|
| | | | 1. Roll Call at 3:09 PM | | | |
Roll call
|
Not available
|
|
| | | | 2. Review and Approval of the July 9, 2024 meeting minutes
Minutes note: Member Klose moved, seconded by member Murphy to approve the minutes. There were no objections. | | | |
|
Not available
|
|
| | | | 3. New Business
a. PAIR Program Final Report
b. Public Art Fund
Minutes note: a. PAIR Program Final Report
The Public Artist in Residency (PAIR) pilot program was first discussed at the October, 2020 Public Art Subcommittee meeting. It was initially an idea brought from artist Tyanna Buie and her interest in a mental health focused residency with the Housing Authority.
It was determined that private funding would need to be secured for a liaison position to staff and catalyze the program and multiple sources and position types were considered for that liaison including Marquette Trinity Fellow, but it was decided that a city wide temp position would be the easiest and the most cost effective option. A canditate could be seleted, or a formal Request for Qualifications (RFQ) process could be done.
The Arts Board approved the PAIR pilot program, to be funded from the Public Art Fund at the February 8th, 2022 meeting. DCD staff was directed to solicit department interest statements using a one pager overview document that was created to inform interested departments about the PAIR pilot and other municipal residencies nationally. At the April 12th Arts Board meeting, those department interest statements were reviewed by the Arts Board.
The Department of Public Works (DPW) was interested in hosting an artist to work on addressing reckless driving; the Milwaukee Fire Department was interested in looking at diverse recruiting practices; and the City Clerk’s Office submitted three separate topics: workforce development, engagement with the Common Council, and revitalizing (revamping) the city channel.
The board selected DPW's reckless driving topic given both the urgency of addressing it and that it was one of the mayor's top priorities.
DCD applied for a grant from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation (GMF) to fund the liaison position, that was finalized with a grant agreement executed in July of 2022. The liaison RFQ and artist request for proposals (RFP) were released in July of 2022, due in August of 2022.
A panel, made up of DCD staff members, Arts Board member, DPW staff member and a community member with experience in arts and safe streets for all convened to review these submissions.
The Arts Board was notified of the liaison personnel at the October, 2022 meeting, but the artist contract was not able to be executed until February of 2023.
This PAIR program started with the artist contract, which took four months to finalize and execute; delays were based on the artist needing to meet the insurance requirements, also with the artist redrafting, reworking some of the language.
And, a memorandum of understanding was also executed between DPW as the host department and DCD, on behalf of the Arts Board May 2023.
At the first PAIR team meeting, team roles were established. The artist would “bring the fun” (quote from artist), growing their artistic craft while developing artistic strategies, working towards outcomes, raising awareness and working towards behavior change.
The liaison would meet with the artist weekly and offer collaboration and resources, existing knowledge, create and sustain collaborations, draft agendas, take minutes, and provide support as needed.
DPW staff would be the link between DPW, helping to understand initiatives, connections to other staff, generating and being a sounding board for ideas, and level setting on what interventions already exist within DPW and citywide.
DCD staff would do contract compliance, programmatic oversight and administration, and facilitate connections with and reporting to the Arts Board.
The program was initially designed in phases with research and discovery expected to take three months; prototyping and field testing expected to take three months; project implementation expected to take five months and then the last month of the 12 month residency would be spent on program and project evaluation.
The research phase, based on estimations from PAIR team meeting notes, occurred between February and March of 2023. Developing the artist career and business processes was one of the outcomes intended for program, and the four months of contract drafting and insurance requirement process could be considered in this phase.
By early April, 2023 discussion about acquiring a vehicle to create an art car had begun. This marks the prototyping and field testing phase. The cone donation was approved ad the truck was transferred from the tow lot for the program to use.
A PAIR program introduction communication file was presented at the Community and Economic Development Committee on April 26, 2023 and then passed to the Common Council.
Throughout the summer into fall, different pieces of the project were coming together, moving into the project implementation phase. The first outreach by the PAIR team was in November 2023, including the first of the visibility patch printing activity, intended to engage community members through hands on art making by printing images and text encouraging folks to think about safe driving onto fabric that had retro reflective material.
The artist and liaison worked through fall and winter into 2024, attending various events/outreach and doing visibility patch printing and discussing safe driving responsibilities with a number school age children.
Into the winter and spring of 2024, the car was taking shape: the welding was happening, cutting sheet metal, Artist was working with various subcontractors to execute some of the electrical pieces, and collecting ideas, landmarks, figures, phrases, translated into different languages to be carved onto the cones for the art car.
On May 8, 2024, the Arts Board Annual Report was presented to the Community and Economic Development Committee, providing a number of updates about the PAIR Program, including photos of the Art Car progress and photos of community members doing visibility patch printing.
The program contract ended (after being extended four months) by June 30th of 2024. The art car, now called The Moving City, was transferred to DPW Fleet Services.
An outreach phase was organically added as the artist and liaison continued on a temp service contract, funded with the vision zero budget, for them to continue conducting outreach, document outcomes and provide program feedback. Project evaluation is still ongoing.
The PAIR Program outcomes were split between outcomes for PAIR as a program and outcomes related directly to the host department and civic issue being worked on.
1. PAIR would advance civically minded artists careers.
Quote from the liaison, “The PAIR program was significant to advancing my professional development as a community organizer and artist. The PAIR experience created the opportunity to work alongside the lead artist…[who’s] efforts throughout the year pilot program of PAIR, showed how to bridge mediums, peoples' skills, and ideas together to create a true collaboration. Working with the City of Milwaukee has inspired me to move into a more community driven role as a creative, I am truly grateful for this.”
The artist has also shared that skill building and artistic career in the municipal civic world has grown quite a bit through this experience, both technically on the business side of things and on the interpersonal community side as well.
2. PAIR would advance cultural and racial equity goals and the host department's mission.
This needs additional feedback from both DPW as the initial host department, as well as Vision Zero and understand how this residency project had an impact on cultural and racial equity goals and the host department's mission.
3. arts, culture, and creativity are embedded in city services.
Quote from the liaison, “The intent of PAIR reflections is to share more intimate memories of the communities I became connected to as the Liaison for the PAIR program. These reflections emphasize the importance from an artistic lens when engaging with communities on community issues…The City of Milwaukee will benefit as PAIR continues cycles to engage artists with civic issues.”
Svetic thinks that there was an opportunity for this specific outcome to be stronger. The artist could have worked on the art car within Fleet Services, increasing the potential for more of those creative solutions to be embedded and Ideated within DPW departments.
4. The last outcome would be that relationships are sustained between the liaison, the artist, DPW, DCD, and the community.
Quote from the artist, “Repetitive pattern of how this all affects our communities, how we are all connected”
The second half of the outcomes were specific to this pilot, this placement, and they all are informed directly from the interest statement submitted by DPW:
1. raise awareness around the dangers of reckless driving.
2. work with DPW and community members to understand underlying causes of reckless driving and community impacts.
3. creating a culture where lives are valued and safe driving is seen as the responsibility of everyone.
The following quotes from PAIR team members relate to these outcomes:
"the smiles, interest, and conversations have been overwhelming, positive, and engaging."
"PAIR outreach bridged conversations with art activities to lead to meaningful conversations around the topic of reckless driving that would not have happened without an engaging activity or the moving city being present."
This outcome can also be measured by the amount of outreach done – with records indicating roughly 1000 visibiity patches printed since November 2023. Countless conversations around safe driving happened as members of the Coalition for Safe Driving and/or Vision Zero staff were present to talk with attendees at these events.
Svetic said that more work is needed to understand from DPW, Vision Zero and others, how the moving city and the visibility patch printing outputs have impacted these outcomes. It's been difficult to get feedback from DPW since the staff assigned to this program left in January 2024.
Recommendations to strengthen a potential future PAIR program:
Language needs to be clarified from the initial interest statement (i.e. “reckless driving”), considering what an artist can address, and/or what is clearly defined and measurable.
Encourage the artist to be more physically embedded within the host department.
Community collaboration needs to be stressed above all else – “this is not about artistic ownership” - from a DPW staff person they “weren't entirely clear on how the final product ties to the information gathered early in the program. [they] would have liked to see more meetings with DPW staff and community members, or at least see how the project tied to the meetings and interviews that did happen.”
DPW staff also said that it would be helpful to share regular updates on the progress of the project with other city staffs, to help raise awareness; to have those information sharing networks set up, to get that information out in partnership between both the artist and the host department.
In future RFPs, establish what are the artistic outcomes of the program, that it could be difficult for some artists to really understand that it's not about artistic ownership but that it's working through a creative process with community collaboration.
Clarify upfront business operations for the artists: it took about four months for both the contract language to be finalized and for the artists to have in place insurance requirements. Also looking at business overhead things such as, mileage and vehicle use; expectations and similarly with insurance. Supporting and emphasizing the importance of timely invoicing for artists as well.
Clarifying roles and expectations between the liaison artists, and the staff members for the program, throughout the program.
For each topic, each artist, each relationship being built for, each output, having a kind of unique creative situational problem solving, because each iteration of PAIR will likely be very different based on the host department.
It was vital that the artist had the maker's village community in order to make things happen and that future artists under PAIR, would need to have a similar strong community to support them throughout the program.
Svetic thanked member Klose who prepared a report “The Moving City – On The Move” which will be shared with members. This report was presented at the October 2, 2024 Public Works committee, and outlined outreach and both earned and social media impressions related to The Moving City. Svetic shared that while The Moving City received both positive and negative coverage, it got people talking about reckless driving and also it got people thinking about what solutions they want to see for reckless driving; whether it was in support of the moving city or in support of other ideas.
Svetic continued to explain the PAIR program budget.
Original budget was 93,000 – including Artist and Liaison hours and project expenes. $68,000 came from the Public Art Fund, $20,000 came from a GMF grant and $5,000 came from a DPW allocation.
Final program expenses were $81,360.78 – with $42,957 spent on artist hours, $16,177.20 on liaison hours, $17,926.58 spent on project expenses ($1,961 on program development, $1,419.39 on the visibility patch printing activity and $14,546.19 on the Moving City), and $4,300 spent on DPW equiptment purchases and maintenance.
We were able to spend down the entire Greater Milwaukee Foundation grant of $20,000. And of the original $68,000 budget from the art fund from the public art fund, only $57,060.78 was spent. The remaining balance of $10,993.21 could be used on program evaluation or on future pair programs.
b. Public Art Fund
Total Public Art Fund/ Municipal Art Fund available $67,598.59 – including the remaining balance of $10,993.21 currently encumbered for the PAIR program.
Currently, the Mayor's budget allocation for this fund is in the amount of $25,000 for 2025, but the budget has not been finalized yet.
Morris thanked Svetic for all the work she has been doing on this. The Public Arts Subcommittee is going to talk about this and the final report at the next meeting.
| | | |
|
Not available
|
|
| | | | 4. Old Business
| | | |
|
Not available
|
|
| | | | 5. Adjournment at 3:59 PM
Joanna Urtiz
Staff Assistant | | | |
|
Not available
|
|
| | | | In the event that Common Council members who are not members of this committee attend this meeting, this meeting may also simultaneously constitute a meeting of the Common Council or any of the following committees: Community and Economic Development, Finance and Personnel, Judiciary and Legislation, Licenses, Public Safety and Health, Public Works, Zoning, Neighborhoods & Development, and/or Steering and Rules. Whether a simultaneous meeting is occurring depends on whether the presence of one or more of the Common Council member results in a quorum of the Common Council or any of the above committees, and, if there is a quorum of another committee, whether any agenda items listed above involve matters within that committee’s realm of authority. In the event that a simultaneous meeting is occurring, no action other than information gathering will be taken at the simultaneous meeting.
| | | |
|
Not available
|
|
| | | | Upon reasonable notice, efforts will be made to accommodate the needs of persons with disabilities through sign language interpreters or auxiliary aids. For additional information or to request this service, contact the City Clerk's Office ADA Coordinator at 286-2998, (FAX)286-3456, (TDD)286-2025 or by writing to the Coordinator at Room 205, City Hall, 200 E. Wells Street, Milwaukee, WI 53202. | | | |
|
Not available
|
|
| | | | City Hall and the Zeidler Municipal Building are accessible by "The Hop" City Hall Stations, the MCTS Green Line, Connect 1, 14, 15, 18, 19, 30, 33, and 57 bus routes. Visit https://www.ridemcts.com/ for more information.
Bike racks are available on Water Street, Market Street, and Broadway, and a Bublr Bike Share station is located on the northeast corner of Kilbourn Avenue and Water Street.
Limited parking for persons attending meetings during normal business hours is available at reduced rates (5 hour limit) at the Milwaukee Center on the southwest corner of Kilbourn Avenue and Water Street. You must present a copy of the meeting notice to the parking cashier. | | | |
|
Not available
|
|
| | | | Persons engaged in lobbying as defined in s. 305-43-4 of the Milwaukee Code of Ordinances are required to register with the City Clerk's Office License Division. Registered lobbyists appearing before a Common Council committee are required to identify themselves as such. More information is available at http://city.milwaukee.gov/Lobbying. | | | |
|
Not available
|
|