The meeting started at 4:12 PM with Jessica Travis, Megan Defong, Andy Hiller, and Stephanie Leonardi present A quorum was not present so the minutes from the previous meeting were not voted on

Mac love said he and the original four artists will be restoring the Black Lives Matter mural between North and Cuyahoga Falls on North Howard Street. He said the mural was the first BLM mural painted in Ohio upon request of the city in 2020.

He said the street paint must be maintained approximately every 3 years He said he does not need approval of the project from the commission because the artwork was created before the commission was founded. He said he needs the commission's support for street closure.

He requested that Howard Street between Cuyahoga Falls and North be closed on Saturday July 27th Love said he is working with Tony Troppe to paint a BLM mural on an adjacent building on Howard Street

A commissioner said the city still owns the building and asked Love to wait until the building switches hands to paint the building. She said the artwork would be on private property and not be the responsibility of the commission

Summer Hall said there is already a road closure for construction on the North Street Bridge Mac Love said he will contact city service departments to see when street closures will be possible

Hall joined late creating a quorum The minutes from the previous meeting passed unanimously

Hiller said the commission has narrowed down options for the traffic box artwork challenge from a survey which all but 2 commissioners completed Hall asked commissioners to complete surveys in a timely manner

Hiller said he will schedule a meeting with contractor Central Graphics to determine rates to install the artwork. He said rates will be based on a previous traffic box project in Stow centralgraphicsgroup.com

Hall said the commission can still reject the contractors, but will need to open a new request for proposals if they choose to reject the current proposals

Hall said the commission will choose 2 traffic boxes per ward in the highest traffic areas. She said the commission should have 3 boxes per ward in case a box is rejected by traffic engineers. She said if all 3 boxes are approved commissioners can narrow down to 2 boxes

Hall said wards 7 (South Akron/Firestone Park), 9 (Kenmore), and 10, (Goodyear Heights) are not represented by the commission Hall said commissioners are the following Leonardi: Ward 3 Travis: Ward 4 Hiller: Ward 6 Defong: Ward 5 Hall: Ward 8

Defong said she now lives in Ward 10, but said she is still knowledgeable about Ward 5

Hiller presented the options including already vandalized traffic boxes. He acknowledged that the artwork may be vandalized when installed

Hiller and Hall said they are interested in the traffic box on the intersection of Market, North, and Aqueduct and the adjacent park

Hall asked commissioners to submit new selections so they can move on in the discussion Hiller said he is concerned the ward 3 boxes are mostly located in downtown Akron and aren't community based enough

Hall requested that Hiller overview the rest of the boxes and save discussions for later Hiller continued and reviewed the rest of the box proposals in every ward

The meeting ended at 5:39 pm. The next regular Akron Public Arts Commssion Meeting will be August 14th at 4 PM live on the City of Akron Youtube Channel For more coverage check out youtube.com/@akronohio?si=… Akron.Documenters.Org

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