Dear Mayor Bowser:

We, members of the DC arts community, are angered by your actions over the past year with regards to the operations of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCCAH). You and your appointees have threatened our basic first amendment rights, put at risk funding that is essential to the viability of our communities, raised concerns about the care and safety of our city’s art collection, and jeopardized the reputation of DC as a world class cultural capital. We urge you to refrain from causing any further damage. 

Specifically, we ask that you do the following:

• Stop politicizing the DCCAH. Recognize that commissioners should have knowledge and expertise in the field of art. Refrain from appointing people solely for their personal and political loyalties.
• Allow the DCCAH to conduct its own affairs. This includes supporting the transition described in the legislation that was proposed and voted on this year. The intent of that legislation was to reaffirm the independence the DCCAH has had since its formation. It was created in response to past, and to prevent further, interference. 
• In response to recent reports that you plan to dismiss and replace all the commissioners, including the current chair, refrain from appointing or dismissing any DCCAH commissioners for a period of 180 days, and that you reappoint any commissioners whose terms have expired. This will provide necessary stability and expertise during this time of transition.
• Return the city's Art Bank art collection to the DCCAH so that it has exclusive control over its care and maintenance. DCCAH has the funds and expertise to properly care for it. Artists are very concerned that the current situation is putting their art at risk.
• Avoid influencing, interfering with, or controlling the hiring of the next DCCAH Executive Director. This is an explicit role and responsibility of the DCCAH Commissioners and they have been completely excluded in recent years. You have appointed the last three and they have proven ill-fit for the job. One was dismissed for creating a hostile work environment and another for issuing a censorious contract amendment. But all three were lacking necessary lived, learned, and earned experience regarding the arts and humanities sector to set the agency and our community up for success.
• Give career employees at the DCCAH oversight of the Cultural Plan. Again, DCCAH has the expertise in this area and should lead a consortium of agency partners on its implementation.

We value the arts community here in DC too much to stand by and watch you destroy it. The DCCAH has a fifty-year reputation for advancing excellence in the arts in DC. If you want to be a mayor known as an advocate for the arts, as we’ve heard that you do, we ask that you support the independence of the DCCAH in advancing and supporting the interests of artists, cultural producers, and arts organizations.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned