[0:01] Welcome to the July 2nd opening video meetings.

[0:07] We are in Alison and Hannah. So Hannah [laughter] Alison and the dean. Thank you.

[0:21] So we'll go ahead and go chair for today. We'll go ahead and get started.

[0:24] Um hopefully we had a chance to review the minutes from the [clears throat] April meeting. No,

[0:32] May. Yep. Uh we did have a change from Callison. She pointed out that the time at the end was

[0:38] wrong. That's been updated on the sheet in front of you. Um but that was her only correction.

[0:48] Any further changes? Let's pass upon Alice and when she gets seated

[1:05] action is out today. So as vice chair would you put pressure on her as um Sure. Oh yeah.

[1:28] Approve. I'll second. All in favor.

[1:41] Somebody else.

[1:45] Um. Okay.

[1:50] Item two is to discuss the activation grant changing.

[1:56] Um it's I mean it's yes I will happily take take this on. Um let me go grab

[2:03] the copies that are sitting on the printer and pass some of them out. Um well we not

[2:11] to put you on the spot George but we have a member of the public here. So

[2:14] just wanted to acknowledge our our friend in the room. They don't usually get for public,

[2:18] but we we have one today. Is the Law Art Museum has always former student of mine. So,

[2:23] no pressure. Do you want to introduce yourself or your interest in this meeting today? Oh,

[2:27] sure. I'm project manager art museum. I've been interested in council from afar. Um I've always

[2:36] wanted to come and Molly has, you know, given me the freedom to come and I just wanted to know. Um

[2:44] I've worked with children's theater. I work with Brown University and um I love everything about

[2:53] [laughter]

[2:57] for clarification sake. This is the cultural funding committee, not the arts council. If

[3:03] that makes a difference to whether or not you're interested. [laughter] Okay. Just want to make

[3:08] sure. Um oh she's like this doesn't sound um so uh yes I will happily uh chat through um the

[3:21] uh grant opportunity. Um hopefully if you are new to us maybe you've had an opportunity to at

[3:26] least look through the beginning of the packet. Um there haven't really been any changes made

[3:33] uh to the application it or to the program itself. Uh this was more just to get some direction

[3:40] uh from the committee, from new members of the committee to uh allow me to make changes over

[3:50] the next month so that you guys can potentially approve the application in our August meeting.

[3:56] Um because we will open this up in early September if I recall correctly. Uh so as we're finalizing,

[4:04] we're figuring out the operational grants, we are accepting applications for the activation grants.

[4:10] Um so the activation grant for those of you who are new to us is uh a a newish grant opportunity.

[4:18] Um historically the uh city and the cultural funding committee awarded uh three types of

[4:25] grants. The operational grants that you guys know about are learning about. Um we had one that we

[4:31] called developing arts which was for very small uh organizations to help them build capacity in

[4:37] various ways like through marketing um you know um uh finances uh just getting their their stuff in

[4:45] order sort of stuff. That one was uh historically not uh organizations didn't apply to it very

[4:53] often. It wasn't very popular. Um, and then our third type of grant was the artist access grant,

[4:59] which was for professional development or capacity building, however you want to think about it,

[5:03] for uh individual artists. And those awards were up to $1,000. And uh for several years it was uh

[5:10] also not very well applied into um then we pushed really hard to make it uh well known that it was

[5:18] happening and the numbers started to skyrocket. people really understood what was going on with

[5:22] it, what our intent was, and um we got a lot of applicants and really had to uh work hard on it.

[5:32] I have to give a little bit more context. A couple years ago, we received from the NEA a

[5:38] a grant money we received money grant uh to other organizations. So, in addition to the city's money

[5:46] that we use, the federal government gave us money to subrant um cultural funding committee used

[5:51] that money to create what we called the arts thrive grant opportunity. We gave out three

[5:56] $25,000 grants with that money. Uh it was uh for projects so to make art grants to make art rather

[6:05] than professional development. It was the first time we had done so. What year was that? that we

[6:10] we accepted applications in 2024 and the projects generally were supposed to be done in 2025. Um,

[6:16] one of them spilled over into 26 due to some scheduling issues, but uh that was our Babe

[6:22] Arts Thrive grant. We awarded it in late 24 and the projects could be done in 25. Uh, it was a

[6:30] really we had a really good um response to that. the committee, I think, really liked being able to

[6:36] actually give grants to make art. And so part of that part of staff's internal discussion about how

[6:42] do we start to give grants to make art? Um, and all of those things sort of led to the creation

[6:49] of what we call the activation grant. And so the activation grant, please excuse me if it's

[6:55] a little tiny bit complicated on first blush, but there are uh four things that can come out

[7:03] of the activation grant. Two each for individuals and two for organizations, right? So you can if

[7:09] you're an individual or an organization, you can apply for an activation grant. That application

[7:15] can be for project funding to make art or it can be for capacity building professional development

[7:22] funds. So if you if you gain that out there's four results that could happen. Individual

[7:26] project individual professional development organizational project organizational project

[7:31] professional development capacity building sort of thing. Does that make a little bit of sense?

[7:36] Okay. Um so that's the if you look at your opport the opportunity those are our four categories. Um,

[7:42] so we did this last year. We had a really great response to the activation grant. We gave out

[7:49] um around $56,000 I think in grants. Um the the committee set aside a large amount of funding

[7:58] for this project and it was and we used all of it. About I believe it was 17 recipients

[8:04] overall received funding. Um and I would say that generally it was very successful. That was about

[8:11] half of the applicants. Less than one. That was definitely less than half. I don't off the top

[8:15] of my head. I'm not certain. I can look that up and look. It's okay. But so still is a very

[8:20] competitive. Yes. Very competitive. Um, one other highlight to the activation grant opportunity, if

[8:27] fund, if if organizations or individuals receive money from the city of Witchah in another way,

[8:33] if they're legacy cultural institutions, if they receive operational grants, if they're employees

[8:38] of the city, they cannot apply for an activation grant. So, we're trying to spread this to those

[8:44] who don't already get money from the UN from the city. So when uh uh somebody from council asks,

[8:52] "Well, why can't exploration place use this for the film their their film things?" Well,

[8:59] we want this money to go toward organizations that don't already receive that support. And once you

[9:06] receive it, as can you repeat? You can. We did add a little bit of a delay into it so that we

[9:12] can spread it out, continue to spread it. Um, and that will we'll get back to that. I don't want to

[9:21] overwhelm you with the nitty-gritty details. One slightly gritty detail and that was like

[9:29] to carve out an opportunity for organizations that don't otherwise receive funding from the

[9:35] city their ability to do so. So we had some uh some areas where we had friends of or foundations

[9:45] for support agencies of city agencies applying for funding um to for operational funding for things

[9:51] that the city already provided operational support for. So like Library Foundation and

[9:55] Great Plains Nature Center are those kind of the major areas. Well, the library and Great

[10:00] Plains Nature Center are both owned by the city and receive city funding. They have city staff.

[10:05] They have secondary foundation group. They do incredible work, but then it was it felt like

[10:10] it was a an awkward opportunity for them to also get additional operational funding from the city

[10:16] in this other area. So now those entities can apply for competitive funding for projects.

[10:21] So versus funding the library foundation for operations, they applied and received funding

[10:26] for like the big read program. So that's the way we were able to accommodate for those shifts. So

[10:31] there's a lot of apples and oranges that we're we're constantly trying to uh level an equity

[10:37] lens in in terms of making sure that there's um a true competitive arena. So within that platform

[10:47] um other other things about the the activation grant, you know,

[10:52] you have to serve the residences the the residents of the city of Witchah. I think that makes sense.

[10:57] We like these projects to align with the cultural plan. So we we give several options for how they

[11:04] can say that it aligns or they can pick their own option for how it aligns. Um we did set a limit a

[11:12] request limit of $10,000. We got several people several applications that asked for $10,000. No

[11:19] application received $10,000. Um the biggest one I think was $6,700 and that was to the library.

[11:26] Um, and I believe they were the recipient of we have $700 left, let's give it to the library. So,

[11:33] they sort of got the extra little bit on top. Um, and then the scope uh we don't it doesn't

[11:40] matter how much of this money uh is a the project doesn't have to be fully funded by this money. It

[11:47] doesn't have to be matched. So it can be from 1% of the budget for the project to 100% of the

[11:54] budget to the project, right? Um and then uh we do say that they can use a for-profit partner,

[12:03] but the applicant has to be an individual or a nonprofit. So if somebody wants to

[12:09] do a show and they're a nonprofit now, but let's just say they want to do it at Roxy's,

[12:14] like they're allowed to do it at Roxy's. Um, but Roxy's can't apply for the grant. Now,

[12:19] Roxy's can now because they're a 501c3. That's not a great example, but I'm just it's a hypothetical,

[12:24] right? Um, so, but it's we're not trying to give funds directly to for-profit. You know,

[12:34] I obviously every individual artist should be for profofit, right? Even though they're probably not

[12:40] in some way, right? But uh for organizations, we're trying to limit the amount that we're well

[12:47] just can't give it directly to the for um and then very briefly the calendar. So like I said,

[12:53] early September, this is page three. They're not numbered. I apologize. Um uh early September,

[12:59] they'll open. And then uh we all voted, well, you all voted earlier this year. And when I

[13:04] say you all, half of you, the other half weren't here, right? uh voted to uh uh discuss these on

[13:14] November 19th, which one day was enough last year to get through this. It was a lot it was a longer

[13:20] meeting, but it was enough time. Um so just letting you all know that's why we're talking

[13:27] about it now because I need to have time to adjust things and then what we launch uh in early

[13:33] September. So on the updated December as a board date on here. I have not updated the calendar in

[13:43] this packet. Okay. Just to let you know. Sorry. Okay. Um you can see on your agenda the November

[13:52] 19th date at the very bottom. Deliberate and finalize activation grant recommendations.

[14:03] It's 3 or 5 gas station that day. We didn't get done early but I don't know any

[14:15] few people.

[14:19] I mean, you're saying that we started

Cultural Funding Committee July 2, 2026

Transcript