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ARTISTS COORDINATION COMMITTEE
100 WEST 13TH STREET  NEW YORK CITY  GRAMERCY 5-9647

MEMBER SOCIETIES
AMERICAN ARTISTS' CONGRESS
AN AMERICAN GROUP, INC.
AMERICAN SOCIETY OF
PAINTERS, SCULPTORS & GRAVERS
ARTISTS' UNION
HARLEM ARTISTS' GUILD
NATIONAL SOCIETY OF
MURAL PAINTERS
NEW YORK SOCIETY
OF WOMEN ARTISTS

November 19, 1936

As a member of the Municipal Art committee, no doubt you are keenly interested in the welfare of the arts and artists of New York City. The Artists' Coordination Committee, representing artists societies with a total membership of 3500, made every effort to establish a cordial and satisfactory relationship with your Committee. Unfortunately, it has become apparent that the Chairman, Mrs. Henry Breckenridge, is unable to envisage the benefits of friendly cooperation with the artists. She prefers to exercise dictatorial powers over policies and activities without so much as consulting the members of her own committee. The result is disappointing and is injurious to artists.

Were you, as a member of the Municipal Art Committee, ever consulted in any of the following activities of that Committee? These were its major activities to date:

1. The Hearn store exhibition; when the artists removed their pictures from the walls in protest, because that exhibition was held in a commercial institution unfitted for sponsorship by the Municipal Art Committee.

2. The opening of the temporary quarters of the Municipal Art Gallery; when an attempt was made to impose censorship upon the exhibitors and to exclude non-citizens from exhibiting in the Municipal Art Center. The protests and threatened boycott by artists forced the withdrawal of these rulings by Mrs. Breckinridge.

High-handed administrative methods have prevented the showing of sculpture during the past year.

3. The First National Exhibition at Rockefeller Center; when Mrs. Breckinridge failed to consult the artist members of the Municipal Art Committee and ignored the advice of New York artists' societies, thereby causing some of the most prominent artists to refuse to show their work at that exhibition.

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