Meet The Team
Executive Director
Catherine Graham
Catherine Graham is a Hudson Valley native and a graduate of the School of Visual Arts with a BFA in Fine Arts & Art History and CUNY Lehman College with an MA in Art Education. “I feel so fortunate to support the Garrison Art Center as it works to increase its powerful impact on the community and help drive its mission to make art accessible to all through education, exhibitions, and community programming,” she says.
Education Manager
Kit Burke-Smith
BFA Rhode Island School of Design, MFA Suny New Paltz. Taught at the university level for over a decade and started at GAC as an Education Coordinator before being promoted to a full-time position as Education Manager. She owns and operates her own jewelry line, Kit Burke-Smith Jewelry. She helped found and currently serves on the board of directors for the Foundation for Beacon Schools. This nonprofit organization supports innovation, enrichment, equity, and expansion of educational opportunities in the Beacon City School District.
Program Assistant
Jessica Albert
Jessica Albert developed her passion for the arts throughout her early education in Newburgh, NY. She is an interdisciplinary artist who combines ceramics and fiber throughout her work. She received her AS in Visual Arts from Dutchess Community College and a BFA in Sculpture with a minor in Art History from SUNY Purchase. Jessica spends most of her free time exploring the Hudson Valley with her 3 dogs.
Exhibitions Coordinator
Kate Cahill
Kate Cahill has been an active member of the Hudson Valley art world since graduating with an M.A. in Painting from SUNY New Paltz in the late 1980s. She taught art courses at the College of Saint Rose and Russell Sage College in the Albany area. She was an active member of the gallery committee of the Greene County Council for the Arts and exhibited and curated shows there as well as at Women's Studio Workshop in Rosendale, NY, Woodstock Artist's Association, Albany Center Gallery, and many other venues. After receiving her M.F.A. in Painting from SUNY Albany, she set up a studio in Tribeca and began teaching at Borough of Manhattan Community College.
Marketing & Communications Manager
Katrin Reifeiss
Katrin Reifeiss studied at Massachusetts College of Art (MassArt). Katrin went into Mass Art as a painting major and came out as a fashion major. After graduating she moved to NYC where she pursued a career in fashion and later in Press Relations. Katrin did not give up painting and became involved in a group called s.u.n.Arts, putting together shows in small galleries in Manhattan to factory spaces in Dumbo for artists who were underrepresented around 1999 to 2002. Since 2016 Katrin has been a Teaching Artist at GAC, teaching Japanese Shibori techniques.
Pottery Studio Manager
Lisa Knaus
Lisa Knaus is a studio potter living and working in Gardiner, NY. She started making pots under the loving guidance of her father, a high school art teacher, and continued her studies at Washington University. She left college to work as an assistant to many production potters. After years of hitting the road to sell her work at craft fairs , she became an instructor at Garrison Art Center, eventually taking over the job of Pottery Studio Manager from Beth Bolgla thirteen years ago.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
President
Jan Cucchiarella
Jan is currently serving her second year as Board of Directors President. Previously she was Co-President and has been an active Board member for 10 years. Professionally she has taught Special Education students. Her last position was in the Putnam Valley Central School District from 1978 until her retirement in 2008. Jan was an active union member and staff developer during her years there. Having taken pottery classes in college at Buffalo State, she had an opportunity after her children were older to take pottery classes at Garrison Art Center. That is how her involvement and love for this special Art Center began.
Jan lives in Garrison with her husband of 47 years, Nick Cucchiarella. They have two children, 4 grandchildren, and a little rescue dog Reggie who gets them out to hike in the beautiful Hudson Valley.
Chair of Gallery Committee
Marc Bernier
Born and raised in Paris, France. I studied at the Sorbonne University in Paris, moved to the United States in 1993, and graduated from Pratt Institute.
Was Art Preparator for six years at The Whitney Museum of American Art and Exhibitions and Collection Manager for Thirteen years at The Studio Museum in Harlem.
He is now a full-time artist and a current Member of our Board of Directors as well as the Chair of our Gallery Committee.
Gallery Committee
Thomas Huber
Thomas Huber is an artist, performance artist, and curator, whose work has been shown internationally and throughout the U.S. He has a B.F.A from the School of Visual Arts. He has worked as an art preparator for over 30 years and is currently the head preparator at Magazzino Italian Art Foundation in Cold Spring, NY. Thomas has been on the gallery committee at Garrison Art Center since 2004 and has been a member of the Board since 2008.
Board Member
Kim Bjorge
Born in Manhattan, attended Spence and Music & Art H.S. Graduated from Bennington College BA in fine arts & Theater. Kim moved to Croton-on-Hudson with her husband & was a stay-at-home mom for the next 20 years. She became a NY State Wildlife Rehabilitator in 2006. Currently a Potter. First found GAC when the kids took pottery classes, Kim started pottery class in 2017, and she never left!
Jan Cucchiarella, President
Tracy Strong, Vice President
Belle Newton, Secretary
Georg Ivanoff, Treasurer
Marc Bernier
Kim Bjorge
Chris Bockelmann
Melissa Carlton
Sean Conway
Stephanie Checkle-Howard
Thomas Huber
Jennifer Lai
Hildreth Potts