Northampton community arts trust Board of directors 2023

Richard Wagner, President, served as President of the Arts Trust from 2011 to 2019 and returned to the position in late 2022. He has been a magazine and book editor and writer, videographer and video editor, political and non-profit fundraiser, a full-time dad to three daughters, and, most recently a granddad. In all instances, he’s been a story teller, whether of a non-profit’s goals or a candidate’s dreams or a dreamer’s mission, whether in words or pixels. He is author of Designs on Space, co-author of The Case for Mars and is a member of the Authors Guild and the National Association of Science Writers.

Peter Whalen, Treasurer, is president of Whalen Insurance in Northampton, MA, a sixty year old family business. He also has a real estate company. He serves on the Economic Development Committee of the Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce and on the board of directors of Greenfield/Northampton Cooperative Bank. Peter is a long serving trustee of Childs Park.

P. Al Williams, Clerk, works at the intersection of community, art, and technology as Executive Director of Northampton Open Media - www.northamptonopenmedia.org - a forward-seeking community media organization whose projects include Crowdsourced Cinema, co-founding the Public VR Lab, the Northampton Film Festival, the Northampton Awesome Foundation, the 7 Day Film Sprint, Minecraft Northampton and others. Al values play, results-oriented approaches, educated agility, and mistake-as-opportunity.  He sees meaning and understanding not as a passive process of deciphering but an active expression-towards co-active creation. Al is a visual artist who loves new mediums in story-crafting. Al loves beets. 

Michael Cohen, Director, Michael Cohen is a retired entrepreneur and active philanthropist. In 1979 he founded Lightlife Foods, Inc, a natural foods manufacturer specializing in plant-based meat alternatives. He served as Lightlife’s CEO until 2000, when the company was acquired. Michael also serves on the board of the International Language Institute, Northampton, MA as Treasurer. He previously served as finance chair and treasurer of the Northampton Survival Center’s board of directors and is a former member of the board of directors of the Food Bank of Western Mass. 

Kathy Couch, Director, is an artist, educator, advocate, and award-winning designer living in Northampton, MA. Working in mediums of light, space, collaboration, and improvisation, Couch creates visual landscapes for performance and installation with/in traditional and non-traditional spaces both nationally and internationally. Kathy received her MFA in Visual Arts from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She currently teaches Lighting Design and is the Resident Lighting Designer at Amherst College. Kathy was the original President of the Arts Trust and currently finds delight in building her own studio/she-shed in her back yard.

Dorothy Nemetz, Director, was an attorney in a prior life. She is the Treasurer of the Board of Directors of the Northampton Center for the Arts and serves on the boards of directors of the Northampton Education Foundation and the Valley Community Development Corporation. She served Congregation B’nai Israel in Northampton in many capacities, including president, fundraising chair and personnel chair. Like many, she detested beets as a child, but now happily eats them, especially when roasted and served with goat cheese. 

Stephen Petegorsky, Director, is an artist and freelance photographer. His creative work has been exhibited and collected widely; he has also taught at Smith College, Hampshire College, Amherst College, and the University of Connecticut. He has served on the Northampton Arts Council for more years than he can remember, and is also a member of the board of directors of the Polus Center for Social and Economic Development. Though he fed beets to his dog under the table as a child (instead of eating them), he now, along with fellow board member P. Al Williams, eats and grows them happily. 

Anya Brickman Raredon, Director, is the president of the Affordable Housing Institute, a global organization working to provide stable and permanent housing solutions for displaced populations, as well as access to housing finance for low-income families. Born and bred in the heart of the Northampton arts community, Anya majored in architecture at Yale, then earned a Masters in City Planning at MIT, after which she worked in Haiti, Mongolia, Bhutan, various countries in Central and South America, as well as Asia and the Middle East. She is glad to be home again in Northampton, with her husband and son.  

Cynthia Stanton, Director, I enjoy working with the board doing outreach for our wonderful new building while exploring new trends and technology in community-based video production. (Nominated for Cable Ace Awards in the late 1990s, so I am a true “old hand.”) Moved from the newsroom at The Boston Globe to its IT department, ultimately retiring from the IT department at MIT. Journalism, 'technology' and how we tell our stories still get me out of bed in the morning. Yes, AI scares me but I still sleep well at night. Moved to a retirement community in Northampton in 2015. I never look back.

Lisa Thompson, Director, is the former Associate Director of A.P.E. Lisa became associated with A.P.E. in 1976 as a member of Dance Gallery when A.P.E. occupied the top floor of Thornes. There she met Gordon Thorne, the founding director of A.P.E. who brought her onto the staff of A.P.E. in 1996 to help direct programming. Lisa has developed many long-term relationships with artists in the community and was instrumental in the formation of the Arts Trust. Her commitment to providing and protecting creative space for artists has been a consistent focus for over 25 years. 

Joanna Faraby Walker, Director, is the Managing Director of the Northampton Center for the Arts. She is the former Administrative Coordinator for the Five College Dance Department and has worked in administrative capacities at Stoneleigh-Burnham School, the Bernardston Recreational Department, the North Carolina Theatre Conference, and the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.