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2016 MAC Annual report MERIDIAN ARTS COMMISSION 2016 ANNUAL REPORT  PAGE 1 2016 ANNUAL REPORT It was another great year for the Meridian Arts Commission! The Commission is comprised of nine volunteer commissioners: Stephanie Barnes, Michelle Glaze, Mary Jensen, Leslie Mauldin, Taylor Farmer, Bonnie Zahn Griffith, Gretchen Caserotti, Ellen DeAngelis, Claudia Weathermon- Tester, and an ex-officio City Council member, Genesis Milam. MAC’s mission is to develop, advance and nurture all facets of the arts to enhance the quality of life for Meridian residents and its visitors. MAC’s achievements in 2016 included:  Wonderful people coming and going on the Arts Commission! It was a hard year for MAC to lose two long-standing commissioners, Brian Schreiner and Cheyenne Quilter. Both of these commissioners have served MAC humbly and have always prioritized engaging young artists in our community. Brian was a major advocate for professional artists and we were very fortunate that his replacement on the Arts Commission, Bonnie Zahn Griffith, has been able to continue that advocacy. Bonnie Zahn Griffith brings years of professional experience to MAC, she has great ideas that we hope to dive into as she continues to serve on the commission. Cheyenne Quilter served MAC longer than any other youth commissioner, and it was in-part because of her astute recognition of other youth’s eagerness to serve on MAC that she stepped down in 2016. Her replacement youth commissioner, Taylor Farmer attends North Star Charter and wants her service on the Arts Commission to make art and music accessible to people of all ages.  Another year of shows in Initial Point Gallery featuring the work of Treasure Valley artists! Our volunteer gallery change out crew has outdone themselves this year! Our six wonderful volunteers make this gallery work. We are so grateful for their expertise and for the time that they devote to IPG. Our gallery volunteers have put in over 100 hours towards maintaining Initial Point Gallery in 2016.  We lost our storage closet this year and have had to adapt our installations to be much more conscientious of the Building staff that we need to help us transport items to and from the basement.  Considering our loss of storage space, former gallery manager, Dwight Williams, recommended that the Arts Commission purchase a credenza or buffet that would be able to hold most of their frequently used items and artists’ belongings during receptions. The Arts Commission chose to commission a custom credenza by a local woodworker. NTE (split between two fiscal years): $2,300  The Arts Commission worked with a local sign company to fabricate and install vinyl lettering for the gallery. Final Expense: $268  Other items purchased for the gallery in FY16 included a small frame to display the annual IPG schedule on the visitor table in the gallery; black disposable tablecloth rolls for a featured youth exhibition; back up plates, napkins, and cups for reception use. Final Expenses: $42.28 MERIDIAN ARTS COMMISSION 2016 ANNUAL REPORT  PAGE 2  FY16 Revenue through IPG: $470; Net Expenditures: $1,515.32  Young Musicians’ and Young Artists’ awards! MAC partnered with the Meridian Symphony Orchestra to award a combined $300 to young musicians to celebrate their achievements and participation in MSO’s 30th anniversary of this competition – finals were held at the Morrison Center. MAC also maintained their $150 partnership with the Meridian School District to select three young artists whose work was awarded monetary prizes ($25 for the elementary school winner, $50 for the middle school winner, and $75 for the high school winner).  Net investment in FY16: $450  Children’s theater partnership with Treasure Valley Youth Theater! This year MAC teamed up with Treasure Valley Youth Theater to support their production of two youth plays – “Aladdin Jr.” and “How to Eat Like a Child.” “Aladdin Jr.” auditions started in December of 2015 and performances took place at Mountain View High School in March. This show featured 45 young performers ranging from 10-18 years old. TVYT hosted summer performances of “How to Eat Like a Child” at the Kleiner Park Bandshell with the help of other community sponsors including Starlifter Wealth Management, The Human Bean, Idaho Independent Bank, Idaho Children’s Photography, and more. Members of this cast also performed at Kleiner Park Live and during the Dairy Days Art Show. Not only do these performances bring together family members of the cast, but they attract hundreds of other guests. Auditions for TVYT productions start about two months prior to the performances. Both auditions and rehearsals bring kids and their family’s downtown six days a week. Arts Commissioner Mary Jensen served as our liaison to TVYT for these productions. TVYT have outgrown their space because their programs have continued to spark the interest of people throughout the Treasure Valley. TVYT is considering a move to another downtown Meridian location. They have been awarded funds from 100+ People Who Care Ada County recently for their work as a non-profit and we hope that other organizations in our community will support TVYT and see the value that TVYT brings to Meridian so that we can continue to keep them as a neighbor in our downtown core.  MAC expenses for these two productions cost $5,000 ($2,500/play). Net investment in FY15: $5,000  Dairy Days Art Show! The Meridian Dairy Board and Stock Show invited MAC to engage in Dairy Days this year by hosting an activity in Storey Park. MAC created the Dairy Days Art Show and hosted the event on the Saturday of Dairy Days. We had about thirty artists participate in the event. The most negative feedback that we had was from people wanting more, which is a good problem to have. We hope to see the continued growth of this event for years to come.  All of MAC’s expenses for programming this year were reimbursed by the Dairy Board.  Another excellent year of Concerts on Broadway! This year’s free outdoor concert series featured Soul Patch, Kings of Swing, High Street, and Precious Byrd. Opening acts included members from the Treasure Valley Youth Theater, Tanya Landau, Credenda, and Fernando Perez. We were able to have a food vendor at three out of the four concerts. As people become more used to food trucks being available at the concerts we hope that the vendors see an increase in sales and willingness to set up shop at Concerts on Broadway. This MERIDIAN ARTS COMMISSION 2016 ANNUAL REPORT  PAGE 3 year the Parks Department added recycling bins for our patrons to use and they came out to help us address electrical issues often. We hope to be able to make some improvements to the electric service on the plaza that will better support both COB and other events hosted on the plaza throughout the year. The biggest news from Concerts on Broadway this year was our partnership with a local arts organization to provide Production Management services. WineGlass Arts Development and their staff made this year’s series a success. At the end of the season we asked WineGlass Arts Development if they would be willing to take on more responsibilities for COB in 2017 and they agreed that they would take on more in order to help the series grow more in the long run. This partnership is great news for MAC because the concerts have outgrown the capabilities of the commission and demands a need to be run by an organization that can meet more frequently and that has a specified knowledge of the production and industry. MAC will continue as a partner and host, but most of the tasks that compose a successful series production have been taken on by WineGlass Arts Development.  Expenses for Concerts on Broadway cost $21,758. Sponsors included Meridian Development Corporation ($10,000), Investment Resources of America ($3,000), D.L. Evans Bank ($1,500), and Idaho Power ($500). Total hard revenue from donors was $15,000. Net investment: $6,758  Meridian Art Week! MAC partnered with West Ada School District, the Meridian Arts Foundation, and the Meridian Downtown Business Association to host Meridian’s first annual Art Week. The idea started when Shelly Houston approached MAC to share an idea that she found called “World Art Drop Day.” Shortly afterwards, Lois Chattin, from Renaissance High School approached MAC to see if they may be interested in hosting a chalk art competition. These ideas combined with MAC’s desire to host another Art Walk led the commission to land on hosting “Meridian Art Week.” This event was well received for its first year. MAC dedicated more funds than usual to advertising in the Meridian Press and Boise Weekly, and also printed handouts from Modern Printers. Even with these efforts, many people said that there needed to be more advertisement, because they heard about the event(s) on short notice. We have a great team of people interested in helping with this event next year as we continue to make improvements and make art more accessible to everyone in our community.  Expenses for Meridian Art Week cost: $1,127.12 (~ 70% for advertising for the event). The Meridian Arts Foundation supported the awards for student artists: $225  Public Art at City Hall Plaza! The Meridian Arts Commission approached City Council and requested a budget amendment to spend Fund Balance monies on traffic box art and the installation of “Out on the Town” by Daniel Borup. This piece was well loved during the public input period for a public art installation at Fairview and Main, but the Meridian Arts Commission didn’t think that the piece would be as accessible at that site as it would be downtown. City Council approved the budget amendment and “Out on the Town” was installed on City Hall’s plaza during Meridian Art Week. We have already seen a lot of interaction with the statue, which is something to be celebrated!  Net Investment for “Out on the Town” and signage: $36,393.54  Public Art at Fairview & Main! Our original agreement with Danielle Foushee was eventually terminated, for a number of reasons. This led MAC back to the Meridian Development Corp. to seek their input to see how they would like the project to continue. MAC provided options to MDC and they ended up supporting the option to commission MERIDIAN ARTS COMMISSION 2016 ANNUAL REPORT  PAGE 4 another piece that was a finalist for the RFP for this project. CJR Design was able to accommodate our time frame and budget and installed “Native Grasses” at the corner of Fairview and Main in late September.  “Native Grasses” expense, all supplied by MDC: $40,000  Park Identities Public Art Roster Established! We have worked with the Parks Department and Parks and Recreation Commission to establish a list of two artists and one arts organization that have been pre-qualified for public art installations in our Parks. The goal is that we can use artistic elements to strengthen the identities of our local parks. Each of the artists on our roster has knowledge of working on public art pieces. The first RFP issued under this roster is focused on Heroes Park. We look forward to this project, sharing some of our artists’ great ideas with you, and working with these artists on this project and more down the road.  Installation of more Traffic Box Art! MAC decided to continue working from the same digital repository that they established in 2015 instead of releasing another Call to Artists. This was intended to honor those who were previously accepted in the repository and allow them more time to be sponsored. The Meridian Development Corp. sponsored six wraps in the URA, three wraps were sponsored by private companies, three wraps were sponsored by Mayor Tammy and the State of the City Sponsors, and six paid for by the Meridian Arts Commission. These wraps bring our total number of completed wraps up to 29 throughout the City, though most of these are concentrated in the URA thanks to the support of the Meridian Development Corporation.  Total spent: $15,542. Donations totaled $8,927.00. Net Investment: $6,615  Community Champions! 2016 was a great year for us to reflect on the passion for arts in our community. Andrew Clifford, creator of “Happy Elephant” the traffic box art on Fairview and Locust Grove, reached out to the Disney Corp. to obtain permission for his artwork to be wrapped as a traffic box in our community. MAC and its staff support previously thought that this would be impossible, but we were delighted to be proved wrong thanks to the effort and commitment demonstrated by this young man! In the last year, we have also been asked to be a part of more and more conversations with individuals in our community who are interested in developing the arts in Meridian and argue the value of arts for our culture and our economy. This is highlighted in the City of Meridian’s Strategic Plan, where arts are a focus in three separate strategic goals.  Budget summary: $64,397.00 received in donations; $91,935 spent on public art; $31,385 spent on programming. Net City investment $58,923. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT OF THE MERIDIAN ARTS COMMISSION!