He's out after only a year and a half, with the announcement quietly dumped on a Friday evening? Smells like ignominy.

This took about a year too long. He should have never been hired in the first place. Vincent Kitch has done a great deal of damage to the reputation of the Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs. The office needs to be heedful and do the necessary research when appointing his replacement. The next director should have the basic interpersonal skills to relate to the public and nurture talent in the office in order to insure and foster their mission. Arts are a regular target on every level of government, and art leaders need to be able to communicate its value selflessly, authentically, and sincerely. Kitch lacked all of these traits.

Michele Scoleri is replacing him? Oh, yeah, something's up.

Can't wait to hear what the real story is.

He even had trouble differentiating between interns and staff in his small office.

It's exactly for occasions like this that SLOG uses upstyle headline format.

You had me worried for a second.

I thought you were proclaiming the End of Kitsch.

@7, I hoped that was the case. Kitsch is a false god.

I've got a suggestion for saving the city $7.4 million dollars.

Art is not a necessary function of government. They don't do it well, and even done badly, it's expensive.

But for the sake of argument, let's presume you need Art sponsored by big brother. Fire the entire department and give out grants of $4,000 to 1,850 artists with the caveat that the public needs to be able to see the works. That's $4k available to almost two thousand artists _every year_.

Being asked to leave and accepting the ask, a resignation based on the need to get rid of a bad employee = FIRED.

What's wrong with a little honesty?