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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAM Minutes: 09/02/2020MUSEUM COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING MINUTES WEDNESDAY, September'2, 2021 As part of the city of Arcadia's COVID-19 transmission mitigation efforts, this meeting of the Arcadia Museum Commission was conducted virtually through conference call. CALL TO ORDER — Chair Jeanne Roy called the meeting to order at 5:02 p.m. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE — Chair Jeanne Roy. ROLL CALL: Chair Jeanne Roy.; Commissioners Carlos Reza, Jr., Dale Carter, Billie Tone, Virginia Blitz; City Council Liaison April Verlato; Director of Library & Museum Services Darlene Bradley; Library Services Manager Pat Smith; Curator Stevy Acevedo; Museum Education Coordinator Brittani Alberto. PUBLIC COMMENTS: None REPORTS FROM MUSEUM COMMISSION MEMBERS / LIAISONS: Councilmember Verlato reported on several development projects taking place in Arcadia, including an assisted living center and several apartment building projects. Councilmember Verlato expressed that she is impressed with the programs coming out of the Museum. Commissioner Blitz reported that the next meeting for the Friends of the Arcadia Museum (FAM) is tomorrow (September 3) and funds will be dispersed to the Museum. Director Report Report from the Director of Libraries and Museums: Darlene Bradley reported that Frank Wu of the Hakka Foundation made a very generous donation of $5,000 to help support the Gilb Museum, specifically educational programming. This money will be very helpful to continue programming this fiscal year since the Museum programming budget was reduced due to the pandemic. At this time, L.A. County still is still in the most restrictive tier with regards to COVID- 19. The Museum and Library will continue to operate curbside and virtually for the near future. Report from the Curator: Curator Acevedo reported that Commissioner Carter, also one of the Museum's Speaker's Bureau speakers, will be presenting a talk on the Santa Anita Depot to the Kiwanis Club, virtually. The Museum is in the process of purchasing a humidifier system for the collections space to reduce humidity in that area. DampRid collects the moisture in the room and on some days, it is completely full. Curator Acevedo applied for a free exhibit Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote which will be outside at the Museum. The Museum received some donations from Melanie Smith, daughter of Carol Libby, as well as some newspapers from Dorcas Auger. Debbie Cordano, daughter of Dr. Richard Cordano, donated two videos of Dr. Cordano. The Museum has switched to a new collections software, Catalog It, and has migrated all items from the old software, PastPerfect. The new software hosts the collection in the cloud so that the Museum no longer has to host the information on a locally maintained server. The Museum collaborated with the Arcadia Public Library and the California Center for the book and held a virtual discussion of the movie Visions of Warriors. The Curator is still active in making Curator's Corner Videos for the community, available through the Museum's website. The Curator also reported that the Museum received a paid Getty Internship, which allowed the Museum to hire Diana de Leon Garcia, a recent graduate from UC Santa Cruz, who will assist the Museum until October. Lastly, the Curator has been working with Girl Scout Kira Camacho on her Gold Award .project known as "The Senior Series". Report from the Museum Education Coordinator: Education Coordinator Alberto updated the Commission on the work of the volunteers. Since the start of the pandemic, volunteers have been asked to work remotely. To date, teen volunteers have completed over 300 hours remotely for the Museum. Projects include transcriptions of postcards, creation of coloring pages, journaling about their time during the pandemic, and compiling a list of all the movies and television shows that have been filmed in Arcadia. Also, the Virtual Summer Enrichment Program was very successful, with over 460 kits being distributed to children. Ms. Alberto has also been working on virtual "classes" offered through Google Classroom and will make this available to teachers. The Gilb Museum has been very active on social media, posting #Whatlslt Wednesday posts, #FeatureFriday, and #TriviaTuesday. Consent Calendar a. Approve the Regular Meetinq Minutes of July 1, 202-1 Recommended action: Approve 'I Commissioner Carter moved to approve Consent Calendar Item "a", which was seconded by Commissioner Blitz, and carried on a voice vote. AYES: Chair Roy, Tone, Reza, Jr., Carter, Blitz NOES: None Adjournment Jeanne Roy adjourned the meeting at 5:41 p.m. to Wednesday, November 4, 2020 at 5:00 p.m. by conference call. 07661= Darlene Bradley, Director ofry and Museum Services Prepared by Brittani Alberto, Museum Education Coordinator