Beth Daniels. I'm the president of the Clearwater Arts Alliance. Sorry to be so informal today. You can tell I was going to go golfing, right? That didn't work out. Anyway, we always try to update the Public Art and Design Board with what we're doing at the Alliance. We certainly would like to invite you all, and we'll leave you some of these. Our biggest fundraiser of the year is coming up on Wednesday, November the 4th, which will be out at Island Way Grill, and we're doing a lot of things to enhance the art in Clearwater, and I hope that you can support us in that. Betsy has some things she's going to show you. We're in the middle of deinstalling and then reinstalling the three sculptures that started off as a project of the city on the three blocks downtown here in Clearwater. So there's going to be some new things to see there real soon. Also, we have a lovely, we have been curating the space here in the library for about a year and a half now. I think we're up on our 7th or 8th exhibition. There's a lovely photography exhibition in there now. If you haven't seen it, I encourage you to see it, and it will be up through November 17th. Then we have some more shows coming, including in the spring we will be returning with the all-county K-8 school show, which was a big hit here last year and had a wonderful crowd that attended. So we hope you can support us in that. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, everybody. Betsy Adler with the Clearwater Arts Alliance. I wanted to show you guys, you might remember that we did have sculptures until yesterday in the rain when they got deinstalled. So there were three sculptures on the 4 and 5 and 600 block of Cleveland Street. Those have just been taken down yesterday, and you all are the first to see the ones that will be going up next week on Tuesday. So we have two returning sculptors. We have Donald Jonella, who is bringing us MOA, and then we have Mantam Yore by Robin Morgan. Then a new sculptor, Delphine by Lee Bell. The project was previously funded by the Clearwater Redevelopment Agency, and we did a survey towards the end of the project and wanted to see what everyone thought of it, and everyone said, please, more local artists. They were all local to begin with. Sarasota was the farthest they were away. So we do have lots of local artists. These are Sarasota, Sarasota, and St. Petersburg this time. So these will be up for the next 18 months since Tuesday, and please come out and check them out when you see Cleveland Street next. Thank you. Thank you. Any more citizens to be heard? All right. Item number 4.1, Finance Department presentation, City Budget and Public Art Funds. Excellent. Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair and members of the Board. I am Hunter Carlson. I'm with the City's Office of Management and Budget. I'm excited to be here today to provide you all with a presentation on the City's fiscal year 2027 budget, which was just approved last month. So I have a few quick slides to give you all some key highlights of the budget, and at the end, I'll be more than happy to answer any questions that you may have. Pleased to be joined today by Assistant City Manager, Dan Slaughter, as well. So between the two of us, we'll be able to hopefully answer all y'all's questions. So as required by state law, our fiscal year 2027 budget remains a balanced budget. Across the organization, the only increase in staffing was as a result of the addition of nine full-time fire medics, which was negotiated as part of our most recent collective bargaining agreement with the City's fire union. Our primary focus this upcoming year will be the continued alignment of our City's work plan, which provides for the execution of existing operating and capital projects that are approved within the budget, as well as maintaining our employee pay structure, which is currently at the 75th percentile as approved by City Council. So as we look ahead to some of our key initiatives in the upcoming year, we're pleased to continue advancement of what we're calling our downtown urban renaissance, which includes several key redevelopment projects, including the construction of both the new Ballard Hotel, as well as the Osceola apartments on the bluff directly adjacent to Coachman Park. Furthermore, as some of you may know, Pinellas County continues to advance a call for development to solicit interest for 17 county properties as part of their transition to a central government campus in mid-county. Several key street renovation projects are either upcoming or already underway and designed to improve pedestrian and vehicular traffic, while also making improvements to utility infrastructure throughout the downtown urban core. Some examples of these are the Fort Harrison Street project, as well as Osceola Street roadway improvements. So speaking of utility projects, we're also excited to highlight improvements to both our water and sewer infrastructure that remains underway, such as our planned facility consolidation project for wastewater, as well as automated meter reading for our potable water system. So that's the system that automatically reports your usage, helps our homeowners with detecting leaks, et cetera. And lastly, I'll highlight that the city continues to prepare for possible changes to our budget in the upcoming years. As you all may know, upcoming property tax performance on the general ballot next month. And as staff, our role remains committed to forecasting any potential impacts and preparation of what that ultimate outcome could be. And I'll just say, as a disclaimer, our role remains strictly education-based. We're not allowed either by state law or city policy to influence that outcome or give advice on either side of the issue. So across all funds, the city's fiscal year 2027 budget totals just over $800 million and is further broken down by funding on this slide. To provide you all with a brief overview of how millage works is the rate at which property taxes are calculated, where one mill equals $1 for every $1,000 of taxable property value. Taxable property value is your assessed property value that's calculated by the Dallas County property appraiser, minus any exemptions that may be applicable to your specific property. So for fiscal year 2027, the city's millage rate is 5.8773 mills and represents only the city's portion of your property tax bill. Other taxing authorities establish their own millage rate for their services, such as the school board, juvenile welfare board, et cetera. For Clearwater residents, the city's total share of this bill is approximately 30%. So talking about a rollback rate a little bit, for fiscal year 2027, the city council approved what is called a rollback rate, which is the millage rate that would be necessary to provide the same level of property tax revenue as received in the prior year. This lesser figure is calculated as a result of increases in property values due to construction, so basically designed to provide that exact same revenue of the prior year, which was at usually a higher millage rate. So for this fiscal year, fiscal year 2027, we received approximately $110,835,695 in property taxes. And that accounts for 46% of the revenue to the city's general fund. Speaking of some of those other revenue sources, property taxes are not the only source of revenue. Other sources as listed here include utility tax, franchise fee revenue, user fees, and revenues that are received from other governmental agencies. And the next two slides show a breakdown of our general fund expenditures across major general fund departments. And as you all see, public safety remains the largest share of our general fund expenditures, followed by some quality of life services that are provided by parks and recreation and library as well. In terms of our general fund spending by category, personnel remains the largest share of our expenditures at 62%, which as I mentioned earlier, also reflects our strategic commitment to funding our employee paid plan at the 75th percentile. And that's against comparative public organizations locally and throughout the state. So to briefly discuss what we're hearing from our community, as you all know, we had our first budget community workshop earlier in August called dollars to donuts, which was designed to give residents a broad overview of each city service, the level of funding required to provide those services, and to offer key insight into each department's operations and upcoming priorities for the next fiscal year. We also wanted to hear from the community about what they value and wanted to see their local government prioritize and upcoming budgets, in which we saw residents really value public safety, but they also continue to value the city to maintain the quality of life services that we provide, also placing a value on infrastructure as well. So lastly, I briefly just want to highlight the information that our office makes available to the public as part of our city's commitment to transparency. As some of you may be aware, our ongoing performance management dashboarding project, which highlights the performance of different city departments throughout the city may be viewed at myclearwater.com slash data, and general budget information that's provided by our office may be viewed at myclearwater.com slash budget. Finally, as part of our role in educating the public as to the potential impacts from upcoming property tax reform, the city has published this information at myclearwater.com slash property taxes, which includes an interactive dashboard and a copy of our fiscal planning memorandum that was provided to council earlier last month. This speaks to potential service level impacts that could happen as a result of amendment three. Um, I do want to say that it's, it is just that it is a planning document. It is not meant to represent an approved budget or any form of approved policy by the city council. So before I get into any questions to talk specifically, um, about the art fund as of October 5th, the balance of the arts and cultural affairs fund is $842,000, 850 and 84 cents. The annual contribution presently is $35,000 from the city's general fund. And our city ordinance requires 1% of the value of vertical construction projects be, um, um, provided to the arts and culture fund at a limit of $200,000 per project. The spend is unrestricted for art projects from that. And the reason for, um, just to explain the current balance, we've had several large, relatively large projects recently in past years, including city hall, the beach marina project, and downtown parking garage that are coming online. Um, and I will also speak a little bit to some of the identified potential reductions for amendment three that could, um, be relative to the board. So as part of our planning for the potential impacts in fiscal year 2028 and 2029 staff identified in the planning memorandum, a $10,000 annual contribution to the arts alliance, um, could be reduced a $15,000 reduction to funding the arts and cultural affairs fund would be reduced to $20,000 a year. That's the $35,000 I just mentioned, as well as elimination of the public arts grant program, which is approximately $20,000 a year. Those are all general fund, um, appropriations. So at this time, I'll be more than happy to answer any questions from any member of the board. Um, and again, I just want to thank you for the privilege of your time. Thank you. I'm still all of that. Uh, thank you to the people that go to school to do this because wow, that's amazing. Thank you. Um, excellent. Thank you. Appreciate it. Absolutely. Yep. Item 4.2 public art unveiling of catch the water beach Marina sculptures. Good afternoon. Amber Bryce arts and cultural affairs manager. Open my pictures real quick. So a couple of weeks ago on September 29th, the city celebrated the unveiling of catch our newest public art installation along the marina walk on Clearwater beach. The sculpture was created by Nevada artist, Eileen Gay. It's a beautiful mosaic depicting a catch, which is a type of boat, um, with dolphins swimming in opposite directions. Um, it celebrates Clearwater's rich maritime heritage and coastal identity. Um, the, uh, the unveiling was very well attended. I do have a picture to cover it with a nice black turp. Um, we had members of staff, uh, the public, a lot of press came out. The mayor council members, um, were all there. Um, and the response was overwhelmingly positive, both in person and online, which is great. Cause we, we never know how the public's going to react to a piece, um, until it's installed. So another fun detail I wanted to share with you all is that we, the artists hid a little, um, geocache in the piece of art, which is really cool. Um, and it's a little medallion. So if you're into geocaching, you'll be able to find it. It's on the national geocache registry. And I just thought that was a neat addition to the piece of art. Okay. Uh, I'm 4.3 iconic coaching park public art installation. So on September 30th, we officially closed our call to artists for the iconic large scale public art installation in Coachman Park. So this time we did things a little differently. Um, I posted the opportunity on two different platforms. So we used cafe or call for entry, which is the one we've historically used. Um, and then we did, um, a call on a new, uh, platform called monochronical, which is a little bit newer, um, more artist friendly and has some built in like AI assessment tools and things like that. Um, we received 179 applications total, which is a great response. 149 of those were from cafe. So that's obviously still the, the more well-known one. Um, 30 were for monochronical. Um, I do think I might, this is going to be a completely different process than we've done in the past. Especially because the budget's very high for this, um, between 200 and $250,000. And it's obviously at a very iconic place in Clearwater. It's going to be in Coachman Park. It's going to be photographed. It's going to be synonymous with that, that space. So I'd like to try to use monochronical for the juring process because they have a built in rubric system. It also allows you to individually star, um, images that you like. So instead of having to put in comments for everything, you can just say, I really like this version of the artist's work. And then you don't have to say anything else about the other stuff. Um, once we get down to a manageable number of finalists, I think we might do some sort of in-person or teams discussion. Because another thing I asked for that I've never asked for before is a concept rendering from artists. So I really wanted to see their vision for this space, not just basing it off of past work. Really what, you know, what they can do, but what they also envision. And that's going to require a lot more discussion and a lot more stakeholder input than we would normally put into, let's see, a muralist. So, um, yeah, that's it for that. And that's where we are right now with that. So be looking out for an email from me for that. Any questions about that? How are we marketing that? So we've done our own social media marketing. Monochronical actually did a lot of marketing. Um, I know people have reached out and said, is this real? Is this really Clearwater's call? Because it was on a format they've never seen before. Um, but, and I reached out to past sculpture artists that have applied for calls for us and the PSTA iconic sculpture. So I, I sent emails to probably 400 artists and said, Hey, if you haven't seen this call, you should apply for it. So that's basically, that's how we did that. But most of the time they, they're the ones on the websites looking for these calls. All right. Item number 4.4, chocolate bay art and music festival update. So our application period for our chocolate bay art and music festival is officially closed. We received 104 applications, which is, uh, amazing from incredibly talented artists from all across the country and a couple from Mexico. So this was a really good response. We were not expecting that. Um, our current budget is approximately $60,000. So we've been able to invite 45 artists to participate. This includes 31 2D artists, 12 3D artists, and two mural walls. Um, we're still actively seeking sponsors. So I hope, uh, to be able to bring an additional artist off of the wait list. Um, applications are still open for emerging artists as well as student artist spots, which will be along Cleveland street. And those are unpaid opportunities, but we're supplying, um, supplies meals. It's obviously a huge portfolio opportunity, um, experience for maybe a student or a artist that hasn't quite participated in a large chalk art festival before. Um, so that festival is taking place January 15th through 17th. We also have a crazy color fun run slash five K we'll be doing on Sunday. So just mark your calendars and make sure you spread the word. And if you know any businesses, cause there's some smaller opportunities like $500, $800 sponsorships. So if you know anybody that's interested, please send them my way. I had a question. Um, would there be any way of maybe with the emerging or student artists or anybody just with the chalk art to have them kind of do a little bit with the gladiolus theme we've been talking about? I mean, we could give that to that as an idea, but I'm, I'm trying to leave it open ended. It's kind of whatever design you want to come up with. I don't even mean for the major things, but maybe like what if everybody or some of them would kind of add that off to the side or something. It'd be something that we'd. Mark. Yeah. I mean, that's definitely something to consider. I will, I will throw it at them as an idea, especially for maybe students that don't really know what to do. You can offer that as some options. Um, for the emerging artists, for the non paid spots. Are there ways that they highlighted or they have interviews that you'll interview process or what's the way that they're highlighted in that process? So on the webpage, we do have the artists listed, the featured artists, and then we would have the student artists listed if they wanted to, if they have a social media or something like that. Some of them will be on the younger side, but maybe the emerging artists will have a social media so we can highlight them that way. And then it is just basically they'll, they'll be on the walkways of Cleveland street. So when people are walking down and back from the festival or going to clear sky or wherever to eat, that is something that's a way that they're going to be highlighted and shown. And the, what's the music festival part of that is that? So we're having live music, um, on Saturday morning. It's more geared towards families. We're having Mr. Brad perform, you know, you know. Um, and then we have another performer. His name is Jared Barefoot and he's really cool and he's got like a loop station and he's does mashups. So that'll be on Saturday. And then on Sunday, actually three of the artists are in a band called the Killbillies. And I kind of negotiated, hey, if I let you in the show, can we get a free performance? And so it's obviously not free because they're being paid as an artist, but they're going to perform on Sunday. Um, and they do kind of folk Celtic rock. It's a, it's interesting, but I don't think it'll be fun. 4.5 Art Everywhere by Creative Pinellas and visit St. Pete Clearwater. So I, I also wanted to mention Art Everywhere. Um, so it's a countywide arts initiative led by Creative Pinellas, um, and visit St. Pete Clearwater in partnership with the Clearwater Arts Alliance, St. Pete Arts Alliance, and some other community organizations. Um, the celebration runs through November 1st through December 6th. Uh, features tons of different art installations, performances, live music. Um, I believe the schedule may be on Creative Pinellas, but Maggie's here with Creative Pinellas, so she can probably speak to it better than I can. I just do want to highlight the closing celebration will be at Coachman Park. Um, and it will be with Clearwater Sister Cities Lantern Festival, so kind of in conjunction with that. So, uh, the Lantern Festival celebrates Asian culture, lantern display, um, traditional live performances. Um, so we hope everybody comes out and, uh, supports Sister Cities and Creative Pinellas for that. But if Maggie wants to add anything. Um, today the, the visit St. Pete Clearwater made this mobile pass that you can sign up for that, um, has all the events. I, I'm not sure if it's all of the events or just the ones that were funded, but we are also including any of any event that's like artsy throughout that time period. You can submit that to us and we'll put it on the website. We sent it to visit St. Pete Clearwater and they created a website, um, with all of that on there. The pass is cool. I signed up for it and it lists everything. And then as you go to each event, you can check in there and it's all free. I mean, I don't think every event is free, but many of them are. And there's a museum week in the beginning, um, that the James Museum has a free, free admission. Um, and the, uh, the new Penny Lane Beatles Museum will be open then. And they're, they'll have like bands and film screenings and things like that. We have a director's report item number five. Yes. So there's something that I didn't get a chance to add to the agenda. So, um, it's about our mural walls that are out in Coachman Park. Believe it or not, uh, two of them are approaching their three year anniversary. Isn't that crazy? So, uh, from the beginning, our goal has been to rotate the art on these walls every three years to keep fresh, encouraging, uh, repeat visits. So the last meeting I had talked to you all about, um, Damian Mitchell, who was the, one of the artists for city hall mural walls. And then we just said the MSB and he was the one that was not selected, but we've already paid for designs and things. So I said, I'd like to give him one of the walls. So he's one of the artists I would like to have one of the walls, which I have some of his work. You guys want to see it to remind, refresh your memory, um, of his style and his work. Oh, that's really tiny, but just kidding. If you can't see that, then, uh, send it to you later. Um, this was downloaded from cafe. So maybe that's a complaint I should give them. Um, but my, for the second wall, I'd love to kind of get the board's thoughts on this. I'm leaning towards selecting someone more hyper local. So a clear water based artist. Um, I've identified a couple of local artists that have applied for our calls in the past. Um, I'm sure most of you know, you know, Beth Mormeth. Um, she's applied to our open call. Here's some of her work. And then also Patricia Clue Dearden. Um, I feel like a lot of you have probably seen her work too. So she's done more, uh, painting smaller scale. Definitely a cool, uh, style. But it's never fit with a lot of the things that we are trying to do. Like marine life or something like that. So this would give her a space to do something that, you know, is completely different. Um, so she has done some large scale mural, but that's not specialty. Then another clear water based artist I selected was Chris Van Boren. He has not applied to our open call for artists. So I'm kind of asking the board if that's a disqualifier or not. Um, how you all feel about these three artists, or if you want to throw a name out there. Um, and just how you feel about that in general. About a clear water based artist. Since the other artist is New York based. Oh, that's great. I think I love him. Have you ever had an application from, uh, Freeman or James Kitchens? Not James Kitchens. Um, he was some, my, um, consultant for our mural festival reached out to him. Yeah. But I don't think he had insurance or something and wasn't really interested in getting it. That was kind of the, where the conversation landed. Um, and who was the other one? Same person. Oh, okay. Freeman is his, his, his artist name. Oh, okay. Yeah. So no, he hasn't applied officially. Yeah. I just wonder, can I see him putting stuff up all the time? Yeah. And I see a lot of his work around. I grew up with him. So I was like, I've never seen his name come across. No. Yeah. Is there a list of Clearwater artists or? So, I mean, there's not like an official database or anything. I go off of the call and then I narrow it down to Clearwater. And then sometimes, you know, Tampa, St. Pete, Holiday, Panellas Park. We have a couple of those. Um, and so for the art oasis mural festival, it was narrowed down to basically that. Um, and so I picked as many as we could that were regional, um, for this one. Like I said, some of them just didn't fit what the business owners wanted for their image. So that's why we're kind of seeing if there's a way to give them an opportunity still. Do you want more artists? Do you want to pick one? Do you want to throw a name in the hat? Do you want to wait? And I definitely like the idea of having someone from Clearwater, so. Yeah. I like that idea too. Yeah. It always feels so underrepresented, Clearwater does. In the pool of artists always seems so small too. Yeah. It's pretty small. Yeah. Very small. So I can send you an email that maybe has a poll in it with some photos if that works. Yeah. Let's do that. Do you want to do it that way? Okay. All right. Item number six, board members to be heard. Does anybody have anything to say? I do. All right. I'm going to use this to plug all that Creative Panellas has going on. Please. So we have our Amped exhibition. It's a group show. In fact, Patty is in the show. Um, uh, it's at the Florida Rama gallery and it's up through November 1st. So we're doing a Halloween party on Halloween night cause it's a Saturday and it's like music themed. So the costume theme is like your favorite musician or album cover video or music genre. And there'll be a costume contest and, um, we're doing a partnership with daddy cool records, which is right there. So there'll be some music. So please come. Um, and then we're just gearing up for art everywhere. And we are also just opened a new show at the CP clear water airport, which is with Carrie Jadis and Duncan McClellan. Yeah. It's called paradise found. Yeah. And we're having an opening, um, that we invite people to next Tuesday. If any of you are interested in coming and send you an invitation. Yeah, that's it. So I, um, just a little bit more about the canvas event that everybody got information on. So it will be at Island way grow 4th of November. We're doing a couple of new things. So we're going to have a blank canvas. We have an artist, Alyssa Marie, that's going to be there. She's going to have the painting sketched out and everybody that comes in is going to get a paint brush and be able to do a stroke. And at the end of the event, we are going to auction it off a lot of different mystery envelopes. Pay a certain amount of money. You can choose your envelope. Those envelopes are going to be worth at least what you paid for. So you know that you're at least what you came with in your pocket when you leave. Great food company. We have a lot of sponsors that are really starting to come in right now. So it's turning out to be, if you get your tickets now, because they will go up $10 ticket price right now. Just a few things that are going on with Clearwater light up. There are going to be a lot of events between downtown Clearwater and Clearwater Amplify's website. I'm really big with the holiday. So I'm hoping that next year that the library might be able to do a presentation but fill it with. We weren't able to get it on the schedule this year, so we're hooked here. That we're still in the works with our new logo for the Clearwater Arts Alliance. And a couple other things that we're working on as well would be magnolia. A small painting like we had talked about a couple meetings ago like Dunedin does with our office in the works as well. I was wondering, what is the city doing to encourage Clearwater artists since we brought that up? Is that mostly through Clearwater Arts Alliance or are there any programs where we're really trying to grow? Do you need to discover more Clearwater artists or bring them in? Or help them grow? Is there anything that we're doing to make that happen? We don't have anything that's telling artists what to do and how to run their business and do things. Beth is a good example. She does murals all over the country. She's not really a struggling artist. She's got work. Patricia sells a lot of her stuff at art shows, doesn't really do. So we don't really take on the onus of that for the artist. We probably could have a Clearwater database. So if businesses wanted a Clearwater based artist, we could do that. And maybe like a regional database. So that would be something I guess we could add to our arts and culture webpage. Now that you bring that up. It would be nice to know just to be able to put your eyes. I know a handful of people that are from Clearwater, but it's always, anytime there's an opportunity. It's the same people, but then I blank sometimes on who those people are because they're never top of mind on those lists. So it would be nice just to have a list and to be able to refer back to if that's possible. And will we, I mean, so Clearwater or Clearwater-Deniden or Clearwater-Deniden-St. Pete? Because St. Pete's a whole other. I feel like Upper Pinellas has the same problem, has the middle of this. We just don't know who the artists are. So Clearwater... Clearwater North? Clearwater North, yeah. Because it's a big problem, I think, finding artists above Seminole or Largo. Creative Pinellas, we do have artist pages on our website, and they've been putting them on there for years. And so I'm not sure if there's a way that I can look for tags to see if it would pull up who lives where. Because everyone gets an artist page. In the show that we have up now, there was an artist from Safety Harbor who I'd never met before. So that was good. So finding new ones all the time. But if I can help with that at all. Please, yeah. If you already have that set up, that would be great. Is it the part of the application process when they apply? So we just ask for their address. Okay. We don't... Yeah. You know, it's a Florida... Like, the last mural call was Florida-based artists. That was the requirement. Right. And then they do... Do they turn in artist statements and everything? All that information? Yeah. And resumes and password. Yeah. Are most of the Signal Box artists local? Many. Yeah. Because I know Valerie Vogel, who lives in Java, in your neighborhood. I know she's... Yeah. She lives in there as well. Yeah. I think the digital artist or, you know, canvas artist is going to be able to translate to the mural. So that's the... I guess I'm thinking, like, broader... You know, are we featuring large scale-based artists or are we featuring all artists? Because that would be the difference. It's a hard transition. It would be, like, muralist, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think Clearwater is really known as an artist. Yeah. I neglected as well. There's an install in the library right now. I'm sorry. It's a photography. Could you just switch your mic a little bit? Oh, sorry. Thank you. Do you want me to repeat what I said? No. That's okay. It sounds good. Yeah. There's a really good install right now here in the library as well in photography. So I'm not sure if you've got a chance to look at it or not. I have not yet, but I usually check it out when we leave here. Yeah. Great question. Which kind of works in with all of what we're talking about. You know, is there a way to kind of grow the art community here? I mean, you're right that we have a kind of stigma, I guess you would say, sometimes about surrounding areas being a little more creative than other areas. But have we reached out to, I mean, there's a lot of creativity in the high schools, you know? I mean, if we could just harness some of that energy, somehow get them involved on a different scale. I mean... I mean, I have a really good relationship with one of the art teachers, Megan Hoffman. I love her. Yeah. She's great. The students did the art piece at the fire station. I don't know which number it is across from the high school. Yeah, 47. 47? Mm-hmm. Okay. So that's going to be something we rotate regularly. So I'm already in communication with her about that to have the students do that piece and to highlight them. And we talk about other projects, potentially, but they have their projects they're working on. Of course. So we can do that. It's just a matter of what works for the schools. I know that you used to do, you have a good model for the emerging artists and the process of getting them from start to finish of their projects and the whole onboarding process. I think they used to do, I'm not sure now, there used to be workshops and everything, too, that's coming up. We were doing all of that, like those professional development workshops. That's what we were doing right before we lost our funding. Yeah, yeah. But I will say that in preparation for Art Everywhere, we found that because we don't have a space anymore, we had these happy hours, meetups with artists, and we did them in, we had one in Clearwater so that people from North County could come. And it was really well attended. So I think these connection things are what people are kind of craving. So I don't know if that's an idea, like art meetup, you know, just having like a little art meetup thing at a brewery. Yeah. It worked really well. It works. People got really excited. Yeah. Something else that Creative Pinellas did was the mentorship program. Yes. Yeah. I was actually a mentor. You were, yeah. Wow, that's cool. But that's also a nice way of connecting people in the community. And even, you know, I wonder if we were to do that with some Clearwater artists and kind of mentor them up in a way with some of the national level artists at some point. Right. I mean, if I was an artist, that'd be really cool. Hey, I get to work with somebody else. And like local artists who have national presence too, are really, it's easy to access them. Right. So yeah, I don't know where we're at with our emerging artists program at this time, but we are doing exhibitions and so things are just rolling along in that way. So that's, it's, and I hope that one day we're able to do that again because it was really successful. And it's good to see these artists go on and do so well. Like one of them is in the photography show out there. It's Vanessa Kuto. She made the St. Peach Wall wallpaper that's in there. And so she's, she's started as an emerging artist and had a mentor and she's like really taking off now. That's awesome. Yeah. And this might be a good project, this artist meetup project, let's call it. It might be a good way to bring in arts lands, creative Pinellas to do. I'm not sure like we as a city are allowed to do that, but if we can spread the word for it and definitely make it as a form of like a workshop of, yeah, if you're new to this, here's kind of what you need to do. I think that would be really helpful. Yeah. And then, you know, Beach Art Center has a lot of members and I'm wondering if some of them live in Clearwater too. They, they have group, you know, member shows and it's like, there's a lot of work in there. There's a lot of artists. So we can come up with something like that. Awesome. Yeah. Any exposure I think would be great. I mean, that's not how to push that along. Cause right now they're in little silos. Yes. Exactly. Just break the silos. Right. Communicate that amongst others. Right. Locally and internationally and internationally. Right. Yeah. I mean the internet does wonders for that. It's the barrier. And when we think about artists too, there are, there are also, you know, high level professional artists who are doing installations for thousands and thousands of dollars. And then there are local artists. And I remember the teacher's show that was here recently. Those are people who are still keeping up with their art, but they're busy teaching most of the time. Uh, then there are, you know, uh, up and coming artists. And then there are also, you know, I've known some people who they enjoy painting, they enjoy sculpting, but trying to. Yes. So it's, it's a whole, the more casual to the more serious. Right. And then, you know, that also makes me think of like the faculty shows at the Leeper Ratner Museum. Um, they do, and you know, some of the faculty there are amazing artists. Yeah. They might live North County. Um, so just, yeah, these art meetups are really popular. Yeah. Um, I see them in St. Pete all the time. There's a bunch of different ones. That's how I got introduced to Creative Pinellas. Yeah. Cool. So it works. It does work. Absolutely. Anything else? Sure. Thanks. Yes. At St. Pete College, we have the annual student juried art show reception next Wednesday from six to eight at the Crossroads Gallery at the Clearwater campus. Some great work. We had an outside juror who is the new gallery director at Florida craft art. I can't think of her. Jillian. Jillian. Yes. I didn't meet her. Yeah. She's supposed to be great. Um, some really awesome work there. Um, we also have Tampa tour to clay coming up December 12th and 13th. I'm a part of that. I'll be at hidden Lake pottery. And then we also hosted the college empty bowls, um, which is January 23rd. And it's a fundraiser for Harbor dish, which is a nonprofit food organization at a safety Harbor that feeds, uh, hungry residents in our community. So you get a bowl, you come in, buy a bowl, you get soup, you get some water and bread, and you get to enjoy some hopefully live music this year. Our musician last year was, um, ill and, um, it's a good event. Yeah. Last year we raised about $20,000 for Harbor dish. So yeah, it goes a long way and everything is donated to the event. So, yep. Cool. It's pretty good. Yeah. Does the jury show still come with the, uh, ceramics sale? It does not. No. And we had to change our timing around because of the digital media show in the spring. So we moved ours to the fall semester. So. That's the 14th. Yep. 14th from six to eight. We find some Clearwater artists there. Yeah. Spread their wings. I, myself, I don't have anything. No. So if no one else has anything, that is our meeting for the day. Thank y'all. Thank y'all.