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11/16/2022 - Meeting Minutes Salt Lake City Arts Council Board Meeting Minutes November 16, 2022 54 Finch Lane, Salt Lake City, Utah WebEx Online Present: Andrea Ashdown Kathy Davis Josanne Glass Thomas Kessinger Sarah Longoria Torle Nenbee Cale Newhouse Susan Rickman Richard Taylor Excused: Sonali Loomba Katherine Potter Guests: Sophia Allen Felicia Baca Dawn Borchardt Susan Campbell Dana Howell Taylor Knuth Todd Oberndorfer Kaitlyn Christy I. Call to Order Ms. Susan Rickman, Chair of the Board, called the meeting to order at 5:32pm. II. Approval Board Meeting Minutes Mr. Thomas Kessinger moved to approve the October board meeting minutes. Ms. Josanne Glass seconded the motion. Minutes were approved unanimously. III. Arts Event Discussion A. Ms. Rickman announced that she proposed to Arts Council Director Ms. Felicia Baca that the arts discussion be moved toward the beginning of the board meetings. "I think putting it at the top of the agenda will perhaps give us a more robust conversation about art," she said. She also wanted to change the question from "what did you attend/see" to "how did you engage with art?" B. Ms. Rickman traveled to Santa Fe, New Mexico and visited the Georgia O'Keefe art gallery, among others. She also saw the play "Shucked" at the Pioneer Theater. C. Ms. Josanne Glass attended the Finch Lane Gallery opening, which she said was great, and interesting. She is busy getting ready for her own art show in February, which will be during Gallery Stroll at the Phillips Gallery. She attended the panel discussion presented by the Arts Council, and included the Mayor. She thought it was interesting how many people at the discussion brought up the lack of affordable housing for artists. Ms. Glass also shared with the board a website that she thought they might be interested in, artdaily.com. D. Mr. Taylor Knuth traveled to Washington, D.C. and attended a conference bringing together arts administrators of color. He thought they did a great job of integrating art into everything they did, and was inspired all day. E. Ms. Dawn Borchardt let everyone know about an art show at the downtown library, opening on Saturday, November 19th, with the theme "Connection to Community/Self". Her photography will be showcased. F. Mr. Thomas Kessinger went to the Bountiful Davis Art Center for an art show, and also attended an art studio open house at the Rockwood Art Studios in Sugarhouse. G. Ms. Sarah Longoria attended a performance by Ballet West, who presented Concerto Barocco, Return to a Strange Land, and Rodeo. She also attended a ballet class for the first time in about 9 months. H. Ms. Torle Nenbee has been busy in a new work role at the Sale Lake Public Defenders. She traveled to Montgomery, Alabama and went to the Legacy Museum, which she said was amazing. IV. Management A. Program/Administrative Updates 1. Ms. Felicia Baca skipped ahead in the agenda in order to allow auditor Ms. Dana Howell to give her presentation of the audit. Ms. Howell let the board know that they had all received a copy of the audit in their email inboxes. She stated that"there's nothing really to point out" and that "it's all good." She pointed out a few key elements of the financials. Mr. Cale Newhouse mentioned that the purpose of the audit is to report on the financials of the organization. Ms. Howell added that it is not designed to look for fraud. They do not provide an opinion in the process, but if they run into any problems, they report on them. Mr. Newhouse also mentioned that he noticed as a theme, overall, that the organization is back to pre-pandemic operating levels, and maybe even in excess of that. Ms. Howell said "It's awesome you guys weathered that nightmare as well as you did." She concluded that "everything looked really good!" 2. New staff member Kaitlyn Christy was introduced to the board. She said "I'm the new Communications and Marketing Coordinator, since late August, and I've been loving it." Her background is in communications, marketing and social media, has had experience in both corporate and local aspects of it, and is excited to bring her experience to the Arts Council. Board members were invited to follow, share, post, etc. about all things related to the Arts Council on their own social media pages. 3. Ms. Dawn Borchardt gave the board some program recaps about Busking in the Ballpark, Mondays in the Park, and Twilight Concert Series. a. Busking in the Ballpark is an offshoot of Busker Fest, presented in conjunction with the Public Lands Department. The Arts Council provides buskers. Events included the Back to School Bash, Kensington Street Festival, Vintage Car Show, and the Monster Block Party. About 40 artists were served, 7 of which were first- time performers, and around 7,000 attendees (most of which were for the Monster Block Party, which was held at the Regional Athletic Complex). b. Mondays in the Park is part of the Living Traditions Presents program. There were 6 concerts, held from August 1st through September 12th, in front of the Chase Home Museum in Liberty Park. The event was free to all attendees, and was presented in conjunction with the Utah Division of Arts & Museums. This year the Arts Council had new and improved signage. The stage production company used for the events is called Taylor Audio, and they did a fantastic job, according to Ms. Borchardt. There were 104 artists (12 groups) and 1,250 attendees. Crowd participation was encouraged, and most groups incorporated cultural history and stories between songs/dances. The performers are chosen from those that participated in the Living Traditions Festival in collaboration with the Folk Arts Manager at the Division of Arts & Museums, after expressing interest in performing, in a post-festival survey. c. Twilight Concert Series held 5 concerts that took place throughout August and September at The Gallivan Center. This event has been contracted out to S&S Presents for the past five years. The purpose of the event is to connect audiences to artists at a low cost. This series showcased 7 female-fronted bands (including one all-female band), 6 bands with people of color, and 6 bands with front-persons who identified as LGBTQ. There were 18,722 total attendees at the 5 concerts. Show intros were done by locals like Ms. Baca, Mayor Mendenhall, and City Council members. 4. Mr. Taylor Knuth presented the staff's work-plan updates. He mentioned many of the projects that have been completed by staff, and some that have made significant progress. He also shared the Strategic Plan tracking table with the board, and showed how the work that they're doing is helping them meet the goals of the strategic plan. V. Review of Financials Mr. Cale Newhouse said there was no major change in message from what we discussed in the audit. The organization has a cash position of$640,000 in cash in Mountain America Credit Union, and $500,000 in the PTIF account. Mr. Newhouse mentioned that there may be an opportunity to earn a few thousand dollars by ensuring that the organization has the best possible interest rate on it's investments. He said, "That's gotta be one or two extra grants." Ms. Kelsey Ellis will be developing a policy for what to do with extra funds in conjunction with Mr. Newhouse. VI. Board A. Former board member Ms. Annie Dayton and current board member Mr. Thomas Kessinger have been working on a charter for the Strategic Planning Committee. Mr. Kessinger said his focus was to make sure that the committee could make recommendations to the board, and that they're trying to create a more meaningful committee. Mr. Newhouse motioned to adopt the charter as written. Ms. Nenbee seconded the motion. Ms. Longoria abstained from voting, because she did not read the document. The motion was passed unanimously by all other board members. B. Ms. Rickman reminded everyone that there are openings for board members who live in Districts 4 and 7. Ms. Baca let us know that we "won't see our new candidates on the [City Council] agenda until sometime in December. The mayor has approved those 3 candidates. Ms. Josanne Glass will give the candidates an update about their status. VI I. Other Business The Project Support Grant closes November 18th. There will be a social gathering after December's meeting, for board members. Ms. Glass moved to adjourn the meeting. Mr. Kessinger seconded the motion. Meeting adjourned at 7pm.