By Thane Grauel

WESTPORT — Two Representative Town Meeting committees endorsed allocating $200,000 of federal pandemic-relief money to local arts groups, but how the funds are distributed sparked discord.

Thursday night’s joint session of the Finance and Library, Museum and Arts committees revealed a showdown is looming when the full RTM considers approving the money as one bulk appropriation or individually for 12 local nonprofit arts organizations.

Westport will receive an overall $8.4 million in American Relief Plan Act money from the federal government over two years. The First Selectman’s Office, under then-First Selectman James Marpe, sketched out the first draft of how those funds could be allocated.

The Board of Finance approved the $200,643 arts allocation on Jan. 6, but the RTM has final say.

Questions arise over proposed use of money

RTM member Dick Lowenstein, District 5, made it clear Thursday that he did not like the bundled approach, and asked why other cultural organizations, including Earthplace, were not included.

“At the RTM meeting I will move to divide the question, which means that each one of the 12 items will be voted on separately … each one will have an up or down vote.”

“The projects bother me more than the organizations,” Lowenstein said. “I got the impression that somebody said, ‘Here’s $20,000, ooh, what are you going to spend it on? Let’s figure out a project you can spend it on. Some of the things don’t make much sense to me.”

Arts money for bus shelters, comic books?

As an example, Lowenstein cited a proposal to install artworks in bus shelters. 

Lee Goldstein of the Westport Arts Advisory Committee broke in to say that none of the artists from that project would receive money. The funds would only be used to reproduce their works, said Goldstein, who also is the Board of Education chairwoman.

“You’re interrupting me,” Lowenstein said. 

“Hold on, we’re not going to allow this to degrade,” said Finance Committee Chairman Seth Braunstein, District 6.

“I hate to go through this organization by organization,” Lowenstein said, “but for example, the comment came up from somebody, why is the Westport Historical Society creating a comic book, essentially that’s what it is, a graphic novel. It looks like you offered them money so they came up with a project … it’s backwards to me.”

Government should not determine what “art is good”

“I don’t believe that government should be making a choice as to what art is good and what kind of art is degenerate,” said RTM member Harris Falk of District 2.

“Governments have done that in the past and it really doesn’t turn out well. Art should be for art’s sake,” he said. “This should be as one group.”

Lowenstein, after a discussion with Braunstein, agreed that a decision on whether to approach the appropriation line-by-line should be made by full RTM because it is the funding body.

Braunstein said he’d abstain from the vote because, he said, after hearing what the arts groups’ list of proposals is, “I’d really like to understand what the nonprofits’ wish lists are.”

At its meeting earlier this month, members of the Westport Arts Advisory Committee decided to launch a lobbying campaign to urge the RTM to approve the entirety of the ARPA funding request and not distribute the money on a case-by-case basis.

Overall ARPA funding decision-making questioned

A few RTM members expressed concerns about the entire process of how ARPA funds are being allocated in town, including Nancy Kail of District 9.

“I think underlying all of this is a discomfort with the process, with the overall ARPA process and a lack of clarity here,” she said. 

“This whole process has been completely disorganized,” Falk said. “And that’s one of the reasons it’s coming out like this.”

The Finance Committee voted 5-0, with one abstention, to forward the proposal to the full RTM. The Library, Museum and Arts Committee voted 4-0, with two abstentions, and one recusal.

The RTM is scheduled to take up the ARPA arts funding issue at its Feb. 1 meeting.