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May 2004
Charlottesville City Council Race 2004: McGuffey Learns a Lesson
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"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:

April 27, 2004
Dear friends of McGuffey Art Center:

As we approach our thirtieth anniversary, we would like to enumerate the benefits that result from McGuffey's presence in the community. Founded in 1975, the McGuffey Art Center grew from the efforts of Charlottesville citizens and a collective of artists who transformed the dilapidated elementary school building into what has become an important Charlottesville landmark. The purposes of McGuffey Art Center are to encourage the public to interact with working artists and to provide an educational environment and venue for community art programs. McGuffey has been instrumental in attracting residents and visitors back to the downtown area and has become a model for art centers in other cities.

In addition to housing the largest exhibition space in Charlottesville, McGuffey provides the only affordable studio spaces left for working artists in the City. Forty-five percent of our renting artists make less than $3,000 a year through McGuffey. The agreement between the McGuffey Arts Association and the City states that in return for rent far below rents in the competitive market, member artists are required to open their studio doors a minimum of 17 ½ hours a week to visitors, participate in educational outreach efforts, and maintain the McGuffey building. We are grateful to the City of Charlottesville for its support over the past thirty years, and strive to live up to all aspects of our agreement every year.
The future of the McGuffey Art Center is uncertain. Over the last few years, City Councilors Kevin Lynch and Rob Schilling have suggested raising the rent on the McGuffey building to the extent that housing artists no longer becomes viable. Take these facts into consideration:

  • Mr. Lynch is the source of the erroneous figure that McGuffey is costing the City $400,000 a year. In fact the City budgeted $27,525 for utility costs last year for the art center, which was offset by the $22,600 paid in rent, making the City's actual contribution $4,925. This figure does not take into consideration the 4,200 hours that our member artists invest in assuming the responsibilities of running an art center and offering their services to the community. This year, the City is instituting a 25% rent increase with the intention of bringing the net contribution of the City to $0 for the upcoming year- a rent increase we have not opposed.
  • Every year during city budget sessions, Mr. Lynch and Mr. Schilling have consistently questioned the value of the McGuffey Art Center occupying the McGuffey building, versus housing a private enterprise such as offices.
  • Two years ago, Mr. Lynch was the only city councilor to vote against renewing the lease on the McGuffey building to the McGuffey Arts Association. The lease comes up for renewal again in December 2006.
  • More recently, in the March 24th budget meeting, Mr, Lynch motioned to raise the rent on McGuffey by $20,000 after the agreed-upon 25% rent increase. When that was voted down, he motioned to raise the rent by $10,000. When Councilor Meredith Richards correctly pointed out the illegality of amending the rent contract after the March 15th deadline, Mr. Lynch suggested that the City stop paying utilities on the building, which would effectively double our rent.

The McGuffey Art Center's arrangement with the City is mutually beneficial. We bring over 8,000 visitors annually to the downtown area where they patronize other businesses. The City of Charlottesville received sales tax on more than $100,000 in art sales last year. An additional $1600 was paid to the City for licenses and permits, and the McGuffey Arts Association has invested $37,042 of our own money in improvements to the building over the last three years. Our member artists donate art and services to charity and are a major source of the art exhibited at most other Charlottesville galleries as well.

The upcoming City Council race may determine the fate of the McGuffey Art Center. If the future of the arts in Charlottesville is important to you, please be sure that you know your candidates' real positions on the arts and cast your vote accordingly.

Thank you,

McGuffey Art Center Executive Council
and the artists of the McGuffey Art Association

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.

Rosamond Casey, in her studio at the McGuffey Arts Center. Photo: Dave Sagarin

"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.

Dear Friends of the McGuffey Arts Center,

Since our April 27th letter went out defining the issues facing the McGuffey Arts Center, it has been brought to our attention just how close and critical this City election may be. While we stand by our statement, we want there to be no question that we acknowledge and appreciate City Council's longstanding support for the arts in Charlottesville. The letter was in no way intended to be a partisan position.

The Executive Council of the McGuffey Arts Center and The McGuffey Arts Association

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.

 City Funding of Arts and Culture Activities

 Organization

FY '02

FY '03

FY '04

Rent
Revenue

City Net
Contrib.

 Tax
Exemp.

Lease
Value @
$14/sq ft

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.

Kevin Lynch on Election Night, May 4, 2004. Photo: George Loper

"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)


Comments? Questions? Write me at george@loper.org.