HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Public Art Selection Committee - 03/12/2019
South Burlington Public Art Committee
575 Dorset Street
South Burlington, VT 05403
(802) 846-4107
www.SouthBurlingtonVT.gov
facebook.com/CityCenterSouthBurlington
Meeting Minutes
for the Tuesday, March 12, 2019 6:00 PM meeting
in the Summit Room, 575 Dorset Street
In Attendance: Trice Stratmann (Chair), Jennifer Kochman, Jean Sebastien Chaulot (Vice-Chair),
Penne Tompkins, Michele Bailey (Vermont Council on the Arts)
Also in Attendance: Ilona Blanchard (Staff)
1. Call to order
Trice Stratmann called the meeting to order at 6:05 PM. No changes were made to the agenda.
2. Minutes
No minutes were presented for approval.
3. Public Comments
No comments were made.
4. Public Art Selection Process – 180 Market Street Qualification Review and Finalist
Selection
Ilona Blanchard provided the committee members with a spreadsheet summarizing their top 10-13
artists out of 31 Qualifications submitted based on the Committee member’s review using the criteria in
the Call to Artists. The summary included the qualifications sorted both by the number of times they
had been selected by the committee and a weighted ranking based on their rank within each committee
member’s selection. Of the 31 artists, 26 had been selected by at least one of the committee members
as being in their top 10.
The Committee began their review by looking at the art work of qualification submittals that were
lowest ranked, reviewing each submittal in turn until they reached the highest ranked. As the artwork
was viewed on the screen, the committee explained why they thought it met the goals of the project
and also why they did not think it met the goals of the project. Artist whose body of work merited
further consideration were singled out, while artists whose work, while important, did not necessarily
best meet the goals of the project as well those that had been singled out, were not.
Eventually the list of artists was reduced to 10 who best met the goals of the project. The committee
took some time to silently look through the art work of each of these artists as it was projected on the
screen.
The committee then had a discussion about whether artists should be considered that were not from
Vermont. The call had not been limited to Vermont artists. The committee members discussed that if
there was a call to art in California or some other state, Vermont artists should be able to be selected.
On these grounds, the Committee decided that if an artist was not from Vermont, but if their work fit
the project better, it would still be considered and could be selected above an artist from Vermont.
The Committee members then made recommendations, beginning at the bottom of the list of the list,
identifying the artists they did not feel met the needs of the project to the degree that other artists did.
The Public Art Committee then confirmed that four artists had bodies of work best that best achieved
the following: responded to the particular site and community in which it was sited (dynamic and
engaging/invite the public in/celebrate multi-lingual/multigenerational users), be durable and require
minimal ongoing maintenance, and represent original and unique work of the highest aesthetic value:
In Plain Sight, Madeline Weiner, Shuikang Zhao, and Phil Godenschwager. The Committee directed
Ilona Blanchard to request proposals from these four.
The Committee also requested that the artists not travel for the proposal stage in order to reserve the
funding for the art commission.
5. Adjourn
Jennifer Kochman moved to adjourn the meeting and the meeting was adjourned at 8:30 PM.