Culture & Arts Advisory Board

And I said, "Oh, I should Maybe I should still have my phone. That's why I'll have a meeting on Wednesday. Stay with Sonia and Jerry and um Mhm.

Mhm.

Hey. The culture Apex Culture and Arts Advisory Board meeting for Monday, October the 19th, will come to order. All right. First item, approval of the minutes for September 26th. Uh two No, 2026. And do we have a motion to approve the minutes? I'm going to just check for a minute. Okay. Bethany makes a motion. Do I have a second?

I know we have one fix for or of the minutes, sorry. Um, so it sounds like Juliana was not at the September meeting. So I will adjust the number of votes and her um absentee on there as well. So can we approve the minutes with those contingencies?

Okay.

I'll make a new motion to approve with the adjustments to the minutes uh for the September 2016.

Second.

Okay. All in favor?

Aye. Okay. Motion passes to approve the minutes with the contingency of fixing that. Okay. Okay. Next is the town liaison reports.

All right. Well, thank you so much, Susan. Thank you for acting as chair in Tom Caldwell's absence. Um, I'd like to introduce Christie to you. She is our newest board member. Today she is a non-voting member, but by our next meeting she'll most likely have had her oath of office, um, if not right before that meeting. And so today she's non-voting, but once she has her oath she'll be able to vote. So welcome, Christie. We're very excited to have you on the board. Um, in addition to um Christie, we will have one new person starting. Um

I don't have the information as to who that is yet. Um, council's working on this. I know they just did a vote. I believe at their last council meeting, so I'm sure we'll hear very quickly who that new person will be. They'll most likely be starting in the November meeting. Let's see here. Oh, and some marketing updates. We do have some new followers on Instagram, which is great. Um we are also over 2,200 views both across Excuse me, this past month across both Facebook and Instagram. So, that is good. Um those posts are primarily for the open call for artists for the sculpture art walk, as well as um the uh public review of the murals ended about halfway through the month review. So, that is pretty quick. Yes.

Question. For the like call for artists, I know we post that on our website.

Yep.

Do we also post that to like the town Facebook group or our Facebook page? We do?

Yes. Yes, so the town Facebook team also picks up that posting as well. Same with the Halie Cultural Arts Center. They pick those up as well.

Okay. Yeah, cuz I was I can share those in the There's like some of the town unaffiliated town Facebook pages and a lot of things get shared there. So, we can probably share it there and get a broader reach.

Yeah, absolutely.

Thank you.

Okay. All right. Next is chairperson's report. Tom is not here this evening, so um we don't have anything at this time. Uh I don't think there are any public con- comments tonight. I don't see anybody joining us. That's the next item. Uh So, the next item would be old business. And Taylor, you're going to let us know about the public art master plan.

Absolutely. I have to get official and go in front of the screen.

Don't close it down.

I know, right? That's my luck. All righty. So, we're going to talk about the public art master plan progress, where we're at right now. Let me get my notes. Printouts in front of you as well. You'll see in front of you the printouts, as well as the screens in front of you the plan as well. So, um I asked our contractors for the public art master plan to give us a quick summary of where they're at, and here is what they came with. Um engagement ran from May through mid-July, 316 survey responses and 11 stakeholder interviews and working sessions. The August funding and code memo set the framework. The full draft was written in September and revised through October 13th with population, peer city, and legal references against uh all checked against sources. The draft is named a lead and timeframe. Excuse [clears throat] me. The draft is also organized around six different goals, each with strategies and an action table. The remaining step before CAB review is confirming funding options with our budget staff. The plan is built around six goals, grounded in what residents and town leaders told CPG, art in the places people use every day, art that reaches every part of the growing town, and a program built to last. Goal number four, funding, is highlighted because confirming the

funding options is the last step before CAB reviews the full draft of the master plan. Murals, which were 61% and functional art, which was 47% were residents top art types and, quote, keep it local, end quote, regarding talent was one of the most consistent survey requests. And lastly is our final step here. Four funding areas need confirmation before the draft goes to CAB. Number one, percent for art, 1% of construction costs on town capital projects of 500,000 or more. Exclusions may be such as public safety apparatus and water, sewer, and storm water elements. And whether to adopt it as an ordinance, policy, or UDO amendment. Those conversations are also including our town attorney's office. Number two, a named public art fund with the grant and special revenues fund with a 10% maintenance and conservation set aside in every project budget. Number three, private development. North Carolina law does not allow a mandatory in lieu fee. So, the plan uses an incentive menu under UDO 8.4. And the town attorney needs to review any voluntary contribution options that we may propose. And number four here, grants and philanthropy, including United Arts Council for towns, capped at $5,000, NEA, and a donor program with the town

match. Finances calculating what 1% would yield from the adopted fiscal year 2026 to fiscal year 2030 CIP, capital improvement project. So, I know that was a lot of information all at once. Whittling it down, we had two full months, two and a half months of public survey. What What do you want to see? Um uh when it comes to public art. We're specifically talking about public art, not other forms of art that we oversee. We gathered that information with our contractors. And they reviewed that information with town staff, 11 different people, I believe I read. And so, those were individual one-on-ones. And then, they also had the opportunity to meet with some of you as well. To get your feedback and your opinions as well on what you'd like to see moving forward, what you've seen over time as well, history. So, they drafted up a funding document that assists in the creation of the public art master plan document. And so, that specific funding document is what's being reviewed with the working draft of the master plan. Once town staff is comfortable with where the funding document has left the master plan, then CAB will see the master plan draft for review and then, obviously, will go through um items. At that time, we will live stream the contractors in if you have any questions, um concerns, things like that. Um and then, we will bring that to a vote at that specific meeting. We're looking at November right now for that meeting. Obviously contingent on many different factors, whether or not

town staff is comfortable with where we're going as a master plan. Um or if we need to bring it back for some more studies. As well as um if we meet a quorum for the November meeting and um just overall timelines of our contracts right now. I know that's a lot of information. Do you have any questions right now?

So after we review it, assuming it gets to us um the is is this be Are we recommending it to town council to vote on it at that point?

That is correct, yes.

I just wanted to verify.

Mhm. Absolutely.

And then the when we when we recommend it for town council, you're saying that the town staff has already viewed it. Have they already They've already put it up against the budget aspects of that as well?

That's correct. So we kind of have to we have to work from staff first, then goes to CAB, then to council. So that when I'm presenting to council, I'm saying this draft in front of you has been approved by the staff behind me as well as CAB is recommending us putting this forth. And that would include the plan, the actual master plan, as well as any UDO policy ordinance changes that may be required to come with that draft plan. All right, any questions? All right, are we comfortable with me moving on to the next topic? I see heads nodding. Okay, great. Obviously, if you have any further questions for the um consultation team, just let me know and I can always relay those to them. Okay. Let me get my paperwork here. So, the next thing we have on the agenda is our sculpture walk.

I'm going to go like this for a second. Next one on the agenda is the sculpture walk. Um so, we will do do do do do we will slightly need to adjust the location for where we are recommending the butterfly enchanter piece that we have recommended for purchase. Okay? So, at the September meeting, it was proposed that um butterfly enchanter, if approved by council, would be moved to the nature park on the Seymour side near the playground. That specific location, when we were doing the um required planning board location underneath the ground, that's actually being pre-planned for a communications board. So, I'm proposing, and I talked to our staff, they're going to be doing some more locating underneath the ground, make sure that we're not um hitting any wires, any water lines, and whatnot. Um still within the same vicinity, just probably about 10 ft, 20 ft one way or another. So, we'll still be at the nature park on the Seymour side near the playground, um but it will not be in that one specific location right as you walk up to the playground. All right. Um and that will obviously still have to go to council once we get the final word as to what's under ground. And as you know, and as we've talked about in our marketing section, the sculpture walk applications are still open. They will remain open um until November 8th. So, spread the word to all of our sculpture friends. Um I know that we have a long-running list of sculpture friends as well um that has got have gotten uh the word. So, that's exciting. Um so, we'll start seeing those come in in the coming weeks. Um as Tom and I lovingly joke, we always see them right

at the last minute. So, it's always always coming through here. All right. Any questions about sculpture walk?

I know we usually see a big influx at the end. Have you gotten a decent amount or

We have two right now.

Okay, yeah.

We have two right now. Um we still have a few weeks left. Um but that is not abnormal.

[laughter]

I will say we uh there will be probably like the last 3 days or so, I'll get about 30

all in my inbox. So, that's exciting. Yes, please.

And where can you find this application? Where can I get information? I have people I can send it to.

Absolutely. So, the application is primarily on the CAB website. It can also be uh found at all of our um social medias as well as flyers around town. So, we have a red and white flyer about the application process.

Okay.

Absolutely. All right. Any questions before we move on to murals? All right. Moving on. All right. Now, you will see you'll see a new presentation in front of you about the 2026 murals. As a refresher, we are going through the process of putting up a mural over at the Apex Nature Park Amphitheater, the base structure, as well as the Saunders Street retaining wall part one. So, a refresher about the location over at the Nature Park Amphitheater. You'll see in your presentation a red outlined um base structure for the amphitheater. Um the picture on the left is what we are calling the front side, and the picture on the right is what we're calling the back side.

This structure, as you can see in the picture on the left, also has side panels as well. That will come into play as we talk about the mural. So, what has happened from now from the start of our mural process until now. We've hired an artist, started the design process, the subcommittee was comfortable moving the mural to public review. The town requires a 30-day public review for the draft um design for the mural, and then we collect all of that information, feedback from the public. We typically narrow it down to somewhere between two to six of the biggest points that come up. Sometimes it's like, "We love the mural." That's great. We We love that. Or, "We don't like the mural." Okay, well, that doesn't help me, you know? So, we whittle it down that way, and here's what we came up with. So, the Nature Park Amphitheater mural draft is such you see in front of you. The image on the left side is the front. This is the front that will face the audience in the amphitheater. The image on the right side is what will face um the back side of the amphitheater, which backs up to the trail, the pond, as well as the disc golf. Okay? Any questions? It has gone through many iterations. Um we have had windowpanes, we have had enormous bees, we've had little bees, we've had hidden birds. Um we've had just life-size flowers. Um the artist did a wonderful job of being able to incorporate

the public's request. The public wanted to keep the whimsy of this design, but wanted a little bit more realism. They wanted to see the the pond in the background. So, this piece is kind of like a portal through the amphitheater. So, it looks towards the path or it looks towards the pond. Um so, this piece itself has has changed quite a bit um based on the public feedback. But, we're pretty confident that this reflects what the public was wanting as well. Do you have any questions about this piece itself?

Assuming we approve, when when would we start or approximately?

Absolutely. So, the timeline for both of the murals that we're talking about, if both of them are approved today, I will be going to council on November 10th and doing a very similar presentation. I will show them the location, I will show them the original design that went to the public, and I'll show them this after public review design. Um so, ideally, on November 10th, if the council approves the design, the artist can start as soon as that next Monday. And this artist had stated it would take about two, and a half weeks to finish. Mhm. Any questions? Any feedback?

So, Taylor, would you talk a little bit about the side? So, I'm I'm seeing um

Absolutely.

the side as well.

Absolutely. So, this next slide here is the the sides that you will see. These colors and gestures mix the two sides together. So, that's the idea. We didn't want it to be too much of a focal point, more of a pass-through between the two sides.

All right. If we do not have any questions or any further feedback, I would like to raise this for a motion for approval to recommend to council. Do we have an open

to approve with a side note that I liked the original before the bubble.

[laughter]

But, if this is what the public wanted, I will motion to approve.

Thank you, Aspen.

I'll second.

Okay. All in favor?

Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Okay, wonderful. Thank you so much. Moving on to our next mural. Saunar Street retaining wall. So, I mentioned in the beginning of this presentation that this is part one. As y'all are familiar, the Saunar Street retaining wall is a relatively new structure. Um and it has, I believe, seven different sides. The idea is this mural will be the very start to a several-part series that we will do over the next several years. Um it will not always be with the same artist, so I will keep that caveat. The idea is that we will spread the wealth along with all of the artists will get a different image on each side, okay? So, what we're proposing today is this front-facing, the largest side. It is 207 ft long and goes from about 6 ft on its furthest right side to about 10-12 ft on the left side. Same idea as the previous mural. We went through a process where we worked with a subcommittee that was contained business owners from downtown as well as economic development and worked with the artists to come up with some themes. That design went to public review for 30 days. We received the public review.

There was an outstanding amount of public review because this is a very prominent location, so we were excited to see that. Obviously, very highly successful with that public review. And here is the design. This is the design called the song beneath the town. This is by Britney Flood. This piece has fully incorporated all of the public feedback. So, the original design was quite dark. It had one very bright butterfly similarly in location that we have the butterfly on the right here, but the contrast levels were very off. And so, a lot of the public feedback was this this feels very dark. There is very very dark. We don't understand why it is so dark and this butterfly is so bright. So, that was one of the things that we came back with to our artist was number one, people want to see the North Carolina butterfly. North Carolina state butterfly, so we made the North Carolina state butterfly. We also wanted to see an adjustment in contrast to this mural, and that's exactly what Britney did. So, you'll see um many different representations of Apex in this space. Um most obvious, the train tracks as well as much local foliage um and obviously our state butterfly. Do we have any questions for this draft? It's very hard to get all of the detail in this small piece in what will be 207 ft. It's incredible.

It's a really big space. So, here they look small images, but really when they're on the wall, they're going to be pretty large. So, part of me thinks like it's it's too small, but I know that when it gets on the wall, it will not be That'll be a really big butterfly.

Yes, [laughter] it will.

At at least 7 ft tall.

[laughter]

At at least 7 ft tall. Um probably about 7 to 12 ft wide as well at this point.

So, Taylor, so the way you described it on the if we're looking at the the red outline of the the retaining wall from the previous picture, on the right side, it's 6 ft high, and then on the left side, it's about 10 12.

ft.

Okay. Okay.

Yes. So, it it very gradually gets larger as it goes towards the left.

Okay.

Yes.

But left to right, it gets smaller.

That's correct.

So, so does that mean that the butterfly will be on the pan- the far right panel, which would be about 6 ft? Okay. And it looks to be about seven ish panels. Maybe maybe more. Yep. Yeah, and one of the items that we had heard was not to make it so angular. One of the drafts had um a lot a lot of um big triangles with just open color, no imagery in it. Um and we went more towards a more organic feel while still allowing for these different images to have a very clean transition between. All right, any questions at this time? All right. I'm going to open it for a vote. The vote is to bring this design to council for further recommendation to put on the Saunders Street retaining wall. Do I have a first motion?

I'll make a motion.

All right, Susan.

I'll second.

All right, all in favor?

Aye.

All opposed? All right, passed. Wonderful. Both the Nature Park mural vote and the Saunders Street mural vote prove as you see it in your slides. Thank you so much. And let's see, Susan, you want to start us off on the next item here?

Okay. Can I ask a question before you get out, Susan? Is that okay?

Sure.

Um for our like mural and sculpture applications, do we have like a checkbox in there that says like um do you want us to let you know when the next application period opens? Or anything like that?

We do not have a checkbox, but we do typically take the email information from the previous year's mural call and send the new mural calls to them. Same with the sculpture art this as well.

Okay. Thank you.

Absolutely.

All right. Under old business, downtown window painting. That's a name.

Uh yeah. We um are scheduled for November 30th, which is a Monday, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. I have heard back from three of the schools, so I'm going to touch base with there's one that I haven't heard back from. But um the three schools have said yes, and they're very enthusiastic about coming. Um we have a rain date of the following day, which I believe is the 1st of December. Um hopefully the weather will hold out. Um Taylor, I do have a list of a few things that I will need replenished. I don't think we've got anything for a while. Um and I'm hoping we can still have some snacks and things for the kids. Um I haven't promised that, but I I think that's a nice thing to be able to do. Um and um I think Brad has said he would and anybody's welcome to come and help out during that. Basically, it's just fun to be there and support the kids and take pictures. So, I can I think last year I forgot to take very many pictures. So, I do think we had the town staff came and

took some pictures, too. So, um Taylor, are you going to reach out to um the fire station? Do I I think that last time you did that. Okay.

I already have.

done that in a while. Okay. And in the beginning days, like I had to do that, but yeah, it's really nice that that is already done. So, um but we will be there. I'll probably be setting up around 2:30, 2:35.

Okay.

Um cuz sometimes some kids get here a little bit earlier.

And then it goes 3:00 to Is it 3:00 to 5:00?

Do you need to do any initial setup the day before any organization?

Um no, I mean basically, it's pretty straightforward.

Okay.

But yeah, I would usually start around 2:30 just to get the tables out and and set up and hopefully weather won't be a problem.

Um I'm going to let you know about that date. I'm not sure right now, but um in years past, I I think we brought speakers and did like

Yeah. The teachers bring their own speakers.

Yeah. Okay. That was fun. Okay.

And that's all have? Would you still want a table in front of the hallway as well in addition to the snack table?

be great um because um I don't have a snack table so if you guys have

[laughter]

They have been um absorbed by businesses.

No problem. We'll make sure that happens. Do you need volunteers for that other than us?

No. No, the kids pretty much do everything. We just stand there to

Okay.

answer any questions usually, making sure they're safe, and teachers are there to but mainly to make sure that they're not running across the school. Yeah, things like that. The teachers too. Yeah. All right. Next is augmented reality with Brad.

I need two more weeks to finish the model. It got a little more complicated than I expected. I started building it back last week and

Okay. Just

taking a little more time than I had the past the past week but um yeah, I'll I'll be sending that out. About two weeks.

In two weeks. Okay.

Sounds good.

Briefly explain to me what that is.

Um it's just as it's a digital documentation of cultural heritage. So, um making in this case three-dimensional model of something that will eventually have to come down. This is the in Kidstown. There's a um the community architectural piece that has the handprints of everybody that helped build it up. I just made a quick 3D model and I'm making a online uh web presentation of the 3D model and and the four panels of handprints.

That's fine. Okay.

Mhm.

All right. Next is new business and bus stops.

Okay. Your ball. Yes, thank you so much. So, um I put two items on new business with the intention that they will become old business with the next meeting so that we have some presentations. So, the bus stops, the planning department um wanted me to say this. Planning department will be coming in November to present about the bus stops. They would like to see if CAV would be interested {slash} willing to lead the artist selection and installation process for two bus stops. Um, two Excuse me, bus stop art installations this this fiscal year. So, before June 30th. Um, so planning will prepare a presentation at the November meeting and we will have the opportunity to discuss and ask them questions and get a lot more information, but they wanted to give you the heads-up that they are coming in November.

Have the bus stops been chosen?

I am not sure. I can get more information.

I'm sorry.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

We'll find [laughter] out in November.

Yeah.

Do we know if it's the Is it the bus stop structures, like the shelters themselves, or We don't We'll know. We'll find out next

month. Or

In in their email, they had mentioned that the medium had not been chosen yet.

Okay.

So, it I am not 100% sure how to answer that at this time.

Um, it's possible that it could be some of the glass structures and or um similar to the current ground mural bus stop murals that we have right now.

I would even when they come, I would probably propose that we leave it open to what medium and the artist can give some ideas. Cuz they're more creative than I am.

[laughter]

Absolutely. That's no problem. I think that's a great thing to bring up. All right. Okay. Great. Moving on to um the coming together piece. So, if you're familiar, I will refresh your memory. If not, um we have a stone sculpture that was um donated to us 2 years ago. This piece is called coming together. It was a part of our 24 25 sculpture walk. It sat in front of the um the depot. And that piece was donated to us and moved over to the nature park um in the Excuse me, not the nature park, the Pleasant Park nature play area. Um a different part of nature. Um and this piece, like I mentioned, was donated to us 2 years ago. The piece is weathering some cracks and damage from use and time. Um this is pretty normal for this type of medium. Um and we have been granted funds from our insurer to um repair most of the issues with the piece. Not all of the issues with

Um so, I'm working with the artists right now based on the allotment that we were given by our insurer to see what can be done about facilitating a fix for this piece. Um I know the artists was were unsure as two artists who created this piece. Um they were unsure if the cracks and the weathering was vandalism or if it was just from use and time. And we do not know. Um this The piece itself does not lend to one way or another. The insurer did not have any feedback on that. Um, but the intention is to get that piece repaired um, up to a certain level of function. Okay? Any questions about coming together?

Is it still in it's still in the same location? It hasn't been moved.

That is correct. It has not been decommissioned, it does not have it has not been removed.

Do you anticipate if it that would need to be removed for the repairs or not?

It's possible that it would need to be removed for the repairs.

It's huge, as what I remember. Yeah.

It's it's very large and so the piece itself it looks like a bench and it could functionally be used as a bench, but for the sake of art um, and the for the sake of how the artists represent it, it is a sculpture. Um, it's about ft long, maybe 6 ft long. Um, kind of organic looking, but it is it's like concrete stone and it's about 6 in maybe 8 in deep. Um, and that's just the top layer, not even the stand. It's extremely heavy. it requires much of our equipment um,

our parks operations equipment to be able to move it, um, but it's not impossible. We've done it before, we can do it again.

Absolutely.

But I wanted to give you guys the heads up because number one, it may it will need to be repaired, it may need to be removed and brought back and um, it will not affect our funding for any of our projects because insurance is should be able to cover most of the repairs.

If we move it to to it, is it worth looking into moving it to a different location so that it's not potentially used as a play structure because that is

Mhm.

a very high traffic children area.

Sure. It's possible. We will we can definitely review a new location for it. Um the biggest the biggest question is is is the repair needed because of use or is it because of vandalism or, you know, what will be the effect if we move it somewhere else um and where where will we move it? Um so there's definitely lots of unknowns in the air right now um but it's something that we're looking into as we move forward to see what we can do to repair it. Any questions? Okay. Okay, next uh announcements and petitions by board members. Any new announcements anybody has? We do have a new board member.

We do?

Yes, this is Christie Famolare, right? The Italian pronunciation. Welcome.

Thank you.

All right, anything else? Nope. Anybody? Okay. All right, I

move that we adjourn the meeting for tonight. Do I have a motion to adjourn?

Motion to adjourn.

Okay.

I'll second.

All right. Meeting is adjourned. Thanks.

Yeah.