Culture & Arts Advisory Board

Okay.

It's like we're going to get some I think some rain.

All right.

And I can't pay attention cuz it's marching band's about to start practice.

Okay.

Of course it's about to finish though.

Nice.

the Apex Culture and Arts Advisory Board meeting for August 17th, 2026. So, welcome everyone. Uh first order of business is the approval of our meeting minutes from our last meeting, which was June 15th, 2026. So, uh first any questions on the meeting minutes? Seeing none, do we have a motion to approve?

Motion to approve.

Is there a second? Are there a first and a second?

Yes.

Is there a second? All in favor, say I.

I.

Any opposed? And the motion carries. Okay. Now, we'll go over to Taylor for the town liaison report.

All right, I have a couple I have a couple By a couple I mean a few.

[laughter]

Um, I wanted to give you guys a marketing report. I know the last time you heard from me was back in the June meeting. Um, so since our last meeting in June, we're up 150% of new followers both on Instagram and um, Facebook. We have 3.6 K views with both uh, platforms. So, that's really good for what we're putting out right now. We're primarily putting out information about the sculpture walk that's up right now. I would love to put up some new information here. I know we're working on murals. Be great to maybe showcase our new artists. We can get some ideas out there, but I'm always open to ideas about how to showcase our board on social media. So, feel free to send me any of those ideas. That would be great. Um, and I will be posting at the end of this month specifically about the sculpture awards, which we'll talk about in um, old business. Moving on, um, on the September 21st meeting, you'll be um, your staff liaison will be Jamila Godfrey. So, thank you so much for taking that on in my absence. Um, you're in good hands.

Uh, Tom, you're going to be presenting at the September 22nd council meeting for the quarterly public art moment. Thank you for taking that on as well as primary. Uh, you and I will work together to build everything well in advance before I'm out of town, so they'll have all of that information. And then the last thing I wanted to talk in my liaison report is our approved 2026-2027 projects. So, these are tied to the approved budget. This is our first meeting since the new fiscal year was put into play. So, here's a little synopsis. We have, obviously, the sculpture walk. The sculpture walk has several parts to it. Not only does it have the honorarium for the 11 sculptors. It has the two awards, which is best in show and people's choice. So, the cost for that the possible purchase. We were approved for a purchase of a sculpture. We have a sculpture professional art appraisal, which we do every year. As well as the sculpture app called OttoCast. Um and that is the same app that we've been using the last several years. So, those are all the sculpture-related um projects. We're also in the midst of doing two murals, which you guys are both you're all aware. We have two murals, one at the Apex Nature Park amphitheater. And one at the Saunders Street parking lot. You'll hear more about those murals in new in old business, excuse me. We do have intro costs for four new projects. These four new projects are poetry and literature workshop. Music night. Augmented reality and artist in residence. And we can talk more about what those intro costs look like and how to launch those this fiscal year into a bigger project hopefully in the future.

Um but we can definitely get those off the ground this fiscal year, which goes from July 1 of this year that we just passed to June 30 of 2027. And that's my part of the report.

Sounds great. Thank you. Any questions for Taylor from anyone? All right. We'll move on to chairperson's report. Uh my updates I'll give in the old business section, so I don't have anything additional to add here. Uh public comment, not seeing anyone. I think we'll move right past that. And now we're into old business. So sculpture walk is the first one up. And um we have a couple of updates. One is on the on the current sculpture walk. As Taylor mentioned, there were um we did complete the public uh voting for uh the people's choice award. And so um I'm okay to announce

that out. Is that right? Is that it?

The winner of the people's choice award is the butterfly enchanter by Aldo Murelli. Uh that is the piece that's in front of the depot. So I know this has been a very popular piece. So not not a surprise uh winning in that in the that award. So that's terrific. So congrats to Aldo. Uh and then the um best in show, we need to have a vote to agree this one. What we did was we got input from everyone. So everyone that's in voted on the best in show. And then a small group of us, Susan, Daryl, and I got together and and kind of sorted that out and uh came out with the the result. So the resulting um uh recommended winner is Inspired by Jessica Bradshaw. Inspired is um in front of the law firm on on the way downtown um near the sushi restaurant. So that's just to give you a little um perspective of where that one is. So also very popular piece in the people's choice. Just uh Yeah. So just to let you know that as

well. So so that's uh on the table for recommendation for the for the best in show award. Um so if there's any discussion on that, uh we can open that right now.

Yeah, that's great. I think it's great that we have two very figurative pieces that won.

Yeah. Yeah.

Both of the article one

than what we've had.

Yeah, different than with our other pieces.

Sure.

And different in scale.

Agreed. Um okay, so no no further discussion, can we have a motion to approve the the recommendation of Inspired as the um Best in Show award winner?

Yeah, I'll make a motion to approve um the recommended piece for Best in Show.

There's a motion, do we have a second?

I'll second.

There's a second, uh all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Not hearing any, uh motion carries. Thank you. Um I think that's it on this Sculpture Walk. What we um will bring to a future um meeting is a recommendation for purchase and location for that, so we'll hold on that for today, but I I'll bring that forward in the next meeting, okay? And then um we will Taylor and I were just talking on the side, we need to I get the RFP out for the next one, so by the time we meet again, the RFP will be out for the Sculpture Walk 7. So uh it it's uh yeah, that's the nature of a annual event, it kind of never ends, so um so uh we'll start that already. Okay, any other questions or comments on Sculpture Walk? Okay, we'll move on to murals. So um the murals, so there was a couple of meetings with the artists uh for uh the two murals, the one at the Nature Park and uh the one at the um downtown on the retaining wall. And um I was able to attend one, it went terrific, I know some others here were able to attend, uh but maybe Taylor, I'll just maybe turn it to you to give us a little bit of update where we are

on both of those.

Absolutely. Absolutely, I it is also a good time to announce the name of the artists. Um so for the Saunders Street retaining wall, we have artist named Britt Flood. Um she is a wonderful Raleigh out of um Durham. And so we're really looking forward to working with her for this project. That meeting with the downtown stakeholders went really well for um business owners. Bethany, thank you so much for being there and representing both downtown and CAB. So I appreciate that. Um we also had uh two other business owners and a um and Colleen Morace from economic development as the downtown business manager. Um Britt will be sending her first draft designs to the stakeholders for review by the end of this week. So we'll be getting the initial view of her ideas for this project. So that first meeting was primarily to talk about um essentially do's and don'ts of what we want to see in that space. And her inspiration of that location, she grew up in Apex until about first grade and then moved to a neighboring city. So she's very familiar with this area and um still lives within the triangle, which is great.

[cough]

Um so we are looking forward to seeing the drafts of that design. Um and then the artist for the Apex Nature Park Amphitheater's name is Amy Cruz. She is out of um Wake Forest, I believe. She's also another wonderful artist um who specializes in nature painting. Um so she is a wonderful fit for that space. Um we did have a meeting with her uh about 2 weeks ago. Um and she has already submitted her first

draft drawings and she's working on tweaking those based on um some uh really size ideas. She's got wonderful ideas about some trees and um honeycomb and bees and whatnot. So, we're looking into how that will look on that space. And that mural is if you're familiar with the nature park amphitheater, the actual physical structure of the amphitheater, there is a a storage closet essentially as the base of the amphitheater. And that mural will be all the way around that that part of the facility. So, we're really looking forward to that as well. Things are coming along nicely with her drafts. And looking at the calendar, I will be presenting to this crew with cab ready designs, that's what that's what we're calling them in the October meeting. So, just a couple months honestly for this turnaround and then they are expected to both be painting relatively simultaneously in November. So, we're really looking forward to that. So, by the end of the year we're going to have two new murals here in town. We're really excited for that.

Starting in November?

Yeah, they'll be physically paint on the wall in November.

Well, believe it or not, they're actually favorable to November with the heat [laughter] outside right now.

Okay, I get that.

Yeah, the the closer we get to really cold paint or excuse me, really cold weather. So,

to be like February.

in Yeah, in January and February it actually becomes more of an issue with the paint materials than it does with the artist. The artist will just bundle up.

Yeah.

But luckily we shouldn't we shouldn't need to worry about that this time. That's my updates about the murals.

Great, thank you. Any other questions on the murals from anyone? All right. Let's see, then last old business item

was the public art master plan. So, the master plan team was in town uh several weeks ago and got input from a number of town uh employees and other people working with and supporting the town, number of folks from from this group. Uh and spent a lot of time with Taylor. So, thank you, Taylor, for all the time you committed uh to that. Um and uh they're working on a draft now. So, I don't know if you want to give a update on on where we stand on the master plan.

Sure, absolutely. Um so, they are still finishing up their stakeholder meetings right now. Um we are extending their contract. The contract was originally supposed to end at the end of this month. But after their um in-person tours, they did two back-to-back days in late July, they realized the magnitude of what we have and what they would like to be able to present to us. Um so, the contract itself is extended to the end of November, but that gives us a little bit of leeway for them to be able to present us with their draft, us give it to CAB, give it to staff, bring that towards council, and make sure that we have plenty of time before the end of that contract. And they were highly favorable to that timeline, and so are we. We wanted to make sure that they did their due diligence with this project. Um but they were very very excited when they were here to see all of the parks, all of our existing art. Um I brought them to every sculpture, every mural we have, um partnerships we've had with um artists, um some information about downtown. They loved the alley. They loved being able to be in the facilities. Um you know, they're looking at public art in its entirety. Um so, we're really glad to have their perspective on that. Um but other than that, I'm waiting on

their draft. They actually emailed me and said that it would be coming this week. So, it would be very preliminary. They're still within their stakeholder meetings. I know they still have um, some conversations that they're going to be setting up with the clerk's office. Um, so this is the bare bones before they get into the meat and potatoes with them.

Okay. It will it be this draft or another that will share with this team for input or comments?

Yes, we can I'm happy to do all of the above. Yeah, that way you guys can see the draft as it's in progress.

All right, perfect. That's great. Um, any questions or comments or anything else on the master plan on it?

I'm excited because just talking to them briefly gave me a lot of just other just facets of public art in Apex. So, it was really great just getting to talk to them and I was pretty quiet, but I was absorbing it all in. It was pretty It was pretty neat talking with them.

Is that Is that who you would recommend like different ideas to them?

Um, so this is an outside contractor that specializes in public art programs. So, they're they did the I believe it's Winston-Salem project. They work They're working with Wake County right now. Um, so

I've seen some nice murals in Winston-Salem.

Absolutely. Absolutely. But, we've got a lot of beautiful murals in this this whole triangle area. It's wonderful. Um, they would they would not necessarily be the best person to approach with ideas if you have for here. If you have ideas for Apex with art, bring it to our new business and the petitions. I think that would be a great opportunity. We can also talk through some ideas that you have. We can bring them to town.

Okay. All right. Very good. Thank you. Okay, and now on to new business. Do we have any new business anyone wants to bring up?

Let's give a

quick [clears throat] status update. So, back in June, Taylor set up a meeting with Shweta with the town and talked about possible digital preservation tools and techniques like an augmented reality type project uh for preservation of Kids Town, which it's the it's our go-to park. We it's it's time for an update. So, a lot of the wood is starting to rot, but for this meeting, I put together a very quick low-res demonstration. Just making a 3D model of the handprint area the structure towards the front of the playground and then put it on a website where you can navigate around, zoom in, see things, and I should have a higher res demo a demo ready in about 2 weeks, and I plan to share that then and also share it with the group. Just as an idea, when I view you've heard me talk a little bit about augmented reality and digital preservation, and this is in that that direction. And so, it may not make it to the final plan, but it's something that I used to do professionally and happy to volunteer to do it for the town if if if there's a need, but worst case, I'll be showing it out in a few weeks to give an idea of the kind of technology that can be used in public art.

Terrific.

Yeah, that's great. Thank you. I know we've been talking about augmented reality, bringing it in in some way, shape, or form, so this sounds like a good opportunity.

Just to give a little bit of perspective or outside perspective, Brad, that meeting was incredible. What you I mean, even in I know you said you put a little bit of time. I don't know what a little bit of time looks like. I mean, you were there for an hour. But, it was capture 30 minutes. It was really well done. And even in that in that level, I came off that meeting and was messaging Shweta and was like I had no clue he knew how how do this. This is a wonderful tool and she's very much looking forward to hearing hearing about how I can integrate that somehow into our projects and really memorializing kind of this

project that is in you know, in renovation but really has such a tie to our community and keeping that tie through you know, the digital work that you did. I don't even know how to articulate exactly how like what you did. Um but it was really well done and um I mean even in the the small part that I saw and I'm probably going to butcher this. So, please feel free to jump in. Um you had you know, essentially digital almost like a digital zoom in of almost every single brick or every every tiny mural, all of these and you can kind of jump into it and zoom in. Well, again, um this is very arbitrary on my side. Um not my expertise at all. Um but it was amazing. You can go in and Brad, I know you said you could get background information. We can say like this piece was made by this person and it was incredible to see that that was a possibility um for this this project. So, I appreciate you you putting in your 1 hour. That was great. Um so, no, thank you for that. I know that Shweta was very inspired by that as well.

We'll be more to come in in 2 weeks.

Sure. [laughter] No, thank you. Absolutely. Wonderful.

That's great.

Thank you for that.

Thank you.

Uh any other new business or any announcements or other items anybody wants to bring up from the board?

Um I wanted to make a point on something really quickly.

Sure.

So, one thing I have noticed over the past year is our networking with the community and how that has certainly flourished throughout the past year and I figured it was in perfect timing to bring this up since we're approaching the next year. So, I just wanted to say everyone's done really well and I hope to continue that into the next year.

Yeah, great. Thank you.

Thank you.

And continuing that with the schools, we'll be starting to talk about

was actually I meant

painting or window painting the next probably the next meeting. We'll talk a little bit more about that, but that'll be another way to continue that relationship.

Yes, and a lot of people have definitely become more knowledgeable about what we do with culture and arts around Apex, so

Okay.

and I think that'll be really important coming up into the future.

Excellent. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. Anything else to bring up today? And welcome there. It's great to see you. All right. If not, then we can have a motion to adjourn.

I'll make a motion to adjourn.

There's a motion. Is there a second?

Second.

All in favor?

I.

All right. Meeting adjourned. Thank you all.

Thanks.

Mhm.