Enlighten Peekskill CURATORIAL comittee MEMBERS:

Illuminate Peekskill Sculpture Initiative

Jaishri Abichandani

Artist/curator focusing on the intersection of art, feminism, and social action. Founder and director (1997-2013) of South Asian Women’s Creative Collective, with chapters in NYC and London. Born in Mumbai, her family emigrated to the US when she was 13. B.A. from Queens College, M.A. and Post-Graduate Degree in Visual Arts, Goldsmiths College, London. Lives and works in Brooklyn.

Kathy Battista, PhD

Writer, educator, and a curator of exhibitions in museums, galleries, and non-profits. Her research is primarily focused on cross-generational feminist art, in particular performance and body-oriented practice. She is the author of New York New Wave: The Legacy of Feminist Art in Emerging Practice and Renegotiating the Body: Feminist Art in 1970s London. Battista has over twenty years of leadership positions in the art world: she founded the Interaction program at Artangel, a renowned public art agency in London, as well as the MA in Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s Institute of Art in New York. She is currently faculty at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London as well as an Ensemble member of the New School of the Anthropocene.

Peter Bynum

Painter creating light-infused paintings on glass and large-scale installations. Based, Hudson River Valley. 2013, named by NY’s Museum of Art & Design as one of most influential artists of the last half-century who works with glass. 2014, NY Public Library commissioned Bynum to fill its 5th Ave. windows with 17 large-scale luminescent paintings; 2015, commissioned by HVMOCA to reinterpret his work into 10 canvases, each 23 ft. x 16 ft. wide, for a series of arches on the Hudson Riverfront. 2015, “Illumination of the Sacred Forms: Divine Light Mission and Sanctuary,” HVMOCA, paintings/sound/video projection, 2018; Institute of Science & Technology at Chapman U. Illuminated painting with custom software, 30’ x 12’ on eight layers of glass, 2019 (permanent installation).

Nicole Glimcher Dach

Associate Director Media Art, Pace Galleries. Working with major technology and installation collaboratives as Drift, Nicole oversees complex installations, does outreach for major commissions and has grown rapidly as a young voice and strong presence in the world of Media art.

Jarvis DuBois

Independent art consultant and curator; Collections Manager 2002-present: Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History; Museum Specialist. 1995, University of California, LA (UCLA); Getty Center Summer Grant Program Armand Hammer Museum. Selected curated exhibitions: “Black Abstraction”, Harmony Hall Regional Art Gallery, Fort Washington, MD (2011); “A/Way Home”, District of Columbia Arts Center (2012-13); “Of a Place and Time: Photographic Memories and Imaginings”, Hillyer Art Space (2013); “(in)Visible and (dis)Embodied: Repositioning the Marginalized”, Curatorial Initiative program, District of Columbia Arts Center (2014); Current board member, Millennium Arts Salon; as well as a member of the Hillyer Art Space Artist Advisory committee. Articles: International Review of African American Art, Hampton University, Virginia.

David Rios Ferreira

Visual artist, independent curator, and currently the director of public programs and curator of contemporary art at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan (CMOM). Ferreira’s exhibitions shed light on under-represented narratives and challenge preconceived notions of contemporary art. He recently developed CMOM’s series of exhibitions that merge immersive art installations, family art-making spaces, and an artist-in-residence program to introduce contemporary art through the lens of creative placemaking, maker movement philosophy, and social justice. Awards include the Smithsonian Education Award, the Innovative Cultural Advocacy Fellowship from the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute, and the 2019 EdCom Award for Excellence in Practice from the American Alliance of Museums.

Lesley Heller

Gallerist, 1994 The Work Space, thematic group exhibitions; 2004 Upper East Side, Lesley Heller Gallery, focused on solo exhibitions. 2010, Heller was among a handful of pioneering dealers to open galleries on the Lower East Side launching solo as well as group exhibitions, reviewed and articles in Artforum, The New York Times, Art in America…Gallery closed April 30, 2020. Lesley continues to work with artists as a career coach and independent curator.

Jerry Kugler

Founder, 1983, Kugler Ning Lighting Design. Projects include New York’s Carnegie Hall, Yale University’s Sterling Memorial Library where new perspectives were created on the intersection of light and architecture. The company’s unique approach in a string of high-profile projects resulted in dozens of honors, including four out of the 14 Lumen Awards that the NYC Section of the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) presents annually.

Christina Lessa

CEO, Art Vue Worldwide Art, 2015 – Present. Based NYC & Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Art Vue coordinates major public art installations and lighting extravaganzas. The company specializes in infrastructure development. Projects: Metro Ryadh, (79 art enhanced stations and 4 major hubs); Allula/ Saudi Arabia, City wide public art installations. Lessa is also Chief Creative Officer Veloce Studios 2015- Present, Saudi Arabia / NYC, and Founder and Editor-in-Chief of FLATT Magazine, a magazine celebrating creative entrepreneurs and contemporary philanthropic ideas.

Jaime Martinez

NY based artist. Born Colombia, SA. His family emigrated to Florida when he was 12. ED: Miami International U. of Art and Design; Inst. of Tech., and Students Art League in NYC. His process involves constructing, deconstructing and fragmenting images, data, and information geometrically into triangulated segments. Works featured in multiple outlets like half hour personal TV interviews with NTN24 (Nuesta Tele Noticias) Good Day New York (TV interview), Fox news (TV interview) etc. Exhibited worldwide as well as US: Gabarron Foundation, Foley Gallery, Untitled Space…

Sherri Mayo

Director of SUNY: Peekskill Extension Center for Digital Arts. MFA, NYU; & PhD Art & Art Education, 2004, Teachers’ College, Dissertation: Emergent Objects at the Human-Computer Interface (HCI): a case study of artists’ ; cybernetic relationships in studio art practice. 2020, book publication, Studio Artists at the Human-Computer Interface: a case study of arts technology integration in studio practice. Adjunct professor, SVA: Present Teaching with Technology in Art Education; 2013-present, New Media in Contemporary Art, Department of Art History, Purchase College. Sherry is also an accomplished artist, solo exhibitions: i‘From Painting to Drawing’, Mahopac, NY. 2019; The Art of Trees, paintings, Chapel, Mariandale Retreat Center, mariandale.org, Ossining, NY. Since 2017, curator: Center for the Digital Arts Gallery, Peekskill Extension, Westchester Community College, Peekskill, NY.

Project Administrator:
Sara J. Pasti

Arts and community development consultant specializing in start-up projects, strategic planning, capital, and institutional fund development. She has held executive leadership positions in both visual and performing arts. Director, Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, SUNY New Paltz (2009-2019); Director, Curatorial Affairs: Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington; Managing Director: Behnke Center for Contemporary Performance, Seattle, WA. Ms. Pasti has lived and worked in New York’s Hudson Valley region since 2002. Founding Board Member & former President, Beacon Arts Community Association, a non-profit cultural organization established to develop Beacon, NY as an arts destination. 2008-2013: Member, Beacon City Council.

Matthew R. Schum, PhD

Currently based in LA. BA, Vancouver, School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University: Dissertation at University of California San Diego on community viewership, experimental art exhibitions and public curating. As curator, he has realized large sculpture commissions, exhibitions and film works for leading nonprofits, including LAXART, Desert X (2019), Los Angeles Nomadic Division and others. For the 2021-22 academic year he has been an adjunct professor in the Woodbury School of Architecture and the UCLA School of Art. His pedagogy includes working with prisoners. His writing appeared in various artist catalogs and publications, including Aperture, Artforum, Xtra, Mousse and Flash Art.

Alaina Simone

Owner/Founder: Alaina Simone Incorporated, art gallery and artist liaison consultancy & Alaina Simone Productions LLC, specializing in creative partnerships between luxury brands, cultural influencers, and contemporary artists. Focus areas: race, gender, power, identity, and environment. Produced and curated exhibitions with educational components in the US and abroad with leading emerging, mid-career and established contemporary artists, including Howardena Pindell, Frank Bowling, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Rashaad Newsome, Serkan Ozkaya and David Antonio Cruz. Her site-specific exhibition series, Take FIVE (T/5), is an immersive multi-venue installation and performance series in the Caribbean. Her nomadic exhibitions include educational programs & an artist residency designed to create new platforms for the diaspora and women. Founding Board Member: Verbier 3-D Foundation. Lives and works Flushing, MI and Harlem, NY.

Lead Curator:
M. Charlene Stevens

Curator/critic: B.A. Art History, Criticism, and Conservation, U. of California, LA (UCLA), Photography and Art Education, California State U. (CSULA), LA, Film and Photographic Studies, Leiden University. In 2016, Charlene founded Arcade Project, an online publication featuring exhibition reviews, artist interviews, and media criticism. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, she launched Arcade Project Curatorial, a nomadic art gallery providing a platform for emerging and mid-career cutting edge artists. She curated Elizabeth Axtman’s work in Dark Meat, Eva Mueller’s TwistedTwins XXY, Spring/Forward, Gay Guerrilla, and Kevin Darmanie’s Rainbow Country. Her writings appear in Foam Magazine, Hyperallergic, and others. She was profiled in Forbes, Artnet News, Bedford + Bowery. Arcade Project Curatorial’s exhibitions have been featured in Juxtapoz, Hypebeast, Art Zealous, and Artnet News.

Project Supervisor/Overseer:
Livia Selmanowitz Straus, PhD

Educator/ lecturer/ collector/ Museum Director; PhD NYU, Judaic Studies, specialty Jewish Medical History & Ethics. Prof. Emeritus, Ed. & Jewish Religious Thought, Academy for Jewish Religion; 2000-2004, Adjunct Professor, Theology, Fordham U.; 1981-2000: Director of Education, Religious school systems. 1989, interreligious dialogue: including the Valparaiso Project. Lectured widely and published articles on Contemporary Jewish Medical Ethics, Art and Spirituality. Past board member: Neuberger Museum, Purchase, NY, Hebrew Union College Museum, NYC, Contemporary Acquisition Committee, Jewish Museum, NYC,

Advisory Board:

Cincinnati Museum of Contemporary Art; Curatorial Advisor, Metro Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 2015: ‘100 Most Important Contemporary Art Collectors’: Arts and Antiques Magazine. In 2004 co-founded Hudson Valley MOCA, a public contemporary art and education space in Peekskill, NY.

Discover More About Enlighten Peekskill

To all sculptors and artists integrating illumination into their works, now is your opportunity to shine!
Application Deadline is July 11, 2022

Click below to learn more and apply.