Lewes’s Public Art Committee wants to expand its reach and increase public engagement with the arts and the committee.
At a meeting last week, committee chair Heidi Lowe charged members with coming up with ideas for a strategic plan that would set a pathway forward for the group and its work.
“The mayor is asking us to kind of make a plan and then what money we would need to make some of those things happen,” she said.
She suggested that the committee might want to hold a workshop with opportunities for the public to weigh in on ideas and submit their own.
Marianne Zweig noted that one major issue is that people don’t seem to know the Public Art Committee exists.
“We have a website, but how do you get that out?” she asked. “How do we become visible and say who we are?”
Susan Heller, also a member of the committee, supported the idea of a public workshop in the hopes of bringing in new arts patrons to engage with the committee.
“I think the idea of inviting people that have never interacted with us or maybe have seen something out by the Farmer's Market to come is a great idea,” she said.
While also supportive of a public workshop, Lowe expressed some frustration that public attendance at the committee’s regular monthly meetings was sparse.
“Why don't you come to the meeting?” she asked. “We're already here. We could talk about these things at this point. So it would be great if people who are interested in the arts, I mean, we have a place that's public comment.”
Committee member Barry Dunkin agreed with the need for a strategic plan, ideally to explore a wider selection of public art opportunities.
“We don't have a plan forward,” he noted. “And do we want to do the same old, same old every year, or do we want to do bigger and better? Do we expand in other ways? You know, we've been doing sculptures, but public art is not just sculptures and murals.”
Planning process raises transparency questions
Discussion around planning a public workshop led to concerns about skirting the state’s Freedom of Information Act. That law requires meetings of government bodies, with few exceptions, to be open to the public. But, Heller seemed to advocate for a closed meeting to plan for a potential public workshop and the initial stages of developing a strategic plan.
“I don't think groups like ours can always be effective in this setting. We need to get together and just be able to sit down and bat ideas around.” she said.
While Heller said her understanding of the state’s FOIA law would allow for a closed-door planning meeting, Parks and Marina Administrator Giulia Kirsch, an ex-officio member of the committee, wasn’t so sure, noting that the city’s legal advisers take a very strict interpretation of transparency laws.
Committee member Denise Emery favored some type of planning session in advance of a meeting where public input is solicited.
“It would be great if we could just have some brainstorming sessions so that when we do go public, we don't look like we're flopping around or trying to find ourselves,” she said.
Kirsch told committee members she would seek an opinion from the city’s solicitor.
Some ideas emerge
Despite their seeming qualms about hashing out elements of a strategic plan in a public meeting, members of the committee did throw out several ideas. Heller suggested the committee leverage its existing Friends of the Public Art Committee group.
“We need to think about how we can better take advantage of the Friends of the Public Art Committee to help us with fundraising and resources,” she said.
But, Lowe noted that the friends group currently has just two members.
Still, other ideas emerged as well, including partnering with local restaurants for “dine and donate” type events and making sure that the committee has a table at various community events. The committee also briefly discussed how to partner with other area arts organizations.
Lowe said that in her opinion, the Public Art Committee is operating at full capacity.
“What we can do per year is have a temporary piece, maybe two. That's a big deal for us, and then we can have one event,” she said. “That's the maximum we can do per year at this point financially and with people.”
Lowe called that, “a great start point,” but said that any expansion of the committee’s work is going to require more people and more money. She stressed that City Council has not made any commitment to provide more funding.
“We would ask for more money, but we need to know why we're asking for more money,” she said. “At this point, we just ask for a little bit more every year and try and get a bigger artist or do two projects or whatever, but we don't do anything more than that because it's a small increase.”
Getting more money from the city council might be a tall order this year. Council members earlier this month passed a lean budget as they grapple with declining revenues and increasing expenditures.
Delaware Public Media's arts coverage is made possible, in part, by support from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
