I'm going to officially call this meeting to order.

My name is Tina Zagiva.

I am the chair of the Sarah Hughes Public Art Commission.

We're going to go around and introduce ourselves.

We have a couple new commissioners.

We have Miss Lisa Lambert and Emma.

Right.

Um, and uh when we go around, just tell us a little bit about yourselves and what brings you here and what you hope to bring to the table.

So we'll start with.

So hi, uh, I'm Benny Guzman.

I am the co-chair of uh Syracuse Public Arts Commission.

Wow, it's been a long time since I sent that.

Uh visual artists, graduate student creative art therapy, work with uh Syracuse University.

Uh been on the commission now three, two years.

I don't know, it's been a while.

Thirty-two years, yes.

Even though I'm only thirty.

Uh yeah, good to have everybody here.

Hi, good afternoon.

I'm filling in for the public art coordinator until we um hire the one.

Lisa Lambert, I am uh our teacher at for the Syracuse City School District.

And I hope to bring a connection between the schools and the city on some of these projects with some of our new programs that we have started in the city.

Um, I'm Emmanuel Carter, um, city planner, recently retired from SUNY ESF uh landscape architecture program.

Um, so having uh less time on my hands than I thought I was going to have, but um, so be it.

And um, I'm hoping that I can contribute in the foreseeable future to uh uh programs that will put more art in the parks and in school sites.

I'm Sophia Gutierrez.

Um, I have a bachelor's of architecture from Syracuse University, and I'm an ESF master's of landscape architecture student.

Um also an artist, mixed media, multimedia um, tattoo artist, and uh activist, general community organizer.

So I bring sort of the public art and architectural uh perspective.

I'm Tina Zakiva, as I mentioned, and I'm an interdis interdisciplinary artist.

Uh, I do a lot of community stuff.

So uh I will be on the fringe helping out, still participating in a lot of stuff around town.

Uh Light Art Park is still, you know, in my heart, it's in my backyard.

So I'll be doing a lot more with that.

Um I just want to say uh I know Lisa, I've worked with her for many years through tomorrow's neighborhoods today.

She's amazing with the community.

She brings a lot of energy, she's got a lot of ideas.

I was like, Y'all better prepare for Lisa because she's got it, and she'll do it.

So I'm just super excited that she's on here.

Um and Emma, I'm super excited that you're joining too.

Um I want to hear more about what you have to offer.

Yeah, um, I'm Emma Rader.

I moved to Syracuse about a year and a half ago, and uh I'm an engineer.

I do lots of fiber arts, um, just generally passionate about art, public art in general, and like promoting like the character of our our city.

Um yeah.

Thanks.

Uh and Annika's uh going to present in a minute, but uh until we get to that point, we have some housekeeping to do.

Uh we have our minutes from the previous meeting in June.

We're gonna take a moment to review those, and then when you're ready, and those of you that are new, you can abstain since you weren't here.

Uh we'll just take a motion to approve when the rest of us are ready.

Uh I motion to approve.

All right, do we have a second?

Emmanuel seconds.

All in favor.

Two abstentions.

Sorry, Saisha, you can't vote.

I'm so used to it on boards.

I know, you're on like a million boards.

Um right, so we have motions for oh um SPAC 2517, Portals Keeper.

You're up.

All right.

Uh well, um, thank you all for reviewing uh this application uh tonight, and uh very nice to meet the new commissioners uh or the new commission, commissioners.

New commissioners, yes, and also um Commissioner Burke.

Um thank you so much for helping me figure out where to uh where to direct things uh last week when there was a little bit of confusion.

Um so uh I uh for those who are new, uh I am somebody who tends to be here a few times a year uh with a new proposal because uh the program that I run, Urban Video Project runs an ongoing architectural projection on the facade of the Everson Museum of Art downtown, and so um all of our exhibitions come through SPAC.

Uh the one that I'm here to present tonight is new work by artist La Junet McMillian and Manuel Molina Martagon, titled The Portals Keeper.

Um this piece, uh the proposed exhibition dates are September 26th through December 20th, 2025.

Uh that would be every Thursday through Saturday night from dusk to 11 p.m.

Uh during the exhibition dates.

We also have some related events um with the artists when they'll be returning, not public art, but just for your information, I guess.

Uh, we'll be doing a workshop uh with La Casita, and we'll be also doing another workshop with uh CFAC with the artists doing motion capture and avatar creation, which is central to their practice, uh, as you guys will get a little taste for in a moment.

Um they created this piece while in residence at Lightwork.

This was part of the UVP residential commission program.

We have a couple of different commissioning programs.

One is focused on regional artists, uh, and then the other is focused on residential artists, so that's an open call international.

And we have artists come from all around the world to Syracuse for a month to create um community-engaged media artworks uh at Lightwork.

And so La Junet Macmillion and Manuel Molina Martagon were part of that.

They were here last February, and they worked with um four different community engaged creatives, one of whom is in the room right now, uh Kofi Antwi, who many of you may know, Chloe Flores, also probably somebody who you might know because she's a local mural artist, Sophia uh and Martika Williams.

And together they discussed their practices and their visions for a liberated future.

The artists asked uh their participants to embody their answers not only through words but through movement as well.

And the resulting piece, the Portal's Keeper, realizes those visions through the technological portal of a popular game engine, Unreal Engine for those of you who maybe work a little bit in this area, uh, which is better known for first person shooter and battle royale MMO games, but here the artists are using this technology not to realistically simulate violence, but instead to represent the energy we access and emit when we are able to move through the world freely.

I don't think I have covered all of that.

Uh I can give you guys short bios for the artists, and then I'll go ahead and play the piece.

Manuel Molina Martagon is a multidisciplinary artist working in performance video and socially engaged projects.

His work explores issues of immigration, labor, tradition, and access.

He holds an MFA in photography, video, and related media from SVA and an MFA in creative writing in Spanish from NYU.

His work has been exhibited in Mexico, Spain, China, Cuba, and at institutions such as the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia and the Art Museum of the Americas in DC.

He is a Fulbright recipient and has been an artist in residence at Recess, Santa Fe Art Institute, and Artists Alliance.

La Journey McMillian is a multidisciplinary artist and educator creating art that integrates performance, extended reality, and physical computing to question our current forms of communication.

They are passionate about discovering, learning, manifesting, and stewarding spaces for liberated black realities and the black imagination and making room for different ways of being.

McMillian has had the opportunity to show and speak at Pioneer Works, National Sawdust, Leaders in Software and Art, Creative Tech Week, and Art and Codes Weird Reality.

They've continued their research during residencies and fellowships at the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, IBeam, Pioneer Works, NYUITP, Barbarian Group, and Bernard College.

Okay.

So I'm gonna go ahead and play the piece.

Unfortunately, um this monitor does not have speakers.

So the audio is gonna be coming through my computer.

Let me just make sure that we will actually hear the audio through my computer.

But the it's um it's not gonna be very loud, so I do apologize for that.

Hopefully, everybody got a chance to preview the video link.

Let me get my mouse over here.

Oh, okay.

Okay, and let me just make sure the audio is coming through my speakers real quick.

Yep, okay, great.

All right, so the full piece is uh just a little over 11 minutes.

Um, so just let me know when you feel you've seen enough.

Um it is currently um purely voiceover.

The artists, um, the show isn't set to open for another couple of weeks, so the artists are going to be adding subtitles uh as well as um probably adding a small amount of like background kind of atmospheric music kind of you know sounds uh to the piece as well.

So trying to get this louder.

Everyone looked around and they was like, do you want to write code with you?

Because we all decided what we want to do now.

Why did I fall into this?

I don't want to go first, you know.

Like I I have a family that loves me too.

So I am releasing all of the fears that have been pushed on to me.

Right.

I think I'm rewriting my own story.

That's an architectural designer.

We were taught how to organize people.

We were taught how to organize furniture, organize space, organize aesthetics in a very specific way, very specific lens, just mostly Eurocentric.

Uh in school, one of my mentors was like, why are you only doing this once and deciding it's the only way?

There are so many ways.

Like, however much you're limiting yourself in your head, there's always more possibilities.

There are always new futures that you can imagine.

There's it's not just what you see in front of you.

I I recognize that like I need to be dense.

Like I need to move very slowly.

And also like maybe not my highest expression, but like when I am embodied and when I am uh liberated, like that part of me, those those ways that I move through the world, feel so far.

Um I feel like I'm always moving, moving between cities, moving between head spaces, um moving from one state of being to the next, moving from my position as daughter to girlfriend to leader organizer, moving to teacher, um constantly moving to catch a train to catch a bus to be on time.

So movement, I I would say hip hop.

Um that's the first thing that gave me this sense of belonging and also like understanding what's going on in my community, and I'm probably doing a disservice to my family as well because they're from Ghana.

So I would say perhaps like the drums, uh, the music, um, just the way we talk and greet each other.

Uh I have Eller Stanlow syndrome, which is a connective tissue disorder.

So essentially, my movement is a little janky, varied day-to-day, how much I can move, what my mobility is like, uh, the quality of it.

Um, movement has been my greatest source of joy in a lot of ways, and also my like biggest fear simultaneously.

I'm trying so hard to unpack fear exactly right now because it has held me back from so much.

Um, it's a really good catalyst.

I'm gonna do it afraid, and I'm gonna do it well, and I'm gonna learn so much and become better in the process of being scared.

I think now I move through faith every day, every step is starting in prayer, it's starting in Thanksgiving, and like I didn't realize I was so fearful of so many things.

Um sometimes this fear is obvious, but when it sneaks up on you, especially as you're getting older, you know, fear of death, fear of not making it, fear of not accomplishing things, fear of losing people, ending relationships, it started to feel like too much, like I couldn't what do I do with all this, and now going back to faith, fear is like it's not gonna stop me.

Fear is only gonna be more of a reason to keep going forward.

I think in the past I felt a bit more resilient to fear, um, and I think I was doing things actively in my life that were helping temper.

Um like I climb, and uh climbing is an active exercise of will, just as much as it's like strategy and um like a you know full body activation when I'm climbing, like the act of taking you know your next move, like is a tempering of of the brain and um a dropping into like the wisdom of the body.

I think I always understood the like the principle that what God has for me is for me, so nobody could take that away from me, and then I also understood my own power in being a storyteller, and like well, just because I don't book this show, that doesn't mean I can't act, I can create my own opportunities to act.

So that's what I started doing.

Um so moving forward in my creative practice and also as an organizer, um, I'm really wanting to like invest further in spaces where like fundamentally creative people can find like the safety and support enough to like explore you know their vision.

I would really like to use like my skills and um ability to like make and um ground like community vision into like material structures um such that like other people can like find new opportunity means shared joy like first and foremost right now.

Skills and um ability to like make and um ground like community vision into like material structures um such that like other people can like find new opportunity oh community means shared joy like first and foremost right now what I'm trying to do in my communities is activities that foster joy Yeah community that's all we have especially today like you can't do anything without community you can try and be like super individualistic but you can only get so far um and I just want to be there for other people I don't want to be you know siloed oh I feel like there are so many I feel like it's like a web I think a web is like a spider web I kind of think of like the ways that we all have like our individual positionality within this like matrix but we ultimately are like engaging and affecting one another whether or not like I think that you can be in community with people that you don't know okay so what am I destroying generational curses of um abuse and neglect um of ignoring mental health uh ignoring mental illness um I'm really like destroying that the thing that I think of that like keeps me like like halting is like all of the steps to get there which it just it you know can feel so difficult but um ultimately I think a liberated reality would reflect and encourage and like fundamentally support the divine nature of existing and of not only humanity but also like humanity as a steward for the earth and for you know and like natural reality right so I'm always thinking about how we can kind of create this liberation or envision liberation where we could live in peace as well so I think the first thing as black and brown people we recognize or identify as probably person that sacrificed is Martin Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Um we know of his story we know of his speeches but then we kind of remove ourselves from the notion of this is someone that sacrificed everything and also was aware that he was probably not going to be around to raise his children right I think that's a sacrifice that I think about often and I and I wrestle with and I and I say what are the sacrifices that I'm making and then we also think it's like why do we have to make that decision um that's something that I wrestle with as well is like you know my colleague next to me they don't have to worry about that they don't have to make those sacrifices so that I think it goes back to the conversation of feeling forced into a situation right instead of naturally moving into a situation where you can use your best self as a vessel to kind of create that change.

I think a liberated reality is one in which oppressive systems are dismantled and people really do have freedom to choose and not just in a not just in a oh well this is a free country kind of way you can you can choose no you can't when there's so many barriers to choosing you know who you love where you get treatment medical treatment where you go to school um there's so many barriers to just make a choice I think uh liberation really is about removing all those barriers they told me in an authoritarian so that that's the entirety of the piece the um responsiveness of the animation that you see in the beginning um is some like they're still tweaking the rendering of the animation so that's going to continue throughout the piece before it opens but yeah so it this but this is I'd say strongly representative of like what that will look like I'll make a motion to approve that we want to open it I have any questions I was gonna say questions comments from the community uh I will say too I will probably abstain from this I didn't necessarily have impact or input into this project but I am collaborating on a related project so out of the full transparency I'm just gonna

But yeah, so it this but this is I'd say strongly representative of like what that will look like.

So I'll make a motion to approve.

Do we want to open it?

I oh we have any questions?

Uh I will say too, I will probably abstain from this.

Um I didn't necessarily have impact or input into this project, but I am collaborating on a related project.

So out of the full transparency, I'm just gonna abstain from voting.

Uh but I do believe in this project.

I will say it's a beautiful thing.

I'll also be abstaining because I'm in it.

Why?

It's beautiful.

Thank good chat.

That was really great.

So you said there'll be captions eventually.

Yes, there will be.

We try to make sure everything that we have on the plaza, we have sound on the plaza, but um but the acoustics are very bright, and so it can make it a little bit unintelligible sometimes.

So we try to make sure we always have things captioned.

I'll motion to approve.

All in favor.

Motion carries.

All right.

Thank you so much.

Thank you guys.

We have a another addition for a proposal.

Uh Joe Driscoll has a project coming up.

Do you want to come up and talk about it?

Do you you want to try to plug into this or I don't I didn't uh I'm sorry, I don't have the laptop.

Is anybody else?

Can I forward it to someone?

I don't have look up to that either.

Well, I sent everybody the flyer.

Is that what it is?

Well, I looked at that.

Okay.

Um the flyer have the artwork on it?

I don't think so.

I can't remember.

This um, this is not true.

This can also be used as a computer if you can navigate to it.

Um, you don't know what it is.

Yeah, you can get into like an internet browser.

I just don't remember.

I'm basically Amish, so I'll try pretty much a lot I know.

Okay, I think the Windows is powering off.

Is the artwork on there?

Do you see it on there?

There's like a little bit in there.

Is it that what we're talking about?

I don't think it's that same design, but you sent us the flyer.

Yeah.

I think it brings up.

When I first sent everybody the invitation.

Maybe this one.

That's it.

The demonstration.

Okay.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Thank you.

It's a different uh yeah.

I see.

This might be live stream, Joey.

You might want to change your password.

Don't click save.

Oh, yeah.

I'm hitting all the all the time.

Yeah, definitely change your password after that.

No.

Make a mean fry pie though.

There we go.

All right, so scrolling through this.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Um, just a clarification.

Would that be in terms of item spat 2518?

Is it the application?

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

My apologies for the confusion, y'all.

We were com we were uh still corresponding.

The Stan Tech team was unaware of Anne's moving on, so they were kind of corresponding with her not realizing that uh she moved on.

But um yeah, so this is similar to the to another project we brought before you guys, the reconnecting communities project.

Uh so we did a lot of public engagement around themes and locations.

Um recurring theme was obviously the reconnecting, uh the reunification of the neighborhood.

Um so that's what this artwork is based on.

It's also um, you know, this is a very simplistic drawing that's uh the art.

This is uh we use the same art team uh from Dr.

King School and the art teachers.

Um the Stantech team worked with this is basically on the uh the two locations where the neighborhood felt most needed traffic coming were identified uh as the intersection in front of Dr.

King School.

The second was Taylor and State.

For those that are familiar, Taylor has the long uh railroad bridge with the opening underneath.

Um so uh that was identified as uh the second uh most commented intersection that the neighborhood felt needed traffic calming and beautification.

So this is a project, once again the reconnecting communities grant.

It's a half a million dollar grant, 500,000 that the city won through USDOT to look at Colvin, MLK, Taylor, Adams, and Harrison and look at ways we could increase connectivity for the neighborhood.

So the overall project is looking at those major corridors and trying to figure out ways to improve bike and pedestrian infrastructure, uh just other ways to increase connectivity and traffic calming and multimodal transportation.

Uh as part of that, one of the sales pitch um that put Stantech uh in the lead for the grant was that they said they would do two demonstration projects basically to engage the community and show people uh what traffic common can do and what public art and uh beautification can do to help uh increase the sense of community and connection that the community has.

Um so we worked with Andrea, who is the art teacher at Martin Luther King School for the design.

The students were really more proactive in the first project.

Andrea kind of took the lead on the second design.

Um but yeah, I can show you guys the imagery.

It's designed to be very simple.

The goal is we'll be uh utilizing city staff, parks team, uh Saysha is working, we're we're talking to Eva and some of the folks at parks to engage the youth.

So uh city staff and the Stantec team and SHA and some other and some folks from Dr.

King will be getting there early in the morning to just set up the grid work so it's paint by numbers.

Then the community comes in uh later in the afternoon, around three o'clock and helps us paint it together, which was the same thing we did in front of Dr.

King School.

Um yeah, and I can show you the imagery if you want.

Uh should I go over so again the theme is kind of uh connection?

This is meant to be like a woven basket connecting the different the different uh strands weaving together a community intro.

Then these would be the pillars uh underneath Taylor, kind of continuing the theme of uh unification and drawing strands together, weaving together um community vibes.

And yeah, that's that's all I don't know if you want to stop slower on them.

Joe, I have a question.

Um so in terms of the surface, like we've had some issues before with painting on bridges, and then there's water runoff or whatnot.

Is there any vulnerable spots that you're gonna put these this imagery where water is coming down where it's going to start to decay within a couple years?

I don't believe so, but also important to note that this would only be a year-long installation.

So we'll probably um we're we're planning on doing a review after a year.

If the city wants to keep it working on um figuring out a long-term maintenance plan or painting over it.

Do you have lighting installed as well, or is it just painting?

We will have lighting installed as well.

So there's gonna be uh LED solar strips that will go along the top of the concrete to light up the area as well, in addition to the artwork.

And what type of paint were you using again?

I'm sorry.

What's that?

The type of paint that you're using for this?

It would be the same as last time, I forget what it's called.

I'm sorry, it's probably in the in the application.

I was saying, Joe, you can also use one of these two it works in the state.

So you could sit right here if you want it.

Yeah, or like pull it over.

Yeah, okay.

Let me look through temporary installation, artwork description.

Also that date just says till the 28th.

Second floor enamel.

Okay.

Yep.

The date there says basically only like a little over a month.

If you just scroll up a little bit.

Yeah, maybe that's supposed to be 2020.

Is it supposed to be 2026?

Yes, 2026.

Sorry, there's a misprint.

Yeah, so the the idea is that um so these are kind of traffic calming.

The idea here is they'll they'll also be um you know uh painting on the sides to reduce the lane widths.

Um so that will basically be there to um try to slow the traffic down.

So the idea being if the neighborhood responds positively and we feel like this is something we should pursue more permanently, we'll look back on that date in October next year and basically see is this something the city wants to continue to maintain and continue to update, or should we just clean the slate and go back to it being plain and paint over it?

Because the city is doing it, does that mean that the insurance is covered by the city?

Yes.

Yes.

So it would be um yeah, and New York State Um and uh Susquehanna and Western uh railroad will be named as additionally insured as well, because it's not the rail most of the artwork will be on NYSW, New York, Susquehanna, and Western railroad property.

Because we don't the city doesn't own the pillars or the side, but we do have permission from them to do the project and they'll be included in the insurance.

Do you have any renderings or mockups of the asphalt art?

No, I'm not seeing them on here.

I don't I think it will just be let's see.

Is it like similar imagery to what the columns tree?

But it would it would just be similar uh similar designs blocking off the uh shortening the lanes.

I have bad pictures.

Oh okay.

I mean I mean this is the part that I painted, but I didn't get to finish.

Um there's a couple of snaps and quick one.

Yeah.

Can you bring up a uh Google Maps?

Sorry to make it where yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, go to the uh opening tab.

Elias, maybe you should help them up.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, my gosh.

Oh, yeah, there's a lot of sensitive.

Does that shut the whole thing down?

It's plugged in like over here.

Did it shut the computer down?

It might have just unplugged it.

You might have to some plug.

Well, it looks like it's a made.

Click that red button there.

Well, can you it looks like it's backwards?

Why did that happen?

I guess this the plug is super sensitive.

I guess so.

It's an extension cord on the page.

I'm assuming it's not usually plugged in all the way over there, but the outlet on the other side wasn't working.

Okay.

So you want me to find Taylor and State?

Uh well, I can look it up.

We can also look it up.

But is that the intersection of Taylor and State?

That's Taylor and State.

Taylor and State, yeah.

So if you're familiar, there's that long railroad bridge that runs along Taylor, and then the the tail is it's right by.

Do you know where the um not mistaken?

It's like by the where the Syracuse, the old community health center is then you go up.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I know exactly.

Oh no.

There we go.

My password.

I I guess.

Uh yeah, uh if you if you hit enter, it should probably enter.

Yeah, that's yeah, I think so, yeah.

No?

All right.

Um I don't know if this is right.

Yeah, it might be a different.

Are you connected to the internet?

Is it connected?

Like that it finds that.

It says J.

I don't think it's the computer.

I don't think you're on the right thing.

What happens if you click that home button on the top left?

But I think it can't get it.

No, on the top left.

They're left.

See, since that brings nothing up, it makes me think it's just not working.

Try that and left arrow on the side.

Try uh the home there for browser.

Right in the middle.

That's what I was using.

That's where it was.

Okay.

Then I think it's just not.

Yeah, okay.

I think we can I think we can move on.

Sorry, guys.

Not your fault.

Um I just have a question about I know I've if I remember correctly, last time you had the streets blocked off.

Um having that happen and kind of.

Yeah, and we'll have more robust.

Well, this is uh last time we blocked off uh Dr.

King and the kind of the the roads in four directions, and that was very difficult.

This will be a much smaller area because we'll just be doing Taylor and State.

It's a much less frequent, like the the Dr.

King has the school and the grocery store and all sorts of amenities nearby that people were uh trying to get to.

This one should be a lot easier to contain, but we'll have even more robust road closures and staff to man it this time.

Awesome.

Did pose it was fine, but it was it was challenging at Dr.

King.

But this should be easier and we'll have more staff.

Since it's temporary, are you using any kind of sealance on the paint?

Like anything to finish it?

No.

No.

No, not that I'm aware of.

I think it's just the uh enamel paint.

I would maybe I would recommend considering like an anti-graffiti, just because it's different than my instinct is I'm not gonna tag the floor, but I would tag a wall.

And because you have pillars and you have walls, I can see that being also maybe just an anti-graffiti varnish uh to kind of seal everything off, make sure it doesn't get because then you're stuck with something that's permanently ruined, and you have to kind of it becomes a bit much more complicated process.

And I will one thing to add too with that is um just you know, this is a since this is a test, just see how that also affects the tarnit, like the overall image uh long term because if it gets sun, it could get yellowed, it could start to do something to the material itself, depending on the sunlight that it gets.

Yeah, so this would be a good kind of um experiment to see, you know, if some of those pillars get a lot of sun exposure, some may not, just that that varnish might impact the overall imagery long term, just an FYI.

Yep, thank you.

Yeah, I'll definitely run that by the team, make sure they're aware of it.

They're probably UV resistant ones, but they might cost more.

Okay.

We have a budget.

We're we should be all right.

Nice.

Do you pay the artist that uh is helping out lead it?

Um I think that's still kind of TBD.

I think that what we're looking for is in-kind support from different agencies because I don't think the budget can pay directly out of the grant, so it would have to be uh one of our partners that we're working with.

But I think we are there is discussion.

I think sh the artist did the work under the assumption of pro bono, but we'd like to compensate all art.

So I think we plan to.

Cool.

And again, the challenge we had a lot of challenges with with time frame in this and trying to get it done before, you know, because we had the rain date that stalled us a few times, so it wasn't the ideal circumstances, but um I think we've uh hit all the targets and made sure that it's still gonna be a quality project with with time.

Also think about hitting the new Steam school for kids to come over and help support as well as ITC being right there, talking to the high schoolers as a way to really get the kids working together on it, and they use them.

They need they I mean it's a good way to help even anti-graffitif because if they do the work and they see the friends doing the work, it's less likely to get damaged.

Yeah, and we did have um, and um we did have uh a really good neighborhood response last time.

Like a lot of the people who lived adjacent came out, uh Sayisha was there, and um a lot of the families came out, you know, mothers and their kids painting together, and it was you know, it was very cool uh experience.

But yeah, to your point.

Um hopefully we don't have a rain date this time, knock on wood.

Um, so that when we really rally the troops, they know which day they're coming out.

So but yeah, we do have uh EDR is working with us uh handling all of the um trying to rally different community organizations.

So hopefully we'll have a a stronger turnout for this one than the last one.

Although we did have a good turnout, you can always do better, and uh, I'll definitely relay those thoughts to the team to engage the schools because that's a great opportunity for both projects.

Uh EDR is a landscaping design firm that also handles a lot of uh public engagement for grants like this.

So they have I don't know if folks know Sam Gordon.

Um he's a very active uh new urbanist fan.

Um does a he helped design a lot of the uh and was a big advocate for the Erie Boulevard bike lanes that that went through DeWitt when he was one of the town town planners.

But he's worked, yeah, he's also cited in a 2001 article with Van Robinson for being one of the original people to advocate for 81 to come to the ground.

Um so he's been involved in this for a long time.

And so him and his team are are really trying to reach out to different community organizations to make sure that we have um a lot of volunteers there on the day.

So hopefully we we will have uh a good turnout.

All right, uh any more questions?

Do we have a motion to approve?

Any motions?

Emmanuel seconds, all in favor.

Motion carries.

Great.

All right, thanks everyone.

Thanks for your feedback.

I'll definitely relay it all to the team.

Appreciate it.

Thanks, guys.

Joe, I'm gonna call you later, okay?

What's that?

I gotta call you later.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sorry, I'll come back to you on that.

Yeah, yeah.

And we're we're good on that.

Okay.

It was just a miscommunication.

Sounds good.

Thanks for okay, cool.

Thanks for watching.

See ya.

Bye-bye.

Okay.

So uh I need to add a couple more things on here.

Um, since you know, I'm transitioning off and Benny is the current vice chair.

I think, you know, the mayor appoints the chair.

Um, and I'm I don't know if I'm done by the end of October or beginning of October.

It's it's October 31st.

So they so I have one more month.

Okay.

So I think what when Michael John resigned, I think the commission, I don't know what you guys gave a blessing for you know, Ben uh for me to be the chair until a new chair was filled.

Is that right?

Does everybody remember that?

If I remember correctly, that's essentially what happened.

I don't think there was a formal like there's no vote.

It's because we can't vote.

Kind of like, yeah, Tina's the new chair.

It was kind of but it was discussed because I saw it in the minutes because I was like, I wasn't sure the process, because I didn't couldn't make that meeting.

So I guess you know, when I'm done in October, Benny will naturally just fill that spot, and then the mayor has to officially appoint.

And then at that point, also um, I think we elect the vice chair.

The vice chair.

That's you know under our purview.

So, you know, once Benny is in that position, then we we need to elect a vice chair.

So I just wanted to get that on everybody's radar.

Um it's coming up.

And then what else?

Oh, so you know, we have two new commissioners.

Uh we are without a public art coordinator for the time being.

Um, so you know, it's just like logistic-wise, you know, who do we ask questions to about our um terms or like you know, they should also know about sunshine laws and like what when we can talk about things and when we can't, like all those kind of rules and stuff.

So I'm thinking it'd be really great to have, I don't know we've talked about this before, but a commissioner welcome packet that kind of goes over the basics, what your role is, you know, what is expected of you, like how we make a motion, or you know, like that kind of stuff.

Um and I think we have it one drafted somewhere, but I'd like to get that done, you know, hopefully before I go so that it's solid and in place and everybody knows what's going on moving forward.

Um does that make sense.

I think it'd be it'd be great for everyone to have a copy of that if possible.

Oh yeah, yeah.

Absolutely.

I think you know, everybody should have their two cents put into it and review it and feedback and all that good stuff.

So um I don't know.

I think I can send it out to everybody in advance, but we just can't talk about it.

And then you know, we can talk about it at the next meeting.

So we can work it that way.

That makes sense.

Um I'll work on that with Benny.

And then I guess um real quick, I81.

You know, I have been talking a little bit to DOT in other capacities and just mentioning this, you know, they have a bunch of murals coming in uh that they've put up for public comments, and there was like stuff in the paper.

And you know, I I talked, I was at that open house, and I forget his name who I talked to, but I said, you know, with public car commission could really be an asset.

Like how can we, you know, utilize local artists to help you with this.

Um and I guess the way that they're gonna do the murals is like a laser or I don't know exactly the sublimation process or whatever it's called.

Uh but it's not gonna be actually painted.

But what the artists can do is help with the designs and have you know more of a unique their unique aesthetic put onto these things.

So those conversations still need to be had.

As far as I know, we have the land or the sculptures that's opening up in the business loop, right?

We have talked I don't know that that's a final thing yet.

Um Joe, in fact, I wish he were still here.

Um he has a committee, and I'm on the committee.

Um, but it's um um it's looking at business 81, particularly uh, you know, at grade through uh through through downtown.

And um they're still sort of playing around with the widths of the road and the widths of the sidewalks and the relationship of that to maximizing the potential for real estate development, which is probably really gonna be colleges and hospitals and residential, but um uh we've had I guess the team has had two meetings, and then we haven't met since May, I think.

Um there are a couple suggestions that are on the table, but we haven't met to talk about them yet.

So I think um, you know, um I certainly have put in for the idea that we maintain enough width in the in this in the center of the boulevard to uh to have public art.

Um and they've agreed the question is is it should it be at the ends like at the intersections, or should it be mid-block?

And right now the tendency is to want it to be mid block, it's less of a traffic distraction.

Um I've been to a lot of cities where they're at the ends where people can see them.

Uh you know, so we'll do a little tug of war on that in the coming month uh weeks and months, months.

Um but um but at the moment we do not have a next date for a uh a meeting.

So, you know, I understand that they're still playing with the business loop widths and all that jazz, but is there any way that we can get DOT to come to the table with us and sort of talk about these things and how we can help because we want this to happen?

I think the person that we should address was just in the room.

Yeah, Joel.

Okay.

Joel has the best handle on DLT and in 81.

So we gotta can we invite him next month to I mean, I think it would it wouldn't hurt to invite him next month because things are gonna just keep picking up, and if we push it off any further, I mean we've been talking about this for about a year now, and it's just gonna keep going until we get until it's too late.

So yeah, I think it's better sooner rather than later.

Yeah, because when are they finalizing those plans?

Sorry?

When are they finalizing the design plans?

You know, uh they're they're very opaque about that.

There's a sense that um it's gonna be a little while, and there's a sense that you should have talked to us yesterday.

Um and so um I would be in favor of directly inviting um uh a team from DOT to come and talk to us.

Um I think that would be the better approach, honestly.

Yeah, yeah.

The project director, Betsy Parmley has been really cooperative with requests to talk about the designs and the team that's working on it.

There's a DOT, there's there's the design engineers, and then there is uh Fisher associates, uh used to be Trowbridge Wolf Michaels, landscape architects from Ithaca, um, which is basically a whole bunch of ESF grads talking to us, uh, which is great.

Uh anyway, um uh they're really articulate about the designs and and how all the pieces connect.

And I think they would talk to us if we asked them to.

Can who would can you invite or have you?

I would work through Joe to invite them.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

So let's do that.

Hopefully we'll know them all.

Right.

Okay, yeah.

I'm just sure how that channel okay works.

Um, okay, cool.

So then what's that?

That oh, okay.

So now moving on to something extremely important.

Uh the future of SPAC.

You know, we don't currently don't have a staff member.

How uh how do we know of a timeline like when the job will be posted, when it we don't know.

At this time.

I mean, Ann just rolled off.

We need time to work with HR to posting, and I have a few meetings with the mayor just to talk about the position.

Okay.

So okay.

So in the meantime, we just we connect with you.

Yep.

And then you like, do we Benny's taking the minutes right now?

Like yeah, if you send them to me, I'll you know, you don't have to be detailed, I'll detail them out.

Yeah, for sure.

And add them to the to the track or the file.

Okay.

And make sure they get out.

Okay, and then if anybody has any specific questions, they can ask you.

Um, and I think that's does anybody else have any questions about this?

Yeah.

I wanted to um tell you, I wanted to tell you.

Um, I went and toured the schools, the different high schools.

If you guys know about the programs in our new high in our high schools, and we have an amazing um welding program right now that actually has the laser machine, a huge leisure machine that can cut out.

And the teacher is actually looking to do sculpture work with the students.

He is willing to his comment is I would love I mean our teacher said, Are you doing sculpture work with the kids?

And he says, not much, but I'm willing to.

I would love to.

It's only the material, which is always the expense.

But he has they are really getting certified welders, and they're competing in competitions, and he's looking for, he said he would love to do some for the parks or throughout the city to have the kids work.

But we have a lot of these really good programs now at um high level um craftsmanship work and stuff with lighting departments with a lot of our businesses now are incorporated in a lot of our high school programs in the community.

So please be aware of that.

Like he goes, I would not know he he would not know how to come to this commission to say I have these art students that would be interested in it.

But be aware that he's willing to do benches, he's willing to do some of this stuff with his kids because they're looking for those type jobs.

They want them to be as real world activities where they have to you know do go through the whole process and so forth with it as a learning experience so that when they do graduate, our prepared yeah, yeah, that they have it.

This ties back into some of our master plan ideas and also ties into some conversations I've had with like Josh and Parks about utilizing like even our public art registry or like the skill set within our community to do projects in our parks that are needed.

Um so like that's where I think you know how do we form these assets, and that's where I think we should don't yeah, like I said, don't forget those schools.

We hired one of our muralists is now teaching a class at Sunningham on mural art, and she is having students to do this.

They're gonna be actually creating mirror art for part of her class that we will be able to use as a service and have our kids giving back to the community, but where they're gonna need it is like supplies and stuff.

They might have the manpower or the transportation to get to a location or whatever, but I want you not to forget that we have these strong programs.

I wish I could send everyone on this.

I took a course of summer that they have for all of us middle school teachers to go to, and I was like, holy crud on some of the programs and what they these kids are doing is amazing.

ESF things, uh environmental stuff they're doing, it's just phenomenal.

So um really to see those connections when we're we're thinking about a place, think about all right, we might not have to pay them, but with the supplies or whatever transportation, but that experience they're always looking for.

Well, I think you know, I don't know where we're at with our website, too.

Do we have any I don't have any updates?

I know Ann was working on it prior to her leaving.

Um I have to connect with um Ruth and Ian, and I think she was working with um oh gosh, I can see his face.

She was meeting with him often.

I know they made progress, I just don't know where it is.

Well, like two things on that is like uh one uh maybe that's where we could have another spot for like I don't know, teacher uh resources or like teacher signups or something like that.

A lot of uh what something on our uh master plan was the educational portion of it, and that would be perfect because it's it's one thing to learn about it, but to practice it is another thing, and that could be a great that's literally that it lines up so perfectly like it would be ridiculous not to include it, yeah.

Or even doing workshops as commissioners on how to how to go in front of the commission.

Yeah, yeah, like what's the expect expectations?

Um, how do I present, what's it like to be in front of a mic, so things like that.

Right.

I mean, we could even do mock ones with the students too.

That'd be great.

Um, but also in uh uh talking about the website in our branding.

We had gone through that.

We we did the mission, the vision, um, and then we talked about having a new logo created once we establish that stuff, and I know Ruthney was gonna work on that.

I think once we had it, and I think she had also has all the information she needs with the mission, vision, and then like I forget there's like descriptions of our goals or something like that.

Um something.

I don't remember exact because I wasn't there for when we did the brainstorming, but I know that we approved a mission and vision for sure.

That was approved, so we have a new one.

Um, but other than that, I'm not sure kind of where we are with that stuff.

I know that a lot of too it was also back end with the public art, the registry, kind of the map of where everything is currently, uh, but still unclear.

Right.

I'll work with Ruth and you to figure out in report to you all where that stands.

I just don't have an answer for you right now.

Okay.

Uh anything else?

Um, I have a question.

Is there any carpentry or woodworking?

Yes, wonderful.

I'm very happy to hear that.

Nottingham has a really good program of that.

Awesome.

Um, they're doing the building trades.

They also are working with electricians on electric and they're getting internships.

They're getting a lot of their certification, like OSHA and all that certified before they graduate this the kids are.

But they're teaching them how to build, they've built a whole like kitchen and they're building some really cool spaces and then using some of it in our communities, which is really kind of cool to see.

So, yes, it's and I can see about getting us some type of tour or some type of introduction to a lot of our things.

We are pushing the idea of trades for the kids as some of the things, and with the new STEAM school, they will actually be working with professional artists, musicians, everything, and which I think this would commission would be really cool to be able to get a tour of the new building and to see the new labs, and that's open.

If you guys don't know, that is actually open not just for city, but county kids.

It's open for 60% city kids, 40% county kids, and they're only going one grade at a time up.

So right now we have our first year in, and it'll take a couple years to really get this thing going, but it'll be a nice addition to our city.

I I'd like to add just that that it's um my wife runs the art program at May Memorial Unitarian Universal Society out on East Genesee Street, and every month she has a new exhibition in the social hall, and uh two years ago she started working with the students at Nottingham High School.

Uh there they're there every year, the last exhibit, and um they're you know, it's not public as in it's in outdoor space, but um but these kids have been working with SUNY Upstate, uh doing masks that relate to people that have had cancer, and the craftsmanship is just exquisite.

You know, uh we really do want to reach out to the school district.

There's a lot of good stuff going on.

We've um I know a couple of the teachers now are taking photographs of each of the artworks.

What would be cool is to eventually have them all projected on like the art gallery, doing like a citywide art show, which projecting all the different kids' artworks because a lot of people don't see what the kids are really doing in our schools, and they're doing some really amazing things, phenomenal, and the kids are connecting.

I mean, I do a campaign with my students, they actually have to plan out a whole campaign with um new house helps us with it, and Lamar Billboards puts them all up on all the they put them up on two different billboards throughout the city, the kids' artwork, and the kids just think that is like the greatest thing.

And our mayor is actually he comes and actually does judging of the critiques and gives some feedback with it.

So just having those experiences for our students make a big difference.

So if we can access that as much as possible, but even sharing their work, like even saying like a place like the um the cafe there or the food, the food, whatever the oh the city hall, the cafe and the city hall newspapers having it projected on different buildings, artwork would be like a really cool thing to do.

Yeah, just to show or even in some of the neighborhoods.

A lot of our schools, high schools and stuff, kids are coming from all over the city to the different buildings.

You can also talk to uh Annika, right?

Annika, yeah.

Oh, that's a good idea, Annika.

Yeah, light works and stuff, or something like that to have that connection.

All right.

I she warned you.

I did warn you.

Um so I think you know, in it.

I know everybody's got things to do here soon, so um I think we're good for until next time.

Everybody feel pretty good.

Yeah, all right.

Uh on to take a motion to adjourn.

Yeah, second.

All right, motion, Benny seconds.

Oh, I know I thought that was your motion.

I guess I could do it.

I don't know why.

Uh every all in favor to adjourn.

Okay, adjourned.

Thank you.

So you can't see what you announce publicly the next meeting.

Oh, uh, I don't know.

I don't think we ever we've always posted it because I think the minimum is we have to post it like two weeks before.

So as long as we may not have a meeting, you know, in case there's some applications.