Brew House Performance Committee 2-15-06

Meeting began: 7:30 pm

Next meeting: March 1, 2006

Present: Mike Cuccaro, Tom Sarver, Ben Sota, Tim Kaulen, Brandan Barber, Christina Gebbia, Jillian Canastraro, Michelle Grim.

Transcribed by Christina Gebbia

Goal: To make the IAC/Garage/ performance space available to Pittsburgh artists during the day, or times when it is not utilized for performances.

Public events in the garage are great, however there are some downfalls.

- $Cost : production of events can be costly, and sometimes dangerous; getting enough people through the door can also sometimes be an issue.
- Alcohol: safety and legality? Can be a hassle.
- Visitor care: keeping visitors safe.
Some rentals are produced outside of the BH, others are produced in house.

Studio/ non-public time in the performance space:

- BH is willing to give space to those artists who deem themselves worthy of such an allotted space and time.
- in years past, this sort of open time and work space heightened public interest in what was going on that the BH garage space.

Non- public studio issues:

- Management Structure:
~ individual roles
~ online calendar issues : ie: Yahoo?
~ Blogs: free- My Space, Friendster
~ Application process: printed?
~ Available Time slots?
~ Sound issues: 12 am noise curfew for amplified sound
~ Guidelines: what amount of time is appropriate per artist? Should there be a limit?
~ Are there time lines?
- sign in sheet?
- allocated open space time?

~ It was agreed by all present that there should at least be a basic/initial/vague schedule of work sessions.

Membership Packages

~ There should perhaps be a fee associated with the membership allowing those to utilize the space.
- Will they: answer key questions? follow certain guidelines?
~ Membership: co-op based?

~ Public Events
- Scheduling?
- Staffing?
- Point person?
- Establish roles amongst members. i.e.- cleaning/maintaining, technical, volunteers, marketing/PR,
curatorial: making conscious decisions about what public events are brought to the BH, ie- travel to check out shows.
BH examples of internally curated shows: "What it is", Black Sheep Puppet Festival
- these events are very taxing both financially and on the small amount of people who produce them, thus, seeking out a larger committee or recruiting performance committee members would be ideal.
Possible performances for the IAC?
~ Cabaret
~ multimedia performances
~ Blackbox- Jillian is interested in producing such an event

There should be a regularity of collaborative events between the performance members and committee members and there needs to be a broad unit. i.e.: we need more than one person for certain tasks so that no one gets burnt out.
~ we should really tap into volunteers
~ how do we find reliable , trusted volunteers?
~ online forums
~ students: college interning
~ mentor ship opportunities

Follow up

The following things are important to the following individuals:

~ the need for a system for every facet of the Performance committee: Ben Sota
~ Building the performance committee: Brandan
~ Written guidelines and systems: Michelle
~ establishing roles- PR/management/scheduling: Christina, Michelle, Jillian
~ Curating and expanding the committee: Tom Sarver
~ Scheduling/ not becoming too ambitious: Mike Cuccaro
~ Expanding the committee, scheduling: Christina Gebbia

Michelle is interested in editing any documents, and will look up templates for existing organizations applications for using space and/or applying for use of a venue for an event.
Mike will look into Yahoo Calendaring
Tim could resurrect a tri-fold program that was going to be used for a residency program.
Christina will type of the meeting notes and have them available electronically.
Jillian will look into a May Blackbox production.

Welcome!

Hi and welcome. We should have minutes from the last meeting posted here soon. Don't forget, next Performance Committee meeting is at the Brew House, Wednesday March 1 at 7:30 pm!