More Chaos and Unanswered Questions at CAC Board Meeting — as Usual

The dysfunction and chaos continued at the most recent board meeting of the Cuyahoga Arts & Culture (CAC), the organization tasked with collecting the cigarette tax and distributing funding to arts organizations and artists. Having alienated the very arts community they are required to support, the CAC’s actions are now putting at risk the efforts in 2024 to renew the tax levy itself, which expires on January 1, 2027. In response to the uncertain funding environment, two major arts events — the FRONT Triennial and the CAN Triennial, both scheduled for 2025 — ceased operations in the past two weeks.

In her final board meeting on February 15, 2024 before her term expires, CAC board member Charna Sherman blasted chairperson Nancy Mendez for the “continued sterilization of our minutes, the editorialization of board minutes, and what is still a wildly deficient reporting system.” Sherman was referring to board minutes that failed to reflect that CAC received a “scathing independent report” from ISO Arts Consulting, hired by the Assembly for the Arts to facilitate listening sessions with Cuyahoga County artists about its relationship with the artistic community. It found deep distrust of CAC and its programs in the artist community. “You [Mendez], on your own, gave an apology,” Sherman said. “But that is not reported anywhere in the minutes.”

(Mendez had publicly apologized to the community at the December CAC board meeting on behalf of herself and director Jill Paulsen for the distrust.)

In response, Mendez quoted from the Robert Rules of Order, saying the purpose of minutes was to record actions, not what anyone said in the meeting. A disagreement broke out between Sherman and Mendez, talking over each other and making it nearly impossible to hear what either board member was saying. It ended when Mendez asked the board if there were any other questions. A motion to approve the minutes came next: Mendez, Michele Scott Taylor, Daniel Blakemore, and Karolyn Isenhart approved; Sherman opposed.

Isenhart, executive director of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party, whose term also expires in March, has expressed an interest in being reappointed. County Executive Chris Ronayne is required to appoint two new board members. The Ohio Revised Code clearly states that at least two members of the board of trustees “shall be persons who devote a major portion of their time to practicing, performing, or teaching any of the arts.” None of the current members have substantial experience in the arts or spend a majority of their time working in the arts. An announcement of the new appointments is expected before the April 17 Trustee Annual Meeting.

At the February 15 meeting, Sherman repeated her concern about artists getting bypassed, waving several documents in the air, saying, “CAC cheated the artists out of at least $400,000 promised by the board.” (Mendez admitted at the December meeting that they had indeed taken more than $400,000 from artists and folded it into the general fund in 2018 and 2019.) She continued, “Neither Nancy nor Jill ever put the [ISO] report on the agenda for discussion, and our executive director reported to the press even before the board. These missing facts are the very problem of our lack of transparency.”

During the public comment period, Happy Dog owner and vocal arts advocate Sean Watterson gave an impassioned speech on the need for CAC to recognize the music industry when selecting and allocating public funds. With over 2700 responses and 99 pages of written comments from the Cleveland Independent Venue Association conducted late last year, Watterson said that the number one need is public funding for artists and the independent music industry, which has received very little support in the past. “We literally are dying,” he said ardently. Regrettably, he was hard to hear because his back faced the camera during the YouTube broadcast, and his voice was muffled by poor audio equipment.

Watterson reminded the board that during the previous meeting, he read the Ohio Revised Code aloud to remind everyone that CAC’s purpose is to fund the public arts and culture sector, not just nonprofits. His major issue was misleading the public to think artists are being funded when funding is directed solely to nonprofits.

“You still believe that the purpose of CAC is to support nonprofit organizations despite the provisions of the law,” he said. “This organization has decided to support only nonprofits, and when we go to the levy, I want people to know what they are voting for.”

Watterson asked for a previously promised public conversation on how the money gets allocated before the ballot initiative is launched. “I had a commitment from Jeremy [Johnson, president and CEO of the Assembly for the Arts] and Jeff Rusnak [President and CEO of R Strategy Group, acting as a consultant to CAC] at a public Assembly for the Arts meeting at 78th Street Studios [last September] that a conversation would take place.” The conversation has not yet happened.

Rusnak and Johnson provided an update on the tax levy later in the meeting. Johnson assured the board that the tax levy would happen. “I want to be clear with reports that the levy campaign is moving forward,” he said. “Work has continued with our Assembly for Action Committee. We are moving towards a November ballot date.”

Rusnak was less optimistic. “I would recommend a ballot issue for November 2024, and based on our earlier conversations, that has not changed,” he said. “But several actions need to take place to do that. No decision has been made on the recommendation at this point. It’s still a hypothetical, in essence.”

In an op-ed published in the Plain Dealer last November, Fred Bidwell, chairman of the Cleveland-based Arts & Culture Action Committee responsible for raising $1.5 to $2 million for the campaign, said he wanted reforms to Cuyahoga Arts and Culture (CAC) before a campaign to place a new levy on the ballot can begin. “Unfortunately, I cannot see a path for successfully launching this campaign, given the current atmosphere of confusion and mistrust in Cuyahoga Arts and Culture (CAC).” 

“Dissatisfaction with CAC management of these critical taxpayer dollars has been building in all corners of the artistic community for years,” he said. “Right now, we do not have enough support to lead to successful fundraising… They (CAC) must prove that they are prudent stewards of precious public funds. Until then, the campaign to renew the tax is in doubt.”

On February 9, Bidwell announced that FRONT International Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art, which he founded, is canceling its 2025 edition and permanently shutting down. According to a statement issued by FRONT, “A realistic analysis of the support FRONT 2025 can gain from local, regional, and national funders has led the FRONT board to conclude that it is impossible to produce FRONT 2025 at the same high standards it established for its prior editions.”

A few days later, Michael Gill, executive director, editor and publisher of CAN Journal, announced the cancellation of the local art-focused CAN Triennial, which took place during FRONT, citing the current funding landscape. A statement on its website stated, “The decision was made in light of an assessment of the organization’s capacity, core strengths and mission, and in a funding environment significantly changed since the first CAN Triennial in 2018.”

Bruce Checefsky is a filmmaker and photographer, and published writer. He is the recipient of three Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Awards, a Creative Workforce Fellowship, and four CEC ArtsLink Fellowships.  

 

Post categories:

• Education
• Culture
• ---- SHARE this POST ----
• Bruce Checefsky