Report Prepared by: Jennifer Flachman, Senior Management Analyst
Title
SUBJECT: Review and Discuss the Arts and Culture Advisory Commission’s Recommendations for the Open Call for Art Projects
REPORT IN BRIEF
Review, discuss, and approve Arts and Culture Advisory Commission’s recommendations for the open call art projects.
RECOMMENDATION
City Council - Adopt a motion:
A. Recommending advancing ranked art projects with scores of 15 or higher for a funding total of $51,340.00; and,
B. Confirming project locations and grant authority for artists to perform work on City property.
Body
ALTERNATIVES
1. Recommend, or,
2. Deny; or,
3. Continue to a future meeting (date and time specified in the motion).
DISCUSSION
On December 1, 2021, the City of Merced issued an Open Call for Artist Request for Qualifications. The deadline for submittals was January 28, 2022, and the City received 14 proposals from local and surrounding area artists.
On April 4, 2022, the subcommittee reviewed the art proposals in-depth and discussed their suggestions with the rest of the Commission. After discussing the proposals and the subcommittee's suggestion, the Arts and Culture Advisory Commission made recommendation for Council consideration.
On April 7, 2022, the subcommittee presented and explained the ranking criteria used to review all submissions and presented one project from each submission for the Arts and Culture Advisory Commission's consideration. The Commission voted to present the top five projects to the City Council at the May 2nd meeting. While preparing a staff report for the May 2 City Council meeting, staff discovered a miscalculated score.
On April 21, 2022, the subcommittee reconvened to review the corrected rankings and recommended adding a sixth project for the Commission's consideration.
On April 25, 2022, the Arts and Culture Advisory Commission held a special meeting to review the corrected rankings. Unfortunately, there was no quorum for this meeting. As a result, the Commission could not review and discuss updated findings for the City of Merced Public Arts Project. Therefore, staff will present the Commission's recommendation of five of the 14 projects with scores of 15 or higher for the City Council's consideration at the May 2 City Council meeting. As part of the presentation, staff will note the miscalculated scores of two submissions and will introduce a revised scoring rubric with the report.
ATTACHMENTS
1. Revised scoring rubric
2. Proposals