The frustration level was high among some members of the Newburgh Arts and Culture Commission at their meeting Wednesday, December 10th. Garin Baker proposed giving the city an ultimatum to expedite the funding of the public art fund:

We need to have a time, a deadline. 30 days to the City of Newburgh and the City Council, if they do not fund $100,000 for the courthouse, which they’ve known about for at least nine months now, then personally, I feel we should suspend all activities of this commission because basically, what’s the point. We’ve been playing this dog and pony show with them for a while…

I’ll make another motion, that we give the city 30 days, 30 days to set up the account, to transfer $100,000 from the courthouse construction budget into the public art fund, and we establish the public art fund, no questions. That’s it… And if that doesn’t happen, we suspend…

Baker’s motion failed to pass. Some commission members expressed concern that it seemed “fatalistic.” Following Baker’s motion’s failure, though, Torrance Harvey proposed a modified ultimatum:

I’d like to a motion to communicate to the city council that if the funding is not set up for the percent for art within 30 days that we will explore the possibilities of 1. communicating with the public and having a public discussion, the media, and also explore the prospect of suspending our activities.

Harvey’s motion passed almost unanimously, with only one dissenting vote.

However, in a follow-up email, NACC chair Stuart Sachs wrote that “It appears that the City is going to transfer funds immediately. I am holding off on the letter, and expect to write a thank you note instead when I get confirmation on Monday.” Sachs also mentioned that the letter would have been to City Manager JeanAnn McGrane, not the council, although the council was mentioned in both versions of the motion.

Who’s on the jury?

Also at the meeting, Martha Zola mentioned the names of some of the jurors for the future courthouse art project: Andrew Warren, Tommy Burke, Garin Baker, Nezka Pfeifer, and Courtney Kain have all agreed to participate.

Full video of the NACC meeting: