Portland panel approves art installations for two city trails

[0:20] Sean King: All right. Lindsay, would it be helpful if you log back in? I'm not sure. We can wait. But it seems like we're getting some feedback. [1:17] Ashley McCown: Hey, Sean, it seems to be working now that she's muted. [1:19] Sean King: It okay well these things tend to work themselves out so I think I think we can begin I'm going to this is a public meeting so we do have a live stream and we record these I'm going to start recording good afternoon everyone my name is Sean King I'm facilitating this temporary art review panel. We have received an application from the Portland Museum of Art in relationship with Portland Trails. I see that we have applicants from each of these organizations on the call, but I will go, I'd like everyone to introduce themselves. Share your role if part of the city staff or a representative from another arts organization so let's kick it off with Alex Marshall Alex [2:51] Phoebe Cole: Marshall Parks Director in the Parks [2:54] Bailey O'Brien: Recreation and Facilities Department yep [3:02] Matthew Grooms: I'm Matthew Grooms I'm the Deputy Director of [3:05] Phoebe Cole: Planning Urban Development Phoebe my name is Phoebe Cole and I am a member of the Portland Public Art Committee. [3:19] Sean King: Lindsay, are you able to introduce yourself? It looks like we have lost connection with Lindsay. Just a moment. Hi, Lindsay, we're just doing introductions. Are you able to, it looks like we can hear you. Great, okay. [4:07] Matthew Grooms: Yeah, Lindsay Hancock, former member of the Portland Public Art Committee, current board member of Creative [4:15] Sean King: of Portland and a practicing artist great thank you well thank you for the introductions at this time we'll allow the applicant team to share more about their proposal [4:34] Ashley McCown: Thank you I can start and maybe we can introduce ourselves as well so I'm Ashley McCown I'm the Head of Philanthropy here at the Portland Museum of Art and I've been managing this program, Art Outside and On the Trail, for about four years now. Bailey or Mike, do you want to go next? [4:54] Mike Brown: Yeah, absolutely. My name is Mike Brown. I'm the Head of Campus Sustainability, which is a fancy way of saying facilities guy, and myself and my team will help facilitate installation. [5:09] Bailey O'Brien: Hi everyone, my name is Bailey O'Brien. I'm the Communications and Events Manager at Portland Trails. [5:17] Ashley McCown: So we did put together a few slides that we wanted to share with you all, just to kind of give you an idea of what it looks like out on the trails, and kind of walk through this presentation. So this image that you see here of Renoir work that is currently at Evergreen Woods. So this would be our second year working with Portland Trails to install reproductions from the museum's collection out on a couple of their trails. Specifically, as you saw in our permit this year, would be returning to Evergreen Woods and doing a swap out of the reproductions that are there, as well as installing on Caneco Woods this year. And this program is also supported by our mutual partner in Evergreen Credit Union. Some of the goals for this program, and Bailey please feel free to jump into if you want to add anything. For us it's really important is to be making art accessible to all. It's really the heart of this program. We want to expand access to the museum's collection beyond our walls and meet people in a new way. These reproductions are printed on a high quality canvas to intentionally put on these brown stakes, not stakes, wrong word, mike will, mike will help me out, a post, so that they blend in with the natural environment. We don't want this to be intrusive. We want this to be something that visitors come upon, slow down, engage with, and then also connects wellness and art and outdoor activity together. So trail visitors are also invited to explore this artwork by scanning this QR code up here, which will bring you to our website to learn more information about the artist and the piece. And all of the artworks that are chosen are on view at the museum currently. So we're inviting visitors to see the artwork on a trail in a unique location, and then come in and see the real work of art in the museum. Anyone who does come upon an artwork and take a photo of themselves is invited in for free admission. And those who go to all locations we'll get a free family-level membership to the Portland Museum of Art for a year. And as I mentioned, this is our second year partnering with Portland Trails and Evergreen Credit Union on this program. About the locations that we're working on this year, so as I mentioned, we have two trails selected in partnership with Portland Trails, Evergreen Woods and Caneco Woods, both part of the Portland Trails Network and popular trail destinations in the city. Intentionally, Portland Trails chose paths that are easily accessible, wide, flat, and smooth, so community members, regardless of mobility challenges, can access this artwork. As I mentioned, intended to be non-intrusive, coming upon them but not obstructing views of the natural world around you. Post is painted to blend in with the natural environment, and then you can also find this program at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, Pineland Farms, and Rain Pond State Park this year. In the past we've also worked at Wolfs Neck Woods State Park and the Eastern Prom Trail with the city a couple years ago. So I know the city's kind of familiar with this program. Here is a trail map of Kanko Woods. The highlighted trail is what we are looking at, and we would walk this with Portland Trails along with Mike and the rest of their team before we do install to make sure that we are finding exact locations that feel appropriate for their visitors. And this is the accessible loop trail at Evergreen Woods, where currently we have five reproductions installed, and we would just be going in and swapping out reproductions on the existing posts that are there now. This, I'll give you a list of the reproductions that would be installed between Canco and Evergreen Dossier. And this was curated by the team at Portland Trails. The Museum of Art or PMA did provide a list of artworks they could choose from based on what's on view. And these are the 10 reproductions that they went to, they chose to go with. So we have a really beautiful Fulzorak, Homer's Weatherbeaten, Edward Mitchell Bannister's Untitled Walking into the Woods, which is a new acquisition for the museum as part of the David Driscoll Collection. Also a Bellows, the ever-popular Frederick Edwin Church's Mount Katahdin, a Lois Dodd, the Jacobson, the Portland, Renoir's Confidences, Tim Rollins and KOS's A Midsummer's Night's stream and Neo Wellivers Two Boys and a Canoe. I did want to point out that on our original permit we had Emily Mason's Practice Winter. Due to rights and reproductions challenges, we've actually swapped that out for Neo Wellivers, so I'm happy to resubmit the permit if that's helpful, because I do know also that our original permit had a timeline of install in late June, and we are now looking at probably an install of early August, if that's approved by the city. I [10:47] Bailey O'Brien: Can just quickly add, thank you so much, Ashley. In the past year, we've heard lots of great feedback from trail users about the installation in Evergreen Woods. Have you know people have said that seeing the artwork in different seasons and different lighting has been really special and even people who visit the trail every day have really enjoyed seeing the artwork change as the seasons have changed and so it's been really special for us to have on an improved access loop which is as Ashley said nice wide smooth, flat trails, a trail that's, you know, accessible to more of our community members. And we're excited about the possibility of expanding that to a second trail this year and bringing more art to even more people. [11:41] Matthew Grooms: So Bailey, you've only gotten positive feedback. [11:45] Bailey O'Brien: We've gotten a little bit of, you know, negative feedback as well. Not terrible feedback from a from a handful of people not wanting the art to be intruding upon the experience in the outdoors I think what's nice about the trails that we have selected is that they are next to more rugged trails so if you're looking for a very immersive natural experience there you know we're not it's we're not trying to take over like a whole trail area we're just bringing you know bringing to a specific trail loop that is of all of our trails probably some of the least you Know like rugged natural type you know with all the accessibility improvements and things so we have gotten a little bit of negative feedback just in that in that regard but we do believe that it's ultimately like a nice thing that more people than not certainly by a large margin really have enjoyed the art [12:57] Ashley McCown: It's been interesting too for us to hear feedback from some of our other partners for example Rain Pond started with five reproductions about two years ago and this year they wanted to expand band to 20. So we were actually not able to do that because we didn't have enough artworks to cover. And then Wolfs Neckwood State Park took a break last year because they were under construction and their park manager emailed me this year saying, I have visitors who are asking when the art trail is coming back. So could we work together next year? [13:31] Mike Brown: I will share at least anecdotally during installation, one of our highest period places of interaction has been important. Obviously, your trails get a high level of use, and the folks that I talked to, they appreciated the fact that the sponsorship plaque or the information, it's a QR code, and it's tiny, that it's not obtrusive. By using that painting on the posts, you know, as required by state and national parks, it almost makes them disappear, but really have undertaken a great amount of effort to minimize the intrusiveness that anyone might experience when encountering these on the trail. And if you want to engage with them, there's the ability to do so, but it's quite minimal. [14:27] Matthew Grooms: Speaking of signage, though, so the samples that you presented have all the information about the provenance, the ownership, who it was gifted from. That won't be on the actual reproduction, will it? [14:41] Ashley McCown: The credit line is on the side of the reproduction. So you can't see it unless you're like looking around the side of the painting, just because that's part of the requirements for reprinting. But more details are when you actually go to our website to see it. So when you come upon it you just see the artwork like I mean obviously not framed but that's the intention is that you would be looking at an artwork canvas good [15:07] Phoebe Cole: Thank you yeah and with that question I just had one thought is it are the is the title and the artist's name is that part of what you're fed to the QR code to find out or is that visible just on the signage both it's visible [15:23] Ashley McCown: On the side of the artwork and it's also on the website great I will say the printing on the side [15:30] Mike Brown: Of the art that it's only about three quarter inch thick the outer rail there's several lines you'll want to have your reading glasses with you I can't discern it but the QR code [15:43] Matthew Grooms: Makes it easy on the application it's it's clear about putting the QR code on it's permitted in order to contact the artist but since there's only one of these artists I think who's alive maybe two it takes you to the PMA website presumably and then where does it take you do they have to navigate something or such as it takes you to a special landing page on our website [16:10] Ashley McCown: That's dedicated to this program where you can see the artworks, learn more about them, like you can kind of find the specific artwork you're looking at to learn who the artist is, some more information, like the artist statement if we have one, and other locations as well, so you can see where what other artworks you could find out on the trails. Great, and another thing I'm curious [16:34] Phoebe Cole: about, it sounds like this is a very established program, so I'm sure you know this, and you're also even replacing artwork that continues to be there. Is there a lot of maintenance that's needed for these throughout the time that they're on view? Have you had encountered, you know, vandalism or any other issues like that, or do they stay pretty solidly in place for their time frame? [16:57] Mike Brown: Aside from one unfortunate location near the sewage treatment plant down on the East End Beach, most of our artworks get through the season unscathed. [17:13] Ashley McCown: And we do have, oh I'm sorry, barely. I was just going to say we also offer to reprint and replace if something does [17:21] Bailey O'Brien: happen. Makes sense. The art pieces that are on our evergreen woods trail are still in great shape [17:30] Ashley McCown: after a year. So that's great to hear. Yeah. And the canvas that they're printed on is rated for three years outdoors. So it's a weather kind of resistant material. material. [17:42] Mike Brown: Just to echo that, I would say Coastal Maine Botanical Garden and also Rain Pond Island Farm has requested to keep theirs up through the winter because their trails also see off-season use. So originally, even we were a bit anxious about the winter season, but these reproductions actually hold up remarkably well. [18:14] Matthew Grooms: Because they're in the woods, I noticed that you need to have some approval by the city arborist. Is that required in any of these installations? [18:26] Ashley McCown: Not that I know of. We did it last year. No. [18:33] Mike Brown: And the sites that are selected are specifically done in areas that won't impede upon trees or roots. We don't have to fix anything to the existing trees. trees. I haven't had much interaction with the City Arborist since Jeff Tarling retired, but we would not place anything that would be potentially harmful to any of the trees. [18:58] Sean King: I just want to maybe ask again, were you requesting to do a walk with the city to look at locations? Ashley, I think you may have mentioned something, but if you could speak to, you know, identifying the five locations, that'd be helpful. Sure, so what we did last year was we [19:24] Ashley McCown: Did a walk with Portland Trails on the Evergreen Loop that we installed on, and with the Portland Trails team, including their trail manager Jamie, identified the five locations that we would place sees our works. So we don't need to do that on Evergreen Woods again this year because we're just replacing the artworks on the existing posts at Kinko Woods, but we would do the same. We're proposing that with Bailey and Jamie, we would walk Kinko Woods, the trail that they're proposing, and make sure that Mike's team knows exactly where they're installing, and then as Mike was saying, that it's in an area where it's not going to be intrusive on any plant life that's there [20:04] Sean King: Yeah. And Kanko Woods is actively maintained by Portland Trails. Okay. [20:17] Matthew Grooms: I know this might sound sort of tangential and silly, but there's a saw at Al on that trail that people flock to when it's, you know, when it's present. I don't know whether that's part of this little loop or... [20:37] Bailey O'Brien: I'm sorry, can you repeat the beginning? [20:39] Matthew Grooms: Do you know about the saw-wet howl that nests in that part of Kanko Woods? A screech owl, I'm sorry. [20:48] Bailey O'Brien: I am not familiar with that, but that's something we can certainly take into consideration. [20:57] Matthew Grooms: It's a popular place for birders to go. [21:01] Sean King: Yeah, it's pretty active on the birder. websites. I've heard of that as well. Yeah, potentially that's something that could be evaluated during the site walk. Well, I really appreciate the discussion and dialogue between the review panel and the applicant. This is this is a public meeting, so we do we do allow members of the public to join via Zoom, and at this time I will move into that public comment period. It does appear that only Ashley is an attendee, so there's no members of the public on the call, so we can close public comment, and if at this time, being that we don't have to respond to any public comment, are there any other elements of this application that the review panel wishes to bring up before we deliberate on a decision [22:39] Matthew Grooms: Thank you, Sean. I have one question. Just because there was no, I know it was optional to produce, you know, to write an intent of purpose. But I saw on your goals, you know, what you listed as why you were doing this. But one of them that one struck me as how it promotes environmental stewardship. And I wondered if you could explain that. [23:06] Ashley McCown: Yeah, so I would say so sustainability is one of one of our values here at the museum. And so it's really a focus for us. And I think for part of what we're seeing as part of this is the how can we create a relationship between art and the outside world and responsible environmental stewardship. And so thinking about unique partners as well, right? We do programming with Gulf of Maine Research Institute, for example, to talk about how art can speak to the climate crisis. And so that's where we kind of see the connection between art and environmental stewardship is using artwork to remind people of the importance of the environment, of stewarding the environment, and just thinking about it in a different perspective. We also these are all recyclable materials so the canvas we can reuse for multiple years the posts we can reuse and as we've mentioned like the point of this is to be as non-intrusive as possible and to be just something that people can come upon in nature okay. [24:16] Matthew Grooms: Thank you okay. [24:26] Sean King: So as a requirement for temporary art, the PMA is intending to hold an insurance for this application, or is it for the Portland Trails? Just a confirmation. [24:43] Ashley McCown: The Portland Museum will. [24:44] Matthew Grooms: Okay. [24:46] Sean King: So we have that on record. And as per the last application for Art on the Trail, there was a secure deposit held. My records show it was $100. So we would similarly ask for a secure deposit in the event that the city would need to remove the installation. But it's just part of the temporary art guidelines that's [25:18] Ashley McCown: Fine and I believe that Portland Trails paid the deposit last year which if you need to refund that to Portland Trails and PMA will pay for it this [25:26] Sean King: Year okay yes I'll work is it appropriate to work with Bailey on that or okay we can return that thank you are there any other conditions that the review panel would like to propose oppose before we entertain a motion seeing none is there a motion to move this temporary art proposal forward I'll [26:04] Phoebe Cole: Make a motion second [26:08] Sean King: All right so I'll do a roll call vote based on the motion to approve this temporary art application by the PMA in Portland Trails Alex Marshall yes Lindsay Hancock yes Mac Grooms yes Phoebe Cole yes myself Sean King but yes so congratulations the motion passes I will follow up with Thank you, Mike. I will follow up, Ashley, with you and Bailey regarding the security deposits. And please feel free to keep us informed about the site walk with Jamie. And we look forward to the new installation. [27:13] Mike Brown: And please spread the word, particularly with public works staff and other folks that, you know, interact with the trails. If you take a selfie with any one of these, you get into the museum for free. This is the summer of homework. So there's actually some really cool stuff happening here. But it's a great way for folks to not just interact on the trail, but get into the museum for nothing, especially if they haven't been in a while. And if you check the website and you visit each location, as Ashley mentioned, you get a free annual membership. So we don't we don't hype that per se. There's nothing on it that tells you that unless you go to the website. But it's a great way to make sure each of you get a chance to come see us this summer. [28:01] Matthew Grooms: I think that's right. Oh, sorry, Sean. John, I just want to say, I think that's really important. Through access that they're able to get in free if they see it, you know, the QR code. So it would be great if you could make that more visible. [28:18] Mike Brown: We tried not to make it look like the motion was or the effort was connected with driving attendance. It's sort of an unanticipated benefit. But when we were first installing it, I used to carry around a pocket full of passes. So if anybody asked me on the trail or was helpful in the install, I'd give them passes to come in. But that's actually, it's more cumbersome than it needs to be. Just a little selfie. You show it at the front desk. You're in for nothing. And Lindsay, we'd love to see you here. [28:53] Ashley McCown: Lindsay, it's on our website, too. And last year, and we might do this again this year, we partnered with Portland Trails in their newsletter and promoted it in their newsletter as well. [29:04] Bailey O'Brien: And we can share it on our website on those specific trail pages as well, which are very popular and people are searching where they want to go. So we can help spread the word more this year. [29:15] Matthew Grooms: Great. Thank you. [29:20] Sean King: All right. If there's nothing further, we can end the meeting. Thank you all again. Really appreciate your time. [29:28] Matthew Grooms: Bye. Thank you. Bye, Sean.