HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-04-19 City Commission Packet Materials - C13. Res. 5027, Supporting Mountain Time Arts GrantCommission Memorandum
REPORT TO: Bozeman City Commission
FROM: Andrea Surratt, City Manager
Cyndy Andrus, Mayor
SUBJECT: Resolution 5027, Relating to the Application by Mountain Time
Arts for the National Endowment for the Arts
MEETING DATE: Monday, March 4, 2019
AGENDA ITEM TYPE: Consent
RECOMMENDATION: Adopt Resolution 5027, and authorize the approval of support for
Mountain Time Arts application for an NEA grant in the amount of $60,000.
SUGGESTED MOTION: I move to adopt Resolution 5027, to approve the request from
Mountain Time Arts to apply in partnership with the City of Bozeman for the National Endowment
for the Arts grant.
BACKGROUND: NEA encourages communities to partner with artists, elevating the value of
including the creative sector when developing solutions to significant urban issues. The program
supports public art projects that celebrate creativity, enhance urban identity, encourage public-
private collaborations, and strengthen local economies. The proposed project is identified as
Standby Snow: Chronicles of a Heatwave. It is a place-based opera that will premiere in July 2020
at the new Story Mill Community Park. It is a cooperative project between the Trust for Public
Land and the City of Bozeman.
FISCAL EFFECTS: The City of Bozeman has no financial obligation to this grant upon it award
to Mountain Time Arts.
Attachment: Resolution 5027
Letter of Support
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National Endowment for the Arts February 21, 2019
Art Works Grant Committee
400 7th
Street SW
Washington, DC 20506-0001
Dear Committee,
As Mayor of Bozeman, Montana, I am pleased to support Mountain Time Arts (MTA)
application to the NEA for an Art Works grant for their upcoming project, Standby Snow:
Chronicles of a Heatwave. Through their work, I have come to appreciate the value of
creative placemaking to help our City grapple with our current challenges of explosive
growth, resource scarcity and climate change.
Standby Snow: Chronicles of a Heatwave is a place-based opera that will premiere in
July 2020 at our new Story Mill Community Park, a cooperative project between the
Trust for Public Land and the City of Bozeman. Place making has been a core value of
the park from its inception and Standby Snow will contribute to that value. We are
excited to be activating this new 60-acre park with engaging public art of this high
caliber that speaks about Bozeman’s history and environmental concerns.
MTA’s participatory public art events are a form that we have seen participants and
audiences enthusiastically embrace in Bozeman. MTA’s projects have successfully
activated community dialogues about our environment and culture at this time of
challenged resources and extreme weather. MTA’s projects consciously reach across
boundaries in our urban and rural communities. These artworks create a forum for our
community to listen to each other patiently, to see each other deeply, to acknowledge
our differences and to care for the place we call home.
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MTA has cultivated relationships between members of the agriculture community, local
politicians from different parties, environmentalists, Indigenous Scholars and
community members to conduct research and participate in artworks about our region’s
critical environmental issues. MTA has built trust in numerous communities, bringing
visibility to under-represented groups and opening important conversations across
sectors. The subject of Standby Snow is important to our community, but of equal
importance is the way MTA brings diverse groups together with different perspectives
to participate in the making of their successful temporal public artworks that are free to
the public.
MTA has identified exemplary artists from Montana to produce this new
multidisciplinary work: Dr. Shane Doyle, writer, Indigenous Scholar, Crow Nation; MJ
Williams, composer and recipient of the 2016 Governor’s Arts Award and internationally
renowned visual artist, Mary Ellen Strom. Acclaimed opera director Laine Rettmer,
originally from Colorado and currently residing in NYC, joins these artists for this
anticipated event. Along with the artists, Standby Snow is being made with some
outstanding community members from other disciplines including a geologist, fire
scientist and historian.
MTA’s philosophy of inclusion engages the region’s diverse communities to create,
collaborate and participate in its well-attended public art events. We have limited local
and state arts funding in Montana and therefore require federal support. I support their
efforts and request your consideration in Mountain Time Arts application for grant
funding.
Respectfully,
Cynthia L. Andrus
Cynthia Andrus, Mayor
Bozeman, Montana
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RESOLUTION NO. 5027
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF BOZEMAN,
MONTANA, RELATING TO THE APPLICATION BY MOUNTAIN TIME ARTS FOR A
GRANT FROM THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS.
WHEREAS, the Bozeman City Commission is committed to facilitating public art and
performance art in the City and the region; and
WHEREAS, the Bozeman City Commission is committed to facilitating partnerships in
the community, thus positively impacting the economy of the entire region; and
WHEREAS, Mountain Time Arts desires to apply for a grant of $60,000 to the National
Endowment for the Arts for a place based opera entitled Standby Snow: Chronicles of a Heatwave
in Bozeman at the Story Mill community Park; and
WHEREAS, the City Commission has determined that the project is going to celebrate
creativity, enhance urban identity, encourage public-private collaborations, and strengthen local
economies; and
WHEREAS, the City of Bozeman oversees the administration of the grant and
acknowledges the public-private-nonprofit partnership that will carry out the terms of the grant
and provide a better awareness of art and its link to urban identity for future generations; and
WHEREAS, the City Commission hereby authorizes Mountain Time Arts to submit
application in partnership with the City of Bozeman.
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NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Commission of the City of
Bozeman, Montana, the City agrees to allow Mountain Time Arts to submit an application, and
that Mountain Time Arts will manage all aspects of the grant administration as determined by the
National Endowment for the Arts.
PASSED, ADOPTED, AND APPROVED by the City Commission of the City of
Bozeman, Montana, at a regular session thereof held on the 4th day of March, 2019.
CYNTHIA L. ANDRUS
Mayor
ATTEST:
ROBIN CROUGH
City Clerk
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
GREG SULLIVAN
City Attorney
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