James fires back against arts club board

O. Aldon James, the National Arts Club president who was accused of hoarding and offering sweetheart deals to friends in the organization’s 15 Gramercy Park South clubhouse in January, is firing back against his detractors, according to DNAinfo. The eccentric arts club head wrote a scathing letter to the organization’s board of governors last month, in which he singled out “several governors who want to be the boss and not lead through constructive discussion.” James called the charges against him “false and totally disingenuous,” despite evidence that he allowed some tenants to live in the clubhouse at steep discounts. While several of the governors did not respond to requests for comment, Shakespeare committee chair Marguerite Yaghjian, whom James accused of “destructiveness,” said that her “loyalty is and has always been in serving the mission of the club.”