All right. Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to this uh meeting of finance and corporate services committee. Uh we'll get right into it. I'll begin by asking if there are any disclosures of pecuniary interest. Not seeing any. I will ask for a mover for the consent items. Moved by councelor Initis. Any concern or question the consent items? Not seeing any. Those in favor and that carries. Okay. Uh the first item I don't there's Yeah, there's not a um presentation by staff. Could I get a mover for it? We've seen this one a few times. Moved by counceloritis. Any questions on this? Not seeing any. Those in favor and that carries unanimously. Very good. Okay. And now we will uh get to the artist and residence appointment. And I understand uh Miss Von's going to be kicking us off. [snorts] Hello. Hello everybody. So I'm here with William our music officer. I'll start off and then we'll share the speaking notes. Um, we do have a presentation and it's up there. So, we'll get started. Through the chair, we are pleased to bring forward the recommendation of the city's 2026 artist and residence appointment, which will focus on a musician and residence opportunity. Through this call, we saw proposals from musicians, music educators, and music entrepreneurs interested in delivering innovative community-engaged music programming that would create meaningful musical experiences um for Kitchener residents of any age. Particular consideration was given to proposals that demonstrated strong community connections, artistic merit, feasibility, and the potential to create lasting impact within the Kitchener community. To support applicants, staff hosted a series of information sessions and provided additional support through phone and email consultations throughout the application period. We received 13 eligible submissions uh from a strong and diverse pool of applicants. Applications were evaluated by a jury consisting of an arts and culture advisory committee representative and two music industry professionals. Following a very thorough review process, the jury is recommending Amanda Bram for appointment as the 2026 artist and residence. Amanda Bram is a Kitchenerbased singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer with extensive experience as a performer, educator, songwriter, and emerging music therapist. Her accomplishments include the release of two albums, recognition through several provincial songwriting and performance competitions, and recent selection to Via Rail's artists on board program. Amanda's experience extends beyond performance and includes community music initiatives, music education, and collaborative songwriting processes designed to engage participants of varying musical backgrounds and abilities. Got a quick video here of uh Amanda's participation in what's known as the live the lullaby project um which pairs Amanda or songwriters with at risk mothers who write songs for their children. >> Kind of takes on [clears throat] a life of its own. It really does help with building confidence within yourself because, you know, being here, you don't I feel like you don't get very much. I feel like you're not really heard either. And this is just a really great way to help you connect with your children that are at home. >> You are a waror. You are strong. [singing] You will fight for what you want. [singing] You will climb out of [singing] the darkness. >> It's hard to put >> kind of >> awesome. Amanda's Amanda's proposed residency entitled Words of Wisdom and Hopes for the Future seeks to bring together youth aged 13 to 18 and older adults aged 65 and over through the co-creation of original songs, an intergenerational songwriting experience. Participants will engage in guided songwriting sessions exploring themes of wisdom, lived experience, aspirations, and future generations. The residency will come culminate in a community concert where participants will perform the original works alongside Amanda as well as other supporting local musicians. The jury was particularly impressed by the proposal's emphasis on intergenerational connection, community building, accessibility, and relationship development through music. It is my pleasure to introduce the recommended 2026 artisan residence, Amanda Bram, to share more about her artistic practice and her vision for the residency. Amanda will be joining us remotely from Vancouver where she is, as Caroline mentioned, the Via Rail artist and residence uh on the artist on board program. Thank you. >> All right. Hello everybody. Hello, welcome. >> I'm [laughter] very I'm very sorry about um my connection right now. And if you hear any background noise, I'm uh I'm in Vancouver and I am uh I'm joining this meeting. I'm I'm using data on my phone to get here. So, if I'm if I'm cutting in and out or difficult to hear, I do apologize. Thank you very much, Will and Caroline, for taking the time to uh to explain my uh my Yes, I am. I'm very excited to be able to share with you more about it and a little bit about just kind of who I am as a musician and and why I think this is important. So, uh yeah, I am a uh I've been doing community music work with the Lullabi Project and with other initiatives such as um the circle of music, for example, for for quite a while, ever since high school when I started volunteering with the circle of music actually. And yeah, I did the first two years of my my degree at Laurier in the community music program. And I've just finished up my uh my thousandhour music therapy internship. Um which is part of what I need in order to become a certified music therapist. I'm I'm on my way studying for the exam right now. And as well on on top of all of those things, I I'm a music educator and I'm of course a performer. I I love to write songs. I love to perform songs and I I love to play with other people. That is that's something that I find incredibly valuable. And when I heard about this uh this artist and residence proposal, I I wanted I thought that I I could do a pretty good job to be honest with specifically working with an intergenerational population as I've had the privilege of getting to work a lot with youth through my uh most recent internship at Starling Community Services and getting to work a lot with older adults as well through various uh music therapy placements and long-term care facilities and retirement facilities. As a songwriter, I we do a lot of songwriting in music therapy sessions. And I've found that people who do not typically believe that they're capable of doing such things when given the opportunity to get a lot of value in being able to find their voice, being able to accomplish something that maybe they thought was scary, maybe they thought they wouldn't be able to do something like that. and building confidence and finding finding your message and hearing your voice and being able to express it to other people is something that I think everybody is searching for. And that's something that I seek to uh seek to do with this proposal and particularly with bringing together youth and older adults, two populations that I' that I've had a lot of experience and a lot of joy working with. These two populations, at least from my personal experience in in the Kitchener music scene and such, tend to be quite segregated musically, which I thought was very interesting because in in my experiences in in music therapy, there's a lot to learn from each other and a lot of similarities. And it's I'm I'm very curious and I'm I'm very excited to see what will occur when we're able to write songs based around wisdom and hopes for the future and being able to bring together those voices and those ideas and there's those stories in a a shared community concert at the end. Being able to celebrate with each other and learn from each other and realize our all of our humanity in that kind of um like intergenerational space. It's something that I I would really like to do and I'm incredibly excited to be able to to see that through. Yeah. Thank you. >> Thank you. Does that conclude staff's presentation then? >> Okay. Yeah. Thank you, M. Braum. You came through loud and clear. If you want to hang up for just one second, I'm going to see if any members of committee have any questions. There is one so far. Councelor Schneider. >> Uh not a question, but congratulations, Amanda. uh you have been uh one of the artists who's performed during Neighbors Day and I know not this year but the year before you performed an incredible show on Old Chick Drive at that beautiful porch and uh you supported us through Neighbors Day. you've been part of the uh Ruse Island music series and uh just you're you're a real talent with a with a beautiful heart and I'm really looking forward to uh the healing power of music that uh you're going to help spread through our community. So, congratulations. >> Thank you so much, Dave. That means a lot. Yeah, those uh those Neighbors Day concerts and the Ruse Island music series, they're always they're always something that I look forward to every year. I love just being able to contribute to to the Kitchener music scene to be honest with you. It's something I care about a lot. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. There actually don't appear to be any further questions. I think councelor Schneider said it well. Councelor Schneider would like to move this as well. >> I would be honored to move this. Yes. >> Very good. Uh so I don't I don't see other questions or comments. Uh so take the vote then. Those in favor and that carries unanimously. Congratulations to our music and residents. Great work staff. Sorry, Mr. Mir. I didn't realize you were part of the presentation, but thank you for the participating as well. Take care. Okay. So, that concludes finance and corporate services committee. So, we is there can we go into special counsel immediately or do we have to wait? >> Okay. So, five minutes and we'll switch over to special counsel.