Burlington City Arts Board of Directors — Burlington, VT
Date: 2025-06-24
Time: 15:00

Burlington City Arts
 Tuesday, June 24, 2025, 3:00 PM

https://zoom.us/j/93537536705?pwd=RlpEeU1hL3l5TjJiYWdvOTZMRWdsQT09

1. Approve Agenda & Minutes
  1.1. Motion to amend/adopt agenda
  1.2. Motion to adopt previous meeting's minutes

2. Public Forum

3. FY26 Schedule

4. Budget
  4.1. FY 25 Summary
  4.2. FY 26 Proposed Budget

5. Director's Report

6. Adjournment
  6.1. Motion to Adjourn

BCA Board of Directors Meeting Minutes

 Tuesday, June 24

 3:00 PM

 BCA Center, 135 Church Street



Advisory Board of Directors Voting Members: Michelle Buswell (absent), Kelly Butts-Spirito (absent),
Livia DeMarchis, Billi Gosh, Hannah Lebel, Lisa Lillibridge, Carrie McCabe (absent), Laura McDonough
(absent), Ryan Moritz, Bryan Parmelee (absent), Kristina Pentek, Robin Pierce (absent), Lori Rowe, Sarah
Rogers, Parker Silver, Patrick Shank (absent), Deb Wilkinson

Honorary non-voting board members: Rachel Kahn-Fogel, Barbara Perry (absent), Dana vanderHeyden
(absent)

Staff present: Doreen Kraft, Sara Katz, Elena Rosen, Melissa Steady, Heather Ferrell, Joyce Cameron

1. The meeting was called to order at 3:04 pm. Lisa Lillibridge made a motion to accept the agenda, Billi
Gosh seconded and all were in favor. Hannah Lebel made a motion to accept the minutes with the
amendment of adding Joyce Cameron to the staff in attendance to the March meeting minutes, Kristina
Pentek seconded and all were in favor.

2. No members of the public were present for the public forum

3. Doreen Kraft discussed the FY26 schedule of Board meetings. Changes in BCA’s staffing structure have
led us to examine how much staff time goes into Board administration, staffing committees, producing
agendas, and minutes. The Board currently meets six to seven times per year, every other month and
we want to evaluate if this rhythm still serves our aims. We’re just beginning this discussion now and
will advance it further at our September meeting. We are also taking into consideration that our
Foundation Board will begin to meet more frequently as we move towards a new, more active phase of
the capital campaign. Lori Rowe said that the Board hasn’t had as much awareness of all of the staff
time and work that goes into the administration of the Board. Lori thinks the Board needs to intensify
their engagement to play a more active role in the operational aspects and reduce the burden on BCA
staff. She suggested that the Executive Committee meets regularly this summer to continue this
discussion and present a proposal for strategies to move forward. Sara Katz discussed potentially
needing fewer committees and holding those discussions through the regular Board meeting. Lori
suggested that restructuring the regular Board meeting to accommodate more reporting and the work
of committees. Kristina suggested sharing impact reporting ahead of time with prompts for discussion.
At the meeting. The annual meeting was scheduled for September 16 at 2 pm, with the following
meeting on November 18 at 3 pm, and discussion about restructuring the meeting schedule will
continue.

4. Doreen reviewed BCA FY26 budget presentation that was presented to the Board of Finance. Sara
talked through adjustments we’ve made to prepare for the FY26 expense reductions we knew were
coming during FY25, such as leaving vacant positions open and reorganizing to redistribute some of
those duties; reducing scale on Highlight and the number of City Hall Park events; and pausing the full
festival of Fools. With the end of a 3-year grant from the Vermont Arts Council and a large artwork
purchasing project with the UVM Medical Center our revenues look like they’re going down, but they’re
balanced to meet our expenses. We will also have a new revenue source coming into our budget with
the Community Room, which will be opening for rentals in September. We will also have a higher target
in FY26 for donations, now that Joyce Cameron is in the Director of Philanthropy position, which was
vacant in FY25. We are reducing our goal in corporate giving, without having the full Festival of Fools as
an opportunity to raise money through sponsorship. We’ll also be looking to increase giving through
family foundations to fill the hole of the end of the Vermont Arts Council grant.

Doreen talked about some challenges facing BCA in FY26, such as the reduction in giving capacity from
banks and financial institutions who have made up a large part of our corporate giving. As a result of
these changes in the market, we’ll be looking to cast a wider geographic net in corporate giving and
would love the support of the Board in making new connections. The City is also no longer covering
security for events, which is encouraging us to look at the scale of our events.

Doreen also elaborated on the opportunities we have in FY26, including the incredible community
support for BCA. After we paused the full Festival of Fools the owners of The Café Hot ran a
crowdsourcing campaign among local businesses to bring a smaller Fools back this year, the Fools Block
Party on August 1-2. We’ve received donor support to revive the Community Fund grant program on a
smaller scale, despite the loss of City funding. There was a discussion of how to leverage storytelling to
create more of these groundswell moments of community support for our programs. BCA will
potentially be receiving some funding back that has been cut from City Council that would allow us to
expand our existing FY26 programming. We are aiming to approach any restoration in funding with
realistic expectations about what we can execute on shorter timeline and with still reduced budgets.

There was a discussion of the new Community Room and the revenue opportunity it will create. Lori said
that this will be a great opportunity for Board members to be ambassadors and help with getting the
word out about this space to your networks as we get it off the ground. Hannah started a discussion
about exploring new avenues of science and technology partnerships and connecting them to the
positive impacts of arts education.

Billi Gosh made a motion to approve the FY26 budget, Deb Wilkenson seconded, and all were in favor.

5. Hannah made a motion to adjourn at 4:44 pm, Lisa seconded and all were in favor.