Monterey Cultural Council
Minutes of meeting: April 16, 2008
Attending: Joe Baker, Maureen Banner, Dianna Downing, Kathryn Roberts, John Heffernan, Marion Simon, Laury Epstein, Neil McGinnis, Joel Schick, Julie Shapiro
1. MEMBERS. Marion Simon has joined the Council. April was her first official meeting. The May meeting will likely be Joe Baker’s last as a member of the Council. His term expires on July 1.
2. PASTEL WORKSHOP. Filled all its spaces (15). Scheduled for April 18. MCC will buy refreshments from the General Store.
3. PRINTMAKING WORKSHOP. Tentatively scheduled for Saturday, August 16. This was a good time for Adrienne, but she has yet to confirm the date.
4. BIRD TALK/BIRD WALK. Plans are set for Richard Guthrie’s Friday, May 23, bird slide talk, Q&A session (6-8 p.m. in the Church basement), and Saturday morning bird walk. Time and location of the walk to be decided later.
5. PASTEL WORKSHOP. Friday, April 18, 6-8 p.m., in the Church basement. The workshop can accommodate 15-20 people; we currently have nine registered.
6. NATURE WALK. Plans are set for Bonner McAllester’s Nature Walk on the Land Trust Trail, Mt. Hunger Road, 10:30 Sunday morning, June 8. The walk will be open to a maximum of 12 people; call 528-5134 to register. We will have an ad in the June Monterey News and a poster.
7. AFRICAN QUILT. Kathie Frome and Joan McVicker came to discuss the quilt program. They showed us some of the artwork that will be used as the quilt squares. This is going to be a very moving piece of art when finished. Big, too: Fifty-six large squares comprising seven panels, each seven feet long and almost four feet wide. We will continue to work with Kathie and Joan; and will produce a celebratory community event on Sunday, Sept. 1 to debut the finished quilt. Kathie and Marion will check out a couple African music groups for the event. We also discussed some ideas about an African-themed potluck dinner. This will be our big, splashy Labor Day event for 2008.
8. DRAMATIC READINGS. We discussed the possiblity of staging Howard Zinn’s collection of historical readings. They are interesting and thought provoking--very Zinn. We discussed the pros and cons of doing something as provocative (pro) and possibly divisive (con) as this work. Should we, as a Cultural Council do something as political as this? (We thought probably so: history is part of culture). Should we do it as our first dramatic event? Should we spend Town money on an event that some of our taxpayers will likely find offensive? We all seemed inclined to do it; but we’ll have to fuss a bit more first. Laury will contact the Zinn people to tell them that we’re interested, and she will bring us particulars at our next meeting.
Next meeting: Thursday, May 22. 4:00 at Town Hall.
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