Title
Recommendation to Review and Approve the "Haunt Your House!" Application to the Public Art Small Grants Pilot Program
Body
To: Public Art Commission
From: Lois Butler, Economic Development Manager
Date: July 9, 2020
BACKGROUND
The Public Art Commission (PAC) launched the Public Art Small Grants Pilot Program in January 2020, with a pilot year budget of $20,000, to fund up to 20 grants for both cultural and physical public art projects in two categories: Micro Grants: $250-$500 (up to 10 grants) and Small Grants: $501-$2,000.
At its March 10, 2020 meeting, the Commission appointed a Small Grants Subcommittee, comprised of two Commission members (Liz Rush and Kirstin Van Cleef) and a staff member (Amanda Gehrke) to review the grant applications and make recommendations of awards to submit to the PAC for approval.
The Small Grants Subcommittee met remotely on April 29, 2020, and reviewed each of the 34 submitted applications (Exhibit 1). The panel selected a total of 16 out of the 34 applications to recommend for funding to 11 individuals or organizations out of the 23 who applied. These include six Micro Grants to be funded for $1,300, and ten Small Grants to be funded for $18,700 (Exhibit 2).
At its meeting of June 15, 2020, the PAC voted on the recommendations of the Small Grants Subcommittee. All but one of the 16 recommended applications were approved by a quorum vote. The one application that remains to be approved by a quorum is the "Haunt Your House!" event submitted by FunAmeda Productions, for a citywide Halloween House decorating contest and canned food drive in support of the Alameda Food Bank (Exhibit 3).
DISCUSSION
Three out of the five Public Art Commissioners were present at the June 15, 2020 meeting. Two of the three commissioners present voted in favor of funding the Haunt Your House application. Staff indicated that we would need to check to see whether three votes were needed to approve the grant and if so, staff would bring t...
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