to: Roger L. Stancil, Town Manager
from: Jeffrey J. York, Public Arts Administrator
Kenneth C. Pennoyer, Business Management Director
subject: Acceptance of FY2008-09 Orange County Arts Commission Grant Funds
date: January 12, 2009
The attached resolution and ordinance would authorize the acceptance of FY2008-2009 Orange County Arts Commission (OCAC) Project Grant funds in the amount of $1,500, to partially fund a special community art and history project titled Our Stories, In Focus.
In November, the Office of Public Arts submitted a grant request for $1,500 to the OCAC. This was the maximum amount allowable in the Organizational Projects category in support of a planned community art project. On December 16, 2008, the Office was informed by letter (attachment 1) that $1,500 had been awarded.
This collaborative effort between the Office of Public Arts and the UNC Program for the Humanities, will employ the artistic talents of photographer, Leah Sobsey and mixed media artist, Lynn Bregman-Blass. The artists, with content supplied by up to 500 people in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro communities, will create a visual installation that will be exhibited in various locations in 2009 and then be permanently installed either at Town Hall or the Library. The goal of the project is to use public art to foster dialog and deepen communication across many lines of culture, ethnicity, class, and education. Citizens will be offered the opportunity to contribute visual content and stories about their lives that will go into creating a “tapestry” of images, stories and lives in a context of a collective history and character of the Chapel Hill and Carrboro communities. This project seeks to involve communities that do not as a general rule formally participate in the arts.
The vehicle for developing the artwork will be a series of four participatory workshops beginning mid-February through the end of March in different community locations led by the artists. UNC’s Humanities Program will provide faculty, graduate students, and trained volunteers to assist with the workshops. During the workshops, participants will have their objects scanned for the artwork, but will also learn how to use oral history as a tool for capturing their own family or community stories. Genealogy specialists will guide people in researching their family trees. Piedmont Poet and Writer Laureate, Jackie Shelton Green, will lead story circles and journal writing activities. A 17- member Community Arts Project Committee of the Chapel Hill Public Arts Commission will also help coordinate the publicity for the workshops and assist the artists.
We recommend that the Council adopt the attached resolution (attachment 2) authorizing the acceptance of the Orange County Arts Commission Organizational Project Grant funds, and that the Council enact the attached budget ordinance amendment appropriating the OCAC grant funds for this project