Board + Staff

Helping Maine's contemporary arts thrive

The CMCA team and Board of Trustees work collaboratively to bring Maine’s contemporary arts and artists to the forefront of the scene, worldwide. Both the team and board consist of highly experienced and dedicated members that strive to engage, enrich, and educate the public, the CMCA audience, and the larger cultural community about Maine’s thriving contemporary art scene and the importance of art in all of our lives.

Staff

smcavoy@cmcanow.org

Suzette McAvoy

Exec. Director | Chief Curator

jkablack@cmcanow.org

Justine Kablack

Curatorial + Communications Assistant

jthompson@cmcanow.org

Jean Thompson

Exec. Administrator | Community Liaison

tgardner@cmcanow.org

Tara Gardner

Retail | Operations Manager

bengstrom@cmcanow.org

Bethany Engstrom

Associate Curator

aiammarino@cmcanow.org

Alexis Iammarino

ArtLab Lead Artist | Educator

svail@cmcanow.org

Sam Vail

Director | Development + Marketing

Shelley Thompson

Visitor Services

Board

Officers

Chair – Martha Jones | South Thomaston, Maine + Boston, Massachusetts

Martha “Marty” Jones has 40 years’ experience as a leader in the cultural and philanthropic industry. As a seasoned consultant in arts, nonprofit, and philanthropic management, Jones specializes in strategic planning and fundraising counsel, organizational assessment, executive coaching, and board governance. Prior to beginning her consulting career, Jones served for 25 years at the Celebrity Series of Boston, New England’s premier performing arts presenter, the last 15 as president and executive director. She has produced more than 500 world-class artistic performances and educational presentations, as well as special fundraising events, including a Boston Garden gala presentation of Luciano Pavarotti and the farewell Symphony Hall performances of legendary pianist Vladimir Horowitz and violinist Issac Stern. Jones also serves as trustee of the Susanne Marcus Collins Foundation and the Harrison H. & Julia Jones Foundation, board chair of Youth Design (Boston, MA), and member of the advisory board of the Brain Science Foundation (Medfield, MA). She holds a master’s degree in theater from Florida State University.

Vice Chair – Jon Chodosh | Rangeley, Maine + New York, New York

Jon Chodosh is the managing principal of Chodosh Realty Services, Inc., a commercial real estate consulting firm formed in 1987, in New York City. The firm is involved in transactional and consulting work, as well as in real estate development and construction management, specializing in adaptive re-use of warehouse and loft properties. Over the last thirty years, Jon’s client list has included Dia Art Foundation, Irving Penn Foundation, Qatsi Productions, Communication Workers of America, Pentagram, Imagination Co (USA), Duravit (USA), Ian Schrager Company, Waterworks, and others. Jon is a 1974 graduate of Hampshire College. He lives in New York City and Rangeley, Maine with his wife Claire Seidl. They have three grown children.

Treasurer – Martin E. Lloyd | Camden, Maine

Martin Lloyd is a resident of Camden and has lived and worked his entire life in Maine. He has served as a professional accountant in the field of taxation for more than 25 years, after graduating from the University of Maine magna cum laude with a B.S. in accounting. He currently maintains a successful tax and financial services practice in Camden that has been in business for some 20 years in Knox County, and recently he added financial planning and wealth management to his practice. Since 2002, Lloyd has held the special designation of Enrolled Agent (E.A.) with the Internal Revenue Service and Untied States Treasury, and he holds Maine Securities Licenses, Series 6, 63, and 65. Lloyd has extensive experience working with a variety of for-profit and nonprofit businesses and organizations, the latter including the local Chamber of Commerce, Kiwanis, Big Brother–Big Sister, and, most recently, CMCA. His involvement with charitable organizations has often been in a fiduciary capacity, as treasurer.

Secretary – Sandra Ruch | Northport, Maine

Sandra Ruch is the film program manager for International Cinema US, where she organizes documentary film programs for US embassies and colleges and universities around the world. She is also president of CinElixir Consulting, which provides consulting services to documentary filmmakers. Previously, Ruch was executive director of the International Documentary Association, and a film programmer and consultant for the U.S. Department of State in its Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs, bringing US documentary films and filmmakers to embassies, schools, and arts organizations in 17 countries. Ruch has had extensive marketing experience in senior management positions in the entertainment industry, heading up campaigns for the film Evita, PBS’s Masterpiece Theatre, the Los Angeles Music Center, and Fox TV’s Movie of the Week, among many others. Ruch serves on juries and expert panels at international film festivals and conferences, and she serves on several boards, among them the Maine Alliance for Arts Education (MAAE), the Camden Conference, and Waterfall Arts.

Immediate Past Chair – Karen Brace | Camden, Maine + Westwood, Massachusetts

Karen Brace is a former principal and co-owner of SimpleSay, a technology company that automated transactions for multiple industries using voice recognition and voice biometrics. As president of the company, she focused on operations, marketing, and business development. Brace’s marketing and communications expertise was developed early at a Boston-based advertising and public relations agency. Accepted into the Historical Society of Early American Decoration, a national painting guild, Brace enjoys working with both gold leaf and oil paints and has studied for many years with a master craftsman. Brace graduated from Wellesley College, earned her master’s degree in English from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Boston College, and holds a certificate in graphic design from the Boston University Center for Digital Imaging Arts.

Trustees

Jo Anne Bander | Spruce Head, Maine + Coral Gables, Florida

Jo Anne Bander is a consultant and writer with more than 40 years of experience in the private, nonprofit, philanthropic, and government sectors. She was president and CEO of Donors Forum of South Florida (an association of grantmaking foundations and corporate giving programs). She stepped down to organize From the Source, a consulting firm focused on strategic philanthropy, sustainable agriculture, and artisanal foods. Bander is also vice president of Funding Arts Network (a Miami donors circle that makes grants to arts organizations), a board member of GableStage, and a member of the Roblee Foundation Advisory Board. She has been vice president of Dade Community Foundation and is a former Co-Convivium leader of Slow Food Miami. In 2007, Bander was included in Beyond Julia’s Daughters, which highlights women who have contributed to the development of Miami. She has held press credentials to Slow Food’s Terra Madre and is a contributing writer to the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA).

Carol Eisenberg | Belfast, Maine

Carol Eisenberg began her career as an advertising copywriter and graphic designer within the publishing industry. She later graduated from St. John’s University School of Law and was admitted to practice in the State of New York, where she worked at two real estate law firms and the New York Stock Exchange. After being admitted to practice in the State of New Jersey, Eisenberg joined the matrimonial law firm of Rose, Poley & DeFuccio. She moved back to New York, where she became an associate and subsequently a partner in the firm of Taylor, Atkins & Ostrow. In 1991 Eisenberg established her own matrimonial law firm in Garden City, New York, and continued to practice until 2009, when she retired and moved to Belfast, Maine, with her husband, William Benjamin. She now focuses her time on her photography and her work with nonprofit arts organizations.

Richard Essex | Cushing, Maine

Richard Essex has been involved in commerce and the arts for over 35 years. For the last 10 years, while living in London, he has been focusing on investment in Africa, where Richard spent part of his adolescence, and building the first affordable high-speed broadband in Sub-Saharan Africa. That mandate now also includes affordable essential services – off-grid power, water, sanitation, healthcare and education. Richard moved to London in 1995 to help build what became the UK’s largest fibre-optic cable and media company, Virgin Media, after the merger with Richard Branson’s Virgin Mobile. Prior to that Richard, established Rosebud, a subsidiary of the British Film Institute (BFI) with the mandate of commercializing the world’s largest set of film and television assets.

After living in London for 21 years, he and his family have come back to the US and their property in Cushing, Maine. Richard acts as an advisor to Bright Community Capital in Brunswick, Maine, a firm founded by CEI with a mission to drive more solar energy investment in low-income areas, and he is also developing a subscription-based essential services venture in Africa with colleagues from Stanford University that will be based in Palo Alto, California.

From 1985-95, Richard was on the board of the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture, established in 1963 and based in the original Whitney Museum, where many CMCA artists maintain a close relationship. In 1984 Richard produced the first art auction to benefit the Henry Street Settlement held at the Puck Building in New York as part of their annual gala. While The Art Show is now an important event on the fall calendar in New York, this first effort involved Richard individually approaching many of New York’s galleries and artists, renting a van, hanging the show and auctioning the art, a very humble beginning for what is now a major production by the Art Dealers of America.

Richard is also a board member of Lewa, Kenya’s preeminent nature conservancy, founded with major support of The Nature Conservancy.

Joe Faber | Rockport, Maine + Chappaqua, NY

Joe is the Managing Principal of Faber Daeufer & Itrato, a boutique law firm focused on providing corporate and transactional counsel to companies, research institutions, and investors in the life sciences. Joe often serves as outside general counsel for venture-backed drug discovery and development companies. In addition, he functions as lead outside transactional counsel for emerging companies seeking strategic business partnering or private financing, as well as for mature companies seeking to acquire technologies and platforms.

Joe is or has been involved in a wide range of philanthropic and community organizations including The Center for Discovery, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Partners in Health, CAVU Foundation, Venturing Out, The Possible Project, Slow Money, Maine and New York chapters.

Joe grew up in Rockland, Maine (RDHS ’84), and graduated from Harvard College and Boston University School of Law. He and his wife Sumy live in Chappaqua, NY, but spend time regularly at their house in Rockport, Maine.

Jason Hearst | Camden, Maine

Jason G. Hearst is the owner, manager, and chief engineer of Hearst Creative, LLC/Hearstudios, an audio recording/production facility located in Camden, Maine. He holds a B.A. in Physics from Colby College and a B.M. from Berklee College of Music with a degree in Music Production & Engineering and a concentration in Electronic Production & Design. Since returning to the Midcoast area in 2010, he has volunteered in the alpine race program at the Camden Snowbowl where he is a USSA level 200 ski coach. Artistically, he is an avid sculptor with a metal welding studio and enjoys digital photography and printing. He has served two, three year terms as a trustee for both Bay Chamber Concerts and Music School, and the Ragged Mountain Ski Club.

Mary Joe Hughes | Warren, Maine + Milton, Massachusetts

Mary Joe (Josie) Hughes is the retired Adjunct Professor of the Humanities at Boston College, where she also served as Assistant Director of the Honors Program. She earned her undergraduate degree from Radcliffe College and her Ph.D. from Harvard University. In 1990, she was the first winner of the annual Phi Beta Kappa Award for Outstanding Teaching at Boston College. A Maine summer resident since 1971, she assisted Guy Hughes in running The Coppershed Gallery in Warren from 2004 to 2008, leading to more intense involvement in contemporary art in Maine. In 2013 she published The Move Beyond Form with Palgrave Macmillan, about contemporary art, film, and literature. In the same year, she retired from Boston College, and with her husband, Rick Franklin, established an artist’s residency program for Maine artists in Farnese, Italy. In addition to her interests in literature and philosophy, art, education, and film, Josie is an avid gardener.

Paul Keenan | Cushing, Maine

Paul Keenan is Senior Vice President for University Development at Columbia University, where he provides strategic leadership for Columbia’s 5-year, $5B campaign, and serves as chief operating officer for university development. Previously Paul served as Vice President for Development at the Hawaii Community Foundation, and prior to that as Senior Associate Dean at Harvard University, where he was responsible for leading the $2.5B Campaign for Arts & Sciences. Paul has been a corporate strategy consultant at Monitor Deloitte, and an independent consultant to universities and non-profits. He earned his AB, magna cum laude, in History and East Asian Studies from Harvard College in 1985, and his MBA from the Yale School of Management in 1996.

Susan Petersmeyer | Camden, Maine

Susan Petersmeyer graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and has a graduate degree in architecture from the University of Virginia. In addition, she completed a three-year certificate program at the New York Studio School of Drawing and Painting. Petersmeyer practiced in an architectural firm in Washington, DC, and she has also owned a contemporary gift store in a Boston suburb, researched and edited a book on Art Deco architecture in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and worked on several historic preservation projects. Prior to moving to Maine in 2011, Petersmeyer lived in New York City for 15 years, where she served on the boards of Libraries for the Future and Find Your Voice (formerly Starfish Theaterworks). Petersmeyer chaired the board of Find Your Voice for three years, and she is the chair of a small family foundation.

David S. Swetland | Edgecomb, Maine

David Swetland holds an MFA in Sculpture from the University of Pennsylvania, and served on the Board of the International Sculpture Center in Washington, D.C., from 1984 to 1987. He has worked as a project manager for Duany Plater-Zyberk Architects in Miami, Florida, specializing in suburban, urban and wide area design issues. With his wife, Paula, he formed a landscape architecture practice in the Miami-Dade area for the design of residential gardens, which they operated until their retirement and move to Maine in 2016. Since early adulthood, he has served as a trustee of the Sears-Swetland Family Foundation of Cleveland, Ohio.

Chair Emeritus

Marilyn Moss Rockefeller | Camden, Maine

Marilyn Rockefeller has been a board member at numerous Maine nonprofit organizations, in addition to serving as board chair at Maine Coast Artists (as CMCA was known in the 1980s and 90s). These organizations include the Nature Conservancy of Maine, as co-chair; the Maine Community Foundation; and chair at the Equity Fund, based in Portland. During the 1980s and 90s, Ms. Rockefeller built Moss, Inc. into a world-renowned designer and manufacturer of exhibition spaces for trade shows, utilizing tension fabric technology originally developed by Bill Moss for camping tents. Before its sale in 2001, the company grew to employ 160 workers at its facility in Belfast.

Trustee Emeritus

Davis Thomas | Camden, Maine

Dave Thomas has been part of the CMCA scene both as a volunteer and trustee for the better part of 25 years. He joined the board in the late 1980’s, rotating off from time to time before rejoining in 2010 and serving until 2016. Davis’ board activities included auctioneer for gala art auctions, chair of the Development Committee and co-chair of the Capital Campaign from 2012-2016. After a career in magazine journalism at LIFE, the Saturday Evening Post, Holiday, and several other national magazines, Thomas moved to Maine in 1977 to become the editor and associate publisher of Down East, the Magazine of Maine, retiring in 1993. Since then, he and his wife Karin, a former board president of Maine Coast Artists (the precursor of CMCA), have traveled widely, particularly in Asia, where they have made numerous high-altitude treks in the Himalayas.

Advisory Council

Header image: Adam John Manley