D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson have locked horns again over the city’s arts office.

Bowser aims to replace the entire board that governs the Commission on Arts and Humanities with new appointees, Mendelson told WAMU on Wednesday.

Mendelson has grown increasingly frustrated in recent months over what he sees as Bowser’s attempts to gain more control over the city’s arts infrastructure, culminating in an end-of-day confrontation between the two city leaders on Wednesday.

The D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities is in the midst of a major transition into an independent agency. Historically, it was headed by a mayoral appointee and governed by a volunteer board of commissioners who were appointed by the mayor and approved by the Council. The office oversees the city’s grants program for artists and arts organizations and manages public art projects.

Its transition to independence has led to tensions between the mayor and members of the D.C. Council who voted in favor of the change this summer.

A Window Into The Power Struggle

The latest unrest started Wednesday afternoon, when Arts Commission board chair Kay Kendall sent an email to staff directing them to suspend all major business, including hiring, firing and signing any document that would oblige the Arts Commission “to take a particular action.” The directive is in effect until Tuesday, Oct. 1, when the new interim executive director will be appointed.

According to Mendelson, Kendall then received what he called a “threatening call” from longtime Bowser advisor John Falcicchio demanding she rescind the directive.

Falcicchio is the Interim Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development. The Arts Commission director reports to that office, but the commission’s acting director, Terri Rouse-Rosario, resigned in August, effective Sept. 30. A new director has yet to be named.

Falcicchio’s call prompted the end-of-day call between Mendelson and the mayor. Mendelson told WAMU that when he asked Bowser how they were going to resolve their tensions, she told him that she wanted to replace the entire Arts Commission Board with new appointees because she believes their jobs have changed now that the Commission is independent.

“It is stunning,” he said. “Clearly she does not want an independent arts commission.”

When asked for comment about the exchange, mayoral spokesperson LaToya Foster responded by email that the Mayor “does not speak about her conversations with individual Councilmembers because doing so would eviscerate trust between them.”

She continued: “The Council prescribed new specific qualifications for Commission members, yet did not create a mechanism to evaluate how current commissioners meet those requirements. The mayor is committed to ensure that the Commission can meet its fiduciary responsibilities to DC taxpayers. Current and potential Board members must meet these new qualifications set forth by the Council.”

A Season’s Worth of Disagreements

The back-and-forth comes in the wake of numerous episodes of tension between the D.C. Council, the mayor and the arts community:

• Last fall, the Arts Commission slipped in an amendment to the grant agreement that recipients had to sign to receive funds. It would have banned “lewd, lascivious, vulgar, [or] overtly political” works, but it was scrapped within a week due to a backlash from the arts community.
• In April, the city introduced its long-awaited Cultural Plan, an inter-agency effort that laid out ways the city would support D.C.’s cultural economy. Some artists and cultural leaders said the document lacked a clear rollout plan and overemphasized loans over grants.
• Before Rouse-Rosario resigned, she hired a number of senior positions with six-figure salaries, as Washington City Paper reported. Mendelson then demanded a full accounting of all hirings and firings from her before she left.
• Late last month, Bowser introduced a new Creative Affairs Office to serve as an intermediary between the executive office and the Arts Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
• At the same time, Bowser announced the return of the Mayor’s Arts Awards, which Rouse-Rosario had announced would be cancelled this year. In the past, the Arts Commission oversaw the awards and a panel would select the winners, but the program will now be under the purview of the Creative Affairs Office.
• In early September, the City Paper reported that Bowser’s office locked Arts Commission staff out of the agency’s vault of public art.

Meanwhile, District artists and leaders of arts organizations have a lot on the line. In fiscal year 2017, the Arts Commission allocated some $23 million for arts grants.

This story originally appeared at WAMU.