EXHIBITIONS | CREATIVITY | HISTORY | RESIDENCY
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
founders and co-presidents
ERIC FISCHL
Eric Fischl was born in New York in 1948. He graduated from the California Institute of Arts in Valencia, in 1972, and was a teacher between 1974 and 1978 at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax. Fischl had his first solo show, curated by Bruce W. Ferguson, at Dalhousie Art Gallery in Nova Scotia in 1975 before relocating to New York City in 1978.
Fischl works in multiple mediums such as painting, sculpture and prints, and is mostly known for his large scale, naturalistic images of middle-class American life. His suburban upbringing provided him with a backdrop of alcoholism and a culture obsessed with image over content. Subsequently, his early work became focused on provocative yet truthful issues deemed repugnant by polite society. The powerful underlying sexuality in his works, often portray intimate moments that the viewer is helplessly made privy of and address the dark and disturbing undercurrents of mainstream American life. Fischl’s large human-scale figures only emphasize the voyeuristic feeling of his images, and imbue them with a psychological, almost dream-like intensity. His earlier paintings are highly reminiscent of the Photorealism works of the 1960s, and during the 1980s his style expanded to fragmented images split into separate panels, which he used for paintings and etchings.
Eric Fischl has exhibited extensively throughout the United States and Europe. He is held in the collections and had exhibitions in major institutions such as the The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Musée Beaubourg in Paris, France; and the The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Fischl’s work has been featured in over one thousand publications.
APRIL GORNIK
Artist April Gornik’s paintings and drawings of land, sky and sea are anchored in observed reality and a world synthesized, abstracted, remembered and imagined. They offer the viewer an opportunity to explore dichotomies between past and present, expanse and its circumscription, intimacy in immensity, stillness and the inexorable momentum of atmospheric change. Her canvases – roiling seas, brewing skies, mountains and endless plains – internalize and engage nature’s proscenium. In these captured moments, the natural world triumphs and the mirror of time stares back.
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Her work may be found in the public collections of the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada; Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX; Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY; Cincinnati Museum, Cincinnati, OH; Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH; Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA; Fisher Landau Center, Long Island City, NY; Fort Worth Museum, Fort Worth, TX; Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN; Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY; Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, NY; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; The Jewish Museum, New York, NY; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.; New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ; Neuberger Museum, Purchase, NY; Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL; Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY; Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA; United States Embassy, Beijing, China; United States Embassy, Moscow, Russia; University Gallery, and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, among others.
MOISÉS CERDAS
Moisés A. Cerdas is a builder located in the heart of the Hamptons. He is the founder, owner and leader of Moises A. Cerdas, Builder LLC. He has been practicing in the Hamptons for over 25 years. His work includes residential and commercial buildings.
While his projects are typically custom family homes, he was drawn to the opportunity to be a part of a project for the community. He is passionate about the vision that led to the Church’s establishment.
As an entrepreneur, he brings multidisciplinary insights to his work. Moises weaves a common thread between business and the arts. With empirical experience in construction, architecture and design - both in the Hamptons and Costa Rica, he remains true to his “Tico” roots. Through his upbringing, he learned from his mother the value of handmade, artisanal craftsmanship and how a detail - oriented, personalized approach, can bring great joy, and a sense of grounding to a client’s envisioned space.
Moises is passionate about staying true to clients' needs while creating a collaborative approach to problem solving, all in efforts of bringing their vision to life. In his free time, Moises enjoys traveling, tennis, spending time with his family.
JEREMY DENNIS
Jeremy Dennis (b. 1990) is a contemporary fine art photographer and a tribal member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation in Southampton, NY. In his work, he explores indigenous identity, culture, and assimilation. Dennis holds an MFA from Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, and a BA in Studio Art from Stony Brook University, NY. He currently lives and works in Southampton, New York on the Shinnecock Indian Reservation.
AMANDA FUHRMAN
Amanda Fuhrman is a non-practicing attorney previously with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, specializing in Trust and Estates. She left law to pursue public service, and became the Deputy Executive Director of Millennium Promise, a nonprofit founded by economist Jeffrey Sachs and philanthropist Raymond Chambers, focused on eradicating extreme poverty. Amanda is currently a Trustee of Edible Schoolyard NYC and the Brooklyn Museum. She is also the founder of The FLAG Award for Teaching Excellence.
NICOLE SELIGMAN
Nicole Seligman is a globally recognized corporate leader and lawyer. She currently serves on a number of corporate boards including Paramount Global, where she chairs the Nominating and Governance Committee, WPP plc, where she is the Senior Independent Director, and MeiraGTx Holdings PLC. She also serves on the board of the Animal Medical Center in New York City. Until September 2019 she served as Chairman of The Doe Fund, a nonprofit organization whose flagship residential program, Ready, Willing & Able, transitions the formerly homeless and incarcerated to independent lives, and she remains active with criminal justice reentry initiatives.
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Ms. Seligman was the President of Sony Entertainment, Inc., the parent company of Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment and Sony/ATV Music Publishing, from 2014 to 2016. She simultaneously served as President of Sony Corporation of America, where she oversaw all corporate functions of Sony’s U.S. headquarters. Ms. Seligman had served as the global General Counsel of Sony Corporation from 2005 until 2014. In that period she oversaw legal and compliance matters for Sony globally and at various times also oversaw trade, internal audit, SOX, group risk, and other corporate functions globally. Ms. Seligman had joined Sony in 2001 as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Sony Corporation of America (SCA) and was appointed SCA President in June 2012.
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Prior to joining Sony, Ms. Seligman was a partner in the litigation practice at Williams & Connolly LLP in Washington, D.C., working on a broad range of complex civil and criminal matters and counseling a wide range of clients, including President William Jefferson Clinton and Hillary Clinton.
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Ms. Seligman graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School and served for two years as a law clerk, including to Justice Thurgood Marshall on the US Supreme Court. She lives in New York City and Sag Harbor with her husband.
SALLY SUSMAN
As Executive Vice President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Pfizer, Susman directs the company’s communications, public affairs and philanthropic activities around the world.
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During eight years in government service, she focused on international trade issues – first, as Legislative Assistant for the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation and later, as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs at the U.S Department of Commerce.
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Currently, Susman serves on the board of WPP, the UK-based global advertising and marketing company, and as co-chair of the board of directors of the International Rescue Committee. She is also on the board of the New York Botanical Garden. Susman is a frequent commentator in newspapers, magazines and broadcast programs.
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Susman holds a B.A. in government from Connecticut College and has studied at the London School of Economics. She and her wife, Robin, live in New York City and Sag Harbor, NY.
DINI VON MUEFFLING
Dini von Mueffling is the founder and CEO of Dini von Mueffling Communications (DVMC), an award-winning, public relations firm located in New York City that amplifies the work of people and enterprises in numerous sectors including luxury lifestyle, design, art, books, technology, finance, healthcare, health and wellness, as well as high profile individuals. It is highly regarded for its work on social issues and previous campaigns for clients Monica Lewinsky and Sandy Hook Promise have won 15 Cannes Lions, 9 Webbys, and have received 3 Emmy nominations and garnered scores of other industry awards from the One Show to the London International Film Festival.
DVMC’s work with Sandy Hook Promise on the campaign “Evan” was inducted into the Platinum PR Hall of Fame. Founder and CEO Dini von Mueffling has been recognized as one of the Top Women in PR by PR News. Her repositioning of Monica Lewinsky, whose TED Talk has been viewed over 17 million times, as an anti-shaming and anti-bullying activist is taught in universities.
Prior to founding DVMC, von Mueffling began her career as a journalist and has written for countless news and lifestyle publications. She is the author of two books and the co-founder of the twenty-eight-year-old nonprofit Love Heals, the Alison Gertz Foundation for AIDS Education, the leading provider of HIV/AIDS education to the youth of New York City.
E.T. WILLIAMS
E.T. Williams, CEO of Elnora, Inc., attended Brooklyn College in 1955. At that time, he served as president of the Brooklyn College Chapter of the NAACP, raised money for sit-ins in the South, and received the Rheingold Good Neighbor Award for his community service. Williams received his B.A. degree in economics in 1960 and received his real estate and insurance license in 1959 to take over his father’s business while his father recovered from an illness.
After teaching at a junior high school in Brooklyn, New York, he went to work for the Peace Corps. In 1963 in Washington, DC, Williams stood behind Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during his “I Have a Dream” speech. Williams then moved to Washington, DC, where he continued his work with the Peace Corps.
In 1969, Williams became the first African American officer of a commercial bank in the State of Maryland. In 1971 when he returned to New York City, joined Chase Manhattan and began working in institutional banking as a lending officer. Williams left banking in 1982 and returned to real estate as chairman of the board and head of the Fordham Hill Project. He retired in 1992 and began Elnora, Inc., a private family investment company. He serves on the Board of Directors of Fiduciary Trust Co. of New York and served as chair of the audit committee for eight years.
Williams is an avid African American art collector. Included in his collection are works of art by Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, and Aaron Douglas. He sits on several museum boards, including the Brooklyn Museum and the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). Other boards include the NAACP Legal Defense Fund; the Nature Conservancy (the Long Island Chapter); the Trinity Church Wall Street; the Central Park Conservancy; and the Cathedral Church of St. John The Divine. Williams continues to collect art in New York City, Sag Harbor, Long Island; Dark Harbor, Maine; and Naples, Florida; where he resides with his wife and family.