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HomeMy WebLinkAbout8/13/2015 - City Arts Commission - Public Comments (1)August 13, 2015, City Arts Commission Comments Comments submitted by: Jim Mosher ( jimmosher@yahoo.com ), 2210 Private Road, Newport Beach 92660 (949-548-6229) Item II. Study Session: Master Plan for Arts and Culture I agree with the comments made at the last Study Session by Laura Curran and former Commissioner Magrutsche that before embarking on a grand new vision for Newport Beach, the City should concentrate on celebrating, promoting and nurturing the many existing cultural resources the draft Plan identified. Only after (and if) that effort fails can the need (and wish on the part of the community) to do something new be properly assessed. I also need to say I don’t think the fact that the Arts Commission is holding these Study Sessions has been well enough publicized for them to produce any meaningful result from the public in general. For example, I can find no news announcement about this session, or the effort in general, on the City’s home page (although those with persistence can find an archived news article from July 2nd). And I am unable with Google to find any media announcements or coverage. In fact, I am not even able to directly find any “arts and culture” or “cultural arts” pages at all on the City’s website (the links provided by the internal search engine return “page not found” messages). Instead, I have to go the library website home page to find (in the navigation icons on the left) a correct link to the “Cultural Arts” pages on the City site. Even then, the Arts and Culture Master Plan page that it directs me to tells me nothing about the outreach meetings. [note: The other, older way to find “Cultural Arts” on the Library website is, improbably, to look under “About Us” – but the link to the City website provided there no longer works]. That doesn’t seem like very good outreach to me. To be complete, I notice if one looks at the right moment, the library website, in the scrolling banner at the top of its home page, does have an announcement about what it calls a “Public Forum: Your Vision of the Arts in Newport Beach”, but the link it provides for further information is inoperable (another “page not found”). And despite the scrolling banner ad, for those who don’t see the banner there is no mention of the Study Session, or even the meeting of the Arts Commission, under “Upcoming Events” even though three later Arts Commission sponsored events are announced ( “Shakespeare's "The Tempest",” “Reception for Richard Bohn” and “Kelly Rae Band”). Finally, it bothers me that Arts OC, whose involvement in the current effort remains unclear to me, insists on calling the document they produced the “Master Arts and Culture Plan” whereas the City and residents for whom it is intended call it the “Master Plan for Arts and Culture.” Arts OC seems to be either arrogant, out of touch or overly trying to be cute. August 13, 2015, City Arts Commission comments - Jim Mosher Page 2 of 3 Item VI. Election of Officers I hope the Commission will rotate its officers. As has been pointed out by others in the past, with seven members serving at most eight year terms, a rotation every year is needed for each to have a reasonable chance to serve in the various positions Item VIII: Approval of Minutes – DRAFT Minutes - July 9, 2015 I have not reviewed these. Item A.1 Correspondence and Press I have noticed nothing has been offered under this heading for many months. Is there no longer any “Correspondence and Press”? Or is the public (and Commission?) simply not seeing it anymore? Item A.2 Financial Report No report has been posted under this agenda item, at least in the online agenda the public sees. Item B.1 Committee Appointments Although it seems to have no effect, I will point out once again that under the terms of California’s Brown Act, the members of these committees are required to meet only at noticed public meetings if any of these circumstances apply: (1) if the committee is charged with anything other than bring a recommendation back to the Commission as a whole (for example, if it or its members are allowed to make policy or administrative decisions on behalf of the Commission), (2) if the committee has a continuing existence, and does not automatically terminate upon bringing back the specific recommendation it was tasked with developing, or (3) if the membership includes anyone who is not a Commissioner. One or more of these circumstances applies to most of the committees listed, and simply including the words “Ad Hoc” in a name does not change that. There is nothing wrong or illegal about having such committees, but their members need to hold their discussions at noticed public meetings. At the very least, the specific recommendations these so-called “Ad Hoc” committees are being tasked with bringing back for Commission action needs to be publicly recorded. August 13, 2015, City Arts Commission comments - Jim Mosher Page 3 of 3 Item B.2. Selection of Alternate Sculpture to Replace Mama Crusty  In its recommendation, the Subcommittee seems to simply be going down the list of alternates in the order they were presented in June.  Shouldn’t the work being replaced have some effect on which alternate is the most suitable replacement (for example, to maintain the originally conceived artistic balance for the exhibit as a whole)?  Doesn’t the Commission need to see what the proposed work will look like at the recommended location (and the “Sunflower”) and consider if some other work might look better there?  Shouldn’t it be a concern that the paths in the park already show signs of damage/cracking and heavy moving equipment might further aggravate this?