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Monterey Cultural Council
Minutes of meeting: June 4, 2008
Attending: Joe Baker, Maureen Banner, Dianna Downing, John Heffernan, Marion Simon, Laury Epstein, Joel Schick, Julie Shapiro
1. BONNER’S NATURE WALK. Sunday, June 8, 10:30, at the Land Trust Trail on Mount Hunger Road. The event is fully registered (12 people), with a waiting list.
2. BRASS CONCERT. The Copper Street Brass Quintet will play a free concert here on Sunday, July 27, 4:00 at the Church. We’ll pay them $400 from our Town Funds, and get some intermission refreshments from the General Store. The event will be publicized by an article and ad in the July Monterey News, a poster and press release.
3. AFRICAN QUILT. We spent some time discussing the ever-changing plans for the QuiltFest. Kathie Frome and her organization’s board are concerned that there won’t be many people in town on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend; they would prefer to have the event on August 2. We disagree with their fears of a lonely Labor Day weekend, but we agreed that they can have the event any time they want it--after all, they’re the ones who have to get the huge quilt finished in time. We’ll make ourselves available to help out any way we can--reserving the pavilion, doing posters and ads, helping pay for the musical program.
4. BEN LUXON POETRY. Ben Luxan has chosen a date for his appearance here: Saturday, Sept. 27, at 4:00.
5. This was Joe Baker’s last meeting as a member of the Cultural Council. Since we’ll all miss his calm leadership and his insight, we asked him to give us a few final suggestions about keeping our Council active and relevant. “Breadth” and “diversity” were the watchwords he suggested. We should continue to use a broad definition of the word “culture,” both in evaluating grant applications and in planning our own events. We should keep doing some nature programs, some art, some crafts, some music (of various types). And so on. It’s all culture; and, although no event will appeal to everybody, each event will appeal to somebody. And thus do we serve the town.
We went on to discuss what makes a successful event (we are inclined to think that participant satisfaction is the important thing, not sheer numbers of participants). We spoke again of exploring the possibility of co-producing some events with Cultural Councils in other small towns—e.g., a theater event at the big venue in Sandisfield, or an art show in the nice gallery space in New Marlboro.
At the moment, we have our plates full with the events already scheduled--one in June, one in July, two in August (including our major community event for the year), and one in September. And then comes October, and the Grant Cycle season.
Next meeting: Thursday, July 16. 4:00 at Town Hall.
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