Arts Commission Regular Meeting

And I just have to send a little hope for peace to the world.

Sorry, we're in commission right now. We cannot speak outside of it. Sorry

that's okay Thank you Well, we have a agenda minutes or later so the agenda today has two items and Any Is everyone okay with that All in favor? Aye. Opposed? None. So we'll run with our agenda, all right. We have this presentation so we'll call it a public comment. Yes I would like- do we have anything besides this one? Okay. I would like to call our illustrious new CEO of the Ojai Chamber of Commerce to make a public comment and is Carla Ferranti Thank

you, Chair West and commissioners and the Arts Commission in general. I appreciate this opportunity to speak to you on behalf of the Ojai Valley Chamber of Commerce. I had the opportunity to start working with the chamber in May of last year And now we're hitting full stride, and we recently are making an endeavor and initiative to embrace the creative economy of Ojai and help not just sustain and support our local artists but develop that sector in general. So I just wanted to share with you briefly that part of the Chamber's mission. Obviously, we're here to support our existing businesses and help develop and diversify our economy but also enrich the life and lifestyle of our local residents. And arts in creative culture is so much integral to that, that we see that as part of the chamber's mission.

So to that end we recently had a creative economy workshop and thanks to Chair West and all of you for joining us We were able to put together a collaborative list of what might be some endeavors of the community at large Taken on by both the chamber, the city, and also the local residents as well. So for the chambers part of that equation I wanted to let you know that in consultation with Chair West The chamber on March 31st has asked for an agenda item with City Council to ask the city of Ojai to make a proclamation that April will be recognized as Arts and Culture and Creativity Month, which mirrors activities with the California for the Arts at the state level. So we will be making that foray and I'll be meeting tomorrow with the liaisons from the city council to the chamber which are Mayor Gilman and Rachel Wing on that regard.

And then the next point of information for you is that the Chamber is moving ahead with a recommendation that came forward in the Creative Economy Workshop from the artists themselves looking for a Maiden Ojai distinction. And so, in conversations with city staff we now have the green light to have the Maiden Ojai distinction and we're going to very visibly cement that at Ojai Day. We will be doing things between now and Ojai Day, but Ojai day probably will have the most concrete visibility across a whole city in the following regard. We're going to as the chamber take responsibility for the display for Ojai day between North Ventura Avenue and Signal Street So that corridor right in front of the Playhouse and El Roblar and Rory's in the library, we're going to create an outdoor art gallery.

Hopefully with everyone else's support, display of the art, and also some of our handmade artisan vendors that have been working with The Chamber in Libbey Park on regular occasion. So that will be a sizable footprint and distinction for the rest of the vendor booths in Ojai Day. So between the proclamation made in Ojai, and then also when we have our regular Libbey Park City events that the Chamber organizes, we'll be creating an artist corner. We'll call it the Artist Nook. And we're going to invite artists to display their works during those events. So that's kind of a first come first serve but we just want to make sure we're adding that footprint into every opportunity the Chamber can identify at this time. So, that's what we've done since we last saw you at the Creative Economy Workshop.

Let me know if you have any questions in regards to the chamber or future endeavors or recommendations. Thank you.

Thank you. Yes? Anyone can ask a question.

Yeah, I have a couple of questions. First, it is contemplated that the city is going to own the trademark not the Chamber of Commerce?

The Chamber of Commerce is gonna identify the logo. We're not gonna actually own the trademark but we're gonna identify the program and then our expectation is maybe the rightful place for it would be with the Arts Commission so we're gonna lay the

groundwork

and whichever time it comes to rest in the correct location

And is somebody going to police this? In regards to police? To make sure that if it's just the logo, that people from outside Ojai aren't using it.

So the chamber for the near term would be the only one using the logo and we would just be inviting people to participate in those platforms so the logo would be just used on the signage or the flyers at the chamber produces and then artists would come within that umbrella

Well,

so the artists themselves wouldn't be using the logo on their individual works or their websites

really

right for the near term

Okay. I would think that it would be better if You meted out the logo to people who actually produce things in Ojai, and they can brand their products that way. And then we could police it and make sure that people know it really did come from Ojai. So I would look a little further on than just letting people know.

I appreciate your suggestion. I don't think the chamber would take that initiative on because we're not versed as well as yourselves in the artist community, so we would love to do that in partnership with you if that works for you. Okay. Wonderful. Thank you.

I have a question. I gave you one of these at the Creative Economy. Excuse my voice. I would like to make sure that you connect with the Ojai Studio Artists. We're a network of 75 artists here in the Valley, and it's a resource that sometimes gets overlooked.

Yeah, we absolutely would and our plan is They have a membership that I think had been overlooked But we'd like to talk with them in a little bit further in the regards that we recently did a winter wine walk in February We're going to be doing wine walks every quarter So we'd like to integrate an art element into one of those wine walks in collaboration with yourselves. So we'll look forward to that conversation Thank you

This is exciting Carla, thank you. I just want to reiterate what Bradley said and I think probably Bridget this will have to go to the city and the City Manager but we'll need sophisticated trademark counsel to make all of this happen it can't otherwise we lose our Trademark as we know, we already have by virtue of cars and cookies But what you're doing is wonderful. And so thank you for that It's good to kind of feel this initiative and I can't wait for April art month. There we go Wonderful. Thank you

Can you tell us a little more about the April event were you

We have two events on behalf of the city in April. The first one is the Ojai Pixie Tangerine Celebration and we've extended an invitation to the Pixie Chorus to join us in that event. With every event that we have contracted with the city, we're trying to integrate the artists in all realms. And then the event on April 18th is a little bit further afield in regards that it's canine focused. So Ojai in the last four years had Puppy Love Concert in which we would try and help the Humane Society have dogs adopted. And we've broadened that now. It's now called Tales, Trails and Puppy Love. So there is still a concert but we have a 1K and a 3K but now it's all things dogs and that includes dog authors so we're having dog authors that are homegrown from Ojai come and read their books to the children with their dogs people are going to be walking with their dogs.

So any kind of creativity that we can integrate into that we will be doing so In conjunction and for the ultimate financial benefit for the Humane Society So that's what we have so far for April

Any other questions for Carla well Carla, thanks for being here and I want to do thank you again for that Oh, yes, please. Just go ahead

Can you say a little bit more about the outdoor gallery that is going to be at Ojai Day? Are you just have an open call for artists or what's the jury process going to be like for that?

I can't speak to that yet because I just came up with the concept on Monday. Okay, and I always like to integrate any suggestions or recommendations from yourself. I usually tap poor Smitty for his input on it So might just my initial concept would be like outdoor carpeting that looks as oriental as I can get it and truthfully for it to be a true outdoor gallery as one would expect like near the Louvre or something like this and And then we do have to have some vendor booths in between so if I can get that vendor display To not be your typical 10 by 10 white pop-up, you know just something that it has a congruity to the look and And really for the artists to be able to interact with the public and speak to their work. So Any recommendations you have in terms of who can help with the during and elements such as that?

We'd greatly invite that help

And this will go before council the last meeting of March. Is that right? Yes, and so it'll sort of be law So we'll jump right in and have some fun with anything

It's just gonna mention that there's a second Saturday open studios April 11th Which is Oak View and I know its Miramonte

Okay, and we can advertise that in conjunction with the Pixie Festival great would be great. Thank you

So Carla, we over the past year have invited nonprofit organizations to come talk to us meaning to the community about what they do and why and what their former and future plans are. And so we appreciate that you are in public comment, but we'd be delighted maybe after April to invite you back again for a formal presentation.

We'd

love

that. Thank you. Appreciate the invitation.

Thank

you.

I wanted to thank you for that breakfast that you did. Most of this Commission was there The city manager was there. The mayor was there Several other council people were there a representative from the county was there and our kind of arts lobbyists Tracy Was there sort of representing Sacramento and so it was Bravo, I mean that to me That was a level of involving Kind of government and planning in the chamber that I haven't seen in my 30 years here at the Chamber. So I really I hope that the message, I can see that at first maybe chamber members would see oh that's for the artists in the chamber or the galleries or something like that. But the real message that I think came across and I hope the business community hears in Ojai is that being creative in your business goes far beyond Painting something or making or singing a song.

All right, it's it's the it's the future and there's support from the government to make that happen so thank you for bringing some intelligent and Cogent and informative Proceedings Matt Levere did send a Think it was Council council person Rachel that told me the Matt Levere did sent his Appreciation for that having occurred and he had his representative there as well And so he's very excited to to partner with us as we move forward on that So thanks for taking the lead because you move things faster than weekend

our pleasure. Thank you so much.

Okay, thank you All right I am going to move on to our consent, which is really just one item. I mean our consent calendar, which is just one item. It was a minute from last meeting we're all caught up now isn't this fun? I'll first ask if we have any amendments.

I have a couple.

Surprise.

Madam Secretary had a few typos here, I'd like to put into record before they are approved. The first one is under approval of agenda chair West made motion with second by and I'd like to include Vice Chair Steiner so I'm going to add that And then later, I have Tabak Bank's name a typo there on future agenda items. Commissioner Tabak Banks are going to be changing that K to an H and then somehow this Vice Chair Wright asked for discussion on how AC can oversee and obviously that's Commissioner Wright

I

Was gonna thank you for that

No idea how that got in there gremlins And other than that, I think

It's clear.

Yeah So Bradley was the only

with those amendations. I so move

Any other changes I'll second that motion Whose motion? Your movement. All in favor?

Aye.

All opposed? We're good, Bridget?

We are good.

All right, let's move on to our discussion items. I did want to point out it's wonderful to have the minutes coming in up-to-date now because I actually used sort of this Our future agenda item kind of capture, you know to kind of move things ahead, you know during Because you know spurred on by the actual minutes of what we talked about too And so this item in fact was on a future agenda item and here it is Yes commissioner

I did a little bit more detail in these minutes than required, but I think it sounds like you liked

having

those.

Sounds like we read it not as closely as you, but...

Okay. I'll make sure to do that in the future.

Take back as an H. I'll remember that forever now. Okay. So you'll find an administrative report from me and I believe it was Commissioner Tabak-Bank and or Commissioner Wright that suggested this Ojai poster thing. And in talking with staff, I felt like the best thing that we could do here because Rather than, we haven't been directly asked by council to do this but I know that we have supported council to get involved in all things art as it describes the final part of our duties as a commission.

All things art and Ojai and there was a time when the Ojai Day poster was a significant kind of community builder thing with Contest and applicants and advertising, and so it was part of our strategic planning in a five year plan in the past as well. So after COVID and decimation that happened to everything including Ojai Day as its crawling back here now I had been informally asked by Christy Rivera from the Parks and Rec. She's the parks and rec manager for suggestions like a Month or two months before oh, hi day a couple years ago in all too so I think the best way to word this is as you'll see in the recommendation in the report to recommend that the City Council authorize the Arts Commission to participate in and support.

We have it down here as a contest, I'm not sure I might take the word contest out of there because that may or may not be what it is. It was a contest, but I'd like to make it sort of bigger than a contest. I would like to have some discussion about that and use this as a communication item to continue to show the community what the Arts Commission is doing and what other material kind of outflows from that and just having a poster hanging up. You know, it may involve us taking They have posters from most of the years, I think hanging over there at Sarasota Park. You know maybe this becomes a part of our city collection or something like that and all too and there's someone here too so I think this could be you know Ojai Day and the Arts Commission you know could be I think they would welcome our help over there.

So, I neither want to stick my nose in parks and rec business but be here and recommend a council that we offer our expertise to make the Ojai Day poster a significant thing. There was some discussion here that I'd welcome just discussion from the Commission. Selection process or you can read the list here too, but I'll say it anyways broader outreach to the youth community groups Promote it through our networks and strengthen cities Commission to local creativity as part of Oh, yes Pamela

So that was an incentive for people to get down with it and get creative Mm-hmm

Is there any reason to believe there's not prize money anymore? I think there is. It's a contest and somebody wins. And they win a small, I think it was a very small amount of money.

I am not aware of any prize money this year,

like $50 or

well it was four hundred dollars in years past.

Yeah but obviously your poster is reproduced and put up against around town that's obviously the biggest prize.

Contest with prizes maybe honorable mentions and you know ribbons and stuff. I'd like to do again just well please Christine

I don't want to nitpick, but I seem to consistently nitpick. So I have a few questions about this report. The first relates to Park and Rec's quote operational responsibility for the contest. How did that come about or has Parks and Rec always administered the program? Because if the underlying assumption here is that parks and rec should run it, which is what seems to be the understanding. I just want to know A, when and how that came about? And B, is it appropriate

It is actually kind of collaboration between the events coordinator, Christy Rivera and now the parks manager, Christy Rivera. So she's kind of pushing it into Parks and Recs at the same time because they actually run the streets and do all the setups and help doing so. Parks and Recs is very much involved in Ojai Day itself but the poster I think maybe just got handed to them after COVID like you said.

I suspect that's true. Well,

I can tell you what I know because I used to be a vendor in the arts for Ojai Day and they actually hired a third party For ten years, I'm sorry it's Sam's wife. Well anyway But they paid a consultant to run Ojai Day and there was a budget I think in the tens of thousands of dollars for Ojai day now It's down to like five or

ten. And as a portion of this outsourced Work these people determine the poster or some

no, I may have even been to the Arts Commission way back when

I would like to I mean, I don't want to undo the process here But I think we need to send this back to rewrite and I say that because I'd like to know whether it's the events responsibility or park and recs and I also don't agree with the recommendation that the Arts Commission would participate in and support. I'd prefer that it is to support and provide expertise concerning, but because we don't understand the predicate assumption here, and that is who's running this, I'd like to send this back to rewrite.

Well there has been no, I do know there has been no contest since COVID, since it restarted.

There have been posters.

They've had posters, but I mean one of them they called me and said you know an artist and I Recommend an artist and he turned something in they made the poster from it I mean this is

even more to the point that we need to We need

to have this handled within the city does run an ad at the newspaper for the contest So there is an actual contest Last year they turned him in at parks and recs So I'm not sure how the contest is judged or who, how they're picked but it is noticed in the paper.

Okay well then I think we need more information before we can review a recommendation.

Uh-huh. Well look could you have some discussion around what that would look like or what else do we need to

include? I just want to say that I have seen notices for the Ojai Day poster since COVID and have told people to submit. So, you know, I brought this forward. I think that the Arts Commission should be in charge of it. And then Parks and Rec can, you know, administer where they're hanging these things up when Winter has announced the logistical things that intertwine with their Ojai Day planning. But the actual art part of it, the Arts Commission should...

Well maybe I can re-steer this discussion and talk about is this—I don't—I neither want to take something away from someone who's like attached to it nor Walk in saying we're the experts we want to do this, you know the poster at all too. So I so III'd love some advice just on recommending how Looks like

you do have a public comment. So before you make any motions or

Yeah, oh, I'm sure I just

want to make sure that they got before you made

your ah, thank you. You're welcome Should I have done this already? Do it now do it now. All right. Oh, let's do a public comment from Debbie. Yeah Debbie Cutler

So what I wanted to suggest is there's a great word that you could include along

with contest, which would

be a poster presentation. It's like a

celebration and

contest so that Everybody's a winner in that there would be a space for all the posters that were presented for the contest could be displayed. So you could call it a celebration and an opening, and then that night if that was the appropriate thing somebody would be announced as a winner. And that person, you know there might be a runner-up and maybe they'd be I don't know free pass to an Ojai Playhouse play or something. In other words acknowledging The second and third. So I just think it'd be kind of fun to run it as a contest, and I love the idea of including Parks and Rec and getting, yeah is this important to you or has this been a pain in the You know, that you don't want to have a participation and how do you wanna be involved and where is that money legislated and reposed for the contest.

So I just, I love the word celebration and contest, you know? So just wanted to recommend that and also to have a sense of a gallery display where it would then be acknowledged in the media as well and picked up. And that's it. I've been a teacher at USC in screenwriting and I taught art at the County Art Museum, and my whole life has been dedicated to healing and arts. So it just sort of sounds like how do we celebrate our peeps so they can feel seen and heard?

And then another suggestion might be, is there a theme for this year? Like does the art council want to have it Ojai in healing or Ojai in peace or Ojai and community. Is there something that we wanna put in there as a word to inspire the artists? Thank you.

Oh, don't go away yet. I wanted to come in. We're going to give

you a job.

Right. These are—well, I'm not going to give

you a

job.

It's

okay.

I'm not going to take your job just so you know.

Very wise. I think these are great suggestions. Celebration, a gallery display, a theme. I think these are great, great ideas. And actually, to me it reinforces what I suggested earlier which is let's table this. It's not ready for prime time. I think we can provide suggestions for you but I agree we have to speak with Park and Rec and get a sense of whether they want to own this or they don't. It seems that it came to Park and Rec.

Supervision because it really belongs in events. But but clearly we're not ready for prime time here and I move that we table this Okay,

can I make one more comment? That is an artist some artists take a while to generate art So just what would be lead time would also be Important so the artists have you know two months to generate Number of ideas that they then can themselves choose the best ones. So thank you again Thank you for all the great work My question

is, is there any kind of an honorarium or anything that goes to the person whose work

is chosen?

I love the idea. It's a motive, it's an incentive. I think that's the contest prize money but I think calling it an honorarium is a great idea frankly rather than a prize money just saying we're honoring you know I think that's great and everybody is honored it's just there's somebody who stands out to get something for yeah I think so that's right

Thank you, Debbie. You're going to hear from us. There's no motion to withdraw here and I will say table this but it may be that we can accomplish a lot of this without a formal motion or vote here in talking to Council and all too. But I just wanted to collect any other Commissioner suggestions because the celebration, the contest, the gallery theme A regular cycle, you know when we want to go to them and kind of give them our ideas

I think there is a theme Every year. Yeah And I think that there's very low turnout on the artwork that is put out Which is why I thought we should start heading this up so we can really make it a much more robust process.

Sort of like everyone's temperature room, do we have the bandwidth for this? I would think we did you know We can direct this or form committees You know like we have in the past for other things that involve the community

I think it's great. I definitely think we should be involved in it, and thank you Karina for bringing it up and thank you Smitty for bringing it forward but I think we definitely should be a part of the Ojai Day poster.

So yeah beautiful. I'm going to just liaison Rachel you can expect that you'll be hearing about us and Absolutely, we it looks like a great opportunity for the creative economy thing to get talked about in the valley and And just want to make sure we do it in a way that's helping staff at the same time

Is the motion to move this item to a future agenda? There was a motion we can't get

a second to make it forever Do you guys want a motion? Yeah, okay. Let's say you want to try it or do

you want me to

You

make a motion that we We have a discussion with the our stakeholders which are Council members artists community staff and come up with a formal suggestion to council for The involvement of the Arts Commission with the Ohai day poster Thank you Just make sure Think you got that discussion

We need an

amendment

we need an amendment to that and parks and recreation

Okay Have

a discussion with City Council members artists communities staff but Parks and Recreation Yeah, okay Ready

I think we're ready for a vote. Okay,

all in favor?

Yes. Aye. Okay good perfect thank you.

Nice good thank you I think that's a good way to handle it we could do a lot we don't have to do a howl hole here.

Can I make a comment? Where is Whitney?

Go ahead.

It seems like this fits right in with what Carla was just talking about, how the Chamber of Commerce wants to do more events. So it seems like they could have a very opportune moment to display all these Ojai Day

posters. Beautiful. Well we'll be talking with the chamber all throughout this. I think it's a great way to push a couple things ahead Simultaneous. All right, so that was uh, that's it on Do we have any public comments on the next item? Mural stuff. I'm gonna turn this part of the meeting over to vice chair Steiner to discuss the Thank

you, so You've heard me speak about this before There was a mural jury called on the mural application of Pixie's General Store. The mural was held on March 10th, the jury is comprised of seven members and those are a representative from the Arts Commission, a representative from Planning or Historic Preservation in this case it was planning because The venue is not of historic nature.

Two arts professionals, a member of the community and artist and the applicant herself. The mural jury was called to order. I sort of gave part of the background and as a preliminary matter confirmed that there would be no signage on the mural itself as it had appeared In some of the earlier iterations, the applicant agreed. The chair who was Barbara Hirsch a former arts commissioner went through the qualifications identified in the criteria and these are whether the artist is qualified, the aesthetics of the mural, whether it's appropriate for the architecture, the kind of paint to be used the wall upon which it would be placed, whether or not it was of an historic nature, the appropriateness for the setting and whether there were any limitations.

The jurors all discussed robustly each of these in turn and brought to you the findings of the jury that the recommendation for you to approve, reject or approve with conditions is to approve it with certain conditions which I will ask Bridgette to read into the record.

Condition number one, do not add business names to the mural pursuant to Ohio Municipal Code 4-16.303. Condition number two, background will remain the same color as it is currently and will not be painted white as it is shown in the application images. Condition number three, use of the approved paint pursuant to Ojai Municipal Code 4-16.305D and be coded with the city approved anti graffiti application.

Condition number four, the downspout will be considered the right side boundary of the mural to separate the mural from the rest of the building as well as the existing business name on the window. Condition number five, the mural artist may sign and date the mural at their discretion with a suggested placement being at the bottom right corner of the mural.

Thank you Bridgette and so with those conditions the jury unanimously recommended to you the Arts Commission that you approve this mural subject to the conditions and so I will make that motion

We do have a raised hand. We need to get public comment first.

And as we take that public comment, I want to note also that one of the obligations in the statute is that the applicant be present for this public hearing at which you are determining whether or not to approve the application, and it should be noted that the applicant is online. The applicant is the one who has her hand raised. And we will hear from the applicant now. So with that, Whitney...

Go ahead, Whitney. Unmute please.

Whitney fell asleep. Whitney, you need to unmute.

Whitney, you need to

unmute.

She has permission to speak she just needs to unmute.

But for the record, we note that she actually is online. So that satisfies the requirements of statute? Yes.

So I did second that motion so we can have some discussion on this. I was present because I was on the so a lot of interesting stuff. So please fire away

what we're seeing online. The background's painted white, but it would not be white. It would correct.

Correct. It's to be the same color as it currently is, which is sort of a beige That's what I thought might be the case. Thank you for that.

Ida, do you know what might be the problem?

Let me see if I could figure it out over here.

We

can

have some discussion or questions until that works out. Yes, Commissioner. Right. I think they'll figure it out.

She's just muted, I've asked her to unmute but it looks like the other person online can speak for Whitney.

Can you hear me? You

can hear that person.

Go ahead, Elizabeth. Yes. Hi, Elizabeth from Forge Ojai. This is actually Whitney and I are both in this and putting this together. I don't know what Whitney was going to say so I'm sorry but it just asked me to unmute. So that's why I unmuted.

Great do you want to say anything?

Yeah, this is actually one of my arrangements that we want to have painted on the building. We feel that like my shop is kind of hidden in the back so for a year now I've wanted to kind of bring awareness and something beautiful into that space and Whitney loved the idea We talked to several artists, we talked to local artists and just couldn't find one to meet my arrangement and do it in the way that I wanted. And also our price point And then Stephanie, who comes up to Ojai a lot. She is the artist and she's fine arts which is a little more in my style and she was able to replicate this arrangement perfectly for us so we both fell in love with it.