Thanks and we'll see you around.

Appreciate it.

Thanks.

Now I would like to recognize uh Chair Evan Shabazz for some special remarks.

I won't make you get up.

Thank you so very much.

Um, we're here, we're talking about the beautiful things that are going on in the city.

But I was at an interview looking in the face of ugly.

But certainly I'm very honored to be here in the service of the chair, and I thank the council member for doing this.

And and I wanted to say maybe I need to get to the airport on time, and I might be able to see some of this beautiful artwork because I am generally running trying to get from point A to point B.

But it's certainly worth me stopping to look at the art.

And so uh we're going to move on, I believe.

I am right here.

Okay.

I want to give a special recognition to Dr.

Dr.

Dorothy Caram.

Now, before we move into our agenda any further, I want to take a moment to speak about someone whose life and work touched our city in profound ways.

Last week, Houston lost a remarkable leader, Dr.

Dorothy Caram.

She was more than an advocate for Latina and Latino arts and culture.

She was a visionary who saw the beauty and value of heritage and worked tirelessly to ensure it was celebrated, protected, and shared with generations to come.

Dr.

Kerim helped found the Institute of Hispanic Culture, and through that work created a partnership with the Miller Outdoor Theater that brought Latino culture to center stage, a tradition that still lives on today.

She was also a founding board member of the ALMAAH.

Woo, helping to lay the foundation for a Latino museum and cultural center in Houston.

Her passing is a loss, not just to the Latino community, but to the entire city.

So at this time, I would like to invite Ms.

Michelle Liel Barra, Chair of the Houston Arts Alliance Board, to share any remarks she may wish to offer.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Chair.

Thank you very much, Council Members.

I really appreciate it.

And you know, you said it so beautifully.

Um I don't know that I have anything else to add, but I really appreciate the opportunity that the committee has given to recognize the legacy that Dr.

Caran left in our community and really was such a longtime passionate advocate for Latino Arts and Culture and hope to see you know Alma and many other things that uh she contributed to uh come to fruition and continue to thrive in the future.

I really appreciate it.

So we haven't done this.

Uh thank you so much for that.

And although there's no official presentation, if anyone has any questions for board chair Liao, uh you're welcome to present them as this time, but I don't hear any.

So thank you for your service, continued service, and we appreciate you being here.

Thank you.

And I did want to offer you we did provide a written report on grants and other updates from Houston Arts Alliance.

Um we can also offer more specific answers to your questions, which I think are really valid about the grants process and the different types of grants and the timelines and all of those things, which are also on the Houston Arts Alliance website, and we disseminate to all of the council offices and and through social media.

Our goal is always to make sure that you know there are applicants from every district, and and so that we reach every corner of the community.

So we're happy to follow up with that information as well.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Um we will proceed with our agenda.

And the next item will be the mayor's office of cultural affairs update.

Uh and I you've done it already.

Okay.

Let me keep moving.

So we've done this.

Okay.

Did you speak about what's going on in District B, Councilmember uh Tarsha Jackson said you all had something going on with with the film industry?

She actually said Mary was going to do it, so you might not even be familiar with it.

Come to the microphone.

No, um no, no, no.

Just to the okay.

You know, I got one of those boom and Jack Yates cheerleader voices.

And so go ahead.

I was just saying that I'm a little familiar with it, but I would rather talk with Mary before I present on it.

Is what I was saying.

Number three.

Okay.

Thank you.

We will now move to the film and media presentations.

And I'd like to recognize Mr.

Alfred Cervantes, executive director of the Houston Film Commission to deliver his presentation.

Thank you.

Okay.

Can you hear me?

Is this on?

There it is.

It is.

Good afternoon, Council members.

Thank you for having me.

Um, my name is Alfred Cervantes.

I'm the executive director of the Houston Film Commission.

Uh, just brief background, and I can um tell a brief story kind of similar to Alton, is that I was a uh inner city high school student when when I was in high school, Southwest Alternate Media Project, who I'm here to speak in support of, uh, came to my school and offered a one-semester filmmaking class, and I signed up for that filmmaking class just to get out of get out of taking drama.

So I knew I was not meant to be on the stage but behind the camera, so I took that class, and really that was my first inspiration uh to in film work, and years later, I happened to cross an independent film set here in Houston.

I'm a native Houstonian.

I worked on that film, and after that, I worked on many movies in the early mid 90s, uh movie called Powder, a movie called Reality Bites, a movie called Um Jason's Lyric and Apollo 13.

So I worked as a freelance crew member on all those movies here in Houston.

And then everything I had done, uh, someone suggested I look at working at the Houston Film Commission.

I looked at it, I applied for it, and I uh got that job years ago, and I became the executive director of the Houston Film Commission four years ago in 2021.

So I almost know nothing except film production in Houston.

That's my mission in life.

That's what I'm here to help people do.

And I've been asked here today to speak on behalf of Southwest Alternate Media Project and Houston Cinema Arts Society, who are putting on next week the Houston Media Conference.

And so this is a uh the third year for the conference.

Of course, we have speakers right after me who are gonna go into detail about the conference and everything.

Uh but I want to uh say how important it is.

I do have a few slides here that we can go to the next one.

Um I'm gonna speak uh generally about the film industry and what we are.

The Houston Film Commission, uh, we are here to promote and market the greater Houston area as a production destination.

So we are a division of Houston First Corporation, and so the marketing dollars we have primarily go to marketing Houston in Los Angeles, New York, Europe, places where we get projects to consider Houston from outside of our area to bring them here uh for economic benefit.

That's primarily what we do.

But we also participate in helping local filmmakers, uh, emerging filmmakers achieve what they're setting out to do.

Just last Saturday, I did a free panel on behalf of Swamp Southwest Alternate Media Project uh about producing films in the Houston area.

Uh any chance we get to support them, we will.

And of course, uh Houston Cinema Arts Society now puts on our most uh our biggest and most notable film festival every November here in the city of Houston.

So uh those are a couple things.

But the Houston Film Commission, again, our marketing dollars, promoting Houston as a destination.

We spend those outside of our area, but we do are one of the biggest sponsors of both these organizations for the Houston Media Conference and what they're doing for the uh uh film festival in November.

Uh part of our mission, of course, is to build film culture in any way we can here in the city of Houston.

Uh, just uh I think uh a lot of people know this around the state.

Uh Austin has been the film darling of Texas for a long time.

So any chance we get to uh do something that's great in a film way here in Houston, we will certainly support that.

Um and so uh the last four years we have been uh in my in my opinion, we've been making strides last year.

Uh you can go to the next slide, please.

There you go.

Last year we did have an uh above average economic impact in the way of film spending in the area with an economic impact of um eighty eighty-one million dollars.

And so we had uh Netflix series here, we had a number of independent feature films, and then of course, um a little bit of Tyler Perry's project, 1923 in the Galveston area.

Uh our purview, uh, what we promote and market is about a 60 mile radius of where we are right now.

And so in a 60 mile radius of Houston, we have uh all sorts of locations to offer.

We have Piney Woods, Rolling Hills, Flat Farmland.

We're lucky we have Galveston 45 miles from downtown Houston, uh uh swampland, all those different types of looks that filmmakers might need.

So that's the area that we market and promote as a um as a destination for film production.

Something else, uh of course, in the news uh recently was the passing of SB 22, which uh is our state level incentive program that is going to dedicate 300 million uh split every two years for a 10-year run.

And so this is a game changer for our state because we never had that stability of having that uh that number uh for every every two years for 10 years.

Uh what has happened in since 2007-2008 when our state incentive was founded is that we had to ask for an account of money on the state level as incentive money, and the number fluctuated wildly every two years.

And so now with this dedicated 300 million split over two years for 10 years, uh, that's gonna be very attractive for studio projects for feature films and narrative television, where they can say, okay, we can create a TV show for your state now because we we know that incentive money is going to be there.

And so that's the other thing that's mentioned on there.

Now, I mentioned these things because right now we are in a position and we are already working on projects for the fall, for the spring, uh projects that might have gone to other states with aggressive incentives, and the media conference is built to educate people and uh on on the coming jobs that are gonna be brought to the state.

Uh the media conference offers all sorts of panels uh on every uh craft of the industry from financing, distribution producing, uh uh video podcasting, all these things.

I think everybody knows who has a phone in your hand.

Uh everybody has scrolliosis.

I s I stole that from a commercial I saw, just I want to give credit.

But uh everybody has scrolliosis, so media content, right?

It's one of the biggest things.

It's a huge influencer, and we want to create emerging filmmakers here in Houston, and that's what the media conference is built for.

So I would suggest uh just like Alton left Splendora to find an opportunity to speak to an artist.

Uh Swamp came to me in my high school, but after that, I go out and I went out into the world and found an opportunity to work.

Uh Houston's a big place.

Uh if you are interested in filmmaking and uh learning the craft of filmmaking, you have to go out there and get it.

And attending the Houston Media Conference is the first step for anyone that's interested in learning all about the process of making uh media.

And so that's what I'm here to talk about and support uh of Swamp and um Houston Cinema Arts Society now.

Um most recently, uh I'll mention Alton one more time because uh two year two summers ago we did have an independent feature film shoot at Splendora High School.

Uh this movie was called Ick ICK, and it just played in 800 theaters nationwide, and it will be available for streaming probably later this year or early next year.

And Splendor stepped up and provided their high school as a filming location for that film.

Uh a couple of other films that we had, uh Do No Harm, an independent feature that premiered at the Dances with Films Festival in June on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles.

Uh it was selected as the opening night film, which is quite an honor for such a festival.

Uh that's been around a long time.

And then a movie called Charlie Bird, which shot last summer in Dickinson, Texas, which is also in our area.

It won the top narrative award at the Tribeca Film Festival also in June of this year as well.

So we are um very happy and supportive that we're having really talented filmmakers make independent feature films in our area, and of course, uh we're aiming to get studio projects to film here as well to put people to work and to elevate the craft of filmmaking here in our area.

And of course, there's nothing more important to the arts in my opinion, and uh filmmaking is uh uh the um one of the most important art mediums.

It's um uh very impressive and important.

So thank you very much.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Cervantes.

You have you have quite an impressive uh resume.

And I heard you say you work with the Apollo film.

Uh a long time ago, Apollo 13.

This is the anniversary year of it coming out.

So then I heard you say something about your mission.

I'm like, okay, he's really in in with the jargon of the uh the whoopee.

But certainly, thank you so much.

And we had I would like to change that saying uh Houston, um Houston, we have a problem to Houston, we have a solution.

I would like to absolutely from you, and now we have a solution.

But certainly we have Councilmember Alcorn who's in the queue for a question or comment.

Thank you, Mr.

Cervantes.

I'm really excited about this.

I do want to give credit to Councilmember Jackson who has really been leading the charge on getting um film more film production in Houston.

And you know, we were all involved in lobbying for that, uh, the incentive money.

So we're all very excited about that.

And I look forward to hearing from our other speakers who I've met with um a bit more about the conference.

But I wanted to talk to you specifically about the marketing dollars that you have from Houston First.

What what is your budget in marketing dollars?

I guess I'm uh our our marketing budget has gone up in the last three years, and so we do again target uh our marketing budget amongst the market.

Like, do you have a specific film-related marketing budget?

We do.

We have a line item budget in our overall marketing to budget for the company.

If you don't know that number, I would like to I would like to have that.

I would like to know what kind of money we're talking about.

And again, you are you are specifically promoting uh studios and and others in other places to film here.

That's what your marketing dollars are used for.

Or are they also used for developing local film artists?

Well, they're just two different line items for marketing budget.

We do market in Los Angeles, New York, and those things, but we're and what does that mean?

You go to those studios and you say we've got these great parks, it's advertising, it's it's advertising, it's going to conferences, it's uh uh visiting with studios, that's all all those things.

So you go there and do that, or and you send decks and you've got a whole dog and pony show, I'm sure.

That is the and so that's one line item of your of your Houston first budget.

These are hot tax travellers.

Okay.

So then you're also sponsoring our cinema uh the wonderful cinema film for sure.

What do you call it?

Festival.

That we have.

And and then you you're uh kind of overall promotion of of more film and and TV and commercials and all that in Houston.

Okay.

Yep.

Thank you.

Yeah.

If you could just get back with me with with the with kind of your budget for for the year and how and how those dollars are spent.

I'd appreciate it.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you, Councilmember Alco.

We'll have a question or comment from the staff from Councilmember Tarzan Jackson.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I just wanted to echo some of what Councilmember Alcorn said about Councilmember Jackson.

She definitely supports you and is an ally.

She went to Austin to lobby for the tax incentive package that passed during the Texas legislative session.

And she's also working to renovate the Grants Point Mall and develop it into a state-of-the-art film studio so that our best and brightest in Texas won't have to escape to LA or to New York, but they can stay here and we can cultivate that talent and we could compete to be one of the top industries in the nation here in Texas.

For sure.

Thank you so very much.

And thank you, Mr.

Cervantes, uh, for your presentation and for your continued work promoting Houston's film industry.

And if anybody wants to know, I do have aspirations.

Next we will hear from Ms.

Randy Ramsey, executive director of Swamp, followed by Miss Katie Kriegan Rios, executive director of the Houston Cinema Arts Society.

And we also uh provided a presentation today.

Thank you.

There you go.

Um good afternoon, and thank you so much for your time today.

My name is Katie Krieg and Rios, and I'm the executive director of the Houston Cinema Arts Society.

Now in its 18th year, the Houston Cinema Arts Society was founded by a task force started by Mayor Bill White to stimulate Houston's film culture.

We now run the largest independent film festival in the city of Houston, as Alfred mentioned, the Houston Cinema Arts Festival each November.

And we are proud to partner with the Southwest Alternate Media Project on the third annual Houston Media Conference.

I also want to thank Councilmember Tarsha Jackson and her office.

We work very closely with the Deluxe Theater in the Fifth Ward, and uh we were honored to have your support of an event celebrating the legacy of film at the Deluxe Theater earlier this summer.

Um the Houston Media Conference was founded by these two organizations, Houston Cinema Arts Society and Southwest Alternate Media Project in 2023 with the support of a city's initiative grant from the Houston Arts Alliance through the Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs, and we receive continued support from the Houston First Corporation and the Houston Film Commission.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for having us.

My name is Randy Ramsey.

I'm the executive director of Southwest Alternate Media Project, better known as Swamp, the Swamp You Wanna Film.

Um, founded in 1977 by two visionary film artists who embraced that then newfangled technology of video because they thought it would democratize the filmmaking, the process of filmmaking, and indeed it has.

And in our nearly 50-year history, that's a hint, we're coming up on our 50th anniversary next year.

Um, we have embraced new technologies and always sought to empower and advocate our local emerging film artists and media artists.

And for me, an emerging artist can be eight or eighty.

Um, and our goal, the mission of the conference itself is to fuel innovation and opportunity for Houston's entire creative community, serve as a catalyst to break down the silos in Houston's media infrastructure.

Next slide, please.

If you will look in 2023, we had just shy of 300 um attendees, and this year we are anticipating over a thousand.

That's some meteoric growth for three years.

And we are super excited by not just the number of attendees, but also the diversity of their disciplines and their voices, because in this time when so many diverse voices are being silenced, we feel it's incredibly important to provide every opportunity for these diverse voices to be heard and amplified every day.

And we are moving toward making Houston a destination for creators in every aspect of media.

Next slide, please.

So when Randy and I envisioned the Houston Media Conference as being the central hub for our city's film and media industry, it was necessary for us to include a vendor activation piece into the scope of the event.

Um, this has been very successful.

We want to promote the vibrant businesses that are the backbone of Houston's media industry.

Uh in 2023, we had approximately 18 vendors.

This number has more than doubled, almost tripled in three years, uh, garnering the support of both prestigious Houston studios such as South Coast Media Services, LD Systems, Captive Studios, and the Story Hive, as well as national brands coming for the first time in 2025, such as NANLIT, Flanders Scientific, and Other World Computing.

We're also proud to welcome most of Houston's major universities to the vendor floor, and we are proud that our vendor floor is a diverse reflection of Houston's robust entrepreneurial spirit, and that we are able to provide this platform for Houston businesses.

In addition to the active vendor floor, the conference this year will host over 100 panelists teaching workshops and creating opportunities for Houston's burgeoning media makers and content creators talent.

Some noteworthy panel conversations this year include a session on the resources available to artists from the city of Houston, which will be hosted by Houston Television's Ted Irving, the Houston Media Source, and Houston Arts Alliance.

And we will also host a session led by the Texas Film Commission on the new Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program.

This is SB22, which Mr.

Cervantes was talking about earlier, really breaking down the bill and providing resources on the financial opportunities that are now available to Texas filmmakers.

Other sessions that we will include include conversations on post-production services, social media content creation, marketing, and future technologies impact on the film and media industry.

Next slide, please.

Together, Houston Cinema Arts Society and Southwest Alternate Media Project are creating a robust media workforce development pipeline for our city, starting with high school programs through Swamp and continuing through university partnerships, emerging artist support, and opportunities for established filmmakers, culminating in the Houston Media Conference as that central hub for resources, networking, and infrastructure development.

By equipping Houstonians with the skills and tools to succeed in a rapidly evolving media industry, we are preparing a creative workforce that strengthens Houston's economy and cultural vitality.

When we began this conference three years ago with Houston Arts Alliance Cities Initiative Grant and some seed money from each organization as well as support from the Film Commission, we were hopeful that we would be offering a service for the our creative community.

What we didn't know would happen, and what we are so excited has happened is that we're hearing about projects that were initiated by the networking at the conference, ideas that were inspired by Courtney Daniels saying, hey, make your work and don't let anybody stand in your way, and then being mentored by those people.

So one of our goals is to bring the diaspora of Houston cinema artists back to be presenters and educators, and every year we've sought to do that.

Um what we want this council to do, this committee to do is we hope that you will support the conference as it continues to grow and look to the Houston film community as part of the greater arts community because we've heard repeatedly from funders and others that film isn't really an art.

And I'm here to tell you with my Master of Fine Arts in film that it is.

And it's a really great art.

And also as we look at workforce development and really embracing the new opportunities that are coming that have been brought by the incentives program, by the hard work of our film commission, and by the entrepreneurship of our local film businesses that will be included in that workforce development plan.

Um artists work fluidly across many disciplines.

There's a scenic painter who's on a set on Monday and exhibiting in a gallery on Friday.

We have sound artists who are in the alley this weekend and on a film set over the week.

So we want to make sure that they're ready for everything.

And we'd like to empower all of you to be game changers, like our tagline this year, no gatekeepers, just game changers.

And we'd like you to empower all of you to go out to look at how our film industry and our media industry is viewed.

So we want you to know that it's a tech industry, it is an arts industry, and it's a creative industry, and we can do more than entertaining.

We can change the way we see ourselves through great stories, well told, and we can change the way other people see us.

So by supporting Houston artists, telling Houston specific stories, we can create a cultural identity that's unique to Houston and change kind of being the stepchild.

I would like to be the big sister, thanks.

Um, and I would love for people to see Houston as the future, a future that embraces the new technology, um, leverages it and uses it and uses our great superpower, which is our diversity and our agility.

Houston is a city that can adapt and change and does at will.

And we would just love for all of you to go out there and spread the religion of Houston's media.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The chair recognizes Councilmember Alcore with a question or comment.

Thank you, Chair.

And Chair, I appreciate your bringing this group to your committee.

Uh, as we discussed when I uh met with them and and they were telling me all this, and I didn't even know about this media conference.

And it's great to know about I will be attending the United Front, how alliances can help Houston win big business.

Um we, of course, went more film here.

We want more money here, so we we we want more film production here.

And um just thank you for what you've put together in just a couple years to be really such a premier event.

Uh appreciate all you're doing.

And and also a lot of people kind of in this area have asked me about the film, and I'm not no expert on the film incentives themselves, other than advocating for them.

So I'm glad you're having a panel on kind of breaking it down.

Uh when is that when are these incentives available to to potential filmmakers?

The new incentives kick in in September.

Okay, and then the incentives become available to you as a rebate program.

Okay, so you can spend the money and get it back, which does speak to the HAA grants and how helpful they are because and also the budgets that you get back money are very high.

So that's why we also are doing the seed and spark for fundraising and self-distribution, because we want to make sure people are able to get these incentives.

And these panels are affordable, colleagues.

I mean, they're like $15 to attend one of these, you know, panels and stuff.

So people can go.

I'm attending the one on Friday for 15.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

But but um just thanks for what you're doing.

Um, it's all kind of gelling right now with the incentives, with the growth of your conference, with council member Jackson's work on building the infrastructure that we need in in Houston to get more filmmaking here.

Uh, just really appreciate all you're doing.

And and I don't think you're a stepchild.

I think people are starstruck.

I think people love films and movies and commercials, and we want to see more of it here, and and just thank you for for what you're doing.

Thank you, Councilmember Alcorn.

Thank you.

Did I hear you say I was starstruck?

I'm kidding.

Anyway, thank you so very much for your great updates and presentation and your contributions to Houston's arts and culture community community.

So thank you so very much.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Okay, now it's time for public comment.

Uh we have two speakers, but certainly if there is anyone that wants to come and speak after they have completed their comments, you are certainly welcome.

So we're gonna ask Veronica Cabrera um to come and make her public comment and the remarks.

We're asking that you limit them to two minutes.

State your name and any organizational affiliation for the record.

Can I take it to you?

Keep 10.

They're more they're more beautiful in color.

Okay.

Um so yes, my name is Veronica Cabrera.

I go as Ronnie.

Some of you may have seen me on national television.

I was on Kelly Clarkson uh back in 2020, where she handed she awarded us and the city of Houston a hundred thousand dollars accompanied with HEB to be able to establish an art center in the East Tech's Jensen neighborhood, which is District H.

And so we did that.

We took an abandoned building that had no hopes.

I brought architects and engineers and people in into this space to show them what I could see that nobody else could see in this building, and they didn't jump on board with me.

But guess what?

I did it.

We served repeatedly over 6,000 Houstonians in the East Tex Jensen neighborhood.

So if you drive down Jensen all the way north, it's the area that people are deeming, you know, um the place for um prostitution and other things.

That's what our neighborhood is known for.

I went ahead and I established a community art center there.

Unfortunately, we were unable to purchase the building, so then of course the landlord loved the work that I did.

The rent went up, we got pushed out.

Now I'm serving in my backyard.

Now, with the arts, I'm always always advocating for different things in the neighborhood.

We have done things like serving people during disasters, and a thing has become aware, come aware to me through the work that I do in the civic community.

Our Granada, our Houston Theater Granada, which was built in 1949, is about to be demolished at the end of the month.

And they are not letting the community know that this is about to happen.

They are saying that we want this, but I actually put a survey out letting the neighborhood know, which they were completely unaware that this was happening, and they're appalled.

They don't know what's coming, they don't know who's doing it, they don't know that it's happening.

We have a historic building that, like the Deluxe Theater, has been renovated and turned into a beautiful anchor for the neighborhood.

We could do the same thing in East Text Jensen, take away that label of sex trafficking and all the other labels that they've given us and take our community back by just preserving this theater.

Thank you.

If if you want more time, you can use music.

Yes.

So basically, what I'm asking is this theater is about to get demolished by the end of this month or maybe next month.

All we're asking is halt the demolition.

If the city of Houston can review this permit process, halt the demolition and give us time.

One to properly educate and inform the community, to figure out if we can get a historic review of this theater, and then see where we stand because it is a nonprofit that is coming in to do this work.

So therefore, nonprofit 101, which I've taken the class tells you that when you go into a neighborhood, you find out what that neighborhood wants, what that community wants because you're using their public dollars and their you're saying that this is what they want and they need.

So what I want to say is give us time, halt the demolition.

They don't even have the capital campaign completely gone.

Like they don't have all the money raised, they don't even know what the plan is for the entire because they bought the whole lot, but they want to demolish this theater because they know that as soon as a community finds out about this, there's gonna be pushback.

But before they can get to that level, let's just tear it down.

And then what can you do?

It's gone.

Oh, we'll build you a monument with the bricks, is what we've been told.

Well, I'm gonna ask you if you could engage with Corey in my office, and perhaps we can see what we can do regarding that.

Yes, thank you so much.

So I don't know where it's located.

What would it's uh 92?

I had a whole poster for you guys, but they told me I couldn't bring it in.

Is it 9231 Jensen Drive?

9231 Jensen Drive, uh, District H.

Oh, you said Jensen Drive?

Yes.

Okay, it's district H.

Yes, it's on the corner of uh Jensen and Titwell.

Well, here you you have the representative over here sitting in the seat of Councilmember Mario Castillo.

And he can certainly maybe you should get with him since it's in this district.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

Councilmember Alcorn, you have a question or comment.

Thank you for coming.

Was the hundred thousand dollars you got from Kelly Clarkson and H E B, was that specifically for the site, or was it just to open an art space?

I was operating out of a bus, a mobile art studio, and the But that money was for programming.

For programming, yes.

And so since we didn't have this like long-standing credit, and you know, we hadn't been a long-standing business, we were only able to be able to rent.

But we were able to serve for three years and vested with with the verbal, I've learned my lesson with a verbal kind of understanding that I would purchase the building in five years, but then the gentleman went ahead and like quadrupled the price of the building.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, thank thank you so very much, and just get more Russell over there.

Thank you guys.

The next speaker will be Ruth Villetoro.

Hi, thank you for having me.

My name is Ruth Via Toro.

Um, I am a working producer here in town for the last 25 years.

I've been employed in some major studios here in town, but I'm also part of a nonprofit organization called Houston Association of Producers.

We are a brand new nonprofit, and I just came here to introduce ourselves because we hope to be working with you more in the future.

I came here also to support our friends at HCast Swamp and Alfred at the film commission.

I've known them for years and have worked with them.

Um producers are a lot of times the very first call that comes in from outside interests of film, media, the FIFA's coming in.

We work with Super Bowl.

We're the first call.

So we're the ones who hire, we look out how we're going to budget this, how we're going to schedule this.

So we have our um thumbprint on the pulse of what's happening.

So this nonprofit organization came together to really talk about the issues that happen in Houston for producers to reach the right talent to get the right infrastructure to just really get our job done and get it done well.

So we have always competed with Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, and kind of have a reputation for maybe not being able to get the large productions like the other cities.

So we are here to change that, and we are working very strongly with other organizations to get that done.

But as producers, we hope to have this conversation with you of what we need to get our job done and to bring bigger productions to Houston.

So this is our introduction, and I hope to reach out to you individually.

On Wednesday, we have a um our first ever big industry event.

It is called the Happy Awards, where we are going to be honoring our production professionals.

We are going to be giving out awards for best director, best producer, breast best, all of the different um positions that you can find in production.

And uh a lot of times our crew they put their heads down, they work hard, they don't really get their faces out there, and that is a really crucial piece of marketing our production community to the world.

So we hope to do that to shine a light.

That is next Wednesday.

Um I will share our website.

It is HTX Producers.com.

You can get more information and about us and what we do.

And that's it, just an introduction.

Thank you very much.

And we saw uh councilwoman Tarsha Jackson at some of our meetings, so we appreciate her interest as well.

Well, thank you, uh Councilmember Alcoy.

Thanks so much for coming.

It's good to know about your organization.

So I know you're you want to meet individually, and that's great.

You don't have to go into too much detail, but what are some of the things the city can do to help?

Yes, um, one of the big things that we talk about is infrastructure.

A few years ago at the Super Bowl, I got a phone call, and they there was a company coming in asking for edit suites so they could come and do their programming and not have to take it back to their own city, which would have been a really great revenue source.

Um I'm very familiar with all the different studios in town infrastructure, and it was quite challenging for me to find what they were looking for, which is not a good reflection of us.

It it wasn't that complicated.

They could have gone to Chicago easily, any other city, and easily gotten done what they needed to get done.

So those are the types of things infrastructure is number one.

Um, and then just really bringing our community together, and uh, they're very siloed, and they've kind of had to be in for the last 20 years or so.

I could go into the history of you know, agencies leaving and production leaving, and a lot of our crew have to go out and work and then come back.

So we need homegrown projects, homegrown support and um infrastructure.

Thank you very much.

And it sounds like the the conference will be a good way on the and bringing the silos together and and some of the things that Councilmember Jackson's working on on the infrastructure side, but there's I'm sure lots we can do, so I'd be definitely interested in meeting with you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so very much.

Thank you.

Are there any others who have burning two-minute comments?

Oh, okay.

Well, come on.

Oh my goodness.

Well, please step forward, give your name and any organizational affiliation.

I certainly know this lady here.

Uh, we actually went to school together.

Yes.

Well, thank you for having us.

Um our community music center of Houston.

We're very glad to be in uh District Destination.

Be sure and tell them who you are.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I'm Ann Lundy.

I'm the community music center of Houston's uh music director.

And one of the things I love about coming to these things, this is my first time.

I didn't know this was really great in terms of the arts and really supporting the arts.

I didn't know that you all have been having this, but I'm gonna try to make others.

But our uh particular thing, like the other lady was saying, that our community music centers in District D.

We have recently uh well a few years ago purchased a location at 3020 Holman.

And for those of us that remember, did you remember the old Riverside Hospital?

Okay, so it's cat a corner to the old Riverside Hospital's a doctor's office.

Uh, and we have uh we've been able to get it, and now we're raising funds for the the um the renovation that is needed.

But we've been teaching our kids, mostly black and brown kids, music lessons, how to really participate in music.

You can sing, you can play a violin, or blah blah blah, blah blah the way Carolyn used to do with her flute, I believe.

And um, and just participating in music and this coming Saturday, for example, they're having uh at the Third War Community Center, they're having a back to school bash.

So some of our kids are gonna be participating in that and performing, you know, providing music for the uh for the community.

So again, want to thank you for having this, and I hope to be back and talk more about our music.

Well, thank you, Dr.

Lundy.

If you have a flyer or something and you can share it with my office, okay, you could certainly put it out there.

Thank you.

We will do that.

All right.

Thanks.

Thank you so very much.

Always great to see you.

Uh there was another hand.

If you want to step up give your name, any organizational affiliation.

Good evening.

My name is Linda Inoz.

I'm a local artist, entrepreneur, and founder of the Houston Arts Center.

Thank you for giving me this opportunity.

Um, also a local graduate at Texas Southern University.

And well, uh my family moved here when I was five years old because my parents wanted to give their daughters a better opportunity.

So they moved to the big city of Houston, which was you know the best decision they had made.

When I in 1992, when I was 14, I was able to have a position at the Six Flags Astraled Airbus Shop.

I may have done a shirt for you one time.

But um, this experience gave me the foundations of entrepreneurship and experiences for passion to give back with my talent.

Also, the impact that airbrushing itself makes individually with people.

With this today, what I'm proposing is to have a moment with you with y'all, maybe at another time where I can in detail explain this real solution that I have come up with throughout the 33 years of my professional art life.

And this, my envision, starting off with the Houston Art Center, is a community art center that is not just a traditional art center.

It is based on teaching artistic trades.

Because in my experience, as many grants as you can get, or exposure as you can get into a gallery, what is left after that being an artist?

Struggle, years of learning, just even if you're trying to learn a new skill, it's very hard artists sometimes sharing with artists, things like that.

But if you have your own skill, if you're trained, airbrush, silk screen, artistic trades that really provide an income individually for artists, then you really make an impact in the communities.

I'm from District One, Houston Ahabi, um known as South Side locally.

And there um I started to have my art center there.

Unfortunately, I was also kind of pushed out of my building due to electrical issues.

And these are issues that local artists face that are not maybe um such a big organization that can get funding like they do.

So what do we do?

Okay, we need solutions and we need help from y'all.

Okay, so my pro my proposition here and my proposal I'd like to speak with y'all is an issue initiative that will teach artistic tra uh trades.

It have I have an internship program for high school students and college students.

I work with Houston Academy for International Studies, Texas Southern University, and Houston Community College Systems.

Um also promotes art uh with technology conservation and community impact.

And this is also going to be a new economic system with revenue and opportunity flowing back from the center into the communities.

It will empower artists, have a destination for art art tourism, and it's a long-term investment that is educate, training, connects community with art for years.

So I would like opportunity to meet with y'all at a later moment to speak about this.

It's different, it's innovative, and there's not another art center really in the world for this that does what I am proposing.

And Houston will be the first.

And could you perhaps provide some information to my office?

Yes, ma'am.

Yes, ma'am.

We can see what we can help.

Great, thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

I think I had one more hand back there.

Two more hands.

That's it.

Okay.

Just kidding.

Good afternoon, good afternoon, um, council members, good afternoon, arts community.

Um, my name is Ameichi Ugu.

I am the program's manager at the Deluxe Theater, uh, two miles from where we stand right here.

And I just want to tell you a little bit about what we got going on for some of us who know the history of the deluxe, for those who don't, the deluxe theater was opened in 1941 and operated up until 1969 as a movie theater.

It's very integral in the Fifth War community.

Um, after it closed down through a partnership between the city of Houston and the Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation, it was revamped and has brought been brought back as an uh performing art space.

So everything from plays to comedy shows and dance recitals have happened at the deluxe.

Um, but we've had the opportunity to bring film back to this space very recently through a partnership with the Houston Cinema Arts Society and Rice University.

We were able to purchase a state-of-the-art, state-of-the-art uh projector that now allows us to show films in the space.

We kicked this off um earlier this summer with the Crookland Cookout.

We uh we screened the Spikely movie Crooklin, and we had a little block party.

So we had everybody out uh uh hop scotching and double Dutch in, we had food trucks, it was a whole family affair.

Um we also had a city proclamation from the mayor's office as well as the Officer Tarsha Jackson, and we're able to mark this day as a special day of film coming back to the deluxe.

Um what we plan to do, our bigger our agenda is to create a breeding ground for education and collaboration in Houston's film community, not just for uh film lovers, but for Houston's film community.

So through panel discussions, film screenings and workshops, we want to we want this to be a place that the film community can gather and connect with each other and and create opportunities within our own community.

Um our most recent partnership with the Black Cinema Club, which is a new organization.

Uh we have been uh we have started a uh five film series where we're showing five films over the next couple of couple of months.

Uh the first one is coming up this Sunday.

We're showing ATL, and we will be going to Lockwood skating ring.

So if you're familiar, you're from Houston, you know anything about Fifth War, you know Lockwood is also a Houston uh neighborhood staple.

So after that.

Um thank you very much.

And um, but I do want to drive on this last point.

Um the first event that we did with Black Cinema Club was called a movie lovers mixer.

That was on July 25th.

Y'all might not remember July 25th, but I do because there was torrential downpour on July 25th, and we thought that nobody was gonna show up because of that.

But the response was incredible.

We had so many people come out from uh people who had just graduated from film school to people who've been making films in Houston for years, uh, all together in the same space, and the feedback was incredible.

The fact that they showed up, I think says a lot about the uh the yearning or the need for uh those types of spaces, and we want to, as the deluxe and our agenda continue to provide that space for the city of Houston and for our community.

Thank you.

Thank you so very much.

And when you have your events, make sure you give us the information and we can put it out there.

Absolutely.

Who should I submit that to?

To the district D office.

District D office.

Yes.

We'll do.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you so much.

And I think we have one more speaker.

Two more speakers.

Okay, y'all.

Okay, oh, okay, okay.

Next time y'all need to sign up.

Go ahead.

Uh my name is Noe Moreno, and I'm here with uh Art and the Heart, and I'm also here to speak about um the destruction of the Granada again.

Um we originally started with a bus, and then we turned it to an art studio, and then since we've moved the art studio to actually what used to be my house, um, we've kind of gotten more involved with not only the community but also understanding the neighborhood and the needs of our community.

Um something that I've learned a lot sitting today was that there is a big passion for film and for the arts in general, which is nice to hear.

Um, but the granada is a symbol of art and film and also of Hispanic culture.

It was one of the first um what's called movie theaters to show Spanish films um in Houston and probably the United States.

Um especially in this time where Hispanic culture, my culture is kind of rapidly under fire and the humanities in general, um, not only in history, but in art, film, um, literature, literature is also rapidly under fire.

Um, I think it's very, very important that landmarks like these and testaments to culture and to history get to remain and get to have a voice and get to continue speaking for the things that matter not only to me but people like me.

And so I would just ask that it is seriously taken under consideration to continue to preserve the Granada and its rich history for my community.

Okay, thank you very much.

Uh next speaker.

Hi, good afternoon.

Hello.

Good afternoon.

Carlos Espinoza here with CGA Planning and Design.

We're in a work planning firm here out of Houston, Texas.

We're working with the East Sex Jensen community leaders to talk to the council members and hopefully you guys can support us.

We've been going around with uh figuring out the history of the Granada Theater and how to preserve it.

And we're also reaching out to the other super neighborhoods in Fifth Ward, Third Ward to figure it out how they can support us in this process of protecting the Granada Theater, but also reaching out to the local historic uh planning commission and then to staff members out there so we can help get some support from you so we can get a quicker process from them.

As you've heard from the other community members, uh we have less than 30 days, maybe 60 days before the Granada Theater is gone.

So we would like to hear hopefully some support and some pressure on the staff from the city so we can move things quickly or understand how this process works so we can preserve the history of this rich Hispanic neighborhood.

Thank you.

So are you working with Councilmember Castillo's office?

Uh we're working right now with the community leaders, and we're gonna reach out to the council member.

Yes.

Okay.

I don't think there are any more speakers.

Certainly.

No, I'm just curious.

Do you want is it Catholic Charities or is it the that bought the property?

Yes.

Yeah, okay.

Thank you.

We have we have another speaker.

Okay.

Good afternoon.

Thank you so much.

Amy Goods.

I am managing director of Roco Chamber Orchestra.

I apologize.

I had signed up, but maybe it was after.

Um I wanted to, yes, I do work for Chamber Orchestra, and I wanted to highlight and kind of piggyback on to some of the things that our colleagues with the film organizations have been speaking about as far as opportunities for homegrown artists, um technicians, and in this case, musicians.

The new incentive programs extends to film, movies, commercial, video game, animations, visual effects, and extended reality, including AR, VR, and MR.

Almost all of those projects include uh music as a really critical part of the development.

Um, you know, any movie you can think of, the two the tone and the mood is really set by the music.

Houston is also home to hundreds of incredible musicians.

We have two um wonderful music programs here in the city.

And by highlighting the opportunities and encouraging not just the filming and production of these programs, but also looking at hiring and utilizing the local musical talent that we have for those projects.

It really creates great opportunities for us to attract and retain musical artists and to create jobs there.

Um in addition to this new incentive, there is also programs, the Media Production Development Zone Program also supports physical spaces that uh lend support to these film and moving image, and that also extends to recording studios, and right now in the city, we do have some challenges with lack of space, specifically for music that has the acoustical and technical needs for not just live stage performance, but as well as recording, especially for launcher larger ensembles.

Most of the recording studios that we have in the city right now, largest ensemble you can get in there is about 10 musicians.

We don't have a good space that can fit a much less a full 90 plus piece orchestra like the symphony like the Houston Symphony, or in our case, a smaller 40-piece chamber orchestra like ROCO.

Um, I'm excited to hear about the plans and development uh with uh Green Point Mall.

We would love to talk to Councilmember Jackson about that and looking at opportunities to be able to um provide spaces for the music recording that could be supporting these projects, not just the projects that happen here in Houston, but also the musical recording that could support films made anywhere in the world.

Um so that was mostly what I wanted to share.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, thank you so very much.

I don't think we have yes, we do.

We have one more speaker.

Thank you.

Okay.

And I promise to be quick.

My name is Craig Hauschel, executive director of the theater district.

Yes.

I want to just take a moment to celebrate.

Uh we've got 21 arts organizations coming together under the leadership of Houston First next week to do Houston Theater Week.

Houston Theater Week is a buy one get one free offer where the whole performing arts community of Houston has come together to offer tickets throughout the year.

It's a really it's a really unique, wonderful opportunity that I want to make sure people are aware of.

Uh I think it speaks to the collaborative nature of our community, and I think it's something to celebrate.

So if uh you have an opportunity to share uh with folks that Houston Theaterweek.com is an opportunity to get these BOGO offers.

I'd certainly love it.

Thank you all for your time.

And we'll just share that with the district D office.

We'll see what we can do.

We'll do thank you.

Okay.

Be well.

All right then.

Well, I want to thank everyone who came today, as well as uh thank those who shared their thoughts.

And uh is there's no further business before the committee.

This meeting of the Arts and Culture Committee.

But before, I want to thank you again, Councilmember.

Okay.

It's now adjourned.

Thank you.