Murals, Cultural Arts Plan Discussed at Feb. 15 Arts Commission Meeting
More murals and mini galleries were among potential projects discussed by the East Lansing Arts Commission at its Feb. 15 meeting, though no final decisions were made.
The commission also discussed usage of the remaining public art fund as well as plans moving forward with the cultural arts plan.
Commission considers spending $10,000 to create five murals.
At the Feb. 15 meeting, the commission discussed the remaining $114,000 in the public art fund for Fiscal Year 2024 and ways that money could be used.
Art Programming and Placemaking Specialist in the Community and Economic Development Division Wendy Sylvester-Rowan requested $10,000 from this fund to install five heat-applied vinyl murals throughout downtown East Lansing.
“We’re looking for things that give us a lot of bang for our buck,” Sylvester-Rowan said.
The project would be in collaboration with the Downtown Development Authority, which Sylvester-Rowan would like to contribute another $10,000.
Sylvester-Rowan has discussed the idea of vinyl murals with Nic Noles, the color division manager at Capital Imaging in Lansing, clarifying the cost and longevity of the pieces.
“Noles said these will last at least seven to 10 years in full exposure to the elements,” Sylvester-Rowan said. “But we plan on having these in protected spots, so it’s anybody’s best guess how long they will last in these protected areas.”
Sylvester-Rowan proposed multiple areas for the murals to be installed, mainly in parking garages in order to avoid elemental damage.
“What I think is neat about this project is it’s digital art and it’s a lot of bang for your buck,” Sylvester-Rowan said. “It’s going to be five murals in five different locations around town.”
Vice Chair Abigail Tykocki moved to approve these funds and Commissioner Christopher Wardell seconded the motion.
Commissioner Allie Siarto expressed concerns about making the decision to spend the commission’s public art fund prior to their goal setting and strategic planning at the next (March) meeting.
“I’m just thinking it may be better to table this for a month until we can figure out our strategic plan, and have a better vision on how we want to prioritize different pieces of art,” Siarto said.
The commission moved to table the discussion of this project until their April meeting, in order to set their priorities in stone first.
People’s Choice Award, small galleries and cultural arts plan among other topics of discussion.
Historically, the Arts Commission has supported the People’s Choice Award at the East Lansing Art Festival and this year will be no different, as commissioners voted unanimously to dedicate $1,000 from the art fund to the cause.
Siarto once again presented the idea of little art galleries around the Glencairn neighborhood and officially asked for $3,000 from the commission for five galleries.
The ultimate design and creation of the galleries would be up to community members, but the commission would provide the general materials and building of materials.
“Using art to build strong communities is one of our nine ‘pillars,’ so I think this would be a great way to do that,” Siarto said.
Tykocki raised the question of whether this funding should be tabled until April as well, to help plan spending.
The commission agreed and voted five to one to table the decision on this spending until April.
On Dec. 18, 2023, Tykocki, Siarto, Arts Festival and Arts Initiative Coordinator Heather Majano, Commissioner Austin Pabian and Chair Barbara Worgess attended the MSU Extension National Charrette Institute Setting Group Goals for Growth Program.
This program helped the commission gather ideas about how to identify goals and next steps for the cultural arts plan.
“We came up with a plan to take the information we got, that was sent to all of you in last month’s agenda, and convert it to more details of goals, objectives, time frames, stuff like that, so we would have something to work with,” Worgess said.
The initial draft for the cultural arts plan focuses on defining the term “arts and culture,” to reflect the identity and goals of East Lansing.
Worgess and Siarto plan to continue working on this plan to have a more structured draft that can be discussed and edited at the March meeting.
“I will come back with some of the content about why you should have a hard plan, what kind of things we should be looking at, what it means to have public art and cultural art in the city, what it does to a community, the economic impact of art, so we want to have all that in our plan as well,” Worgess said. “So we will focus next time on goals and objectives.”