Today's meeting of the Public Art and Design Board is called to order February 12th, 2026. Everybody, welcome, welcome, welcome. We have to approve the minutes. Do we approve the minutes first or do we need to do roll call? Approve the minutes. Let's just start a roll call and introduce each other. We have some new members on the board, so let's just start here. It's great to be here, thanks. I'm an old Clearwater resident way back in the 60s, but I'm back. I'm Mark Lutz, and I live here in town, and I'm glad to be part of it. Jerry Minall, owner of My Favorite Art Place, and we're a fine art printer and custom frame shop here in Clearwater. Jonathan Barnes, I'm a faculty member at St. Petersburg College in Visual Arts. I teach printmaking and 3D design and art history, and I also have a studio practice at home. My name is Brian Volatine. I am a resident of Clearwater. I wasn't born here, grew up here, but I am currently a full-time student at USF, so I have a lot of other things going on as well. And we have Greg that just walked in, so Greg, we're doing roll call right now. Right. I'm Greg Byrd. I'm a professor at St. Petersburg College. I teach creative writing and literature and have taught humanities before, and I've been a resident of Clearwater for 35 years. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from the October 9th, 2025 Public Art and Design Board meeting. Second. Any discussion? Seeing none. All in favor? Aye. Aye. My brain just left. Motion passes. Motion passes. My brain just walked out. We're moving on to item number three, citizens to be heard. Are there any citizens that have things to say, that want to step up? Okay. So we have one person in the audience today. All right. Item number four, new business items. 4.1, world's largest duck installation recap. Please. That was so wonderful. Was it wonderful? That was great. Good afternoon. Amber Brice, arts and cultural affairs manager for the city of Clearwater. So the world's largest rubber duck was in Clearwater from January 9th to the 26th. This was about a two-and-a-half-week-long exhibit with a month-long meetup with the 10-foot-tall baby duck named Timmy. We had some major events scheduled around this installation. It was supported by six major sponsors, Clearwater Downtown Development Board, Spa Manufacturers, Visit St. Pete Clearwater, CGS Energy, Hampton Inn & Suites Clearwater Beach, and Clearwater Marine Aquarium, which provided a total of $44,505 in sponsorship funds, which was amazing. We had some amazing stats and numbers come out of this installation. So one big number is that our parking revenue increased. It more than doubled from the same time last year. So we had about $10,000 in revenue for the entire month of January in 2025. We had over $23,000 in revenue in January, this time span, 2026. And that's, to put a finer point on it, our parking is free after 6 p.m. and on weekends. So this is daytime for 6 p.m. parking revenue to see the duck. So that's amazing. We had major attendance. So the city has just acquired a platform or software called Placer AI, which uses cell phone data to be able to track how many people are in the park or wherever at a certain time of day or dates. So we had almost 8,000 people come to the Market Marie the first opening Saturday of the duck. We had about 5,000 people come to the birthday bash. And then we had a couple thousand come to the Jeep invasion. So overall, we had about 21,000 unique visitors coaching in the park in this time period. And then we had a 5K. The Friday that Mama Duck went up, we had about 215 people registered for the 5K with all of the press we got, which I don't think there was a local media outlet that I did not talk to. We had radio, Tampa Bay Times, Fox 13, everybody was there. We even made it into the Wall Street Journal, which was crazy. So overnight, we doubled our attendance for that. So we had a little under 500 runners. So between that and we sold the Jeep time slots, we made a revenue of over $17,000. So this was amazing. It did exactly what it was supposed to do. I personally spoke to people that came from a couple from Tennessee that made it a birthday weekend because she loved rubber ducks. I talked to a guy that came all the way from Denver specifically for the duck. He was all ducked out in his duck year at the birthday bash. I mean, and numerous people from the East Coast. So it brought tons of people into our area. The downtown businesses, I had pictures I was supposed to be showing you at the same time. The downtown businesses expressed how wonderful it was. Some of them said they increased revenue 30% to 40% the same time last year. So it was amazing. And I did do a presentation at the Downtown Development Board meeting on February 2nd. So it goes into more stat detail if you wanted to watch that. I have a question. Yeah. Whose idea was this? Where did the idea come from? What was the expectation? So it was my idea. Brilliant. I was just looking for rotating art exhibits right when I first got into this position in 2023. This was one of the first things that popped up on Google. And I was like, that is cool and weird. I kind of want to bring it to Coachman Park. But we were opening Coachman Park that year. We kind of wanted the park to be its main attraction, right? And so this just kind of seemed like the perfect time with the construction and everything going on. January is kind of a slower month for us. So it kind of dovetailed off of being an art installation to being an economic driver as well. And so that's how it came to be. Did you ever expect it to be what it turned out to be? I knew it was going to be big. I did not imagine it was going to be this big. I didn't imagine how many people loved rubber ducks. I had no idea. But people do. And people were telling me, oh, we collect them. Like cruise ships, I guess you can collect them. Like all of these things that I didn't know. It's not age specific either. Correct. It works with all age groups. Right. And I think it brought the whole family out. You're right. Which is key. Yeah. And just being down at the park on a Thursday and seeing just families like having a picnic or running around and playing. Like that is what Coachman Park is supposed to be. And it just really brought people down there. So I really liked that. To City Hall Sculpture Selection. Sorry. Trying to get to the right picture. It's because it's here. At the previous board meeting, the board had narrowed down to two artists finalists for the City Hall suspended sculpture. So each artist had submitted two design proposals. We wanted to allow the city staff who were going to be working in City Hall who have to look at this every day to be the kind of final vote. So we put out a poll. We had 34 responses. It was on a scoring system where you rate your favorite to your least favorite. So everybody in the first place got four points all the way down to the fourth place got one point. So with 126 points, Ripple, which is the design concept A, the seaweed design from James Peterson was picked. The second place did get 119 points. So it was close. But this is the design. He has been issued a contract. He's currently working with city engineers. And we're anticipating installation to be October 26 when City Hall is open. Anything else I have to do? No, it looks great. So item number 4.3, Miramont Park restroom building mural. So this mural was completed in late December 2025, last December. It's received a lot of positive feedback from the residents, including the 3D effect. So, Mr. Bird, you've got your Trump, a little bit of your Trump loyal here. The artist is Laura Thomas. The smaller side of the building has been left blank. So this is just a rendering. This has been left blank. We're having a community painting event this Saturday, the 14th from 10 to 12. The board is welcome to come out. But it's intended to be a smaller event for the neighborhood to come out and help paint this mural and kind of finish it off. So it looks great. I just went and saw it today. It's beautiful. I love this mural. 4.4, North Greenwood Mural Festival. So due to fewer business applications than anticipated, the project schedule had to be adjusted. So we've pushed this back to hopefully be late March where we'll be having this festival. At this time, there are four interested businesses and two or three potential city-owned mural locations. The board did receive an invitation to score artist applications from our open call to mural artists. And so the top-scoring applicants will be established into an artist pool. This will be used for this festival but also for multiple projects throughout the city for the rest of the year. Do we know what businesses will get murals? So there's Big Jim's Barbecue, Head Start, the Isaiah Gully Center. There's two privately-owned – I don't know the name of them off the top of my head. I'd have to get you the actual list. And then the city buildings is – one of them is the Park Speedification Building. And then there's the old – is it Curtis Fundamental? Not Curtis Fundamental. Robinson. Robinson Challenge School. So that is now the African-American Historical Museum. So they've expressed interest. That's a school board-owned piece of property, and they're okay with it. So we have to make sure the business is okay with it. So it's the old Curtis Elementary? The old Curtis, yeah. Okay. Robinson Challenge. Me too. A few years ago. Yeah, me too. 4.5. Selectional Chair – oh, we're not doing that today. We can talk about it, though. Oh, we're going to talk about it. Okay, so let's talk about it. Selectional Chair. Advice Chair. Okay. So I put this on the agenda because it's supposed to be the first – on the first meeting of the year. But I want to go through your terms with you all. So Mr. Volaton, your term expires February 28th because you had a partial term. So if you would like to stay on the board, you would just need to do an application. Mr. Barnes already filled out an application because he's no longer going to be the Arts Alliance rep. Mr. Byrd, your seat expires March 31st, so you would have to fill out an application. This is your first term, so you could do a second term if you wanted to. And then Jerry – there's Jerry's third term, so she says she's done with us. And so her term expires April 7th. So our next board meeting is not until April 9th, so all of the terms expire before then. So I don't think it makes sense to pick a chair or vice chair until we have enough people on the board that are solidified in their seats, if that makes sense. Is there anybody that wants to stay on the board or does not want to stay on the board? Everybody? Application is on the city website. And that's it for me. Great job on the rubber dock. I mean, I was a little unsure about that at the start, but I really enjoyed how enthusiastic you were about it. So – and I think that was a huge success. What a great economic driver for downtown. Yeah. Was there a point it had to be deflated for – Oh, God, don't go on the Internet because people are grumpy because it was deflated because it was blowing 50 miles an hour. Yeah. I only saw, like, the whole thing go – and I was like, what happened? I couldn't read it, and then I read it later. I was like, oh, okay. It had to be taken down for wind a couple of days, and then it was hard to put up when it was windy. There was a lot – it was a weird January. I mean, we had snow. Like, we've had weird things. We had a lot of rip current. So I would tell people – so luckily, our public communications department, thank God, we had a – we have a live camera, live stream out into the park. So we started to call it Duck Cam. So it's like, check out the Duck Cam before you leave your house to make sure she's inflated. So she was up for every major event, which was great. And then she was up – the last week, she was up 24 hours a day for, I think, five days in a row. So I think we got our money's worth out of her, but I understand the disappointment for the wind, but – She should come back and visit sometime. The Downtown Development Board wants her to come back every year. I'm more of a – maybe a biannual? Are there other world's largest inflatable things? I have never looked this up on the – I don't know about other things, but there's other things we want to do, like there's other exhibits and stuff we'd like to do to activate the park. So we don't want it to lose its specialness because we do it too much. But there are cities that have it every year, and they have people that come every year. So maybe I'm wrong. I think it was great, and I think you did a really good job of putting that together. I mean, I would not have thought of that. So, you know, it's silly, but people really enjoyed it. Well, it's that really great connection, you know, between art, high art, community, you know. Everybody has a connection to it that doesn't have to be, I don't understand what that's supposed to be. Right. You know, it's a duck. It's a really big duck. Yeah, the amount of I don't get it comments, it was like, you don't have to. Kind of along the lines of some of the art we have where there's, you know, the wings, and you can take a picture, you know, that brings people in that may not really have a particular connection to art. Director's reports. I don't have anything else. Other board members to be heard. Anybody else have anything else to say? I'm going to say that I'm sad that I'm leaving. This has been such a great experience, and it's given me so much pride. I've lived in Clearwater since 2003, and to have been able to be a part of the start of the murals, and be able to drive around and say, like the umbrella right outside the library was one of the first things that we did. It's just, you guys are going to have so much fun. This is such a great, great thing that we do for our city, and it's just going to keep getting better, particularly with the sound now, and it's just been great. I'm secretly sad and excited about moving forward. I should have added to my director's report to thank Jerry for her time on the board, and it's been a long time. We've been here many, many years, so we really appreciate your civic service, and we appreciate you. Absolutely. I'll come and heckle. Oh, gosh, that would be fun. Beth's not here today. I'm a little bummed. She's always here. I was, you know, when reviewing some of the murals, there was some interesting ideas that popped up in there. One of the things I liked, and I know this isn't a discussion of those choices, but one of the things that I liked was the fact that they did some, I don't know what you would call them, carpets or, you know, paintings on pavement. On pavement, and I know we can't do that on streets anymore, but it would seem like there would be opportunities for that in city-owned parking lots. Rock gardens, clever rock gardens, something. There's a great example of that on the side of the factory down in St. Pete. There's a big Ricky Watts mural. It's by the exit, and they did, he did the wall, which is huge, maybe 40, 50 feet wide, but he also did the parking lot in front of it. It's privately owned, so, but it's like the same, you know, pattern. It's pretty cool. Yeah. I mean, it opens up another aspect of murals, not just the buildings. You're, the, I never say it right, the Trump idea where. Trump oil, yeah. I've seen a few where you have waterfall on the side of a building, and then the water continues into the parking lot. So the same, just to touch on that, literally a couple days ago I got an email from somebody in parks that they've done kind of like bump outs on the beach walk of bike racks and where water fountains are going to be, and hoping to add some color or something there. So I suggested maybe like 3D art, like our artist that did the Marymount Park specializes in that kind of art. So, you know, either looking like you're going to fall into the ocean or something like that to just add something different so it's not just fish or dolphins, you know, or something, you know, 2D. So we'll see where that goes. But there's three locations now. Eventually there'll be nine total. But I think that could be an identifier for Clearwater Beach. Like that could be another photo opportunity for people, just something interesting and fun. And an opportunity for like interactive stuff, you know, because I can imagine kids if there's, I don't know, like some sort of hopscotch thing or, you know, I can imagine kids walking, you know, around little trails or things like that. I was really interested to see with the selection that there's a lot more diversity in the artists that you really don't get to see a lot of the time. Because you see a lot, few artists get a lot of the attention a lot of the time, most of the time. And then to see how many more artists there were and representing their cultures and herities, a lot of that work as well was really nice to see. So I'm excited to see where we go and what this new lineage of murals look like and artwork looks like. There's a lot of variety. It's good. And the ones, there seem to be certain murals or certain approaches that are, I wouldn't say stereotypical, but typical, where if they have faces, but the faces aren't unique. And then there were others where the faces really had a little bit of psychological connection and they seemed like individuals. And then there were also some that it seemed like they took up, and it seems like a particular way of approaching a mural, where they took up every bit of space. There was no negative space at all. And my wife called it, somebody threw up a Hawaiian shirt on it. There's a lot going on. And there were others where they did kind of do different things other than just the standard mural kind of thing. But in that pool, you could tell who are the emerging ones, right? They had some bright spots, and they had some, you know, the beginning, right? But you could tell that, I mean, there's a handful of people in that group that they're coming. You know, they're hungry. Which is extremely hard for mural artists because it's a scary thing to make a decision to say, hey, this big wall, and you haven't really had that much experience doing it before. So the emergence of new artists and the trust that's being built around it is cool to see. I know you edited the thing to include more hyper-local people. We have a lot of local mural artists in them and tons in this area. And some great ones. Some really good ones, absolutely. Do we have a slot for up-and-coming and or local artists to have, like, at least one that's going to be? That's not usually the way that we do it. I think I've said to you all before that I want to have some sort of emerging artist show in Coachman Park, similar to, like, the Red Gate Rise Up walls that they have. These kind of, like, makeshift walls that aren't meant to be permanent, but they're a bigger space that are public for, you know, some of the people that scored maybe in the middle of the field to be able to display their work. But at the end of the day, we still want the best art possible in our city. And for business owners especially, like, we don't have a say in who they pick and who they want on their walls. They get to choose. We kind of give them, here's the top 10 or the top 20, and they pick. So for city, we have a little more leeway, but, again, we want top tier. We want something that's going to be making the news and things like that. That's just kind of our policy. But I don't know if you guys have any thoughts on that, but usually we just let the art speak for itself, and we don't take into account anything else. I like the idea of having, you know, something in Coachman that way and maybe a follow-up with that for one of those artists to, you know, for a temporary installation someplace. Yeah, maybe having, like, a competition, and then they have a wall. Whoever the winner is gets a wall in Coachman Park or something like that. Something like that, you know, to kind of reward, you know, local artists and then maybe newer artists. It's probably just doing a little bit something different that isn't mainstream enough to be appreciated all the time or something. And how are you defining local? Is it Pinellas? Is it Clearwater? I'll let Jonathan say that. I don't know. Oh, I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. Is it Florida? Well, this is why the professional arts conference that I went to, the public art professional arts conference, they talked about using the word regional as opposed to art local because, you know, are we talking Tampa Bay Area? Are we talking Pinellas County? Are we talking Clearwater? Because your pool gets smaller and smaller, obviously. But then when you say local, a lot of the times in people's head, psychologically, they think the art is not as good. So you may have an international artist who is local, but when we call them a local artist, they almost get diminished a bit. So calling them a regional artist, that's kind of where I've been trying to go with it. Like, we're picking regional artists, and then it's Tampa Bay Area. So that could be Pasco County. That could be Hillsborough County. That could be Pinellas County. If we want it to be hyper-local, somebody from Clearwater or, you know, the city above and below us, like, that would kind of be an art board direction if you guys wanted. It would also be neat, you know, if we had artists who say, oh, yes, now I'm doing all this stuff in New York. I'm doing stuff in Seattle. It all started in Clearwater. I think you'll find a lot of them are practicing all over the States. They are traveling, which is actually good. They bring in the outside influence here. It's another technique, another way of illustration, you know. So it's nationalized. I think that's a positive thing. I do get a little tired of the, I mean, as much as I love dolphins and stuff, I get tired of, you know, dolphins and flamingos. And I'm like, oh, come on again? You know, we've got more down here than just that. Yeah. That's why I thought it was interesting to see that there's a lot of cultural understanding in the art. And then even some artists knew the cultures that the art were going into. So being able to represent that way as well. So being able to have an artist that understands it's not just my vision, but it's the vision of the communities that the art is going to go into. And I think I saw a lot of that this time around. Do we assume that the artists are going to do that research themselves? Because I imagine if they're pitching a lot, that could be, or do we give them some information about the area? In the call, there is information about the area. So, like, specifically the North Greenwood, you know, area, the mural festival, giving them background. So that can affect which photos they upload from their portfolio. Things like that. That was the only one we really went into specifics with. We obviously have a city hall. We're doing murals on the stairwell. Well, you know, so maybe they put a stairwell mural in there. Things like that. So we are specific, but then there's projects that literally pop up that were not on my radar. So we can't be too, you know, niche, I guess. I was just wondering if that's, you know, somebody from Ohio. Like, oh, it's Florida. You know, we put some dolphins and some flamingos and pelicans in there. So all of these artists save for maybe five are Florida-based. So the AI, I told them, it was supposed to be Florida artists, but for whatever reason, the call let everybody apply. Most of them were Florida artists. The AI took out the majority, but then left in a couple of, you know, really high-level artists that are California, Ohio, wherever. So we won't know that until later. Who gets picked? Anything else? I guess we can call this meeting adjourned. Thank you, guys. Short and sweet. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.