Okay.

Welcome.

I would like to call the meeting to order.

We could do the roll call, please.

Epic.

Here.

Hannafer here.

Murphy is absent.

Carlo Titus here.

And Newton is absent.

Thank you.

The agenda review and supplemental reports.

Any additional there are PowerPoints for 5A, 6A, 6B, and 6C this evening.

Thank you.

We'll open the floor to public comment if there are any public comments at this time.

Okay.

We have the approval of minutes from March 24th.

Has everybody had a chance to review the minutes from the last meeting?

Yes.

Okay.

Somebody'd like to make a motion to approve.

I'll make a motion to approve.

Second?

Second.

Okay.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Okay.

Thank you.

We'll be moving on to number five here, 5A, the Fine Arts Accelerator Program with Jennifer Owen.

Thanks for being here.

Thanks for the opportunity.

I'm gonna see if I can bring this up.

Which button?

Yeah, there's a new button.

DJ Elijah.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you.

I know 99.9% of you, but my name is Jennifer Owen.

I work for the city in the economic development division.

And I appreciate this opportunity to share a program with you, hoping for your help and getting the word out about it when it goes live, and also your input on it if that feels appropriate to you in the minute, in the moment.

So I'm here to talk a little bit about a program called the Napa Makes Initiative.

This is an initiative I've had the privilege of working on for the four years that I've been part of the city.

It grew out of an economic development study that my predecessors commissioned in 2019.

A group of very smart people came, took a look at the city of Napa and provided some recommendations saying, hey, you're a tourism hospitality wine industry, very, very strong.

But there's also a problem inherent there that if something goes sideway with that, we are not really efficiently uh balanced to have a diversified and balanced economy.

So they recommended a couple of sectors that they identified as being here and nascent in the economy and recommended that if we as city uh employees were able to provide those sectors a little bit more uh support, that it might help us kind of balance our economy.

And uh among those sectors listed was a group that today we call Napa makes, and that is creatives, artisan makers, manufacturers.

Um I've been working with this population for four years and have done a number of things.

The pictures in front of you are intended to illustrate some of those things.

It's largely been awareness building and service providing.

Um over the course of the four years, I kept hearing what I felt like was different versions of the same story, which was I am Jennifer, I make such and such product.

I know it's a good viable product, but I don't know how to produce at scale.

I don't know how to market.

I'm not sure that I'm doing my finances right.

So that led to the creation of these accelerator programs.

Um we have to date um executed two of them, focused on two totally different groups.

Um the first picture, top left of your screen was our artisan makers accelerator.

These are people who produced um jewelry, ceramics, leather bags, custom woodworking.

Um, and in partnership with the Napa Solano Small Business Development Center.

We took this group of 12 through a six-week program where they learned everything from how to price their items to how to talk about their business to the methods of sale that were available here in their very own community for them.

Um Mechanics Bank sponsored that, which was incredibly special because not only did they get the education, they also walked away with money in their pockets to reinvest back in their business.

It was so successful, we just did it again.

Um we had over 40 people apply for this.

Um we ended up taking a cohort of 15 people through a similar program, uh co-facilitated, co-facilitated by the SBDC, but in this case tailor-made for people with a food business, food entrepreneurs, and in this case Redwood Credit Union sponsored.

So again, at the end of that program, everybody who successfully completed it was able to take some money, put it back in their business.

So I'm here today because we would like to do it again.

We're planning to do it again, and this time we are focusing on fine artists.

This is still a program that is uh coming together and being defined.

Um we're calling it the working artist accelerator.

I have been consulting with a number of community members, some of whom are in the room, arts council, arts association, um artists that I know to ensure that it's something that's actually valuable.

So some of the loose criteria, and again, this is not set in stone, is that you have to actually have something that you make, and you have to want to sell it, right?

Um in this case, when we're talking about um fine arts or a working artist, we're making sure that if the thing that you make has a functional component that is secondary to it.

Um the makers accelerator really would be more for people who are making sort of more functional art.

Um and then the curriculum is being tailored again for people who are artists.

So ideally these people are gonna walk away with a business plan that they feel really good about, which perhaps contains an artist statement.

They're gonna learn about finances, they're gonna understand how to price things, they're gonna learn how to sell to galleries, um, they're gonna learn how to deal with copywriting in the age of AI, how to evaluate a contract.

And then something that of course is extremely relevant to the group here is public art.

Um again, in working with this group uh for the past four years, I've heard a lot of desire, hunger, thirst for local artists to be able to participate in a little bit more of the public art process here in Napa, realizing that that's not an entirely intuitive leap for somebody that's making a thing at home.

So Sarah has been um generous enough to volunteer some of her time.

So we're sort of uh envisioning a co-led uh curriculum as part of the six-week series here, which really talks about how you might take something and scale it up to be ready for a project that this group would be interested in installing somewhere in the city of Napa.

Um we are hoping to launch this at the end of June.

It would be a six-week program with a final showcase, waiting for some details to come through from our partners at the SBDC.

Um the ask here today is I would love to hear any feedback on anything you feel um really strongly should be included in this curriculum, and then also just hoping to get your buy-in that when I've got the program ready to launch, that you would share it with your networks.

So with that, I'm happy to take any questions, concerns, etc.

Thank you very much.

It's been really exciting to see this program grow.

And having worked with a lot of local artists, I see absolute result in not just giving them a foundation of structure because coming out of their homes or or you know, progressing their own art interests and art techniques and and what they do.

I really see a lot of foundation laying so that people are really seeing what it's going to take to make a living doing it.

And that's always the big challenge for any artist.

But I feel like you've covered a lot with the marketing, social media, business plan, like really letting people know that certain things are an investment in yourself from marketing, and then certain situations are gonna be good for selling, and it's kind of understanding that progression.

So it's been really, really exciting to see, and I've I've seen the result of the program already.

Thank you.

Any other comments?

Not right now.

I'd be really interested in seeing what's on the whole curriculum.

Absolutely.

I'd be happy to share like a pre-draft with this body if that would be of interest.

That would be actually really valuable for me too.

Okay.

Great.

Adding it to the list.

One little comment.

It would be nice to get up to date on that because I know that for many years I was part of the.

We should probably have coffee, shouldn't we?

Yeah, developmental part of that process, which is a wonderful program.

So thank you, John.

Got it.

Yeah, and do you see this happening?

Uh because I know you've had two in two different industries, um, and it's exciting to see the fine arts coming back.

Do you see that becoming more frequent, like two or three times a year with a certain you know, core group of people and spreading that between like metal artists or glass artists or painters, like uh seeing it maybe become more specialized so that as it progresses and grows, it could deepen into those particular attributes of those characteristics of the different genres of work.

Yeah, that's exactly the conversation we're having right now as we kind of fiscal year plan for the next cycle is do we maybe work with the which will it will be three graduated cohorts and continue to offer services.

Do we offer a second round?

TBD.

Yeah, because I could see that really growing to like muraless, glass, metal, you know, different genres.

So it's it's really exciting to see this evolving, and kudos to you on that as well.

Yeah.

Any other comments?

Okay.

Thank you for being here.

I know this is a second or third time with updates, so appreciate that very much, Jennifer.

I really appreciate the opportunity.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Okay.

Uh we'll be moving on to the administrative reports.

Reports.

Okay, we're looking at 6A to start.

Hello.

Um.

So for this item, we'll be discussing uh a proposal for a donation of an existing artwork.

The donation proposal is coming from the artist Peter Hassan, who is generous enough to be here today to answer any questions you might have.

Um and this is not a process that we deal with very often, so I wanted to give an overview of the process as it's outlined in the public art master plan.

After that, I'll give a little bit of a background to Peter Hassen and his work, and uh you'll have an opportunity to ask him questions, and then we'll get into the application which were included as part of the attachments of this item.

So the public art master plan outlines the process for proposed donations of existing artworks as opposed to proposed donations of commissioned artworks or um artwork ideas or uh sorry, artist-initiated projects.

And it states that the donor, um, the potential donor gets in contact with staff to present a proposal, and this proposal is then evaluated by the public art steering committee according to the selection criteria of the public art master plan.

So attachment one takes out those specific pages that are relevant from the public art master plan.

PASC then would provide a recommendation to staff to accept or decline the gift, and staff then would take that recommendation and do a secondary evaluation of the proposal before ultimately choosing to accept or decline and where relevant, um, bringing that recommendation to city council.

The selection criteria are the same for the donation of existing artwork as for any public artworks.

That includes that it must be an original work of art designed by an artist, located in a public place and designed to be site-specific and complementary to its surroundings, and also to add diversity to the public art program.

Peter Hassen is a Sonoma-based artist known for his work in sculpture, printmaking, photography, painting, and video.

He's presented work in solo and group shows across the United States, including at institutions like Marin Mocha, Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, and the Bolinas Museum.

He has public artworks exhibited in Santa Rosa, Sacramento, Cloverdale, Sonoma, and Napa.

Hassan currently has two temporary artworks in the city of Napa, Cycles 3 extinction, which is included as part of the 2024 to 2026 NAPA Art Walk, and uh utility box art wrap located at the corner of Third Street and Coomb Street.

Um you can see those two on the right side of or sorry, the left side of the screen.

Um he also has an ongoing values public art project, which began in Napa in 2012.

Um during this uh season in Napa, he painted over 500 parking spaces across 62 parking city lots, parking lots citywide.

In March of this year, Peter approached staff with a proposal to donate a sculpture, cycles two to the Napa public art collection.

And this proposal is attachment two.

Um cycles two is from the same body of work as cycles three, and the donation would include the artwork, a concrete plinth, and transportation to Napa.

Cycles two shows the history of science through three interlocking CORTEN steel discs.

One disc represents the Spira Mirabilis, a visual representation of the formula for pie.

A second disc, the dodecahedron is an abstraction of a platonic salad solid.

And the third disc shows an astrolabe, a celestial navigation device.

The sculpture is valued at approximately $20,000.

The proposed location is on is on Main Street between Pearl Street and First Street, which is the current location of cycles three.

This location has historically been used as a site for sculptures from the Napa Art Walk.

But as you'll hear later, and as we've discussed, the Napa Art Walk is evolving to not really be sculpture, sculptural artworks downtown.

And so it would be a good transition for a space that we wouldn't be using anymore for the Napa Art Walk.

The fiscal impacts, because the artist has included a plinth and agreed to the transportation of the sculpture, the only cost to the city in association with this donation would be staff time, as well as the creation of signage and any ongoing maintenance, all of which would be paid out of the public uh the general fund, not the public art fund, and that's the public art operating budget.

So at this point, I would invite Peter.

Uh, if you have any questions for Peter, um, and I am looking for the public art steering committee to provide any recommendations or comments on whether to accept this donation or not.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Open the floor for comments.

Or questions.

Thank you.

For one, that's really generous.

Yes.

Very generous.

I'm very excited about the program of the future.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Any questions, comments?

I I just agree, the same thing.

It's very generous too.

Want to donate.

I concur.

I also like your body of work just as it relates to empathy and uh sort of a universal energy.

So uh with your values, uh, I really enjoyed reviewing your background, and it's really an honor to have you donate, and it's greatly appreciated.

Yeah.

I only see wonderful things coming from that being a part of our landscape.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh are we ready for a vote?

No.

Okay.

Um what is the vote specifically addressing?

The vote is to provide a recommendation to accept or decline the donation.

Well, I do think we should accept, so obviously.

Because the work is quality work, so absolutely.

Okay, so all those in favor?

Aye.

The recommendation to accept.

I just want to make sure we got that for the record.

So I think we have John make the first and then Laura made the second.

So it's uh three zone three-zero vote.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you very much.

Um, uh, we'll move on to 6B, review of the temporary land art RFQ.

Yes, and I have a presentation for this.

Um we have an attachment for agenda item 6B, which was the draft request for qualifications, which we'll be promoting to artists hopefully in the next few days.

Um the goal of this presentation, because even though it's a temporary art initiative and isn't technically under the purview of PASC, we would like your advice and uh recommendations of any adjustments we should make to the request for qualifications, as well as a member to sit on the selection panel.

So the temporary land art initiative is something we've talked about as an upcoming project.

It's an evolution of the Napa Art Walk.

And like the Art Walk, it will be a rotating exhibition series.

However, part of this evolution is that rather than bringing pre-existing artworks, we will be inviting artists to create site responsive installations in parks across the city of Napa.

The series title is derived from the cultural theorist and scholar Donna Haraway and aims to disrupt the separation of nature and culture, instead presenting them as inextricably linked nature culture.

Also, the linguistic construction is a compound word using culture as a suffix, and it brings to mind other fields and concepts that resonate with our community here in Napa.

So agriculture, viticulture.

In the request for qualifications, we're asking applicants to apply to one of three project tiers.

And all of the artists across all the tiers will be awarded a thousand dollars upon submission of a proposal and also a production budget according to the tier that they're in.

Artists will have to indicate which tier they would like to apply to at the time of application.

And the hope with this tier system is that artists that will encourage submissions from artists across different stages of their career and across different mediums.

We hope to install between four and six installations, and the artwork could be installed as early as fall of this year and will remain up until spring of 2029.

The goals of this program are to create exciting, appealing, and harmonious public environments to uplift new voices and perspectives on nature and the climate and climate issues through art, to promote public participation and interaction with artists and artwork, and to encourage the use and appreciation of NAPA's park system.

This is the site map, which is also provided in the RFQ document.

Importantly, the artwork will only be located in zones one, two, three, and five.

This is to keep the artworks out of the areas of the Oxbow Preserve that flood, and also to ensure that all of the artwork is accessible on ADA accessible paved paths.

If you haven't been to the Oxbow Preserve, I would really recommend it.

It's a beautiful park.

These are some images of the Oxboro Preserve, so parts of it are more wooded, if you will, and are on gravel paths.

But these are images of the paved paths, just so that you get a sense of where the artwork will be contextually within the park.

As you can see, there are a variety of character zones with many different species of flora, including native grasses, box elder, elderberry, and we have some century oaks there as well.

The timeline, um, we're hoping to receive feedback from the public art steering committee today and open the request for qualifications for submission on May 1st.

The RFQ would close on June 1st, and we would have a first jury review of applications in June.

Select finalists will then take from June to August to create proposals.

And in August, the jury would reconvene for a review of those proposals.

The artists would then have a period to produce and install the artwork from starting as early as summer of 2026 and installing no later than spring of 2027, and the exhibition would be open from spring of 2027 to spring of 2029.

This project will be funded by allocations previously dedicated to the Napa Art Walk, and this funding comes from the general funds public art program's operating budget.

So it doesn't use public art fund dollars.

The total project budget is not to exceed 25,000 for the first two-year exhibition.

Okay, I'd like to open the floor for comments.

Questions?

I have with that budget is really low.

And so I'm wondering like what kind of things are you looking for?

Because there's um there's not a lot of land art that couldn't be just carried away that you could actually do for that kind of money.

We don't know.

Um I've been in touch in researching this, and I know that we have a project approved for permanent land art.

So this is kind of an entry point for us to learn a lot about how our community responds to land art both emotionally as pieces of artwork, but also potentially as pieces that might get vandalized or stolen.

Um it's an effort to also encourage local artists of different, you know, of really entry-level artists who may not have many or any public commissions to engage in uh hopefully a more accessible way.

That being said, we anticipate that it will take staff time to not only review the proposals, but help the artists develop the proposals.

So not just myself and Katrina, but also our parks colleagues who are in the Oxpo preserve regularly.

One other thing I just want to add is um we actually might have some materials that might also help.

So we might put that um the finalists have been selected, we might have some materials that we collect, you know, whether it's down trees or other things like that that would help offset some of those budgets as well.

We you know, obviously we don't want to commit to that quite yet, not knowing who the artists are and what you know what they'd like to create, but um that might help as well as far as the budgets as well as um our our team helping support with the installations as well.

Sometimes that offset some of the costs as well as just like the the labor uh for the installation.

Do you think uh it would be possible there's that program in San Francisco, and I believe they have it in Sonoma as well, where um they have a resident artist at the uh uh trash a site that allows them to collect materials in that way.

Yeah, the artist in residence, recology artist residents.

Thank you.

Yeah, there used to be a site called the Bay Area Reuse, which was open to Bay Area Wide Artist for that as a resource.

Um I had the same concern um in terms of the dollar amount and there's a certain level in which uh you have to have apparatus to create something that has any kind of effect or something like that.

So like if I was gonna open up for five painters and I was gonna give them each two hundred dollars for paints and realizing that if they went to the paint store they would buy two tubes.

I'd it wouldn't be enough to really create something with an impact.

And it just seems awfully low to me too, um for a temporary thing.

And as a person who just landscaped my backyard, by the way.

Um it boggles my mind what thousand dollars won't do.

But uh, I just feel it's like so low.

Is there any way that was there a reason why that figure was chosen?

It's because we're reallocating the pub the art walk budget, which is the same number.

Yeah.

And I think the stipends for the art walk, which obviously it's a little bit different because the artwork has been created, but the stipends were you know two to three thousand dollars um for the art walk.

And so it's an increase from that, but obviously they do have to commission the work.

Yeah, that was one of my questions was some of the work could already be created and they could take that stipend for the installation, just if they want visibility or they want to be part of this program.

That was kind of one thought that maybe it's not necessarily about the value of the artwork.

Some people could take $2,000 and re-cology and and create significant size of piece or impactful piece, or it could be somebody that's already created something that just kind of like the Yauntville art walk where you know there's there are significantly expensive works in that, but the artist gets a stipend, the installation is covered, uh, so it could be a very expensive piece, but it's still part of the public walk.

So it may be something along those lines.

And the way I understood it was the budget uh when they pick a tier, it could be that somebody ends up with a $5,000, not everybody's gonna get the $1,000 level.

It could be a ma for the four to six finalists, that twenty-five thousand or twenty thousand would go to um it could be some could be lower, some could be higher.

Right.

So I I think a lot of this is an experiment and hopefully I'm sure we will learn a lot.

We didn't say that the jury will have to choose two artists from tier one, two artists from tier two, two artists from tier three.

If they did do that, that's how we end up with six artworks.

If you wanted to do all of them tier three, the higher budget, uh you could do that and then not have any of the lower budget artworks.

So um I will definitely be looking for feedback from the jury because maybe we find that none of the lower tier installations are really up to par with what we're expecting.

Or we could find the opposite, like Katrina said, maybe it's uh, you know, we have some um beautiful downed redwood um that an artist could carve and the material budget is covered, but then it would be the production budget of paying someone to carve that tree.

Um but we don't know.

So it's dipping our toe into commissioned artwork as well.

One of my concerns was um you're launching this May 1st with the hope that we have enough people selected in 30 or enough applicants in the first 30 days.

Do you think that is enough time to really reach bay, you know, of the broader Bay Area art realm in such a short amount of time.

That's one concern I have about that.

Yeah, typically with some of these calls before, um, if we're not getting a big enough pool by that point, then we can always extend it.

Okay.

Yeah.

And then the other side of that is uh I'm always thinking about marketing.

So once we have the the 25,000, is there a mark like a marketing, is that coming out of the parks and rec or like a marketing budget to really I think it's an amazing concept and I love the idea of activating the Oxpo preserve and I love the idea of the the nature culture and creating this new sort of uh you know, art and the landscape uh program with this being the inaugural um is the marketing budget and program with part of that.

Marketing of the call or marketing it once it's the installation is completed.

Once it's completed or percursing it or precursing the final installation once the artists are selected, um having uh push uh for this wonderful new.

So that's kind of um uh the beauty of the ongoing general fund funding for the public art program is that we could use some of that uh after you do the commissions, then the next fiscal year you could do more of the the marketing aspect of it.

And there's still a little bit of funding left after that point too.

But um a lot of it is actually through uh internal uh staff efforts as well as a network of uh organizations that um that we're communicating with and to help get the word out as well.

But agreed, if it's uh some additional paid marketing, we'll have to do that as well.

Yes.

Welcome, Garrett.

That's okay.

Do I need to make an announcement that or ask him to get on the roll call?

Uh Elijah will make notes in the minute that Garrett has joined the meeting at what, six oh eight.

Okay.

Well, I think we probably all would love to be on the committee that is on the selection committee.

So I'm I don't know how those decisions would be made.

But I think it's it's a whole new thing that for NAPA would be great.

And for a long time we've kind of talked about land art and earth art being part of it.

Um for one thing, that's a resource we already have.

Um we have parts and many of them have like where uh place where a whole new feature could be put in, you know.

And some of them are just different elevations than the surrounding area and uh where you walk into or you sit in there's a whole different space you can view from things like that.

So I think it's a good way to enhance our parks and include art in the parks that it's uh aesthetically like homegrown if you will.

But it could be wonderful.

Yeah, I love the idea of engaging or giving locals an opportunity to understand the process to come in at an accessible point uh as well.

And to get them out in nature, you know.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Um and then I had a question.

So and John, you were just kind of mentioning too about having maybe more than one member of the public art steering committee be on that subcommittee, but I was just a little bit curious um about who would all be on that committee.

Or what comes out of that brings up a question for me too.

Yeah, who would be involved?

Um typically for the temporary public art projects, we've had one uh member of the public art steering committee, and then for permanent public art projects, we have two members.

Um any time a member um serves on a committee with someone from outside of the uh public art steering committee, it actually has to follow the Brown Act.

Um so we will have to notify those meetings and treat them as a Brown Act uh body.

Um but I'll let we have we have definitely brainstormed about the other members, and I'll let Sarah maybe share a little bit about some uh people we have thought about.

So um you know history is a really big part of of what makes Napa special, and there are some really amazing landmark preservation things, so the ag preserve is something that I was looking at and researching this.

Um, of course, the uh the flooding, the historical flooding, and then the creation of the Oxpo Commons.

So there's a lot of really exciting things happening that bring in different voices, I think that would really benefit um this project.

So we don't have we haven't invited anyone to sit on the jury yet, but it would include, of course, arts professionals, a member of the public art steering committee, potentially a design professional who's experienced in building, so some someone like an architect or a fabricator, and then also someone hopefully from uh organizations like Friends of the Napa River or uh sustainability organizations that are really dedicated to ecology in Napa.

And I think landscape architects specifically if you're gonna include those.

And then, you know, a space in terms of being used this way, although it may seem like really, really brand new, began like in the 40s and 50s, and a lot of significant work has been done by Robert Smithson and all kinds of people.

Some that are so far out in the desert, you need helicopter to go see it, maybe.

Um, but um so I think it'd be really wonderfully significant to have it be part of your own community and to see art in a different way as art is part of living environment.

It's not just precious objects that you put on walls or up on pedestals, but beyond that.

So I think it could be really, really beneficial for the city.

But also why it's important to start out of the gate with you know something that will be worthy.

I concur.

Yeah.

You know, are you are you going to um require that the art be uh like something that people could interact with or stand on, sit on, walk on, or is there a way if that artwork isn't uh you know as delicate that there you know, how do you how do you do that in those spaces?

Yeah, that's a question about a lot of public art.

Yeah.

Um we we do require that the artwork is sturdy and wouldn't become a hazard to anyone because we don't, it's not a surveilled area.

Uh we can't, you know, we have park staff who are there regularly.

I go out and check the artwork periodically, but it has to be sturdy enough that it won't become a hazard to the public.

Um thing I did mention in the request for qualifications is maybe the artwork changes over time.

Maybe it maybe it doesn't.

Um we've found that with the artwork sculptures, people are respectful.

We haven't had any issues with that, and that's a similar setup where it's in the public realm without surveillance or security uh for two years.

So our community at this point has had exposure to a lot of art, and I would hope that they would treat these pieces of art as art.

Um, but that is something that the artist will have to work with us on and also emotionally be prepared for, is if there is something that happens, is it repairable or does it become decommissioned?

There's another thing, and this is as old as any time art was being put out there in a public review.

Does artwork have to be utilitarian to be art?

No.

And but there's a big significant part of the public that thinks that way.

Um the national parks are a waste because you're not deriving money from it.

Does it have to be the utilitarian?

Do people have to be able to sit on it, stand on it, or whatever?

Or maybe is that something that visually just enhances the space and draws your attention that there's something human-made that's interjected into this natural environment that makes you look at the natural environment differently.

But it's not utilitarian at all.

Like in ceramics.

If you didn't couldn't make a cup of tea or put a cigarette out in it, at first people thought it was no good, you know.

Fortunately, Robert Arneson kind of changed all that.

But I mean, it's a thing to think about when we're writing them up, or who we're choosing when they make proposals.

And I I had a question about the title, the nature culture, art in the open.

Is that just for this location, or is that sort of the umbrella now because we've talked about the larger landscape art projects?

Um just a little clarity on that.

The thought was that nature culture is the umbrella and the first edition is art in the open.

There are other sites that we've talked about as uh as a as a group here.

Um Kennedy Park is one that we've also explored.

Um that is more open space like.

So uh we are asking that the artwork is site responsive.

That could include artworks that already exist, but the hope is that they are responding to the site, and so in other sites they would be responding to different um contexts.

I like that.

Um I love the nature culture, art in the open, but I'm wondering if um art in the open, is it really telling people that it's at the preserve?

Like is the it maybe it's almost too general.

I'm not sure that in the title.

I'm thinking from a marketing and getting people on board of this whole umbrella idea of different different uh areas where we're gonna be doing it.

So I mean, and we don't want to get like art in the preserve or whatnot, but I'm just wondering if it's almost too general to draw people to uh want to go and see it.

I'm just thinking out loud on that a little bit.

I love the nature culture.

I'm not sure about art in the open.

Um it doesn't identify the location for me personally.

Just food for thought.

I just thought something humorous that I'm not gonna share.

Yeah, that's the marketing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Of an art project.

Any other comments or questions?

I'm super excited about this.

I think we're embarking on something uh really unique and incredible.

It's gonna be very, very special for NAP.

I think it's an incredible initiative, and I love the idea of stepping in and creating access to a lot of different levels of uh entering the public art world, or we might be surprised that some people just want to be a part of the bigger picture, and this is a way to step in with a two-year commitment on something that maybe is already produced.

Um but I'm very excited, and it's a great program.

And I'm also excited because it's a different genre so far.

Yeah.

Um even from the arts councils from way back or whatever.

Everything in public seems to be geared towards just sculpture.

Um that's like just this little chip of what everything can be.

And so we haven't really um as a community brought in like paintings very much.

Um which we could, you know, because there's is a such thing as indoors.

It happens.

Um paintings.

Um art in action, landscape art like what we're talking about in the earth environment.

So it's not always about something that's gonna be on a sculpture pedestal at a certain corner, and there's 50 new ones this next two years, that kind of thing.

So I think it's really exciting to open it up past that.

It is very yeah, there's definitely gonna be a lot to learn in this process.

Um, but hopefully it's a platform for that we can continue.

Thank you.

Uh so we have a couple of act well, we have an action item.

First is um any additional feedback on the draft for the request for qualifications.

Okay.

And then uh we need to nominate one public art steering committee member to serve on the art selection panel.

So volunteer.

I mean, I'd volunteer.

Yeah, me too.

Yeah.

Shall we nominate?

That's the joy of being the chair.

Right.

So do I and you want me to uh nominate Laura?

I'd be happy to.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

I have second.

Okay.

So we've nominated Laura Carola Titus for the public art steering committee member to serve on the art selection panel for this project.

A separate concern that we had brought up before in the past about wanting more.

I'm not talking about this one.

This one's tabled and done.

But in the future of like having more than one person from the public artist on panels of selection.

And I think because it he'll bring a voice that doesn't get drowned out by committees.

And sometimes committees are wonderful and sometimes not so.

But at least having more people.

In the district, in the school district.

And they were going to hire a reading teacher.

And so they on their panel, and I'm going to say something that sounds like I'm making this up, but it's kind of what it really was like.

They would have one person that would be in the area of reading.

And then they'd have one person represented.

Like the certificated staff.

Did the not the certificated staff, but other areas of the staff, like maintenance supervisors and things like that.

Someone from the community, someone from the business community.

Anyway, you got a committee of about 13 people on there.

Only one of them.

Boom, only one of them really knows about reading.

All 13 have opinions about it.

But only one really knows like what not the nomenclature, but what the research is and what the what would be should be done and stuff like that.

So that then that academic voice gets drowned out by that.

So I just think it would be a good idea for us to consider on all our committees of having at least two.

And sometimes on something that would be huge that might come up, like when we had the wonderful thing of NED Con that would have been a world-class thing right now.

That's not there.

Maybe even having three when it's something like that, but at least two, so that it gives more voice to the art area of choices.

I know it it can't be three because then that would be a quorum.

But I think what m might be something that we can commit to, John, is let's see how the rest of the committee, the panel rather, um, the composition that we can put together and who accepts the invitation from other outside organizations, and then um revisit it if needed, or obviously we've know there's interest from yourself tonight.

So if if we want to make another motion that in the event um there's an additional spot that uh two members can sit on the armed recommendation to staff and city council.

And that would be perfect because it isn't like everybody that's an arts professional has the same opinion or same view.

Right.

It would still be something that would be general and uh differing opinions are wonderful.

But it would be nice to have some that are aesthetically based and that kind of thing.

So that that's a good point.

Thank you.

Okay, the final presentation that we have this evening is a general public art program update.

After a little bit of a rain delay, Fuller Park is in the final stages of installation, and we anticipate um the park opening in May of this year, mid-May.

So public arts hearing committee should anticipate receiving invitations to the opening ceremony, um, which like I said is scheduled for mid-May.

We also currently are accepting ex submissions to our street banner program this time inspired by the 4th of July and also the 250th anniversary of the United States.

Um we're using this anniversary.

The prompt is very broad, but uh using the anniversary to remind us of uh the future as well as the past.

Um by May 15th.

We have two collection locations, the senior center at 1500 Jefferson and the Napa County Library.

And you can also submit online to public art at cityofnappa.org.

So please spread that with your circles.

We had a really great first run of that with Dia de los Muertos last year where we received over 200 submissions.

Um and we're hoping to expand the program in our other community events.

That was a wonderful event, by the way.

Yes.

And very excited to announce that just a few days ago we opened a job posting for a summer intern.

Um applications are due by May 9th, and the intern will be assess assisting the public art coordinator with various curatorial and research tasks.

This is a really good opportunity for college students and also for our department.

Um so also please share that with anyone in your network who might be interested.

And then finally, um the second street pavement art um is moving along, and it will be a phased installation.

We hope to complete the bull bouts, which is using Street Bond SB 150 in May and June.

And then the meanwhile, the preform thermoplastics are currently being manufactured in Florida, and we anticipate that they will be installed in phase two, which will be later this summer.

And what does that involve the the uh the crosswalk area?

Yes, so the main street and second street pedestrian scramble, yes.

So that will be phase two, and then phase one are all of the bull bouts.

So we already passed the park, and I was gonna ask a question.

So we're are we past that?

We can go back.

Okay.

So one is um I've loved watching the progress and so of my grandkids.

We went by there today.

Um I noticed that pavilion that they're building that seems awesome.

Is that what is that structure?

It's just an uh in addition to the improvements that we're making at the playground area.

We decided to make that a shaded picnic area.

So um that'll be a reservable picnic area for families to use for all the cations.

So that will be open to the public um, I think in mid-Bay after the opening of the playground, so that people can start reserving that spot.

It's getting a whole bunch of attention.

And again, because people just ask us stuff like they think I know.

But I mean, I I was performing somewhere and someone would come out to me.

She said they're gonna make benches for a performance space, or are we how are those benches being used?

I didn't know what she was talking about.

She preface it.

It'll be a picnic area, not as like a raised stage or anything.

It'll be a picnic area with picnic devices.

The benches, I guess they saw them like this, and they thought that.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, I guess they're just they're gonna be put around.

They're staged for now, but yeah, they'll put be put into a normal figure you know configuration.

And then also on the horizon is um an update to the restrooms there as well.

So uh that will be coming up probably in the next uh year as well.

So that's very exciting, all the all the new developments at Fuller Park.

It's gonna be beautiful.

And those are well done.

Those things always remind me we live in a small town when people are just driving by noticing yellow benches under covered area, then they call you.

You must get you guys must get all kinds of calls all the time.

Some degree, yeah.

I mean, we get calls about all kinds of different things, you know, even things outside of our purview sometimes, which is pretty fun.

Well, it looks awesome.

I mean, the park looks so exciting.

And if we just let kids be the ones, kids are really excited.

They are really excited.

Thanks.

And that concludes my presentations.

Okay.

Any other comments by committee members, staff?

Well, I'm gonna ask one for one of my granddaughters.

When do the little green fence things come down so they can just look right in there?

So the fence around Fuller Park.

The little green things that are keeping people from seeing that's gonna come down close to the opening.

So we don't have exact date because uh just wanting to make sure that we're confirmed that all the inspections and everything are complete, but it will be mid-May.

Yeah, well, this is one from somebody that really can't see I know.

Like we'll have to look for the see if there's a little hole in the fence screen there.

Um I do want to just remind everyone of the Commissioner appreciation dinner, which will be on May 13th at the NAPA um Redwood Credit Union at Delvin Road.

So I hope everyone has that on their calendar.

Yes.

Thank you.

You know where I live?

Well, these are exciting updates and uh no, it's not.

Oh, it's a different spot.

Anybody have any location this year for the commission dinner?

So make sure you make a note of that.

Yeah, it's not at the golf course this year.

Yeah, I would have gone to the golf course.

I probably would have too.

Yeah.

So take a note at your invitation.

I RSVP'd but I'll have to double.

South Napa area now.

Okay, okay.

Very exciting.

Any other comments or questions?

Okay.

Can I take a picture of you guys after the meeting?

It's for the uh dinner.

The clerk's office is putting together a little presentation.

Sure.

Sure, sure.

Okay, well, well done.

Thank you for so much.

That's really been exciting what has been accomplished and what is coming down the pipe, and we'll get to start celebrating in May with the Fuller Park project.

So it's gonna be awesome.

Debugs too.

I mean, yeah, the ball bouts, everything.

Yeah, thank you so much.

It's really an really an honor.

Okay, meeting is adjourned.

Um