Chair staff is ready when you are.

Good afternoon.

Welcome to Monday, May 11, 2026, 1 p.m.

meeting for arts, culture, and creative economy commission.

The meeting is now called to order.

Will the clerk please call the roll to establish a quorum?

Thank you, Chair.

Commissioners, please unmute for roll call.

Commissioner Carter.

Present.

Commissioner Eisenberg.

Present.

Commissioner Hershey?

Here.

Commissioner O'Habu.

Absent.

Commissioner Orozco.

Present.

Commissioner Smith.

Absent.

Commissioner Wallace is absent.

Commissioner Winlock?

Present.

And Chair Luvulo.

Here.

Thank you.

We have quorum.

Thank you.

I would like to remind members of the public and chambers that if you would like to speak on an agenda item, please turn in a speaker slip before the item begins.

After the item is called, we will no longer accept speaker slips.

You will have two minutes to speak once you are called on.

We will now proceed to today's agenda.

Or our land acknowledgement.

Please rise for the opening acknowledgments in honor of Sacramento's Indigenous People and Tribal Lands to the original people of this land, the Niseinan people, the Southern Maidu Valleys, and Mi Walk.

Potwin Wintoon peoples and people of the Wilton Rancheria, Sacramento's only federally recognized tribe.

May we acknowledge and honor the Native people who came before us and still walk besides us beside us today on these ancestral lands by choosing to gather together today in the active practice of acknowledgement and the appreciation for Sacramento's Indigenous People's History Contributions and Lives.

Thank you.

Please remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Chair.

We have no speakers for this item.

A second it was a motion by Commissioner Winlock with a second by Commissioner Carter.

Did you want to go?

Are there any commissioners?

Thank you.

Are there any commissioners who wish to?

We've already said that.

Is there a motion that we've already gotten from uh Commissioner Winlock and a second from Carter?

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Any abstain?

The motion passes with opposition from commissioners zero and abstention from Commissioners Zero.

We'll now proceed to the discussion calendar.

That is item number three, Office of Arts Culture, Arts Education Platform relaunch.

And we'll welcome Melissa Saron for a presentation.

Hi there, good afternoon, members of the commission.

Hi, I'm Melissa Saron, Grants and Programs Manager for the Office of Arts and Culture, and I'm happy to be here today to introduce you to a new tool that we're piloting called Artlook.

Artlook Sacramento is an online directory for arts education here in Sacramento County.

Today I'm going to briefly describe what it is, why we're relaunching it with a slightly new focus, and how it's going to work for those who use it.

To give you a little history, back in about 2020, Sacramento was one of five cities in the country that was selected to pilot an online platform developed by an organization called Ingenuity, now it's renamed Parliament in Chicago that measured all arts education activities happening in school districts.

Artlook could measure every art class and workshop offered by each Sacramento County school and give districts, funders, and the community an overall picture of what was happening where, who was offering robust arts education programs, and who was not.

The goal wasn't to put anybody on the hot seat, but rather to see where more investment was necessary and to give funders and school boards a tool to create a more equitable arts education ecosystem.

It was based on a project that had been very successful in Chicago, and it helped that city really expand the funding dollars spent on arts programming in their schools, and it served as kind of a report card for arts education.

And so we began the work to encourage school districts to use the program by entering their data in the system.

But we're not Chicago, it's a huge district, but it only has one school district.

So everybody in public schools in Chicago is part of one school district.

So obviously data collected in one particular way.

Sacramento County has 13 public school districts.

Each of them works independently and they share their data differently.

Some districts were able to share all of their information in the portal, but others only managed to complete a portion of it.

And schools with limited time and administrative support struggled the most.

So while it was a really good program, it didn't quite fit all our needs because it didn't show us everything that was happening in the schools.

And then of course the pandemic hit, made it doubly hard, knocked everybody off their feet, and it was much harder for schools to participate.

But there was one area in Artlook that we really believed could shine, and that was its ability to capture the information about arts organizations who offered their services to these schools.

We introduced local arts and cultural partner organizations to the platform, and we uploaded their programs so that schools could learn more about them.

So we thought why not redesign the entire portal as a directory to focus on what our community of teaching artists and our cultural organizations could offer to youth.

So what it is, it's a refresh concentrating on the external arts resources supporting youth that everyone can access and use.

We can help organizations and teaching artists to create strong profiles to market their work, which will be seen by a variety of youth serving organizations who are looking to add arts components to their service and programs.

We're now taking the burden off schools and making it an easy way for them to find the artist and the programs that they need to strengthen the work that they're doing with their youth.

We're adding better media components to really show off artists' skills and programs, and we're adding what's really important to me, a teaching artist component, which is going to open up more interesting opportunities for all.

So now I'm going to give you a brief overview of the platform.

So here's what it looks like when you go on to Artlook.

Artlook Sacramento again is a searchable directory.

It's going to provide information on arts and cultural organizations and independent teaching artists.

The old version of Artlook included just organizations, but here in Sacramento, there really are a great number of highly trained independent teaching artists who offer programming for youth of all ages.

This directory is really designed to meet multiple needs.

So for example, if you're a school or a school district, or maybe even a community center, or someone providing a local summer camp, you can go in and find programs in a wide range of disciplines that meet your art programming needs.

So an example might be a library looking to provide summer creative writing programs for middle schoolers or a community center that wants to do an afterschool photography program for youth, or an elementary school looking for an artist to work with their students and create a mural on a school wall.

If you're an arts organization or teaching artists, now you can share your offerings with all of these youth-focused entities and also with the general public.

So for example, a parent in any school can search for a program that they would like to see offered in their child's school, and they could suggest it to the school, the PTAs could use it, anybody can access it and find educational programs.

And all registered users, so both the schools and the sites and the artists can share their professional development opportunities to support enhanced learning for our community of teaching artists, really ensuring that programs meet the high standards we expect for our youth here in Sacramento.

Lots of our arts providers currently offer workshops and intensives.

They're going to be value to arts educators and they can easily share them with the greater community.

So what are the benefits of ArtLook?

It's deeper visibility, to find out who's delivering arts programming.

I think there's greater equity in this program because we can really tap into artists with diverse experiences, diverse cultural pathways, and make sure that they're getting in front of these schools and these other programs.

So it's helping people elevate their programs to schools and community groups.

It's helping organizations and artists track their impact so they can actually eventually download from year to year all of the sites that they've been to, how their programming has increased over the course of any year.

They have a really neat, like sort of downloadable page, which really just can help them promote their work after they've uploaded everything onto the system.

It's really going to strengthen networking relationships between artists and schools and other organizations.

And we think it's really going to support workforce development, which is really important to us here at the Office of Arts and Culture, creating a clearer pathway for teaching artists engagement and employment with arts organizations and schools on their own.

So we think it's important for that reason.

So next one is basically how to apply.

I'm really going to go through this quickly.

We have just opened up our application and we're in the process of sharing it widely and encouraging everybody to take a look and apply if they offer youth programming and they're looking for great exposure for their work.

So I'll tell you a little bit about who's eligible to apply.

We want to make sure that it's really focused on what the needs are and making sure that everybody who's on the platform is offering services that are going to be easily searchable.

So we want to make sure you have a local presence if somebody's going to apply.

They've got to be delivering arts programs to youth within Sacramento.

We know obviously everybody doesn't live within the city of Sacramento, but if they're offering programs in Sacramento, they would be eligible.

Arts disciplines, you have to be an organization or teaching artists that provides program in at least one of the following disciplines, which are dance, music, media arts, visual arts, theater, literary arts, multidisciplinary or traditional arts.

If there is anybody that feels like somehow they fall outside of those programs, they can always contact us and talk it over with us, and we'll see whether they're eligible.

Youth focused arts programming.

Again, there's so many other programs, and we've been asked: are you offering this to adults?

Are you offering it to seniors?

But ArtLook is really focused on youth.

We want to make sure, again, it's a clear pathway for people who are looking for programs for young people.

So students pre-K through 12th grade, that's where we are right now.

Programming can take place during the school day that can take place at school or after school or in summers.

It really doesn't matter when the programming takes place.

And people who are on the platform don't need to obviously serve all grade levels, but they can actually go in there and pick and choose what is most appropriate for their programs.

We want to make sure that there's qualified arts instruction.

So in the application, you're going to be somebody's going to be asked about have they ever received relevant training or experience in educational and a youth art setting and make sure they have the capacity to deliver good culturally relevant instruction.

We always believe in a collaborative approach.

So knowing that they've worked with other people, that they've had partnerships with schools or other nonprofits or any other local stakeholders is important to us.

And it's important that everything is up to date.

You've all probably had an experience where you've gone onto a platform and you can absolutely tell that nothing's been updated for years and it's really frustrating because you don't know if the information is accurate.

So someone's applied, they're gonna be required to update it at least annually to make sure that if everything's the same, they just check the box that it's the same, but that they make modifications as needed, so that it's really a useful directory.

Um getting started.

So how do you the first thing you do is you apply, and you would apply at uh sacramento.artsartlookmap.com and a relatively simple application process.

Um there's you know, you fill in multiple fields, they're pretty straightforward.

I don't think it takes a huge amount of time to do this work for someone who's applying.

You just want to make sure that you've familiarize yourself with the application.

We have all the questions posted on our website, so someone can prepare to do the application in advance, figure out what materials they want to use to apply, and then they could pretty quickly go through the application process.

So here is going to be the user portal.

So once you've applied and been accepted to be on the Artlook platform, they're gonna, there's gonna be a dashboard that's gonna ask more detailed information for you.

You'll fill out a user profile, they'll fill out something tailored to them.

Some of the basic information from their application will be imported automatically, but now this is a chance to fill in the extra information and provide details about what they want the world to see.

They'll update their profiles, list their experience and skills.

There are gonna be a lot of drop-down prompts to help them through the process, and then they'll talk about what specific programs are offered.

So the age range, the difficult disciplines, the ways of working, technical needs for their programs, and if they work with specific populations, if they offer bilingual programs, they can list all of those, again, drop-down menus, and then they can upload photos and videos to showcase their work.

So the account details, this is just show you, shows you what you'll see when you get in there.

So obviously the major details of your account.

Some things will be seen by the public, some won't.

We know that there's sensitive information, not everybody wants their phone number or their address out there, so you only put the information that you want for your contact information.

That's where it would look like when you're filling in your experience and skills.

Again, lots of easy menu items that you can drop down and figure out, and obviously the program delivery.

You have different ways to enter your information.

So if you have programs associated with organizations, you can list those.

Programs that you offer on your own directly to schools, such as workshops, residencies, or classes, you can add those and you can update them at any time.

So, and also if you're or if you're uploading something that you, for example, work with another organization, they'll just be a prompt to list what organization.

So, if you say I often work with the Crocker, we would just do a little check with the Crocker to make sure that that's accurate.

And once we confirm that, your work would be up there in that way.

So, that's the overview of the program.

Um, I'm really happy to take questions.

I would direct everybody to our website and to go to the programs for arts and culture and Art Look Sacramento to learn everything you need to know about it.

We've given you all some little materials so that you can't forget what it is.

Um, and I would really encourage you all if you run across teaching artists or organizations that don't know about it, just direct them to the site.

There's really good videos on our website that actually will take you into the nitty gritty of the application and see how it works.

Um, it's really more engaging when you're looking at it as as something's uploading and their sample profiles.

So I think it's gonna be it has the potential to be a game changer right now.

We're in the application process, so that'll be ongoing for the next couple of months.

When we have profiles on the site and it becomes really robust and and looks like we have enough organizations and artists who are using the site, that's when we're gonna start really heavily marketing it to our schools, our school districts, our community centers, our libraries, everybody that we want to be a user of this site.

And again, you all can use it.

Like I said, if there's something that you need for a program and you're looking for somebody who works with youth, this is gonna be a really easy way for you to search for that.

Um, so that's all I have.

But before I end, I want to shout out to my partner here, Jacqueline Ruiz, who is the um arts program assistant in the Office of Arts and Culture, and she has really done the heavy lifting for this program, getting the application up and getting the um everything developed and getting materials out there.

So I really want to shout out your work, it's been great.

And uh that's it.

Questions.

Thank you.

Um, we've got some public comments that we'll go to and then we'll go to the commissioners.

Um questions.

Thank you, Chair.

Yes, we have two speakers for this item.

Our first speaker will be Lambert, followed by Shira.

Yeah, I'm glad my uh family and the people that support us, they know why I wanted to come today.

So they mentioned it to me.

I was tied up with Mother's Day weekend and spectacular performance as usual.

But the millennials came and said, Hey, it's arts and culture.

I said, Well, I'm taking off Monday because we're getting ready to go get it after Monday.

And they said, No, um, arts and culture.

And so I knew one of the two, if not two of the two people that I'm very fond of in that department, would be here to present it.

And Melissa Saron is here.

She's well respected where I come from.

Uh, so is uh Megan, very well respected.

As a matter of fact, Melissa Saron, who got I had to go back to the files.

I hope you don't mind this, but I had to go back to the files, and she bought a chocolate swirl cheesecake from us.

And the chocolate world is was is a classic, that's one of the best.

And not only that, but during that time that I talked with her, Melissa and I share the same birth date.

I'm not gonna say what what the birth date is, but she's a tremendously special person to us in Del Paso Heights.

Not only that, but if you're confused on what she just talked about, I don't know how you can be.

She brought it clear.

I know a lot of people that would like to apply for this.

I'll reach out to her to find out.

I'm a baby boomer, just link it to me so I can CC it to my people because I don't get too involved in social media and all of that.

And that's just wonderful to see that people like that are still here because there are some people at City Hall, they make it difficult for you to have access to it.

And she makes it really simple, and that's an example.

That's a good program, Art Look.

Thank you for your comments.

Hi, Sheera Lane with HM916 Creative Innovation Center for Sustainability here in Sacramento.

I just want to say thank you to Melissa.

Because this is an amazing program.

This is something that the community has been asking for for a long time since we've started doing these creative economy meetings, and I'm really excited.

A couple of questions I have is if an artist doesn't feel like that they're adequate, that they have the right training.

Is there a way that we can direct them to the right training?

Is there a place that we can direct them to that right training?

And if there's a way that this could I see this also expanding possibly, so that way this becomes a public facing, so that way people that come here, maybe the film and media can use this also, this database as well to find local creatives that they could use if they're coming here to do productions.

If this could be for other people, so that we, the atrium, can promote that as well as a way to find uh creatives because we've been asking for a database for artists, and I think is there a way not to double the work creating another database?

Is there a way that we can utilize this since it's already been created?

Thank you for your hard work, and thank you, Melissa.

Just amazing.

So thank you.

Thank you for your comments, Chair.

There are no other speakers for this item.

Thank you, Clerk.

Uh Commissioner Winlock.

Melissa, I was about ready to jump over the dais and hug you because I know the journey that this has been on with our schools and identifying, and you know, I've been with you on the that trying to get the groups to kind of say what's happening at the school sites and the connection.

This is brilliant.

It really is brilliant in the sense about how it's going to allow our schools, and I'm speaking for the school districts, in the sense about their connection to our local artists, our uh venues and those kinds of things.

It is just it's brilliant.

And you know, with the schools with the passing of uh Prop 28, one of the things that the schools are looking at, 20% of the dollars that are given to them, are really to look at the issue about using our programs, our local artists uh in our education.

So this is like this is brilliant.

It's just brilliant in the way that it's going to do that connection and being able to look at what specifically they're going to be able to find in this directory that's gonna support the art education in our schools.

I can't say enough about it, and I want to just say that in the arts and culture department, you all pivoted.

You know, we've been trying to kind of get this, as I mentioned, trying to get some way to get that connection, understand what's out there, but your moving this to this um uh directory and having the artists being able to share what they can bring.

Yeah, like I can't, I can't say not.

It's really brilliant.

Thank you.

I do think it is the right time to pivot in this direction, and um it really it works for the Office of Arts and Culture because we are obviously you know have a deep connection with the artist and with the arts organizations, so we can work very closely with them to make sure that um they're putting their best.

And you have that with the school districts too.

You know, I'll go back to the creative edge.

You know, the number one goal was arts education in this area.

You've just enhanced that support of the partnership between the in this case the school districts and the city, just through the design of this.

So okay.

I'll hug you a little later.

I don't want to jump over the days, I'm a little too old for that, but beautiful, beautiful.

Thank you.

Um, I did have a question because I want to echo that.

It's a great way to connect the dots, but what I'm seeing when I sit in some of these school site council meetings is that they're still not using these dollars for it to even actually implement these programs in there, and they're still trying to figure out how to work it.

Are you guys offering these school sites ways to, you know, this is a database where they can see who they can get, but also get them to get past the red tape?

Because there's like 12 steps before they can actually get them to come through and use the dollars.

How can we help them expedite that a little bit?

Yeah, I don't have all the answers, but I think I really feel like this is a step to um introduce them to the variety and the diversity of who is out there offering programs.

Um it's that first step, and then we work with our school partners.

We work with our contacts in the school districts to make sure that it's offering everything that they need because if they're the ones that need to make a case for the arts, whether it's um a school board or district representatives or administrators, that they've got the information there that they can say that these are the artists that are out there providing uh these programs.

So we will we'll try to do as much on our side that we can, and then we we put it out there to the community who has um an opportunity to show up at meetings and um really advocate for this work.

Um, and again, I I want to um encourage folks don't be put off by the fear that maybe you've never worked in a school before.

Um people have offered really great programs for youth, and perhaps they've offered them in a neighborhood setting or a community setting.

And we want to make sure that they're on the site too, because it might be a different skill set, it might be a complementary skill set, but we want um we want the greatest number of folks out there in all of our communities in Sacramento representing the arts and cultural organizations.

Um so there's not really a a go-to, so like I can tell, because when I say I I literally sit on school site council for my kids' um elementary, it's like a connected campus, elementary from TKN through eight.

And when I ask, hey, how come you're not using these art dollars?

They're like, because there's so much red tape before we can actually use it.

So we're still like at step four, but there's 12 steps.

And I was like, but this has been implemented for a couple years now.

Like there's so much that has they we so much we have to go through first before we can actually bring the dollars to us.

Who do they talk to about?

Is it the school board that they have to talk to for the school board to talk to the city to have it um move along faster so that it can be used?

That's a that's an answer I don't think that I have, and um uh again, we've worked with many different school districts, and I know they're all different.

Yeah, and then schools within school differences have have different policies and procedures.

So um I I absolutely hear the the frustration and and how difficult that is.

So I'm gonna take this back to the school site council.

Like, hey, guess what?

There's artwork, and you guys can do this, go here, and they're gonna say, okay, we'll just add that to the rest of the funds that we're trying to wait for.

Yeah, I mean, if anybody just happens in the school district, that each school district, as Melissa says, um, has their own procedures.

So the red tape that you're seeing is actually from the school district.

Yeah, and so uh the the procedures that in order to connect to this, I think what this is will help us do, or especially in your situation, is for your district now to look at the portal, what's being offered, what's a part of their what artists do they want to bring into their school district, and then they need to use their budget that's been allocated to the school district to pay for them directly.

And so the red tape that you're probably hearing from your school is what maybe the red tape in making sure that they're being able to bring the artists there from, say, this particular area.

So I uh my suggestion to you in your school does is for your school district.

First of all, to review the portal once it once it gets what's involved in that, and your school will take a look.

Are there artists, are there programs that we want to have in our school, then identify what those are and then go through the process of what happens.

Uh every school district is given prop 28 dollars every year.

Okay, so it's always there in their budget, it's how they set it up that it's gonna be allocated to the schools.

So that would be my suggestion is your.

Okay, thank you.

All right.

Melissa, thank you.

Thank you so much for this for the presentation.

I love this program.

I love the art look setup of it.

Uh this is just awesome, and I feel like the youth need something like this during a time of where art is not really much of a forefront.

Um, but my question to you is is what are some of the ways that we can connect art look to the venues?

To the venues, for educational purposes.

So if a if a event wants to be taking place within Art Look, like our venues that they can kind of go to to host some of the uh well, right now the directory is really focusing on if you were, for example, the venue finding the artist that would be there.

Our job is to make sure people know about it.

So once the artists are in there, say we have you know 30, 50, 100 profiles of artists and organizations and everybody offering programs in all kinds of disciplines, all ages of youth, then we see what we have, and then we start going out there and making sure that everybody knows about it.

If you're a center, if you're a site that does programming, um, you know that this exists because this is gonna be a resource for you.

So it is gonna be on us, and when I say us, I mean all of us to make sure that once it's up and running, you just telling everybody um who needs a program again right now for youth, um, but if you're looking for a program for youth, take a look at art look and see the breadth of what's in there.

You're gonna find somebody very likely once it's really um up and running, and I say in a robust way, you're gonna find somebody that meets the needs that you want to serve in that program.

So um for us it's marketing marketing marketing.

Yeah, thanks.

Thank you, Commissioner Eisenberg.

Uh yeah, thank you so much.

This is terrific.

I'm really excited about it, and I I want to get to work on it right away, getting it out there to everybody in my district.

That's always a big question mark for me is um how do I go about doing that?

Do you have any advice?

Um, and I don't want to jump the gun, but you know, besides getting in touch with my council person is very busy on a lot of things.

Um, I know some places that I have tried to connect with.

Sometimes you get an email back, sometimes you never do, um, as well as how are we getting it into individual artists' hands when we could have dozens that we don't even realize are in our own district.

Do you have any advice on how to reach people?

Absolutely.

I I think you probably have more than dozens of artists who are doing this work or can do this work.

Um, you know, we're we're gonna take on a lot of the burden ourselves in terms of the Office of Arts and Culture using all of our networks to make sure that people know about that.

Um, but the best way to do it is having having the resource, which is really gonna be our website right now, just getting people to take a look at it.

So start with obviously the the easiest folks out there that you can identify, who'll take a look at it to see what it could do for them.

We are happy to answer questions.

I know it's gonna be somebody's gonna look at it and say, but I don't know if I qualify or how do I do this?

Yeah, that that's a question I I was gonna follow up with was would be it would be great to um invite you to the district to say, even just walks walk through some of these very questions.

Happy to show up.

Okay, happy to show up.

Good to know.

Yeah, because the questions are the biggest thing.

We wanted people to get through the barrier of looking at it.

We think we always think when you open up a directory or a portal and there's an application, we always think, oh, this is pretty easy.

But it might not be intuitive to everybody, and until we start getting users trying it out, who've especially ones who've never used it before, that's where we're gonna find out where some maybe some of the challenges are.

And then if somebody puts in an application and it looks like it could be stronger, we're happy to reach out to that individual and say, hey, you've you've done half of this or you've done most of the work, but I bet it could be stronger if you thought to do this and that.

Yeah, what I'm finding, uh as I've been doing this for about a year now and getting in touch with people more and more.

It's like when I'm showing them these opportunities, I'm getting into some hesitations about, you know, am I qualified enough and people hesitating there?

It's terrific if we can get you to visit and to literally just say it to them.

Sometimes it it needs to come out of the straight from straight from the top, you know, in terms of like it's gonna be okay, we can step you through this, make it stronger.

Well, we're de we're definitely happy.

So reach out anytime.

Really?

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Winlock.

I just had um an idea.

Because uh many of our commissioners meet many of the teaching artists and the parts about is it possible that we could do a card, uh like a postcard that kind of explains that we could hand out to some of those that we meet when we're at the second Saturday or get your little card that we handed you.

Um, oh is that it?

SQR.

So that's a QR code.

And yes, it's the easiest way, because it'll take you right to the site, so you don't have to do a lot of explaining, say good take this, go there.

Oh great.

We'll get you as many as you want.

We'll just keep printing them if need be.

But it just seems like we needed something quick and easy.

Oh, that's exactly what it's like.

So they can start looking at it.

Perfect.

So if we could get and you don't have to explain anything.

Yeah, that would be great if we could get a few uh number of these.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Eisenberg.

Yeah, just following up on what Commissioner Winlock said.

Um, I don't mean snippet, but if we could just say on art look, maybe if there's time to kind of, you know, play around with it.

Just a brief, like it's a kind of a resource it is.

This is perfect for dropping off at like the coffee shops and just laying around for people to pick up to see what this is.

Yeah, yeah, that's gonna be really helpful.

It can be on the back.

Yeah, that's blank.

We actually um did them in-house, so we could probably add that.

I think we can, yeah.

Yeah, just a little bit of information, you know, teaching artists resource, you know, connect with employers or something that's really gonna juice it for you.

Next meeting, they'll be there.

Okay.

Perfect.

Any other comments?

I believe that's it.

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

Our uh next item is presentation by uh the old session area on the R selection.

You just give the recap here, or does you have to go there?

Okay.

Oh, good.

You're a presenter.

Is the video gonna play?

Okay.

Ready?

Okay.

Steph, can we please get the video?

Oh, it's it's last.

Oh, it's the last time.

The remote not working.

Yeah, oh no, it's working.

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Okay, perfect.

Okay, I'm ready.

Yeah.

I'm sorry.

Okay.

Good evening, commissioners.

Uh, I just wanted to uh start off by saying thank you to everybody who showed up to the twenty twenty-six District Five Arts Summit that we had on April 11th, 2026 at UC Davis Aggie Square here in Sacramento, California.

Um the highlight of the event is I had an idea of wanting to bring artists within the local community and really educate them on how to uh turn their creative art mind into a legitimate business.

And so I had the opportunity to have a wonderful panel of people from our city owns uh Jason John, uh Miss Sheer Lane, and our muralist uh Jaya King.

And it was a free event to the community.

I'm so thankful that uh someoku.

Oh, press me, sir.

Uh one of the the people from the UC Davis Aggie Square location was so grateful enough to uh host the event.

And like I said, it was a free we had over fifty RSVPs for the event, and it was on a Friday night while it's ringing.

So I thank you for everybody that showed up.

And with the event, like I said, we wanted to educate the community on again how to grow their creative work and also hear from people within the community on how to do so, right?

So we had people who gave recaps about where they got started, right?

Where they started, where they are now, and really how can they uh as artists grow, right?

How can they start making money through art?

And so, like I said, I'm so thankful for the District Five Arts team.

Uh our council member, my council member Katie Maple, who helped put on event, um Katie, her chief of staff writer, her uh intern who was there who we really connected and helped me along the process to uh bring this across the finish line, right?

And the entire team was such a great, great help.

And within that, we have photos.

We have a recap video that we did also that will be shown uh to really have a visual because this is something that I feel like can happen not only within the district five arts, uh the yeah, the district five arts area, but also within other districts who as well, right?

Because we want to educate our artists of different backgrounds, whether it's theater, whether it's murals, whether it's painters, whether it's video or photo.

So uh we really want to work on.

Well, next we'll work on creating a template so that way each and every one of uh my lovely colleagues can hopefully do something like this in the area.

And with that, I will play the video.

And it should start I wish.

Okay.

And a special uh thank you to our wonderful videographer, Sean Ma'am, who uh is a current student at uh Berkeley College.

So thank you to the entire team for putting this on.

I hope that with the presentation, my fellow colleagues can brainstorm on other ways of how we can grow this into a uh annual event that we can give back to the community, educate them on how to grow their business, their brand, their creative arts, business, I should say, at least not in order, but that's fine.

And with that, I'm done.

I will take no questions.

Thank you.

Commissioner Carter, any um any comments, public comments on this?

Thank you, Chair.

Yes, we have two speakers for this item.

Our first speaker will be Lambert, followed by Shira.

This is uh that was a very good presentation, and I'm a person that compares everything to District Two, why obviously I'm from there, and it has over 20 uh communities.

You you gotta try to grasp that.

There's over 20 communities in District 2.

When I left to go to college, I didn't know that was that many district uh communities.

When I was here, it was called Del Paso Heights, now it's called Del Paso Heights, East Del Paso Heights, West Del Paso Heights, and as a native, I had to ask Mr.

Warren, who used to be here, what's the difference?

This Del Paso Heights, East Del Paso Heights, West Del Paso Heights, and he said it's a classic example of gerrymandering.

So whenever I hear a district five, that's good.

Um I'm all for it, but I'd like to I'm not even sure if I've ever heard of a district two art summit.

So maybe this was a pilot, and district two, whoever represents district two on the roster, you should duplicate this.

It should be something up here next time talking about district two art summit.

I'm gonna be in town a lot this summer.

I'm gonna find out what's going on in my neighborhood from looking at Grant Pool to uh just checking up.

I've been on the road a lot.

I don't have to go on the road now, all the seeds are planted.

All we gotta do is cultivate, and that's the easy part to me.

The millennials, they brought this up.

They want to see District 2 art summit, just like what I just saw here.

I want to see somebody come up here talking about District 2 Summit recap.

But that was an outstanding presentation.

She'll lane with Atrium 916.

Um, I just want to say thank you to Dino who put that together.

This is and thank you, Jason, for being part of it.

Um, this was just fabulous.

It was a great event, and I love doing these, and I'm happy to attend anyone that is doing them.

At the Atrium, we serve over 880 artists in the region.

Uh, in our marketplace itself, we have 150 local creatives.

That's only in Sacramento County.

Um, and we know a lot and we work a lot, and we're kind of like the intersection between an arts organization, economic development, and an environmental organization.

And where those three overlap, that's where the atrium exists.

And this was a part, I was able to work on the economic development portion.

Um, there's a lot of financial literacy that is needed within our community uh for our artists to kind of develop and be better, and I think doing more events like this would be really helpful.

And on that note, I'm connecting it to the previous item, but I would love to host a creative economy meeting.

Um, and that is one that is across the region to help and maybe educate on our art look that we have and other items.

So if there are other opportunities, I would love to support and thank you for all that you do.

I know this is hard work, and thank you so much.

Um, and yeah, if you have any questions, I'm here.

Thanks.

Thank you for your comments, Chair.

There are no other speakers for this item.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Um, Commissioner Smith.

Uh, uh, I wanted to say I think this is something that all of us are.

I'm gonna assume that all of us are the sentiment that this needs to happen more.

Um, and so with that, whether can you give any more insight in the creation of this and how it was put together?

I know that we have to make sure that we follow the guidelines of the city, but if you can give any more background to um the the formation of this, because I would love to have this in district one, but then also to figure out where we can do this um cross collaboratively in our other districts um working together um to make this almost a series.

Thank you.

Um so the idea is initially started uh late 2024, um, and I wanted to have the there was a presentation that happened here, and I had the thought of what if we can have economic development, but also bring in artists as well, right?

How can we come together with that?

So my first initial step was again was meeting with my council member, uh talking with the team on how do we plan an event.

Um, what are some of the locations?

What are some of the times, right?

What is something that's going to bring artists out?

So the first step was meeting with the commit the council member of my district, uh meeting with the person that's in charge of the community directory, right?

Finding out okay, what are some of the places that can hold uh X amount of people, right?

If this thing was to be grow, right?

We want to be able to have 50, 100, 100, 20 uh people.

So I was initially the third step was having that conversation, and then we set out timelines on when do we have what is the date that we want to have it on?

When would be a good time?

So we know we wanted to have it initially uh when it's nice outside, right?

So um we wanted to have it there, we want to have something inside that people make people feel comfortable, but also had a beautiful uh artistic space, right?

Because we want to bring artists, we want to have an artistic space.

So thank you to UC Davis of Aggie Square for having that beautiful mural and then the entire setup.

And then once we had an end date for it, then we initially work backwards.

So we wanted to again get it out through social media, uh, connect with um venues to see which venue would be best, how do we go about date, time, food, uh when do we want to have it by uh the social media posts, how many people do we want to reach, uh, where do we want to promote it for our social media or eventbrite or word of mouth flyers, and so we like I said we we work backwards and then we just went follow the uh a step by step to make sure that we meet those deadlines so that way a week before the event, we don't have any questions that need to be asked.

Everything is to the T.

So definitely going through your your council member was was key for goodness.

Okay.

Well, I want to just give you kudos, Dina, Commissioner Carter, on your amazing work with this.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Thank you, Commissioner Eisenberg.

Yeah, I second everything Commissioner Smith said.

I think everybody here is looks like they're on the list to talk to you and congratulate you on that.

Um, we're all very interested in doing that as well.

Certainly in D2, um, that's something I've been wanting to see happen.

There are some people, including the former commissioner in D2, who we've been talking about.

If we can't get our elected officials to, you know, they're busy.

Uh then maybe we have to just get this going ourselves.

Um I love the idea of um having districts that but up against each other and share some of the same resources as well as challenges to work together on this.

And uh also uh that template you were talking about that would be terrific to see I think we're all really interested in how you did it.

And we're all really appreciate what you've piloted here for us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I want to also echo that as well.

Great job on that uh for creating the skeleton right that is the skeleton uh that all of us are like okay great we've got one commissioner that did it and we're waiting to see how you did it what the steps are to implement it.

I think that's kind of like what we've all been kind of waiting for is just somebody just put it out there like okay commissioners put it not just the city right to see what the commissioners can do and then kind of mirror and use the example of like okay so it's not that hard it's attainable like you said it is the your uh council member probably was the uh financial part of it making it happen right and you were able to connect the dots with other um organizations that have came in here to make it work so I like that you're using your commission seat to connect all of those dots and utilize all of your um all of your supports that you're learning here to like bring it to fruition so good job.

Thank you.

I'll just like I said my my uh council member uh miss maple was a fantastic help in pulling this together uh know that they already had plans and and funds already allocated but her and her team was able to pull some strings to to see this event through and they truly believe in the vision that was was presented before them so I I thank her for it um the entire district five team for helping this event come to fruition.

So I think that's also the key too is um us as commissioners is to don't step back from our council members and still just chase them right how many times did it take for you to get her to get on board because some commissioners or council members are open and they're like oh yeah I got you and some of them like you said are kind of hard to get a hold of and are busy.

Yeah.

Yeah yeah busy so you know what I mean so um yeah good job absolutely and and like I said I I commend Miss uh Miss Mabel for taking time out of our busy schedule to initially first having the meeting um for it back in November uh because again this was an overnight thing right this is stuff this is a situation that took months in the planning and so it initially started like I said in November to have a meeting with her and then our chief of staff and then the entire staff to make sure that you know it was it went well.

Commissioner Roseville um hi I wanted to be next in line to say thank you for the presentation um what you're doing is incredible work and it's very inspiring as you can tell your fellow commissioners are very excited about doing their own versions of what you've developed um but I did have a question of your opinion on do you think that this kind of structure is compatible with a youth-led summit um I'm thinking more of like access to talking with your uh council members and like I wonder if there are ways to teach students to teach youth leaders to garner more respect and authority when trying to create these items because I understand from my experience it's harder to get people to pay attention to you when you're still a 16 year old.

What do you think would be the best way to approach something like this because this is an incredible opportunity and I can see many of my friends or not even just my friends, just many of my peers really enthusiastic about this.

Absolutely.

Um, thank you for your question.

I I greatly appreciate it.

Um we did have a discussion after uh just a little insight of how we can again expand.

You know, what is the next what is next year look like, right?

So literally like we're leaving event, we're wrapping up, and it's like how can we make this better next year, right?

And so um one of the things that we had talked about even at the event is how do we get the youth involved, right?

How do we get them, how do we create that economic development to them, right?

So they be so that way when they essentially graduate, then they have the financial literacy of how to you know grow their their artistic work.

And so um it'll be tough to get them to the event, especially on a Friday night, or even like a school night for them to come and be a part of it.

So one of the ideas that we floated around was even going up to some the district or the schools separately and uh because I know some schools have a CT program, and so it's if we can get even a period of just going into um ex school for one period and having that conversation with them around arts, right?

What is arts look like with a different type of arts there are programs right that are available to them that they can initially get started?

So that was one of the things that we had talked about was is going into the schools during the day for a period working with the administrative staff to uh start there and and educate them from the you know middle school to freshman all the way up to senior uh class.

So yes, thank you.

Um I think it's also good because you kind of have the right position right now as a youth commissioner to get the ear of whoever you're trying to get for as far as council members, because I know that um they're leaning really into the uh the youth commissioners.

So you in the seat that you use always announce who you are and what position you hold so that way they take you a lot more serious.

Then you can start bringing your friends on because they know that you're in a capacity with the adults who are also commissioners that come to the city hall every month.

And if you'd like, send them a little like clip of you on the dais.

I usually do.

I use that to to my benefit always to be like, hey, I'm nobody, but I sit on this dais.

So I mean, people like to see it, especially the higher ups, and your council member too, so lean into that position that you're that you have because it's for a reason.

Um let's get uh Commissioner Winlock.

This is just exciting, really, really.

I just great.

I just echo the kudos and stuff that were given to you around the the doing of this.

My question is around how did you uh determine the content at the summit?

Uh what were you going to be covering?

You know, what connections, all that kind of stuff.

How did you come up with what the program was actually going to uh do at the summit?

Thank you for that.

Um Dr.

Winlock.

We so as a collective group, me and the the council member, the chief of staff, her entire staff sat down and discussed exactly what do we want people to walk away from?

What did artists want to walk away from uh from the event, right?

We wanted to edge initially educate them on economic development, how they can go from again point A to B when it comes to being a creative and artist.

So I I I had an opportunity to sit down, like I said, with the staff and really just go over some questions that um are questions for the panel that would make it easier to be receptive to the audience.

So we wanted to talk about again economic development.

We wanted to talk about uh financial literacy around taxes, starting a business, um getting an LLC or so prop, right, and then uh how to also get clients, right?

So it's and then also how to work with the city as well.

So we had that discussion around that's why we wanted to bring in somebody who's a business owner, um, someone who's an artist, and then somebody from the city, right, to cover those three different main key points of growing your artistic business.

Hope that answered your question.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dr.

Hable.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you so much for your presentation.

Just want to echo everyone else's kudos.

Um, just wanted to know, um, what is some of the feedback that you received from the summit?

Um, what would you duplicate and what would you change in future summits?

So the day after there was a few artists, friends that I knew who had the opportunity to attend, um, and overall it was positive feedback.

This is something that the community essentially in the district five needed, was to again connect with an artist, connect with the a business owner, and connect with the city.

So they really enjoyed being able to connect and really get to be a part of something great and also learn about again how they can work with the city, how can they grow their business and how can they become you know, muralists or somebody who's in theater or dance, so some it was overall positive feedback from the the not only the staff but the guests too as well.

Wow, and then your second question was um uh what would you duplicate?

What would you change?

More time, uh the the share was on the panel and we just had a fantastic time.

I mean, the information that they were giving was just amazing, right?

Like even being a moderator, I just wish that I could, you know, we could talk for hours about you know how can we help the artists within the community grow.

And so that's one thing that I would essentially like to do is be like a three-hour long panel of just talking about just everything business related, making sure that we answer each question and we hit every talking point.

Um, but realistically, uh, I wouldn't change too much.

It wasn't we had an overall positive experience.

Um, like again, like you know, the the the commissioners mentioned this is like a pilot program, right?

It's a pilot event that you know, you wanted to see you know what artists are in the district five communities and and all over Sacramento and so wouldn't change really anything.

I would say, but going forward, you know, next year we want to essentially grow it, right, to where we have each district holding an art summit or even all the districts having a universal art summit where we have a multi-day or even a panel of different times of of artists and people from the city and business owners around art, just helping the community and educating them.

So that's something that uh going forward, I would like to do that I would like to do differently.

How much is the time was the time that you guys had for this one?

So this was from 5 30 to 7 30.

Yeah, on a Friday night.

So I commend everybody who who was able to participate to come out on a Friday night, and I believe it was also raining that day too as well.

So um, but yes, we had two hours of of uh hour of networking and then an hour of panel discussions and QA.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

I believe that's it.

We will pass our time over to the director to Jason.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, actually just wanted to circle back and thank Commissioner Carter for driving this summit and for his um real commitment to bringing this activity to his neighborhood.

Um it was a joy watching him and just uh being a part of the planning process, and I think this is a great model for exploring how other commissioners might roll forward with something similar.

We talked about a lot of potential um scenarios, whether it's maybe doubling up and adjacent districts, um, but I look forward to seeing what other commissioners uh provide or are offering up.

I'm available absolutely um to to support and to make those connections if that's necessary, but I would also say that um you know it's important to also from my perspective to also step back.

Uh there are things that that um we don't need to on the city side, we don't need to necessarily be in the weeds on everything, and I think that um commissioner Carter had that flexibility and also that support from council member um Kitty Maple's office, and that was really great to see, and and just to kind of be in community again with folks like Shara and Jaya.

Um, and I I know that they they had a blast just as much as I did, and it was really important for the community to see a commissioner.

Um, and again, just kudos to uh commissioner Carter on having that vision and just going for it, you know.

It uh there's always gonna be there are always going to be things that we can look back and um maybe adjudicate post-event, but overall you made it happen, so congratulations.

All right, um, so I'll jump into uh the manager's report really briefly.

I just have a few things.

Um the Office of Arts and Cultures Art and Public Places program is continuing a series of meetings, public conversations, um, and workshops involving the birds and benches project in the Naitomas area.

Uh we've had one of four events already this month, uh, but there are three remaining.

One uh one is in person and the other two are via Zoom.

Um these conversations will help inform the 10 bench design artists and inspire and inform the the benches that will be fabricated and installed uh in calendar year 2027.

Um but for folks who are interested in learning more about these opportunities.

The next one is this week via Zoom on the 14th with our community care holders, Wilton Rancheria.

Uh the next session later this month is on the 21st with the Sacramento Audubon Society.

Uh, and then the final session is with artist uh N.

Asteris Constable on the 28th via Zoom.

But folks can visit our eventbrite page for registration information, and of course, you can visit our website, arts.city of sacramento.org and look for the public art offerings.

Um I also wanted to share that there are still two remaining openings to serve on the commission for folks who may be interested.

Uh these openings are for district six, councilmember Aguera, and District 7, Councilmember Jennings.

Uh, and you can also find information out about these opportunities on our website, arts.city of sacramento.gov.

Look for the about section and information around the Sacramento Arts Culture and Creative Economy Commission.

Um, and for folks who are not already signed up on our to receive our newsletter, absolutely uh please do so again on our website, and you can find us on social media, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Blue Sky at Saks City Arts.

That's that's all I have.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Next item is member comments, ideas, questions.

Any commissioners have anything they want to say during this time?

Commissioner Eisenberg?

Uh, just an announcement.

Um, so I just wanted to announce um and invite everybody to join District 2 for the first annual celebrate North Sacramento Festival.

Uh it's going to be held Saturday, June 6th from noon to 4 p.m.

It is uh co-hosted by Mutual Assistance Network and the Sacramento Youth Parks and Community Enhancement, as well as uh support from the councilman Roger Dickinson.

Um, it'll be at Robertson's Park, that's uh 3525 Norwood Avenue.

There's gonna be a main stage with performances all day.

There's food vendors, uh creatives and artist booths, uh car clubs, kids' activities, bouncy slides, climbing wall, a Zorb.

If you don't know what that is, it's a human hamster wheel course.

Uh yeah.

Uh booze for nonprofits, uh, city organizations and services as well.

Um, and I wanted to invite the commissioners to, of course, attend, but also um there's still booths available, um, and participation isn't just restricted to District 2.

Um, so we're inviting everybody to check it out.

Um, I handed out flyers.

I have some more with QR code for that.

Um participation is still needed.

We still have slots for the main stage, so we're looking for groups.

It could be music, it can be cultural performers, it could be even activity groups like karate clubs or cheer squads, anything.

Um, that's you know, groups and community.

We also have booths still available.

The booth fees are free.

So there's no charge for the booths, canopies and chairs and tables are provided.

Um, I see some organizations I'd love to see there, like HM916, um Lambert.

Maybe you want to get in on this.

Uh, I wanted to also invite the office or the commission or all of us to consider uh having a booth ourselves, um, to be able to uh let the community know what the office does and what the commission does and what the opportunities are.

You know, just following up on some of the very things we were talking about today in the meeting.

I think there's a great opportunity to do some community outreach.

It'll be a fun day.

It's just you know, it's four hours of fun and community.

So uh please participate and check it out.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Um I wanted to mention that May is A N H P I Heritage Month, and it's a big month for a lot of the high schools.

They usually have family night, and that those family nights, their local PI clubs will have um just a night of dancing, and being that this is an art commission.

If you ever want to check out, we already missed Elk Groves.

That was May 1st.

Um Burbanks was last Friday.

Um, I believe Hiram Johnson is this Friday, and then um John F.

Kennedy is going to be on the 22nd at the Cernus Center at 5 p.m.

So if anybody wants to go and check out some cultural dancing, um, feel free.

It's it's free to everyone.

Uh just a way to celebrate Heritage Month for A-A-N-H-P-I.

Folks, other than that, uh, Commissioner Carter.

Thank you, uh Chair for that.

And I just want to say, thank God we finally got this event across the finish line.

I thank each and every one of my colleagues for uh supporting me and and uh getting this this word out.

You know, this this was an event that I wanted to again educate the community, educate artists, get them involved.

And like I said, we're gonna be working in and meet Jason and Cheru, the HM916 will be working on, and the district five team will be working on creating a template for uh my colleagues so that way, again, this is something that you know is plug and play, right?

You just have the template, make the tweaks, and and you know, execute, right?

Because as arts commissioners, you know, we want to make sure that we give back uh time, resources, and anything that they may need.

So thank you to everybody for coming out.

Thank you, team colleagues for uh the support.

Thing uh, we got through it.

Thank you.

Last item is public comments matters not on the agenda, Clerk.

Are there any public comments?

Thank you, Chair.

Yes, we do have one speaker for this item, Lambert.

Going to be uh shouts out to people uh since I've been back in town.

Uh a lady came up to me and said, Hey, I want to thank you for uh mentioning my uh niece.

I didn't even know who she was.

She said uh you mentioned Brianna in your statement.

I said, Oh, I remember that.

See, I go to a lot of commissions.

This should be your last commission this month, unless it's another one, and I'll I may be there.

But the budget is next month.

But this Brianna story touched me because they were trying to get her to go into debt to paint a restroom that they were going to demolish.

Uh Wilton Rancheria.

I'd like to reach out to you.

I've been trying to reach uh Chairman Jesus Tarango.

We actually have the ability to supply tribal casinos in the south.

I mean, we actually are ready to do that now.

She's vindicated by this article by the B.

Uh when I say she should be the highest paid at City Hall, they have caught people who are working remotely in other states.