TREMONTON CITY CORPORATION
ARTS COUNCIL
APRIL 27, 2020

Members Present:
Tam Zollinger, Co-Chairman
Kathryn Ellis, Arts Councilmember
Leisl Sorensen, Arts Councilmember
Lyle Holmgren, City Councilmember
Bret Rohde, City Councilmember
Zach LeFevre, Parks and Recreation Coordinator
Cynthia Nelson, Deputy Recorder

Coordinator LeFevre called the Arts Council Meeting to order at 3:00 p.m. The meeting was held April 27, 2020 in the City Council Meeting Room at 102 South Tremont Street, Tremonton, Utah and via Zoom. Those in attendance were Co-Chairman Zollinger, Arts Councilmembers Ellis and Sorensen, City Councilmembers Holmgren and Rohde, Coordinator LeFevre and Deputy Recorder Nelson. Former Arts Councilmember Merinda Brighton was also in attendance.

1. Approval of agenda:

Motion by Councilmember Sorensen to approve the April 27, 2020 agenda. Motion seconded by Councilmember Rohde. Vote: Co-Chairman Zollinger – aye, Arts Councilmember Ellis – aye, Arts Councilmember Sorensen – aye, City Councilmember Holmgren – aye, City Councilmember Rohde – aye. Motion approved.

2. Approval of minutes—July 16, 2019

Motion by Councilmember Holmgren to approve the July 16, 2019 minutes. Motion seconded by Co-Chairman Zollinger. Vote: Co-Chairman Zollinger – aye, Arts Councilmember Ellis – aye, Arts Councilmember Sorensen – aye, City Councilmember Holmgren – aye, City Councilmember Rohde – aye. Motion approved.

Coordinator LeFevre said Ms. Ellis is our newest councilmember. Arts Councilmembers Lasley and Brighton are the two outgoing members. We wanted to thank them for their service and hope they can join us again in the future. Even though they are not able to vote, their advice and participation is welcome.

3. Business:

a. Public Arts & Murals

Coordinator LeFevre said Tremonton won Best of State again this year for public art in our community, which is five years in a row. That is pretty amazing and we want to keep that momentum going. First, let us go over the program and why we do these things. Tremonton has had public art since the 1970’s. The mystery muralist was a hippie who used his own hair to create hairbrushes and paint the sides of buildings. One of his murals was recently painted over, but we know of three others in town we are trying to preserve and add to our public art collection.

Tremonton City’s Main Street and downtown have been in decline for many years said Coordinator LeFevre. When the SDAT (Sustainable Design Assessment Team) came in 2015, they pointed out our murals as an asset. We created an art tour and commissioned Artist Jason Nessen to do more murals. The City created a plan to use public art to accomplish several objectives. First is to provide art to the downtown and Main Street areas that has vibrant character and appearance to the City. That will draw people to those locations and leave them feeling inspired. The second thing is culture and community pride by selecting images for wall murals that reflect and promote historic, and cultural identity, which are uniquely Tremonton. Third, we want to improve the welfare of the community by encouraging individuals to come to these areas to view art and become customers of local businesses. Finally, we have community betterment, which can improve the physical appearance of those areas by adding visual appeal to architecturally boring buildings and improving the streetscape for monotonous façades. When we select a piece of public art, we want to keep those things in mind.

Coordinator LeFevre said that in this effort we have commissioned a few artists. We are committed to continuing efforts to produce more public art. Tremonton, in conjunction with artists, select an image that can be correctly projected onto a wall—matching walls that have similar height and width characteristics that are free from obstruction on prominent areas. We have had public investors besides the City. They include the Utah Division of Arts and Museums, Union Pacific Foundation, Rocky Mountain Power Foundation, Box Elder County Tourism and Tax Advisory Board, Orbital ATK and others who have given donations. We have had several newspaper and magazine articles recognizing these efforts.

Coordinator LeFevre said we have started the process for our next mural, but have not selected the wall or the piece. We have submitted a TAB grant to the Box Elder County Tourism Tax and were awarded $8,000 for this year. We are committed to put in additional funds and start a new piece as soon as we can. Artist Nessen is still working on the Grand Entry mural at the fairgrounds, which should be completed in a month. We plan to keep him busy this summer maintaining some of the murals he has done in the past. A previous artist interested in doing a mural here is full-time professional artist Erik Burke from Reno, Nevada. The City desires to create another wall mural by engaging him. He has done some amazing work and could complete the mural in a week.

Coordinator LeFevre said that next we need to come up with the concept on what we would like and where. We will reach out to Mr. Burke to collaborate with him on how we can get it done. After talking over a few ideas, the Council decided they would like to do a mural with the Candy Bomber, Gail Halvorsen. Councilmember Sorensen said we could have a whole event around him. Coordinator LeFevre said his 100th birthday is in October.

The purpose of the Arts Council is to revitalize Main Street so we are looking for old buildings that are boring and could add character there said Coordinator LeFevre. Good options are cinderblock buildings or those that need to be repainted. For the Candy Bomber we propose using the wall across the street from the World War II Memorial. Councilmember Rohde asked about visibility. Coordinator LeFevre said the proposed wall is not on Main Street. It is hidden a bit, but the significance of that wall is its location to the memorial. Councilmember Rohde said why not Bowcutt’s red building? Coordinator LeFevre it has windows that could interfere. The other wall is not seen on Main Street, but it is in the downtown area, which gets people out and walking with businesses. Arts Councilmember Ellis said you can see it a bit as you pass Midland Square. Councilmember Rohde said how hard would it be to place that rendition over that red building to see how bad those windows would do? I would like to see it get a lot of exposure and that red building is an eye sore. Coordinator LeFevre said we could take a picture of both and let Mr. Burke get a concept together to see what he would come up with and what would be the best solution. Arts Councilmember Sorensen said the good news about doing the candy bomber on that one is you could have a lot of background so the windows may not interrupt the image. Coordinator LeFevre said we want it to be in the same style as our other murals and would like to start adding color to some of the murals, too. I could see a lot of blues and grays in this one, but we need to see a concept. Councilmember Holmgren said if we had a five-year plan we could start putting some other murals together, but it sounds like we are unified on this. Coordinator LeFevre said Manager Warnke will see if Mr. Burke is available.

Motion by Councilmember Holmgren to move forward with Artist Erik Burke to design a mural centered on the Candy Bomber. Motion seconded by Councilmember Sorensen. Vote: Co-Chairman Zollinger – aye, Arts Councilmember Ellis – aye, Arts Councilmember Sorensen – aye, City Councilmember Holmgren – aye, City Councilmember Rohde – aye. Motion approved.

The Arts Council agreed they would prefer to have the mural on the red building, opposed to the one further south. Arts Councilmember Sorensen added whatever the artist thinks is best though. Coordinator LeFevre said we will give him both buildings as an option and get the renditions to see what it could be. Start coming up with ideas of what you would like to see happen in the next five years as far as art around town and we will talk about that at our next meeting.

4. Reports & Comments: none

5. Adjournment

Motion by Councilmember Rohde to adjourn the meeting. Motion seconded by consensus of the Board. The meeting adjourned at 3:48 p.m.

The undersigned duly acting and appointed Recorder for Tremonton City Corporation hereby certifies that the foregoing is a true and correct copy of the minutes of the Arts Council held on the above referenced date. Minutes were prepared by Jessica Tanner.

Dated this 12th day of May, 2020.

______________________________
Linsey Nessen, CITY RECORDER

*Utah Code 52-4-202, (6) allows for a topic to be raised by the public and discussed by the public body even though it was not included in the agenda or advance public notice given; however, no final action will be taken.

Follow-up items for the Council

The Council was asked to come up with ideas for a five-year plan.

Coordinator LeFevre will continue conversations with Manger Warnke and keep the Council updated on the artist and mural location.