Culture and Library Commission meeting of October 21st, 2025 to order at 6.41 p.m.

Bill, would you please take the roll call?

Well, first of all, we have to do the pledge of allegiance.

Oh, oh, I didn't notice that.

Since it's on our agenda, we have to do the pledge of allegiance.

It it's just for context.

Yolana's explaining it's a part of the regular template that usually gets removed.

But since it's there, let's honor it.

The there's a we don't have a flag in the room, but there's a flag out on the poll.

So I'd say we all stand up and do it together.

Point that direction.

Yes.

All right.

Yes.

Ready?

My pledge of 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.

I will.

Chair Scott.

Present.

I think he's on.

Vice Chair Miller.

Present.

Commissioner Acevedo.

Present.

Commissioner Alvarez.

Commissioner Gillary.

Commissioner Risdale.

Present.

Commissioner Smith.

Commissioner Velasquez.

Present.

We have five in attendance and a quorum is met.

Sweet.

Thank you so much.

Moving on to item two, announcements.

We have no announcements.

Moving on to item three, consent calendar 3A minutes of the September 16, 2025 meeting.

Can I get a motion to approve the minutes?

I move to approve.

Thank you.

Is there a second?

Second.

Any discussion?

All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right.

Motion carries.

Moving on to item four library services, staff report and announcements.

Thank you.

Uh, I'm gonna keep it brief this evening.

There are two announcements or two items I wanted to address.

We've had a resignation.

Commissioner Cassidy has resigned from the commission.

He was appointed at large uh by the mayor.

So hopefully we'll get a new nominee and commissioner again as soon as possible.

Uh the second thing I wanted to mention is attendance.

Um I've addressed this in the past, and I just want to remind everybody that the board and commission's handbook does address attendance.

Uh it's important that people meet these attendance requirements.

Regular attendance is expected, and a 75% attendance level is required.

A failure to meet this requirement could result in removal.

Failure to attend three consecutive regular meetings will be caused for council to declare the position vacant.

So I just want to mention that because it's an important part of the service to the commission.

We have a quorum this evening, but there are only five.

Um, so fortunately we had a quorum, we're able to do our business.

Uh, and you know, keep the agenda moving forward.

I will be contacting each commissioner with some information about their attendance record just to make sure that everybody's aware of uh where they stand specifically in terms of attendance.

And that is my report.

Thank you, sir.

The public at this time, do any members of the public wish to comment on agenda item four?

Oh, yeah, on this specific item.

All right, do any commissioners have questions or comments on this item?

I just have a question about the 75%.

So uh is that like of the whole year or okay, so that breaks down to the same three.

So we have 11 regular meetings, so whatever the math breaks down that I my math is okay, but I have to pull a calculator out.

But okay, but that's why I want to address each one of the commissioners specifically.

So we can just let folks know where they stand.

Gotcha.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Any other commissioner questions, comments?

All right, this concludes item four.

Moving on to item five, public comments.

At this time, we'll ask for public comments on items not on the agenda and comments are limited to three minutes per speaker.

Hello.

Am I the one?

You're on, go ahead.

The way the tenants works.

You can you go to three meetings and then you you bank, so you get to skip the next one and then you get through.

Um, well, I wanted to uh to call two things to the commission's attention.

One is uh uh I just had my stitches out yesterday from my carpal tunnels uh surgery, and as I was driving by the Hisparian triangle, which Brody knows all about, uh the piece of artwork that has been floating out there, like kind of who knows why it's there, I gather it's been taken away.

So I just want to resurrect the discussion that the original arts commission had had about uh potential for that triangle, uh and the the great concept of turning it into a sculpture garden, and so I'd like to to propose that to the commission to maybe take it up, and it's you know it's a big project, and what would it mean in terms of you know revamping the space because currently it's fenced off, and how would you get artwork in there?

Temporary exhibits or getting it so it's uh just what you know that's like a a boundary of our city and a welcoming point for people coming off the 580, and uh and unfortunately it's just been sort of barren for way way too long.

Uh the second thing I wanted to um recommend to you.

Uh I uh I've been able to see it a few times, but I went Sunday to the Oakland Museum of California to see a showing of the Apology.

How many of you have seen that documentary about Russell City, which no longer exists?

It was it was uh on the western boundary of Hayward and the only place where uh BIPOC people could actually buy a house and then they were basically burned out in the 1970s by you know the county, you know, the speculators.

So one of the things that uh Aisha Knowles, who's the the producer and a local person um mentioned is that it's never been shown in San Leandro, and I just think like wow, what a scoop, what an opportunity to show it right here in our theater.

Uh and I you know I don't know how the calendar gets set up of events, and you know, obviously nothing that's gonna happen the next week or month or whatever, but you know, somewhere down the road, I think it would be worth uh undertaking the project of of having a showing here for the people of San Leandro.

It relates to a lot of issues in the city.

Uh it's just kind of our backyard, and so that's my those are my two cents.

You know, thank you so much.

Thank you.

Do we have any other public comments?

All right, this concludes public comments.

Moving on to item six presentation six a San Leandro Art Walk.

Katie Bowman from the Community Development Department will present San Leander Art Walk.

Okay, I I can just introduce everyone else.

And actually, I believe that a year or two ago, the Apology was shown at the Bowel Theater.

You're right, it was.

That's correct.

Yeah, but it would be lovely to do it again.

I have not seen it myself, but I've heard really great things.

Among other things, the the documentary is an amazing quality artistic piece.

So that's a great idea.

Um I'm Katie Bowman, economic development manager, um, and uh really I can just introduce our team, uh Lars Hall, who has come before this group a number of times, may not know all of you yet, and then uh the team from 440 Creates, Emilio Garcia and his team, and uh we want to share with you an update on an exciting project that's been uh developing.

Uh we'll love to get your feedback.

So, that I'll hand it over to you, Lars.

Or do you want to share just a brief intro and then Emilio can start to demo?

Sure.

Um, yeah, I guess I can give you a little bit of background on this, um, because Emilia will get into the nuts and bolts.

Um we uh received some ARPA funds uh that were allocated towards beautification, and a portion of those funds have been uh specifically allocated to downtown, and uh, you know, a number of different improvements are underway down there, and uh one of them is this project, which is really how did I put it earlier today?

It's a interactive experience incorporating graphic design and celebrating the history and um heritage of San Leandro.

Uh and it's done via uh augmented reality.

Uh so it does involve technology, it involves your phone.

Uh, and the hopes are that it will attract um additional demographics to the downtown that may not necessarily be frequenting as as often as we would like and create some excitement in the downtown area.

So Emilio here.

And his daughter is Bella is here, and they've been working on this whole concept with us, and he can tell you a little bit more about what it is.

And maybe Emilio, maybe one other word if you want to say about the audience where we thought because we did it.

We are intentionally, it is designed for a digital audience.

Yeah, so well, thank you guys for covering out some time for us.

Isabella to my right here, my daughter, she's part of the 440 team amongst illustrators and creative folks, and in this case, we have animators and augmented reality team, back end team.

The city came to us and um shared a bit about um some of the goals and through the discovery and some uh some some research.

We you know, we we understood that the demographic was a bit um younger, maybe mid-20s to mid to late 30s, and we decided um to explore murals, but murals that come to life, and we have an examples uh of them here that we'd like to show you guys.

Um and we realize that you know the younger generation, most of us have smartphones, and we're used to downloading apps.

This does take an app to download and um actually while I'm talking, maybe Bella can pass out the flyers.

Flyer Bella here.

Um, and there's if you guys would like to participate tonight.

I'm gonna show reveal some of the um mural pieces here and show how they work.

And if you guys would like to join in, you can.

Um these are uh four murals created um by local artists, our team here.

Um, and we um they as you can see it's a uh we we're calling this the the art walk, as you as Lars and Katie mentioned, and we call it the artwork because there's four locations, and um it's the first of its kind mural augmented series anywhere that in the Bay Area that we can recognize.

Um, and so what it is is we're chose four breezeways to activate to to help kind of um breezeways that needed a that were popular areas but wanted to make sure that they were full of life, and when people traveled through the breezeways, they got a little additional bonus through some artwork.

And so we we had the idea of a mural, but then a mural that would come to life essentially.

So um, and and I kudos to the city, everyone on this commission and even with the city of San Andrew about the willingness to try something new and be innovative and bold, and this is definitely something that's you know, we had a great time doing it, and we would love you know for you guys to uh to join with uh join in on some of these uh pieces.

Now I have them, they're not just white boards that come to light.

There is our work on the back side of this.

This is maybe older.

So it's a little bit.

So these are scaled down to size at about 50%, so they will go up as um roughly four feet by eight feet areas, and the identified areas would be the breezeway on Esadio Avenue leading into Joaquin Plaza or Washington Plaza.

Safety shopping center.

The far corner, as you can see over by East 14th, is um uh you know, I done.

Yeah, oh now did you get a flight?

So the far uh right hand corner would be um the wall on Chipotle, the Chipotle wall, we just keep calling the Chipotle off this.

Um there's the uh Bev box, which is um near um uh Asia Delight and Sons of Liberty.

Uh, Liberty on the way to field um work brewery, and then there's one on the Tequila Grill walk.

And so if you guys would um you know uh would like to download the app and um and we'll take it for a little spin right now on our phones, but feel free to stand up and join us as you will.

And um, what is augmented reality?

Well, as a flyer says, is tech-powered overlay that adds animation, motion, and magic to the real world.

And there's no better way to understand what it does, except to do it.

So I'm gonna release uh reveal kind of one at a time, and Bella's gonna tell a little story about how we got to this one here.

And like I said, I will show it, and if you guys want to afterwards participate, um feel free.

So this first one is called the heart.

Yeah, so from the beginning, the city really emphasized the importance of representing obviously the community in San Leandro, its history and its diversity, but also this kind of innovative bordered looking spirit that really you know the younger generations are drawn to and excited about.

So this first piece pays tribute to San Leandro's roots, its cultural heritage, and it's reminding us of its deep historical foundation here.

So we had our illustrators really kind of focus on the diversity and some of these signature kind of bench, you know, landmark moments with the Truth of Beauty, Casa Peralta, and whatnot.

And so that's the first one here.

And I'll give you a brief show and tell, and feel free to come up and um participate if you want.

So essentially, you open the app, you download the app, it's like a vibe app, you launch the app, and it launches a essentially a uh your camera, and so once it figures it out.

That's pretty cool.

And so you have, as you can see, the water station, truth of beauty, all the windows are doing a little bit of some fun stuff.

Oh, yeah.

And you can really get involved, like you can go around the sides of it.

That is really cool.

Oh, yes, yeah, and you can actually do it on the image in your flyers too as they're doing.

They call it a trigger image.

Yeah, so it doesn't matter.

So it's essentially it's a QR code.

That's the Bart King's movie.

Yeah.

Is there's working on the yeah, that's cool.

It reminds me of my daughter writing.

And the great thing is, like, really like they can work on flyers or large prints or t-shirts or coffee.

Oh, I'm gonna so we have uh illustrators, we have animators, we have AR people, and we have strip strategists like Bella just kind of keeping the whole thing together.

So this one is the heart, and you can see some of the local kind of recognizable pieces.

I don't know if I have them in order with you, Bella, but this is the second one.

It is called the dip.

This is the so this one is gonna go.

Our intentions are that this would go on the breezeway.

Um, and then this one would, this is the Chipotle wall.

Okay.

So the dip kind of merges like the city's industrial kind of landscape with this feel of like whinsey and elegance.

We really wanted to touch on some of like the natural elements of San Leandro, we live by the water that we're in and things like that, and then also food that plays a role in downtown San Leandro and what you can really gain from the area, and then once this one triggers, there's a lot of movement there that's really fun to and this one um this one's a little bit more framed in, and this one really takes off as far as like the um the uh whole the background changes.

The background, so like you're you're really inside of the uh so you have the same movements, some of the same art you see there that's just activated and has a motion with some fun stuff happening.

We use the water as uh kind of as a part motivator because we are a coastal city.

Some of the there's some of the high school mascots in there, like the Falcons, the Pirates, which is the octopus, whatnot.

And this one is really like immersive, like you're in wherever you turn your in.

So this one is the dip.

And you imagine this eight feet, ten feet big, and then and we have about a ten-foot um um kind of runway, so to speak.

Well, we figure out 10 feet we need to really step back, and we have enough of that room on all of the posts.

The boba.

So, it's both the boba, um, and the next one, that's called the beginning, and we this is one of my favorite ones.

I mean, they're all they're all became our favorite as we kept doing them.

Um, and so Bella, tell us a little about the beginning.

So the beginning kind of like it sounds it's like blending, you know, it's old and new San Leandro, so this is kind of like original historic San Leandro, what that may have looked like.

And then it kind of once you trigger the image, it blends new modern San Leandro, the new technology that the city has kind of been able to create and the way it's been able to transform.

So it's a real like visual transformation of where we started, where we are now, where we may go.

And so this one's important to reflect growth, connection, transformation.

And we realized like Bella's right in the demographic that we're kind of thinking of, and nostalgia doesn't hit this hit differently with younger generation.

So this is a wonderful ode to San Leandro as we it used to be.

But does that really to the new generation?

How much does so it's like okay?

Well, we're gonna play with what we think will work and won't work.

And so this one is you know, Cherry City, how San Leandro may have looked back when it was agriculture heavy, the old logo here, and then this one becomes a mighty little bit more space.

So as you can see, this kind of the new version of San Leandro and the general kind of East Bay where you see the corner of you have the Coliseum, you have a bar train that goes all the way over to Trees of Beauty, all the way down to the water, up to Lake Chabot, and there's some fun stuff, and you can really get in close with all of this stuff, and there's a ton of like hidden little treasures, like there's the golf cart happening down there, and you have some gophers, we know the golfers love the gophers and out on the golf course.

So just a lot of color.

So we went from less color from these guys to really then with the pop and the reveal of the uh the color.

So it sounds it looks like you guys are kind of have, which is great to know that they work on all sides.

We bring them out many times.

We do them on the computer, and this, and then the eight ten foot one is gonna be like pretty cool.

So, and then last but not least, this one will be we had a little bit of limited size with the tequila um grill wall.

Um so we we wanted to do a uh a uh square one anyways just to see how it worked.

And we this one is kind of in the same sentiment as this, like more like reveal, like less reveal, more reveal and less like interface when I see as happening.

So, yeah, I imagine uh-huh.

So lightful and whimsical, it's kind of like our Jack in the Box, like you know, like Sam Leandro.

There's so many things that you can gain.

Okay, is that a gopher?

Um, and this one kind of really wanted to symbolize that idea of creativity, innovation, and the imagination that will be shaping like San Leandro's future and tomorrow.

So it's kind of like what can be.

We start off with the thought of uh of a uh a clown, Jack and Wright, the Jack in the Box Clown.

Um, but we didn't want to scare people, so we thought you know, and we we knew we could add uh sound to it, so we wanted to do pop goes the weasel.

And they're like, oh, Papa's a weasel for the clown.

Like, oh, how about the weasel is in the box, because that seems pretty practical.

Like so, and this one is well, it's really fun.

Oh, I like it.

So this one has the playfulness of the sound, but also this, oh, I see.

So that other anticipation of I mean, I'm you know, I don't know how many of the younger kids know Jack Our Box these days, but I do, and it's kind of just the anticipation of it happening is kind of always a slow shot.

So, anyways, that's our um that's our series.

That's the art walk out of in person, and so um I'm glad you guys were able to um have take those pliers home with you and feel free to um download the app and today we're we're here to like you know, just we want to um see we can with you guys you guys are the first people outside of the city scene and our team to see it, and so um we thank you for your time and we hope to get a little support and like a little celebration of when it comes and you know like we love our murals in San Leandro, and we were gonna do, but you know, we decided, you know, how can we kind of live the innovation and the boldness at San Andrew, the risk that they that we all take here?

So um our company's been in San Leandro for almost 40 years.

We have a business here, we own a business, we own the building on Davis Street, 440 Davis Street.

So you probably probably drove by it many times, but maybe not even knowing that it was us.

But we're right around the corner.

So um so that's it.

Thank you for your time.

I I yeah, and I'll just add so as next steps.

We're wrapping up some of behind the scenes stuff, but the art is is there as you see, and then um we can let you know, Bill, when we get like our confirmed like um, go live date.

There you go, go live date, and we're gonna work with Emilio on um marketing everything and sharing the story, and the hope is to get people interested, and we should look into you know, local influencers or whatnot to start to share to get some buzz going.

Uh certainly the goal is before It's a Wonderful Night, which will be the first uh Friday of December.

So we're pushing and so within the next what is that next six to eight weeks, whatever that is, uh it they'll be up.

So we'll let you know.

Hope you come and check it out, uh, share with your friends and family to come and check it out too.

And uh yeah.

Yeah, cool.

Thanks, guys.

Yeah and um, real quick, um that the wonderful part, these are trigger images, so they're big colorful QR codes.

The back-end um animation can change as often as we want.

So if we want to promote wonderful light, wonderful night popping out of a box, we can do that, or if we want to incorporate any type of gamifying or celebrating some beauty holidays or people or events, and they're all kind of we can add like little layers of like we had uh like a ribbon drops down like a little like like follows out and says whatever we want.

So the cool thing is we can adjust the back end and leave and leave the artwork as is.

So yeah, thank you so much.

Yeah, great.

So, those gentlemen, yeah, we'll run the meeting.

Yeah, thank you.

At this time, do any members of the public wish to comment on this agenda item?

If I may, um great technology.

Uh I guess one thing I'm curious to know is if there's gonna be an opening event.

I know you know the first is a date on the calendar, but an opening event for this.

I just think it's important to celebrate, you know, art when it comes around.

And the other thing, look, you know, looking at it, I'm thinking, wow, this could really be expanded.

I don't know if you have interest or it would be popular, like you know, let's say there is a sculpture garden down with the Hispanian Triangle, right?

Could we go down and take pictures of those and see things?

Could there be a thing with truth is beauty, right?

I want to know more about the statute.

Uh I want to know why there's a question mark on the front of the letter.

Uh why um personal interest of mine go to the oyster uh bay mosaic in the park and pop up a whole history about Jack London, the oyster privacy tour patrol, all that.

You know, you could use it for architecture, the Daniel Best building, uh caterpillar, you could use it for the housing tour.

I mean, it just seems like it has so many applications exactly.

Thanks for bringing that up because um so excuse me, sir.

We I want I need the chair to run the meeting.

Oh so the way it works is we get public comments, we don't engage in a conversation.

Okay, that's the way public.

So public comments have been made.

Great, and then now we open it to the commissioners.

Do commissioners have any questions or comments at this time?

No questions.

I do do love the entire project.

This is really lovely.

We do too.

I have a question.

Um, is it so as people engage with the QR codes, is there a way for you to keep stats of like how many people are actually interacting with the pieces and viewing the animations and everything?

That's actually how um they uh part of the billing system is on scans.

So definitely keep an eye on this kind of thing they're not they're very well priced scans but um they're um so yes they do.

Okay.

So wait so there's a price per like anytime somebody scans the QR code there is interesting.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any other commissioner comments questions yes actually can you elaborate on that on what part of it on the pricing of uh is being priced.

Elaborate on the the pricing yeah yeah so there um essentially it's a subscription fee to have the app and then the scans which we don't take part in any of that the transaction part um I guess maybe half a penny per scan if I say 10,000 scans for like a couple hundred books or something like that.

So it's we felt that you know that we can always pause the scans if it you know what we did allocate budget um for um the scans and I you know it's it'd be great I think the city would be happy if there was a ton of people coming out and scanning them and the price point I don't have those numbers exactly we have in our record somewhere but they're they work within the budget we felt that we can kind of run this for six months and kind of see how it went okay so we're budgeted for six months right now um I will have to get looks like I yeah we have an initial the big and you know an initial amount of initial amount so included already in the contract.

Okay.

All right any last questions comments all right this concludes item six before we move on to item seven action items you folks don't have to stay for the rest of the meeting no no we're free to okay we'll probably just grab our stuff and tiptoe out yeah no problem we just don't want to make you sit for a meeting because it's night time so for home keep it thank you so much okay we'll move on to item seven now action items uh 7a quality of life priority expand utilization of art gallery spaces in city facilities this is a continuation of a discussion we had at the January 21 2025 meeting regarding quality of life priority library department deliverables uh librarian Susan Hughes going to give us an update on the deliverables involving the use of art gallery spaces in city facilities let me just make sure you guys can create stuff um hi I'm I'm Susan Hughes um I am in the Bell Services librarian here uh I'm celebrating my second anniversary on November 1st uh I'm a former East Coastie and also an actualist for two years in New York I still have a lot of friends from back in the day who serve on boards and commissions um at our age now and so I just want to say thank you because I really do appreciate um the level of commitment both time and um you know thoughtfulness uh I know how it works um so thank you um so yeah I have uh been sort of taught to handle the part of the initiative the the city has generated the quality of life priorities they've assigned them out to different and I'm sorry if I'm saying things that you know but I just need to make a straight line and then so they have assigned uh part of the quality of life uh priority number three which is arts initiative um to uh have the library take a lead on that and so um just as part of my day to day um the uh Brian has uh asked me to do a little legwork and so that's what I'm doing um I'm still pretty new to it but I have been able to make some progress and I just wanted to uh to update you on that right now so um uh for Brian um we are hoping to better utilize the library galleries for art uh in line with the city council priority three um and I just would like to quickly review the spaces that we hope to um to bring a little bit more attention and engagement to um the back gallery space along the lecture hall.

I've actually hung up myself for the women leaders in the San Landro event.

There's an upstairs one.

I don't know if you've been up there.

We have artwork up there as well.

Right now in our atrium, we're hosting a series of just really really large scale installations.

If you haven't had a chance to tiptoe in the atrium, I would suggest that you do.

We have an interactive family friendly exhibit that's pretty great.

Also, yeah, and we do have a series of those coming up that'll be running from essentially September through May 2026.

We also have a very well designed wire that runs along the balcony railing over the atrium.

I've hung things up there myself.

I've seen things hung there.

It's a really nice opportunity.

We've done like textiles, banners, like quotes, uh portraits.

So uh an underutilized space that would be very, very easy to get art, and it really does uh pop the age of space.

So that's what we have.

Um besides that, what we do in terms of art form uh in adult services and also in the other library departments here, we do other kinds of art.

We do uh programming with dance and with music and with crafts and with uh even our displays.

Uh again, poke your head in the front door on your way out.

The Diwali display there by our um my colleague uh Sarah Becky Mair is absolutely a work of art.

It absolutely is.

Um, and so how I am assisting City Council Priority Three is uh I have three deliverables, they have different timelines, most of them stretch from uh I think the first deliverable is gonna be like July 26th, and then the last one's gonna be December 26th.

So we're working on a long runway.

Um we are managing to get some pieces put in place right away, and they are namely uh 3.2.1 uh to identify the city facilities that can function as gallery spaces, just as I have just written to you in the library, which looks like me just going around to the senior center and to the Marina Community Center and to City Hall.

I have a meeting with Dustin's mom.

Really excited to meet him, just to tour the facilities and say, like, oh, this is a space that you could, and and not just a place where you could put a piece of art, but a place where you can engage with an artist, okay?

Because it's sort of next level rather than just a view of art, like having engagement with the creative process itself.

And so we're identifying gallery and exhibit and uh artists um uh like the art walks with the artist and that kind of thing, above and beyond just what we can put on the wall.

Um so that's been really eye-opening and fun.

There are a lot of indoor and outdoor spaces at all of our facilities, and I'm just sort of documenting them.

The second priority that I'm working on, deliverable 3.2.3 is uh oh, I'm sorry, 0.2, is to identify local agencies and artists to submit exhibits.

Uh we've identified in our work plan uh jury selection process.

There's every likelihood that at some point we would be looking for tourists, um, and so I just want that to be in the back of your mind.

Um, again, this is out till July 26th, so we've got a moment.

Um, and that just looks like outreach to the San Angel Art Association and the schools and the grant recipients that you've already uh identified.

3.2.3 facilitate public art receptions.

Again, this is way down the road when we have already decided like who we're gonna ask, how we're gonna do the jury selection, how we're gonna find it, what's gonna happen.

Um, so but we're just sort of building it like toward a future of public art, public engagement in city spaces.

And so I have been asked to ask you.

Three questions, and they are these.

What would you like to see?

What mediums?

What's fresh?

What would be really interesting to you?

And the second question is do you have ideas about some potential area artists to submit?

And this is local, it doesn't have to be hyper-local.

This is uh does not have to be a San Mandel artist, but should inspire the residents of San Leandro.

There's a lot of talent here in the Bay Area, it shouldn't be too hard to come up with some inspiration around um what would we like to see, where would we like to see it?

And then again, I know budgeting already happened.

This is down the road down the road.

Um, but could the board the commission here could you envision a role for this commission as a source of some future funding and uh trying to get on board to with the city council?

Um yeah, with the priority number three for quality of life.

Um, so we're um we're underway, that's about where I am.

So um I think I could pause here.

Great, thank you so much.

So before we answer these questions of this commission, uh, do the any of the members of the public wish to comment on this agenda item first?

Well, sure.

What else do I do?

Um this is exciting.

Uh I guess I have a few ideas humming in my mind.

One is just do you have a basic outreach kind of thing that I could go hand to all my artist friends?

Not like that would be important.

No, no, sorry.

This gentleman has his chance to pose rhetorical questions.

She just needs to understand how it needs to work.

So uh, you know, if I could hand at the some, you know, you've like, you know, here's truth is beauty, and here's the new sculpture of the Stephen Taylor uh garden, and you know, some other things, you know, we want to see your art insanely under contact, Susan.

Um, one uh one big potential area for artists that I think goes untapped are our youth.

And I'm I'm thinking about the the Oraloma poster contest that was in effect for many many years that um maybe Dean was very good around.

But you know, like let's get artists from K-12 and have an event where we display their art, and you know, there's like fantastic art that comes out of that.

So, um, and I guess I have a third idea, which is uh it's kind of random, but uh you know um during the Black Lives Movement, there were a lot of um plywood pieces that went up then that were then uh made into art, and most of those are in storage.

It would be interesting to see them displayed someplace, maybe with some commentary or whatever.

Thank you.

This is great.

Thank you very much.

Okay, so at this point, do commissioners have questions or comments or responses to those three questions that are up there, and comment, I guess.

Um I'm so excited that you're undertaking this because this is something that we had talked about last year or the year before, of like there needing to be a survey of places in the city where art that could be activated for art.

So I'm I think we decided it was kind of beyond our abilities as a volunteer organization to undertake that.

So I'm glad that that work is being uh guided by you now.

So just very enthusiastic about that.

Anyone else?

Yes, thank you.

Um that's good to hear that the quality of life priorities have kind of been delegated, and to know that that you're the person for for this one for the art gallery spaces in our city.

Um and then um I did take note of everything that you mentioned.

Um how I guess my question, because I don't really have answers for that yet, but my question would be how can we stay informed?

Um so that can be answered eventually.

Um, I'll respond to the next one.

Yes.

So that is a I'm this is sort of sort of top-down, so Brian tells me what my next move is, and then I make that move.

I'm aware of my timeline so I can sort of take on tasks and do outreach like on my own time.

Uh, but that yeah, I I'm not yet like a person who talked to Susan about that stuff.

Not yet.

But I know that my role, you know, I it's gonna be integral to the development of the kind of the priority because I'm on the ground floor for sure.

So I would say I would really like to talk to Brian and get some feedback and talk to Bill and get some feedback, and then we can maybe get an answer at the next meeting or something.

So if I if I may speak to that as well, um I made the original presentation about the deliverables that we the library is responsible for uh at our January 21st meeting of 2025, and so the beauty of this is you know, now having assigned it, as you noted is we have Susan actually doing the work, and so the questions up there are you know it's something to inspire, you know, the commission's consideration, but we will certainly come back as this gets moving along.

I mean, the deadlines that she had mentioned, we wanted to have time to do this work along with everything else that Susan has on her plate.

But um, we're looking at July 2026 to have these plans in place, and so we will keep you informed and then come back with potentially other asks, for example, to help us uh determine what art should be displayed.

This is the ideal body, I think, to what's we put out a call for art, an artist, just like the grants.

You know, so we we will certainly it could be a monthly update at some point when we get this far far enough down the line.

Okay, I have questions and comments, but I want to make sure all the other commissioners get to go first.

Okay, I'll go.

Um, I really hope that we can see some artistic mediums that are more 3D sculptural, you know, more like ceramics and non-traditional fiber arts, not just painting and photography.

And I say this is a photographer, so I'm not judging, but you know, those are the easy ones.

You know, how can we can we get more interactive?

Can we get more tactile?

Can you know we get the cool stuff that isn't just necessarily look at it on a wall gallery style?

Um, we do this body does maintain a list of San Leander-based artists that is opt-in.

And uh, we haven't done a huge push recently, and we probably should to grab more people onto the list, but we have some folks, so that will be the ideal body to reach out to.

Um, I also work for Burning Man and have a list of the last 20 years of Burning Man artists if you want some cool sculptures that can help.

Um so yeah, um, I'm personally really glad you're doing this.

I saw you rock up to the library when I was here at Art Fest vending, and I was like, I really hope that woman is a librarian.

Like you were into the library, I'm like, like prayer and energy, man.

So now you're here, and like that paid off in my brain, and that's I'm really happy that you're doing this project.

So thanks.

Thank you.

Thanks.

And I'm really happy to meet all you guys too.

I've been really looking forward to this.

So just getting in the room where it happens.

Um thank you.

Yeah, any last uh allow?

Yeah, um, so to actually answer the questions you posed um for artistic mediums.

I'm with Brody in terms of having a diversity of mediums.

I would also love to see more performing arts represented.

Um I'm always like, does San Leandro ever have like a battle of the bands?

Or like I feel like music is such an important and ephemeral thing, which it could be great because you can just have an event for the day, it doesn't have to be a permanent thing.

Um, dance.

I know we had some submissions from dancers for the grant program.

I know there are choreographers and stuff in the area.

Um, so yeah, just like thinking expansively about what art could be, and that it doesn't have to, again, like hang on a wall, it could be a temporary thing.

Um so that's that's what I would like to see, and then I attended an event for California for the arts, uh, a number of months ago now, but they shared a bunch of resources just about connecting with other arts organizations in specifically in the East Bay um for like capacity building and outreach.

So I'd be happy to forward you that information.

It might be more than what you need, but it could also maybe connect with some resources at the moment.

Yeah, so yeah, I think it might be useful, so I can forward that to you because there is focused on the East Bay, so I think people who could help connect you to artist communities would would be good.

And then funding-wise, I don't know if we can if we know um yeah, I would love to be able to fund something like this, but I know our funding is diminishing, but you know, who knows what next you bring?

So it's always worth asking the question.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, and last thing about artistic mediums, um, something when you were saying bands, it reminded me like how can we think past the visual arts?

You know, like the one of the coolest installations I've seen recently was a scent wall that had these little test tubes, and you they sprayed these little bulbs and it just like you leaned up close to it and just sniffed it.

And it's like sensory or can we do things with headphones or anyway, like yes, think beyond think beyond the gallery, please.

That would be fantastic.

Yeah, great.

Any other commissioner questions?

I'll mention one that came to mind since you've talked about performances, it'd be poetry.

Like a poetry night or weekend, invite local, you know, people.

Like three days ago.

Nice.

Absolutely.

All right, any other commissioner questions or comments?

Okay.

Well, Susan, thank you so much for coming here and telling us all this cool stuff.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, and you also do not have to stay.

I can rest it out too.

All right.

Do I have to stay?

Yeah.

I know.

You can leave too.

And I'm going to so the school clues 7A.

Moving on to item eight, commission reports and announcements.

Item 8A, Arts Endowment Committee.

Thank you for coming.

Thank you so much.

Should I stick around or should we be free?

All righty, thanks for doing that.

I see you.

Okay, Arts Endowment Committee.

We have not met.

Okay.

Yes.

It's part of the committee who hasn't met.

Um, does this we're on the committee?

I guess I'm just wondering about like the need for this subcommittee because now that the 1% for arts development thing is kind of in process with city council, is there anything that the subcommittee needs to do or like what do we feel like the purpose of this subcommittee is other than it appearing on the agenda?

Yeah, why don't we just disband it for now?

And if um well, okay, I will say, unless anyone else was passionately and wants to.

Well, okay, we didn't meet, but I will say that that since it did come before the city council, the next step for that is it's going to appear in front of the rules committee.

I am keeping an eye on the rules committee agenda, and at that point, when it's on the agenda, we can do public comments in favor of the one 1% for art.

So when that comes on the agenda, I will send a BCC to everyone and let y'all know that you can make public comments, hopefully in favor of 1% for art, but I'm not telling you what to do.

Um, aside from that, like, why not?

I mean, this part of the arts endowment was maybe like a friends of San Leagro Arts that needed so many things beyond the scope of this body that feels laughable at this point to hope.

Um a suggestion to replace it with, since we still have the grants funded, and that has a committee.

Do we want to create a subcommittee for the comedy event?

I don't know if that's necessary.

I can't say I've been involved enough to to know that that'd be a good idea, but since we're also funding that, that'd be the only alternative, right?

Subcommittee.

I don't think it's necessary.

Okay.

Um, but let's think about that.

Yeah, as it gets closer, there's often things to do.

And if we do end up more with the are we gonna help with sponsors, are we gonna put so much money into it?

We would want to make sure it goes really well.

You're right.

We may need a subcommittee.

Yeah, that's that one.

That's it's worth considering, okay.

Yeah, but for now, arts endowment committee.

We just want to go to money.

Or do I make a motion or let's well, no, we know because we don't have to make a motion to make one.

Okay, we just record us.

We can just do what we want.

Please.

I've been trying to keep things contained the whole night.

You did it good.

Doing good, good job.

Okay, so any other commissioner questions or comments about this disbanding/slash non-report that will not exist anymore.

Okay.

Item A B grants committee.

Can we have a report from the grants committee?

No.

Um talk about some stuff first.

I could certainly start, and then um the members of the grants committee and two of the uh committee members are here.

So we met uh the grants committee.

Uh I'm not officially a part of it, just staff that just like I do this, but uh commissioners uh Gillary, Miller, and Scotland met last Tuesday with the goal of taking the feedback that we received from the last round uh as well as ideas that come up amongst the committee members to uh revise the the process appropriately uh to make it you know more accessible, smoother, uh you know, simplify is always an opportunity to learn, and so we will be embarking uh the committee will be embarking on editing the two application forms and also the guidelines with that in mind, simplifying things and clarifying things.

I think that the feedback that we had was that from the last round, this is some of the uh applicants, particularly the organizational applicants did not understand certain terms, so we will define those things in some way, and it could be a glossary, we could define the the elements of the application where we have like a checkbox or something, but it just the whole goal is to try to make it clear and more accessible.

Um we discussed the issue of um having the application in uh other languages besides English.

Uh the challenge, as we talked it through, is if you make an application available in you know the two the common languages that are uh the city will translate from English into either Spanish or Chinese.

The challenge when you do that in a process like this is that if you make it available and choose the language, then you allow the person to respond in that same language, then you get into this having to go back and forth with translations, and as much as that would be lovely, the cost uh and logistics could make that challenging.

So the committee decided that what we will do is make on request the application and the guidelines available, excuse me, the guidelines I should say, uh in the language requested Chinese or Spanish, but that they will need to respond to the application and complete the application in English.

So they'll need someone on their team because we don't have people who are fluent in uh both languages.

So that's sort of the way to proceed forward on that.

Um the committee also discussed uh an idea, I believe that was floated at the last um uh commission meeting, which I was not able to attend.

I was out of town, but the idea of changing the um maximum grant from we had two tiers, we had uh in pressed uh applications uh processes, we had 5,000 for individuals, 10,000 for organizations, dropping that in part because of the lower amount that's been allocated for the grants program of $30,000 that we would drop that to five across the board, but whether you're an organization or an individual, the max you can apply for is $5,000.

So we depending on how that shakes out, we would grasp uh multiply the potential applicants or potential awards, I should say.

Um that's my memory of everything we talked about.

The timeline, I will say this.

I I committed to the committee and I put it together, I just haven't had a chance to get it to the committee.

Uh a timeline that's basically what we had before.

So looking at um uh putting all this material up and making available to applicants on uh around the beginning of February of next year, so am I missing anything that we discussed?

I don't think so.

Okay, um that sounds good.

We we just I mean to sort of wiggle around about that.

Since we had so many applicants last year, I'll give you context because you knew also uh we had a bunch of applicants last year who didn't follow the instructions, didn't quite understand, and ended up with incomplete applications that we basically had to throw out, um, because we don't go back to them and say, you know, pass the deadline and say, like, hey, we don't have your XYZ.

So we ended up with fewer grantees, and we ended up even with some repeat grantees that didn't follow the directions, and it was a bummer and it was surprising because like the first year everyone followed the instructions, and then the second year it wasn't.

So we we went back to the drawing board and we're like, shoot, how can we you know take a step back and do some capacity building and do some teaching of you know how to apply for a grant?

Like what do these words mean?

Like what specifically are we asking?

So that's where we we figure we weren't gonna do like a whole process of like a pre-flight check for people sending in their things and making sure we because that's like that's too much staff time.

That's that's too much.

Like that was too much handholding.

So we we have this good middle ground of we're gonna have some like a glossary, we're gonna make things as clear as possible, we're gonna have to delay it where necessary, and hopefully that'll work.

And if that doesn't work, we need to figure out something further.

But this is going to be kind of our stop gap for this year.

Alana, any other things?

I was just gonna say like even bigger picture context.

We're talking about our arts and culture grant program that has been going on for two years where we award um we've awarded uh funds to both individual and nonprofit organizations to create art or have programs and events, so um, this will be the third year of us doing it.

So we're trying to improve every year, um, learn as we go.

But yeah, yeah, any commissioner questions or comments about that?

Sweet.

Thank you.

Yeah, um, Commissioner Adams in general.

General Commissioner Commons.

Anybody have comments, reports, anything?

I saw the the artwork being taken from the Hisparian triangle, like they had the straps on it and tractors, and it was I shed a little tear, but it was nice.

So it went up to the order.

I I guess so, yeah.

Um, but anyways, it had a good run, so thanks for helping facilitate that original commission.

Maybe that one uh question about that.

So did it did it's like expiration date hit, and that's why it gets removed.

So the official contract was uh August to August, so August of 24 to August of 25.

I got back from my vacation, I took a little drive by and it was still there.

So I David was still earning man.

The artist had to get home first.

Yeah, okay.

Well, that explains it.

So anyway, I contacted the we worked with our um local artists Berkeley, you may recall, and I contacted the um ED executive director and said time for that to go.

We love it, but it's time for it to go.

Because you know, it really should only be there the for the period of the contract, you know, because then you could get it to some sticky issues.

So I respectfully requested that it be removed and it was, so I agree.

Yeah.

So anyway.

All right.

Any other commissioner questions or comments?

Um, well, I just want to say, since I wasn't here uh the last time when we had our budget priorities, so since we've spent all our money on stuff, um, I would like you folks as part of this commission to think about do you have any personal arts, culture, or library projects, ideas, things to bring for us to do that don't cost money, um, or that cost like very little money, or we can figure out something.

Um, this is a working committee.

This is the kind of place where we can make cool stuff happen.

Um, if you have ideas, bring them.

Let's talk about them.

Let's do some stuff.

Like, I don't want it to just be a place where we show up and read the agenda and then wander off.

So maybe we could agendize that.

A great storm.

Yes, totally.

I'm serious.

Yeah, let's agendize a non-monetary cool stuff brainstorming session.

I love it.

I'll we'll summarize that and it could just be one long sentence.

We'll make sure and get that down for the new recorder.

Uh in all seriousness, I I I think you know, speaking as a staff member to this, you know, having staffed commission for some time, I think it's a great idea.

I just want to make sure we have it out there so that members of the public like this gentleman wanna come uh who's here but it's now since left.

We can not only generate ideas from the committee commit commission members, but then also from the public.

So we I think we should agenda.

Okay, I sorry your chair is a dork, but here we are.

So uh item nine adjournment.

Do I have a motion to adjourn the meeting of October 21st, 2025?

I have motion to adjourn.

Thank you.

Second.

Any discussion?

All right, all those in favor?

Aye.

All right, any opposed?

Motion carries the meeting of October 21st, 2025 is adjourned at 742 p.m.

Thank you.

Than