I am Councilmember Carolyn Evans Shabazz, Councilmember for District D, what I call the District of Destination.

But today I am serving as chair of the Arts and Culture Committee.

It is now 2 05 p.m.

And I hereby call to order this meeting of the Arts and Culture Committee of the Houston City Council for Thursday, March the 26th.

We are meeting in the City Hall Council Chambers, 901 Bagby Street, second floor, Houston, Texas.

This meeting is open to the public and is being broadcast live on HTV, the City of Houston's municipal channel.

I want to first recognize my vice chair, Mario Castillo, for some opening remarks.

Thank you, Chair.

I look forward to a great meeting today.

Oh, that was simple.

Okay.

All right.

Well, let me move down just a little and let you know that the presentation materials are available on the city's website.

And now I would like to recognize Councilmember Sally Alcorn.

Did you want to say something?

Oh, I can always depend on you to give us something to talk about.

I'm also excited about this meeting.

Okay.

And then we have Councilmember Ramirez who has joined us.

And then we have representatives from Councilmember Kamen, Councilmember Carter, Councilmember Salinas.

I think that's it, right?

Oh, and Councilmember Tiffany D.

Thomas.

Okay.

Well, certainly so very glad that you all could be here today.

And uh I want to thank the presenters, the partners, and members of the public for joining us.

Um I think we have started with some brief opening remarks, so we're just gonna move on into the agenda.

And um certainly the arts and culture committee continue to play a vital role in Houston's economic development, neighborhood identity, and quality of life.

This committee remains focused on ensuring that our cultural investments are accessible, accountable, and reflective of the communities we serve.

We're going to move on to agenda item two city-funded arts grant opportunities and updates.

Let's see, the chair recognizes Director Michelle Liao from the Mayor's Office of the Arts.

Thank you, Michelle.

Thank you so much, Chair.

And thank you, Councilmembers.

Um, I'm I'll have I have a few quick updates from my office not related to grants before I dive into that.

Um, but really just wanted to thank everybody for the very warm welcome as I'm about a month in now and um have really hit the ground running.

I've had the opportunity to go to all kinds of arts events in the community on behalf of the mayor in the city of Houston.

And um it's been fantastic.

I I just in the last you know, I would say week or 10 days I've gotten to attend uh a ballet performance, excuse me, of uh Broken Wings, which was a um you know, based off of uh Frieda Kahlo and her her life experience.

I've um a welcome reception for a new director at writers in the schools, uh an event with PhotoFest celebrating 40 years of photo fests, the opening of a new gallery here in town, uh, an event celebrating uh the high school for performing in visual arts, the opening of a very cool exhibition at Museum of Fine Arts that I highly recommend for all ages.

It's uh it's kind of an interactive uh one that kids would really enjoy because you can climb through and walk through it.

Um but uh Ernesto Neto Sun Force Ocean Life.

Um, let's see, the Latino Film Festival, which celebrated 10 years um this past weekend.

And um what else?

Uh the uh the uh album release event, the live album release event for a uh jazz group La Mesha that uh has I thank you, Councilmember Ramirez, for introducing me to them, but who are uh a city funded grantee, and and with those funds were able to record their album and that was a fantastic event.

So thank you.

Um and then uh last week I joined Mayor Whitmeyer, the Mayor Pro Tem um and many of the women directors here at the City of Houston to celebrate the Charlotte Baldwin Allen sculpture that was gifted to the city and installed in front of the Julia Idison building uh by the Greater Houston Women's Chamber of Commerce in celebration of Women's History Month.

So um lots of exciting things happening in the arts in Houston all the time.

And I do appreciate you, Councilmember, and your opening remarks, uh, chair and your opening remarks for uh recognizing the uh economic contributions of the arts and uh you know there are so many things coming um here to Houston where the arts will continue to contribute to the economy.

I know I was visiting with the Houston Ballet just this past week, and they are playing host to a dance competition that is coming in May that will bring around 8,000 visitors to Houston over a nine-day period um and bring a significant economic impact.

And that's just one example.

So you know, I appreciate you recognizing that as well.

And now I will dive into the grants updates.

Uh, and I know that's really important.

Some of you um in the uh in the audience and watching um are very interested in that information.

And um Quang Vu is here.

Quang, will you just kind of raise your hand?

He's the director of grants at Houston Arts Alliance, and if there are more specific questions about grant funding opportunities, Quang is happy to answer questions after the meeting.

Um but Quay and I met earlier this month to review some proposed guideline changes for the upcoming Let Creativity Happen and Cities Initiative Grant Cycles.

Those updates are part of HAA's broader annual evaluation work that they submit to my office and we collaborate on.