CADI Meeting Notes - October 11, 2005

Cultural Arts District Initiative
Meeting Minutes
October 11, 2005

In Attendance: Leslie Belden, Jay Golden, Steve Cauthren, Karen Branch, Sonia Gutierrez, Chris Bray, Megan Chapman, Julie Gabel, Kassie Misiewicz, Jill Anthes, Dan Hintz, Doug Walsh

Dan Hintz opened the meeting stating that the CADI 1-year anniversary will be this November.

Question: Is this meeting to determine programming or the boundaries of the district?
Response: The group originally decided to wait and see what comes through the proposed downtown improvement district. Currently we are looking at possibilities for co-writing grants with the Walton Arts Center and looking at other ways to coordinate resources to fund speakers that can help with implementation of the CADI goals.

This particular meeting is to get an idea of what we would like to have on the agenda for 2006.

Items mentioned by attendees:
· I’d like to know what it will take to create the Fayetteville Arts Commission and if there are resources/grants that can help.
        - The arts commission will be the administrative support for the CAD Initiatives.
        Does the National Endowment for the Arts have these types of grants?
    NEA has restructured its granting process which is why it will be necessary to partner with a cultural arts organization such as the Walton Arts Center.
        There may be a local representative that can come and talk more about this.
    Tennessee has an arts organization that has done a lot of creative revenue generation for the arts, as can the Arkansas Arts Commission.
        I would also like to know what neighboring cities are doing.

· Dance Coalition is bringing in artists to do workshops. There was success with workshops this past year.
        One of the main initiatives this year will be space. Space is an issue across all genres.

        - It would be good to have a roundtable discussion about community arts space.
        Who would we need to bring to the table?
       
        - It would also be good to have a roundtable on doing a creative startup, discussing the different types of startups, advantages and disadvantages of different business and incorporation models (for profit versus nonprofit). Perhaps a member of the Arkansas Craft Guild could join the discussion.

· I would be interested in bringing in representatives of the Tulsa Artist Coalition to discuss how it was done, as well as someone from the Arkansas Arts Center. The focus would be on organization – how they grew to become what they are. Artists of Northwest Arkansas and Arkansas Arts Council may also be good speakers.

· I’d like to have more design speakers, such as Milton Glaser. I would also like to see a design component in the Fayetteville Arts Festival. The Arkansas Arts Directors Club does a similar thing. Any design talks: architecture, furniture/fabric design, industrial design.

· I’m here to revive the Fayetteville Fine Arts Festival, to bring it back to previous years. I’d like to have Bootsy Ackerman to speak on how she got the ball rolling. She had a lot of good artist amenities. I’d like to do things such as have three famous local artists in the Walton Arts Center.

· I’d like to bring in people who started small in film and went large.
        - We could talk to the people in Tennessee and with the Ozark Foothills FilmFest to possibly partner.
        Bring in Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival to discuss how they grew.
        This year’s Fayetteville Film Festival winner is from Austin, and we are looking into the possibility of doing a sister city thing to follow what Austin did to grow the arts community.
        - I’d like to bring in a politician from Austin to discuss community investment in the arts and have the mayor and city council attend the meeting.

· I’d like to see someone to discuss how to address the music scene, how to keep venues from closing, and how to work on audience development.

· I want to have someone to speak on audience development for the performing arts that can also speak to civic leaders.

Calendar:
Fayetteville Arts Festival meeting: Tuesday, October 25, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., at Kathy Thompson Studio (3 East Mountain Street). For directions, call 571-3337.