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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAM Agenda: 01/05/2022CITY OF ARCADIA Arcadia Museum Commission Regular Meeting Agenda Wednesday January 5, 2022 5:00 p.m. Location: Museum Education Center, 382 W. Huntington Drive, Arcadia Pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act, persons with a disability who require a disability related modification or accommodation in order to participate in a meeting, including auxiliary aids or services, may request such modification or accommodation from the Museum at (626) 574-5468. Notification 48 hours prior to the meeting will enable the City to make reasonable arrangements to assure accessibility to the meeting. 根据《美国残障人法案》，需要调整或提供便利设施才能参加会议的残障人士（包括辅助器材或服务）可与市书记官办 公室联系（电话：626-574-5468）。请在会前 48 小时通知市书记官办公室，以便作出合理安排，确保顺利参加会议。 Pursuant to the City of Arcadia’s Language Access Services Policy, limited-English proficient speakers who require translation services in order to participate in a meeting may request the use of a volunteer or professional translator by contacting the City Clerk’s Office at (626) 574-5455 at least 72 hours prior to the meeting. 根据阿凯迪亚市的语言便利服务政策，英语能力有限并需要翻译服务才能参加会议的人可与市书记官办公室联系（电话： 626-574-5455），请求提供志愿或专业翻译服务，请至少在会前 72 小时提出请求。 COVID-19 As part of the City of Arcadia’s COVID-19 transmission mitigation efforts, this meeting of the Arcadia Museum Commission will be conducted virtually and the public is discouraged from attending in person. Per the Brown Act and AB 361, the public will still be provided the ability to make public comments. For members of the public who would like to participate virtually, the meeting will be held via teleconference. A conference line has been established to enable the public to observe the meeting via teleconference and submit public comment. Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84211158058 Meeting Phone Number: (669) 900-9128 ID: 842 1115 8058# How to Submit Written Public Comment: Please submit your comments via email to Museum@ArcadiaCa.gov Comments must be received at least 30 minutes prior to the posted meeting time. Your email must be 300 words or less. Please contact the Museum at (626) 574-5440 for more information. Any writings or documents provided to a majority of the Museum Commission regarding any item on this agenda will be made available for public inspection at the Gilb Museum of Arcadia Heritage located at 380 W. Huntington Drive, Arcadia, California, during normal business hours. CALL TO ORDER PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE ROLL CALL OF MUSEUM COMMISSION MEMBERS: Jeanne Roy, Jr., Chairperson Virginia Blitz, Vice Chairperson Billie Tone, Commissioner Dale Carter, Commissioner Angela Ayala, Commissioner PUBLIC COMMENTS Any individual wishing to speak before the Museum Commission is limited to five (5) minutes per person, unless waived by the Museum Commission. Under the Brown Act, the Museum Commission is prohibited from discussing or taking action on any item not listed on the posted agenda. The matter may automatically be referred to staff for appropriate response or action or may be placed on the agenda of a future meeting. REPORTS FROM MUSEUM COMMISSION MEMBERS / LIAISONS Announcements / Statements / Future Agenda Items DIRECTOR REPORTS Announcements / Statements / Reports a. Director’s Update b. Covid-19 Update c. Curator’s Report and Updates d. Museum Education Coordinator’s Update e. Grants f. Interns and Volunteers g. Programs h. Exhibits i. Collections CONSENT CALENDAR All matters listed under the Consent Calendar are considered to be routine and can be acted on by one roll call vote. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a member of the Museum Commission, staff, or the public requests that a specific item be removed from the Consent Calendar for separate discussion and action. a. Approve the Regular Meeting Minutes of November 3, 2021 Recommended action: Approve ADJOURNMENT The Museum Commission will adjourn this meeting to Wednesday, March 2,2022 at 5:00 p.m. in the Museum Education Center at 382 W. Huntington Drive, Arcadia. 1 The Gilb Museum of Arcadia Heritage Museum Curator’s Report November - December 2021 November 2021 In-person Visitors: 275 Virtual Visitors: Facebook: 2,712 Instagram: 1,967 Twitter: 7,200 Website: 683 YouTube: 28 Virtual Programs:32 December 2021 In-person Visitors: 541 Virtual Visitors for December 1-20: Facebook:3,597 Instagram: 1,308 Twitter: 2,100 Website: 344 HIGHLIGHTS The Gilb Museum participated in both Snow Fest and the Downtown Arcadia Holiday Fair on December 4. The Preservation Workshop series will begin on January 22, 2022. EXHIBITS Curator Stevy Acevedo, and Volunteers Rebecca Andersen, Eva Baudler and Jonathan Ornelas installed a smaller exhibit on the Museum’s 20th Anniversary at the Arcadia Public Library on November 4. Curator Acevedo, Intern Eva Baudler and Volunteer Rebecca Andersen created two exhibit panels that were put on display at the Arcadia Community Center for the Veteran’s Day celebration on November 10th. The panels highlighted the Ross Field Balloon School in World War I and Camp Santa Anita in World War II. This provided an excellent opportunity for the Intern and Volunteer to view the collections, plan, prepare, and install the exhibit under the guidance of the Curator, providing a hands-on experience. COLLECTIONS The Anthony W. Wilkinson Collection Transcription project, consisting of 704 letters and postcards, is still being transcribed by the virtual volunteer community on FromThepage. Since the beginning of this project in January 2021, there have been 1,865 pages transcribed and 1,325- page edits from 88 collaborators and over 11,000 hours dedicated to this project by community members. Collection Intern Eva Baudler is reviewing letters that have been completely transcribed. More information can be found on the Museums website. 2 Curator Acevedo continues to work with volunteer Tola Livesey who is working on the organization, digitization, curation, and inventory of the Gilb Museum’s Archive, specifically the City of Arcadia Newsletters, Hot Sheets, and the Arcadia Unified School District News and Views. She has begun to inventory these items in the Museum’s CatalogIt database. Volunteer Deborah Cordano is now helping transcribe the Camp Santa Anita Letter Collection. The collection consists of 192 letters written to and from Private Robert Beck during his time stationed at Camp Santa Anita during World War II. She has transcribed approximately 68 letters in the collection. Volunteer Angela Ayala has begun to inventory, digitize, and curate the Non-Commissioned Officers Club Collection from Camp Santa Anita into CatalogIt. This collection was donated in 2019 by the John F. Merritt Estate in honor of Raymond Avlie Merritt (V.P.). Curator Acevedo and volunteer Ms. Andersen have been working with reorganizing items in the Museum’s collection space. This allowed for boxes to be better organized and for more collections to fit within the limited collection space at the Museum. Volunteer Rebecca Andersen has been curating the Brookover Collection donated to the Museum in December 2021 by Wendy (Brookover) Maboudian from Texas. The collection highlights the lives of Henry Stanley Brookover and his son Stanley Mansfield Brookover who owned a chicken farm in Arcadia in the early 1900’s. An inventory of all items donated during this time period:  Annie Reed donated one auto parking ticket and six ticket stubs from Santa Anita Park from 1936 to 1938.  Tom Kowecny donated a Los Angeles County Almanac from 1969 and a “Forget Me Not” seed packet from Charles Gilb’s 1978 campaign.  Dennis Talle donated a Gold West Rhode Island Red Poultry Ranch scrapbook from the 1920s. This scrapbook contains photographs and newspaper clipping of his family’s chicken ranch in Arcadia. He also donated a trophy that was won by the chicken farm at the Los Angeles County Fair in 1923 and a P.T. Talle World’s Fair Goblet from 1893.  Wendy Maboudian donated a series of items, including a plastic chicken, Arcadia brochure, a school diploma from Arcadia Monrovia Duarte High School, and 93 photographs of her family and their chicken farm in the early 1900’s that was located in Arcadia. This donation is in honor of Henry Stanley Brookover and Stanley Mansfield Brookover from the Brookover family of Arcadia. EDUCATION and PROGRAMMING The Arcadia Community Center’s Senior Services Department and the Gilb Museum conducted the last presentation on the Baldwin Series to Arcadia Seniors in November. The presentation focused on Clara Baldwin Stocker with four people in attendance and 28 people viewing the recording on YouTube. On November 10, the Gilb Museum Staff partnered with Senior Services at the Community Center to give tours of the Gilb Museum to local Veterans of the San Gabriel Valley. The staff highlighted the Arcadia Local Veterans History Room exhibit and encouraged local veterans to be included in the Museum’s Veteran’s kiosk. Approximately 115 people visited the Museum that day. On November 16, Curator Acevedo gave a tour to the Kensington retirement home in Sierra Madre. Fourteen people attended the tour. 3 The Museum participated in Snow Fest at the Community Center on December 4. The Museum conducted a Make Your Own Snow Globe activity in the Museum Education Center and gave out 115 snow globes. The Museum also had a make your own snowflake activity outside of the Museum Education Center. The Museum had its team of teen volunteers, as well as three Girl Scouts assisting with activities and crafts. Over 225 people visited the Museum for the Snow Globe craft, watercolor resist snowflake activity, and the Museum’s snowflake scavenger hunt. The Friends of the Arcadia Museum had a booth at the Snow Fest event in the Community Center parking lot to encourage people to visit the Museum that day and inform them about the activity in the Museum Education Center. They also distributed 250 gingerbread & candy cane giveaways to the community. The Gilb Museum staff participated in the Downtown Arcadia Holiday Fair event on December 4. Curator Acevedo and Friends of the Museum Board Member Esther Reynoso attended the event. One hundred-fifty Reindeer Greeting Card kits were created to distribute to patrons as well as 250 gingerbread & candy canes. The Gilb Museum has continued to provide free local history educational kits every month for the year 2021. In the month of November, Ms. Alberto-Shaikh distributed the Fa-la-la-la Filipino Star kit, which included all the necessary items for children to create their own Filipino stars. In total the Gilb Museum distributed 135 Fa-la-la-la Filipino Star kits. For the month of December, Ms. Alberto-Shaikh distributed Happy Holidays educational kit which included a history lesson on holiday recipes found in some of the cookbooks in the Museum’s collection. This has been one of the most popular kits this year and had 157 requests, 70 were distributed at Snow Fest. In total the Gilb Museum has given away 227 Happy Holidays Kits. This year in 2021, the Gilb Museum distributed 2,296 kits. Museum Education Coordinator Alberto-Shaikh has been very active in providing school programs to local Arcadia elementary schools. She has conducted school programs at Camino Grove Elementary, Longley Way, Hugo Reid, and Highland Oaks. This past year, the Gilb Museum conducted 38 school programs, 21 were virtual, and 17 were in person. In total, the Gilb Museum has provided museum education to over 900 students in the Arcadia Unified School District. Ms. Alberto-Shaikh has received nine requests to do school programs on site at the schools for Spring of 2022, including two assemblies focused on exploring the history of the Santa Anita Japanese Assembly Center. These assemblies will take place at Foothills Middle School and Arcadia High School, the latter of which is in partnership with the Arcadia Civic Youth Council. Ms. Alberto-Shaikh has also been very active in conducting Girl Scout programs at the Museum to local Girl Scout troops. On Saturday, December 18, Ms. Alberto-Shaikh and Museum Education Intern Daniela Bedolla conducted two programs: Celebrating Community and Inside Government to Girl Scout Troop 921. Ms. Alberto-Shaikh has also received several requests for Girl Scout programs in 2022. The Museum is beginning to receive more Speakers Bureau requests once again for local civic organizations. Laura Henneforth and. Dale Carter each conducted one program to two civic organizations in the month of November, including the Arcadia Coordinating Council and the Daughters of the American Revolution Santa Anita Chapter. Both have been such great advocates for the Museum while conducting these programs around the city. 4 Museum Staff is preparing for the Preservation Workshop Series in 2022 which will include workshops and demonstrations on how people can preserve their personal and family history. In the Textile Preservation Workshop on January 22, 2022, people will learn all about the preservation methods used by museum professionals to preserve textiles. There is limited space and supplies, so registration is required to attend the Workshops. Information on how to register can be found on the Museum’s website. ADMINISTRATION Curator Acevedo has submitted the Getty Marrow Multicultural Undergraduate Internship Grant for two internships at the Gilb Museum during the summer of 2022. The Museum will be notified if the grant was awarded in mid-March 2022. Curator Acevedo has also submitted the California Revealed Description Assistance grant from the California State Library to fund a paid internship for six months to work with one of the Museum’s collections. The collection chosen to nominate for this grant is the Floretta K. Lauber Collection. After serving on the Arcadia Planning Commission for eight years, Floretta K. Lauber has the distinction of being the first female elected to Arcadia City Council, and the first woman to serve as Mayor of the City of Arcadia. Floretta also played a large part in preserving the City’s cultural and historic legacy. This collection is currently stored in 12 boxes in the Museum and is in need of inventory, curation, and digitization. The Friends of the Arcadia Museum (FAM) conducted their board meeting in-person on November 9 and December 2 in the Museum Education Center. The Museum Staff discussed current and ongoing projects with the Board members. The FAM Board discussed their participation at the Snow Fest event at the Community Center. Staff assisted FAM in creating 250 gingerbread candy cane giveaways that were handed out at the event. Teen volunteers at the Museum decorated each of the gingerbread people. The Museum staff also shared their wish list which will help fund programs and events in 2022 and will discuss it at their next meeting. Their next meeting will take place on January 6, 2022. The Museum staff attended the Arcadia Unified School District PTA meeting via Google Meet on November 2. At the meeting, Ms. Alberto-Shaikh promoted events and programs currently taking place at the Museum. Curator Acevedo will be attending the Arcadia Council PTA Founders Day and Honorary Service Awards Luncheon on February 1, 2022. Curator Acevedo attended the Arcadia Coordinating Council luncheon meeting on December 6. At the event, she promoted upcoming events including the Museum’s Educational kits and the Museums Preservation Kit in 2022. Curator Acevedo has been conducting an inventory of all artwork around the city, including murals, plaques, statues, and memorials. This will help assess which pieces need conservation work and how often. Curator Acevedo also went to the Public Works yard to meet with Dave Thompson to see what items are stored there that belong to the Museum. Curator Acevedo and Museum Education Coordinator Alberto-Shaikh were separately interviewed in November by teens who are involved with the Nine O’ Clock Corporation. They spoke about the changes COVID-19 brought to the Gilb Museum and how they adapted during the closure to reach the community during that time by creating videos and kits. MARKETING Museum Education Coordinator Alberto-Shaikh continues to grow the Museum’s audience across social media. Ms. Alberto-Shaikh has worked to advertise Museum programs, kits, and more. She recently began to post pictures from many schools in which she conducted educational 5 programs, which were very popular and well-liked across social media. She has continued to post #WhatIsIt or #WhereIsIt posts, as well as #TriviaTuesday. The Museum continues to grow the number of subscribers signed up for the Museum’s monthly e-newsletter. The e-newsletter promotes its current and future programs and exhibits to community members as another tool to reach the community, specifically interested in following the Museum. Community members can subscribe to the newsletter on the Museum’s website. VOLUNTEERS and INTERNS The Gilb Museum currently has 45 volunteers, including both teens and adults. For the months of November and December, volunteers helped to create kits for the Museum’s educational program and provide assistance at special events. Many of the teens have also been trained to scan books and documents, create inventories, and conduct front desk work including answering the phone. Museum Education Coordinator Alberto-Shaikh has onboarded five new teen and adult volunteers for November and December. The Museum continues to have two unpaid internships for the fall semester. Eva Baudler is the Museum’s Collection and Curation Intern. She has been working on the curation, digitization and curation of the Don Pellegrino Collection, a former Mayor of Arcadia. Intern Daniela Bedolla is the Museum’s current Educational Intern and is creating new lesson plans for Ms. Alberto-Shaikh’s Preschool Program. She also has conducted Girl Scout programs with Ms. Alberto-Shaikh. The teen internship for the “Faces of Arcadia” Oral History Project continues to go well. The teen internship consists of eight teens that have previously been teen volunteers at the Museum. Anyone interested in the project can visit the Museum’s website for more information. Museum Staff is also organizing a History Symposium in March of 2022 for the teen interns to highlight their projects on interviewing Arcadia community members about events in the past and present. Volunteer hours: November 1 – December 20: 638.77 hours 2021 Overall: 2,790.95 hours FACILITIES The Museum purchased a new bookshelf for the research library. They have contacted Public Works to anchor the bookcase for them. Submitted by Curator Stevy Acevedo and Director of Library & Museum Services, Darlene Bradley MUSEUM COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING MINUTES WEDNESDAY, November 3, 2021 CALL TO ORDER – Chair Jeanne Roy called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m. in the Museum Education Center. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE – Chair Jeanne Roy ROLL CALL: Chair Jeanne Roy; Commissioners Dale Carter, Angela Ayala, Billie Tone, and Virginia Blitz; City Council Liaison April Verlato; Director of Library & Museum Services Darlene Bradley; Library Services Manager Roger Hiles; Curator Stevy Acevedo; Museum Education Coordinator Brittani Alberto PUBLIC COMMENTS - None REPORTS FROM MUSEUM COMMISSION MEMBERS / LIAISONS Commissioner Tone reported that she would be giving a presentation on The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee at a Daughters of the American Revolution meeting next year and invited all to attend. Commissioner Blitz commented that the 20th Anniversary for the Gilb Museum was well attended. The Friends of the Arcadia Museum board have postponed their next meeting until Tuesday, November 9. Councilmember Verlato reported that there was a City Council meeting the previous night. The Anita Baldwin statue was unveiled on October 25. There will be a new ordinance set in place that bans smoking in common areas of multi-family residences, as well as the entryways of commercial businesses. This also bans the use of e-cigarettes. An ordinance was approved to ban restaurants from using Styrofoam to-go containers, and plastic utensils will not be made available unless requested. Additionally, food waste will need to be put in green waste containers. REPORT FROM THE DIRECTOR Director Bradley thanked the Commission for those who helped or attended the 20th Anniversary Celebration. She also mentioned that next Wednesday, November 10 there will be a redistricting meeting, which is open to the public. This will also be the last Museum Commission meeting of this calendar year. REPORT FROM THE CURATOR Curator Acevedo reported that the 20th Anniversary celebration was well attended and thre is also a new 20th Anniversary exhibit in the Museum’s temporary gallery. Some exhibits in the Museum have been updated, specifically the Rancho section, which now includes replicas of Santa Anita Rancho cattle brands. The Gilb Museum currently has a volunteer, Tola Livesey, who is digitizing the City of Arcadia newsletters, Hot Sheets, and the AUSD News and Views. The Museum also had several donations from community members, including Denice Gilb, who donated her mother’s President of the Tournament of Roses scrapbook, and items from April Verlato. Ms. Acevedo attended the Hugo Reid Elementary Back-to-School picnic. She also submitted the final narrative reports for the Getty Marrow Multicultural Undergraduate Internship and informed the Commission that the Museum was awarded the Digitization and Preservation Assistance Award for the Arcadia Women’s Club Collection, which is now available on the California Revealed website. She also mentioned how the Museum has been active on social media, including the #20YearsIn20Days social media campaign and a Curator’s Corner episode, which was themed around #AskACurator Day. Ms. Acevedo also attended the Arcadia Women’s Club luncheon and completed the Museum’s Annual Report for 2020-2021. REPORT FROM THE MUSEUM EDUCATION CORDINATOR Education Coordinator Alberto reported that the Gilb Museum continues to give away educational kits every month in the year 2021. In September kits were themed around scrapbooking and highlighted the Arcadia Women’s Club, and in the month of October kits explored dinosaurs. Ms. Alberto attended Baldwin Stocker Elementary’s Grandparents Day. Staff also participated in the Downtown Arcadia Halloween event, where they distributed about 220 kits to the community. Ms. Alberto has also been presenting the Baldwin Series virtually, in conjunction with the Arcadia Senior Services Department. This series explores different members of the Baldwin family, and has been well attended. Ms. Alberto has been busy with the recruitment of volunteers. Currently, the Museum has 36 volunteers, including teens and adults. The Museum also has two interns for the fall semester, Eva Baudler, who is a Collections and Curation Intern, and Daniela Bedolla, who is a Museum Education Intern. Eva and Museum volunteer Jonathan have been creating custom boxes for some of the Museum’s artifacts. Several teen volunteers are also participating in the Faces of Arcadia Oral History Project, in which community members are interviewed by Museum teen interns. Currently the Museum’s volunteers have completed over 2,000 cumulative hours in the year 2021. CONSENT CALENDAR a. Approve the Regular Meeting Minutes of September 1, 2021 Recommended action: Approve Commission Member Ayala moved to approve Consent Calendar Item “a”, which was seconded by Commission Member Carter, and carried on a voice vote. AYES: Chair Roy, Commissioners Tone, Blitz, Ayala and Carter. NOES: None ADJOURNMENT Chair Roy adjourned this meeting at 5:38 p.m. to January 5, 2022 at 5:00 p.m. Darlene Bradley, Director of Library and Museum Services Prepared by Brittani Alberto, Museum Education Coordinator