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copy for M. Schubert

JAMES T. SOBY, 66 EAST 79TH STREET, NEW YORK 21

May 17, 1945

Mrs. Juliana Force, Director,
The Whitney Museum of American Art,
10 West 8th Street,
New York 11, N.Y.

Dear Juliana:
I've been puzzling over a solution of the problem of appointing artists to the New York State Commission which we discussed at our meeting yesterday.  I take it that artists, with considerable justification, would resent being left off the Commission, and I don't think they should be appointed by the three museum members of the Commission.  I'd therefore like to suggest the following solution which seems a little cumbersome but which I think might make artists and artists' organizations feel that their fate wasn't entirely in the hands of the museums.
1. The representatives of "the public art museums in the State actively concerned with contemporary art" would nominate six or seven artists for possible election to the Commission.

2. From the list of nominees, three artists would be elected to the Commission by majority vote of the six members of the Commission already elected to represent a)the Museums b)the fields of "education, public health, and public administration."

I think the chief advantage of this scheme would be that the choices would represent a broader vote -which the artists and the State might like.  But the museums would still control the choices to a large extent, since the nome[(overstrike i)]nations would be made by them and since, acting together, they could deadlock the election vote.

Well, it's a complicated problem.  Will ponder some more.

Very best,

Sincerely,