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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-18-18 WPACAC Min MINUTES OF THE TOWN OF WESTLAKE,TEXAS PUBLIC ART COMPETITION ADVISORY COMMITTEE June 18,2018 PRESENT: Chairman Russell Tether, Rebecca Lawton, Paloma Anoveros, Katie Blair, Barry Whistler, Cris Worley,Sue Canterbury (conferenced in via phone from 1717 N. Harwood Street, Dallas,Texas 75201), Robin McCaffrey ABSENT: Barry Whistler,Judy Deaton OTHERS PRESENT:Tom Brymer,Town Manager,Janet Needham McCaffrey SUMMARY OF MEETING MINUTES: Approval of Minutes: Minutes from the May 14 meeting were presented for approval. Rebecca Lawton made a motion to approve, Katie Blair seconded the motion, motion passed unanimously. The meeting focused on two issues as follows: 1. Public Art Competition Web Site 2. Public Art Competition RFQ Robin McCaffrey gave a review of the text he produced for the Public Art Website (filling in requests for text provided by John Sasser the Town Communications Director). Following this presentation various Committee members expressed their criticism of, and proposed changes to, the document. These comments included: Katie Blair: Citing Solana as an example of Westlake Public Art could be a problem as the project has been changed from its original form. Rebecca Lawton: I think you need to remove the reference to Paul Goldberger but you need to define what Solana is. Robin McCaffrey: Responded by saying, I will modify that paragraph. The Committee held a general discussion of the kind of presentation that should be put on the Website. The discussion generated several recommendations as follows: 1. Rebecca Lawton: Information on the website should tell the history of Public Art in Westlake, how the process of Public Art has progressed, and how the public will have a chance to be involved. _ 2. Russell Tether:There will be biographies of the Public Art Committee. Russell further asked, should we say"Region" in curatorial terms or use another term? 1 3. Katie Blair:It is important to say"Region" because the people in the area will want to know. It is also important to mention that the Committee has a larger area of recognition, a national recognition,but are living and working in this region. 4. Tom Brymer: If you put these things on the website you can refer to that and say all of this information is on the website. The Committee also raised language concerns with the proposed text as follows: 1. The Committee directed Robin and Russell to look at the text and to combine and condense and make more of a paragraph structure. 2. Sue Canterbury:Stated that the list of the description of roles of the Committee members should have an Architect(referring to a registered Architect). This generated a broader discussion of the roles and titles of the Committee Members. 3. Jointly: The Committee decided that the following would be a proper description of the roles of Committee Members: "Curators,Art Dealers,Art Advisors,Architects, Designers,and Urban Planners." 4. Cris Worley: Expressed concern for the paragraph following the Topic"Competition" (Throughout the history of western civilization...),stating that the tone was"preachy".To which Katie Blair added, "One thing this statement leaves out is that competition brings about a new thought process...it challenges artists to create something that fits within the scope we need. In this project we are no longer Art in public Places...but...Public art." 5. Robin and Russell: Requested any marked-up copies from the Committee members and make the revisions requested. Tom Brymer: If there are photos that will be used for the web site,the staff will want to see them. Robin McCaffrey: Russell and I will make the revisions discussed and Russell will send out to the Committee for review. The Committee Members:had copies of the RFQ from January/February...they had marked then up. Some of the comments related to the RFQ were as follows: 1. "Dove/Davis"...will it still be renamed. To which Robin McCaffrey responded...maybe the artist should rename the site. Katie Blair concurred. 2. Can the Public Art Competition Site be a park?To which Tom Brymer stated...this can be anything the Town wants it to be...the whole site is 5 acres the Town Council can vote it to be a park if they want. 3. Katie Blair and Paloma An"overos: Made most of their comments related to the budget as follows: a. The budget should be lowered to$500,000...Russell and Rebecca agreed as there is no funding in place as yet. b. It was then suggested that the budget should be$750,000.To which Paloma responded that a tiered budget may nurture better results,further stating that the town may get what they need for$500,000 or some artist may say that you could have this for _ $750,000. c. Katie Blair: I think it is important to say that we have not begun fund raising. 2 d. Paloma Anoveros:Stated that in connection with a budget range we need to ask artists to present a maintenance plan and schedule. Paloma further stated that she usually includes an artist visit to the site 1 year after installation...included in the "fee to the artist". e. Russell Tether:Asked that the Committee re-discuss the budget and state their thoughts regarding the budget amount. To which Paloma Anoveros responded, "$500,000, $750,000 the upper limit...or...if we do not want to go to$1million,we could say$850,000. Robin McCaffrey added that artist could formulate 3 concepts...submit 1 for each of the 3 budget brackets. f. Katie Blair:Stated the web-site could stress that fund raising and budget will be part of the selection.To which Cris Worley added, "will the tiered concept be known to the people we are soliciting money from." g. Rebecca Lawton summarized with, "The Committee consensus is that the RFQ can be a tiered budget ($450,000,$600,000, $750,000). The Committee agreed with this (not a formal vote)with the exception of Chris Worley. Rebecca Lawton: We need to have a conservator look at the art piece every 2 or 3 years to assess maintenance needs. Also, if you are going to have art where the public can engage with it at all,the safety aspect will have to be established. Paloma Anoveros: We need to include a Maintenance Plan in the artist's initial proposal: a 1-year site visit. Russell Tether: If we talk about maintenance up front, we will have brought awareness about it to the project. Katie Blair:We need to make sure the RFQ has a scale of budgets in it.Also, we need to provide night lighting for the project. Robin McCaffrey: Remember that Westlake is a "Dark Sky" City when the night lighting is designed. Motions made during the meeting: A motion was made to adjourn the meeting by Robin McCaffrey. Rebecca Lawton seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. APPROVED BY THE PUBLIC ART COMPETITION ADVISORY COMMITTEE-ON i AUGUST 20, 2018. ATTEST: Russell Tether, Chairman Janet McCaffrey, Secretary 3