I'm calling to order this uh hearing or round table.

This is a public round table of the committee as a whole of the council of the district of Columbia.

I'm Phil Mendelson, Chair of the Council and Chair of the Committee as a whole.

Today is Thursday, July 9th, 2026.

The time is 1241 in the afternoon.

We're in room 412 of the John A.

Wilson Building, and this hearing is being recorded and will be available for public viewing on the council's website, www.dccouncil.gov.

The subject of this round table, which is the second of two that we're having today, is PR26-746 entitled Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Demetrius Butler Confirmation Resolution of 2026.

This resolution was introduced approximately three weeks ago.

That is June 15th at the request of Mayor Bowser.

The stated purpose of PR 26-746 is to confirm the mayor's nomination to reappoint Demetrius Butler to the Commission on the Arts and Humanities for a term to end June 30th, 2029.

The Commission on the Arts and Humanities is an independent agency of the District of Columbia Government.

It's responsible for evaluating and initiating action on matters relating to the arts and humanities, and is the designated state arts agency for the District of Columbia.

The commission is also responsible for selecting and distributing grants and artists and art organizations.

Excuse me, grants to artists and arts organizations in the district, as well as grants to humanities DC.

The purpose of today's round table is to provide an opportunity to the public to testify as well as for us to hear from the nominee.

All of which is to see if there are any issues of concern with regard to the nominee and his fitness for reappointment.

The record in this matter will be fairly short.

That is, the record will close at 5 p.m.

this coming Monday, July 13th.

And that is because unless there's something unforeseen, I expect to move forward and present this nomination or confirmation to the council for consideration at its July 14th meeting.

And they haven't.

So we have only the nominee Demetrius Butler.

If you want to come forward, I think you have a statement, although I don't have a copy of it.

Good morning.

Well afternoon, good afternoon.

So when you're ready, please begin.

Okay.

Good afternoon, Chairman Mendelssohn and members of the committee.

I'm Demetrius Butler, and it's a pleasure to receive your consideration for my nomination to serve on the board commission.

I'm grateful to Mayor Murray E.

Bowser for nominating me and honored to have the opportunity to serve the residents of the district.

Allow me to extend my heartfelt greetings to each of you.

It is truly an honor to stand before you today as a lifelong Washington, born right here in DC, at DC General.

My roots run deep in this city.

I'm a proud Ward 8 resident, raised in Potomac Gardens, Capitol Hill community, a graduate of Easton High School, and forever a rambler.

I would like to begin by thanking the committee for holding this hearing and the mayor for this nomination.

I'm truly grateful for this opportunity to be considered for this role.

But today is not about me, it's about gratitude, recognition, and purpose.

I am deeply honored and sincerely thankful for the trust that's been placed in me.

This moment is not just recognition, it's responsibility.

A responsibility I carry with pride is somewhat committed to uplifting the arts in Washington, DC.

My journey began with love for hip hop.

Studying album covers and being inspired by artists like Cause, Kashi Murakami, and George Condo.

The passion of all to a career that has allowed me to move from collecting to curating to consulting.

Today I also do international consulting work with League OTO, helping the merge of artists navigate the global art space, but my true passion will always be right here in Washington, D.C.

When I returned home, I recognized the gap of opportunities for emerging artists.

It led me to create Flea Market Gallery on 11th and 8th Street Northeast.

The name Flea was intentional.

I didn't want to see the our culture, Flea DC.

I wanted to create a space that anchored it here.

Flea Market Gallery became more than just a gallery.

It became a cultural hub.

We hosted over a hundred events from art exhibits to live performances to local clothing brand pop-up, all rooted in showcasing and celebrating the creativity of our city.

Since then, my work has continued to grow in both scale and impact.

Recently, I curated a major exhibition alongside Shy Glizzy or Shayla Mitchell, Shayla Mitchell Art Gallery, bringing together over eight artists and helping push contemporary art forward in DC in a major way.

I also helped create Art on the Rise, a boutique fair dedicated exclusively to local artists.

Through this platform, we've been able to support and elevated artists such as Lex Murphy, Crystal Seawood, Blue Murphy, and Lisa Brown, just to name a few, many of whom have gone on to exhibit nationally and expand their careers beyond the city.

Beyond DC, I work to create opportunities for our artists in new spaces.

At Cousin Swells in Virginia, we bought local talent like Glenn Hardy into a new market, resulting not just in exposure, but a real sales and tangible growth.

These experiences, local, national, international, have given me a perspective and insight to help expand the reach of DC's arts and humanity ecosystem.

I understand how to build platforms, create access, and turn opportunities to outcome.

Because this role requires more than appreciation for art.

It requires action, relationships, and vision.

And my vision is clear.

I envision Washington, DC where art is vibrant, visible, and deeply embedded in both our public and private spaces.

I envision our arts in the district to become a world-renowned destination.

I vision go-go music continuing to rise.

That's the undeniable heartbeat of the city, recognized, protected, and amplified.

I see a downtown filled with murals, creative spaces, and open opportunities for local artists to thrive, not just survive.

I see a city where artists are prioritized, supported, and sustained.

And most importantly, I visit Washington, DC, where when people speak about our city, the first thing they mention is not just our politics, but our art, our culture, and our artists.

I stand before you not as an individual, but as a representative of the community that believes in the power of creativity to transform lives.

Thank you, Chairman Mendelssohn, for the opportunity to testify before the committee.

I would be happy to respond to any questions that you or members of the committee may have.

Thank you, Mr.

Butler.

So I do have your statement, Steph just gave it to me.

Um I have a few questions.

Yes.

The Flea Market Gallery, which I see in your resume is spelled F L E.

You're no longer associated with that, or it no longer exists?

It no longer exists.

During COVID, it's got a rough, so we closed down like during COVID.

And uh, but you're currently with um OT League OTO.

What is tell me more about what that is?

So League OTOs is a collective of collectors.

We started as a group of guys who used to go to these art shows.

We were kind of on the younger side, so people used to always wonder like who are these guys?

Like basically, like what are they doing here?

We're going to museum shows, we're going to international shows, and that kind of led to a brotherhood amongst us.

That brotherhood involved into League OTO becoming an incubator space for emergent artists.

So we would take artists from emphasis all the way to like gallery space.

Most of the time we are passing artists off because, you know, artists tend to outgrow us, and that's kind of like the point of League OTO.

OTO stands for Of their own.

So it's like league of their own, like the movie.

Well, when you say of their own, everyone associates it with the baseball movie, so we just shorten it to OTO.

Got it.

Uh so that's visual arts.

Yes.

And then the flea, the flea gallery, that was performing artists as well.

Yeah, we done everything there from visual art to performing arts.

We've had everything from uh comedy shows to um performer artists like Nucci, who's a local artist here, to just art shows, everything, like we've literally done everything.

So it was a blank space, and we left it blank for a purpose.

We wanted people to be able to come in there and create their own dream.

So your experience with the arts is both the visual arts as well as the performing arts.

Yes.

Um now you've been on the on the commission.

Yes.

I can't remember when we first uh when the mayor first appointed you a couple years ago.

I think it was 2024.

Okay.

Um, so what would you say of your experience on the commission?

I want to say feel free to be candid, but nobody really wants to be too candid.

Uh just trying to find the right words because I don't.

My experience has been amazing, to be honest with you.

And it's a total different experience for me.

Because like I say, I'm from Washington, DC.

Live in Capitol Hill, for the most part, always lived in Washington, D.C., moved to Merlin for a short time in my life.

Um to be honest with you, um, arts of humanity isn't something that was talked about in a positive way.

It was always like, oh, you know, especially what they we don't get any money.

Uh most people have never even heard of arts of humanity, which is kind of crazy.

So my experience with them when I got there, is that the outreach has been amazing.

Um, everything that I've spoken to Erin about, and Reggie has always been answered positively.

Um, if there's an issue with the grant, uh, there's no issue with me saying pace this person that worked there, hey Paige, do you mind me emailing you with this person put this right and got a question?

Or Grace is someone else I may deal with, Grace, hey, this person has a question.

You mind if I put you on email?

I haven't been told no yet, so my experience has been amazing.

So you may know that I'm a little frustrated with the commission.

I've heard.

And I don't know if it's as much the commission as it is with the um, I don't know if it's as much with the commissioners as it is with the uh organization.

Um, because I I see the commission, which is comprised of folks who have experience with the arts, as being in the best position to understand how to support and make the arts, the creative, do I want to say creative economy?

No, the arts ecosystem thrive.

Uh what I have seen instead over the last uh four or five years is um making a priority issuing as many grants as possible.

And the result is that a lot of the organizations, especially the larger ones, are just are struggling financially.

There's some view which I think is a bit divisive that well, they're big, they can go out and fundraise.

Well, if they're big, they have to fundraise more.

Right.

And uh so it doesn't actually make it easier.

Um where I think the organization, because if I say commission, I don't necessarily mean the commissioners.

Right.

What the organization should be doing is instead of being stingy with grants, is um using grants or just looking at ways to get large or large arts organizations to do more to help small organizations.

So let me give you an example.

Neither are small, but arena stages, maybe one of the largest theaters in the city.

Step Africa is not close to as large, although it is larger than many.

Um Arena is has opened its stage to Step Africa.

Step Africa, I think is doing two performances there.

When I say performances runs, um runs of show.

Um I'm not sure what you're trying to edit.

I'm not trying to edit anything.

Um to see more of that, where a large theater, just to use the theater as an example, is using its facilities to support smaller organizations.

Uh I'm seeing much more of that with theaters.

I'm more familiar with theaters and other organizations.

Um, but that's a way, instead of just diluting the grants by having more and more and more, to instead be focusing on what are strategies where we can get large organizations to help smaller organizations, uh, where we could do capacity building.

Um, the executive director and the chair sometimes talked about capacity building, but I don't really see that.

Uh but capacity building would go a long way with helping some of the smaller organizations.

To the extent that there's concern about diversification, that the commission uses the authority it has because it issues grants to say, you know, we'll give you a grant, but we want to see more diversification or more diversity.

I think there's actually been a lot of effort in the arts community to promote diversity.

And my understanding is that part of the grant process is to ask organizations what they're doing in terms of diversity.

That's a little different than saying to an organization that's not doing a very good job, we want to see you do more.

That's a condition of this grant.

We want to see you do more.

And my understanding is that doesn't happen.

So I talked to some of the uh arts groups.

Well, I'll put it differently, whenever I talk to an arts group, large or small, I ask them about their grants, and I know what the answer is.

That what they got this year is less than what they got last year.

Yes.

Which is less than what they got a couple years ago.

That's not a way to sustain the arts community or to build it.

And I really would like to see the commissioners, given their expertise, be putting more thought into how do we structure our grants so that they provide stability and they um they provide stability, some economic certainty, and actually tend to grow the arts community.

I'm not sure there was a question there.

That was just a long.

No, I definitely understand.

I totally agree, and I know you have a lot of people at these round tables, but when I was first appointed, I kind of talked about that exactly what you're talking about for as what art, like saying the Smithsonian reaching down to lower tier galleries.

I think without that collaboration, nothing really works.

So I totally agree on that.

Far as the grants, I know one, I think it was before I got it was before I got there, FASP but the fellowship, they did take it down where everyone received the grant, and we got feedback basically saying what you're saying, like you know, we're used to getting a certain amount, this amount helps a lot more, this helps us sustain, and I want to say last year, year before last, we went back to what the grant was originally for.

So I I think that's something that we're working on.

Yeah.

So I have three standard questions.

You were in the room when the last round table and the nominee.

So you've been on the commission.

Yes.

So you have a sense of how much time is necessary.

Do you have the time to participate fully?

Yes.

Are you current in all your district and federal obligations?

Yes.

And um, in your experience, have you had a conflict of interest uh or do you foresee a possible conflict of interest?

No.

If there was one, what would you do?

Uh step away.

Um, and um those are my three standard questions.

Um I'm looking at this question, which I didn't ask the other uh witness.

Uh, how would you measure your success of your measure the success of your time on the board?

Uh my success has been amazing.

I was tasked with, and I currently deal with, we had um some people in the Google community that wasn't happy with us.

Um so Aaron and Reggie test me with being a liaison between the global community and us.

Since then, we've held around three or four round tables with the community, and also I have to say, I I don't have the exact numbers here, but I think the last year we had we may gave out 13 grants to the global community.

The year, I'm sorry, the year before, I think it was thirteen grants.

Last year, I think it doubled to like twenty four or twenty five.

So the outreach has been there with the community, and that's something that I'm constantly engaged with almost daily.

Okay.

Any other um, so going forward, how would you measure your success?

Um, for me, I think success comes with building that bridge between the community and arts of humanity.

And I think we've been doing a good job with that.

But I love to make make that bridge an even easier bridge to cross between some of the community members and the actual staff at Arts Humanity.

And just leaving Arts Humanity in a better place than I found it.

All right, I'm gonna leave it there.

I don't have any other questions for you.

Thank you for your service and thank you for your willingness to continue serving.

Of course, thank you.

I appreciate it.

So I'm gonna wind down this hearing.

This has been a hearing our round table on PR twenty six-seven four six.

Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Demetrius Butler confirmation resolution of 2026.

The record in this matter will close at five PM on Monday, July thirteenth, two thousand twenty six.

The time is one o'clock, even, and this round table's adjourned.

Thank you, Mr.

Neville.