Suydam R. Lansing
Honorary ChairSuydam (Sydie) Lansing is an artist and designer. Her late husband Gerrit was the longtime Chairman of ICI. Sydie, a longtime Board member of ICI, is its Honorary Chair. The Lansings were the 2005 recipients of ICI’s Leo Award for their patronage of contemporary art. She also serves on the Board of FAPE (Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies) in Washington, DC, the Board of MoMA PS1, and on the International Council of MoMA. She lives in New York City and Northeast Harbor, Maine.
Jeannie M. Grant
Co-ChairJean Minskoff Grant received her B.S. and M.A. from New York University; she was a matriculated Ph.D. candidate at NYU. She completed a Dietetic internship at The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Currently she works as President/ CEO of the Minskoff Grant Realty & Management Corp., where she is owner and manager of commercial properties for which MGRMC provides asset and direct management. Prior to 1984, Jeannie held the position of Chief Dietitian at the then New York Infirmary Hospital; she served as Director and then President of The American Dietetic Association Foundation, and was a Medallion recipient of the American Dietetic Association in 2003. Jeannie is a member of the “U.S. Foreign Policy and Women” Advisory Council of the Council on Foreign Relations, and has served on the Executive Board of The New York Women’s Foundation. She has chaired The Women’s Leadership Board at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, and is a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard College Committee on University Resources (COUR). Jeannie and her husband T live in Harrison, New York and Manhattan.
Patterson Sims
Co-ChairPatterson Sims is an independent, New York City-based art curator, writer and consultant, who has held positions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Seattle Art Museum, and the Montclair Art Museum. He currently directs two artist-endowed foundations and serves on the boards of several foundations and visual arts non-profits.
Belinda Buck Kielland
PresidentBelinda Buck Kielland is a founding partner of OSL contemporary, a contemporary art gallery in Oslo, Norway. She is a member of VIA Art Fund, a patrons group which supports contemporary visual arts projects that exemplify core values of artistic production, thought leadership, and public engagement. She also serves on the Board of The Hartfield Foundation, engaging with institutions and non-profits to support creative expression and artistic excellence.
Ann Schaffer
Vice PresidentAnn and Mel Schaffer are long-time supporters and members of ICI. Mel graduated from Cornell University and is the Chairman and CEO of Trademark Plastics Corp. in New Jersey. Ann is a Skidmore College graduate, who tutored romance languages and worked at the United Nations as an information officer, interpreter, and translator. She later was a founding supporter of Rachel Coalition, an organization that combats domestic violence, and was a teacher, consultant and advisor of contemporary art. Ann and Mel both serve on the Photography Council at the Guggenheim (with Ann serving as Co-Chair), and are Co-Chairs of ICI’s annual fall benefit. In addition, Ann is a member of several boards, including Skidmore College; the Montclair Art Museum, which she is Chair of the Art Committee; United Jewish Communities of Metro West; and the NJ State of Israel Bonds Women’s Division. She also serves on advisory committees, including the Opportunity Project; and Co-Chair of the National Advisory Council at the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery. She has been the curator of the annual Art for Art’s Sake fundraiser and auction at the New Jersey Center for Visual Arts, where she was honored in 2019. Ann is an officer and Honorary Chair of the Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art and a former Trustee.
Barbara Toll
TreasurerBarbara Toll is an art advisor and freelance curator with forty years of experience in the contemporary art world. She has worked at the Museum of Modern Art, served as curator for the David Rockefeller Collection and taught at NYU before opening Barbara Toll Fine Arts in Soho in 1981. Since closing her Soho gallery in 1994, Ms. Toll has curated Focus: Donald Judd Furniture and Follies: Fantasy in the Landscape for the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, New York. She also organized the exhibitions “Blueprint for Art in General” and “Artists and Writers at Yaddo” for Art in General in New York City. Ms. Toll is a past board member of ArtTable, the national organization for professional women in the visual arts. She also served on the board of the the Parks Council, now called New Yorkers for Parks. At the present time, she is a member of the Corporation of Yaddo, a board member of the Drawing Center, and vice-chairman of the board of Independent Curators International. She serves on the the Photography Committee of the Guggenheim Museum as well as the Archives Committee of the Museum of Modern Art. She is a graduate of Goucher College with a Master of Fine Arts from Pratt Institute and lives in New York City and Sag Harbor, New York.
Adam Abdalla
Adam Abdalla has been actively collaborating with and advising globally recognized museums, foundations, art galleries, publications, neighborhoods, hotels, and luxury brands for a decade, with a strong focus on communications, strategic marketing and program ideation and execution. Before founding Cultural Counsel, he served as Senior Vice President at Nadine Johnson & Associates for over 5 years, where he formally founded their Arts & Culture department. He currently serves as a Board Member of the New Art Dealers Alliance and Dallas Contemporary. Offering strategic advising to principals in both art and business, he has developed strong relationships with some of the best creative talent in the world, ranging from fine artists and curators to creative directors and branding agencies. He has launched successful global PR campaigns for the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, LUMA Foundation, Creative Time, Art 21, Museo Jumex, United States Artists, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, the New Art Dealers Alliance and countless others.
Noreen Ahmad
Noreen K. Ahmad is the Director of Communications and Marketing at the Morgan Library & Museum. Previously, Noreen held key positions at SUTTON PR, Fitz & Co, LaPlaca Cohen, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. She is also an adjunct professor at New York University and the Sotheby’s Institute. Noreen received her MA from New York University and holds a BS from Northwestern University. An enthusiast for the great outdoors, Noreen has summited Mount Kilimanjaro and run the New York City Marathon.
Neil Barclay
Neil Barclay is the Chief Executive Officer of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit. A former attorney, Barclay was most recently executive director and CEO of the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) in New Orleans. Barclay’s experience also includes seven years of service as associate director of the Performing Arts Center for the University of Texas at Austin and service as founding president and CEO of Pittsburgh, Pa.'s August Wilson Center. Barclay has demonstrated his personal commitment to art and culture as a peer panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, the Gerbode Foundation and the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation. A leading national presenter of contemporary performing and visual arts, Barclay serves on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the regional arts organization South Arts. He is currently a member of the College of Communications and Fine Arts Advisory Board for Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, his undergraduate and law school alma mater.
Jeffrey Bishop
Jeffrey Bishop was born in Berkeley, CA; he received his BFA from Tufts University and his MFA from the University of Washington after studying at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where he was awarded the James William Page Traveling Fellowship. His hybrid works of digitized prints and painting have been featured in exhibitions at the Seattle Art Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Art, and Miami (Ohio) University Art Museum, and many gallery shows nationally and internationally. He was a recipient of the Seattle Commission’s Artist Award and the Seattle Art Museum’s prestigious Betty Bowen Memorial Award. He was represented by the Linda Farris Gallery in Seattle for 22 years, and has had numerous one-person shows, including most recently at John Molloy Gallery, NYC (2019) and an exhibition of Monoprints at SRO Gallery, Brooklyn (2018). From 1980 to 1988, Jeffrey taught painting at Cornish College of Arts; currently he sits on the Advisory Board of the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle, and is a Trustee of Bang on a Can in New York and Copper Canyon Press in Port Townsend, WA.
Christo & Jeanne-Claude**
**In MemoriamChristo and Jeanne Claude create environmental artworks in urban and rural sites, accepting no sponsors, and paying all the expenses of their projects from the sale of original works. Their work is held in private and public collections around the world, including The National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington D.C.; The Museum of Modern Art, New York City; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; and The San Diego Museum, La Jolla, CA.
Bridget Finn
Bridget Finn is a Partner and Director at Reyes|Finn, a contemporary art gallery in Detroit, MI. Previously she was Director at Mitchell-Innes & Nash Gallery in New York, and she was the Associate Director of Strategic Planning & ICI Projects at Independent Curators International where she worked to support fresh ways of seeing and contextualizing contemporary art for ICI’s diverse audiences. She was also co-founder/curator of Cleopatra’s, an art space based in Brooklyn, which has realized over 100 projects from 2008 through 2018. Previously, she worked at the Anton Kern Gallery, where she liaised with and supported gallery artists. Finn received her BFA from The College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan.
Jack Geary
Jack Geary is co-founder of Geary, an art gallery on 208 Bowery in New York that represents emerging and mid-career artists. He started the gallery with his wife, Dolly, in 2013. Prior to founding Geary, Jack was founding analyst and managing director at White Elm Capital, a long short equity hedge fund based in Greenwich, CT. Jack completed his MBA and BA from Harvard University in 2005 and 2000 respectively.
LaVon Kellner
LaVon Kellner has a rich background in marketing, sales and entrepreneurship that began at Hallmark Cards, where she became the first woman in its 75-year history to run its highest volume sales territory, Manhattan. Kellner continued her career at best-in-class companies including Random House and Starbucks Coffee. In 1995 Kellner co-founded Ethis Communications, a start-up that became the premier medical communications company in eyecare. In 2016 she sold her stake in Ethis and its subsidiaries to pursue her passion for the arts. Kellner holds frequent salons in her home to bring together artists, museum scholars, gallerists and collectors. She is a trustee of Yo-Yo Ma and the Silkroad Ensemble, The Foundation for Gender Equality, Children’s Art Guild, Baxter Street Camera Club. She also serves on The National Arts Club’s (NAC) Decorative Arts, Fashion, Exhibitions, Membership and Photography Committees and is an Ambassador of the NAC’s Artist Fellow program.
Lauren Kelly
Lauren Kelly, born in England and raised in New York City, has worked at Sean Kelly Gallery since 2006. As a Director at Sean Kelly Gallery, Lauren is principally involved in artist liaison and sales and works with a number of the gallery's artists, most prominently with Marina Abramović, Julian Charrière, Jose Davila, Hugo McCloud and Sam Moyer. She has been heavily involved in expanding the gallery's artist roster and was instrumental in the addition of Jose Dávila, Peter Liversidge, Hugo McCloud and Sam Moyer. Lauren has developed the gallery's partnerships with arts organizations worldwide, facilitating projects such as the production of Güiro, the Los Carpinteros Art Bar installation that was produced in conjunction with Absolut Art at Art Basel Miami Beach. Lauren is a graduate of Smith College with a degree in Art History, she also studied at Goldsmith's College, London.
Jo Carole Lauder
Jo Carole Lauder has worked extensively with The Museum of Modern Art. Since 1993, she has been the President of the International Council. She was also Chairman of the Junior Council, later the Contemporary Arts Council; she founded its Junior Associates and an annual Corporate Luncheon honoring the recipient of an award named in honor of David Rockefeller. MoMA's collecting and program decisions have benefited from her participation in Trustee Committees on Architecture and Design, Education, Film and Photography. In addition, Jo Carole is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies, a foundation that assists the U.S. Department of State in its various programs designed to exhibit and preserve fine and decorative art in U.S. embassies all over the world. At the National Gallery of Art in Washington, she is Co-Chairman of the Trustees’ Council. Jo Carole grew up in Wilmington, DE and received her B.A. from the Tyler School of Fine Art in Philadelphia. Jo Carole was the recipient of the 2007 Leo Award. She lives in New York with her family.
Cindy Livingston
Cindy Livingston is the retired CEO of Sequel AG, the global licensee of Guess and GC Watches. She was the CEO of that company from 1998-2016, conducting business in more than 100 countries around the world. Under her global oversight, she was instrumental in starting Time to Give, the charitable arm of the company that raised more than $8 million for 15 children’s charities around the world. She currently is a member of the Board of Directors of Bravado Designs, a lingerie company based in Toronto, Canada, and the Board of Directors of Guess Inc., based in Los Angeles. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, she is a graduate of Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business with degrees in marketing and advertising. She previously held jobs as Vice President of Accessories and Cosmetics for the Ohio Division of Federated Department Stores.
Joel Miller
Joel M. Miller is a Director of Golston & Storrs, a full service commercial law firm with offices in New York, Boston and the District of Columbia. He is a graduate of Amherst College and Columbia Law School where he was Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. He was the founding, and for 40 years, managing partner of Miller & Wrubel, a highly successful commercial litigation firm specializing in representing companies primarily in the financial services and real estate industries and other professionals, including law firms. He is listed in Super Lawyers as one of the leading commercial litigators New York. He represents companies, law firms, and lawyers in commercial disputes involving securities transactions, finance and lending arrangements, complex instruments and derivatives, mortgage securitizations, mortgage servicing, and other financial crisis matters, real estate, executive movement and employment matters.
Sam Moyer
Sam Moyer is an artist based in Brooklyn, NY. Her work integrates a wide variety of materials including marble, painted glass, Plexiglas, wood. Textures and finishes often mirror or contradict one another, encouraging unanticipated results to arise from the materials she manipulates. She is represented by Sean Kelly Gallery, Kayne Griffin Corcoran and Galerie Rodolphe Janssen. Moyer has exhibited with the Public Art Fund, New York; MoMA PS1, New York; The Bass Museum, Miami, FL; Tensta konsthall, Stockholm; Société, Berlin; Autocenter, Berlin; Bugada & Cargnel, Paris; Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin; Night Gallery, Los Angeles; Nils Stærk, Copenhagen; and the Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis, among many other venues.
Vik Muniz
Vik Muniz was born in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1961, and lives and works in Brooklyn and Rio de Janeiro. Since early in his career Vik has had solo exhibitions in major American and international organizations, with his first major solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. In addition to his artistic activities, Vik is involved in educational and social projects in Brazil and the US. In 2011 Unesco nominated him Good Will Ambassador and in January 2013 he received the Crystal Award by the World Economic Forum. In 2014 Vik started building Escola Vidigal, a school of art and technology for low-income children from the Vidigal community in Rio de Janeiro. Since then, Vik has been a visiting professor at the University of Oxford, Bard College, Residency programs at MIT, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and was the creative director of the 2017 Rio Paralympics opening ceremony. Vik’s works are included in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, The J. Paul Getty Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art (New York), Tate Modern, London, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, and Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and others.
Angel Otero
Angel Otero was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, and is a Brooklyn-based visual artist best known for his process-based paintings. Otero received his MFA in 2009 and his BFA in 2007 from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Solo exhibitions of his work have been organized at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York (2017); Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, TX (2016); Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain (2015); SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA (2013); and Contemporary Art Museum, Raleigh, NC (2012). Otero is the recipient of the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship in the Visual Arts. His work can be found in collections at DePaul University Museum, Chicago; Istanbul Modern, Istanbul; Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS; the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC; and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA.
Carol Salmanson
Carol Salmanson is an artist working with light to create installations, sculptures, and wall pieces, as well as a painter. She received a B.S. in Biological Psychology from Carnegie-Mellon University and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago. She attended the Arts Students League, the School of Visual Arts, and the National Academy of Fine Arts as an Abbey Mural Workshop Fellow. She is currently an Artist Fellow at the National Arts Club. Salmanson has an upcoming solo exhibition at SL Gallery in New York City in March, 2020. She has been the subject of numerous other solo, two-person, and group shows. Public art projects include Water Bubbles, an installation in twenty windows of the abandoned landmark Constructivist White Tower in Yekaterinburg, Russia, and other window installations throughout New York City. Salmanson also curated “The Language of Painting” at Lesley Heller Workspace, and co-curated “Tonal Shifts” at Station Independent Projects. A native of Providence, Rhode Island, Salmanson lives and works in New York City.
Mel Schaffer
Ann and Mel Schaffer are long-time supporters and members of ICI. Mel graduated from Cornell University and is the Chairman and CEO of Trademark Plastics Corp. in New Jersey. Ann is a Skidmore College graduate, who tutored romance languages and worked at the United Nations as an information officer, interpreter, and translator. She later was a founding supporter of Rachel Coalition, an organization that combats domestic violence, and was a teacher, consultant and advisor of contemporary art. Ann and Mel both serve on the Photography Council at the Guggenheim (with Ann serving as Co-Chair), and are Co-Chairs of ICI’s annual fall benefit. In addition, Ann is a member of several boards, including Skidmore College; the Montclair Art Museum, which she is Chair of the Art Committee; United Jewish Communities of Metro West; and the NJ State of Israel Bonds Women’s Division. She also serves on advisory committees, including the Opportunity Project; and Co-Chair of the National Advisory Council at the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery. She has been the curator of the annual Art for Art’s Sake fundraiser and auction at the New Jersey Center for Visual Arts, where she was honored in 2019. Ann is an officer and Honorary Chair of the Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art and a former Trustee.
Sarina Tang
Leadership Council ChairSarina Tang is an art historian, curator, and patron with extensive experience in the international arts community. She studied at the École du Louvre in Paris. Born in Shanghai, her family emigrated to Sao Paulo, where she was raised. She studied Chinese brushwork painting as a teenager and her first visit to the 9th Bienal de Sao Paulo awakened a life-long passion for works of art by living artists. For the 34th Bienal de Sao Paulo, Ms. Tang is a member of the International Advisory Board. Ms. Tang worked with Roy Lichtenstein's last commissioned sculpture plaza in Singapore in the 90s and curated his exhibitions Landscapes in Chinese Style in museums in Singapore and Hong Kong. She has surveyed contemporary art in China since the 1980s, and founded a non-profit residency and exhibition/concert space in Beijing in 2006. Finding a lacuna in cross-cultural interaction between her own 2 background countries, Ms. Tang created the operating foundation Currents Art and Music, to bridge contemporary art of Brazil and China. In 2017/2018, Ms. Tang curated the first exhibition to show a panorama of contemporary Brazilian art in Beijing. Troposphere featured paintings, sculpture, photography, video and new installations by 21 Brazilian artists linked to works by 21 Chinese artists. Website: currents.cc
Christopher Wise
Christopher Wise has over fifteen years’ experience managing large and complex fine art operations. As Vice President at DeWitt Stern | Risk Strategies, Mr. Wise is responsible for expanding DeWitt Stern’s practice with a broad spectrum of fine art clients including, private collections, galleries, museums, artists and estates and foundations. Prior to joining DeWitt Stern Mr. Wise was Executive Vice President at UOVO. He played a key role on the leadership team launching a globally recognized fine art storage firm that developed over 500,000 SF of real estate, a specialized transportation company with a fleet of vehicles, nearly 100 employees, and the management of over $2B customer owned artwork. Mr. Wise developed the risk management program for UOVO, including contracts, terms of service and the placement of insurance coverages. Prior to UOVO, Mr. Wise was director and co-founder of SD Fine Art Storage, an owner and developer of fine art storage properties in New York City. Mr. Wise is a frequent speaker at professional organizations and in the press, including American Alliance of Museums (AAM), Association of Registrars & Collection Specialists (ARCS), The Aspen Institute of Artist-Endowed Foundation Initiative (AEFI), The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, among others. He graduated with honors from Knox College with a dual degree in Studio Art and English Literature.