City of Portsmouth, New Hampshire BRC Arts and Nonprofits, 28 Mar 2022

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From YouTube: 3.28.2022 Arts & Non-Profits Committee

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3.28.2022 Arts & Non-Profits Committee

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Okay, good afternoon we're going to start this special meeting of the courts of arts.

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And non-profits committee, it is monday the 28th at 1209 pm and we have with us today.

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Former city councilor chris dwyer and um uh former art speed chair chris meyer and I.

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Believe you're an art speech chair as well right, so we've got some former art speak chairs here.

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um And they were involved with the 2002 cultural plan for the state of portsmouth, so we've invited.

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Them here today to speak with us about what the process was like to be able to ask some.

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Questions and sort of a first step in the process of moving toward um creating a new cultural plan.

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For the community um and I've been speaking with nancy and sean about how to handle the next steps.

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Moving forward with the city, so we're still in the early stages of this, so everyone please be.

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Aware of that, but um this will be a really good informational meeting to you know, get us up to.

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Speed and started on this- I do want to remind everyone that, um because we're recording this.

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And we have some people at home at the zoo on zoom, uh when you speak, make sure you use a microphone.

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To speak into so um welcome chris and ellen. Thank you for being here. Thank you for inviting us.

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Yeah, I know it's exciting to have you here and I I think what I want to do just first, is you.

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Know, rather than get directly into questions, ask if you uh might spend a couple of minutes just.

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Reminiscing with us about what your recollection of the experience of being on the committee was.

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For the first cultural plan, how you particularly in the starting and beginning of it, because that's.

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What we're looking at right now that we can get really into depth on the whole process, but.

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What was like getting going um and and how that all came about with mary sorell so take it away.

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Where did you start with the earlier history? This is and almost met to talk about our own.

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Recollections and work work with dawn's files and there's a prehistory to when.

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We did the cultural planning, the pre-history is really important in this case, and ellen was so.

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Let me let me begin, but also apologize, that I will have to leave around 12 30 today.

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So I'm happy to continue to answer questions if things come up, that chris is unable or nancy.

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Cannot answer, but I just wanted you to know that to begin with.

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So art builds community was a special initiative of the greater fiscal community foundation.

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And that's really where this started. There were three sites in new hampshire that worked on arts.

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And cultural issues, one was newport, the other was manchester and the third was portsmouth and.

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Both manchester and the portsmouth sites wound up with cultural plans of different sorts, and I.

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Think the one in portsmouth was really the most extensive and the process was really robust here.

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There was a steering committee that was commissioned to learn.

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About what fort smith residents thought about arts and culture, there were eight.

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Focus groups in march and april of 1998, and these were held at sites throughout the city.

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Over 80 citizens in elwynn park, the south end downtown atlantic heights and spinning her point.

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To name a few attended those meetings, so that was, groups were also held at the high school and.

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At green pages, each one hour session began with an introduction to the project and its purposes and a.

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8-10 group members said something about themselves. Then there were people were asked, a series of very.

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Specific questions nancy: do you heard of this this piece too? I don't think I was part of that initial.

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Piece, I think, was the stage at rock street park one of those initiatives. No, no! No. I don't think so.

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So, actually, even a prehistory to that and why we had the wallace grant came out of the shipyard.

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Project um that we did at the music hall, and so that had engaged a lot of people in different ways.

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And that's why, of course, was one of the communities that received that grant.

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Lots of arts and cultural history here.

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So at the conclusion of each meeting each person was asked to write down a comment about something.

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That was said that they would like to see happen and those became part of a kind of vision.

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Of what people wanted to see in the city of portsmouth and ellen coordinated that arts.

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Correct, so that's um so you know, I think that background was really important, because the.

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Culture plan was picking up from the stream work, so then there was a committee that was.

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That committee included also individual artists, a portsmouth public school arts administrator.

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A social service organization person, some city, employees, business people.

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Information, I don't have access personally to a copier buddy. If you give it to me, then.

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Scan it today, okay, um so that was the beginning and then chris we went from there yeah and.

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Then so, mayor sorelle through that process, mayor sorelle, had not been a fan of arts and culture and.

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To say the least, in fact, she was kind of known at that time as an enemy of activity. um However,.

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Through that process she heard from citizens, she heard the value and she understood that arts and.

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Culture wasn't just something that was like sold downtown, but was woven into the fabric of schools.

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And she became a big fan and she thought that um the most important thing was to have arts and.

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Culture be a part of the city's master plan and we were about to two years, hence embark upon the.

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Master planning process- and that was that- was the biggest master planning process in my time in the.

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City, it was really, I don't think before that we had had that kind of brought in with master plan.

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And her idea, which was really brilliant, was that arson culture, because typically, is not a part of.

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Master plans anywhere that it would need some more time to do its own planning process to be then.

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Come kind of emerge into the master plan, and so it was her idea to do a blue ribbon committee.

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That would do this planning that would eventually, then merge into the city's master plan, and um that.

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By the way has set the stage for what other communities now do nobody had thought of that.

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So that was a real step forward, and so I don't think we had any money. No, we didn't and she tapped.

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Mayor throughout past um counselor grasso, oh, that would be the liaison and somewhere in there.

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Ellen went to the mayor and saw the um umass cultural planning.

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Seminar and you asked the mayor and subsequently john gohenko. If she would let a staff person go.

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And yes, along with you, and so that kind of also started them, yeah yeah, and so this blue top blue.

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Ribbon committee and you're all familiar with blueberry committees. um We were both.

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And so the blue ribbon committee, I I had done the work for wallace around the country and had felt.

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Pretty strongly that we didn't want a cookie cutter cultural plan, because it's very common.

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Now it was very common, then, to hire a consultant. They wrote your cultural plan, you pasted it into.

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What you have is a little bit of a nod to what your community was, and so.

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First of all, we needed money to do that, and but we decided that we had the space of.

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Information that owens collected and that we could do some additional data collection.

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But really the messages were pretty clear: coming out of the original data that we could use that.

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And build a cultural plan if we had a very broad-based group- and it was a very broad-based.

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Group, it largely did not include people from the cultural community. It represented history.

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It represented business and, of course it had some artists and education and marketers and culture.

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Planned and someone from the newspaper, but it was not a plan of the cultural community, it was.

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A plan of a community that was very important, I think, for its credibility and for its wide reach.

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And so believe it or not and ellen, and I went over the dates on this within one year of forming that.

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Committee, we did some additional focus groups, we did a community survey, we started the first.

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Americans for the arts community survey and we wrote the culture all as volunteers and.

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One of the things that we did, that, I think, was interesting and maybe something you'd want to do.

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Which we discovered, if we were doing research, is we took the themes coming out of the earlier folks.

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And did a community-wide survey based on those themes, so it wasn't like. What do you want.

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What do you like, you know as a lot of these surveys are, but we had a set of themes and.

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We asked people to prioritize those things and those things can just say something about that.

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Because there were, these, surveys were distributed on postcards and published in the brexit herald.

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So and those days almost everybody still got the newspaper, and so it was a real. It was great.

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Because it provided a community access to a very large swath of the community and we had meetings.

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Of different types, the right people participated, yeah, um and so, but the themes that you see in.

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This cultural plan were kind of a coalesce, shrunken version coming out of that survey.

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Of the themes and then because the committee itself was very broad-based, we worked to fill out.

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With an idea that would be in the master club and so things that are in the master plan.

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Are land use right, so there were things like the public art ordinance things that could.

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Fit in the master, you know roles of business um things like that, so um the other part of this.

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Was the this should be beautiful, it should be a work of art, so uh artists were commissioned.

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And paid for their work and nancy just said: she's found all the original work um and you should hold.

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That cover up and for those who may not have a copy of zeus, it was, it was. Oh, that's right.

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And widely distributed- and I think a version published in paper- yes.

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That's the first time I saw it yeah and it was.

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It was wonderful that so many community institutions participated in and helped both both.

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By providing data, but also by distributing the plan over time, oh here's, a reception.

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November 20th 2002. that's right and of course it was accepted by the city council.

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I think that reception is where you now see initial board members for art speech. That's right.

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Right because one of the recommendations was to create a.

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Art speech, and so we did that it wasn't an appointment. It was you had to apply. You had to.

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Apply and remember, we put these groups in the room to see how they work together. That was different.

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Yes and we did have good applications and at the same time, we were doing that.

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First survey for americans for the arts, so the business community.

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Was involved, all the cultural organizations were involved because they did as they do now.

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Put up gave out surveys filled in paper, so there were things coinciding with kind of brought.

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But it was also that it was considered a sort of arts agency and it would be its.

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Own standalone, non-profit, rather than be one of the.

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City appointed commission, so it had a little different. Well because we were drawing.

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Half the people were reports, but they have not.

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And so this was a really unusual thing that we could include.

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Artists and other people who were not part of the community who saw this as their community.

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That's how it came about that's excellent, I'm just being respectful of ellen's time.

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She's going to be here for another five minutes: does anyone have any specific questions.

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For ellen before she leaves us today, based on the opening or any questions you might have about.

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It's probably hard to have questions at this point, because we're still really getting.

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Into the process, so so I I do have one question: um a lot was accomplished in one year. It really is.

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Remarkable and I'm guessing that the the lifting was done by the blue ribbon committee members. Yes,.

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And they got a safe staff as well nancy parker. How? How frequently did you meet early on.

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How what type of you know what type of did you divide into sub work groups? You.

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Know part of part of my questions about this, especially since we're moving towards this.

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Are some of the practical issues about things that you may have learned that work or didn't work.

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In the way that you've actually accomplished the tasks.

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I think there was a lot of trust. You know, I I wouldn't say we had horrible sub groups, but.

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Different people took on uh challenges, you know lars trodson, I don't know the numbers.

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Lars took on a lot of writing um alan and I, I think, took on a lot of the more sort of detailed.

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Brainstorming generating ideas there were people who took on like managing their reception, people.

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Who took on the artwork, so people took on tasks as as and and partly the broad base.

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There's a lot of talent in that group to take on those tasks. This is about 15 people.

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Yeah russ, I have a question.

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Hi there um I think I heard you say that the input was widely collected from non-arts and.

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Cultural um people or people that didn't work for.

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um Or the arts and cultural organizations did I hear that correct two things to them? um It was.

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It was community input, so anybody could do it, but we wanted to make sure we got community and that.

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It wasn't only a plan, this is mayor. Sorel too, it wasn't a plan that of what artists wanted. It.

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Was what the community wanted for arts and culture? And I would also say the members of the committee.

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Were you know there are people here that you certainly know nancy kerry was an art teacher.

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At the high school jeff gable, who was executive director of the musical peter hafney, um barbara.

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Jennings, who was an art teacher then at phillips exeter, but many of the other people, architects.

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Editor, um you know marketing person, it was. It was a balanced group, so the committee itself.

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Was heart arts people were grounded in the arts and have not got it okay. Thank you.

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The other question I had was um relative to the plan and was: are there any parts of the.

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Plan that were not completed or objectives that weren't met that you are aware of. Yes,.

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I would say everything is partially partially in that, but there are specific ideas in there.

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That haven't been met. You know one of the things we really wanted to do at that time was.

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Art slip workspace. We did accomplish the zoning that allowed for that, but we never accomplished. We.

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Got fairly far after we had the committee itself, we even had students from mit and harvard develop.

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A plan for reuse of some buildings for art workspace. We worked with some national groups.

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On that we never got there at that time, but um we did get the zoning so things like that, if you go.

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Through the specifics of the plan, they're, probably what we, what was happening with cultural spaces,.

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We it's hard to remember what we didn't have back then, and I think the other thing that we started.

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And that we were unable to really continue on a robust basis was a percent for arts program that.

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Would basically create public support and allow for the placement of public art in spaces.

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And there was some any city project over a certain amount of money was um supposed to have a percent.

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For art that was set aside- and it was in some cases in other cases,.

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That people were somehow talked out of using that money for the arts and believed that theirs, the.

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Budget was too tight and I needed to use it for. I think that only happened on the fire station.

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And the wastewater treatment plant, the money for the middle school still exists and it's never been.

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Used because art speaking unfolded at that time, so I think that to me the real uh thing that needs.

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To be redone, which I think is partly what we're here is the city needs to bring a good rate yeah.

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Department and arts agency, arts and culture agencies- and it reminds me to say one other thing.

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Calendar talks about this- I don't know if you want to call it an arts plan anymore. We tried very hard.

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To make that cultural, history, humanities, arts, folk life preservation and the full.

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Cultural life of the community, and that was again kind of unique at that time. That's partly why.

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So maybe things like the percent for arts should instead say for culture, and it might.

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Have more buy-in, for instance, now um than it might have had.

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With that kind of understanding of how much more inclusive it could be.

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Yeah, I just wanted to say real quickly before ellen leaves.

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um So you both know, some of the percent for our uh money is, is going to be living.

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On in the portsmouth 400 projects, so you're going to see things like.

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Potential projects out at pierce, island and I'm part of the legacy committee and it came up in.

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Our meeting on friday about the money you you just mentioned about portsmouth middle school.

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So, though, those funds are not forgotten and they're they're kind of top of mind, with.

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Portsmouth 400 right now um and the other thing I wanted to ask you both in terms of practical.

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We live in such a different world 20 years later. Volunteerism is not what it used to be. We have to.

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We have to accept that, and um so one of the things that we've talked about just a little bit.

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As we start to move on with this is would um portsmouth listens, be a good.

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Partner for us, in terms of community outreach wondering what your thoughts are about. That.

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I think one of the things that.

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Was different about this was that it had its own brand from the beginning.

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I think you would want to have its own brand from the beginning. It doesn't mean you have.

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To do it all with volunteers, and I don't think we're suggesting that, because barbara.

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You make such a good point and we just kept saying: how did we do all this? You know I mean.

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We were both working full-time, I traveled at least half a month for my job um as and everybody on.

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This group was working, it is different now, so it isn't that you wouldn't hire out some things.

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But I think it's really important to have your own brand and be perceived as neutral as possible.

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Because that was the real concern when we did. This was from artists.

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They thought the government was going to tell them what art to do. Do you remember.

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Them so that all the only negativity that ever came about was from individual artists.

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Who were fearful that somehow they'd be corrupt um and you can kind of understand that again.

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It was a different time, but I think there's a neutrality and a brand specialness to it. That.

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You should really work to preserve, and the other thing that I would say before I have to leave now.

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Is that there was a lot of support from the city itself? Nancy was an incredibly.

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Important person to this and her access to.

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The services of the city and also to making sure that the city government knew what we were doing.

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And um not only you know the mayor and the city manager to people who were very important just.

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To be sure that everybody knew what was happening so it wasn't, we weren't out there. We were in here.

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So to speak, dude it was very important because nancy also had to be sort of a translator for.

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Us it was like so what parts of arts fit with with planning you know, with master planning, with.

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Land use, and so we needed to kind of have that bridge. I'm sorry! I have to go. Thank you very much.

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Yeah, we'll definitely have more questions answer other questions. Thank you.

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um Yeah barbara really touched upon part of my question. It was.

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Really has to do with the changelings. Obviously, we've got some very strong.

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Organizations that have grown over these last 24 years and and yes, there might be more challenges.

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With getting the the citizen to volunteer so you know it's, I guess I'm curious about some of your.

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Thoughts about opportunities, you know, there's there's an interconnectedness that comes through.

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The you know the advent and increase of social media. You know how do we harness the? How do we.

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Get that citizen re-engaged, but also, obviously, you know, include these strong large brands.

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I so one thing I think is important is to figure out how this fits with initiative overload um and.

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You know with the uh vargas mentioned the portsmouth 400 so does this? Is this something.

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That should come out of the porsche 400 and that you should harness the kinds of things that.

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Are being learned through the porsche 400, and then the planing group emerges from that, as opposed to.

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Recreating the wheel, but yes- and this is before social media- this is before.

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You know everybody was on their devices all the time, so collecting basic information is.

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Really easy. The ideas, though, came out of interaction. You know you want to do the.

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Survey and the input and all that to let people have their say, but really the ideas cannot.

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Interact, I don't you know, we haven't had a lot of that lately and I think people are.

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Would be very interested in participating in that all of the groundwork we did for the 400.

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Is exactly the same groundwork that you need for this, so I wouldn't recreate that wheel. I.

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Mean the last thing people want to be asked for over and over is what they think about things.

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um You know I just like the artsville community was a base for our culture plan. I think those.

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Focus groups we didn't know what three or four years ago uh and all of that information that.

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We had hundreds of people provide, for the 400 may be the basis for the culture.

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You know it's it's it's the thinking about it, the synthesis that what does it say to us about.

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What's needed going forward for the next five to ten years? That's the thinking, part of a group that.

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You would uh task, I mean, I don't see you doing, you guys have a different purpose. I see you.

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Selecting a group to take it forward, rather than maybe taking it on, and especially the.

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Cultural organizations have a lot of their place right now, so I I can see how thinking of that.

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Is volunteering will be challenging, but um I would first look to that wealth of information.

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And all the themes that came out of that as the basis for it. What does this say to us.

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Other questions at this point.

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Could you talk a little bit about how you eventually got to six primary goal areas or.

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Feature areas in the plants and I'm assuming it came out of the.

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The surveys and those themes came out, but but you know a little deeper into how that all came.

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I didn't bring with me, but I found my found the little survey cards. I think there were.

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Ten on that, there were ten big themes that have come out of the earlier art style and we really.

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Asked people to rank, and then we looked at that um information ourselves and tried to coalesce it. We.

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Knew that we knew that um you know we're starting from nothing, so you don't want to put out again.

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One thing you'll see in a lot of people's cultural plans, it's pages and pages of lists of things that.

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We need things we want to do. We wanted this to be and those never go anywhere. They sit on people's.

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Shelves and they're used in their appendices of grants. We wanted this to be actual, so we.

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Knew we couldn't, we couldn't have too many? Oh, my god. She has the actual data. Where was uh where.

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Was this was that the paper? No, this is cut out. It looks like it happened. You should stitch, explain.

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And the actual documents are here.

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And they asked people to break, not important kind of very important and they asked them for.

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Their favorite piece of public art, of course, oh something else that we were doing at the time, was.

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We were part of the national smithsonian, save our sculpture, allen and I were we were.

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Team members of that, so we documented all the public.

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uh Art on facades and public sculpture and that's at the smithsonian that.

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Would anybody have any idea how many of those directions are returned.

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Probably somewhere, that's awesome.

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And they wrote.

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It I liked the simplicity of it in that it made it easily accessible for a lot of people to respond.

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You didn't feel, like you, had to set aside a lot of thinking time to respond to this.

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But it does get to the core of how people value aspects of it.

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And people are volunteers, a letter of a person, who's volunteering and we had a lot of people.

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Volunteering to want to be a part of it, that's why we created an application form, because we had so.

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Many wow what a nice problem to have too many volunteers. I think our biggest struggle was.

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As you said, the individual artists and we didn't know how to.

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We didn't know how to get that, so we went out- and you know individually kind of sat.

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With people on the sidewalk or went to where we knew they might be performing just kind of.

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Robin it was paused for only a short time.

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And then it was reinstated but never acted.

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I think the simplicity of it is really important again and we had so much less happening and so.

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Much less going on, but I do think the simplicity of it allowed people who aren't already in the.

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Beltway to participate and feel like they have something to say. I think that's important so.

C

That survey that appeared in the paper it was on postcards. Basically, you brought together the.

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Results of that survey, the weighted results of what the community thought to kind of prioritize.

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How you were going to create the different section areas of the plan section areas, but then.

C

The committee itself had to brainstorm, and this is where nancy played an important role, because again.

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We were trying to push ourselves towards a land use plan, so the committee itself didn't have to.

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Brainstorm within each of these well, what would be actionable? You know, what do we see for needs.

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And what would be actual and as you go through them, you'll see that some are really aspirational.

C

And some are pretty practical um and it's probably the aspirational ones. You know tina.

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Like, for example, create a centralized cultural arts center and facility owned by the city.

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It could be reusable library, so you sort of have that yeah and.

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You know one of the things that I think.

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Helped, and somebody asked about the rock street um here- was a suggestion of creating neighborhood.

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Arts centers arts activities, similar to parks and recreation, an example could be.

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To do something with rock street so and then the city could use this opportunistically as.

A

You know, I wonder last week when we had ben show us the the uh part of portsmouth.

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Landing pages- and you know he had those couple questionnaires, I wonder if we could somehow use.

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That as a vehicle to capture some of the information that we're talking about here,.

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You know before that goes live because I know we only have a couple questions.

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The only response to that we're targeting that outside of the portsmouth area.

C

I mean one thing could even be to start with these things and ask people to add. You know.

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Or start with the themes take a look been accomplished and why you know understand.

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Why some things have been accomplished um and then build from there, and that could be a an empowering.

C

Kind of need to do that, I mean you could do that in a retreat setting and a half a day.

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We did, we did have an intern go through the plan and report on.

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The status of it so that in part exists, so that might be an interesting question.

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Oh go: go ahead! Barbara! Oh sorry! Chris! I was wondering you know to build off of.

D

The it might be better to go a different route um from portsmouth listens. I totally get that.

D

Then I would also think the same might be true um of the chamber. I mean they've been a good.

D

Partner on this marketing proposal, we're doing but the vast majority well residents, certainly.

D

Aren't part of it and and I'm I'm thinking the vast majority of businesses aren't part of it so.

D

We shouldn't, I know it was just a comment about the chambers website and this marketing.

D

But I I think we better steer clear of that too. If we're gonna truly be independent and focus.

D

On the community at large, would you agree with that? I think so. I think all those people are.

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Really important contributors to the content and to the to the betting and all of that. But.

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I I think it's really important to um to really try to do something.

C

That's why you know just the broad call, of course or data is important, so.

C

I think so whatever I mean. Okay, are you all, but I think so.

C

I mean it's also when you're in the marketing you know at that time the chamber had nothing to do.

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With the arts, you know it's only in our recent, our recent iterations, the chamber rebranded itself to.

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Include the arts, but at that time so you'll see in here marketing businesses is such a separate.

C

Thing so so many of those silos that kind of come together, it's great yeah. I think that the.

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Influence of the cultural plan, kind of is bubbling under the surface everywhere in our community.

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And what you see happening with the chamber is even part of that. The question I had was.

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um Was there any thought given to the longevity of the plan when you actually created it and what you.

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In here thought yeah, I.

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It certainly wasn't.

A

Yeah oh go ahead, and is that I can't tell who that it was. Is that nico go ahead, nico and then robin.

A

uh Russ has told us a lot of our at least a selfie speed about.

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The lasting twins at this last wondering why that's been the case. How was this document.

A

Used in decision making after it was written, what was important for them.

A

That's easy because the last the last goal is create an art and culture agency.

A

And that's what happened and they were charged exclusively with implementing the cultural plan.

C

I also think that you know timing. Timing was good. um The broad base of involvement.

C

Was good, I would say I I told this ellen. You know when I first ran from city council, which was.

C

Shortly after this, and people knew that I was associated with arts and culture, people used it.

C

As to make fun of what I was pronouncing, people used it to denigrate some of the same people.

C

Who walked out of this room earlier, use it to degrade them by the second time I ran the council.

C

Every every candidate had an arts platform so that a lot of it was people just not understanding.

C

How woven in it was in our community and partly by lifting up the you know, it was.

C

Like yeah, everybody likes this, uh everybody wants to participate. This isn't for like a few a week.

A

And I think you know chris deserves a lot of credit because she brought the.

A

American for the arts, economic prosperity, study um forward to the council or the mayor and the first.

A

Time you did it, um it was, it was transformative, it was, it really was because nowhere else had.

A

The council seen a quantitative value for this entity and then going forward as soon as soon as.

A

We had something that that was concrete. We never looked back and the number kept going up every.

A

Five years, so I think you can't underestimate how important the economic part was yeah and I think.

C

That started to bring the chamber on board and brought one of the businesses, and then the council.

C

Could also see the value observations you know one of the things that's really important to me.

C

You know, having grown up enforcement, that I get a lot of friends who say well, this isn't my portrait.

C

Anymore, yeah and I got all the our time for me, you know and you just reference. You know it's.

C

Not for this elitist small group, this is for fort smith. uh Any observations from your work. 20 years.

C

Ago that you would recommend to us to engage community to engage the neighborhoods. I heard.

C

You talk a little bit about. Neighborhood groups really want us to be as inclusive as possible.

C

Neighborhood groups very important in the neighborhood committee, which.

C

I don't believe existed back then, or no it didn't a different way would be a great to barbarous.

C

Questions they would be a interesting group to see if we could do this mayor, sorelle's original.

C

Vision has not been implemented, which was that we would have arts going on in neighborhoods.

C

The closest I think of that is our redo of the plane, plain schoolhouse fort pontine.

C

So that has become a neighborhood place, that plain school house and they get neighborhood.

C

People coming to meetings, they have memorial services there for people in the neighborhood.

C

And you know in some community, in some cities there are community centers in neighborhoods.

C

Larger cities than ours, but to think of what this time to would would really say that would be.

C

um From a history perspective from a community life perspective from a folk traditions.

C

Perspective from the arts perspective. What could really happen? I think that would that would be a.

C

Different branding um that doesn't mean that those wouldn't be connected to our major institutions.

C

Our downtown institutions, but could that be something we would think about differently.

C

And you know that, would that would infuse the cultural life forward into it, but the other part.

C

That you raised, I think, is really important to take on during this. You know. Is it for.

C

Anyone because sometimes I used to say this is the counselors older people would sometimes say well.

C

I don't go downtown anymore because I don't know anybody anymore. My friends have died, they're gone.

C

And so, but how can we help more people network and feel that and that's what the cultural life is.

C

Right so the cultural life should is the network for feeling like it is your board too.

C

So um that seems to be a theme that.

C

Was important back then, and I don't think we achieved and I think it's really important.

A

Robin you had a question earlier. um You really already answered it. I just was going to.

C

Remind everyone of my mommy eve and when we do a timeline um of this project. Putting in when we're.

A

Actually going to get the aft data and when we want to roll out the after data just but you you.

A

Guys all mentioned really how important it is, but it's going to be important not to have that.

C

You know somehow that has to the weightiness of that has to has to not be out balanced with.

C

What we just talked about, because that looks like it isn't, I know, and the data shows so something.

C

That our data shows and has always shown, is that the people who are responding are more.

C

Locals than tourists than any of us who run cultural organizations know that.

C

um For the most part, they may be people who don't live here, but who live in a 20 30 mile range.

C

But there's a tendency for people to feel that that is the outsiders as opposed to this is for us.

C

I think sometimes people are surprised how many of us take advantage of all the things that are here.

C

So I think your timeline is really important that the 400 you get the active data. You know you've.

C

Got the master plan that this has to kind of find its way into all those pieces? uh Barbara you had a.

A

Question- um and I was just about to go there. Chris, the different committees and the 400 are already.

D

Looking to work with the neighborhood association, because some of the celebrations won't take place.

D

Downtown in portsmouth they'll take place in a neighborhood, that's one thing and then the.

D

Other thing I I let the whole group know next week the recreation department is doing a survey about.

D

Their programming and, like I said to the group, I have zero zero issues with athletic activity. Zero.

D

But I I wrote to them and asked them if we could have a seat at the table, because they're also.

D

Talking about the community campus and thinking ahead that you know one of the points in in your.

D

Plan, I'm sure, will will live on in some form in the next one, which is not only living space.

D

But space for creating ore and gathering people to create art, because we still don't really have that.

D

You know like when we lost the connie bean, they call the co that gym at the middle school. The.

D

Connie bean, but it's not the connie b, it's a gym and and so something along the lines of what many.

D

Of us knew of the connie bean a gathering place, if that could, whether it's at the community campus or.

D

You know I asked the city council to buy the north church building spinney road, that's my dream, but.

D

I don't know that that'll happen, but um to your earlier point about, you know, discover portsmouth.

D

Almost being a cultural hub, but is there a way to really create a cultural hub? You know where some.

D

Of us could even reside as as having our our hq, so um our our timing is fortuitous in that the 400 is.

D

Happening the rec department is looking at what is recreation going to be in portsmouth, and here.

D

We are wanting to do a cultural plan. I I see it as possibly dovetailing in in lots of these different.

D

Areas, I think that's that's really great barbara. um You know in europe and in um in the united.

C

Nations work on culture, recreation is part of culture, migration and leisure are body within.

C

It so embracing the recreational aspect of this, I think, is, is really important. uh Something else.

C

That was going on at the same time that we were doing this was the building we used. I forgot yeah.

C

So, at the same time we were working on the reuse of all the buildings to do we did the discoveries.

C

The players rated the discovery center, um the children's museum so bringing up building reuse.

C

And, and connecting it to this is very important. um The other thing I would say from um I chaired the.

C

Prescott park, um master planning process and the thing I think that you remember how contentious.

C

That was at the beginning and that you know nobody thought that we could actually get a plan.

C

Out of it, but I think one thing that really worked there is we did our data collection in the park.

C

Remember we took people on walks in the park and then um they would fill out a survey after that I.

C

I could see a wonderful opportunity for gatherings at different cultural places in the community.

C

For people to give their input because we get so much even from some of our meanest critics,.

C

We had great walks in the park with uh with landscape, architects and people actually being.

C

In place and seeing visioning in place what could happen? I could see something.

C

Similar with some of the spaces that you mentioned, you know to vision uh what reuse.

A

Other questions or comments.

A

I usually like to close sessions like this by asking the person who has the hindsight done this.

A

Before what either they would do differently if they had the opportunity to do it again,.

A

Or you know what you learned from the process that was unexpected.

C

What we would do differently.

C

I I think, there's I think, there's too much in here too many objectives too many too many objectives.

C

I think we coalesce on fewer things. um You know not fewer themes, but fewer ideas within each.

C

And I think, um maybe be clearer about who who could take some of this up.

C

You know I I remember talking at this point. I don't think it's in here that we um that we.

C

Wanted to do a percent for art is the idea that eventually private developers would would do this.

C

On their own- and we never imagined that that would be possible and of course now that's what happens.

C

Right, um I I think I would be clearer about a timeline and what could be done within one to two.

C

Year, you know organizing this, what could be done in a one to two year? What is really aspirational.

C

It's great to have some aspirational things, but I think we should have been clearer about you know.

C

Organize it a little bit better and have fewer so for sure. In the plan itself,.

C

You know my business is collecting data. I think we're.

C

Going on fairly thin data.

C

But but there's also a tendency to be paralyzed by data. So that's why I'm suggesting you might.

C

Reuse, what you've already collected reports before it put you know, put more time into planning and.

C

Thinking and less time into just mindlessly collecting it, even though it worked for us.

C

There's people are so over over.

C

Surrendering you can always get people to want to talk to each other or do interviews. It's just.

C

About finding the right way for people to feel like they've been hurt as part of the process.

A

Well, thank you for your time today. Very much. Thank you. Thank you really.

A

Really helpful and we'll touch base again, I'm sure, but thank you. Everyone.

A

Thank you chris. Oh yes, and we have our next meeting in april, um so we'll see everyone then.

A

uh But have a good rest of your march. Thank you. Thank you.