The Oak Harbor Arts Commission voted to approve a candidate project worksheet to collect and evaluate public art proposals and authorized staff to publish the form online.

The commission approved the worksheet after discussion about how applicants will use it and how staff will process submissions. Maggie Aguilar, communications officer for the city, and Liz Lang, recreation manager, told commissioners the form will be linked from city web pages and that staff will receive submissions, prepare them for commission packet review and notify applicants. The worksheet says applicants will be updated on the status of a submission within 60 days of filing.

The approval matters because it creates a standard, trackable intake for community art proposals and a way to surface requests that include funding needs. The commission agreed that projects requesting financial support will be reviewed at the commission's annual budget meeting so budget asks can be considered during annual planning; projects without financial asks may be advanced directly by the commission.

Commissioners and staff also discussed website navigation and where to place the form. Several commissioners favored a generic "Oak Harbor Arts" landing page with hyperlinks to the art plan, current projects, the art map and inventory, and the new submission form. The commission did not make a final decision on the landing page design and deferred that navigation choice for further feedback.

Members debated how often to review incoming proposals. The commission settled on reviewing and prioritizing projects twice a year for budgeting and planning purposes, while allowing staff and an outreach subcommittee to acknowledge and triage submissions more frequently so applicants receive timely responses. Commissioners discussed using a subcommittee to pre-review new submissions and clean up applications before they reach the full commission.

Two temporary subcommittees were proposed: (1) an outreach and communications group to implement the commission's outreach plan and (2) a procedures/tools group to convert the worksheets and selection matrices into live digital forms and a project roster the commission can maintain. Commissioners volunteered to staff those subcommittees; staff will formalize memberships and report back.

Staff updates included a Chalk Fest request-for-proposals (RFP) that will be issued on Wednesday, Sept. 17, and a reminder about the department's Harvest at the Harbor community event. Commissioners also discussed longer-term ideas, including exploring a Washington state creative arts district designation in the future; that project was characterized as an education-first effort that would require wider community involvement.

What happens next: staff will publish the approved candidate project worksheet online and distribute the link to community partners. Submissions will be received by staff, reviewed for completeness, and included in commission packets; projects that request funding will be considered during the commission's annual budgeting process. The commission will continue working on website navigation and will convene the new subcommittees to operationalize the review process.