Boonslick Outdoor Arts Project
April 29, 2004
Cooper County Courthouse Annex

Attending: Judy Shields, Jim Painter, Gary Nauman, Bob Dyer, Betty Bowen, Amalie Duvall, Dorothy Whitten, Carolyn Eichelberger, Carmen Jones, Maryellen McVicker, Florence (Winky) Chesnutt, Brett Rogers, Murray Hardesty, Robert Bohnenstiehl, and Art Schneider. 

Meeting convened at 6 p.m.

Hannah Cole Chapter DAR Thomas Jefferson City Update: Dorothy Whitten said the dinner was a sellout. She said she would be taking the elaborate invitations sent to a DAR meeting this upcoming week in Jefferson City.  A scrapbook of the dinner will be archived. Expenses have yet to be tabulated.  Funds from the dinner will go to the Hannah Cole sculpture. The chapter has pledged $400.

Financial: Maryellen McVicker reported there is $16,024 in the bank totally earmarked toward the Hannah Cole sculpture and $6703 from the sales of the posters and maquette that could be applied to the statue. At this time there is $22,727.04 in the bank. That is after paying $44,000 toward the statue, two plaques and one red granite base. (Still to order are a second red granite base plus plaque. These will run about $3800, according to Art.)

The 250 limited edition Hannah Cole posters were signed by sculptor Harry Weber this past week. Twelve (at $10 each) already have been sold.  Also, one plate ($15) has been sold.  Those figures are not included in the bank total.

Hannah Cole Plates: Winky Chesnutt brought two boxes of completed eight-inch Hannah Cole Statue plates to the Extension Center. Art brought one to the Friends of Historic Boonville and one to the meeting tonight.  The boxes are about 40 of the 150. Winky said she plans to make the plates as the demand requires.  She said she wanted a darker blue dye and tried other companies, but was unable to get one that was fully satisfactory to her.

Art asked about how much she needs for reimbursement. She said she would not have a bill until al plates made were sold. Art suggested she just complete all 140 and that the costs she has underwritten be reimbursed. No further action was taken.

First Women Poster: Bill Mathis of Mathis Jones Communications e-mailed a draft of the poster design to Mid-Missouri Printing. The names, office and dates were not included to save electronic bytes. The poster requires 2 megabytes.  Bill said that sending a small file with the names would be illegible and that is why that information was not included.

The poster requires the following decisions by the project:

1) Is the concept acceptable? Project members concurred that it is. Also, it was suggested that he be informed that the project “expresses appreciation” to him.

2) Is the wording “First Women of Missouri” satisfactory? Concurrence that it is.

3) Are the placements of photos satisfactory?

Judy suggested that first women state office holders be at the top. Maryellen suggested alphabetical listing by last name left to right.

It was then suggested the listing start at the left top corner and work around the poster.

Final concurrence was to leave the photos as they are.

Questions were asked about the photos. These were photos provided by the women.  Some were very small and that made it very difficult for a poster. When one enlarges quality is lost.  In one instance it also was very difficult getting a high quality photo.

State of Hannah: Consensus to leave as it is.

Other wording. Art suggested the date of dedication and Boonville, Mo. Discussion zapped that idea.  Consensus not to date the poster for the dedication. Also, many of the Firs Women are from around the state, not Boonville,

Other changes: Consensus to put “Breaking new Ground” under the words  “OF MISSOURI” in a smaller font.

Also, to put the words “Hannah Allison Cole, Founder of Boonville” under the state. If the statue needed to be adjusted or the “STATE OF MISSOURI” adjusted to accomplish this, there was agreement that this should be done.

Hannah Cole statue “Breaking New Ground” status: Gary Nauman reported that the statue is now mounted on the limestone pedestal, covered, protected and in a secure facility awaiting the move to the park. Gary said it will be taken to the park by truck.  He said this will be on June 1. June 2 is the rain day.

He said the weight of the statue and the limestone was of greater capacity than the department’s equipment. With Public Works’ equipment, an alternative was made possible.

He said there was discussion about using an impact drill for the statue support mounts; he was concerned that an impact drill might break the rock itself. The street department had a wide drill bit and that was used.

Morgan Street Park Update: Gary reported that the park was 90% completed. He expects the contractors to be done by the end of the first week in May.

Two bathtubs, two refrigerators, one kitchen range, one air conditioner, enough carpeting and drapes to outfit a house were found in stabilizing the park grounds.

Gary said the basement of the Palace Restaurant received four coats of foundation tar, a 20 mil vapor barrier and French drains. The clay was compacted by a roller. Topsoil will be placed on top of the clay.  He reported that additional work was required along the basement along brick veneer. He said the MU Master Gardeners will be doing the landscape planting.

He reported the contractors also found an empty room on the southeast corner near the streetlight control box.

After discussion with the sculptor, the contract put brown dye in the concrete that the city picked up in Jefferson City. This is to enhance the focus on the rock and statue.  It also was recessed. The limestone base will be encased in a flowable grout that will be dyed the same color as the concrete.

Dedication Brochure: Art reported bad and good news. The bad news was the outside cover being black will instead be a cream color. The good news is that the quote  is eight pages without the cover, resulting in 12 pages total. He reported that he had taken the material from the earlier brochure and added information on Harry Weber and the four preliminary sketches of the sculpture.

The committee then reviewed the brochure:

Page 1 correction to read "dedication of Hannah Cole statue," not park.

Page 2 okay

Page 3 on dedication ceremony.

Correct spelling for Gary. Identify Bob. Bohnenstiehl as pastor of One Penney Fellowship Church.

Discussion that since Larry Crawford could not attend to present House resolution to ask another leader to present the proclamation. Some discussion about Senator Mathewson, but since the resolution is from the House, agreement it would be best if a representative of the House could attend. Discussion about Tim Harlan, Boonville native and formerly of the House to be the presenter. Carolyn Eichelberger suggested the House speaker. Agreement to try to secure Speaker Hanaway first--if not successful, then Tim Harlan.

Founding of Boonville remarks by Charles Cole, not Bob Todd.

River Woman poem reader not verified. Carolyn will check on this.

Senator Carnahan as speaker.  Betty Bowen said she has tried to reach the senator’s long-time friend Mary Pat Abele to assist on several occasions and has left messages, but not been successful. She will continue to try.

Art said he went to her book signing April 17 and discussed his earlier contact with her office and tried to get a commitment on speaking and to arrange for the poster signing.  Mrs. Carnahan had to go to a signing line. Art then talked with an aide for about 15 minutes. Art also has recontacted her office.

Benediction: correct spelling of Farie to “Farrie”

Page 4 to 6 okay

Pages 7-8 are edited from the Hannah Cole DAR site.

Page 8 a sketch okay.

Pages 9 and 10 for donors. Art had two-paragraph statement at the beginning. Asked if there were any concerns with it. None expressed.

Page 12 with poem. Bob noted a typo and suggested for appearance moving part of one line down. Agreed by all.

Dedication Ceremony Arrangements:  Jim Painter and Gary Nauman met. They reported three sets of portable bleachers will be at the dedication site. They will seat 120 people.  A small podium will be set up. At this point Gary is planning on 11 chairs. Concern that if it is in front of the statue that it would hide part of  the statue when it is unveiled. Could be moved aside very quickly or may not be a barrier. This will be checked during set up.

The area for dignitaries and reserved seats will be taped off.  It was suggested that parking be blocked on both sides of the street in front of the statue after midnight Saturday.

There was some discussion about reserving bleachers for the Cole family. Jim suggested that this not be done. He suggested general public have access to the bleachers and the street area in front be reserved for the Cole family.

Agreement.

Art said that he had requested Pat Todd put in her newsletter that family members bring lawn chairs. The Boonville Tourism Commission allocated funds for bus service and a bus will run from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. from LSE School. It will be possible to take the lawn chairs on the bus.

May 3 Drawing for Maquette: Art said he has a class conflict that night and cannot be at the meeting. He reported that the drawing would be held immediately before the meeting. He asked if another project member could attend, bring the raffle tickets and jar and the maquette. After some discussion Jim Painter agreed to do this. Maryellen McVicker had the raffle tickets and a jar at the meeting and handed them over to Jim. Art said he would take the maquette to the City Hall.

Judy suggested that this be televised on cable. Gary said he would arrange or be sure to have the cable television or in advance of the drawing.

Frame for Hannah Cole sketches: Harry Weber provided four sketches for the Hannah Cole sculpture. At the last meeting it was discussed that an auction be held for two of the sketches.

Tonight’s discussion noted that the sketches are numbered one to four. As a set it was felt that they would have much greater value. A decision was made to keep the set together and donate them to the city. Gary earlier had arranged a donation from Wal-Mart for three frames. Jim said he and his wife Nan had tried to find a way to fit the sketches into the frames, which were the largest that the store had available. General agreement that it would be best to keep the four sketches together and that they should be framed. Otherwise, they might be lost.

Also, Gary noted tht the City Hall will be renovated and it would be appropriate to have the sketches there. Agreement to give all four to the city. Gory will handle framing arrangements.  The sketches will not be given the city until a later date.

Meeting with Boone County Bank: Maryellen reported that artist Peggy

Guest, Art and she met with the Boonville branches manager and a representative from the bank’s home office in Columbia. The meeting was to discuss the bank being the fist private sector participant in the project. A them that noted the multiple trails that intersect in Boonville was the point of discussion.  She said they were receptive to an arts discussion and were very polite about the proposal.

Peggy Guest brought photos of the bank’s layout and detailed the reasons for a best placement on the south side. She also brought two sketches of possible contemporary pieces.

The bank noted that it wanted contemporary rather than traditional “real life.” Art and that it also wanted to include moving water in an outdoor art project.

The intersecting trails that Maryellen had suggested were:

Santa Fe Trail; Boonslick Trail; Highway 40 (first highway to cross the U.S.); Lewis & Clark Route of Discovery; Trails West up the Missouri River; Interstate 70 which began in Missouri; the railroad and the new Mo-River.Net information highway.

Frederick T. Kemper bust/pedestal: This past weekend Maryellen was told that a member of the Kemper Alumni Association affiliated with the Kansas City Foundation expressed an interest in donating $4500 toward a bust of Kemper if the project could raise the remaining amount. Laura Gramlich had passed this information to Maryellen.

Bob Dyer will talk with Laura about this. It was mentioned tht Steve Read of Michigan is affiliated with the Friends. Gary knows Steve and also will follow up there.

Old Hospital Grounds: Mitch Leonard met with the Park & Recreation Board to discuss the city purchasing the grounds for parkland.

Gary reported the park board “thinks this is a good idea.” It will recommend the city seriously consider it. Asking rice is $250,000 and that is a stumbling block.

Amalie’s is the sister of Mitch Leonard. She noted that there was quite a lot of work her brother needed to do to secure clear title on the property. There are 15 acres available. Mitch cleared the grounds.

Bob Dyer, Judy Shields and Brett Rogers noted the area is one of the city’s most historic. It was the site of the first four state fairs, the second Battle of Boonville, and the Hannah Cole Fort was right next to it. 

Concurrence that it would serve as a park anchor on the city’s northeast side.  For the past several years the city has maintained the grounds (mowing).

Art noted that this is something the city’s Boonville Tourism Commission and the Historic Preservation Committee need to consider.

It is believed that this will be a divisive issue for the council.

Bob Dyer suggested DNR be approached and perhaps it could share costs as this is a state historic site. Bob will talk with Jim Denney of DNR.

Art will contact the Historic Preservation Committee.

Gary thinks council members would be supportive except for the $250,000 price tag. Having bought the entire Kemper campus with buildings for only about $450,000, the city sees this project as much more expensive.

Art suggested that the chamber be contacted to promote this to be developed as a historic site. Art said he would be willing to contact Dave Miller.  Betty said she would contact the chamber president.

J. Milton Turner bust/pedestal: Carmen Jones said she has sent fundraising  letters to the Isle of Capri and Caterpillar. She said they needed more information and had the impression that the funds would be sued for fundraising, not art acquisition.

It was asked if this would be discussed at the annual Sumner reunion. Carmen noted CCBC and the Sumner alumni are two separate entities.  She has arranged to have a few minutes on the reunion banquet agenda. Art suggested that if there is a newsletter that goes to the Sumner alumni that the editor be asked to include a paragraph about the project and seek donations.

Judy will assist Carmen in drafting correspondence to seek support for this project. Carmen had asked $1800 from the Isle and $1000 from Caterpillar.

Judy reported extensively on her efforts to locate African-American sculptors to contact on this project. She said she had tried the Missouri Arts Council and numerous other arts organizations and none know of African-American sculptors. She searched the International Sculpture Center and it does not provide race/heritage information on sculptors. It was suggested that she contact Elliott Battles of Columbia for a possible contact. Also, the Jazz Hall of Fame (next to the Negro Baseball Hall of Fame) has been contacted several times, but the director appears to go to many luncheons, some as early as 9 a.m. and some as late as 4 p.m. The hall has many bronze pieces and that may be a source.

Bob said he will attempt to find contacts through a St. Louis resource.

Brett said there is no monument in the state to J. Milton turner. Art thought maybe the St. Louis Sidewalk of Fame had a star for J. Milton Turner.  (Turns out Art was wrong. There are stars for Ike and Tina Turner—separate stars.)

Art said he thought Turner was buried in St. Louis. Brett said that Turner is buried in Father Dixon Cemetery there.

Maryellen will visit with Carmen on applying for funds through the State Historical Society of Missouri in Columbia.

George Caleb Bingham bust: Art asked if the park board had approved the George Caleb Bingham bust as the fourth of the six busts to be placed atMorgan Street Park.  Gary said the park board has requested tht a prioritized list be submitted to them. Mentioned were Daniel, Boone and Lon V. Stephens.  Bob said he would put together a listing of 10 or so names.  He will being it to the Outdoor Arts Project and priorities established and then forwarded to the Park Board.

Meeting adjourned at 8:36 p. m

Next meeting will be at 6 p.m. May 24 at the Cooper County Courthouse Annex.