Painter Seth Cameron filed a legal complaint against the Children's Museum of the Arts under allegations that his termination as the New York collecting institution's former director last November was unfairly abrupt and a violation of his contract.
After his predecessor Barbara Hunt McLahan's untimely death in June 2019, Cameron joined the museum as executive director back in February 2020.
Before onboarding into the institution, however, he already had established a respectable career in the art industry as he was one of the forerunners behind the Bruce High Quality Foundation collective of artists.
He even served in the foundation's art school, BHQFU, as president. In addition to this, Cameron has also managed and produced a set of exhibitions for his works.
Looking northwest across Charlton Street at Children's Museum of Arts on a sunny midday.
Behind the Cameron Versus CMA Lawsuit
According to the publicly available documents on the lawsuit, Cameron claims that his contributions to the institution during the height of the pandemic were significant in bringing in much-needed financial assistance via grant and loan applications to the Nonprofit Finance Fund.
For this initiative, Cameron helmed a fundraising campaign that raised $125,000 and he has even renegotiated the CMA's lease on behalf of the institution, which he alleges saved it $250,000 in would-be property-related costs.
The documents recounted that the termination of Cameron's tenure happened last Nov. 17, 2023, and was executed by CMA's executive members. This discontinuation of Cameron's post was not publicized previously in any capacity.
As per the legal papers, his untimely termination can be traced back to concerns about the artist's performance put forward by Allison Russo, CMA Board of Directors President who assumed the position last year.
In response to the news of his termination, Cameron launched a series of negotiations concerning his severance package and was initially offered $12,147.69 by the CMA. The former director rejected this and counter-proposed a higher settlement.
Eventually, the two parties agreed upon $19,658.18, however, Cameron's lawsuit claims that the CMA went back on the agreement and flat-out refused to fulfill the settlement.
In light of this, the lawsuit seeks damages incurred by this alleged breach of contract plus payment on the fees that arose because of Cameron's unused paid time off and attorney-related costs.
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