HomeMy WebLinkAboutOCAC Minutes 01-08-2024 Orange County Arts Commission
January 8, 2024 Minutes
Attendees: John Claude Bemis, Lindsay Metivier, Saba Jordan, Linda Williamson, Sec, Crystal
Wu, Vice Chair, Marc Miller, Katie Murray, Anita Mills, Pres, Gideon Young, Sadie Allen, Krista
Bremer, Windy Smith(guest), Denise Duffy, Fred Joiner,Josh Rosenstein
Meeting Location: Online meeting
1. Call to Order at 6:34pm by Crystal Wu , Vice-President.
2. Marc moved to approve the November 2023 Board Minutes and Krista seconded.All approved.
3. Board updates
a. Board Vacancies:
i. ArtsCenter Liaison—Wendy Smith has agreed to serve on our board and
represent us on the Orange County tourism board. Linda made a motion to
accept Wendy as an applicant to the OCAC board, pending her application.Josh
seconded. Board approved. Once Katie receives her completed application, she
will take Windy through the approval process.
ii. Position#7—Alexa Velez, Savada Gilmore—two possible candidates for our
open position. Savada is a theatre teacher at a county school. Katie is going to
talk to them and bring back information next month.
b. Board volunteering at First Fridays—Katie asks everyone to sign up for at least one shift.
i. Katie asked the board their opinion of a 2nd beverage station to drive traffic to
the back studios during events. The board discussed and did not recommend a
2nd beverage station to solve this issue. Other suggestions discussed were
possibly adding food in the back, better signage, or scavenger hunt. During the
discussion the board also offered these suggestions for event improvements:
1. Another suggestion is to expand non-alcoholic offering like sparkling.
2. Guided tour/Curated tours
3. Artists offer some type of special activity
4. Director's Report
a. Events
i. Paint it Orange Raffle Summary—Paint it Orange did really well in 2023
compared to previous years as discussed at previous meetings and netted about
$17,000 for Mill. However,the Raffle only netted about$1000.
ii. Uproar Impact—all advisory board members received an infographic regarding
Uproar. Overall great feedback and positive impact to community-55%of the
budget went to pay artists and 55%of the budget went to pay people and
businesses in Orange County. Still looking at holding the next one in 2025 (every
two years).
b. Eno Mill
i. 2024 Goals—primary goal for Arts Commission is to look at core functions and
how to do them better—such as the grant process and events/programming at
the Mill. Katie and staff are not taking on any large events and instead focusing
on what we do currently. Katie and team want to focus on building the Mill up
to be a meeting space for arts and art events.
ii. BIPOC Artist-in-Residence-selected artist and had first opening—all going well.
iii. Studio Updates—will have an opening for a studio at the front. Also, have
studios in the back available.
iv. We received a Triangle Community Foundation Grant for "Studio Be"serving
marginalized youths.The current program is very successful. With community
partners,we will be kicking off a 2-year program to use the studio space.
v. Gallery Discussion: OCAG Donn Young, Coalesce
What is the purpose of the Gallery at the Mill? Not a private Gallery. The goal is
two phased: 1) provide a space for solo shows and for group shows and 2) host
open call group shows. Currently, we give the OC Artist Guild 2 months of
shows. First year, OCAG show was very good. However, participation has really
declined. Katie wanted to get feedback on not continuing this approach in 2024.
The Board thought it made sense to have the gallery space available for artists
not represented by larger groups vs having two months with the OCAG. Also,
suggested discussing with the Guild about the structure future shows to
improve participation.
Donn Young came to Katie with a proposal to do a show for very well-known
photographers in our area and photographers in Louisiana. Katie is not sure if
this show meets the goals of the Mill since there is no open call and Donn is not
an Eno Mill studio member. She asked what the board thinks about this request.
Katie offered that she would be behind it more if it had an open call and a more
diverse juried panel.Anita suggested having a show with the professional artist
being the jury panel. Crystal suggested we should stick with the qualifications as
already created. It would be setting a new precedent if we didn't. The group
suggested a photographic show that combined some of the elements of Donn's
ideas with MITI requirements would be a good idea.
Coalesce—Katie asked the Board if we thought the curators for this project
should change in future shows?There is no representation of people of color in
the curatorial process for the last two years. The board agreed with Katie there
is space to increase participation and that is a conversation she should have.
c. Last week Katie got approval from Travis to use existing funding in her budget for an
OCAC Branding efforts.The board was excited to hear this plan.
d. Katite is starting to put out feelers in the community about listening sessions for our
grants process. She plans to meet with all organizations that have access to artists who
could give us feedback about our program. She wants to determine how we can better
engage with their participation. She asks the board to connect her with any
organizations with which they are associated.
S. Liaison Reports
a. UNC Student Liaison Update—Sadie reported that semester hasn't really started. She
highlighted two events—print making and biology collaboration between arts and
sciences and an artist talk 1/11 at Ackland as part of the American Portrait event.
b. Chapel Hill Cultural Arts Commission.—Josh shared a video link with the year in review.
They have a new nonprofit award program, and the panel will start reviewing applicants
soon. Megan Rosen will be interim until May. A call is out for Director of Library/Culture
is open for Chapel Hill.
c. UNC—Crystal gave a shout out to Sadie about a recent performance she did.
PlayMakers has a new show opening at the end of January. PlayMakers is also doing a
joint show with UNC Health. American Portraiture closes 1/20. Next show is indigenous
arts.
d. Hillsborough Arts Councils—John said they are interviewing for a new Executive
Director.
e. The Arts Center—Wendy said Arts Center has two new shows opening this month and in
the Theater gallery. Also on 1/26 they are having their"Become a Luminary" event.
After school is up and running
f. Carrboro Arts—board has been touring all the local parks in Carrboro to bring public art
to those spaces. Also doing a public art inventory.
g. Visitor's Bureau—no update
h. Orange County Artists Guild—Anita said the Guild has published their link for new
applicants which will be open through the end of January.
6. Anita ended the meeting at 8:04pm
https://calendar.unc.edu/event/art show printmaking and biology
Director report:
Hillsborough Arts/Cultural Facility: I'm waiting to meet with representatives later this month to confirm
funding before working on a feasibility
study.The Town of Hillsborough will allocate $30k towards the study.
• I have been given the ok to use funding allocated to a summer 2024 festival (which isn't happening)to
rebrand the OCAC/OCAA.Yahoo!
ENO MILL
• We need volunteers for upcoming First Fridays:
• I'd like to start some small group programs at the mill for communities we haven't engaged with yet:
o Photography club/meet up
o Musician jam session on Saturday mornings in the gallery
o Ceramic artists listening session for future space
• Exhibits
o Orange County Artist Guild participation and opening turn out was low. We will be discussing the
future of this partnership during our
meeting.
o We need to determine set parameters of our gallery, so I know how to respond to proposals that are
outside of that scope. We also need to
look at certain projects through the lens of equity.These will also be discussed during the board
meeting.
o Upcoming exibits/Frist Friday openings:
0 February—TJ Mundy's "Blackfuturism"with DJ MaxSunLove
Id March—John Dempsey with Judith Ernst with Music Maker Relief Foundation
0 April—Group exhibit with OC Office of Sustainability(recycled/earth themed work)— NEED NAME!
0 May—TBD
0 June—NC Pastel Society Annual Juried Exhibit
• Events
o The Holiday Bazaar in November went really well and helped raise about$3k for the OC Arts Alliance.
• Studios
o We received a $30,000 grant from Triangle Community Foundation for Studio Be. This will be housed
in Studio A at the mill and will focus
on small group classes and sessions for marginalized youth up to age 24.
o Current/Upcoming vacant studios:
0 Studio 1 (back) - $288/month, available now
0 Studio C (front) -$635/month, available Feb 1 (crossing fingers that Chieko Murasugi will take it)
o We have many new tentants!
0 2024 BIPOC Artist in Residence—Tyamica Mabry
ld Studio 3—Tiffney Mabry,visual artist, recently moved back to Hilsborough
0 Studio 4—TJ Mundy and Shady Kimzey—TJ was our 2023 BIPOC AIR
0 Studio 8—Makala Muhammed—young visual artist from Durham
• (No update) Conversations happening with other groups regarding additional space in the mill are on
hold until we can gauge our bandwidth now
that we have another employee.The spaces include:
o Community Dark Room—We now have equipment from the ArtsCenter in storage.The mill would like
us to create a darkroom space soon
but I'm requesting 6 months to get our new staffing adjusted in order to evaluate capacity.
o Ceramics Studio (Russell Knop)—Same as dark room project. I am meeting with a potential funder
soon to explore underwriting options.
EVENTS
• Uproar: I've emailed a copy of the Uproar info graphic. Biggest take-aways: 55%of the budget went to
pay artists; 55%of the budget went to
people and businesses in Orange County; overall very well received by artists, sponsors, and
stakeholders.
• Paint it Orange was a smashing success! 76 artists; 66 paintings sold; around $17k net revenue.
OCAC GRANTS
• We are receiving additional state funds thanks to a $2.5M allocation to the Grassroots program from
the state.This will provide us with about
$45k, half of which we will subgrant out to local partners. I plan to again focus on BIPOC community
partners that we're trying to build
relationships with.
• Around March-April, I would like to embark on a series of listening sessions with parts of our
community we're not as engaged in (Northside Chapel
Hill, Efland, Cedar Grove, Fairview) to see how we can better support these communities. I would like
board member support on this.
OCAA
• We would like to recruit 2 more members in the next few months, prioritizing persons of color. We are
currently talking with Renee Hayes, Keith
Knight and CJ Suitt. Other people I hope to approach: George Barrett, Diane Pledger. Fred Joiner will be
joining when he rotates off OCAC in March.
• Big Night In will be March 7. Headliners include Tift Merritt, Pierce Freelon,Trey Wellington (IBMA
new artist of the year). We need help with
sponsorships and getting the word out.
• We were forced to switch Point of Sale programs in October which has been a nightmare. We're
currently using Shopify and it's not good —we're
looking for a new POS if anyone knows of one they like. In addition, Quickbooks made changes at the
end of 2023 impacting our bill pay system.
I'm working with Caterri,Treasurer, and our accountant to get things sorted out and prepare for our 990
filing.
OTHER PROJECTS/PROGRAMS/UPDATES
• AEP Survey is done. Results are out. I plan to focus on this in the coming months