City’s Arts and Culture Commission to Meet, Discuss Moving Sculpture

The City of Pasadena’s Arts and Culture Commission meets Wednesday, January 11, to review and approve Annual Grants Program Guidelines for fiscal year 2017-2018, and a receive the final report on the conduct of Fall Art Night 2016.

This is an information only presentation. No action is being taken by the Commission.

The scuplture, Two Open Rectangles Gyratory by artist George Rickey, is a 25′ abstract kinetic sculpture with two movable forms on two pronged fork base. It is currently at Parsons, 00 W. Walnut Street in Pasadena

Every year, the Commission approves changes to the annual Grants Program guidelines, in order to maximize the public benefit of grant funds to the community.

For fiscal year 2017-2018, Pasadena Cultural Affairs Manager Rochelle Branch said staff is recommending a revision of the text under Guidelines and Applications to emphasize the importance of “public benefit” as it relates to the Pasadena community.

The change in the text is meant to emphasize the need for grant applicants to articulate how their proposed program can be of benefit to the entire community, as opposed to a narrow constituency within Pasadena.

The other proposed change will be to update the Resource Guide for publicizing events funded by the Annual Grants Program.

Pasadena’s Annual Grants Program awards funding to eligible arts and culture organizations and individuals for proposed programming that would benefit the greater Pasadena community. Applications are reviewed by a selection panel composed of arts and culture professionals in the community, and approved by the Arts and Culture Commission.

Branch will also present a report Wednesday on the 2016 Fall Art Night, which was the 35th Art Night Pasadena.

In a staff report, Branch summarized the conduct of Art Night 2016 as generally successful, reaching over 20,600 patrons, with at least 41 percent of them saying they were new to the event.

“ArtNight Pasadena continues to be a popular, unique event that attracts both local and regional audiences,” Branch said in the report. “ArtNight continually incorporates new programming at each event and has the potential for future expansion.”

Branch is expected to provide more detailed summaries of Fall 2016 Art Night during the meeting.

The Commission will also tackle a proposal for quorum change in its subcommittees, and later on listen to reports by the Commission Chair, Tiffany Owens, and from the Community Development, Grants and Public Art subcommittees, as well as a comment from the Design Commission.

The Arts and Culture Commission will meet at the Hearing Room at Hale Building, 175 N. Garfield Avenue in Pasadena, starting at 5:30 p.m.