HomeMy WebLinkAboutOCAC Minutes 07-08-2024 Orange County Arts Commission
July 10, 2024, Minutes
Attendees: Linda Williamson, Sec, Crystal Wu, Chair, Marc Miller, Katie Murray, Wendy
Smith, Denise Duffy, Vice chair, Heather Washburn, Saba Jordan , Josh Rosenstein, John
Claude Bemis, Gideon Young, Krista Bremmer, and Katie Murray
Absent: Lindsay Metivier, Cellia Gibbs, Alexa Velez
Meeting Location:The ArtsCenter
1. Call to Order at 6:34pm by Crystal.
2. Wendy moved to approve the June 2024 Board Minutes and Crystal seconded. All approved.
3. Director's Report:
a. Eno Mill
i. Current show: Show is "Basement", which is an art curation group of former
MFA students from UNC.This is a show of their work,which is very
experimental, and everyone should come check it out.
ii. There was a great July crowd at the Eno Mill First Friday even though it was hot
and rained, but folks still stayed and had a good night.
iii. First Fridays-August will be the Eno Arts Mill Studio Artists Showcase+ Debbie
the Artist for music. Lots of great shows are planned for the rest of the year with
good music.
iv. Camps are going well this year. Kids are happy, parents are happy—everything
going well. Most camps are sold out. We did have to cancel one week of camp
because we didn't have enough registrations.
v. Studio artists survey—Katie and team are doing a re—evaluation of our studios.
Katie visited other art spaces around the area. Somethings are working and
some aren't.The survey should help Katie determine what artists at the mill are
thinking.
1. Katie and the team are planning on changing the reception area to
include a gift shop so artists can sell some of their work. She asked for
assistance with how to organize the area and Heather volunteered to
work with Katie.
b. Early Fiscal Year 25 projects
i. There will be a feasibility study with the Town of Hillsborough on a cultural
space anchored around a performance space.Town has land available where
the Amtrak station is proposed, which will be connected to Riverwalk and
downtown Hillsborough
ii. OCAC/OCAA Rebrand—work will begin soon and will probably start with a
request for qualifications to get obtain possible companies. Board offered
suggestions. Katie requested information be sent to her for anyone that has
done this type of work in the past.
iii. AEP survey results presentation—Katie was asked to be a speaker at the
national Artist Thrive annual conference regarding her work with AEP economic
survey results. In August, she will be presenting, "Show me the numbers:
Articulating the economic impact of the arts to your community'
iv. There is an exciting Weave and Spin this Wednesday night as that series
continues to bring in exciting artists.
v. We have been asked to work the alcohol sales booths for Sonark Media's
"Harvest Fest" happening at Blackwood Park,Saturday Aug 31. We will need
volunteer bartenders and alcohol ticket salespeople. Katie has a meeting to pin
down more details.
4. Grant Updates
a. FY 2024-25 Grant Application Report 7/3/2024
Total applicants 65
• Artist Project Grant- 36
• Grassroots Arts Program -29
Total eligible after review 64
• Artist Project Grant-35
• Grassroots Arts Program -29
b. New applicants--33%are first time applicants,which is higher than in year past (49%
artists and 14%organizations)
c. Grant Panels-Zoom meeting (except finance)
Mon 7/15 5:30pm Literary Arts John Gideon Celia Krista
Tues 7/16 5:30pm Performing Arts Linda, Denise,Josh, Alexa, Marc, Crystal
Wed 7/17 5:30pm Visual Arts Heather, Lindsay, Saba
Friday 7/12 4pm Financial Review Linda, Denise
d. Board discussed the scoring rubric for August 2024 funding meeting. Katie will validate
the formula used last year and continue her practice of bolding new applicants in the
reports.
5. Liaison Reports
a. UNC Student Liaison Update Sadie Allen—no report
b. Chapel Hill Arts Commission Josh Rosenstein—no report since Josh is now cycled off the
board. He is still working on getting a replacement liaison for us.
c. UNC Crystal Wu—2nd Friday ArtWalk is Friday July 12th, Summer Youth Conservatory at
PlayMakers is presenting"The Prom"July 17'through 28th. A movie is being filmed in
Chapel Hill this week.
d. Hillsborough Arts Council John Bemis—only update is that the Arts Council is bringing
back the Poet Laureate program.
e. The ArtsCenter Wendy Smith—very busy with Art Camp. During the 2nd Friday Art Walk
this Friday,the ArtsCenter will feature Sia Yazdanfar photography show which runs
through August 5th. Wendy informed us that some of the ArtsCenter performances have
had to be cancelled lately so they are pausing future performances for now.A past
board member who is a specialist in performing arts is coming to work with the Arts
Center as a live-performance manager to improve the overall process.
f. Carrboro Arts Wendy Smith—no update at this meeting.
g. Visitor's Bureau - Katie attended the meeting where the upcoming events in Orange
County were discussed. Also, discussed that the home games this year for UNC Football
are mainly teams that are close to Chapel Hill so hotel revenues will be greatly reduced.
There was concern over this type of scheduling.
h. Orange County Artists Guild - Heather reported there is a new treasurer for the guild.
Open studio signs ups are complete, and 90 artists are signed up for this year's show.
There will be four pre-shows. The Guild has changed their approach to ad space for the
guide to a sponsorship model. Katie and Heather discussed that this is not as favorable,
and the value of these ads has diminished for OCAC with this new process.
6. Crystal adjourned the meeting at 7:47pm.