Minutes from the May 14, 2012 Roundtable

Minutes from the May 14, 2012 Roundtable

Mendocino County Arts Administrators Roundtable Meeting

Monday, May 15, 2012
1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Mendocino County Museum, Willits

Attending:

Diane Larson – Gloriana
Alyssum Wier – ACMC
Alison Glassey – Mendocino County Museum
Bill Mulvihill – ACMC
Bill Thornsby – Learn to Play Studios/Music for Youth
Tobin Hendricks – Learn to Play Studios/Music for Youth
Doug Shald – Learn to Play Studios/Music for Youth
Jill Schmuckley – Art Center Ukiah and Corner Gallery

The meeting was called to order at 1:05 by Alyssum Wier.

Arts Council of Mendocino County, Alyssum Wier –

Sculpture Gallery at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens will open on June 9th with a tour from 2-3 pm.

Get Arts in the Schools Program Professional Development for teachers and artists will take place at SPACE Performing Arts on Aug 9th 9 am to 4 pm. This program is free. To register, please contact Cathleen at cm@mcn.org

Art in Public Places grant for Point Arena – $12,000 to $15,000 will be available for a public art project in Point Arena. Please see the Arts Council’s website for entry guidelines.

American Craft Week is now in its 3rd year. Last year was the first year that the ACMC participated. Mendocino County had more crafts than some other states thanks to a volunteer’s coordination of the event. We hope to do this event again if we have sponsorship. Regardless, we encourage businesses and arts organizations to present craft exhibits and events from October 4-15, 2012 and put the events on our calendar so we can create a page specifically about our County’s celebration of American Craft Week.

Mendocino County Museum, Alison Glassey-

The Museum will have a Oaxaca Weavers exhibit sometime in 2013 or 2014. Demo exhibit coming up.

Veterans’ Personal History exhibit is coming up with Veterans’ personal artifacts and oral history. The Museum has visual and audio needs around this exhibit. Please contact Alison to learn more about how you can help.

75th Anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge – exhibit opens Saturday with vintage photos from 1937.

Native American Basketry – new exhibit in the fall.

Roots of Motive Power will be expanding next year with a steam punk element.

Mini Maker Fair planned for Earth Day next year.

Mendocino County Music Exhibit proposal partially written. A coordinator is needed.

Solar Pioneers exhibit to kick off with Mini Maker Fair as part of Earth Day Festival.

The Museum would like to start a conservationist program.

Music for the Youth Foundation, Bill Thornsby –

Bill is looking for help with grantwriting.

Need: Only 50% of schools have music as a core class – Youth Foundation goal is to introduce at risk kids to music. Last year there was an almost 25% drop out rate for 9th graders so many kids are at risk. Music has a huge capacity to change lives for the better. One-on-one or group music classes can help – looking for funding – want to work through the Arts Council’s fiscal sponsorship for grants. Inspired at a young age and has intention to do the same for youth now. 171 Brush St is the location with space to do these kinds of projects and make it available to young people at no cost.

Doug Shald – Early exposure to Latin rhythms in junior high. Lots of great local musicians may be willing to sit down with kids. (Ford Brothers, Alex DeGrassi etc.) Alyssum suggested applying for GASP grant in the fall to bring this program to the Court School. – Jill asked: What is your main motivation? To slow the drop out rate and integrate music into young peoples’ lives. Further discussion about grants available and grant writing – Bill needs help with that.

Jill – US Bank has specific grants for rural communities, the deadline is June 2nd, go online to find out details, there is a branch in Ukiah.

Bill – Raising money will need to be on-going. Looking at Bohemian Club, Grammy, Community Foundation…

Jill – Community Foundation requests must be specific, Music for Youth needs structure.

Bill – Testing the waters

Alyssum – Look to SPACE as a potential partner…

Alison – Also look to Redwood Children’s Services, …Kathy Hopper is an excellent grant writer.

Tobin Hendricks –
Incorporate other organizations into curriculum. Hope to get endorsement letter from the detention center. Incorporating opposing rhythms in drum circles – inspiring and fulfilling to see the kids “get it”.

Diane Larson –
Gloriana starts the year working with young performers – spring performance was well attended, This year the main performance is also using young performers. “Rent” is a risk because the audience is older.

Jessica Schaffer and Jacob Turner were suggested as possible music directors. Jacob teaches music at college and High School. (Jessica and Jacob are recommended by MFYF.) Variety show in the fall – would appreciate recommendations – …the usual search for grants – moved to digital lighting system – with help from a Community Foundation Grant.

Further discussion about US Bank grants etc.

Diane – For grants, partnerships are a plus. … but for equipment, they rarely ever want to cover overhead.

Jill – There are people in the community that want to support student activities other than sports.

Jill Schmuckley –
Update from Art Center Ukiah and Mendocino Arts – May Art Walk
Basic marketing background – Wine and Mushroom Festival
High School Photo Exhibits
Crab & Wine Days

Corner Gallery is a cooperative of 18 artists – each member sits one day per month – they chip in with expenses and have food for art walk. In prior years when TOT funds were available it paid for advertising. We don’t have that anymore. Art Center Ukiah made it through the first year mainly through donations. In the 2nd year we got sponsorship. Everyone contributed to printing…bringing people in from out of the area. “The Good Life Mosaic” was a $20,000 project – one Brownie troupe donated $100 – great community recognition…the Rotary helped.

Last year ACU downsized & moved to the back of the Corner Gallery to save on rent & and they are now charging to exhibit work – to help cover costs… ACU still provides exhibition space at no charge for some groups, such as the kids from Ten Thousand Buddhas.

Deadline for “Recognizing Veteran Artists” juried art show: June 23rd. Big reception for the Vets and families on Friday after July 4th.

… ACU Lost some key board members – it is now more of a challenge to do paperwork. They may look into a grant to do web work, a lot of work to advertise well. They operate on a tight budget with a lot of volunteers… ex.: everyone brings their used ink cartridges to Staples and they buy ink for ACU with the rebates.

The mosaic was large 427 people worked on it – 101 featured it.

Alyssum – Any sites with public art in the county should be added to the national archive: www.publicartarchive.org. This helps position the county as a culturally rich destination.

Diane – “Eareverance” a Lake County group will do an a cappella fundraiser for Gloriana May 19th.

Alison – Not enough resources to do what we would like to do.

Alyssum – Marin Arts Council is in trouble – they are bankrupt from over-extending programs and taking on debt… big lesson: don’t expand without the capacity to sustain programs of quality. It’s better to do a few things well, than try to do too many things and do them poorly.

Jill – Jane Covella new board member for Art Center Ukiah. Grant so homeless children under age 5 will get to take art classes.

Alyssum – We are hoping that Jane will work with ACMC on creating a CA alliance for arts education local network.

Huge thank you to Alison and to the County Museum for the meeting space today!