Culture and Arts Advisory Board

Oh yeah, that's

Yeah.

Oh my gosh, yeah.

I would like to eventually speak on some of the topics related to that and some other things. We'll see.

Mhm.

15 2026 Uh and our first uh action tonight is the approval of the meeting minutes from the April 20th, 2026 meeting. Do I have a motion?

I make a motion to approve the minutes from April 20th.

There's a motion. Do I have a second?

Second.

There's a second. All in favor?

Aye.

All right. Motion passes. Second one is a um motion or um to approve the meeting cancellation for May 18th, 2026. Do I have a motion?

I'll make a motion.

There's a motion. Is there a second?

Second.

There's a second. All in favor? Aye.

Aye.

All right. Motion carries. So, the town liaison report, Taylor.

Absolutely. I've got a couple things here. Um

[clears throat]

specific to um some things that just came up. So, Prismatic Cyclone is officially installed over at Pleasant Park. It's absolutely gorgeous where it's at. It's right in between the um nature playground, the big Enchanted Forest playground, and the uh splash pad. It's right in there. It looks gorgeous. Um just as a reminder, Prismatic Cyclone is one of the first um kinetic pieces we have. So, it is just beautifully spinning in the wind. The shadow on the ground. Um it's really it's really breathtaking there. And as the park continues to grow, it will look even better there. It looks great. Um and Tom and I are actually going to be presenting the quarterly art moment at the council meeting on June 23rd, so a week from tomorrow, about Prismatic Cyclone. Um so, council will be able to see a very brief presentation and a couple videos of it actually moving around and um seeing that. So, I look forward to showing Council that achievement from this board. Um also,

uh about a month ago, I started administrating the um CAB socials, so all of our social media I take care of now. Um that is right now we have an average of one one and a half posts per week. Uh just depends on what's happening. Um some Facebook followers, we have 983 Facebook followers and 997 Instagram followers. For Facebook, we've gained four new followers within the last 28 days. Average for a group our size is four, so we are on track with marketing, which is good. And then for Instagram, our uh we've gained nine new followers within the last 28 days. An average is 10, so we're just one person below. So ask a friend to start following.

[laughter]

Um and then just [clears throat] a reminder that any requests for um ideas to share on the CAB socials, if there's something that you think we should put out that is related to our board, feel free to send that my way. Um I can always review that and post it. Right now, the main posts are about the brand new sculpture walk, so weekly you'll see a little blast about the individual new pieces. Um but yeah, that's what I have right now.

Great, thank you, Tyler. That was Yeah, those posts have been great. Thank you for for doing that. It's nice to see a continuous presence. I know we've been trying to do that for a while.

Yeah.

Thank you. Um and uh chairperson's report, uh so that's for me. So I do have one one thing I want to say. Uh we have uh tonight uh one of our very long-standing members, uh really a person who helped this all get started, uh have his final meeting tonight. So our vice chair, Shawn, this is his final meeting. His term is is up and uh uh yeah, so so this will be this will be it for for this time for now, but uh

we'll just say see you later, but not so long, you know, because I'm sure we'll be seeing you around and hope you contribute to the program in many ways. So Shawn has been very active member again from the beginning. Um really a uh very creative person and artist himself and and has done some work uh on his own. I remember the early days when it was like, let's just go paint something, right? So uh you helped us inspire us to do that and did that yourself and let me uh wield the brush once in a while, too, which I really appreciate. Um and yeah, contributed to so many other of the programs and really got us established and made us what we are today. So thank you, Shawn. Appreciate it.

Of course. Thank you.

Um okay, I will uh move on now to public comment. Is there anyone who uh would like to make some comment this evening?

All right, Daniel. I'm going to test out my new button over here.

[laughter]

Do I need to say my name and everything still?

Uh your name.

Okay. Hi, my name's Daniel Buck. I live in 105 Lindenbury Drive, Apex, North Carolina. Uh I want to say greetings to the Apex uh Culture and Art Advisory Board. Good to see you all again. I hope you're all well this June 15th, 2026. Uh keep up the good work. Um I always have good things to say, but um I wanted to make a couple of topical observations that are a little bit off the cuff and I hope I can get to the the third one. Um but I thought it would be useful to say because of uh things that are going on right now. Uh first, I just want to make an observation on the uh value of gathering. This had to do with a bit of a debate that I was having with some of my family. They happened to see this picture of this They've lived in um Apex uh part of their family for 100 years and they said, "We've lived in Apex and we've never seen this many people. This has got to be either a protest or something else that's uh or it was made up by AI." I was like, "No, no, no." So, I had to hunt this down and find out. For the record, it was the fireworks frenzy event. And I think one of the things that is important about this body is that you recognize that there are ways and reasons we can gather

together to see art, to see things that bring us together culturally, and to have events, and that has cultural, social, and economic impact. So, keep up the good work, and um you know, wanted to you know, let you know that that's something that we all care about. The second observation, again, more topical, is what I would call the art of playing the game. Uh now, we in the USA often have this saying you've heard, "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing." But that's just the style of the way that we play the game here in America. Uh the FIFA World Cup is going on right now with 48 countries, each with their own culture, and with their own way that they play the game. And I just wanted to note for the moment on the record that uh today, if you missed it, there was a great one with Spain versus Cape Verde. Uh now, I happen to have kids that are from a small Pacific island nation. Cape Verde is a small country uh off the coast of Africa, the first time ever in the World Cup. And Spain was the dominating favorite that everybody expected was going to win. And they played to a tie, which can go to show you that a zero to zero can be a very amazing thing to watch. And uh so, winning isn't everything. Holding them to do a draw uh with a 40-year-old goalkeeper, by the way, uh can be an amazing thing to watch. He was like a brick wall. So, that goes to show you that anything's is anything is possible, and telling the story of things and and memorializing them is important. With that in mind, I point out that USA versus Australia is on Friday. Uh we're unlikely to win the world World Cup overall from USA, but we do have a good chance of being the victor out of Group D. So, if you want to have a win, there's a way that you can say that we got a win. Um and so, the quick idea, I don't know this is a little bit off the hip, but I know that a lot of people I know play soccer over by Sweetwater Commons, and there's a giant TV screen there. I don't know if that's under your purview. I don't know what it would take to get a gathering place there to watch games, but I'm throwing that out there, maybe by the next World Cup. All right. Um

I'll leave the other things for next time, but I appreciate being able to make at least that topical comment. Appreciate it. Have a great day.

All right. Okay. Uh on to old business. So, uh sculpture walk. Uh so, we uh the walk is installed. Um Taylor gave the update on the prismatic cyclone. And uh we have uh the voting is now closed for the People's Choice Award. We are going to kind of tally those, and we'll we'll we'll hold that for this meeting. We'll announce that at the next meeting, cuz what we want to also do is we want to make sure we select the Best in Show Award, which will be selected by uh uh this this body and a couple of folks uh designated uh to do that. So, I don't know, Taylor, if you want to just kind of walk us through what what we are planning to do there.

Absolutely. So, it's going to be a two-part system before we have a final person announced as the award winner. So, part one, I will be, very similarly to how we do other reviews, I'll send you an email where you'll respond back to me with a ranking of one through 11. It'll be all of the new sculptures, you'll rank your favorite in order. You'll go from there. And then, we will designate three designates tonight, designees tonight, um to be the final selectors from those votes. So, I'll have all nine of your tallies. And then, those three people will review it and you'll select it from the highest grouping. Any questions with that? Okay. So, right now what we need to do is select the three designees that will be finalizing the vote. Anyone like to volunteer?

[laughter]

When when will this be done?

I'll volunteer.

Um within the next two or three weeks.

Okay, pretty soon.

Yeah.

Okay.

No. Put my hat in the ring.

Yes, I'll give it a shot.

All right. Who's using? Tom and Daryl. Thank you very much. So, as a reminder, part one will include every single member here. I will send that by the end of this week. If you'll get me your votes by mid next week, that would be ideal. Um at the very latest. And then the three representatives, I will send you guys the final votes from the rest of the team. So, make sure you still respond to vote um part number one, and then we'll go from there, okay?

I do have one request as you send your votes, please have seen them in person, all of them, okay? Walk around them 360, kind of you take a good look because it's much different can be for some of them uh than just a picture, okay?

Thank you.

All right.

And those are located on that app, right?

Yeah, they're yep, they're all.

Yeah, on the Autocast app.

Mhm. Okay. Uh next up, murals. Um we have uh a couple of selected artists, but I think we'll also keep their names until the contracts are final and all that kind of thing. So, we as a reminder, we have two murals that we're going to do this this year, start designing as soon as contracts are in place, and then painting in the fall. One will be at the amphitheater at uh the um nature park. And so, it'll be painting all 360 of that uh kind of yellow building that's in the center of the uh amphitheater. And then, the uh other will be um painting a retaining wall at the uh at the park in Watton downtown. Uh so, that'll be a real long hundred-plus-foot mural uh there. So, that'll be uh a big a big impact in town, as well. Uh so, that's that's where we are in that process right now. Taylor, anything else you want to add to that at the moment?

No, you wrapped it up.

Okay. We'll give you more updates as things are continuing to develop, but again, by well, I think we skipped the next meeting. By August, we should be well underway with design at that stage. Okay. Great. Uh then, public art master plan. So, uh Taylor, update on that one.

So, the most immediate item that the master plan group is working on is collecting art surveys. You guys have seen the emails that I've sent you to make sure that you're sending them to your friends and family, neighbors, all of that fun stuff. Um you'll also see in front of you that little quarter sheet. Um these are being displayed uh in the facilities here on town campus, as well as at the Halley. Um the goal is to get probably another I think it was another 50 or 60 votes. Right now, we're almost just over a hundred. We're at 111. Um which they had said that that's a really good number to be at at this point. The survey itself closes on July 10th. So, we'll have more information coming soon. So, let's see here. The executive interviews are underway, which means they're interviewing um directors here in town. They're interviewing other key members that are part of town employee um and some stakeholders and then their work with you guys will be happening in late July when they're here in person. Still working out the exact dates but you'll know as soon as I know when they're going to be here with the with the train. Um and what that would look like is it's more of like a group interview. They'll come with questions and it will be an opportunity for you guys to share you know how the public art you know what your views of public art in in this sense right now as well as moving the

committee as well as public art for the town forward. So that will be a conversation that you guys will have in July. And let's see here. Um no, just working on getting their in-person dates. They both live in Florida. So just getting them up here for 2 days and then those 2 days will be with you guys as well as I'll be giving them tours and walking them through the process of what we do right now. All right. That's what I got.

Very good. Thank you. Any questions on any of those items from anybody? Okay. Uh new business. Looks like we have a couple of things. Uh uh from the office of the clerk. So we have a meeting schedule and chair and vice chair positions.

All right. Hello everyone. Ashley Gentry, deputy town clerk. So good to see everyone this evening. So we're going to start with the meeting schedule. Um I did print off a copy for you guys, a draft to just to look over before um you do vote. This should have been in your agenda packet for you to look over and again it is before you. This is the fiscal year uh 26-27 uh meeting calendar. So it goes from August uh 2026 to June 2027. Everything is pretty much explanatory. You do see a couple of asterisks by like January the 25th. Um on the back it tells you what those reasonings are. As you're aware the CAB advisory board meets the third Monday of each month. So therefore in January 2027 it looks like Martin Luther King is on January 18th which falls on the third Monday. So that meeting was moved to January 25th. So that was the only date that um was moved. Because it falls on a

holiday. Other than [snorts] that everything else is the third Monday of the month at 6:00 p.m. Town counts at town council chambers. Um no meetings are held in July and that has been consistent um through all advisory boards. Um again meetings are open to the public and live-streamed. Just wanted to note that. And if you cannot attend just please let us know, let the chair know, and always let Taylor know. Um if this um looks okay to you guys I will call for a motion to approve.

Questions or comments anybody? Okay. Do we have a motion?

Motion to approve.

There's a motion. Second. There's a second. All in favor? Aye. All right. Your schedule passes.

Um I will get this um it says draft at the top so I'll get this approved say to say approved and I will send this to Taylor in the morning and she'll get this uploaded on the website. So, everyone's has this. Okay? Next order of business is the chair and vice chair selections. The positions or the terms are normally a 1-year. So, if anyone is interested in that, so your positions terms are 2-years. The chair term is 1-year. So, you would be serving in a leadership role for 1-year whether it's a chair or vice chair. Um this is for fiscal year. So, it runs from June 30th to June of next year. Um currently Tom is the chair. He has served 1-year so far for CAB as chair and since Shawn is leaving his his terms are expired which I'm so sad.

Um he will be leaving. So, we will have to select another vice chair. Um so, I will open the floor up for discussions and nominations at this time. So, first we will start with chair and then we will work our way down to vice chair. Okay, so chair nominations will start now and discussions.

I go ahead and make a nomination for Tom to serve as chair for this year.

What was that? I'm sorry.

Make a nomination for Tom as chair for next year.

Are there any other nominations for anyone else to serve as chair?

Tom wants to serve as chair.

[laughter]

Uh but yes.

Okay. Okay. [laughter] Okay, so we have a motion. So, if there are in no other nominations, are there any other nominations for chair? No? Okay, so we have one motion. And is there a second?

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Say aye. Any opposed? All Okay, that passes unanimously. Again, this will be put on the tomorrow Wait, what's today? The next agenda or next Tuesday's council meeting, so the 23rd for approval. Next is the vice chair nomination. So, I will open the floor now to vice chair nominations and open that for discussion.

I'll nominate Susan.

Does Susan want it?

Um, I think so. Yeah. For a year, be Tom's backup. Sure. Just so you are aware,

um, I do provide uh chair and vice chair training and have to um all the current chair and vice chairs. So, um just so you're aware, I do provide that training. So, um if you're ever wanting that, that's a service to you as well. Or anyone who is interested to be in that that role. Okay, so we have one nomination for Susan. Is there another nomination for vice chair for anyone else other than Susan?

Does anyone else want it?

Anybody?

Okay.

I'm new. I'm not messing with it.

[laughter]

All right, so we have a motion for Susan. Is there a second?

I'll second.

All in favor? Say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right. Again, this um both of these selections will be taken to the mayor for his approval and then council will confirm on um at the next regular town council meeting. Um and then so we will hear for you will hear from us after that. Let's We'll let you know. Um if there are there any questions for me? No? Any other questions? That's all that I have.

You got it, sure.

Yep.

Appreciate it.

All right. Anything else to bring up that wasn't on the agenda?

Anyone want to raise?

Um I Yeah, Tom, I wanted to tell the folks since we didn't have the meeting in May about our I don't know, is this our third sculpture walk with the seniors

Oh, yeah.

that we did?

Mhm.

It was good. It was great.

Yeah.

I don't know how many we had this year. It was not as many as the year before.

but it was a good crowd.

Yeah, it's a good crowd. It's a it's a nice thing to do and um I got some good feedback from people, so.

Terrific.

Yeah.

Great. Great to hear.

Mhm.

Walk with the seniors

Yes, the sculpture walk.

Yeah. Yeah, it's about a 2-mile if you do the whole loop. If you go there and back, basically. For the for the sculpture walk. So it's about a mile, you know, end to end, but when you have to go back and then you have to come back. It's about 2 miles. [laughter] So yeah.

Okay. Well, cuz my church walks and I'm a leader for this life group we seniors.

Oh.

Take them on a Take them on a sculpture walk.

Yeah.

That'd be

Well, I guess when it cools down so

[laughter]

Cuz our last meeting we were going to the park and then the temperature shot up to 100 or something. [laughter] We was like, "Uh we're going to go to a restaurant."

Fair enough.

Absolutely. If you wanted to bring your group on a walk, I can facilitate the maps and everything for you so that you can distribute those to your group as well.

That would be great.

I can do that.

That would be great. Yeah. Anything else?

Oh, the the Peak Fest sadly was a bit of a washout.

Yes.

Wasn't it?

Yes, it was.

Literally.

Mhm.

It was a rainy day.

Very rainy.

Yeah.

Very small crowd.

It's not that far a walk, right? A couple of miles all together. Okay. All right.

Uh I'd like to make a motion to adjourn.

All right, we have a motion. Is there a second?

Second.

Second. All in favor?

Aye.

All right. Meeting adjourned.

Mhm.