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.

Um, but the um I think at the February grants committee meeting of Houston Arts Alliance, there was an overview of these changes being introduced, and um the and we're excited to kind of implement those to make the process a little bit more uh equitable and just streamline things a little bit, make make things a little bit easier.

So um with that um said we, you know, it it's uh we are capping cities initiative awards at 10,000, and that is like I said, to uh create greater equity and procedural fairness in the grant making process and being able to distribute more dollars to more applicants.

Um let's see.

For some reason, Quang, your other dates did not get okay.

Here it is.

Um I could not print.

I just got a new device, and I'm not connected to the printer yet.

So um I'm doing this from my iPad.

But um those application cycles are open now, correct?

They opened last week.

Monday.

Okay, Monday.

Um, and they are open until April 21st at 1159 p.m.

It's an online application, of course.

And I will send um all of these kind of bullet points around to the council offices as well in case you want to include them in your newsletter or any kind of community communications.

Um, but please encourage uh eligible applicants, um, you know, projects to consider applying.

And as I mentioned, the HAA grants team is always here to help and to support applicants.

They uh make themselves available to answer questions both before uh someone submits their application as well as to assist uh during the application process.

So they are here for that.

And um that is all I have on the grant side.

Wonderful.

That's all always very important because people need funding.

And so for you to provide that information is just wonderful.

Uh I've on and since you mentioned Kinder, I guess I'll have to mention a young lady that I I call her my niece, but she's a phenomenal artist that attends Kinder.

Uh her name is Chloe Tucson.

She'll know that I called her name, and she will probably run down from the school to the building.

But she is phenomenal, so I thought I would mention her.

Um, thank you.

I was blown away by some of the programming.

I mean, the the kids were um, you know, part of the presentations and there were some performances, and I was very impressed.

Yeah, she's the junior there, so she's up and coming.

Yeah, and as well as uh I met a lot of nice artists.

I I opened my home to a sleepover about a week ago.

So I met a a lot of nice young ladies, but talented young ladies.

So now we're gonna move on to agenda item three, Civic Art Map website presentation.

Yes, so I'll stay up here and I will invite Alice and Killen, director of Civic Art at Houston Arts Alliance to join me.

Um, and we will walk you guys through what I think has been long anticipated.

I know we've been talking about this for quite a while, and um this was a project that was happening within the uh former Office of Cultural Affairs and then uh was stalled a little bit due to staff transitions, and so Houston Arts Alliance was asked to uh pick that up and finish out the execution of that with the website contractor, and so that is ready, and we are excited to show it to you, and Alison is gonna walk us through that a little bit.

And thank you for recognizing Alison.

That's in my script, and I missed her from the Houston Arts Alliance.

So thank you for joining us.

Yeah, thank you.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for having me.

Nice to be here with all of you, council members.

Um as Michelle mentioned, I'm new in this role, and I'm excited to be sharing a brand new beautiful website with you all today.

If we go ahead and move on to the next slide, I can just jump right in.

Don't want to keep you waiting too long.

So this website is a an interactive map that will be available online.

It's currently live, so you can go to the website, and I'll have a QR code at the end for you all.

But this map shows all of the civic art investments, all 873 artworks distributed across the Houston area, and clickable pins that are located on the map indicating the artworks or objects locations in the city.

This functionality has the ability to click on a pin, it opens and gives you information about the artwork detail right there on the page.

You don't have to reload or open a new tab.

It's just right there right in front of you.

You can zoom in to explore a neighborhood, and it works on your desktop, your phone, your tablet, so you can access it not only at your desk, but also on the go.

And so on this next slide that you're seeing now, this interactive map, I have two examples shown for you of what that functionality will look like.

So on the left is Vaquero by Luis Amenez, and this is in the Northside neighborhood.

And this pin shows just the singular artwork that's located in that location.

And then on the right is Downtown RR, which is by Sydney Mowen.

And that's a photograph installed right here in the City Hall Annex basement, City Hall basement.

It's just downstairs.

So if you haven't had a chance to see it, it is in the conference room.

And you'll notice that there's a yellow bar above the title of the artwork indicating that there's 70 artworks located right here in City Hall.

And so you'll be able to scroll through and then click in to those artworks to learn more about them right here on the website.

Speaking more about clicking in and learning more about the artworks, on the next page, I will show you a little bit more about what that looks like.

So these detail pages have images at the top, and for the next example, we have Geometric Mouse Scale X.

It's located just across the street at the Houston Public Library.

And this is by Klaus Oldenburg.

And this is a very great example of what happens for all of the artworks.

You'll have a title, images of those artworks, the artist's name, their nationality, where they're from, their life dates, and then information about the artwork specifically, the medium, the dimensions, and then most importantly, where it's located and the city that is responsible within that sponsored department who is maintaining that artwork.

And then you'll also be able to link to the artist profile and learn more about the artist and see if there's any other works in the collection by that same artist.

On the next page, we can go into learning more about all of the artwork and the ability to filter by sponsoring departments.

And so I know it's a little bit hard to see.

If you do go online and check this out, which I sure you all will, uh you'll be able to see a little bit more about this description at the top, which is just about the collection, how it's funded, um, about the civic art program as a whole, and then um rotating images at the top showcasing some of the items within the collection.

Uh and you're also able to filter by libraries, by parks, by uh police or fire or legal parking, all of the sponsoring departments within the city so that you can see exactly what types of artworks are located where, um, especially for things like the parks, like what's in the park next to my house.

How can I see if that's in the civic art collection?

You can dive in and look.

Um, and this page just highlights those because I know those call-out bubbles were a little bit hard to see.

And so these are all of the sponsoring departments that are a part of the city civic art collection, and you can filter by department for those.

On the next page, uh, we have more information about the artist.

And so um I selected this card.

Michelle gave me a hint that Karen Navarro is speaking today.

And so we don't have photos for all of the artists in the collection.

Some of them date back quite some time, and so we don't have a full directory of headshots for all of the artists, but you are able to click in and get more information about all 516 individual artists.

Um any information that we do have is available on the website to learn more about them, about the history, about their process, their bio, their artworks, and again, any and all artworks that they have that are included in the City Civic Art Collection.

On the last page, the last function I really want to highlight is the search tool.

If you've made a Google search, you know how the search tool works.

Um, just on the site, the top right corner, there's a search icon.

You can click it and you can search by name, by artwork type, by location.

And then the example I'm sharing with you today, I just typed in Herman Park, and it populates 48 results of artworks that are related to have a keyword of Herman Park.

And so it's a great way to learn more about any artwork that you might want to search specifically for.

So what's in my neighborhood?

What are the paintings in the collection?

Are there artworks by Mel Chin that I want to learn more about?

You can just do the search instead of having to go on the map or search by artists.

There's a lot of different ways to find and navigate through the website.

Lastly, just for impact, I want to share with you all who does this benefit.

Who is this website for?

For one, it's for all of you.

It is for city council.

Um this allows you to learn more about the artwork assets.

I know sometimes you all have questions, and so this is a great resource that I hope you all can reference and access at any time to learn more about the civic art across the city and perhaps in your districts.

Uh this is for the city departments.

It is also for Houston residents.

It's for people like you, like me, like everyone here today to learn more about the civic artworks and um get a chance to really explore the cultural landscape around them.

Again, educators and students, there is a wealth of art history located in the city civic art collection, and I really want to emphasize that we do try and capture all of that, and it is reflected and now available for everyone to reference.

And it's for artists, arts organizations to learn more about, see their artwork included, have that searchable resource, and tourists and visitors to learn more about what's around them when they visit.

Learn what great and amazing civic artwork we do have and experience it at their own pace and at their own leisure.

So I will leave you with some takeaways today.

Um on the next page, you'll see just again driving home.

This is a public resource.

It is not just an administrative thing, it's not collection specific, it's something that everyone can use, and I hope that you all do have the chance to use.

There's many different ways to explore and utilize the website.

So, however, it works for you.

We hope that you um are able to explore it by department, artist name, type of artwork, location, and it is a living and growing database.

It updates nightly, so you're able to sync with any changes and additions to the collection as it continues to grow and expand.

So, lastly, there's a QR code or the URL for the website.

And I will pause there.

Well, thank you so much for that presentation.

Um, and I want to thank whoever that ghost is.

I don't know who was going to move the presentation, but I want to thank that ghost that that they came right on time.

Certainly, we have a question from uh council member Ramirez.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thanks for the presentation.

I think the uh the map and the clickable features on it uh is really good feature that will allow people to search where these pieces are.

And you know, if they see one they like, then maybe they can go hunting for it to find it.

And I think it will increase uh visitors to the individual pieces.

So I think it's a really really good idea.

You know, I was crunching the numbers here, and if my math is right, about 44% of all the pieces in Houston's collection are in one of the two airports.

Right.

And uh I haven't been through an airport recently, thank thankfully.

But uh when I've been through there, sometimes it's it's occurred to me that maybe they weren't located in places where people would would tend to linger and actually pay attention to them.

Um and I don't know if any thought has been given.

I know no one's no one's here from the airport thought been given to maybe a kind of a little museum where where there's a collection of them uh centrally located where people could go and look at them when when they have some some downtime as opposed to uh some of the ways they're they're displayed now.

But um uh thanks for the work that that y'all are doing and uh presenting this collection to us that will help Houstonians better appreciate what we have.

Thanks.

Thank you.

That's great feedback, and we'll definitely take that to the airport folks.

And um, they are uh wanted to be here, Alton wanted to be here, but obviously it's they're kind of all hands on deck trying to do what little they can to alleviate the current situation.

So thank you.

The chair recognizes vice here.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you both for the presentation.

Um not only is this a way to catalog our our collection, but it turns it into a tool that has many different uses from visitors to even uh council members who can now explore the civic art in their district in a way that you know we can then highlight uh to our constituents or to our community um and even the artists that are a part of it and learning more about who they are and their work.

Um it's a great I I've played around with it a little here um on my laptop.

I mean it's a great tool.

Uh I commend y'all for for getting it up and running, and it's gonna help us showcase and um highlight our our collection.

So thank you all both.

Thank you.

I'm very excited to you know take this to our partners at uh Houston First, visit Houston and use this as a tool for arts tourism.

I think that's gonna be really great.

You know, the untitled Art Fair as an example when it returns to the George R.

Brown this fall.

I could certainly see you know, curators and advisors and groups uh curating tours of certain elements of the city's collection now that they have a resource to be able to locate the art.

Thank you.

The chair recognizes a great representative from the office of Councilmember Abby Kamen.

Thank you, and thank you so much for this presentation, like everyone else.

This is I think I'm gonna go do a scavenger hunt and look for things.

Very exciting.

I was wondering if um, and I only tried one location, so they might already be on here and we might be missing one.

If there's any interest in adding um our mini-mural collection to this um database, many council offices are putting up beautiful um mini murals, or if that's a different type of art that wouldn't be included.

That's a great question.

I don't know how, I mean, I know that is certainly a part that program is an important part of how the city makes art investments, but I'm not sure how those are cataloged or considered, yeah, in terms of collection.

I don't know if you know the answer to that.

I do believe that there is a mini murals map already existing, and so as there are so many of them, especially on those traffic cabinets, I would uh recommend.

I don't have the website link in front of me for that, but I think if you just type it into your search engine, mini murals map.

Um something should populate.

I don't know how up to date it is.

I know they're constantly adding more of those murals, so um, that program especially evolves quickly, but there is a resource existing, and so uh the scope of this project was really to focus on the civic artwork um that is um within the civic art collection specifically.

Okay, thank you.

And I'm happy to find that link and include it in the uh the other grants updates that I send to you all.

Well, thank you.

Are there any other questions?

Well, I want to thank you, Director Leal and uh Ms.

Alison Killen who are sharing their presentation with us.

And I just want to remind you that the presentations are on the website.

I know they're a little small, trying to read them on the screen, but they are available to you on the website, the city website.

So now we're gonna move on to the community spotlight.

And we will hear now from the mayor's office of the arts community spotlight.

And that this you too.

Oh, you you have to start a show today.

Oh, go ahead.

Thank you.

Um yes, I just you know, I wanted we talk a lot about the programs and the investments that the city makes around the art, and one of the things that's most meaningful to me in the work that I do out in the community is being able to connect with artists and in conversation with them learn how the programs have impacted and the investments that the city makes in the arts have impacted their careers.

And um, so I just thought it would be nice to hear from one of those individuals, and and so I reached out to Karen Navarro, who has been both a recipient of uh grants in partnership with uh Houston Arts Alliance from the City of Houston and also the Civic Art Program and has work in the city's civic art collection.

And so I just thought she could share a little bit about her experience with the programs for a few minutes.

So I will introduce Karen.

Thank you.

Uh good afternoon.

Um I'm very happy to be here to be sharing a little bit about my experience with uh the grants that HAA have provided through how my career.

Um I I have been a recipient of um the cities initiative and the support for artists and creative individuals.

And I must say that these grants have helped me uh grow my artistic career.

They um they have been such a fundamental part of uh developing and getting to the next step in my career.

And not only that, but it also allow me to contribute to the city economically in a way because I am working with contractors.

So I'm hiring people.

And at the end of this of these grants, we are giving back to the community by doing an event and engaging, engaging with different programming that I do throughout this this grant, they this grant cycles, and presenting my work, right?

I um an immigrant, I've been here for about 10 years.

And I believe that without these grants, I wouldn't be able to be where I am today.

Yeah.

Thank you.

I think now we're going to move on to the public comment.

And before we go to public comment, I'm gonna take a point of personal personal privilege to recognize Dwight Baxter here.

I know I'm surprising him.

But he uh was a choreographer and dancer on Broadway.

We were actually raised in the same neighborhood, and in my neighborhood, either you danced or you ran.

And he chose to dance.

And so but phenomenal, and we we're so very proud of him and his accomplishments.

So now we will move on to public comments.

Uh I think we have two that have uh signed up to speak.

The first person is Crystal Walters.

If Crystal, thank you, Crystal.

Please identify yourself and your organization, and then you can move on with your comment.

And we'll give you three minutes since the meeting is moving so fast that it's almost over.

So we'll get three minutes.

So get her on the clock, Cece.

Thank you, Chairwoman.

Um, my name's Crystal Walter.

I am here on behalf of Matthew Jean-Baptiste LLC art firm.

And I'm also here advocating as a small business in the arts in District K.

District K has the honor of hosting FIFA World Cup.

It's coming to our district, and we are excited about it.

As we've been doing our homework, and I'm glad to be here today.

Um, I was able to meet with some great people, engage, and sprinkle some seats of suggestion to our new um uh leader in the mayor's office for the arts, Mrs.

Lyell.

But I'm here to say that I need to know can business owners in the arts in District K find pathways to funding our public art.

The world is coming to our city and our district.

I know we have the fan festival coming um to the East End, and I think that's great.

But District K demographics is some I think is diverse.

My family is a soccer family.

My husband, my son, my son's on his soccer team.

We have a heavy uh Caribbean Latino, Afro-Latino community.

Um I think we need to think about how are we engaging that community that is actually hosting.

I do not see the ambiance.

I don't feel it.

I went to the Houston Sports Authority to ask, hey, where are some RFPs, some RFQs for public art, even in the clean zone?

The hotels are excited.

They want to, they want the art, but artists need funding.

And I'm not just advocating for our business, but there's other artists, they don't have the grind, they can't stop their grind to be here.

So I'm speaking for all of us.

Please engage community investors, speak to um whoever is the leadership.

I don't know the governance, that's why I'm here today, but ask them, challenge them to think about public art in regards to leaving that lasting impression to all the people that are coming to our city and my district um to experience the rah-rah of FIFA.

And lastly, before I leave, because I'm keeping count for you, chairwoman, um we have looked um and engaged the community.

We spoke to the FIFA host committee.

They don't have any funding for public art.

I specifically asked Mr.

Brady.

So, with that being said, I keep getting redirected, but they don't have it.

So if we can speak to our precincts, um, I know we have some great people in the audience.

If we can just think about how can we get funding and bring that economy to the arts.

We do not Houston is too big for struggling artists, especially if they are about the business and offering great product.

And that is my public comment.

Well, thank you.

That is a great comment.

And it was actually brought to my attention that you were going to ask that question.

So we're ahead of that.

We don't have the answer just yet.

But certainly it's a uh a wonderful comment and certainly worthy of discussion.

And so I thank you for coming forward, and we will get that answer and perhaps engage you in helping us to be able to get that information out.

Thank you, Chairwoman and co-chairmen.

Thank y'all.

We have a question.

Hold on, hold on.

We have a question from a great representative from Councilmember Tiffany D.

Thomas.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh thank you so much, Ms.

Walters, for coming and um expressing that.

We really appreciate it.

Uh definitely agree that more funding is needed for the art.

So just wanted to let you know that uh Councilmember Thomas unfortunately couldn't make it today, but she does have a meeting Friday morning with Director Leal about that very thing and finding more funding, um, particularly within District F for the art.

So I just wanted to let the record be known and thank you today for coming to express it.

Thank you.

And when we we do not mind working with District F, uh, at large position one, district C.

We are here to beautify the city.

Um we work with artists in the city, and I'm glad to hear that.

And I'm excited, and I hope we are all excited about what's to come.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You see how that works, you put the question out there, and then somebody is ready to entertain that because it was a it is a great suggestion.

So thank you so very much for joining us today.

Thank you.

The next person is Nakia Sims.

Is Nikia here?

I don't see Nikia.

Okay.

Well, um, that ends our speakers' comments.

Is there anyone here who would like to come up briefly and make a comment?

You certainly could come up and introduce yourself.

You know, I believe people who come all the way down here need to have their voices heard.

So, sir, if you want to come forward and tell us your name and your organization and uh give us your comment.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Can we raise this a little?

Can't yeah, we hear you.

Oh no, no, okay, cool.

Uh hi, I am Reyes Raminez.

I am your Houston Poet Laureate.

Uh until April.

Make sure you speak into that.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

You kind of tall for the speakers.

Okay, go ahead.

Yeah.

Okay.

You can hear me.

Okay, there you go.

Thank you.

Thank you.

As I said before, I'm Reyes Amidas.

You're a Houston Poet Laureate until April 2027.

Um, so I just want to give you an update, just some news on what's going on in the poetry world of Houston.

Uh one, uh last month, uh the Texas Institute of Letters recognized uh three Houston poets for their achievements.

Uh Ebony Stewart and her latest collection of poetry, who was an honor winner for one of the best books of poetry published last year.

Uh Randall James Tyrone received also in uh on was an honor winner for his debut book of poetry, City of Dis, an amazing book.

And I actually also got an honor receive uh was recognized an honor winner for a short story, um, all that good stuff.

So Texas and Two Letters is probably one of the, if not the biggest and oldest uh literary organization in Texas that recognizes Texas writers.

Um some other updates.

Uh next month is uh National Poetry Month.

Uh I know I'll be busy, so at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, I'll be hosting uh series of workshops and their art galleries that is free and it's on their free days on Thursdays.

So check that out.

Um I will be doing a program with the Houston youth Houston Youth Poet Laureate, Cave Adir, uh here uh next door at the Central Library in mid-April.

Um I will be doing selling actually a book that I published through a Houston Arts Alliance grant that I received uh about two years ago that actually documents Houston's breweries through poetry and photography.

Uh so check that out, PhotoFest.

That's next month.

Um and yeah, for Natural Poetry Month, every day I'll be posting a book of poetry on the Houston Poet Laureate Social Media about uh about every book or as many books as I have uh published by Houston Poets.

So if you don't know at least 30 Houston poets, I do, uh if you want to support, you can always buy their books, and I'll be posting about them on the social media at Hugh Poet Laureate.

Um so anyways, thank you so much.

Uh it's always my pleasure to prove that Houston is one of the greatest cities in the world for poetry and literature.

So uh thank you so much.

And thank you and share that information to make sure we can put it on the website as well.

And so uh I want to thank everyone that has oh, you want to come and speak?

Okay, come on up.

Hello.

Yes.

Hello, I'm Alicia Lawyer.

I'm not a lawyer, that's my name.

I founded ROCO, uh Houston's Chamber Orchestra, a 40 piece professional group, some of you know.

And I just wanted to comment on how awesome it is about the public art, but a piece of what we do is we have put our music on QR codes all over Houston to the recordings of 1,200 tracks for 21 years that we've been recording.

And we're really the only organization that is able to do that.

So it is considered in our eyes public art, and we're thrilled to be a part of all of the city with 30 partners in 80 locations.

And we were just put in the uh airports.

So you'll see in Terminal D, QR codes to our music, and we're really about being a great musical virus to be able to inhabit our city and the representation of all of Houston.

We are number two in the world programming composers of color and women composers, and we have performed in 82 venues in person live, so live streaming to the world.

So we just feel like Houston is the place that we could have formed this and really thrived.

But just notice those QR codes, those are ours, and it's really exciting to be able to partner anywhere and everywhere.

And I'm pretty sure we're in every single district.

So thank you so much.

Thank you.

Unfortunately, um it's a lot of time to peruse the art in the in the airport right about now.

So listen to some music.

So thank you.

So thank you for that.

Certainly, I want to just give some key takeaways.

Uh all one public resource, all 873 civic artworks are publicly searchable, mapped, and documented.

Any resident or official can access information about the civic art collection.

Multiple ways to explore, find artwork by department, by artist name, by location on the map, or by searching any keyword flexible for any user, user-friendly.

And then uh finally, a living growing database.

The website syncs with the collection database nightly.

So it is up to date as new artworks are added to the growing civic art collection.

And certainly, if you get the opportunity, please scan the QR code for further information.

So if there is no further business before this committee, this meeting of the Arts and Culture Committee is now adjourned at 2 42 p.m.

Thank you and have a wonderful day.