We, the undersigned, demand that artists representation on the Museum London Board of Directors be maintained as at present, and that the proposed changes to its Act of Incorporation (involving removal of artists representation) be withdrawn immediately. The proposed new Act removes not just one, but two artists from the required makeup of the Board and the removal of an artist from the Nominating Committee. In the original Act, it was required that there be both a professional artist appointee (who was not to be a member of Canadian Artists Representation (C.A.R.), AND a C.A.R. elected artist director on the Board. It should be noted that the professional artists of London have not been approached by members of the Board or the Administration of ML to provide a C.A.R. replacement nominee. There are no provisions for any artistic knowledge or experience from any Board member nor for anyone on the Nominating Committee. This presents the appearance that the present director does not welcome informed input. This proposed amendment degrades any mandate with responsibility for comprehensive attention to the arts and artists of this region. This is unacceptable for an institution which receives $1.6 million dollars of local tax monies per year presumably to do just that. There is no other regional institution with a greater responsibility to consult both the public and its artistic constituency. For a corporation that exists because of artists, this is irresponsible, in our opinion. To deliberately remove the requirement for dialogue by the board with participating artists makes no sense at all.

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