Where they stand: The arts

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Town Board candidate John Whelan speaks at a Concerned Citizens of Montauk meeting.

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A new arts organization, the Artists and Writers of East Hampton, held a forum with the candidates for East Hampton Town office on Monday night at Ashawagh Hall in Springs.

The Democratic candidates present agreed with a Republican plan, first aired after a symposium held by the group in the summer, to appoint an Artists Advisory Board and do more to encourage artists in town.

GOP town supervisor candidate Bill Wilkinson’s wife is an artist and docent, while Democratic town supervisor candidate Ben Zwirn was married for many years to an artist and art teacher who now lives in Springs. They both said at the forum that they would like to encourage the arts.

Mr. Wilkinson said that he initially thought that the historic houses that are now being converted to a new Town Hall would have made a perfect exhibition space, and he said that he hopes to attract media companies to Industrial Road in Wainscott in the hopes of making the arts more economically viable here.

Mr. Zwirn pointed out that former Town Supervisor Bill McGintee had not included any money for the arts in his 2010 budget before he stepped down. In 2007, the town had given a total of $130,000 to arts groups. He said that he hopes that the town will be able to soon fund the arts again.

He added that, when he was the town supervisor in North Hempstead, he used Town Hall as an exhibition space for artists.

“Every time there was an art opening, I was there as supervisor,” he said. “We can help fund it. We can.”

“The notion of art as an economic driver is a new thing we’re seeing in public policy,” said GOP Town Board candidate Dominick Stanzione, who has worked as a classical music producer with the Moscow Symphony. Mr. Stanzione, who has a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University, is also a writer.

Mr. Stanzione said that he would like to see real estate agents work with artists to put art in the windows of vacant storefronts throughout town, and that he would like to further explore Vito Sisti’s proposal to put a radio tower at Ashawagh Hall to make the vital gallery space more-self sustaining.

“It’s also about recognizing government as an art form,” Mr. Stanzione said. “Truth, honesty and communication are lacking in our government. We need to have artists’ input in the development of public policy in East Hampton ... The creative commitment they have to their art can inspire anyone to achieve anything.”

GOP Town Board candidate Theresa Quigley, an attorney, is a member of a writer’s group at Ashawagh Hall, and she said that she wants to debunk the myth that Republicans do not support artists.

“Almost every attorney is an artist. It’s a way of interacting with space and time and people,” she said. “My parents and all their friends were artists. I understand that world.”

Democratic Town Board candidate John Whelan, who works as a designer at Stelle Architects, was first a painter, and the location of Monday’s symposium left him wistful for the day that he returned from college in Minnesota with 40 paintings, 35 of which he sold at an exhibition at Ashawagh Hall.

“I used the money to buy a pickup truck to do construction,” he said.

Mr. Whelan, who has long been a champion of affordable housing, said that he hopes to help make it easier for artists to continue to have affordable places to live and work in East Hampton.

Patti Leber, also a Democratic Town Board candidate, has a long history of arts advocacy and volunteerism. She was an English and art history major in college. When she was the PTA president at the Montauk School, she helped institute the first after-school programs in the arts at the school. She has volunteered for the Children’s Museum of the East End and The Hamptons International Film Festival and was an advocate to keep Shakespeare in the Park in Montauk. She has also served on the Montauk Playhouse theater committee.

“According to educators, creativity is the next frontier,” she said.

Many of the artists at the forum were skeptical that an Artists Advisory Board would be permitted to give real input to the Town Board, while others worried that it would be impossible for artists, with their own clearly defined sense of taste, to come to consensus on anything.

“When I came out of that forum last summer, I knew there was a need and I knew we didn’t have a conduit for that need,” said Mr. Wilkinson. “If you’re going to delegate, delegate. We know we don’t have it. It’s up to you to tell us.”

Another major issue of contention was the recent restrictions enacted by the current Town Board requiring artists to prove that they are working artists before being allowed to have studios.