|
|
|
||||||||||||||||
|
"We were just incredibly naive," says Rosamond Casey. The noted artist has been president of the McGuffey Art Association for the past year, a time of considerable stress for the group. They felt themselves to be under assault by a City Council looking for greater revenues and lower costs. So they sought to influence the recent election, "to try to make it so we continue to have at least three friends on council," as one artist close to the proceedings put it. They drafted a letter, and mailed it to about 300 people on their list--people whom they considered friends of McGuffey. They did not anticipate the reaction the letter brought. Here's the letter:
The political climate at the time As can be seen by the date in the letter, it was sent out to arrive just days before the council election on May 4. And there are repeated negative comments about one member of council, Kevin Lynch--who was up for reelection. The reaction from city Democrats was immediate and sharp. John Conover, the campaign coordinator for the Democrats, now says "I thought it was an unfortunate effort. I am not a fan of negativity in politics. The letter was an attack on Kevin, but failed to offer a better alternative." The council of five member-artists who run McGuffey immediately called an emergency meeting. Maurice Cox came, to, in Ros Casey's words, "correct our thinking." Other people who were in attendance are not so delicate in describing the meeting--"apoplectic" and "furious" are words they offer to describe Mayor Cox's demeanor. "He lectured us like wayward children," says one council member. "We had no idea how close and critical the council election was," says Casey. "We thought all along that Kevin [Lynch] was going to be reelected [without difficulty] and we wanted people to understand our position.  "People operate along a spectrum of political awareness. We [McGuffey artists] are of the extremely naive end of that spectrum. We recognize now how unusual it is to have inserted ourselves in the political process. You have citizens, business groups, organizations advocating, lobbying ... We had something to learn--we saw how much anger the Democrats had [about the letter]. Says John Conover, "I think the tone and timing of the letter engendered sympathy for Kevin and suspicion that maybe something wasn't being shared with the reader. It is fine to stand on principle but it is not good organizational politics to attack the side that has been your historic champion." Friends on Council Russell Richards is a McGuffey artist, and at the same time the son of Charlottesville City Council member Meredith Richards. In the period during which the letter was being drafted ("months--it went through seven or eight drafts," says one exasperated participant), Mrs. Richards was denied the nomination to run to serve another term on council and was subsequently the focus of a write-in campaign for reelection--a campaign which peaked just about the time the letter was sent. Russell is concerned that people will think his participation in the letter-writing process was an effort to help these efforts for his mother. He says, "We felt that this [Kevin Lynch questioning City support for McGuffey] had been going on for a long time, and the media hadn't picked up on it, the Democrats hadn't picked up on it, the people on our list were not aware of it. "I did not see the letter as having anything to do with my mother being on council [and] I didn't know about the write-in thing until a couple of weeks ago." Long after the drafting of the letter began. "[We were] exercising our first amendment right to advocate for ourselves in the political process," says Richards. "It's unfortunate that [the letter] came out at the last minute [of the council race], it's just that there were a lot of meetings, discussion, drafts…." A McGuffey member artist tells us his understanding of the letter: "From McGuffey's point of view, this was the first election in a long time--maybe ever--where McGuffey stood to lose two friends on Council. We had three friends--Blake [Caravati], Meredith and Maurice--and two of them would not be returning. So we thought it was important to work for the election of Kendra and David. We knew the Republicans and Vance High were on the record against our interests." "The letter was in no way intended to be a partisan position." After what Rosamond Casey calls the "firestorm of opposition" from Democrats and subsequent discussion, the council came to view the letter as having been a poor idea. (A letter to the editor of the Daily Progress-somewhat milder in tone--had been sent, but had not yet been run when the McGuffey group called to pull it back.) It was decided to quickly send a postcard of clarification to the same mailing list as the letter. Ruefully, Ms Casey recognizes that it did not accomplish much.
In speaking with people who got the letter (and the subsequent postcard), Casey tells us, no one saw it as particularly political, but rather told her that it was informative and interesting. How the arts money is spent Two years or so ago, Councilor Lynch requested a spreadsheet analysis of the city's support for the arts in general--subsidies, direct payments, below-market leases, etc.
The $400,000 mentioned in the letter came from an assessment of the 'opportunity cost' of the McGuffey building. Lynch says the City Budget Manager, at his request, recently provided a more accurate figure of what might be 'fair' for McGuffey to pay--$359,279--reflecting the current per-square-foot rental ($14) of comparable properties. Says Lynch, "Right now, even with the increase, they're only paying about $1.00 a square foot …." Bob Anderson, a local architect and artist, has been a member of the McGuffey council for the past year. He comments, "I do think that this 'opportunity cost' thing is [expletive] if you want to compare it with residential or office development--there would be huge costs to renovate or adapt the building." Lynch refuses to be drawn into a discussion of the appropriateness of a group like the McGuffey artists engaging in direct political action or attacking him personally.  "It's hard to respond to a letter like this. What I was trying to get at two years ago was a more transparent accounting of how we spend our arts money. As a city councilor I think that's a reasonable thing to do--I don't make any bones about saying they (McGuffey) ought to pay more rent.... I didn't get into this to pick a fight with McGuffey--it's [about] the city's distribution of arts money in general. "I respect McGuffey as an institution, but we have a much larger issue: here's one group we're giving all this support. What about all the other artists around the area? "It's also an equity issue. To tell the truth, I'm surprised by the resistance [from McGuffey]." Says Ros Casey, "Kevin came to us [last year]--he thought McGuffey was misinterpreting what he was trying to do, and he was sincerely concerned. We thought closing the gap between what we pay in rent and what we cost the city was his only interest. But we understand that what he was trying to do was find more revenue sources for the city. I don't think he understood how threatening it is to McGuffey. "[With the recent increase] we have closed the gap to zero--as far as I know, the city does not pay anything to subsidize us at this point. And for some of our artists, this increase is a major thing." Says Bob Anderson, "I think that Kevin was not that negative about McGuffey--he was just reacting to Charlottesville's financial problems. [Many of the artists] don't realize that a lot of the City's money comes from the state, and [council] was looking at possible lower revenues [because of the State's budget problems]. "[On the other hand] I do think the City wastes a lot of money." Political effectiveness All manner of worthy cultural and social institutions are constantly advocating for their interests, and for funding--from the public, from foundations and from government agencies. The questions the McGuffey artists are forced to consider are not who, why or what to advocate for, but how and when. John Conover offers this thoughtful benediction: "If the members
think that a council member should be more supportive, the better road is
a campaign to educate the heart and mind of that person. Political effectiveness--like
artistic achievement--comes with experience and practice." (Dave
Sagarin, May 10, 2004)
|
