0.9 Chapter seven: retrenchment and the struggle for survival, 19  (Page 14/20)

But not all cultural institutions in New York were happy. Although the funds for the Society supposedly did not reduce potential grants available for other cultural institutions, some people clearly saw it that way. Norma Munn, chair of the New York City Arts Coalition, said that the twelve hundred arts organizations she represents "would not sit still while an organization which has had poor lead­ership on the board for a lot of years gets bailed out like this."

The politicization of the Society's situation was not limited to its dealings with the public sector. Political battles within the Society's walls were also intensify­ing. For one thing, outside members of the advisory committee were critical of the Debs administration in several areas and made little or no effort to correct mis­representations and oversimplified explanations of the Society's difficulties that appeared in the press. Naturally, this did not endear outside members of the com­mittee to members of the Society's previous administration. Second, the long-running territorial competition for resources between the museum and the library was heightened by the lack of full-time leadership. In such a volatile environment, it was no longer a struggle for a slightly higher budget; it was an intense struggle for the survival of jobs, departments, and collections.

The internal confusion moved toward some form of resolution at the April 15 meeting of the board, when Pearlstine noted that the advisory committee report called for a consolidation of responsibilities coupled with a downsizing of staff. Pearlstine announced that he had accepted the resignations of Juliana Sciolla, who had served as the Society's vice president for external affairs in the Debs adminis­tration and as chief operating officer during the transition, and Sheryl Jarvis, who had been the assistant to Barbara Debs and Pearlstine and had held the posi­tion of secretary of the board.

At the board level, the struggles reached their own climax at the May 5, 1993, meeting of the board of trustees. Upon hearing of the city's intention to match the state appropriation, Norman Pearlstine announced his immediate resignation as the Society's acting chief executive and chairman of the board. He nominated Wilbur Ross and Herbert Winokur Jr. to serve as co-chairmen of the Society. The board elected Ross to the board of trustees, named Ross and Winokur co-chairmen of the Society for a period of twelve to eighteen months, and appointed Winokur as the Society's acting chief executive officer. Barbara Debs resigned her position on the board.