Delaware State Arts Council Meeting Minutes

March 16, 2016

10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Milton Theatre, Milton, DE

Attending:Council: Mack Wathen(Chair), Tina Betz, Robert Fitzgerald, Richard Givens, Margaret Johnson, Ralph Kuebler, Mary Ann Miller,Heather Morrissey, Jon Newsom, Cheryle Pringle, Michael Quattrociocchi, Carol Rothschild, John Sarro, Cathy Walls

Staff: Sheila Ross, Kristin Pleasanton, Dana Wise, Roxanne Stanulis, Katie West, Leeann Wallett

Public: Lisa Sumstine – Milton Theatre

Absent:Madeleine Bayard, Donna Blakey, Lori Crawford, Paul Weagraff,Gwen Henderson

The meeting was called to order at 10am

Minutes were approved from the December 16, 2015 Council meeting.

Chair’s Report – Mack Wathen

Mr. Wathen welcomed everyone and expressed how he liked having meetings at different venues to get the opportunity to visit our arts organizations.

I am generally thrilled to be back on the Arts Council. My second term limit ended in March 2015 and I was held over till June. I was very fortunate to have been selected to serve as chair after Lise Monty resigned. We will be recognizing her for her 8 years as the chair at our June meeting. Paul was unable to be here today and Kristin is leading the meeting today.

I met and worked with Leeann for the first time on the press release and communications processes. She had me interview with Larry Mindte on the TV show, The Delaware Way. His first question was “Why should we put any money into the arts?” I told him in detail about the $143 million economic impact that the arts have on our state and the 3800 full time equivalent jobs that are produced by the arts and culture business with the state. He also asked about people wanting to be on the arts council to steer money toward their entity they’re involved with. I explained to him that we sign conflict of interest forms and recuse ourselves from anything we’re involved with.

Sheila (and company) did a great job with Poetry Out Loud state finals at the Smyrna Opera House. The winner, Hannah Sturgis, won last year as well. I will be in the DC area during the national competition being held May 2 – 4, so I’m going to make it a point to attend.

To the new council members, in Juneis the big meeting where we decide on the grants and hopefully you’ll get to serve on the grant review panels.

Motion to approve the minutes from the December council meeting – 2nd – All in favor.

Director’s Report - Kristin Pleasanton

Council Update

Lise Monty submitted her letter of resignation from the Council in January 2016, after 7 years of service as the Chair, and an additional 4 years of service prior to that as a Council member. The staff is extremely pleased with the Governor’s appointment of Mack Wathen as her successor. We will invite Lise Monty to the June Council meeting so that we can recognize her for her exemplary service.

There is one council slot to fill on the Council, with the resignation and subsequent passing of Council member Robert Connelly.

Agency Activities

State re-fresh of agency websites: Leeann Wallett is leading the Division’s efforts in working with the Government Information Center on their re-design of state websites. GIC is interested in improving functionality of the sites to enhance constituent services through agency websites.

DAA political season activities: The Delaware Arts Alliance is circulating an arts-oriented survey to Delaware’s political candidates. DAA will compile the information they receive to create a voters’ guide. Working with Senator Brian Bushweller, DAA will celebrate an Arts Advocacy Day on Thursday, June 9th, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Legislative Hall. The focus this year will be on arts education.

Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Strategic Planning: The Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation is engaged in a strategic planning process in which board members Mack Wathen and Paul Weagraff have been participating. MAAF provides programs and services to the states in the Mid-Atlantic region, including touring programs, grants to presenting organizations, and support for independent film screenings. MAAF also processes the Division’s individual artist fellowship applications.

Fall Arts Celebration: Secretary Bullock has expressed interest in an early fall arts celebration to honor those (individuals and businesses) who have been instrumental in supporting the arts throughout the economic recession and recovery. The Division is working with the Delaware Arts Alliance to plan a late September/early October event. Council members who are interested in being part of the planning can reach out to Paul Weagraff. Help is welcome!

Partnerships: The Division recently signed Partnership MOUs with the Division of Libraries and the Division of Parks & Recreation for Summer 2016 arts programming in their venues. Division funding will support arts programming in 33 libraries throughout the state as part of its summer reading program for young people, as well as a variety of programs at several state parks, including Alapocas Run, Auburn Heights, Cape Henlopen, Delaware Seashore, Trap Pond, and White Clay Creek.

The Division is partnering with Delaware Alliance for Nonprofit Advancement to subsidize the registration of 20 arts administrators from Delaware arts organizations who will attend a day-long workshop on financial management, accountability, and sustainability, presented by the Nonprofit Finance Fund.

FY2017 Budget

The Governor’s proposed budget for FY2017 represents level funding in all budget lines for the Division of the Arts, with the exception of one personnel line, which was cut. This proposed cut will not impact staffing in the Division, as that particular line had a surplus the past few years which was annually re-allocated to another agency that had a deficit.

Federal funding amount for FY2017 has not been announced to date. The Division should receive a preliminary award announcement after the National Council on the Arts meets on March 24th.

FY2016 Opportunity/Residency/TranspARTation Grants Report

See attached report.

National Art Program Exhibition

Kristin will report.

ARCH Program

Kristin will report

For your calendar

Wednesdays @ 5:30 through April 27thInWilmington Town Hall Meetings (Queen Theatre)

June 14, 6:30 p.m. Wilmington mayoral debate @ the baby grand

(City development and the arts)

May 16, 17, & 19, 2016Grant review panels – Dover Public Library

June 21, 2016 from 10a to 2p (Tues)DSAC Meeting, New Castle County, Buena Vista

Sheila Ross - TranspARTationGrants

We spread the word to teachers about the grant through word-of-mouth, last year’s Summer Institute we told the teachers in attendance and they informed their principals, we work a lot through the DE Institute of Arts in Education (DIAE), who are the artist residency group who links the schools to DDOA.

We will have a full report for the TranspARTation Grant in June. To date there are only 7 applications that have been finalized. The grants are awarded after the schools give us a final report with their final invoice and we have about 30 outstanding. This is the pilot year for it and we’d like to have council input at the end of the school year. The total budget is $7500 and we have about $1500 left. The schools apply and let us know what they’re taking a trip for and give us a preliminary budget. They have to call the bus company and get an estimate. Regardless of their budget, we only give up to $300. Once they take the trip and submit the final report (which has all of the NEA compliant information) and the final invoice, we give grant money based on that. We also want to do some advocacy work to let legislators know that we really need this.

Kristin Pleasanton

National Art Program Exhibition - Presented a PowerPoint of the winners.

DDOA has sponsored the NAP State of Delaware exhibition for 5 years. They provide resources, prize money, all of the materials, online processing and any kind of technical support. They also sponsor exhibits at places like hospitals, cities and other large organizations. Delaware is the only state that puts on this exhibition for its employees. We have 30,000 employees and we send a notice out every year to all of them. For the last 4 years we’ve had the exhibit at the DE State University Arts Center Gallery. It was held from February 23rd through March 14th this year. The exhibit is open to Delaware State employees and their family members (children, spouses, parents and siblings). We have five categories: Adult professional, intermediate and amateur; Youth 12 & under and Teens from 13 to 18. There were 237 participants this year, 28 awards and total prize money is $2600. Each of those categories has their own award and prize money. It’s open to every medium and it’s very exciting to see what comes in every year. We culminate at the end of the 3 week show with an awards ceremony and reception at DESU, using the gallery and auditorium. Deputy Secretary Rick Geisenberger was the emcee with me this year. We invite everyone who participated. The whole point of this national arts program and their motto is ‘don’t be afraid to show your talent’. Their purpose is to celebrate the work of employees in the nation.

Arts Culture & Heritage (ARCH) Program

ARCH Preservation Field Days is a new program that DDOA is involved with this year. It’s the 50th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act. Delaware is celebrating in a lot of different ways. We are operating in Dover on the Delaware Green with 15 different activity stations. We’re hosting 511 4th graders over the course of three days, 5/11 – 5/13 from 9am – 2pm. Activities include the Preservation Office, Forestry Service, and Archaeology Department. We’ll be in front of the state house and our activities are teaching about form as it relates to function, the design of the building and how line & symmetry were used and how that relates to the building. They will produce a drawing using the concept of symmetry. During the course of the three days there will be 10 to 12 groups rotating to our station. The partners include UD, The Biggs, the Forestry Service, the National Park Service, Parks & Recreation, Historical & Cultural Affairs, First State Heritage Park and the Lenape Tribe of Delaware.

Panels

This year’s panels will be held on 5/16, 5/16 & 5/19 at the Dover Public Library from 9am to 3pm..

General Operating Support (GOS) will be on Monday, 5/16 – 20 applications.

Project Support (PS) will be on Tuesday, 5/17 – 19 applications.

Arts Stabilization Fund (ASF) and Education Resource (EDR) will be held on Thursday, 5/19.

We bring people in from across the state with different backgrounds and expertise for each panel. We also reach out to council members. I have a sign-up sheet for you to indicate which panel you might be interested in and/or are available for. We like to give the panelist 4-5 weeks to be able to review.

Katie West

Grant Applications - See handout.

GOS – 71 total applications; 43 are being reviewed in-house (these are interim reports); 20 to be reviewed by panel; 8 of the full applications are from organizations with budgets less than $25,000 and are being reviewed in-house with staff and a council member.

ASF – 6 total applications all going to the panel.

EDR – 18 total applications (with a significant increase in dollar amount total requested) all going to the panel.

StartUp – 6 total applications; there were some changes in the timeline and the deadline has changed – some were new applications last year and some were applications funded last year and got an extension for their second half year in the program.

PS (community based non-arts organizations) – 31 total applications; 19 going to panel; 12 to be reviewed in-house.

Sheila Ross

March for the Arts

There is a senate bill that’s been in effect since 2003 designating March the month for the Arts in Delaware. It was spearheaded by Senator Dorinda Connor, a music educator. This year we have a proclamation from Governor Markell. Arts Advocacy day was pretty successful. We had delegation of 10 people with the Delaware Arts Alliance who went to D.C. and met with our 3 representatives.

Poetry Out Loud (POL) is a national initiative between NEA and the Poetry Foundation in its 11th year. Sheila passed out the teachers’ kit. Hannah Sturgis, a junior at Polytech High School, won for the 2nd year in a row. The governor went to her school and she was presented with a tribute from the school superintendent. The national competition will be May 5th – 7th. Sheila also showed a clip of Hannah’s performance. The national competition, held in D.C., is free.

Roxanne Stanulis

Poets Laureate

The Twin Poets were sworn in by the Governor at the 17th Poets Laureate on December 16, 2015. They’ve had 11 appearances between February and today with 15 more events scheduled so far. We’ve set up a Google calendar for their scheduling needs. Roxanne passed out a printout of their schedule.

April is National Poetry Month

The Twin Poets did a podcast for the National Endowment of the Arts and are attending a poetry festival for socially engaged poets called Split This Rock in Washington, DC. They will be featured in our April series “Poems of the Week” which will also include the 2016 Artist Fellows - we have an emerging and an established fellow in poetry - and our scholastic winner Hannah Sturgis who will probably do one of her original poems.

We are developing a list of poetry events happening throughout the state during April. There’s a link in DelawareScene that features National Poetry Month.

Leeann Wallett

Marketing and Communications - PowerPoint presentation of statistics

Google analytics - shows that there are increases in people viewing our website – Visitor traffic is about 65% new, verses 35-40% that are returning. We’re moving to a new website that will be mobile responsive. The overall state website the highest referral traffic which can be attributed to our press releases that go on also has high referral traffic for us.

DelawareScene Features:

  • Holiday happenings
  • Kids & Family friendly
  • Festivals & special events

We’re partnering with InWilmington to increase our audience by populating their website with our content. Our grantees are required to submit their events to DelawareScene and for other partner organizations we send reminders and press releases.

Social Media:

  • Facebook likes – overall increase of about 24%
  • Twitter followers – increase of 39%
  • YouTube views – increases vary with content
  • Flickr photos – increases vary with content

Digital Advertising:

  • Facebook
  • Comcast Xfinity
  • DBC Interactive
  • Delaware Today

Print Advertisements – passed around marketing samples

  • Cape Gazette
  • Delaware Beach Life
  • Delaware State News
  • Delaware Today
  • Rehoboth Beach Film Festival
  • Internal Printing
  • IAF rack cards
  • Mezzanine rack cards

Communications & PR:

  • We sent out 20 press releases
  • 63 total emails last year, the majority of which were “scene stealers” email blasts
  • Monthly Arts E-News letters
  • Mezzanine Gallery invites
  • Email invitations
  • Press releases
  • News.delaware.gov
  • Arts E-news
  • Event calendars
  • First Fridays
  • Art Loop magazine
  • March for the Arts – Education
  • National Arts Program
  • Poetry Out Loud
  • Delaware Arts Summit
  • Delaware Poet Laureate appointment ceremony
  • Delaware Public Media
  • WDEL
  • Associated Press
  • Library of Congress
  • Front page of News Journal

New Initiatives

  • Marketing/Advertising
  • New opportunities
  • DelawareScene.com
  • Increased use of Digital Ad Banners
  • Increasing Google Presence
  • New Partnerships
  • Dover Air Force Base
  • Communications/PR
  • Website re-design
  • Social Media
  • Linking Strategy to spread-the-word outside of Delaware
  • Scheduling posts
  • Standardized Template for external communications
  • Email signature
  • Growing the Media List

Public Comment – Lisa Sumstine (Milton Theatre/Milton Chamber of Commerce)

Mrs. Sumstine talked about the history and functions of the Milton Theatre. Currently there is something going on just about every day of the week. The activities vary from comedy shows, dances, plays, broadway cabarets, concert, educational programs and more. The seating capacity is about 193.

Old Business – none

New Business – none

Lunch to follow.

Motion and second to adjourn meeting at 2:00PM - All in Favor.

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