With just weeks until the unveiling of Exquisite Corpse 2019 on November 14 at The Hyatt Place Downtown in St. Petersburg, the fifth-annual arts event may be in jeopardy.
Ann Marie Cash, the managing director of Exquisite Corpse Games LLC, says that’s not so. She claims she has solicited nearly two-dozen pieces of art from 64 local artists in a variety of mediums, including sculpture, painting, poetry and photography. However, she has no sponsors for this year’s event and has yet to sell any tickets.
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Cash, 63, finds herself in a precarious position.
Two former business partners — local artists Jeremiah Jacobs and Salvador Saint Germain — have accused her of embezzling thousands from Exquisite Corpse International LLC, which she served as a director from 2015 to 2017. These artists also claim Cash stole their idea for the event, which is based on a game that surrealists played in the early 1900s, and say she created a duplicate organization to continue profiting off local artists.
“The grand irony is she’s the one who convinced us to form an LLC so no one stole the idea,” said Saint Germain, a founding member of St. Petersburg’s Warehouse Arts District, “and then she’s the one who stole the idea.”
She’s also accused of failing to pay about $3,700 for work done last year. Cash didn’t deny any of the allegations when contacted by phone.
“I don’t know you. I know Creative Loafing has never been a fan. They don’t know me either,” Cash said. “The company owes money. I don’t owe any money. Same thing with Exquisite Corpse International. The money was deposited into the company account and any money taken out was eaten up by the company.”
In a rambling, often tearful 90-minute phone conversation, Cash contradicted herself, claiming she was the victim of a witch hunt, and spouted conspiracy theories. She contends that Exquisite Corpse has never sold an original work of art, despite a painting that was sold at the 2016 Exquisite Corpse event.
“I didn’t view it as nothing,” she said of a $4,000 deposit paid by a Canadian citizen, the former boyfriend of one of the artists. “There was an action to sell, and he gave a deposit, and as long as it was under my watch, the transaction was never completed.”
She also confirmed she may have used monies donated to Exquisite Corpse International for personal expenses, without authorization, but she argued that money was actually commissioned she was owed for selling sponsorship packages. Cash had a ready supply of excuses — but not remorse. In her conversation with CL, she refused to admit any wrongdoing. Instead, she blamed Jacobs and Saint Germain, and flatly challenged them to take further legal action against her.
“At this point, Sal and Jeremiah chose to share information with the world that is very misleading,” Cash said. “We never had conversations about nothing. We never had meetings. We never talked about nothing specific. That’s why I had to make decisions on my own. Yes, there were times I had to make decisions.”
From December 1, 2016, to May 10, 2017, bank records submitted to Pinellas County small claims court show that Cash used her company debit card more than 160 times, charging more than $7,249.
The bulk of those expenditures appear to have been for personal dinners, pharmacy fees, doctor’s visits, airfare, hotel charges in other states, shopping expenses in other states and personal bills.
Cash admitted she never talked to Jacobs or Saint Germain about placing limits on the company credit cards. She said nothing exists in writing to dictate how she should have handled such expenses. The company also never hired an accountant because, Cash said, without irony, it lacked the funds to pay for one.
“I had said very clearly, anybody who sells an ad for the game will get 20% commission from the sale,” Cash explained. “If I made a sale, instead of me taking out the 20%, I would leave it there. If I had something I needed, I would take it from my commission, then at the end of the day when talking, we would do checks and balances.”
That never happened. Saint Germain said the original agreed-upon commission for sponsorship sales was 10%, and never 20%.
“The first year was sponsored by an anonymous donor that was a friend of mine,” he said. As such, he said, he kept $500 of the donor’s $5,000 sponsorship package. The rest he deposited into company coffers.
Cash said she too made a $5,000 sponsorship sale, to local developer Steve Coderre — only she kept $1,000 for her efforts. When Creative Loafing contacted Coderre and asked whether he was aware that Cash had kept one-fifth of his donation, he declined to comment. Saint Germain is angry, and he vowed to expose Cash in court and publicly.
“She’s cheating local artists, which is what St. Pete is all about,” he said. “It’s like going into a graveyard and taking a shit.”
Bank records show that from December 2016 to May 2017, there were eight deposits totaling $6,767, including the $4,000 deposit from the Canadian customer.
“If you look at the amount of deposits and look at the withdrawals, you will realize it’s not 20% of the deposits that’s missing,” Jacobs said, “it’s 100% that’s missing.”
Jacobs and Saint German said they trusted Cash when she asked for a more hands-on role, following Exquisite Corpse’s successful 2015 debut.
“We had no idea she was spending that money until we realized it was all gone,” Jacobs said. “It wasn’t reported to us what was earned or spent. She stopped sharing that information with us at some point.”
When they examined bank records, Jacobs and Saint Germain matched numerous withdrawals to personal postings that Cash made on Facebook. On December 30, 2016, Cash paid $1,040 to a St. Petersburg nursing facility, Apollo Health and Rehabilitation Center. On January 1, 2017, she posted on Facebook that her father was receiving care there.
Cash said the money was spent to transport her dad from Fort Lauderdale. She is adamant that she paid it back. Saint Germain confirmed that Cash told them about the expense, and pledged to reimburse the account, but he said she never repaid the funds. Cash did not deny using the company account for personal needs.
“If it was anything personal, it’s because I always think it will wash out as part of your commission,” she said.
Bank records also match other social media postings by Cash when she traveled to Georgia and to California. Jacobs and Saint Germain contend she took the trips to attend the Super Bowl and the annual Academy Awards. She claimed such trips were in her official capacity.
“At no point did we authorize her to leave the state on the organization’s behalf, or agree to pay for any of that expenditure,” Jacobs said.
In October 2018, Jacobs, Saint Germain, Andrea Pawlisz, Jennifer Kosharek Zoellner and James McCracken sued Cash in small claims court, alleging mismanagement of the 2016 art sale. Pawlisz, Zoellner and McCracken were to receive 25% of the sale apiece as the artists. The legal filing included text messages between Zoellner and Cash that show Cash lied about the purchase price and how much the customer paid as a deposit.
Cash disputed that evidence.
“These were cut and pastings,” she said. But still, Cash could not tell Creative Loafing if any of the company funds she is accused of using without authorization came from the $4,000 deposit.
“I cannot say yes, I cannot say no,” she said.
On November 15, 2018, Jacobs and Saint Germain settled their case, essentially holding themselves accountable, and agreed to pay the three artists monthly out of their own pocket for a total of $4,000. They also agreed to give the painting to the buyer for the cost of his deposit. Cash refused to sign the settlement, even though she was a company director, and began telling people, erroneously, that she won the case. More trouble soon followed.
Cash commissioned local artist Doug D’Souza to design 30 commemorative medallions for the 2018 show at $15 a piece for a total of $450. Cash has given him $150 so far. D’Souza took it upon himself to start informing the local arts community to be wary of Cash’s promises. Cash admitted that she owed D’Souza, but she said he is only making noise because she refused to allow him to participate in this year’s Exquisite Corpse.
“That’s my belief, yes,” she said.
Cash also owes Davidson Fine Art about $1,800 for framing work last year. Jim Swallow, who oversees fine art printing for Davidson, said Cash did present payment, with a caveat.
“She paid us, and then asked us to hold off depositing the check because she’s working on getting some sponsors,” Swallow said. “So, we waited, and we waited. We’re still waiting. She’s avoided our phone calls. She says she is working on getting sponsored to help cover the expenses.”
Swallow also has since alerted other art suppliers in St. Petersburg about Cash’s refusal to pay her debts. And she owes Michele Greene about $1,650, including $1,500 that Greene paid out of pocket for the 2018 event programs when Cash claimed she was broke.
“She looks at me, ‘Do you have a credit card or anything to put it on, and I will pay you back?’” Greene said. “When I tried to get back in touch with her, she was incredibly rude.”
Greene said Cash told her, ‘I don’t need any of your shit right now. I know about it, and Exquisite Corpse knows.'”
Cash refused to comment about Greene.
“I do owe Davidson the money. I do owe Lundy the money,” Cash said. “Everybody I do owe money to will get paid as soon as I can.”
When asked how much she owes Catering by Lundy’s, a local food company, Cash refused to say.
“Are you going to add one more to make me look bad?” she asked.
Documents from the Pinellas small claims court show that during Cash’s tenure as secretary and treasurer, Exquisite Corpse International’s account went from $3,052.48 in December 2016 to $11.84 in April 2017. As of May 15, 2017, there was a zero balance.
Things have not improved since she formed her own rival company. While Cash claimed she has no sponsors for the upcoming November event, her website states there are five sponsors, including Davidson Fine Art, Duncan McClellan Gallery, Bella Unica Art Gallery and the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance. None of them are really sponsors, Cash admitted.
“That’s for marketing,” she said.
John Collins, executive director of the Arts Alliance, said he gave Cash $250 to place an ad in the 2019 event program, even though he too had heard rumors of Cash’s past impropriety.
“I heard that went to court and it was resolved in court,” he said. Now, he’s not so sure. He called Cash in early September and asked for her website to be revised.
“I said, make it clear I’m an advertiser and not a sponsor. I left it at that,” he said. “Unfortunately, this is very sad to learn about, and my fear is that if it continues down this path, the arts community, the artists she’s involved in this event, will just be terribly affected. It will be tragic.”
As of September 27, state records show Exquisite Corpse Games has been administratively dissolved for failure to file an annual report. And her website at that time began displaying a stark warning to visitors that the site is not secure. Such notifications are common when websites lack certain security certifications. Collins said he too visited the website, and he worries that many people may not learn about the upcoming event as a result.
“I don’t know how she’s going to sell tickets to this thing if her website isn’t working,” he said.
John W. Allman has spent more than 25 years as a professional journalist and writer. Follow him on Facebook @BloodViolenceBabes or on Twitter @BVB_reviews.
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This article appears in Oct 10-17, 2019.