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Welcome to the July 2nd opening video meetings.

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

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So we'll go ahead and go chair for 
today. We'll go ahead and get started.  

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

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

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

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Any further changes? Let's pass 
upon Alice and when she gets seated

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action is out today. So as vice chair would 
you put pressure on her as um Sure. Oh yeah.

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Approve. I'll second. All in favor.

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Somebody else.

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Um. Okay.

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Item two is to discuss the 
activation grant changing.

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Um it's I mean it's yes I will happily 
take take this on. Um let me go grab  

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the copies that are sitting on the printer 
and pass some of them out. Um well we not  

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to put you on the spot George but we 
have a member of the public here. So  

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just wanted to acknowledge our our friend in 
the room. They don't usually get for public,  

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but we we have one today. Is the Law Art 
Museum has always former student of mine. So,  

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no pressure. Do you want to introduce yourself 
or your interest in this meeting today? Oh,  

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sure. I'm project manager art museum. I've been 
interested in council from afar. Um I've always  

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wanted to come and Molly has, you know, given me 
the freedom to come and I just wanted to know. Um  

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I've worked with children's theater. I work with 
Brown University and um I love everything about

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[laughter]

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for clarification sake. This is the cultural 
funding committee, not the arts council. If  

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

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

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uh grant opportunity. Um hopefully if you are 
new to us maybe you've had an opportunity to at  

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least look through the beginning of the packet. 
Um there haven't really been any changes made  

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uh to the application it or to the program itself. 
Uh this was more just to get some direction  

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uh from the committee, from new members of the 
committee to uh allow me to make changes over  

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the next month so that you guys can potentially 
approve the application in our August meeting.  

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

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we're figuring out the operational grants, we are 
accepting applications for the activation grants.  

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

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Um historically the uh city and the cultural 
funding committee awarded uh three types of  

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grants. The operational grants that you guys know 
about are learning about. Um we had one that we  

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called developing arts which was for very small 
uh organizations to help them build capacity in  

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various ways like through marketing um you know um 
uh finances uh just getting their their stuff in  

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order sort of stuff. That one was uh historically 
not uh organizations didn't apply to it very  

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

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which was for professional development or capacity 
building, however you want to think about it,  

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for uh individual artists. And those awards were 
up to $1,000. And uh for several years it was uh  

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also not very well applied into um then we pushed 
really hard to make it uh well known that it was  

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happening and the numbers started to skyrocket. 
people really understood what was going on with  

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

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

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a grant money we received money grant uh to other 
organizations. So, in addition to the city's money  

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that we use, the federal government gave us money 
to subrant um cultural funding committee used  

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that money to create what we called the arts 
thrive grant opportunity. We gave out three  

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

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than professional development. It was the first 
time we had done so. What year was that? that we  

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we accepted applications in 2024 and the projects 
generally were supposed to be done in 2025. Um,  

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one of them spilled over into 26 due to some 
scheduling issues, but uh that was our Babe  

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

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really we had a really good um response to that. 
the committee, I think, really liked being able to  

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actually give grants to make art. And so part of 
that part of staff's internal discussion about how  

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

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of what we call the activation grant. And so 
the activation grant, please excuse me if it's  

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a little tiny bit complicated on first blush, 
but there are uh four things that can come out  

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of the activation grant. Two each for individuals 
and two for organizations, right? So you can if  

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you're an individual or an organization, you can 
apply for an activation grant. That application  

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can be for project funding to make art or it can 
be for capacity building professional development  

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funds. So if you if you gain that out there's 
four results that could happen. Individual  

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project individual professional development 
organizational project organizational project  

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professional development capacity building sort 
of thing. Does that make a little bit of sense?  

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

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so we did this last year. We had a really great 
response to the activation grant. We gave out  

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

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for this project and it was and we used all 
of it. About I believe it was 17 recipients  

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overall received funding. Um and I would say that 
generally it was very successful. That was about  

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half of the applicants. Less than one. That was 
definitely less than half. I don't off the top  

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

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competitive. Yes. Very competitive. Um, one other 
highlight to the activation grant opportunity, if  

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fund, if if organizations or individuals receive 
money from the city of Witchah in another way,  

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if they're legacy cultural institutions, if they 
receive operational grants, if they're employees  

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

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who don't already get money from the UN from the 
city. So when uh uh somebody from council asks,  

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"Well, why can't exploration place use this 
for the film their their film things?" Well,  

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we want this money to go toward organizations that 
don't already receive that support. And once you  

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

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

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overwhelm you with the nitty-gritty details. 
One slightly gritty detail and that was like  

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to carve out an opportunity for organizations 
that don't otherwise receive funding from the  

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city their ability to do so. So we had some uh 
some areas where we had friends of or foundations  

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for support agencies of city agencies applying for 
funding um to for operational funding for things  

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that the city already provided operational 
support for. So like Library Foundation and  

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Great Plains Nature Center are those kind of 
the major areas. Well, the library and Great  

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Plains Nature Center are both owned by the city 
and receive city funding. They have city staff.  

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They have secondary foundation group. They do 
incredible work, but then it was it felt like  

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

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in this other area. So now those entities can 
apply for competitive funding for projects.  

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So versus funding the library foundation for 
operations, they applied and received funding  

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for like the big read program. So that's the way 
we were able to accommodate for those shifts. So  

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there's a lot of apples and oranges that we're 
we're constantly trying to uh level an equity  

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lens in in terms of making sure that there's um 
a true competitive arena. So within that platform

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um other other things about the 
the activation grant, you know,  

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you have to serve the residences the the residents 
of the city of Witchah. I think that makes sense.  

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We like these projects to align with the cultural 
plan. So we we give several options for how they  

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

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request limit of $10,000. We got several people 
several applications that asked for $10,000. No  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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but the applicant has to be an individual 
or a nonprofit. So if somebody wants to  

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

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

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

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

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I obviously every individual artist should be for 
profofit, right? Even though they're probably not  

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

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

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early September, this is page three. They're not 
numbered. I apologize. Um uh early September,  

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they'll open. And then uh we all voted, well, 
you all voted earlier this year. And when I  

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

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

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

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about it now because I need to have time to 
adjust things and then what we launch uh in early  

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September. So on the updated December as a board 
date on here. I have not updated the calendar in  

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this packet. Okay. Just to let you know. Sorry. 
Okay. Um you can see on your agenda the November  

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19th date at the very bottom. Deliberate and 
finalize activation grant recommendations.

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

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few people.

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I mean, you're saying that we started