On Wednesday evening, January 14, the Newburgh Arts and Culture Commission (NACC) ratified the courthouse art jury’s chosen artist. The commission approved the artist without revealing the artist’s name. NACC Chair Stuart Sachs sent a follow-up email on Thursday announcing the name of the artist: Bryan Guglielmi. The next step is for the nomination of Mr. Guglielmi to be presented to the city council for their approval of the $75,000.00 commissioned work, which would then be installed in the new Newburgh Courthouse.
Mr. Guglielmi was a student of Garin Baker, current NACC commissioner and former chair of the commission. Mr. Baker served on the jury for the selection process and had input in the selection of jurors. Mr. Baker also hired Mr. Guglielmi to do work on his murals in the City of Newburgh.
NACC retroactively votes to approve sending letter for waterfront sculpture
According to Karen Conway, NACC commissioner, a letter was sent in support of a sculpture project by Greg Wyatt to the NEA from the NACC – without the commission having discussed it or met openly as a public body. The commission voted to approve the action retroactively, with one dissenting vote. Ms. Conway noted that it was a “time issue” due to the changeover in presidential administrations; the aim was to have the letter reach the current National Endowment for the Arts administrator, who will be stepping down soon.
How much will the project cost? Ms. Conway suggested it would cost the city nothing, as the NEA and the sculptor would pay for the work destined for a waterfront location. In an email on January 17, Ms. Conway clarified that the NEA was requesting that the city apply for an additional $10,000 grant for maintenance.
Commemoration of Burial Grounds at New Courthouse
Also at the meeting were Yaniyah Pearson and Pam Krizek, who gave a presentation on the activities of their committee, which is organized around determining appropriate commemoration of the burial grounds at the new courthouse.
New NACC Website
In other business at the meeting, Mr. Baker’s son, Harrison Baker, gave a presentation on the new NACC website, which he is being paid to produce.
Part 1 of 11 Meeting Opening
Part 2 of 11 Presentation regarding commemoration of burial grounds at the new courthouse
Part 3 of 11 Report from Martha Zola, Director of Economic and Cultural Development
Part 4 of 11 Retroactive vote of approving letter endorsing Wyatt
Part 5 of 11 Presentation by Harrison Baker on the new NACC website
Part 6 of 11 Report on the NACC nominating committee
Part 7 of 11 Martha Zola enquires about the funding mechanisms committee
Part 8 of 11 Ratification of the chosen, unnamed artist for the courthouse commission
Part 9 of 11 Selection of a treasurer for NACC
Part 10 of 11 Garin Baker proposes joining Americans for the Arts
Part 11 of 11 Announcements and meeting conclusion
I’m confused. If this was such an open and exceptional process, as several people repeat over and over again, how come one of the jurors didn’t recuse themselves because of personal and professional relationships with at least one of the applicants, the ultimate choice- or fail to even mention that fact? How much influence did this juror have, being one of the few members with art experience? Did the rest of the jurors refer to him for guidance?
Is that your idea of journalism
I recently saw your post “Courthouse Art Jury Pick’s Commissioner’s Associate For $75K Work” which you wrote on the Newburgh Advocate.
You seem to be making inferences that I somehow or another influenced this process toward awarding this young artist this project. And unfortunately you are now influencing this process unfairly with halve truths and distorted facts which could cause a true injustice to this young Newburgh artist. You need to speak with Martha Zola, who invited and selected the jurors without my knowledge to realize that I DID NOT influence the selection of jurors.
Also, you need to understand the process used by the jury to select the artist. If you had, you would have known, that no cross discussions among jurors was allowed during scoring, each had their own scoring sheets and several different rounds of scoring took place which Martha has copies of all. You can confirm this with Martha Zola as well as all the jurors.
Yes, at one time, Bryan Guglielmi was a student of mine and has worked with me on commissioned projects, simply because he’s skillful. But this young artist won the Courthouse competition on his own merits, based on his talent and hard work. In addition to submitting work worthy of being selected by an independent jury whose names, for your convenience, are all listed below. Who I’m sure you need to speak with now!…., to see if they were influenced, by me or anyone else. In fact Bryan was not my first selection, but the jury scoring eliminated that proposal in the second round, which you would understand if you had investigated the process. As a professional journalist should in order to publish, who has earned a BA from Yale and MFA from Hunter, and has taught digital and video at the college level.
I represented the Arts Commission as a juror since I’m familiar with the process having been involved personally with “Percent for Art” legislation across the US, so obviously I would be aware and familiar with other professional artist’s work in that field. Does this disqualify me in all selection processes? How sure can you be that I’m the only juror familiar with the work submitted? That is why blind and specific criteria scoring methods are put in place in order to avoid obvious conflicts.
Why have I been singled out in your post? Your attack on me personally was unfair and prejudicial and could potentially harm the “process” towards City Council Approval, which if you read the Commission’s legal Ordinance you would have know that the Commission can only make recommendations to the City Council who has the ultimate authority and makes the final decision which you seem to imply I orchestrated, which couldn’t be further from the TRUTH.
You need to investigate your facts, print a retraction on you website and write an apology letter to myself and then to Mr. Bryan Guglielmi who is entirely innocent here, that you have now besmirched and disrespected, injuring his ability to obtain future work in Newburgh, his home town. What a shame that you have now impacted him personally, by your shoddy and unprofessional journalism, advocating for a democratic process. How ironic.
Please forward me your phone and address so we can coordinate these necessary remedies, as there seems to be no way for me to contact you personally other than e-mail from your “Newburgh Advocate”? website.
I can be contacted below easily as always if you have an questions.
I’ll be looking forward to hearing from you Jane, so we can resolve this matter.
Jurors List:
Regina Angelo, Newburgh City Council Representative
Garin Baker, artist, Newburgh Arts and Culture Commission representative
Tomme Berg, Esq., Unified Court System, courthouse staff representative
Max Hedrnandez-Calvo, Education Director, DIA Beacon
Pamela Krizek, Member of the Commemoration Sub-committee and Spirituality Sub-committee of the Courthouse Burial Grounds Committee
Victor Mirabelli, artist, Newburgh representative
Yaniyah Pearson, Director, Department of Human Services, city staff representative
Judge B. Harald Ramsey, Newburgh City Court
Virginia Walsh, Director, Ann Street Gallery
Andrew Warren, David Wieboldt Architects, City of Newburgh Courthouse renovation architects
Kevin White, President and Founder, Performing Arts Academy, Newburgh representative
Sincerely,
Garin Baker
Carriage House Art Studios
(845)562-7802 Studio
(845)863-4352 Cell
gb@carriageart.com
http://www.carriageart.com
http://www.garinbakerart.com
Jane Johnson reply:
Dear Garin,
I am happy to correct any factual errors. If you have a difference of opinion, I encourage you to post a comment on the blog.
Sincerely,
Jane Johnston
My reply to Jane:
Hi Jane,
My mistake. I thought The Newburgh Advocate was a quasi journalistic approach to fair and open government and not your personal opinion Blog Spot. Since your lead-in at the top of your page says….
NEWS AND INFORMATION FOCUSED ON NEWBURGH, NEW YORK, TO ENCOURAGE PARTICIPATION IN THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS
OR THE PERSONAL BLOG OF MRS. JANE JOHNSON. WHICH IS IT!!!
I will post my facts on your blog and recommend to the Director of Culture & Economics, The Percent for Art Committee & all it’s members, The Arts & Cultural Commission for the City Of Newburgh and all the Jurors who participated in the Jurying process do the same.
Too bad all the facts won’t get the same attention as your obviously biased opinion which has disrespected the hard work and character of so many people who will have to bare your whims and accusations of you and your obviously angry and unbalanced friends in the future.
I would recommend that you do your homework before you attack the innocent without a shred of proof or corroboration and not pollute your site with prejudice, hearsay and rumor in you editorial space or headlines.
Jane, your hurting people and I won’t allow innocent people to be damaged by your reckless approach to the truth as you see fit.
By the way I still need your full mailing address and phone number so my attorney and I have a record in the consideration of Legal action of this obvious slanderous activity with malice and forethought showing intent to injure in your editorial space on you blog which I believe your taking responsibility for based on you e-mail reply.
Thank you. looking forward to your full contact information. I’m not going away. When you step on people they say ouch…. you’ve injured me as well as Bryan Guglielmi.
We still expect an apology even if your not a human enough to offer one.
Regards.
Garin Baker
Carriage House Art Studios
(845)562-7802 Studio
(845)863-4352 Cell
gb@carriageart.com
http://www.carriageart.com
http://www.garinbakerart.com
It was brought to my attention that you’ve threatened possible litigation against the publisher of this site. I’m reading your postings above for the first time and am caught speechless. As one who has been sued multiple times in the past for daring to expose the corrupt underbelly of this city’s old boy network in public forums about public figures, I am dumbstruck that an artist would even suggest the same putrid, anti-democratic tactics of attacking the messenger by abusing the law and blatantly attempting to chill the public’s right to participate in public discourse. Anyone who could add two plus two will come to the same conclusion as the publisher of this blog. It is far fetched to imagine a different conclusion. I’m sorry, Garin, but the above utterances cannot be construed as anything but cowardly attempts at CYA. You had/have close relationships with at least two of the applicants for this percent-for-arts commission. That you didn’t have the ethical decency, or exhibit the experience you’ve claimed to have had with such juries, and remove yourself from the process because of these conflicts has now hurt the efforts of everyone from the founding members of this commission, all its past and present commissioners, the percent-for-arts jury and this city’s arts community as a whole- not to mention the young person you’ve mentored into a talented artist. I’m still trying to comprehend the selfishness involved in your decision to risk all that- and the additional gall of publicly threatening a journalist who has voluntarily provided an exceptional service to our community.
This is all about conduct unbecoming a public office holder. After a breach of ethics, Mr Baker then threatens the First Amendment rights of a journalist.
And I always though artists were the greatest defenders of this country’s freedoms.
It sure does look like Mr. Baker is more politically-connected businessman than artist.
I guess the Buck stops at Garin…The Buck stops and always somehow goes in his pocket
The current arts commissioner Martha Zola claims that people are demeaning the artists. Isn’t that an interesting twist? Who’s even brought the artists into this? If I was an artist applicant, I’d be the one who would feel demeaned and used by this questionable process- not the questioning and concerns. If they’re so excited about selecting a Newburgh artist- why did they even bother opening up the process beyond its borders? Something’s fishy.
As an artist applicant I feel as though the process used was questionable. It is unfair to have artist submit proposals, and even more unfair to make a decision upon the proposals alone. I saw the poorly advertised showing of artist proposals and was amazed at the the amount of time and energy many of the artist put into this process. As a working artist, my proposals are short and sweet, time is money. The jurors should have been able to look beyond the effort put into the proposals and see the projects potential based upon an artist modest proposal. Just because one artist is willing to put more time into a proposal that another should not have an effect on the other proposals. I believe that the project should be brought to a stop, re-evaluated and done again.
I have followed the process from RFP to now – this is the only public art opportunity that I have seen where there was not a review of qualifications along with the proposals. Usually, one is pre-qualified by past work, and then submits a proposal. From that, often there are semi-finalists chosen, who present their work to the jury. Either with or without a public showing. To save face, maybe the commission/jury should select semi-finalists, based on the proposal and previous qualifications, and have them present their work, and/or develop more detailed proposals, if they did not do that in the first round.